I'm looking to cut costs as much as possible on my monthly overhead and Cincinnati Bell continues to piss me off with high costs and mediocre services.  I work from home and do a lot of web conferencing so my current Zoomtown 10 mb down/768kb up is the minimum service level.  I have two landlines, one home office, one home...I need to keep the home line for about another 60 days, but after that I would consider dropping it all together.  I feel I need to keep the home office line as the Verizon coverage in my office is not great, lots of calls go to voicemail first.

I reviewed my wired ISP options on broadbandmap.gov and I continue to only have Cincinnati Bell and Time Warner.  I can't get more than the 10 mb Zoomtown service from CB where I live (north of loveland, 45140).  I also have Directv for tv and would prefer to keep that for now.

Questions:
1) Whats your experience with the TW internet service (ISP)?  They advertise 5 levels of service and the "Turbo" service level with 20 mb down/2 mb up would be perfect at $44/month.
2) What is your experience with the TW phone service (VOIP)?  How is the voice quality?   Any issues porting existing landline numbers to it?  
3) Do you know if you can have 2 different numbers on the TW phone service?  for the $10/month I'd consider moving both lines there.

Pro's/Con's of each service:

CB:
+ Landline provides dialtone during power outages
+ 911 service?
-Cost
-Lame ISP speeds and service

TW
+ better bang for the buck if the service levels are to be believed
-loose phone service in a power outage, can get battery backup for short term outages
-911: Does it work the same?
? audio quality?  Always hesitant with VOIP

Have TW internet and it seems fine. Got the middle of the road speed if memory serves.

Current Time Warner here, been forever..  had all 3 service.. now just cable internet and tv... phones is cell

TW phone was fine here, no issues,, ex  dropped it prior to her leaving and having us all on cell..  when we got the the TW phone, we was able to keep our original local land line number.


At current, I pay $65/month for internet and basic cable tv,, which I think the basic is a joke, 21 channels, of which 6 or so are tv, 2 local,  couple religion, few sales channels, and few empty channels..

I'm about to switch as well.  Zoomtown sucks.  I currently have internet only through Cinti Bell.  Home phone gone years ago and I have DirecTV.  Fioptics not available where I live.  So my option is the 10 Mbps service DSL(standard is 5Mbps).  I get around 8.5 Mbps most of the time.  What pisses me off is I can be watching netflix and it will be streaming at 8.5Mbps and all of a sudden it will be 1Mbps.  Sometimes it will stay that speed for an hour.  Sometimes longer.  They can't tell me why this happens.  I have had days where it would only run 1Mbps-3Mbps and I'm paying for 10Mbps.

I wonder if the cable internet does this.  If I buy 20Mbps cable can I expect 20 or close to it ALL THE TIME?

We had Cinci Bell Fioptics for about a 1.5 years. Was fast as hell when it worked, but finally gave up after 10+ service calls in that time.

Now have TWC with 20 down and 2 or so up. It was 10 bucks a month more than Fioptics, but it always frigging works.

My 2 cents worth.

Hey all I work for Cincinnati Bell. If you guys have any issues with billing or anything send me a private message and I will be more than happy to get your bills down as much as I can. Sounds like you had fioptics when it first got rolled out. Without sounding to salesy we've changed all the equipment and what not since you've had it and have most the kinks worked out. If you're interested in possibly switching back IM me and I can give you current info. If not no big deal. My brother told me about this thread so I figured I'd offer some help if I could.

I had TW when I lived there.  I think I had the 20/2 package for internet and consistently saw download speeds closer to 30mbps.  For the price, you can't beat it.





Comcast is the only option here in the wonderful Commonwealth of PA.  $80/month for the same 20 down.    That's what you have to look forward to if the Comcast / TW merger goes through.

 

dtruck,

I replied to your IM.  Thanks for helping your brothers out.

For those with TW service, did you go with their modem rental or buy your own?  if you bought your own, which model did you get and would you suggest it?

Long time TWC customer here, currently pay $120ish/month for HD cable(2 additional tiers) & internet(30mbps down/10mbps up).   I VPN regularly for work and game a good bit on the side.  Have zero complaints, the onyl outages I've had were all weather-related.  I use my own modem and router, my contract is long expired and the newer plans seem to not beat my current setup.

