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Comcast Bidding To Buy AT&T's Cable-Modem Unit
jobugeek writes: "Comcast is making a bid to buy AT&T's cable modem unit for over 44 billion. That would combine the #1 and #3 cable modem providers in the U.S." If this deal should really happen, it would create the country's largest broadband provider. I wonder which of these two has better technical support, installation speed, etc.
They both suck. Consumers always lose, so it is a lose-lose situation. Any more questions?
~~~Please pass the salt, I hate unsalted MD5s
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Vote Socialist or quit whining!
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Well, there remains the fact that both AT&T and Comcast use the @Home network to provide service. However, I have to say, and I'm sure most of my fellow @Home users would agree, that @Home tech support would make chimps with typewriters seem like absolute fucking geniuses.
Is your company running tools written by ma
They're cheap, too. We're only paying $32.99 a month and the cable modem was free. No installation fee, either.
I have AT&T Broadband as a provider right now (used to be Mediaone until they were bought). They have a strict policy of only allowing one routable IP per customer, but it looks like Comcast will give you up to three for an additional charge. Here's the link to the FAQ. I hope that if this happens, they'll apply this policy to all their customers.
I can only connect at 28 K where I live. I tried to get service from AT & T, but after waiting a month for my appointment they didn't show. When I called they said they cancelled me because Comcast handles the service in my area now. After repeated calls to Comcast I always got the same answer: my city is not in their database and they'll call me when they can connect my service. I called twice a week for five weeks straight, and have not called them for three weeks. No phone call. I live in a big city in the Metro Detroit area (Rochester Hills) but they don't know where I live. That's the only reason they give for not connecting service. Oddly enough, they do provide cable at my house (w/o knowing where I live). They're no good at all.
Well, when a door is closed, a windows elsewhere is always opened (avoiding religious references for the sake of some).
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I am Lord Snowbeam. Heed my call!
s/better technical support/some semblance technical support/g
Slashdot 's editors are dickheads
I'm just coming back to chicago from las vegas, and it has been awhile.... can anyone reccomend or give experiences with high speed net access here?
Basically looking at Metro Chicago (not suburbia), DSL, cable, and I've heard they are starting a new high-speed wireless thing from the sears tower?
Experiences, opinions, etc would be much appreciated.
If this deal should really happen, it would create the country's largest broadband provider.
So they'd be even bigger than AOL-TW? Now that's a scary thought.
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I pledge allegiance to the flag...
of the Corporate States of America...
I have AT&T, only because I get if for free because my wife works there. I also have DSL because AT&T has hardware specific modems, and only for Mac and Windows. As far as I see from the FAQ, Comcast is the same.
Also, you can't run any kind server with AT&T. The only real plus side is that it's faster.
The big one!!! I have AT&T Cable internet access, and the service is great. But, if I ever need phone support (to get credit for service downtime, which happened once) I have to wait for a customer support specialist for over a half hour. It sucks!!! And, I got stood up like 3 times waiting for the installers.
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Oh shit! I forgot to click "Post Anonymously"...
This may be off topic but it seems corporate america is increasingly holding a death grip on the broadband access which everyone will eventually be using. I wonder if they will become the stanard oil of tommorow. Making the consumer sign rediculous end user agreements and blocking access to sites in their firewalls/routers such as at&tsucks.com (or whatever address 2600 decides to register).
Having used both AT&T RoadRunner (their cable modem service) and ComCast's cable modem service each for over a year I can honestly say that AT&T RoadRunner is much better. Why? Because in Installation AT&T) Takes 2 days (called on Thursday installed on Saturday) for them to come out and install it. ComCast) Takes them 9 months to install (every month I called them up and they said they will be out there in 4 to 6 weeks). Linux Support AT&T) Refuses to support linux and gives no guarantee that it will work with linux (simple as setting up an ethernet connection though). ComCast) Claims to give full support for linux but when you actually call them up for support they say that you have to be using windows because nobody at tech support knows linux. Price AT&T) charges $39.99 plus $9.99 for modem rental yours to keep after 12 months. ComCast) charges $39.99 plus $9.99 for modem rental yours to keep after 12 months. Modem AT&T) uses 3Com which is compatible with ComCast. ComCast) uses a model which is only compatible with ComCast. Speed AT&T) has max transfer rates of 220k/second download and 60k/second upload ComCast) has max transfer rates of 100k/second download and 100k/second upload Technical Support AT&T) are polite and helpful without treating you like an idiot and have wait times of around 5 minutes. ComCast) have wait times around 30 minutes with only 9 to 5 support Monday through Fridays. Treat you like idiots and do not analyse the problem that you tell them until 45 minutes of running through there standard procedure diagnosis before finally reaching the error that you told them it was.
Well, considering that the Quality of my broadband internet access has dropped considerably since AT&T aquired TCI, in terms of stability and price (they recently jacked the price up by asking customers to buy their own routers), I think shifting to yet another owner would be crap. I wish these broadband behemoths would leave these little local cable co's alone so I can have my nice, fast Digital Cable/CableModem service again.
Asf
This is pretty significant if AT&T is seriously contemplating this deal: Fixed Wireless (aka Digital Broadband) was AT&T's strategic move to bypass the local telcos and go direct to the residential consumer. Seems odd that they would cash out for 44 billion at this point.
