I'm getting tired of roadrunner jacking up the prices...i'm paying around $45/month for high speed internet....are there cheaper alternatives?

I just got a clearwire ad for $30/month...has clearwire gotten any better?

the thought of being able to user clearwire with my laptop on the go is enticing

9/4/2009 7:21:23 PM

doesn't roadrunner have cheaper options? i thought rr lite was like $30 or something

[Edited on September 4, 2009 at 7:23 PM. Reason : $19.95 for rr lite for 12 months. might have to call and threatend to get that tho]

9/4/2009 7:22:08 PM

rr lite 768 is like 19.95/month, i got the 45/month internet for 35/month by signing a year contract. hopefully by the end of that we will have uverse but i doubt it cause i dont think they are rolling it out at many college apt complexes etc...i think mr grace posted how clearwire sucked donkey boners

dsl i'm not a fan of cause you have to have a phone line(i think for uverse u do as well)

9/4/2009 8:47:29 PM

if you call customer service and tell them that you want to get it cheaper or you're switching to the phone company they will connect you to the retention department where they can hook you up with very competitive deals without contracts...

I pay $19.95/month for 1.5Meg road runner alone

I talked to them for my girlfriend and took her $110 cable bill to $75 while upgrading to digital cable with DVR while downgrading the speed slightly but she doesn't notice at all...

Retention Department... tell them your going to switch to DSL and satellite

9/4/2009 8:57:18 PM

Quote :

"dsl i'm not a fan of cause you have to have a phone line"

This isn't true. At least for the Verizon DSL I had in Durham and the Bellsouth DSL I have now. If you get your DSL through the local phone company, they can do what they call standalone DSL which doesn't require local service. I pay $29.99 a month for 3.0 Mbps DSL. My bill after taxes is right at $32.

9/4/2009 9:03:48 PM

go with earthlink... it's roadrunner with a different domain suffix.

$29.99/mo for 6 months (7mbps/384kbps, just like RR standard)

and ^ is correct. it's called naked DSL (i'm not kidding). and you don't have to have an active phone line for u-verse.

9/4/2009 10:27:04 PM

You can be straight up honest with the retention department (account services if you ask for by name) and don't have to bother with lying/threatening to switch. I typically just explain that while I'm happy with the service and semi-complacent, but it's hard sometimes when your friends and colleagues are paying so much less for uverse, other cable co's, or naked/dryloop/standalone dsl (which Embarq has as well in some test markets now).

--FWIW --

Suddenlink 8Mb/512k - $30/mo student price - no contract required
Embarq 768k/384k - 14.95/mo (technically when bundled but they don't have to know that)
AT&T 768k/128k - 19.99/mo with 'three months free' promo and apparently $150 cash back when you switch from a cable company. Again, any fine print or stipulations and requirements are pretty much irrelevant because by the time you get this far -- if they haven't 'retained' you then the rep isn't doing their job and you can pretty much end the call however you like and try back the next day.

/2c

[Edited on September 4, 2009 at 11:06 PM. Reason : ]

9/4/2009 11:06:18 PM

damn, suddenlink has faster upload than TWC?

stupid greenville and it's stupid faster internet

9/5/2009 12:02:16 AM

Quote :

"I'm getting tired of roadrunner jacking up the prices"

I've been paying 44.95 for like 7 years.

I'm looking at my latest bill right now.

44.95.


what is this jacking up that you speak of?

9/5/2009 7:56:39 AM

^^I actually pay $55 for 12Mb/768k. It used to be $44.95 but Suddenlink killed the loophole that the reps were using to constantly keep me on the 3 month promotion so the only code that would stick was $5/mo off.

Their business class is 12/1 for $200 but if it makes you feel any better, I don't think they will ever upgrade Greenville to DOCSIS 3.0

[Edited on September 5, 2009 at 8:01 AM. Reason : ]

9/5/2009 7:59:12 AM

I need to switch to earthlink. Its just gonna suck losing that email address I have had since 2003 As soon as I do it I am gonna get locked out of a password and be screwed.

9/6/2009 12:46:58 AM

Is it even worth considering ATT DSL? Thus far, their pricing is the most attractive.

I'm so, so, so sick and tired of TWC. I'll give them the chance to keep our internet when I call to cancel phone and cable, but I don't really want to stay with them.

I'll have to call verizon (which I won't be able to get around to til tomorrow :-\), since their website swears up and down that I either live in stem, NC, or that my address has multiple units.