I just got letter that my internet/basic TV going up $23..........   Time Warner......   keep getting Frontier notes,, they worth a hoot ?? Get Time Warner speed with them..  when I touch connection icon  at lower right by the clock, it says 100.0 Mbps.. is that good ?

That would be great if that was actually what the speed was.  That icon is telling you what your card in your computer is capable of, not the actual speed.  

Use this to check your actual download and upload speeds  http://www.speedtest.net

Here was mine just now on Cincy Bell 10Mbps service..... notice....slower than 75% of US.  

Back after dealing with other issues.  Like gaspipes, my internet speed has been all over the place lately.  Ran speedtest and I was running about 8.2 down/.7 up pretty regular.  

Just got off the phone with TW and here are the prices they quoted me.

Internet:  Turbo service level (20 mb down/2 mb up)$53.53 month with their cable modem.  $44.99 without (need to check prices on 3rd party modems)
Install: $49.94, but then she started discounting as I asked more questions about using their phone service for one or two lines.  Finally said something about $19.95 "if you sign up today, can't guarantee it will last forever"".
Phone:  $10/month for one line, can port number.  If I port both lines I have with CB, jumps to $39.95 with voicemail, international calling, etc.  Seems pricy.

I don't have cable service in the house (I started with CB for internet and Directv for TV) when we built the house 11 years ago.  I know we have cable in the neighborhood and there is a pedestal in the front yard.  I assume they will lay cable on surface until spring and then bury it.

Is it worth the switch?  I can't get CB Fioptics where we live.  I keep asking CB and they constantly brush me off with no answer.

I have Cincinnati Bell... It's a joke... I'm on a guaranteed for life bundle program... But now that Cincinnati Bell is getting out of the wireless business, and I had to switch carriers.

It seem s that my rates are going up... As of this month I'm now paying $4.99 per month for HIGH speed modem rental... It sure doesn't impress me as high speed!

I'm on the verge of dropping my home phone and fuse.net and switching to Roadrunner Internet with Time Warner.  

just to caution about TWC, ...expect your rate to go nowhere but up, ..and then they'll decide to start charging a "lease fee" for the modem, ..and then they'll up and decided to increase that "lease fee" for the modem...

I'm all but made my mind up if I go with TWC to buy my own modem.

Also thinking about Ooma or MajicJack for a VOIP solution.

I'm in Maineville and I've had just about everything. I started with zoomtown because back in the day TW wasn't here. Zoomtown was always great, we never lost telephone even when we lost power. But when TW bought the local cable company I switched to lower the bills getting my cable tv bundled with road runner and phone. TW was also always great, but I did lose service a dozen or so times (usually weather related). However my brother who lives 2 miles away always had horrible service with TW. The techs finally told him there was some faulty equipment in the area, but it was performing within their "specs" and they had no plans on changing it out. He was having issues with his xbox disconnecting while gaming. Web browsing and the like never showed significant issues, even video streaming. I'd imagine VIOP on that line would cause a lot of headaches. Last year they finally hung fiber in the neighborhood and I switched back to CB fioptics. Of the three, I love the fioptics. Im out of the sale time of my contract where it ran a little over $100, and pay a little under $150 now with medium tv package, phone, and internet.

My personal advice is to ask your neighbors about quality with both TW and CB, and look into how close fiber is to you.

If you are not worried about tv and just interested in internet and phone I would also consider looking into Verizon and Windstream. I highly recommend Windstream for voice and internet but they may only do commercial accounts. We had a wonderful experience with them at work, competitive pricing and very fast service handled locally.

TWC here.  I have the 50 Mb service and like it.  Here are a few speedtests done just now.  I've gotten over 60 before, not bad for a 50 Mb service.  I'm waiting for them to upgrade this area again so I can get the 100 Mb service (or if a gigabit service is offered I would go with that).  I noticed Cincinnati bell offers a gigabit service - but it is only for small business owners in certain areas?

I'm right down the road from you, about a mile+ north of Loveland.  Amazing that we are probably 1 or 2 miles apart and we can't get Fioptics, I keep asking and they wont tell me. Great customer service.  Most of the responses I've had from neighbors has been positive with TWC, but I also don't expect perfection.  I just can't take the shitty speeds and reliability from CB/Zoomtown much longer and want to also cut some costs.  Wish we had more choices, but its CB/Zoomtown vs. TWC on my road.