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There is much cruelty in the universe, John.
Yeah, we seem to have the tour map.
The technician, after about twenty minutes, told me that they no longer supported that patch, that I should try a search engine and then promptly disconnected me. I think thats pretty shitty customer support. Fortunately the rest of my experiences with @Home have been pretty good.
Last night I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas I'll never know.
i dunno about you guys but at&t sucks a fat one does anyone see their recent price increases as kinda unfair? i mean, from 40 to 45 bucks. they're just trying to increase the price to make fatter margins while leaving many out of the boat. and they cap upload speeds (bah) AND they dont even allow us to run simple web services. if they dont let us do anything, what ARE we paying for??
I was just laid off with 120 other people from AT&T broadband's Cable Modem tech support staff in Massachusetts at the beginning of the month(the position was consolidated to Denver). And no, we did not suck, we were in fact the most effective troubleshooters in the company, with a 95% resolution rate on tier 1(4% needed a tech to visit the house, 1% went to @home's tier 2), which goes to show the best ones are the first to go;)
I called my old supervisor and told him about this, we were laughing for a few solid minutes. He he he
-Henry
"Useless organic meatbag" -HK-47
Having used both AT&T RoadRunner (their cable modem service) and ComCast's cable modem service each for over a year I can honestly say that AT&T RoadRunner is much better. Why? Because in
Installation
AT&T: Takes 2 days (called on Thursday installed on Saturday) for them to come out and install it.
ComCast: Takes them 9 months to install (every month I called them up and they said they will be out there in 4 to 6 weeks).
Linux Support
AT&T: Refuses to support linux and gives no guarantee that it will work with linux (simple as setting up an ethernet connection though).
ComCast: Claims to give full support for linux but when you actually call them up for support they say that you have to be using windows because nobody at tech support knows linux.
Price
AT&T: charges $39.99 plus $9.99 for modem rental yours to keep after 12 months.
ComCast: charges $39.99 plus $9.99 for modem rental yours to keep after 12 months.
Modem
AT&T uses 3Com which is compatible with ComCast.
ComCast: uses a model which is only compatible with ComCast.
Speed
AT&T: has max transfer rates of 220k/second download and 60k/second upload
ComCast: has max transfer rates of 100k/second download and 100k/second upload
Technical Support
AT&T: are polite and helpful without treating you like an idiot and have wait times of around 5 minutes.
ComCast: have wait times around 30 minutes with only 9 to 5 support Monday through Fridays. Treat you like idiots and do not analyse the problem that you tell them until 45 minutes of running through there standard procedure diagnosis before finally reaching the error that you told them it was.
AT&T Broadband has the worst support I have ever encountered, period. Perfect example is when I tried to cancel my service, I waited on hold for 1.2 hours. Gave up, repated that with times ranging from 20 minutes to 2 hours, still never got through to customer support. Wound up sending em a letter and moving, I hope they canceled it. They have never asked for the cable modem back though.
-FrumsI have AT&T @Home now, but it was Road Runner until last week. Nothing changed except the name and their home page. This was MediaOne before, not TCI, and MediaOne runs their own cable modem system, tying in to AT&T's national Internet backbone. The mail server's a bit slow and I'm having trouble posting via the news server, but basic connectivity is excellent and reliable. This is near Boston.
The old TCI systems, on the other hand, let @Home do real work for them. From what I hear it hasn't worked out so well. I really think AT&T would like to put @Home out of its misery. They made a mistake going pubilc with it; now they have public minority shareholders they can't screw.
I think Comcast pretty much does their own thing too, albeit with an @Home label. As cablecos go, it's a high-class outfit too, more like MediaOne than TCI. But do note that over half of their current service area was not theirs two years ago -- they did a huge swap with AT&T/TCI as part of the MediaOne deal. (Comcast tried to buy it; AT&T outbid them and owed them a $1B breakup fee, which was paid in the form of cable subscribers. They have been swapping systems to create larger, more contiguous clusters.) So lots of Comcast systems are old TCI systems, which usually means "fix-er-uppers".
The big question for this deal is concentration: AT&T had some legal problems taking over MediaOne, because they ended up owning more than a 30% prorated share of the national CATV market. That law's legality is questionable, but Comcast-AT&TB would be WAY over the mark. And I don't think AT&T has finalized their divestiture of 25% ownership of Time Warner Entertainment.
The consumers should ask thenselves, "will this benefit us?"
I'm sick and tired or corporatism that injures the consumers.
Although the Romans said it rights centuries ago: caveat emptor.
In the past year, my bank (BankBoston) became Fleet, my phone company (Bell Atlantic) became Verizon, and my cable company (Mediaone) became AT&T Broadband! Is it a coincidence that all three of these companies really suck? I'm just sick of all these take overs.
