Good Internet Service Providers? (U.S.A.)

[Somethngcreative]

Hi,

Can someone please recommend a good internet service provider for me? I currently have AT&T Home Basic DSL and I have not been very happy with them .. In six months my bill shot up from $29.99 a month to $37.00 to $40.00 and worse of all they've now put a monthly cap of 120 gb per month on my internet. I'm not sure what that amounts to but there are several people in my home and I'm not sure if that's enough.

Anyways, can someone please recommend a good internet provider that will give me my money's worth? I feel that what I'm getting now isn't worth $40 a month because my download speed is only 2.25 mbps and my upload speed is only 0.42 mbps, there's gotta be something out there that's better.

Thanks!

[sho-dan]

Hello Somethingcreative

Is ATT your TV and DSL provider.

You could give Comcast a look at if its in your area, thats what I have.

I have the Comast Triple play for $100 (for 12 months)on a two year contract. You could get just the XFINITY Internet

My speeds on the East Coast

[Somethngcreative]

Hi Sho-dan,

Att is just my internet service provider , and I just figured out why my bill shot up so high in such a short time. For some reason they switched me to Att DSL direct pro without my permission and without even notifying me, until I looked at my bill closely. I'm definitely switching!

[David H. Lipman]

Unfortunately, it depends on your locality and WHO is available.

You'll have to research what service providers offer what services that are available to you.

[sho-dan]

Okay, sounds like a plan.

[laserjet]

if its available too you in your area definitely go with Broadband.

[GT500]

if its available too you in your area definitely go with Broadband.

DSL is a form of broadband...

[Firefox]

I have been pretty happy with mine, an its provided by Time Warner Cable, its called Road Runner.

[GT500]

I'm currently on a BrightHouse connection, and it isn't bad.

Verizon's FiOS service is supposed to be pretty good, however some people don't like the modem that they give you (if you get the wireless modem, that is). If you can get Verizon FiOS in your area, I have heard that you can ask them to run ethernet into your house that can then plug into any router you would prefer to use, and you don't have to use their router. The issue with using a third-party router with Verizon's FiOS is that apparently Verizon will not provide you with technical support if you are using a third-party router.

[David H. Lipman]

I'm currently on a BrightHouse connection, and it isn't bad.

Verizon's FiOS service is supposed to be pretty good, however some people don't like the modem that they give you (if you get the wireless modem, that is). If you can get Verizon FiOS in your area, I have heard that you can ask them to run ethernet into your house that can then plug into any router you would prefer to use, and you don't have to use their router. The issue with using a third-party router with Verizon's FiOS is that apparently Verizon will not provide you with technical support if you are using a third-party router.

I am on FiOS and there is no modem. On FiOS there is an Optical Network Terminal (ONT) which is a network bridge. It has both cable and TP Ethernet ports but usually uses the cable interface and MoCA compliant Router. The Router I have is an ActionTec MI424WR Rev.E which has a full Firewall implementation. The rest is true. Verizon can alter the configuration of the ONT to use the RJ45 TP Ethernet WAN port vs. the MoCA cable WAN interface.

While there are some who whine over the ActionTec Routers, I find them very good and easy to manage. I manage mine so well and if it locked down such that even Verizon can't remotely access my Router. One reason why people want to replace the Verizon provided Router with a 3rd party Router is that Verizon has a backdoor capability to manage their Routers that they provide. However the Routers Verizon provides have a full Firewall implementation and dropping inbound TCP port 4567 is easy and it is TCP port 4567 that is Verizon's backdoor.

[Haleo]

Comcast is what I would suggest. If you are willing to get one of there bundles you can get internet for $33 a month and Tv as well for the same price.

[GT500]

I am on FiOS and there is no modem.

I'm sorry David, I meant router. They install an Actiontec router with an ONT connection and Verizon branding. I have a friend in Baltimore with Verizon FiOS, and he hates the Actiontec router that they installed. Of course, he might not have so much trouble if his grandmother hadn't insisted that it be installed next to the microwave (he connects to it over WiFi from upstairs).

Anyway, on the subject of Actiontec, their hardware isn't bad. I used to have an Actiontec DSL modem, and it worked better than the service provider's modem, however it also had a built-in NAT which meant that I was behind the NAT on my modem and the NAT on my router. Disabling the NAT in that Actiontec was not easy, and it did not respect port forwarding rules. I did eventually figure out how to set it to function in 'bridge' mode (which disabled its NAT, DHCP, and routing capabilities) so that my router was being assigned an IP address directly by my ISP, so that resolved that issue at least, however it still had higher latency than Zoom's Bridge Modem which worked out of the box with pretty much any ISP without needing configuration (which I would believe is still a unique feature). For average web browsing and watching videos, that Actiontec modem worked just fine. For gaming, however, it was not a good modem (admittedly it was an improvement over the ISP's modem, however that Zoom modem made the Actiontec look terrible).