Systemic Development > Multiple Personality Disorders
Fed up with TWC - what to do, what to do...
mdconnelly:
With the price of Time Warner Cable increasing, the digital TV service offerings marginal, and my slow TWC broadband connection sucking at least 30% of the time, I'm ready for a change.
Two challenges:
-- What competes with Roadrunner? I want at least 7mb download speed all-the-time. Mine maxes at that, but in the evenings it gets unbearably slow at times - to the point where watching Netflix online is just painful. I've called it in, had them come check the lines, modem, etc... Last time they came out they said I'd need to replace all my in-wall wiring. Really? I mean, when it works, I do get 7mb download. The problem is that, in the evening, I just don't get it consistently. Is there anything else in this area (Durham, NC) that competes with Roadrunner for broadband? I've tried Verizon DSL and that was definitely worse.
-- Digital TV. While TWC cable offerings are OK, they're expensive. And the DVR they provide (at a cost of course) just kinda sucks. Should I be looking at DirectTV?
OK, enough whining.... I figure some of you out there may have also gone down this rabbit hole and come up in a good place. Any suggestions?
richidoo:
I have DirecTV, very happy with it, going on 7 years now.
I have AT&T FastAccess DSL for data, very happy with that too. 6Mbit is available last I looked, but maybe even faster now.
As for pricing, the best bargain is to get it all from TWC. I probably have the worst bargain, but I never have to talk to a TW employee. :thumb:
tmazz:
--- Quote from: mdconnelly on November 15, 2010, 04:11:50 PM ---With the price of Time Warner Cable increasing, the digital TV service offerings marginal, and my slow TWC broadband connection sucking at least 30% of the time, I'm ready for a change.
Two challenges:
-- What competes with Roadrunner? I want at least 7mb download speed all-the-time. Mine maxes at that, but in the evenings it gets unbearably slow at times - to the point where watching Netflix online is just painful. I've called it in, had them come check the lines, modem, etc... Last time they came out they said I'd need to replace all my in-wall wiring. Really? I mean, when it works, I do get 7mb download. The problem is that, in the evening, I just don't get it consistently. Is there anything else in this area (Durham, NC) that competes with Roadrunner for broadband? I've tried Verizon DSL and that was definitely worse.
-- Digital TV. While TWC cable offerings are OK, they're expensive. And the DVR they provide (at a cost of course) just kinda sucks. Should I be looking at DirectTV?
OK, enough whining.... I figure some of you out there may have also gone down this rabbit hole and come up in a good place. Any suggestions?
--- End quote ---
Direct TV is ok but they have no real broadband product to go with the video service. And the reception is weather dependent. Finally be very careful if you get it installed in the next few months. A former neighbor of mine move to upstate NY and ordered Direct TV they came to his house in Nov. set it up and he was quite happy with it until April, when the leaves filled in on all the trees in his yard and blocked his line of site to the satelite. There was no way to get a signal unless he took the dish off his roof and mounted it on a 60 foot pole. Needless to say he went back to cable.
I know that the Verizon DSL product would be slower than Roadrunner, but since you switched over, do you have any idea if Verizon has made Fios available in your neighborhood? (Verizon sold its Durham Operations to Frontier last summer, but Frontier is still selling the Fios product line - http://www.frontier.com/category.aspx?type=1&c=153 )The biggest problem with Roadrunner9or any other cable modem service) is that it is a buss system, so you are sharing the bandwidth with all of your neighbors. So themore people that are on at any given time, the slow the response to each individual. With Fios yo get a fiber optic line all the way into your house and the bandwidth over it is dedicated to you and you alone. No matter how many other fios customers in your neighborhood are on-line you still get the same speed.
Unfortunately, if there is no Fios in your area you don't have much of an alternative to Roadrunner for high performance broadband. the new 4th generation cellular data systems (4G) are not widely deployed yet and even where they are, the throughputs are closer to the performance of DSL than they are to Roadrunner. While this may be great for mobile connection it is rather on the slow side or home use.
Tom
hometheaterdoc:
Mike,
Tom is right... unfortunately, you've got neighbors that you are sharing your roadrunner bandwidth with whom are actually using it... might have a few folks that are heavy consumers like me that are pulling content at the same time... thankfully, I've got neighbors that aren't heavy users. so I consistently get 900K per sec true download speed on files with bursts higher than that... sounds like others are doing the netflix thing when they get home in the evening or otherwise downloading content and you are sharing the same segment with them.... might be interesting to see where you are in relation to the nearest switch...
re-wiring your house won't fix your issue unless you have 50 year old RG-59 that is flat out broken in spots... which it sounds like that isn't the case since you have normal download speed during the day....... that's kind of funny they even suggested it... I've had more than a few funny experiences with the idiots at TWC. I've dealt with a couple competent techs with them... but they are few and far between...
I have Dish, but I wouldn't recommend it... their DVR is exponentially better than TWC (anything is better than the crap DVR that TWC offers), but I've had more than a few rubs with their customer service and they've cut some channel selection and removed some HDTV channels during my 1+ years with them but haven't adjusted the price of service accordingly.... I'm likely dropping them when my contract is up...
last I checked, FIOS was a no go locally and we're likely a year away from 4G in this market from Verizon... it's going to be interesting when it is finally offered though... Verizon seems to have the best tech and roadmap for 4G based on what I've read and seen... .... but right now there really isn't anything that competes with Roadrunner on speed. DSL just doesn't cut it for anything other than basic surfing... any heavy downloading just eats it up....
mdconnelly:
Thanks all for the sage advice. I'd kinda come to the same conclusion. 4G service alternatives to broadband are available but likely to be slower than Roadrunner as is DSL. I don't believe Verizon Fios is available in downtown Durham (yet), but when it is, that'll be the path. Verizon does offer a high-speed service that looks to compete with RR turbo, but not sure if that's available either.
My frustration with TWC is mostly their incompetence. I've been bounced to two different India help desks and put on hold more times than I can count. I finally was able to arrange for a tech to come out but they couldn't come in the evenings which is the only time I've been seeing the slowdowns. When he did come out, after checking the line he said a) it was a modem problem and b) I had to replace all the house wiring. Of course, at the same time he checked the line, performance was excellent using the old modem and existing house wiring. (That kinda stumped him ;-)
I was thinking about bumping up to RR turbo (more $$) but somehow I suspect I'd still have the same nightly slowdowns due to my neighbors (the downtown area here is certainly denser than the burbs and all wires are above ground).
Shane, I will take your advice on waiting until late spring before going down the DirectTV route. Thanks!
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