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I have had my cable modem since January from AT&T, in the metro Detroit area. I moved on the 1st of June, about 2 miles down the road. A quick call to AT&T and I was all set, the installation (both times) was quick, professional and courteous. They made no bad comments about my Linux firewall/router I used, both times the installer told me he didn't know how to set it up, but gave me the sheet with my IP information so I could set it up. About 2 weeks later, I noticed a ComCast van parked on my street, and a techie came to me and asked where my cable access point was. Sure enough, about 30 minutes later, my cable modem stopped working. I called AT&T, and they said they had NO clue why ComCast was there, but it would take a week(!) to send someone out. I also called ComCast to ask what was going on, and they had no clue, after 3 calls and 3 "supervisors." I went outside and noticed that the box was still open, and that my cable line was disconnected. I connected it right back up, and good enough, it worked. When the AT&T tech came that I had called for support from, he drove a ComCast van! So, I suspect this AT&T/ComCast deal is as good as done. Nontheless, shame on ComCast for disconnecting my service and not fessing up.
The higher, the fewer.
Comcast has proven to be a reliable company as far as tech support and basic installations go. But as soon as something goes wrong that they have to tend to in person, it seems you can't get anyone out. Now I know that they hire contractors to do something like line drops (which I need), but you'd think that a big company like them would hire competent and reliable people, especially for a DC-Metro area customer, which is a pretty big customer base on this part of the coast.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
This could be a little off-topic, but I'd just like to describe the situation we are currently facing in Australia. Things are very bad here. (In regards to cable internet access, that is... i will avoid commenting on any thing else!) By the way, I'm not in any way trying to say that just because things are worse here that you guys shouldn't be complaining - I think you should, loud and clear, and I'd just like to give you a little cautionary tale about how bad things can get with large monopolies in the telecommunications industry. The two suppliers of cable internet in Australia are Telstra and Optus. They do not however directly compete as they are available in different areas, so in a sense they each have their own monopoly. Telstra, who operate in my area, have just retro-actively introduced a download limit of 3 gig per month (including both up and downstream data). This service was advertised as "unlimited", subject to the provisions of the "Acceptable Use Policy" (AUP), however after a year or so they have added clauses to the AUP instigating the 3 gig limit. They claim that the current levels of usage are "degrading network performance", ie they are blaming their users for their own incompetancy. I don't know why they signed up so many users if they are unable to provide the services advertised. Obviously a fairly extreme miscalculation! On the other hand, the most likely thing is that they are actually deliberately throttling supply in order to squeeze every last miserable cent out of early-adopters. (after the three hig limit is reached, you then pay 19 cents per meg ( around US 9 or 10 cents) for every megabyte after that. A 3 gig per month limit might not sound too bad, however look at it this way. The download limit acts in practise as a kind of speed cap. If you want to run your modem flat-chat and as a true "broadband" service, you can only do so for around half an hour per day. Or on the other hand you could use the modem constantly, but at a much lower speed, ie only equivalent maybe to dialup speeds. So where's the "unlimited broadband access" they have advertised! Rates are about $70 per month (equivalent to around US 35 dollars), and installation is $189 to $400 (US $95 to $200), depending on the length of the contract you sign up for ( 3 to 18 months). It's a bit irrelevant whether you own the modem afterwards or not as you cannot switch to another service anyway! Speeds are nominally 256/64 (for a bit under US $35 per month) or 512/128 (for a bit over US $35 per month) These speeds are not always achieved, but I can't really give you any accurate figures on speed. (Especially now I can't use the damn thing properly anymore due to the download limit!) The worst thing though is the patronising emails they have sent around in explaining this new limit: "For the large majority of Freedom Plan customers, this allowance will not impact on their current usage patterns and will provide them with improved network performance. This is because around five percent of users take up 35 percent of total bandwidth at any one time. This group places a severe burden on the network which greatly reduces performance for most customers." As you can see, they are trying to demonise that group of users who actually use this nominally "broad band" service *as* a broadband service. They are betting that most users in Asutralia are not tech-savvy enough and/or acquainted with the idea of what broadband really means to bridle at this. Unfortunately they may be correct. I find it very upsetting Any comments?
"I never think of the future. It comes soon enough."
Albert Einstein
the customer service at Comcast, while lacking in the phone call department, is exceptional in the website department.
i remember setting up my own accounts, and also configuring a router/gateway for a friend, both of which required critical information that it seemed to me would only be available through a lengthy phone conversation with someone who knew little to nothing about what i was trying to do. fortunately i was able to check all of the account information off their website, instead of having to network with a human being! joy of joys!
could be a double edged sword though, but i haven't had any problems with the Comcast service since i had it installed a year ago.
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You are at the end of the post. To the north lies the post.
There is a sig here.
Big Tel-com company=hurt customers I am an unhappy Time Warner Cable customer with a Roadrunner modem ... it took me 6 weeks to track down a customer service, they refused to call me back. No, they said they would, they just never could force themselves to dial my number, it's only 10 digits, is it that harder then the 16 numbers they want me to enter so I will pay my bill. What part of "I refuse to pay until you return my calls so that you can take responsibility for and give me the service that I am being billed for" don't they understand?
Remember the good old days when if you had a problem you could talk to a person and not be stuck in all of the phone menus, when people were people and would talk to about your problems with their company, when they genuinely cared about the customer (or at least acted like it), when they spoke English with out some deep southern or other hardly understandable accent. I'll be 21 this week and even I remember times like this.
The bigger these companies get the harder it gets, you don't want to know what happened with me and Qwest.
Help Brendan pay off his student loans
Let me make this perfectly clear.