Earthlink's site claims that there's no high speed internet available for us.

10/7/2009 2:10:08 PM

I have it and I don't have any complaints. Then again, I never really had any complaints with TW either so maybe I'm just lucky with my internet.

And Earthlink just mainly resells other companies internet service, including TW cable and AT&T DSL. so if you qualify for those, you probably can get it, although in my case AT&T DSL was significantly cheaper than Earthlink would have been (if for no other reason than Earthlink was gonna require me to get local service, while AT&T offers standalone). It wouldn't hurt to actually call and talk to a rep from Earthlink instead of just doing whatever website lookup thing they have. Then again, whoever you talk to is probably gonna be using the same website too so it might actually be a waste of time.

10/7/2009 2:26:18 PM

uverse

/thread

10/7/2009 2:32:14 PM

isn't available in all areas.

not /thread

10/7/2009 3:03:09 PM

Quote :

"uverse /thread"

Too bad it's not an option.

Quote :

"And Earthlink just mainly resells other companies internet service, including TW cable and AT&T DSL. so if you qualify for those, you probably can get it"

My thing with earthlink is that I'm not exactly eager to jump ship from one shitty company to another that is more inept than the first.

10/7/2009 7:50:15 PM

has anybody dropped cable with twc, but kept roadrunner and, as a result, the cable continued to work?

11/5/2009 10:59:26 AM

It's not uncommon. You can even slip the cable guy a 20 and he'll "forget" to filter the line.

11/5/2009 11:19:57 AM

Quote :

"I've been paying 44.95 for like 7 years."

Ouch. All you have to do is call them up once a year and re-request the $30/mo promotional rate for a year.

11/5/2009 11:45:34 AM

^^ so when you cancel, they send somebody out? - i was hoping i could just go and turn my digital box in myself

11/5/2009 12:23:09 PM

^When I canceled at my last apartment they didn't send anyone. I just had to go turn in the box/remote

11/5/2009 5:54:53 PM

When I ditched my cable I just took in the box and remote. I still have RR with them but have not been inclined to test the residual cable theory.

11/5/2009 10:32:28 PM

^ if you do test it, let me know

11/6/2009 1:23:23 PM

Quote :

"has anybody dropped cable with twc, but kept roadrunner and, as a result, the cable continued to work?"

I have discontinued my cable service, but kept Roadrunner. I previously had digital cable with the HDTV package and RR standard, and I decided that I really didn't need to be paying $70+/mo. for that service. So I took back my cable box, remote, and power cable with the expectation that I would be using an antenna by the end of the week. EDIT: Unfortunately, I'm still not saving as much as I would have hoped - my monthly bills are still upwards of $56/mo.

So that I could continue to receive the standard cable service until they reinstalled the filter on my line, I connected the cable directly to the back of my television (and rescanned the channel listing). At the beginning of the next week, I noticed that my channels were gone. I rescanned again and found that I still had access to the local television stations in digital format, including the HDTV streams of those channels. I have (off the top of my head, so these may not be entirely accurate...):

UNCTV: 4, 4-1, 4-2, 4-3, 4-4;
WRAL: 5, 5-1, 5-2, 5-3;
WTVD: 11, 11-1, 11-2, 11-3;
WNCN: 17, 17-1, 17-2, 17-3;
WLFL: 22, 22-1, 22-2;
WRDC: 28, 28-1, 28-2;
WRAZ: 50, 50-1, 50-2, 50-3;

Plus some (15 or so?) additional analog channels in the 70-120 range that I don't really watch.

I still have these channels after some two months of deactivated CATV service, so I still haven't unpacked my antenna yet. My understanding, based off some cursory online searching, is that these channels are transmitted over the same frequencies that Roadrunner works on, so Time Warner can't remove access to them without cutting you off from Roadrunner. I have no idea if this is actually true or not, but I can only assume that if this weren't true, I wouldn't be receiving anything from TWC.

I hope this helps, and good luck.

-bigginal

[Edited on November 6, 2009 at 3:32 PM. Reason : Pricing info.]

