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Post by Emig5m on Mar 25, 2023 23:35:26 GMT -5
For the first time in my life I got cable internet available where I live, I don't believe it. Good riddance 8Mbps down, 0.75 up DSL. I have available to me 300Mbps, 500Mbps, and 1Gbps plans through Optimum. I just went with the 300Mbps for now as that's 37.5 times faster than my DSL (down) and 29.3 times faster upload (only 22Mbps up) for the same price as the DSL. It's also 4.28 times faster than my 5G data at home (which is 70Mbps). Speed tests actually show a little faster than 300Mbps with the Optimum 300 plan (323.22Mbps).
Here's the kicker, my DSL company (Brightspeed, formally CenturyLink) allows you to put your service on vacation pause and drops the bill to something like $9.98 a month to save money if not going to be using the service and to keep your account all set to go for when you want to resume service. I inquired to cancel the service through their chat (phoning in is closed on weekends) and the agent on the chat said that to cancel service that I would have to re-activate it first to cancel it and it would cost $63 to re-activate. I have only had it on vacation pause for a couple weeks (to test if I could get by with just my cell data) and the normal monthly bill is $45...so how is putting it on vacation pause saving any money when it costs $63 to re-activate when the bill would of only cost $45 for two more weeks of service? Huh...that logic doesn't make sense to me, and how much does it cost them to re-activate the line, a few key strokes on a computer? lol. What kind of shady logic is this? I guess I'll just have to try to call in customer service Monday and hope that I get an actual human being who is affiliated with making sense but we know humans, making sense isn't their forte`.
But anyhow... 1Gb service is now available to me. w00t! Slowly moving out of the stone age. But for a price/performance perspective I think I might just roll with the 300Mbps service for $40/mo because the price of the upper ones increases pretty dramatically and 300Mbps is pretty damned fast. I could see if multiple users would be using the line but it's just going to be me and my cell data at only 70Mbps streams 4k video just fine.
Oh and... the plot thickens...another cable company is planning on moving through and servicing my address, the CEO of the company (I forget the name) was posting on my towns facebook page asking if any businesses would allow them to use their generator to service our area. For whatever reason they need a generator as a their first step.
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Post by Coolverine on Mar 26, 2023 9:02:30 GMT -5
That's nice. I went from 30Mbps down (and way less *up) DSL to 1 gigabit up/down. The difference is still staggering and it's been at least 2-3 years now. It is important to note I've never actually seen 1 gigabit download or upload, most of the time it's more like anywhere from 700-900 Mbits/s.
Also sucks that the internet company is trying to charge more for canceling, that sounds just like what they do.
If they did that to me I'd probably just say "bullsh*t I'll just stop paying, go ahead and cancel it a**holes."
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Post by ForRealTho on Mar 26, 2023 12:11:09 GMT -5
But anyhow... 1Gb service is now available to me. w00t! Slowly moving out of the stone age. But for a price/performance perspective I think I might just roll with the 300Mbps service for $40/mo because the price of the upper ones increases pretty dramatically and 300Mbps is pretty damned fast. I could see if multiple users would be using the line but it's just going to be me and my cell data at only 70Mbps streams 4k video just fine. When I lived in rural Arizona I had 1.5 meg DSL as my only option, cable didn't go that far out. Literally 2 streets over and was nothing but sticks and rocks till the mountains. Very edge of civilization. I moved closer to work and got 5 gig cable and OMG. I couldn't believe how fast it was. When I moved into my own place in the city $80 for 1 gig symmetrical seemed like a fantasy but its happening. Like I have said on here before every once and a while the FiOS will downgrade to 100/100, if you unplug the router and plug it back in it goes right back 1000,1000. They do that on purpose to save on bandwidth since they assume most customers won't notice. ISPs are scum. |
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Post by sj on Mar 26, 2023 14:34:32 GMT -5
But anyhow... 1Gb service is now available to me. w00t! Slowly moving out of the stone age. But for a price/performance perspective I think I might just roll with the 300Mbps service for $40/mo because the price of the upper ones increases pretty dramatically and 300Mbps is pretty damned fast. I could see if multiple users would be using the line but it's just going to be me and my cell data at only 70Mbps streams 4k video just fine. When I lived in rural Arizona I had 1.5 meg DSL as my only option, cable didn't go that far out. Literally 2 streets over and was nothing but sticks and rocks till the mountains. Very edge of civilization. I moved closer to work and got 5 gig cable and OMG. I couldn't believe how fast it was. When I moved into my own place in the city $80 for 1 gig symmetrical seemed like a fantasy but its happening. Like I have said on here before every once and a while the FiOS will downgrade to 100/100, if you unplug the router and plug it back in it goes right back 1000,1000. They do that on purpose to save on bandwidth since they assume most customers won't notice. ISPs are scum. |
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Post by Cop on Mar 27, 2023 10:14:20 GMT -5
Let me introduce you to this thing called 'Internet Porn'...
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Post by Emig5m on Mar 27, 2023 19:09:52 GMT -5
Let me introduce you to this thing called 'Internet Porn'... Shit...I don't even download shit anymore...it's all mainly streaming and downloading updates and an occasional game/DLC. Back in the 56k dialup/WinMX days I actually downloaded a 1.5GB pr0n vid. Slow connection never stopped me from getting what I want, from Windows Betas to even playing UT on dialup (probably why I got so good at it because I was playing at such a disadvantage under the hardest circumstances). 