No matter how much those of us on cable bitch about the shitty tech support or what-not, I don't believe there is a single one of us that would rather go back to dialup. DSL, sure, but not dial-up.
Broadband rules and once you've had that speed, there's no going back.
at the risk of posting another 'me too'...
I've been using AT&T Broadband since just after they bought MediaOne, and their service has been absolutely phenomenal right from the begining. The guy who came out to set up my connection was nice engough to configure my router for me so that I could use NAT.
They do have their fair share of problems, but they always fix them right away. For instance, when I lost DHCP service 2am on Christmas Eve, I called their tech support and got the problem solved in under 10 minutes. 3 days ago my neighborhood's router got struck by lightning. In 2 hours they had someone there to replace it. Another hour went by and it got struck by lightning a second time-- and they sent out a 2nd repair person to replace it again!
The only thing that sucks about AT&T Broadband is the speed. This may be specific to my neighborhood, but I rarely get downstream speeds over 40-60 kps. Upstream speeds seem to be stuck around 25 kps. Still a heck of a lot faster than a modem...
About a year ago my cable company (then TCI) was bought out by AT&T. They promised cable internet service in my area and informed me to watch for the circular that would come in the mail. Finally one fateful day about 7 months ago the magical circular arrived in the mail claiming that I could finally have fast internet access.
Attempt 1
I called and schuduled an appointment for an installation. Three days later an AT&T service man showed up at my door. He then came in and tried to locate the point at which the cable entered my townhouse. After about an hour he decided that he could not find where the cable entered the house, so he hooked his meter up to a junction point which is located on the third floor. The reading came fine up okay for the receive channel, but my send channel was very low. The man then informed me that he needed to come back out to my house later in the week with a two-way amp. I said okay and I looked forward to him coming back in a few days.
Attempt 2
Later that week the same cable man came out to my house with a 2-way amp and installed it. Still no luck. My send channel was still too low. The cable guy calls his boss and he gives him a hard time, I can hear him yell "Those amps never break, you must be doing something wrong!!!", well we both concluded that there was something definately wrong with the 2-way amp. He said he was sorry and would be back in a few days with a new amp (they have to sign these things out).
Attempt 3
Again, a few more days go by and the same cable man shows up at my house, with a new amp in hand and a desire to finish this install as we are both tired of seeing each other. He proceeds to hook the amp up. We get a green light on the amp, and the send signal is now high enough that cable internet should work!!! Well he trys to split off from the line and run a cable line accross my floor and down the laundry shoot in my bedroom to the basement, where the computers are located. Well when he did this we had low signal at the other end. So I said don't worry about it, I'll just run cat5, no biggie. Hook up the cable modem in the closet and plug your laptop in and see if it works. Sure enough it did. After wiring the house I know have broadband internet and it only took 3 service calls and about 2 weeks of my time. : )
I did call techsupport one time because we were having an outage and the tech gave me a ten dollar credit. All in all my experience with AT&T has been for the most part a pleasent one. I really enjoy my cable modem and I'm glad that they went the extra mile to get me installed.
Here in Sacramento, AT&T *took over Comcast* and their cable modem service. Then they jacked up the prices very shortly after, and tech support went clear to hell. (I get sick of "power cycle your modem and call back in 1 hour" when the cable modem AND my cable TV are both out)
Now Comcast is buying back the bits AT&T bought form Comcast? what the hell is going on?
What cruel and unusual ways will they find to fuck up my billing *this* time?
I live in the St. Louis area and have AT&T @Home. Supposedly there have been talks between AT&T and Charter where Charter would take over AT&T's customers for Cable TV and broadband Internet. Supposedly, last I've heard, it's a done deal. Now this story pops up, and I'm getting confused. Is the AT&T-Charter deal now null and void? Will it still happen, but just here locally?
NEVER use a spineless operating system.
It's a very dark ride.
I specifically asked the sales rep if I could run my own mail/web servers. That was one of my requirements for buying broadband service (I had the choice between both cable and DSL). They filter outgoing SOCKS and Windows networking, but nobody has any buisness running those on a public network anyhow.
I got a static IP for no extra cost, but as I understand, that was because they were just rolling out dhcp in my area, so I'm not sure if you can still get that.
All in all, service has been tolerable. I get disconnected every once in a while, pretty much at random, but it happens so infrequently that it's not really a bother to me. They also appearently have a cap on upstream bandwith, but it's not so slow as to impede my mail or web site all that much.
Anyhow, to sum it up, AT&T@home is ok, but you really can't expect much better for $50/mo.
Jordan Bettis
``Wherever you go, there's another stupid sigfile quote.''I live in the Richmond, VA, metropolitan area and have used both Comcast@Home and AT&T/RoadRunner (now AT&T@Home). I can positively say that Comcast was *far* better. Better customer service, faster, cheaper, better overall company to deal with. I've had nothing but problems with AT&T in the 10 months I've dealt with them. Billing SNAFU's, intermittent service, et cetera. I see the takeover as only a positive event.
