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Rolling the dice on a new ISP

August 30, 2012 by Dave Knadler

att service outage

You’ve screwed me for the last time.

Today I’m hanging around waiting for the Comcast guy to show up. You know how that works: They give you a two- or three-hour window for when they’ll be there, so you can’t go for a run, or take a shower or walk the dog. I’m even reluctant to go out back and pull weeds, since I’d probably never hear the doorbell. And then I’d face another long season on hold, trying to reschedule.

It’s a pain in the ass, changing internet providers. I’m only doing it because of a bigger pain in the ass: a persistent series of little outages, wherein AT&T’s DSL modem blinks red for no discernible reason and everything that depends on the Internet — around here, that’s quite a bit — stutters to a halt. Sometimes I’m unaware of it until I hear the wife cursing downstairs; other times I am in the middle of saving a WordPress entry that subsequently needs to be rewritten. I’ve been known to curse, too. The problem is particularly acute when we have three devices (iPhone, laptop and TV) competing for what seems to be a niggardly amount of bandwidth.

So it’s back to Comcast. Against the wife’s better judgment, I’m opting to pay extra for some increased speed. We’ll see how that works. Sometimes you get what you pay for, sometimes you don’t. Comcast’s promotional material suggests I’ll be able to stream several IMAX movies while simultaneously downloading the entire Library of Congress and controlling planetary weather patterns. I’ll be happy if we can have more than one device using the Internet at the same time, with maybe one or two outages a year.

A man can hope. In the meantime, a man can also pray — that he’s doing the right thing in abandoning the devil he knows for one he doesn’t. If this doesn’t bring a dramatic improvement in our online environment, I have a feeling I’ll be hearing about it.

More along these lines:

  • A is for ‘Artificial’
  • Gadgets galore
  • gallery facesBonfire of my vanity
  • former sen. chris dodd, champion of SOPADon’t pick up the SOPA
  • Borrowed knowledge is better than noneBorrowed knowledge is better than none

Filed Under: internet

Comments

  1. Melissa Mendoza says

    August 30, 2012 at 12:06 pm

    Hi there. Welcome Back! Let us know how your install goes or if you have any questions about your new service. Our team is here if you need us.

    Kind Regards,
    Melissa Mendoza
    Digital Media Specialist
    National Customer Operations
    We_Can_Help@comcast.com
    @ComcastMelissa
    +Melissa Mendoza

    • Dave Knadler says

      August 30, 2012 at 1:56 pm

      Thanks, Melissa. The install went very well.

  2. Deb says

    August 30, 2012 at 1:32 pm

    How can one go wrong with any company that sends such a helpful and welcoming note??? Not to mention having a whole ~team~ on call?!

    Knock on wood, I’ve had pretty good luck with Comcast.

    • Dave Knadler says

      August 30, 2012 at 1:55 pm

      Hey, I’d be happy with just half the team.

  3. Hayley says

    August 30, 2012 at 1:38 pm

    Holy crap, Comcast reads your blog!! I just switched back a few months ago too. AT&T UVerse just wasn’t fast or reliable enough for streaming TV. So far, Comcast is a huge improvement and is actually cheaper…

    • Dave Knadler says

      August 30, 2012 at 1:55 pm

      Kind of eerie, isn’t it? Getting a reply within minutes after I post to a blog that has about eight regular readers. But it does imply they’re a bit more serious about service.

      So far the connection is fully 10 times faster than before. Knock wood.

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