[Discuss] Cable Modem Woes / Looking to Compare Notes

[Daniel Barrett]

On April 25, 2013, Rick Umali wrote:
>I'm looking to compare notes with people who use Comcast Internet....

I used Comcast Internet for years, and frequently had outages like the one
you described. At a certain point, they became intolerable, with dropouts
every day. I spent a month or two with Comcast technical support, emailing
traceroute diagrams to them, and having none of their fixes solve the
problem. At that point, I switched to Verizon FIOS. Since that time six
years ago, I've had only *one* FIOS outage caused outside my home. (Inside
my house, I've had to reboot the FIOS hardware maybe once a year.) And FIOS
was noticeably faster.

I kept Comcast for TV however, since it was only $19/month for a minimal
plan (no set-top box, directly connected to our TVs). Then about a year
ago, when the Great TV Digital Changeover happened, Comcast supplied me
with free converter boxes that caused no end of problems and frustration.
The TV signal kept dropping, channels vanished, etc. I found a similar
no-set-top-box plan on FIOS for even less money, $10/month, switched, and
never had a problem again.

I know that other people have FIOS horror stories, but my experiences have
been only positive.

--
Dan Barrett
dbarrett at blazemonger.com