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Post by gato on Apr 2, 2022 5:47:27 GMT -5
I had been enduring miserable internet speed for years from Spectrum, not realizing that as a "legacy customer" (one who came on board in 2002) I was still saddled with their old minimal speed. Looking around at their ads these days, I thought I must be getting at least 200 Mbps, since that was the lowest speed offered, but no. My monthly statement was of no use; speed was never mentioned on it.
I packed a lunch, settled in at the keyboard and went on a Spectrum Quest, navigating automated menus and chat bots. 90 minutes in, I got Travis, who had apparently noticed a ringing phone on someone's desk and thoughtlessly answered it. He couldn't help laughing when I told him that my absolute best internet speed was an average of around 46 Mbps (peak hours 21, or 62 at dawn). He keyboard clacked me into a tier of 400 Mbps for $30 less than my old rate. The catch: to actually get this blinding speed, I would have to upgrade my equipment.
My grandson (IT nerd) told me what to get ... dual band yadda, yadda ... (don't ask) ... I just went to the Amazon link he sent and and hit "buy". He came out yesterday and did the install. He even did the crawling around under my desk where I don't have dust bunnies, I have dust buffalos. By the time he left, my speed had soared to 461 Mbps, and I now have usable internet throughout the whole house and attached garage, without any useless extenders hanging out of the wall sockets.
It's like I had been driving a two speed stick and suddenly got a 5 speed transmission.
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Post by LTB on Apr 2, 2022 6:14:05 GMT -5
He even did the crawling around under my desk where I don't have dust bunnies, I have dust buffalos. By the time he left, my speed had soared to 461 Mbps, and I now have usable internet throughout the whole house and attached garage, without any useless extenders hanging out of the wall sockets. LOL, I have started cleaning the Dust Buffalo's in my music room. Hey what a Novel idea, getting more for less! Don't see that often. Congrat's on much better internet speed Gato! |
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Post by ninworks on Apr 2, 2022 6:22:27 GMT -5
It will be $30 less for the first year and after that they won't even tell you what the rate will be. I have Spectrum and I have asked many times. Nobody will tell me. I would bet it will be about $99 per month for that speed. I am also at Spectrums base service whish is 200mbs. The highest I have ever gotten is 115.7mbs. It is quite stable at that. That's not bad but Xfinity cable is many times faster. Spectrum's service runs us 79.99 per month and we've been a customer since 2016. Spectrum is the only service available where we are unless we want to go satellite which is more expensive and considerably slower. Spectrum knows they are the only provider here so there is a no bargaining policy with them. As soon as anything else becomes available I am going to drop them instantly. I have a neighbor who has the same service I do and his bill is $10 per month less than ours. I have tried on multiple occasions to find out if I can get that same rate and they absolutely will not budge. If I had a 5G phone I would drop Spectrum in a heartbeat and just use my phone as my internet link. I have unlimited data with my phone provider, I just have an old phone.
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009
Wholenote
Take me to your leader!
Posts: 522
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Post by 009 on Apr 2, 2022 6:33:01 GMT -5
I’m also waiting for a competitor to offer service. I won’t think twice about dumping Spectrum.
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Post by gato on Apr 2, 2022 7:53:00 GMT -5
It will be $30 less for the first year and after that they won't even tell you what the rate will be. I have Spectrum and I have asked many times. Nobody will tell me. I would bet it will be about $99 per month for that speed. I am also at Spectrums base service whish is 200mbs. The highest I have ever gotten is 115.7mbs. It is quite stable at that. That's not bad but Xfinity cable is many times faster. Spectrum's service runs us 79.99 per month and we've been a customer since 2016. Spectrum is the only service available where we are unless we want to go satellite which is more expensive and considerably slower. Spectrum knows they are the only provider here so there is a no bargaining policy with them. As soon as anything else becomes available I am going to drop them instantly. I have a neighbor who has the same service I do and his bill is $10 per month less than ours. I have tried on multiple occasions to find out if I can get that same rate and they absolutely will not budge. If I had a 5G phone I would drop Spectrum in a heartbeat and just use my phone as my internet link. I have unlimited data with my phone provider, I just have an old phone. My $30 reduction came about by dropping sports and Spanish language channels. |
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argo
Wholenote
Posts: 403
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Post by argo on Apr 2, 2022 8:50:21 GMT -5
Can you tell this luddite what type of router wifi thing you got, please?
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Post by funkykikuchiyo on Apr 2, 2022 9:24:14 GMT -5
A few years ago I was getting junk mail from my own internet provider bragging about their low rates that never expire... that were a third of what I was paying. Eventually I called to b*tch about it, and that if I was already an existing customer why should I pay three times as much. They lowered it, but put on a big show about how they were doing this great thing for me because I was a loyal customer...
At this point I'm probably getting chumped on speeds, too. I know my 5G on my phone kills my DSL, so it seems likely.
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Post by gato on Apr 2, 2022 10:10:48 GMT -5
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Post by rickyguitar on Apr 2, 2022 12:54:32 GMT -5
Spectrum told us to stop on by and pick up a new modem and router. Free. Uh-huh. Must be strings attached somewhere.
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Post by markfromhawaii on Apr 2, 2022 13:22:56 GMT -5
I’m a Spectrum customer as well. A couple years ago I looked at my up/down bandwidth and thought I’m not getting anywhere near what they are advertising. I went over to their local main office and was told, “Oh, you have an outdated modem. Just bring it in and we’ll give you a replacement.” Quite an improvement.
