How to find the best ISP in your area

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freakyhair

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 22, 2002
Messages
475
Hey all, I was wondering if there is a coverage map or website that rates the ISP's in certain areas, and their quality.

For example, I just moved to Portland, OR, and I know I can get Comcast at my house, but that doesn't really excite me. FIOS is not available. I can get a 5Mbps connection from Qwest, but I've never dealt with them.

Any recommendations between Comcast and Qwest?

Thanks!
 
What are the up speeds? Here in Helena, MT Qwest can only deliver 896Kbps up. In a perfect test. ;) 7M/.8M

Bresnan could deliver 1 Meg up and more. 15/1
 
Thanks for the link. There were some other options, but Qwest and Comcast were the two fastest options. Qwest was 5Mb down, and 896kbps up, and comcast was 12M, 16M or 22M down, with 2M up or 5M up. Comcast just seemed like the way to go, even though it was ridiculous just to get a hold of them to try to sign up. I can't wait until something goes wrong.

Would there be a difference in going from 12M down to 22M down for gaming (TF2, L4D2)? It's $20 per month extra...
 
freakyhair said:
Thanks for the link. There were some other options, but Qwest and Comcast were the two fastest options. Qwest was 5Mb down, and 896kbps up, and comcast was 12M, 16M or 22M down, with 2M up or 5M up. Comcast just seemed like the way to go, even though it was ridiculous just to get a hold of them to try to sign up. I can't wait until something goes wrong.

Would there be a difference in going from 12M down to 22M down for gaming (TF2, L4D2)? It's $20 per month extra...
Click to expand...

Peoples experiences vary from region to region, especially when it comes to areas where Comcast bought up other cable ISPs and the old support system is sorta still in place. But up where I am...in CT, Comcast is one of the better ISPs that I deal with, and I work with a lot of different ISPs all the time. Their uptime is good. And general support is better than most ISPs...and their business level support is excellent.

Once you're up past a certain speed..as far as gaming is concerned...there's no difference. Gaming is all about latency, and few hops. For gaming I'd rather have a low latency 1 meg connection with a quality ISP than a 20 meg pipe with an average ISP.
 
I just called to schedule the hook-up, and the person helping me said that the latency between the 12Mbps and the 22Mbps should be about the same. Just the download rates are different.
 
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