[Cialug] SOT: Local ISPs

[David Champion]

The traditional ADSL service in Windsor Heights is pretty bad, due to your
distance from the CO and relatively old copper lines. I think there are
some areas that have Century Link's Fiber to the Node service, which can
also cause cross-talk for the old ADSL circuits and reduce your available
speed. There probably won't be Fiber to the prem there any time soon.

-dc

On Tue, Aug 7, 2018 at 11:28 AM Bill Davis <bill.davis at gmail.com> wrote:

> I live in Windsor Heights. We had DSL Internet (still do actually, as part
> of a bundle with phone service through Aureon) but don't actually use it.
> We decided to keep it as an inexpensive  backup after switching to Mediacom
> for Internet service, since I work from home sometimes and needed much
> faster speed.   Our DSL connection is a 3 Mbps connection (reality about
> 1.5 or less).  We asked about getting faster speeds and they told me the
> phone lines were too old to support anything faster over one line.  We were
> told we'd have to get a second phone line and multiplex the connection (or
> whatever the proper net term is).  We'd have paid about $90/moth for 6
> Mbps-ish speeds, as I recall (this was several years ago.)  By comparison,
> Mediacom had 15 Mbps for half that cost, and faster options were
> available.  That 15 Mbps connection was converted about 8 months ago to a
> 60 Mbps connection with no increase in our cost.  And I happened to run a
> speed test the other day and it's now actually more like 80 Mbps.
>
> So I'd go with Mediacom not DSL in Windsor Heights. To be fair, things may
> have changed recently; someone from CenturyLink was going door-to-door
> about 6-8 months or so ago and said they were upgrading their lines and
> speed...but I couldn't get a speed out of him.  I'd check into what
> CenturyLink or Aureon can get you, but don't be surprised if it doesn't
> compare to Mediacom.   I'm on the LOW end of Mediacom's available speeds.
> 15 Mbps was plenty for my needs, so I am more than happy with 60-80 Mbps.
> We're also watching a lot more streaming video now that we dropped Mediacom
> cable TV service and use them solely for Internet.  Much cheaper to buy the
> season of the shows we watch off iTunes and stream them or download them.
> We figured out that to buy each season of the shows we watch, for ALL the
> shows, would be just maybe 2-4 months worth of cable TV bills.  AND we own
> the show and can watch them again anytime and on any device.   We hooked up
> an antenna to the TV but really only use it for one or two things that
> aren't series TV that we can't get over the 'Net (CBS Sunday Morning,
> notably).
>
> - Bill
>
> On Tue, Aug 7, 2018 at 10:43 AM Nathan C. Smith <NSmith at hhlawpc.com>
> wrote:
>
> > It seems like the Local ISPs have all gone away with Aureon having
> gobbled
> > them up. Are there any ISPs left that serve Des Moines?  I’m looking for
> > Internet service in the Windsor Heights area for one of my kids.  Any
> > thoughts on getting the best deals out of Mediacom?
> >
> > Thank you.
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