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Hey Teamliquid,
I need some help! I recently graduated college and moved back in to my mom's old house with my sister and my girlfriend. However, they managed to somehow deal with the shit service that is Qwest, and I won't stand for it any more!
For $40/month I get the following features:
Lag during streams - Even the low quality stream for the TSL today hit lag spikes and would have to catch up with itself. I would estimate a 10-20 second pause in the stream every 2 minutes. It was horrible.
Waiting for youtube videos to buffer - This annoys the crap out of me. My internet can't even load 320p youtube videos fast enough to have instant playback.
Horrible lag in games - I deal with about 400-600 ms ping in every game I play. At worst, I'll get the "Waiting for players" screen every couple minutes with only my name.
It's like Qwest hasn't made any innovations in their technology since 1999. What a fucking rip off this service is.
So I was just wondering what the best alternative ISP is in the midwest. I had Comcast when I was at college and it was decent but rather expensive. Plus, we don't need new TV/Phone service here, just internet.
What do you guys use?
Edit: Apparently there are limited options of ISPs based on your exact area. I live in Denver, Colorado. Seems like there should be at least a couple different options around here, right?
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I've heard nothing but bad stuff about Comcast. I wouldn't go there, either. I don't live out there, so I can't help you directly, though.
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haha i have qwest too. when i moved into my new house they plugged my internet line into my neighbors phone line. Every time they made a call my internet disconnected. I don't know what to tell you, there arent many isps in one area.
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Comcast for TV is terrible. Then again, that's probably true for all cable companies.
My comcast internet connection, however, is rock solid and I get speeds as advertised. No muss, no fuss. I recommend it.
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I hear from my friends that comcast and time warner are not too good. I use charter and it has seemed pretty good and solid.
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I use comcast cable for my internet and I'm fine :o
It was soooo much faster than DSL, that's for sure. I'm no expert, but I one thing to keep in mind is that if everyone around you also uses comcast and they're all streaming videos or whatnot, everyone will be affected because the users share the bandwidth, while DSL is individual though usually significantly slower.
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I've always had good internet with comcast, I highly recommend it.
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On May 09 2011 05:19 sutureself wrote:
Comcast for TV is terrible. Then again, that's probably true for all cable companies.
My comcast internet connection, however, is rock solid and I get speeds as advertised. No muss, no fuss. I recommend it.
can also speak for comcast! I don't know about cheaper services but for the price of 1.5MB download I get no noticeable latency and super stable service.
It just takes a few hours on the phone to set up a subscription lulz.
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United States33281 Posts
even if oyu know what ISP is better, it sucks that a lot of places in the USA will only offer one ISP anyway 
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I don't know if you are in an area that they cover, but I live in Kansas City, and Sunflower Broadband has been awesome for me. Their service is limited in area, but is always fast and stable.
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I have frontier and I've had nothing but good things with it. lulzaly they keep us all happy beacuse they want to be the only company out here in my part of minnisota but I do think it helps everyone.
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The best residential ISP in America imo is Verizon FiOS if it's available in your area. In my area, for about 120 a month, I get 35/35 internet, phone service (lol), and their best cable package and since I was switching over from a competitor, I also got premium channels for free for a certain period of time.
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It varies by area more so than ISP. Comcast might be good in one place, but will be garbage in another.
Comcast has a 250GB/month cap, AT&T apparently now has 150GB/month, Verizon doesn't have a cap, and then there are other, smaller ISPs that are only available in certain locations.
The question isn't "which ISP is best," but rather "which ISP is best for XYZ town."
FWIW, my Comcast is usually good, but the cap is ridiculous given multiple heavy users.
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In the Midwest (Wisconsin) for me there is really only Comcast, Road Runner, or ATT, but I find that Road Runner has the fastest/most reliable internet around here. In some places Charter is also available and I am pretty sure Charter is the best of the four, but sadly it is not available for me.
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Embarq has to compete for being one of the worst broadband ISPs. I've been with them due to proximity since the company was EarthLink, now they're in deals with Qwest supposedly.
Paying too much for what plan I pay for, only get half of the download I should be, outages aren't uncommon, their 2wire modems they like to ship you have burnt out on me several times (which takes 3 weeks to replace through the mail), and terrible customer service.
It was amazing when I swapped from my 3kbs down AOL, but it really seems they're just preying on the elderly of South Florida that don't understand we're all being ripped off.
My e-friend of nearly 7 years has had Qwest in Idaho and is pulling 1meg down consistently and has mentioned a problem literally 1 time ever, which was this past week and was a big deal.
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On May 09 2011 05:56 Waxangel wrote:even if oyu know what ISP is better, it sucks that a lot of places in the USA will only offer one ISP anyway
ISP in the US are listed as utilities so they mapped out the country and gave some areas to some companies in the same way you cant really pick you water or power company you have very few options when it comes to ISP providers it sucks
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If you can get on with cox, I would advise you to. I pay $40 a month for a "10Mbit/1Mbit". But I receive much more usually around 25/3.
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United States686 Posts
On May 09 2011 06:05 AbstractVoid wrote:
In the Midwest (Wisconsin) for me there is really only Comcast, Road Runner, or ATT, but I find that Road Runner has the fastest/most reliable internet around here. In some places Charter is also available and I am pretty sure Charter is the best of the four, but sadly it is not available for me.
I had Charter for 4 years in Wisconsin and came to believe that they were the worst company ever for more than 3 of them. Mysterious charges, poor/slow/rude service, unreliable bandwidth, you name it (the TV commercials.. ah god the commercials were the WORST). Then right before I moved, the bandwidth magically got more reliable, so now I'm not sure what to think. I spent sooo long hating them, it just feels right to keep doing it 
I have Roadrunner now and most of the time it works amazingly.
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I use cox, I stream 1080p without buffering. My roomates stream too and I still get no lag. 5mb up 1 mb down
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Meta you probably need to specify better where exactly you are as the available ISPs differ greatly.
It's really to bad the US has some of the worst internet service of any industrialized country though
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EPT