'He who has to break a thing to find out what it is, has left the path of wisdom.' -- Gandalf to Saruman
I would like to ask all of you complainers out there, what do you think is a fair price for broadband access? You complain about companies like AT&T charging $40+ for access. These companies have invested BILLIONS into high-speed access, and have no idea when or if it will ever be profitable. They have to charge SOMETHING to pay for all the equipment, fiber, tech-support, advertising, etc etc etc. I personally don't mind paying $40/month. If you can't afford that, then you don't need to be on high-speed access, because you certainly aren't buying anything online either. Go back to your Juno's and Netzero's and look at Ads all day long. If the gov't would leave these companies alone for 2 minutes, maybe, just maybe, they could bundle all of their services together and offer me a lower price for a package deal (broadband, cable tv, phone service, wireless, etc). Instead, I have to pay AT&T, Verizon, Time Warner, et al. Corporations aren't 100% evil. What's worse, corporations or the military?? Without either, there would be no internet (and the world would probably be a better place). =)
This is on subject don't worry!!
When Comacast-ATT@HOME merge, you can send print jobs to the ga-zillion printers that are hanging off NetBIOS shares on MS boxes saying "WE HAVE FOUND A VIRUS ON YOUR PC, PLEASE SEND $1 TO THIS ADDRESS" blah blah blah... I am sure it is quasi-legal
--EOM
Jesse Wolfe Sr. Manager Systems Integration
I have AT&T cable. It has been very reliable. The downstream speed is phenomenal, ususally over 2 megs. The upstream is, as advertised, a slow 128K. However, the few times I've needed customer service, it was an exercise in frustration. At one point they had my dns entry screwed up. It took about two hours to get through to somebody who even had a clue about what I was talking about. The company still has the Lilly Tomlin "We're the phone company, we don't have to care" attitude. AT&T means it when they say no servers. They port scan me several times a day.
I've used way too many @Home providers. I've moved around a bit... Comcast@Home in Newport Beach, Orange County, CA. Cox@Home in San Diego, CA. Currently I'm using AT&T@Home in South Lake Tahoe, CA.
Comcast@Home only went down once in the half-year I used them... their stability is definately acceptable. In Orange County, my connection limits were 15k/sec outgoing, 500k/sec incoming. The basic service is a static IP setup, which never changed.
Cox@Home only went down once in the half-year I used them... their service is definately acceptable as well. In San Diego, my connection limits were 35k/sec outgoing, 400k/sec incoming. The basic service is a static IP setup, which never changed.
I've had AT&T@Home service for 2 months now. I've had two outages so far. I'm not sure if its their fault, as Tahoe wiring tends to end up being shredded and turned into squirrel nesting. They do NOT offer static IPs, period. Nor do they offer higher grades of connection... the base-level consumer cablemodem is the only form of network access they provide. I checked, I hate DHCP. Right now, my connection limits are 15k/sec outgoing, probably 500k/sec incoming, but I have yet to see over 320k/sec. They also have these inexplicable patches of half-connectivity where 50% of packets are dropped, causing pretty much everything to pause. These last probably 30 seconds, occur all the time, and I have no idea whats causing them. A tree farted, or something. No idea if its their fault or not - local conditions are occasionally harsh.
Of the three, Cox had the best service. I wish more broadband providers would run their service like Cox does. Its simply astounding how much those extra 20k/sec (outgoing) matter. Many protocols have tons of ACKs, and both Comcast and AT&T don't really allow enough outgoing bandwidth to make the most of the incoming. Plus, for some reason, Cox doesn't slow down when you're uploading a file to someone else... it simply drops packets instead of keeping 100k of queue and incurring 10 second ping replies. Which makes for a more useable connection, overall. I wonder if broadband providers will ever realize this, or if they even care (hey, they're beating 56k, what else does the customer want).
Overall, I hope this goes through and we switch to Comcast. That is, assuming they're still using the same setup and they're able to provide the same level of service. In addition, Comcast's techs actually knew what they were doing, unlike AT&T's.
In any case, I'm glad I haven't been subjected to PPPoE (yet).
Disclaimer: Comcast may be run by evil tribbels from Venus's core who enjoy eating peoples faces and blowing things up. AT&T may be On A Mission From God. I could just be an extreme outlier, my experience unique and completely different from the average. Or I could be from Alpha Centuari (I'm not, as far as I know).
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Paranoid
Paranoid
Bwaahahahahaa.
I have had @Home for almost 8 months now, and I must say I am very happy with it. Upstream could be a bit faster but it is still better then everyone else's offerings.
When I had the modem installed in December( at the time they did not offer self installs) the tech came in ran the cable from the living room to the computer-room( no cost, would have cost more $ to add another jack)and saw all the computers. The tech asked my permission for everything, ie: "What pc you want this to go to?, then said I dont want to mess with your stuff, I know how i get when someone trys to mess with my stuff) then gave me all the info i needed and said your gonna run NAT or somthing similar right, I said yup ( no @ home offically does not allow this) then he offered to help me setup NAT, but i told him it's cool im not helpless. This was all done in under 25 minutes, awesome.
I can have 3 static IP's. Sometimes i get 800Kb on the download and 300Kb on the up.
Not one outage in 8 months!
On a side note, Im not running NAT anymore, everything is now firewalled, routed and IAS servered.(Did not have a lot of moeny back then)
Yes I use Linux and Windows, true geeks don't flame each other over something so stupid!
