How's your cable modem access? (1 Viewer)

[Dustin D]

Well, after enduring countless lost connections via dial-up, I really wanted to get a cable modem through the local cable company. Easy, right? Well, not really.

It turns out service would be $40.95 a month, plus $5 a month to rent the modem. Isn't that a little steep? $45.95 a month? It's more than my mom and I pay for our internet services combined! Granted, there are numerous pros associated with cable modem access. But, I really don't think this is a deal.

Would anyone else like to share their cable modem experiences? Is this a typical price structure? I read an article on epinions.com and the reviewer said their service was $39.95 a month with rental fees, or $29.95 if you own the modem. This seemed far more reasonable.

Maybe I'm a cheapskate

Dustin

 

[Russell B]

I have DSL which is like cable but uses your telephone line rather than a coax. My DSL costs about $50 a month. I had to go to something else because i didn't want missed phone calls. I could of had a second line installed but i wanted the faster download speeds, usually download at 320kb/1sec.
If you want to download any type of music or movie clips, trailers, etc. it comes in very handy.

 

[Henry Carmona]

I love my cable connection!

Perfect!

 

[Mike Hutman]

My Road Runner is about 45 bucks a month. Now that I have had a taste of Cable, I will never go back to a dial up.

 

[Malcolm R]

Well, I spend a fair amount of time on-line and my dial-up was nearly as expensive as my cable modem once you add in the monthly ISP fee ($21.95) plus another $20 or so in local phone charges.
So the cost is basically a wash, but then you have the high-speed advantages, the non-telephone connection, and the much higher reliability than dial-up.
I think it's well worth it.

 

[Steven K]

I just got my DSL connection installed (Thanks to my employer )
I have ADSL through Verizon... 1.5 MB down, 128 up. The up speed sucks, but the down speed is incredible! I average around 1150 ksec at all times, even during peak usage. Plus, I got a free ADSL modem.
You can go to dslreports.com and test your speed. Also, if you go with broadband, make sure you get some kind of firewall. I currently have a Linksys router (which has a build in firewall) and I also use ZoneAlarm.

 

[Gui A]

Grrrr...

Rogers Hi-Speed (formerly @Home) has just introduced bitcaps. Before, people were getting 3000/320 ish. Now the cap is at 1500/192
I'd be VERY happy to get that.

HOWEVER, I'm only paying $20 Cdn per month. I call in once in a while, but the reps just don't seem to care.

2002-06-27 21:53:28 Speed test (la) 229/60 kbps
2002-06-27 21:48:17 Speed test (wc) 232/57 kbps
2002-06-27 22:06:47 Line quality 0% loss latency 113ms
2002-06-27 21:44:34 Speed test (ec) 296/89 kbps
2002-06-26 22:13:02 Speed test (la) 101/74 kbps
2002-06-26 22:12:55 Speed test (la) 134/71 kbps
2002-06-26 21:45:44 Speed test (ec) 323/88 kbps
2002-06-26 21:43:42 Speed test (wc) 241/82 kbps
2002-06-26 21:51:23 Line quality 0% loss latency 177ms
2002-06-26 00:44:42 Speed test (ec) 362/81 kbps
2002-06-26 00:38:05 Speed test (wc) 533/105 kbps

It's been like this since I moved here back in September.

 

[Travis D]

Yeah, my access is only 30 a month for a 125 KBytes down and 18 up. I love it because songs take less than a minute to download and gaming is MUCH improved.

 

[Leila Dougan]

I love my cable modem! Its well worth the money if you spend any spend any large amount of time online or do anything beyond checking email and a few websites. I pay roughly $50 a month for the connection and modem. Also, keep in mind that many cable providers (I have comcast) give you free basic cable as well and discounts on cable upgrade packages. Since I don't watch a whole lot of TV, basic cable is fine for me. When you count in the cost of basic cable, a standard dialup account AND the convience of having your phone line free, I think its well worth it.

 

[Philip_G]

mine's been great until some asshole with a backho cut a fiber line today
I pay 40/month and bought my own modem (too cheap to pay 10$ to rent when I can buy used for $50)

 

[AllanN]

I have roadrunner and its great. Although the first tech wired it up wrong and it died in the first 48 hours. But since then it rarely looses connection and if it does its only for a few seconds. I have a dedicated computer to share the Internet connection and some of my friends remote terminal into it and download stuff. This computer also runs as a print server for two printers in the house as well as a fiew other services.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I am paying $45 per month for Comcast cable modem service, including a $5 per month modem rental fee. Since I am on my third modem since getting the service, I am reluctant to buy my own modem. When Mediaone was providing the service (before Comcast purchased them), there was no modem rental fee.

If you consider the cost of a dial-up ISP account ($15 - $20 per month) and a dedicated phone line ($20 per month) to keep your main phone line from being tied up, the cost for cable modem access is not much more money.

 

[Andrew Pratt]

Yikes looks like we canadians are getting big price break since my DSL connection is only $25US a month

 

[Matt_Briol]

I pay $40 a month for AT&T broadband. I get like 1500/300 kbps.

 

[MikeAlletto]

If you think about it $45 a month isn't very bad. With a dialup you gotta pay for a phone line, you got to pay the $20-25 for internet. With cable you can get rid of 2nd phone line (if you used that), and it includes the your internet sub. So actually you are paying $20 or so for a much faster connection which I think is a deal.

 

[SteveA]

I consider the $45 I pay for my Comcast cable-modem service (with modem rental) to be a very reasonable price considering how superior the service is compared to dial-up. The service might be twice the price of dial-up, but the fact that it's a 24/7 connection that can easily be shared by multiple PCs makes the cost well worth it.

 

[Kris McLaughlin]

Andrew, I think you're right. We only pay CDN40$/month for our cable connection through our local cable co. (Includes modem rental.) Wicked fast speeds, too. I usually rate as "insane" on the speed test, depending on time of day.

 

[Dustin B]

I pay $100CDN a month for a 3Mbit down 640Kbit up DSL connection that I share with 3 other people. This service comes with 8 DHCP assigned IP addresses and 8 email addresses.

I just used that dslreports speed test and scored 2079 kbps down and 541 kbps up to LA. Not bad considering I'm in the middle of Saskatchewan. Using my isp's speed test I can score up around 2.7Mbit and get 630Kbit up.

 

[Steven K]

Dustin, that kicks ass! 3Mb down!!! Insanse!
I actually just got through configuring my Linksys firewallrouter to enable DHCP for mine and my wife's computers, as well as my work laptop. The Linksys router that I got from work has only one port, so I had to get a hubswitch as well (network cable heaven ) Had some trouble because of the VPN on the laptop but eventually got it working... but I couldn't figure out why we could see each others' computers on our domain but couldn't access each other. After about an hour, I figured out that ZoneAlarm was blocking out the ports that I was using to connect, so I made the adjustment and voi'la!
Only bad part is, the fan on the hub is broken, and this thing is getting HOT, so much that I now have it resting on a pot-holder
oh wait... that's not really that funny :frowning:

 

[Dustin B]

What sucks though is out east in Canada Bell Sympatico is offering the same connection for $69CDN a month :frowning: