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What's Your Internet Speed/Reliability SATISFACTION?

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skwire:
Here's mine.  Plenty fast and plenty stable.

superboyac:
After reading gothic's post about ISP's, I have a question...

I have $50 to spend a month (maybe more if the ISP is great).  Other than the typical options which are your cable provider and landline providers, what other companies offer are in my area and how do I find them?  Please don't just say Google, because google's a mess.  How would you explore the alternatives?  Do any of you know of lesser-known companies that are good?

Renegade:
After reading gothic's post about ISP's, I have a question...

I have $50 to spend a month (maybe more if the ISP is great).  Other than the typical options which are your cable provider and landline providers, what other companies offer are in my area and how do I find them?  Please don't just say Google, because google's a mess.  How would you explore the alternatives?  Do any of you know of lesser-known companies that are good?
-superboyac (November 02, 2010, 11:13 AM)
--- End quote ---


I've found that asking knowledgeable people near you is usually the best way to go. And asking as many as possible.



Looks like I spoke too soon... My speeds the other day only lasted a very short time...

Gothi[c]:
Please don't just say Google, because google's a mess.  How would you explore the alternatives?  Do any of you know of lesser-known companies that are good?

--- End quote ---

Back then I actually did find localisp via google, but not easily. It took about a week of searching using non-obvious queries... That was quite a while ago. It may be even harder now, especially since the smaller companies are slowly vanishing or getting swallowed by bigger ones. The one major tip I could give you is to not confine your search within your area. The company I went with was actually from out-of-state.

JavaJones:
I don't find speedtest.net's results to be the most reliable either, but sometimes they sure can look good!



That's from a server in San Jose, but oddly I got a result around 4mbit/s download (similar upload) to a server in SF upon repeated attempts. So clearly the server matters *a lot*. In fact the SF result is so bad, I'd have to guess either a temporary bandwidth condition on the part of that test site, or some throttling on their end (I'm leaning this way). Here's a more realistic result from NY, cross country, not too bad:



and Baltimore, MD surprisingly good:



In reality I have a 22/5 connection, Comcast Business Class. It's $100/mo here in San Francisco. For the bandwidth I get, I have few complaints. Uptime is very good overall. And with Business Class they don't mess with my connection in any way - unthrottled, no protocol limiting, no bandwidth limits, nothing. I've downloaded over 1TB in a month before, and not a peep from them. :D

I usually use SpeakEasy (an ISP) for their speed test and find it more consistent and realistic. But they only have US test servers, and there's no image to link to, you just have to copy/paste the text results like this:
San Francisco Server:
Download Speed: 46388 kbps (5798.5 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 7523 kbps (940.4 KB/sec transfer rate)

New York Server:
Download Speed: 7239 kbps (904.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 3927 kbps (490.9 KB/sec transfer rate)

Sometimes even a remote site will surprise you.
Washington DC:
Download Speed: 34149 kbps (4268.6 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 4234 kbps (529.3 KB/sec transfer rate)

Anyway, I'm pretty happy with what I've got. My greatest condolences to those in this thread with really bad connections, ouch! But I guess it just means fewer inane Youtube videos mostly. ;)

- Oshyan

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