11/6/2009 3:25:14 PM

Quote :

"has anybody dropped cable with twc, but kept roadrunner and, as a result, the cable continued to work?"

several times...when i lived in apartment complexes, if the cable didn't work when i moved in, i'd order it for a single month and then disconnect it (always keeping roadrunner, of course)...they NEVER came to disconnect the cable service

if you open the cable box outside, it's pretty easy to figure out (i had two TWC contractors show me how it all worked, both for free, but one did ask if i had any weed to trade for the knowledge, which amused me)

when i bought a house and ordered roadrunner, i had hoped i would get free basic cable as a result, using similar logic to

Quote :

"My understanding, based off some cursory online searching, is that these channels are transmitted over the same frequencies that Roadrunner works on, so Time Warner can't remove access to them without cutting you off from Roadrunner."

i have little technical knowledge of how the technology works, but i suspect this is not true, considering i've heard of (and obviously experienced) blocks being placed on the cable lines at the pole (for those of us that don't live in complexes, this is where they do everything) to keep me from having cable television

i'm debating ordering cable television for a month and then dropping it again...it's a PITA for the techs to climb the pole, so i'm hoping they'll simply not care enough to come back and re-install the block (since they'll have to at least once, to remove what's there)

*shrug*

11/6/2009 3:40:29 PM

To continue my line of thinking from my previous post, I'm pretty disappointed in the savings I'm getting from ditching CATV but keeping RR. My original plan was to go with U-verse, as I live less than 300 feet from AT&T's telecom box. It wasn't available when I bought my house, but I've watched AT&T trucks roll in and out of that area, working in their telecom shed all summer long, so my guess is that it is coming "soon". Add to this the cost of U-verse is practically equal (in what I've heard from others) to TWC CATV+RR, and I don't really have a reason to continue desiring it.

So, just like krazedgirl (but for different reasons), I'm looking for a different ISP. I have heard bad things about throughput and latency WRT DSL, however, and I have no desire for that given that I love my online gaming. Thus, satellite is ruled out (I don't consider it broadband, anyway). I don't need the best connection, but I think I'd prefer something better than RR lite.

Earthlink says they only provide dial-up and satellite at my location. The bad things I've heard in regards to latency on DSL have mentioned AT&T as a specific "horror case". If it weren't for that, I would seriously consider the AT&T FastAccess DSL Direct 1.5M/256K plan. Can anyone here comment on their experience with latency & DSL? Does anyone know of a better, cheaper option for someone desiring reasonably low latency?

Thanks!

-bigginal

[Edited on November 6, 2009 at 3:47 PM. Reason : Fixin' grammar.]

11/6/2009 3:45:33 PM

Find the AT&T "spokesperson" on http://www.dslreports.com and ask them how hard it would be to get interleaving (error correction) turned off on your Fast Access DSL.

The latency you're talking about with DSL can easily be curbed with 'fastpath'. It's not enabled by default because most residential customers never notice the difference and it prevents a lot of tech support calls. I've never done it with AT&T, but three years ago with Embarq you could chat a competent rep give them a spill about VoIP and latency issues (never mention online gaming). And if they had the knowledge to change the setting in the DSLAM for you -- they would. Now they play hardball and even Tier 2 support reps swear they only offer it to their 10M customers. (Definitely ways around it though which are most easily had by the dslreports community)

Quote :

"Pinging 4.2.2.2 with 32 bytes of data: Reply from 4.2.2.2: bytes=32 time=15ms TTL=56 Reply from 4.2.2.2: bytes=32 time=15ms TTL=56 Reply from 4.2.2.2: bytes=32 time=15ms TTL=56 Reply from 4.2.2.2: bytes=32 time=15ms TTL=56 Ping statistics for 4.2.2.2: Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss), Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds: Minimum = 15ms, Maximum = 15ms, Average = 15ms Tracing route to vnsc-bak.sys.gtei.net [4.2.2.2] over a maximum of 30 hops: 1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.1.1 2 8 ms 8 ms 8 ms nc-xx-xxx-xxx-xx.sta.embarqhsd.net [65.xx.xxx.xxx] 3 8 ms 7 ms 23 ms nc-63-162-197-89.sta.embarqhsd.net [63.162.197.89] 4 8 ms 8 ms 8 ms host57.sprintnetops.net [206.107.116.57] 5 10 ms 10 ms 12 ms te-3-4.car2.Raleigh1.Level3.net [4.71.162.1] 6 15 ms 15 ms 14 ms ae-6-6.ebr2.Washington1.Level3.net [4.69.132.178] 7 26 ms 17 ms 17 ms ae-62-62.csw1.Washington1.Level3.net [4.69.134.146] 8 16 ms 15 ms 15 ms ge-5-0-51.hsa1.Washington2.Level3.net [4.68.121.13] 9 19 ms 36 ms 43 ms vnsc-bak.sys.gtei.net [4.2.2.2]"

That's an account that can't move above a 3Mb/640k connection due to distance and I never have problems with it. Once in a while the modem might need to be quickly power cycled to clear the errors but I'd gladly live with that once a month chore for those ping times.

