[CALUG] Choosing a residential/SMB high speed internet provider

[Randal T. Rioux]

I have both FiOS and Xfinity for my home lab. This is for failover, task
separation (bad stuff / good stuff) and dual-stack IPv6 (from Comcast).

Speeds are comparable. I get the "cheapest" packages and average 24Mbs
FiOS and 20Mbs Comcast.

Here are my pluses and minuses:

 (-) Comcast customer service is world renown for complete and utter
stupidity. No matter what your issue is, prepare for your entire
evening, possibly evenings, to be completely shot.

 (+) Verizon customer service can be great. You have a 3 in 5 chance of
getting someone who knows what they're doing. Otherwise, hang up and
call back. Hope for a different voice.

 (+) Comcast - IPv6

 (-) FiOS never heard of IPv6

 (-) Both: Price. But, after intro periods, call and quibble. This has
worked in the past :-)

 (+) I've never been throttled on either, and I have a lot of bitorrents
going

 (+) I run open WiFi and have several active botnets and honeynets.
Neither of them turn it off or sent nasty notes. It actually is "part of
my job" so I'm waiting to explain that ;-)

Final advice: they're all evil. Just pick the one with the best price!

Randy


On 8/7/2012 4:08 PM, benalgo at speakeasy.net wrote:
> Hi all,
> I'm considering updating my home internet provider to a more modern one.
> 
> I have Comcast Xfinity and Verizon FIOS available.
> Does anyone any recommendations 
> based more on their hands on experience with technical/policy/support/reliability
> aspects ?
> [I'm interested more in just the internet service but am not opposed to the
> "bundle" idea]
> 
> For example,
> cost/service increases/nickel-and-diming (I have directv and every march the
> price goes up and is WAY beyond the $30/month teaser rate)
> 
> usage control/oversight (throttling (supposedly Comcast does this) one reason I
> want the high speed is to download distros and do some intense data
> mining/gathering), or another example would be "exploring" - do they swat your
> hands for this ?) [at a local conference when speaking w/ one of the presenters
> said he used the (true) line that "I do this as part of job" and they left him
> alone thereafter]
> 
> various technical aspects such as using one's own (wifi) modem (supposedly
> Verizon did unofficially support this by allowing their modems to be set up in
> bridge mode, not sure about Comcast), IPV6 support (supposedly Comcast offers
> this whereas Verizon doesn't, but does this matter ??), device resets (a friend
> who has FIOS needs to call in after a (sustained) power outage to "reactivate"
> the devices)
> 
> And while at the moment this isn't a item, does anyone have any experience w/ the
> "mobile" aspects of these services ?
> [not sure about this at all .. in that I guess the commercials I've seen are more
> oriented for video so I guess the "receiver" acts like a tuner+anyroom
> DVR+slingbox ????]
> 
> Thanks in advance for any feedback,
> I'll be at the meeting tomorrow if anyone wants to follow up then too,
> Ben
> 
> 
> 
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