#include int main() { int life; int daughter; int life_is_complete; return 0; }
@home used to be ok, I started using them 3-4 years ago in one of the first roll-outs of the service. But quality and service have fallen as time has passed.
I have had the connection out for 2-4 days at a time on at least 8 occasions in the past year. I have had to call the @home tech support people and harass them for an hour or more telling them exactly what is wrong with their routing or the head end, and they still can't fix it.
Download speeds are ok depending on how messed up the routing is (packets traversing the country 3-4 times because of inept routing is common). Upload speeds are the worst part of the deal however, the connection gets clamped down to 14kbps!!
One thing is for sure, when I move in a month, I am not getting a cable modem at the new place.
As the broadband providers join and merge more than we've seen so far, I think we're going to see all sorts of problems. Mainly because the internet was not designed to consist of primarily two peered networks. The infrastructure of the internet is based on having many autonomous networks which peer with eachother allowing for multiple routes through different providers to any given host.
/. crowd loves their broadband, but I work for an ISP which provides almost exclusively dial-up access and we haven't lost many customers to broadband. The reason, people are cheap. They don't want to pay $50/month to check their e-mail.
This is, however, assuming that everyone moves to broadband, which I don't see happening any time soon. Most of the
I think we're heading towards some problems, but they're still off in the distance.
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GUIs are like diapers, everyone grows out of them at some point.
GUIs are like diapers, everyone grows out of them eventually.
I was previously a Comcast @Home customer, and late last year pings for myself and people in this area approached 2 SECONDS. Needless to say, we complained and complained, only to get blamed for having our network settings incorrect. I'm not sure how many times I "checked my network configuration" for Tier1 support. Anyway, they finally bit the bullet and bought a new node to support the demand that they had underestimated, and it was fine (after 3 months of complaints and a TV station picking up the story). Then AT&T hit the scene and the last week I've been getting 90% packet loss, and investigation shows other people on my subnet having similiar problems, though they still maintain my cable modem "is bad". So from personal experience, I can summarize both companies with: "They suck."
Just my 5 cents...I'd hope other areas haven't had this many problems.
"I drank what?" -Socrates
If I understand the article, it sounds like Comcast is offering AT&T 44 Billion $ for AT&T to take ownership of "...the combined entity." So there must be a catch - I mean, how can you buy something and not own it afterwards?
Hehehehe I had a very similar problem in Australia with Telstra's cable service - all I wanted to know was the name of the mail server - 5 days later, they did in fact send me an email with the name I needed; I don't know why I had to spend an hour on the phone then wait 5 days for someone who actually *knew* to get back to me though...
"I never think of the future. It comes soon enough."
Albert Einstein
I had Comcast till AT&T bought the franchise.
As far as networks go. Its the same damn network, its all @home. The tech support is @home and the transfer rates are dictated by your local cable system. Comcast uses just about any DOCSIS compatable modem. Since comcast gave me my modem I don't know what AT&T uses.
The setup is the same, its just DHCP. And if you need to call tech support while using DHCP your a bloody idiot. Niether "support" linux, but niether care if you use it, just like every other ISP there is.
AT&T has horrible customer service as it took me over and our to get some one who could change my billing information. AT&T is more expensive, by about $5 a month.
All in all the only differance I hope to see is getting that $5 back.
from CNet:
Comcast makes bid for AT&T Broadband
But seriously, I used to live in a Comcast area. Most of the people there thought the service was pretty good. Just like any other tech company, if you needed support, the level of proficiency depended on who you were lucky (or unlucky) enough to get on the phone. Speeds were pretty good (usually over 1 Mb/s), and they slowed down to just over modem speeds during "prime time" in the evenings. I noticed the same results over ISDN, so it was probably just the regional network in general.
My only complaint with Comcast is what I considered to be a mishandled "buyout" for the company that USED to control that area. At that time, they were Suburban Cable, and had been promising cable modem access. They kept giving dates when it would be available, and suddenly they were sold to Comcast. To the credit of Comcast, when I called them and asked for an availability date, I got a much more realistic one. It was about one month after I moved.
Now I live in a area that has cable service supplied by a really small company. Cable modem should be available very very soon now. I've been much happier in general with the smaller company, so I can't wait to see how they stack up on cable modem.
GreyPoopon
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GreyPoopon
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Ok, when I first got my cable modem I was with comcast@home. Then, just recently, they were taken over by AT&T Broadband. If this deal goes through, it looks like I'll be back where I started, with comcast@home. Sure it doesn't really make a difference on my end, but it sure does make your head spin...
Weird, I work for Charter Communications, Corperate sent out a mass email a few weeks ago, went something like this. ST. LOUIS, Mo., and ENGLEWOOD, Colo. - Charter Communications, Inc., (Nasdaq:CHTR) and AT&T Broadband have closed previously announced cable-system transactions, resulting in a net addition of about 554,000 customers for Charter and $1.77 billion in cash and cable systems for AT&T, the companies said today. Kinda seems like AT&T is wanting out of the Cable Internet biz.