--
Definitely google 'fastpath vs interleaving' and after you'll probably be convinced to go. Hell use it as a bargaining chip for switching providers if you have to.

[Edited on November 6, 2009 at 4:57 PM. Reason : latency]

11/6/2009 4:48:37 PM

^^^ thanks - any savings is savings in my book

^^ i'm far enough out that everything is underground here (cable is anyways) - i'm guessing the cable didn't work as you had hoped it would... could you not mess with the box outside yourself like you talked about (maybe i didn't understand you correctly)?

i've had cable and RR here at my house for about 3.5 years now, but i don't find myself watching much tv at all and would like to cut it completely, but my wife enjoys a few shows that aren't on the basic channels (abc, nbc, etc)... shit is just too expensive - i would really like to just be able to pay for the few channels we watch somehow, although i know that will never happen... obviously, i was just hoping i could turn in my POS digital box, cancel it, and still have access to the standard channels the very few times we want

11/6/2009 8:41:41 PM

bump

i'm paying like $58 just for roadrunner. time to get a cheaper deal

8/19/2010 10:35:35 AM

AT&T DSL for $14.95 a month with no phone line

http://www3.slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?sduid=0&t=2157474

8/19/2010 11:25:54 AM

I might go for that, actually. My TWC bill is getting completely out of control. I've had bad experiences in the past with DSL, though. Where the hell are UVerse and FIOS, dammit?!

8/19/2010 11:45:04 AM

I just switched to earthlink, and the service is fine. I am getting the 10/512 just like I got with RR turbo.

*****HOWEVER*****

Be aware that if you go with Earthlink they will completely fuck everything up multiple times and their entire support team is in India and they are all functionally retarded. If you are willing to deal with that, then by all means, switch, you will save money. But don't say you weren't warned.

(Living in a UVerse black hole SUCKS. It is literally on every street around me except mine. Total horseshit.)

8/19/2010 12:05:56 PM

Yeah when my phone's upload is 3-4 times as fast as my isp's there's a problem.

8/19/2010 1:51:13 PM

I just moved into a house with 7 guys who use the internet pretty heavily. If I get earthlink on top of our existing roadrunner turbo, will my connection suffer?

8/20/2010 12:32:23 AM

only if your local node is overloaded. Given the number of people you may want to consider twc business class. They may be able to do you a better price/performance.

If you're looking for your own private connection you're gonna pay for yourself, earthlink would probably work fine.

8/20/2010 12:46:03 AM

Does AT&T DSL often not meet advertised speeds? A friend lives in a four year old neighborhood and road runner often fails to meet the 7mbps rating, closer to 4mbps. The neighborhood has 2wire wifi routers about, so I suspect the local node is a U-Verse node, which I suspect have plenty of spare capacity.

[Edited on August 21, 2010 at 2:09 AM. Reason : .,.]

8/21/2010 2:08:04 AM

I only qualify for 3 Mbps, but I can download at 2.99Mbps all day long. Same with my parents too.

[Edited on August 21, 2010 at 2:12 AM. Reason : The wiring in/to my house is old as balls, btw. ]

8/21/2010 2:11:37 AM

The DSL vs Cable dedicated bandwidth claims are often misnomers. Telco's oversell and saturate various markets all the time. It's just easier to claim "100% dedicated bandwidth" when your theoretical ADSL2 ceiling is 10mbit and your average user is either 1.5 or 3. VS the 50/107Mb DOCSIS 3 capabilities

8/21/2010 3:51:28 AM

i just got a bill from TWC that went from 34.95/month to 57.95/month so i called them up and said Earthlink is doing 29.99/month promo and they gave it to me

this is for RR Standard 7 Megs

8/25/2010 8:15:31 PM

^Damn that is a ridiculous change in price.

8/25/2010 8:33:42 PM

And yet TW is still ripping off their customers at $29.99/mo. Sad. Truth.

8/25/2010 11:38:39 PM

Where exactly do I have to move to get Verizon Fios?

8/26/2010 5:49:54 AM