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argo
Wholenote
Posts: 403
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Post by argo on Apr 2, 2022 13:23:25 GMT -5
Thanks gato! They buried "Fiber optic" lines out at our road about 15 years ago and now our phone company say's they will be running to our house this spring. So Soon??
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Post by gato on Apr 2, 2022 15:48:31 GMT -5
Thanks gato! They buried "Fiber optic" lines out at our road about 15 years ago and now our phone company say's they will be running to our house this spring. So Soon?? The speed difference here now is phenomenal, after yeas of its tripping over its own shoelaces. |
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Post by reverendrob on Apr 3, 2022 0:36:56 GMT -5
Yea, if you have fiber, there's nothing else close.
Have fiber gigabit here, it's stupid.
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Post by LTB on Apr 3, 2022 2:02:22 GMT -5
A few years ago I was getting junk mail from my own internet provider bragging about their low rates that never expire... that were a third of what I was paying. Eventually I called to b*tch about it, and that if I was already an existing customer why should I pay three times as much. They lowered it, but put on a big show about how they were doing this great thing for me because I was a loyal customer... At this point I'm probably getting chumped on speeds, too. I know my 5G on my phone kills my DSL, so it seems likely. I had Southwestern Bell DSL years ago 26mbps on a good day! |
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Post by reverendrob on Apr 3, 2022 2:59:14 GMT -5
Even the BEST ADSL is...slower than molasses now.
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Post by windmill on Apr 3, 2022 6:14:02 GMT -5
"The speed difference here now is phenomenal, after yeas of its tripping over its own shoelaces." Looking forward to 10 times the number of random picture posts  |
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Post by walshb 🦒 on Apr 3, 2022 7:51:06 GMT -5
Congrats! I hated our DSL days, and couldn't live with it now, with all the streaming TV shows, g'kids here playing games on the internet, numerous devices hooked up to it, etc.
My SIL has DSL and is running a business plus playing internet games almost constantly when not working. Plus 4 kids all with their devices. I don't know how they get by with it!! I really think 100 Mbps should be the minimum speed anyone should have to put up with, especially for what we're all paying.
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Post by gato on Apr 3, 2022 12:57:14 GMT -5
Congrats! I hated our DSL days, and couldn't live with it now, with all the streaming TV shows, g'kids here playing games on the internet, numerous devices hooked up to it, etc. My SIL has DSL and is running a business plus playing internet games almost constantly when not working. Plus 4 kids all with their devices. I don't know how they get by with it!! I really think 100 Mbps should be the minimum speed anyone should have to put up with, especially for what we're all paying. My stepson has Frontier. With the degraded wiring in his area, the best they can offer is between 1-3 Mbps, which usually translates to around to less than 1. |
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Post by LTB on Apr 3, 2022 22:19:43 GMT -5
We were getting 50mbps (using 2 sets of old pot's line telephone cable tied together to a large combiner box on the side of our house) with AT&T Uverse until 2 years ago when they finally ran fiber optics cable to the pole on our street. Now getting 1GBps with fiber (well actually 998Mbps). My Windows PC with direct ethernet shows that but wifi 200-500mbps down and 128 mbps up. Seems to do ok for us. Our Uverse setbox and Ruku Utra are connected eithernet. Everything else Wifi.
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Post by slacker 🐨 on Apr 4, 2022 7:47:43 GMT -5
We have Mediacom here...it's the only option at my house. The speed is good when it works, but we lose cable and internet about once a month, usually for a day or two. That can be a real PITA.
My son works for Mediacom, so he made sure they did the best possible install in our house. He also helped me run ethernet to key locations and installed a ubiquiti wifi network that covers my 5500 sq ft house very nicely, including both decks and the garage (where I brew my beer).
There's a lot of new network service infrastructure going in in our city (fiber all over the place) but we'll likely never see it. We're on the extreme edge of town (you actually go out of city limits and back in getting to our house. After the turn off to our place, the main street only goes another 1/8 mile and dead ends permanently. They'd have to run service a mile out to get about 40 accounts which probably isn't worth it.
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Post by modbus on Apr 4, 2022 10:57:21 GMT -5
My internet speed is 23 Mb/s.  |
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Jim622
Halfnote
Posts: 83
Age: 58
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Post by Jim622 on Apr 4, 2022 11:20:43 GMT -5
1200 Mbps
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Post by Leftee on Apr 4, 2022 12:12:03 GMT -5
10 down 5 up here.
I created this post yesterday.
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Post by tahitijack on Apr 4, 2022 13:26:34 GMT -5
Sadly as we all know today's blazing hot 450MB will be passed in a couple of months by 2,000 MBs. That's life in the fast lane for you.
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Post by Leftee on Apr 4, 2022 13:27:43 GMT -5
Sadly as we all know today's blazing hot 450MB will be passed in a couple of months by 2,000 MBs. That's life in the fast lane for you. By the emerging standards I’m practically off the grid. |
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Post by K4 on Apr 4, 2022 20:59:57 GMT -5
Up until a few months ago I had DSL tested at 5Mb, I now have spectrum at 200. I have more pixilating and drop offs than when I had the DSL Every so often my picture will get blurry, never happened with the DSL, even at 4K. My TV tells me what picture quality is being offered and I got 4K with the DSL.
I would rather have the DSL at a lower bandwidth. My Son has 1 gig fiber, I haven't tested it.
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