Wonder why my upload is only 22Mbit with Optimum? The upload is the same as my mobile data, I was kinda expecting more. Even the 1Gb down plan has the same upload (part of the reason I didn't fork up for it).
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Post by Emig5m on Mar 27, 2023 19:20:36 GMT -5
But anyhow... 1Gb service is now available to me. w00t! Slowly moving out of the stone age. But for a price/performance perspective I think I might just roll with the 300Mbps service for $40/mo because the price of the upper ones increases pretty dramatically and 300Mbps is pretty damned fast. I could see if multiple users would be using the line but it's just going to be me and my cell data at only 70Mbps streams 4k video just fine. Literally 2 streets over and was nothing but sticks and rocks till the mountains. Very edge of civilization. I moved closer to work and got 5 gig cable and OMG. I couldn't believe how fast it was. When I moved into my own place in the city $80 for 1 gig symmetrical seemed like a fantasy but its happening. Like I have said on here before every once and a while the FiOS will downgrade to 100/100, if you unplug the router and plug it back in it goes right back 1000,1000. They do that on purpose to save on bandwidth since they assume most customers won't notice. ISPs are scum. Since cables inception it has been 800 feet down the road in the next township from me. My grandfather owned his own company and had the money to fork up to pay the cable company to run the 800ft of cable down to us out of his own pocket but they couldn't cross township border. Literally, cable has been 800ft down the road since cable came out... |
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Post by ForRealTho on Mar 28, 2023 9:14:58 GMT -5
That video reminded me I keep meaning to buy some Wifi enabled "smart" plugs and just have my router shut off every 2 days at 4 am or so. Just ordered some. |
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Post by sj on Mar 28, 2023 10:52:39 GMT -5
That video reminded me I keep meaning to buy some Wifi enabled "smart" plugs and just have my router shut off every 2 days at 4 am or so. Just ordered some. Good idea. Powering down & powering up your router is how their customer service typically "fixes" low (lower than advertised) bandwidth issues. They make it as simple as possible (while still cheating ppl out of bandwidth) because every minute a customer spends on the phone with their representatives is $'s lost. |
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Post by ForRealTho on Mar 28, 2023 14:00:24 GMT -5
Good idea. Powering down & powering up your router is how their customer service typically "fixes" low (lower than advertised) bandwidth issues. They make it as simple as possible (while still cheating ppl out of bandwidth) because every minute a customer spends on the phone with their representatives is $'s lost. My plan is to have the power plug shut off for 1 minutes and turn back on, then shut off again for a minute and turn back on Wednesday morning at 4 am, then again Sunday morning at 4 am. I've noticed sometimes I have to restart my router twice to get the speeds back to normal. I know wifi power plugs are beyond normal now I have have never bothered. |
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Post by ForRealTho on Mar 30, 2023 15:01:29 GMT -5
Good idea. Powering down & powering up your router is how their customer service typically "fixes" low (lower than advertised) bandwidth issues. They make it as simple as possible (while still cheating ppl out of bandwidth) because every minute a customer spends on the phone with their representatives is $'s lost. I forgot, I actually ordered some smart plugs finally. I got a cheap set of 4 on Amazon. I have a huge lamp in my bedroom, I made that the test. If you open the app and press the power button turns off and on immediately, neat. It also allows schedules so I set the lamp to turn on at 8 AM M-F and turn off at 8:20 AM when I am gone for work. Pretty neat. I have my router plugged into one. Now on Wednesday & Sunday at 4:00 and 4:30 am the plug shuts off for one minute and turns back on, power cycling the router. That should hopefully be enough to limit the amount of times I have to power cycle it myself. Still have two more smart plugs. I just wish they didn't only work on 2.4g. I shut off my 2.4g Wifi a long time ago. Had to turn it back on for the smart plugs. |
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Post by Emig5m on Mar 30, 2023 20:32:00 GMT -5
Good idea. Powering down & powering up your router is how their customer service typically "fixes" low (lower than advertised) bandwidth issues. They make it as simple as possible (while still cheating ppl out of bandwidth) because every minute a customer spends on the phone with their representatives is $'s lost. I forgot, I actually ordered some smart plugs finally. I got a cheap set of 4 on Amazon. I have a huge lamp in my bedroom, I made that the test. If you open the app and press the power button turns off and on immediately, neat. It also allows schedules so I set the lamp to turn on at 8 AM M-F and turn off at 8:20 AM when I am gone for work. Pretty neat. I have my router plugged into one. Now on Wednesday & Sunday at 4:00 and 4:30 am the plug shuts off for one minute and turns back on, power cycling the router. That should hopefully be enough to limit the amount of times I have to power cycle it myself. Still have two more smart plugs. I just wish they didn't only work on 2.4g. I shut off my 2.4g Wifi a long time ago. Had to turn it back on for the smart plugs. Can I get a smart plug to connect to my nads to spark them up at 5am to wake up for work? That would be pretty cool...heh-heh-heh... |
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