Choosing ISP

Hi
I understand that this is not exactly the right forum... On the other
hand, it is as good as general population with added bonus: members of
this group are more computer literate than general population.
I live in Boston, MA, US. I have high speed RCN at the moment. It is
getting painfully slow (without getting cheaper). I called them once
and asked whether they have a problem "on my line". They suggested
that I should have a technician come in and configure my machine.
Last time I had a technician over was when I bought my own cable modem
(instead of rented one). They refused to configure it over the phone.
OK, fine, I paid $$ for tech visit. He came over and called the office
with the modem serial number. That was it! Was I pissed!
I do not like to be screwed... I do not have anybody from RCN to come
over unless I am paid for the time I take off work.
Sorry for the long preamble.

Is Verizon DSL any good? Do they really manage to squeeze the
advertized bandwidth through pair of wires (probably not even
twisted)?

I signed up for Netzero couple days ago. They initially told me that I
can use existing cable (I do not care how it's shared between ISPs).
After few failed attempts to connect I was told that it is dial-up
only (no surprise that my modemless beige box did not work), but it is
5x times faster than dial-up. Is it?? Does anybody have experience
with Netzero?
Thank you in advance for the shared thoughts.

 

I have Verizon DSL (the slow, basic, 768/128 $20/month version). I like
it because (a) it's cheap, (b) it worked first time out of the box, (c)
it gives the advertised BW, and (d) I was able to keep my copper
connection--which means I still get central-office power, rather than a
battery pack in my furnace room that I have to worry about.

Cheers,

Phil Hobbs

 

There's that word *forum* again--not **newsgroup**.
(OK. Maybe he's using it generically.)

Then again, Google could find you
a REALLY narrowly-targeted cross-section.

Why not ask people who have VERY SPECIFIC information?
http://www.google.com/search?q=site...title:Review+intitle:Verizon&num=100&filter=0

For a supposedly *tech* site,
they sure do produce crap HTML pages.
(Obviously using Micros~1 tools.)
http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http://www.dslreports.com/comments/552?1=1&p=10
Failed validation, 711 errors
Error -- Line 1 column 0: no document type declaration

 

Hi Michael,

Don't know if this is the right forum either.(?)

No matter, the June 07 edition of PC Magazine ranks the various
providers nationwide.
For Massachusetts, Comcast offers 500kbps. FIOS only 81.7.

Get all the data at: go.pcmag.com/fastestISPs

I didn't check that link out myself. Just happened to read it
yesterday and it was still on my desk.

-mpm