Unfortunately I've no experience with Adelphia, but I can at least give you a few details about @home (excite@home?).
I had the service for approx. 2 years in Southern California and for the most part was quite satisfied. My setup consisted of a proxy/masquerade machine serving 2 clients.
Service in general: Downstream performance was excellent for the most part: bandwidth averaged about 110B/sec, with ranges from 40KB/sec to as much as 300KB/sec. There were a couple of periods when the 40KB/sec prevailed, I assume because of traffic load. They were quite responsive to bandwidth concerns, usually acting (by upgrading their equipment) in a matter of weeks. Upstream performance was adequate. Nothing to get excited about but it worked. I ran a Shoutcast server, web server, and FTP server so I had many opportunities to test the performance. The upstream average was 24KB/sec with ranges from as low as 12KB/sec to as much as 48KB/sec. I understand they've talked about instituting programs to curtail upstream usage, but I'm not aware of their beaurocratic or technical success in this area.
Hardware: The cablebox is of the Motorola CyberSurfr variety, a bit larger than a VHS videocassette. It's got a 10BaseT out (perhaps a serial out, but I might be confusing it with the RCN Hybrid cablemodem I have now). It's not TCNS (new-ish cable modem standard) so I didn't purchase mine outright and would recommend the same to you. It runs a bit warm, though I didn't have any heat related problems. I've got friends that hide it in a closet with a hub and masquerade server and have also experienced no problems.
Networking details: Here's the stickler and worth checking into your local @home provider to get more details about: @home's changing to DHCP assigned IP addresses. Not only this but if the machine you've got connected is Win98/NT/2k/whatever based (god forbid!) they'll force you to give it a hostname of their choosing and have it join their WinNT domain. Frightening! The DHCP issues not a firm one. Mine was staticlly assigned and others have specifically requested and received same. This is probably a region by region issue.
Installation: They send out 2 guys; one for cable and another for computer work. They know that people use masquerade, etc. to share the connection and they don't seem to mind. In fact during my installation they joked and told anecdotes about other installations where it was obvious the connection was going to be shared (i.e. installed in closets, etc.). They're a bit retentive about not being able to install their software on your computer and see it work before they leave, so just let them do it. When they're gone, remove it (it's just a tailored version of netscape and realplayer) and set things up however you like as it's just a plain IP connection. They'll try to tell you how great their web-proxy is (cached pages, etc.) but it's of course not necessary to set your browser to use it. Oh, one other thing: supply your own network card (NIC) and have it working before they get there. If you use the one they supply they'll hit you up for $50 and it's just a crappy ISA NE2000 card. Not to mention they get to monkey around in your computer's case. Which we all know is sacred territory.
I've got a 1.1Mbit SDSL connection now and while I'm happy with it, you can't beat the cablemodem's value.
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Unfortunately I've no experience with Adelphia, but I can at least give you a few details about @home (excite@home?).
I had the service for approx. 2 years in Southern California and for the most part was quite satisfied. My setup consisted of a proxy/masquerade machine serving 2 clients.
Service in general:
Downstream performance was excellent for the most part: bandwidth averaged about 110B/sec, with ranges from 40KB/sec to as much as 300KB/sec. There were a couple of periods when the 40KB/sec prevailed, I assume because of traffic load. They were quite responsive to bandwidth concerns, usually acting (by upgrading their equipment) in a matter of weeks.
Upstream performance was adequate. Nothing to get excited about but it worked. I ran a Shoutcast server, web server, and FTP server so I had many opportunities to test the performance. The upstream average was 24KB/sec with ranges from as low as 12KB/sec to as much as 48KB/sec. I understand they've talked about instituting programs to curtail upstream usage, but I'm not aware of their beaurocratic or technical success in this area.
Hardware:
The cablebox is of the Motorola CyberSurfr variety, a bit larger than a VHS videocassette. It's got a 10BaseT out (perhaps a serial out, but I might be confusing it with the RCN Hybrid cablemodem I have now). It's not TCNS (new-ish cable modem standard) so I didn't purchase mine outright and would recommend the same to you. It runs a bit warm, though I didn't have any heat related problems. I've got friends that hide it in a closet with a hub and masquerade server and have also experienced no problems.
Networking details:
Here's the stickler and worth checking into your local @home provider to get more details about: @home's changing to DHCP assigned IP addresses. Not only this but if the machine you've got connected is Win98/NT/2k/whatever based (god forbid!) they'll force you to give it a hostname of their choosing and have it join their WinNT domain. Frightening! The DHCP issues not a firm one. Mine was staticlly assigned and others have specifically requested and received same. This is probably a region by region issue.
Installation:
They send out 2 guys; one for cable and another for computer work. They know that people use masquerade, etc. to share the connection and they don't seem to mind. In fact during my installation they joked and told anecdotes about other installations where it was obvious the connection was going to be shared (i.e. installed in closets, etc.). They're a bit retentive about not being able to install their software on your computer and see it work before they leave, so just let them do it. When they're gone, remove it (it's just a tailored version of netscape and realplayer) and set things up however you like as it's just a plain IP connection. They'll try to tell you how great their web-proxy is (cached pages, etc.) but it's of course not necessary to set your browser to use it. Oh, one other thing: supply your own network card (NIC) and have it working before they get there. If you use the one they supply they'll hit you up for $50 and it's just a crappy ISA NE2000 card. Not to mention they get to monkey around in your computer's case. Which we all know is sacred territory.
I've got a 1.1Mbit SDSL connection now and while I'm happy with it, you can't beat the cablemodem's value.