[ Tried to send this yesterday, but it was too long. ]
On Mon, 18 Jan 2010, eric@megageek.com wrote:
> First off, that ?20mb? you get is a shared pipe from Comcast.
People say this to me everytime I tell them how fast it is. Is it shared,
yeah. Do I care since I can never tell? No. Maybe no one else in my
neighborhood has found the Internet yet, but for whatever reason, I get all the
bandwidth I can consume ( which is a lot ) from Comcast.
For the record, I used to have satellite internet via DirecTV ( now sold
under the Hughes brand name, those annoying ubiquitous commercials ). It was
also blazingly fast for the first couple years... but obviously, I didn't have
my own satellite. Over time, it got slower and slower. When I eventually
called to complain, the support staff couldn't believe how fast it used to be.
I sent them saved speed reports, and their 3rd-level folks accused me of
somehow hotrodding my connection because it couldn't possibly be that fast.
Unfortunately, I was never able to return to those halcyon days. I'm a few
years into Comcast, though, and like I said, it's fantastic.
> DirecTV allowed me to NOT have to pay for the channels I don?t want.
> Granted it?s not 100% ala carte, but cable requires you to buy lesser
> packages to get better packages (as you are finding out with paying for
> cable TV to get internet.)
Semantics maybe, but you could also say they are paying me to take basic
cable, since the package price is less than the broadband price alone. With
DTV, I pay for about 12 channels I watch, and 400 that I can't even name.
Their packages don't look different than cable, to me.
> DirecTV DVR is a Tivo clone (it used to be fully logo-ed TIVO.) This
> means that you can HACK IT!!!
This may be a good point, but it doesn't sound entertaining to me. I
generally get enough dorking-out at work.
> People that have problems losing signal during rain is because their dish
> is not properly set up. Many times, the installers just place the dish in
> the ?easiest? location. With a properly located dish, you will almost
> NEVER lose signal.
Interesting. I don't see how dish location can avoid weather interference,
unless you have a really effing tall chimney ;) Around here anyway, weather
tends to fill the whole sky. I would be interested to know how to improve the
setup of my dish, which I did myself ( 3 times ). Initially I put it on
the end wall of the garage ( this would be your 'easiest location' ). Even
though the DTV guy's hand-held meter showed signal there, it wouldn't work at
all (tree interference). I moved it above the garage for about 8 years, and
then last year when we re-did the siding, to a less-visible spot on the rear of
the roof. In both spots, the signal drops out during all summer thunderstorms,
some heavy snow, and occasional dense fog. A few times sticky snow had me out
in the driveway with a long implement brushing the dish clean... if this
happens again with the new location, I'm screwed until it warms up and melts.
> Now, I?m not familiar with the U-verse program, but I NEVER buy anything
> from a door to door pitch, PERIOD. Also, I would be careful about having
> all your ?eggs? in one basket.
I agree about the door-to-door, but we'll have two baskets. AT&T and our
cell phones. We don't have a landline phone anyway.
> Finally they don?t require a contract because they know how hard it will
> be to switch back. I would also look for ?installation fees? that are
> suddenly assessed if you cancel in a certain period of time.
It shouldn't be hard to switch back at all, actually. I will still have my
dish on the roof, since I own it, and all that cabling will be intact. They
also won't be touching the Comcast cable, since Uverse comes in via the phone
line. A couple of phone calls, and waiting on the Comcast guy to come out and
flip a switch at most. No surprise installation fees in the contract they gave
us.
Thanks.
--
David Hillman
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