What was your username again? -BOFH
I've had experiences with COX and ComCast @home services. Though many people I've read about online bitch constantly about @home, I have really good service with them. Getting the shit installed was a bit of work though, it took about 3 weeks to get the issues banged out. With COX I got about 100kbytes/sec at max, with ComCast I max out at over 300kbytes. I'm quite impressed :)
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I don't have any experience with Comcast - so I can only speak for AT&T. (this will be quite lengthy)
We moved to MA from Syracuse, NY, where we'd had an excellent experience with Time Warner's Roadrunner cable modem service (note: this was pre-merger, so I have no idea if it's gone downhill since - anyway, it's not like we had mich choice in the matter - TW has a stranglehold on cable out there)
One of the first things we did was look up who the cable modem provider was in the area. AT&T. So, we called and attempted to set up an install.
Our building wasn't "recognized" by their system.
Not really their fault - when the building we're living in was renovated to make apartments, the landlords didn't do all the correct paperwork. The existing cable lockbox for the house was also (literally) ripped from the wall. Needless to say - the situation was a mess.
We waited about a month for them to get their act together and figure out what they were going to do (they had our name, address, and the fact that we WANTED service - they told us we'd need to wait until they could get a technician out to do the necessary work) - and one never came. Finally, my fiancee called and complained her way up to the guy who manages the installation teams.
Within two weeks, we had the new cable lockbox, as well as a new line to the cable trunk in place. Still took them another month to get an actual install date - but hey - we were finally moving along, right?
Well, the installer comes (3 hours late, I might add) and hooks up the digital cable. He then proceeds to pull out an installation CD - which I tell him that I do not want him to install (my computer had that fine balance of software where Windows 98 actually didn't crash every 5 minutes) -- he insists, saying that it doesn't actually install anything, it just lets him confirm that he made the install. Uh huh. I watch as he "doesn't install" a new copy of IE, "doesn't install" a new set of network settings, wiping out my finely tuned registry settings, and "doesn't install" extra icons to my desktop. In addition, he INSISTS on renaming the IE icon to "AT&T INTERNET" (note: all caps), and renaming the Outlook Express icon to "AT&T EMAIL" (Yep - all caps again - and I didn't have OE installed before this install - I chose NOT to have it for a reason!)
Needless to say - I bitched the guy out - and of course, he completely denies that he installed ANYTHING! AARGH!
Installers suck.
Well, after that's over, how does he test the connection? He pulls up CNN.com, which loads OK, and then packs up and leaves. I get his number (which I called into their support center later...) and he takes off.
After playing with the connection for a few minutes, we realize something is VERY wrong. We can't hold a stable connection to ANYTHING -- we'd get 50-300k into a download, and it would just die. Consistantly.
Try it under linux - same thing.
Replace the Cat5 (hey - it's old) - same problem.
Replace the (new) cable from the wll to the cable modem - same problem.
Hook up to my local network, and transfer files just fine (same network settings, both OS) - so it's obviously not my end.
Call up AT&T's "support" (and I use that term loosely). Spend an hour between being on hold and talking to techs who try to blame everything on my computer - after explaining the situation about 10 times, I get told that I will be "escalated" to a "level 2" tech. His solution? Reinstall Windows.
After explaining to the guy that Windows is not the problem (my local network works fine) about 5 times, he decides that maybe I might know what I'm talking about - and "escalates" me again - this time to an "admin". His solution? "Work is being done in your area - I don't have an ETA, or any more information, but rest assured that we will be fixing the problem."
Uh huh.
Total time spent on the phone to get this response? 2 hours, 45 minutes. Mind you, this is on my cellphone, because the phone company hadn't gotten around to doing their install yet either.
After a month of horrible service, I call back again - armed with my old "ticket number" and the ID numbers of all the techs I spoke to - including the "admin" who told me that work was "being done".
Spend an hour working through the "level 1" techs - who I am convinced are there to waste your time and try to convince you never to call them again, regardless of the problem. I get to a "level 3" tech - who tells me:
1: my old ticket number is invalid
2: the ID of the "admin" I got is invalid
3: there is nothing wrong with my connection - I'm just visiting "slow" sites
Mind you, the problem happened on EVERY site I went to - not just small, unpopular, or slow sites.
Call the guy's bluff - and he gets rude - saying that the problem MUST be on my end, because I'm just a "stupid user", and that I should "know better than to try to test something myself".
At that point I hung up. We started looking for alternatives to AT&T. Noone else in the area offered cable -- they had a lock on that. So, the other avenue was DSL. After poking around for a week or two, we placed an order with Speakeasy.
Within 2 weeks (well, 15 days, actually) we had a brand-spanking-new DSL connection that works like a charm.
AT&T got my disconnect notice the next day - although they still have my address wrong, refuse to pick up their cable modem (which they brought here, and will not give me an address to mail it back to them (I have no car, and their closest "return location" is about 45 minutes away by car) ), and continure to charge me "rent" for.
Last month, they tried to bill me AGAIN for cable modem service -- calling them to resolve the issue took over an hour - and ended up being me saying "I cancelled my service two months ago - don't bill me for something I've cancelled!", to their "Well, we don't have that in our system, and we show you still have our modem, so you MUST still be using the service"
Things just go around and around with these people. If they do it again next month, the BBB will be getting involved (I've already called them once for advice in this matter, and they said to give them one more chance to fix things to my satisfaction before getting the BBB involved)
I would highly recommend ANYONE stay away from AT&T's cable service, if you aren't masochistic.
I haven't been able to use my cable modem for a week! If comcast gets their way, cable modems--not a bad idea--will suck even more.
i am so very tired....
Comcast says that the combined company will have about 32% of cable subs, but that they plan on shedding some number of franchises in order to better consolidate their service areas.
Sounds like AT&T and ComCast are both using @Home, so what's the real difference?
I've got ComCast. It's pretty decent, but you suffer from the same thing all cable modem users suffer from: Shared bandwidth, which means not so much bandwidth during peak hours. On the other hand, on off peak hours, I get some really excellent transfer rates
The one thing that does bother me is the limiting of my upstream bandwidth. I'd certainly like to have more, especially since I regularly move data back and forth between home and work.
I am a contractor working at AT&T, and I get the same corporate emails that AT&T employees get. Here is the email that we all got this morning regarding Comcast:To all AT&T employees, By now I'm sure you've seen media coverage about Comcast's offer to acquire AT&T Broadband. I wanted to be sure you had information about AT&T's position on this unsolicited bid. Here's our position: We recently had some informal conversations with Comcast at their request. However, those conversations never led to any concrete proposals and there is no truth to the rumor that we agreed on valuation or reached an impasse over so-called "social issues." We have no current plans to sell our Broadband business, including the transaction proposed yesterday by Comcast. However, we will evaluate the Comcast proposal and do what is in the best long-term interest of our shareowners. Our current plan is to proceed with the restructuring that we announced last October. To date, the restructuring is on schedule. We continue to reduce our debt. We conducted a successful exchange offer for AT&T Wireless shares. Just last Friday, we sold $1.6 billion of our AT&T Wireless stake. And today we successfully split off AT&T Wireless as a separate company. If you receive any media inquiries regarding the Comcast offer, please contact xxxxx xxxxxxx at xxx xxx-xxxx. Refer inquiries from financial analysts to xxxxxx xxxxxx at xxx xxx-xxxx. Dick Martin Executive Vice President Public Relations
Is this a double deal?
bm :)-~
US Democracy:The best person for the job (among These pre-selected choices...)
Comcast is making a bid to buy AT&T's cable modem unit for over 44 billion
I guess those people that were being charged $500 for their cable units weren't getting such a bad deal.
As a matter of fact, I'm on hold with AT&T "Digital Broadband" billing right now. I don't pay a whole lot of attention to the name of the provider.
However, I do pay attention when my provider puts me through absolute hell to get any kind of service.
Since I'm at work, I don't have my cable modem bill handy. This means I have to find the support numbers on the web. It took me too long to find them. 15-30 minutes? The technical support web site doesn't list any support numbers. I happened upon the number when I went to a generic AT&T phone number. There I found the number.
When I called the number, I was put through a series of questions. When I chose my option, I was forwarded to a BUSY SIGNAL. I tried again with a different, but applicable menu options. BUSY SIGNAL again. When I think back on it, every time I have ever called AT&T support, I have experienced what I thought was either a broken, misconfigured, or unethically configured PBX. This is beyond long hold times.
So now I'm trying a menu option that gets me into an on-hold queue. There is no comfort here.
I've been on the phone now for 45 minutes. This is stupid. This is what happens when companies make too much money. Since I have been waiting, I've spent 10-15 minutes away from the phone, or on another call. When I get back, I'm still on hold. Insane.
Yesterday I was told that AT&T now has the worst reputation for customer support. I believe it.
Maybe this merger stuff
I'm not sure what to call my service. It was originally Mediaone Roadrunner. It was then changed to AT&T @Home but I still go to pages branded AT&T Roadrunner for support... *shrug*
Aside from the naming confusion, I couldn't be happier. I've had a connection for well over a year now. I get 300k upload and always a full 1.54Mbit downlink (thats 180KB or 1500Kbit/sec). So, T1 basically. It's always that fast unless the site I'm visiting can't keep up. Very little downtime. I think the longest outtage (and only once) was for about 20 minutes or so. Typical pings to anything on the east coast is 40-50ms.It's DHCP, and I've had the same IP address leased for the last 14 months or so. So it's basically static IP.
I run a Linux NAT/Firewall with 5-6 machines behind it, run a host of servers. I do run my own mail server, so I can't vouch for the quality of the AT&T's, since I don't use it. But they're Usenet server is OUTSTANDING... every group, at 1.5Mbit throughput... about 3 hops away. Life is great. I hope the quality remains if they get purchased.
...than AT&T when it comes to handling broadband access. Here in Jacksonville, MediaOne was actively developing and building out their broadband infrastructure for several years prior to their buyout by AT&T. Since then, there has been an unspoken freeze on expanding service, as everyone I know who has called to request broadband access has been told that it was not available in their area (even though it was available there at some point!)
A friend of mine who has broadband access recently moved from one apartment to another within the same complex and was told that cable modem service was not yet available at his new address! When he informed them that he was just moving across the hall, they said that he could try the modem, but that they would not make him any guarantees.
Thank you for observing all safety precautions.
In my area, AT&T Broadband just took over Comcast's operations as of 15 June...
It also seems like all the call centers got fed the "best in the country" line when the ax fell...
Also, @Home isn't who's answering the phones when you first call in. That's your local cable company. Care to post the name of the cable company in need of the smackdown?
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