Can anyone tel me more about the modem you have to buy or rent with TWC.  I have been on zoomtown forever and have never had to rent or buy equipment.  They provide the modem that works with their system, I plug my apple router (airport extreme) into that.

If I get TWC do I buy the modem from them, or go to Micro Center and get it?  Is there something specific I need to make the TWC internet perform up to the spec they advertise.  50Mbps, 30Mbps etc.....

Some TWC packages include the modem "rental".  But if buying one outright, look at the Motorola (Arris) surfboard modems (as that is what TWC brought to my house for my 30 Mb plan in 2011, and it works with the 50 Mb plan I currently have).  If you are looking towards the future and higher speeds - then if you were to buy a modem there is the SB6183.  If curious of what modems are on the approved list for TWC - here is the link you want to look at TWC approved modem list
As for making the modem perform to the specs advertised - to me it seems that a lot depends on the wire coming to your house, and then on having good wire in your house.  For example after my modem it goes to two different routers (I have mine set up with two routers for various reasons, but both routers have gigabit connections).  From there the ethernet cables going to various places in my house are either cat5 or cat 6 (depending on where they are run).  If you are using an ethernet instead of wireless connection, make sure your computer has a gigabit NIC card.  The speeds I posted earlier were all from the same computer, and all on a wireless connection.  

If wondering about routers - I've used some different brands with TWC, but my current setup is with one I use that is an older asus, and my newer router is an asus AC68(U or R I'm trying to remember the exact letter, but they are the same router ).  On both routers I'm running Merlin's firmware Link to Merlins firmware  - which is a customized version of the ASUS firmware.  Both routers will also run with DD-WRT - but I get faster speeds with the Merlin firmware, but YMMV.  The various brand routers I've used have all given good speeds with TWC - but then all my routers have had some sort of custom firmware, so can't comment if that has any effect or not.

Hope this helps, and isn't confusing.

My research so far say that the Motorola SURFboard SB6141 is the best price/performance bet for 100 mb down service.  About $92 out the door or shipped.  If you can get the faster packages then go with the other.

I'm going to a Superbowl party sunday with the neighbors.  I'll ask them their experiences/opinions about CB vs. TWC in our little hood since the level of service here (semi-rural) will be key.

You better take a closer look at your next statement.... Cincinnati Bell is  NOW  charging $4.99 a month for modem rental.  

TWC tends to be reasonably consistent speed wise, and if you don't have fiber available the cable providers tend to have the best Mb/s per dollar. You just need to accept the phone technical support is pretty well worthless. If you need to schedule any onsite work your much better going to your local service hub in person otherwise the technical support staff it notorious for sending your ticket to the wrong service hub, and what should be a 1-2 day wait becomes 2-3 weeks. Also there will be a good $10+ price hike after the first year.

You know what, I haven't looked at my bill for a while because we have the autopay.  I just looked and my bill has gone from a flat $45 to $53.30....  It went to $47.11 from $45 maybe 6 months ago and I just thought it was taxes or something.  Now from $47.11 to $53.30for 10Mbps service.  They are making my decision real easy.  

I have a friend who used to work at TWC as an installer.  I just spoke to him, he said to go over to TriCounty Mall and talk to an English speaking American about all my options.  I think I'll do that on Monday.  He said they have a store or a kiosk in the mall.

FUCKERS!



I've had this same modem in my house 5 years now they want to charge me for it?   I had Cinti Bell home phone, cell service and internet service.  The internet is the last thing I have from Cinti Bell in my home.  I'm about to be Bell free.

Well, just thought I would update my situation.  I had Time Warner Cable installed today.  Standard cable internet up to 15Mbps.  $34.99/12 months then $39.99 after that.  You can see what my Zommtown bill was for 10Mpbs in the previous post.

So far so good.    Damn D+?  How fast is the rest of the internet?  I mean I could pay $100 a month or whatever and get 100Mbps service but who actually does that?  For your home?  You can stream HD at 3-4Mbps



It seems pretty stable and the speed seems to be staying up.  I could pay for the 20Mbps service and was going to for less money that I was paying Bell,  but most people I asked said just get the standard.  As l long as I can watch netflix while my kid plays xbox we'll be good to go.  Since the mid 1990's I've had 2 internet services.  AOL and Zoomtown.  AOL when you used to have to buy 40 hours or whatever..  hard to believe....  Paid $40 for 40 hours on online time on a freakin dial up service.  LOL!....  

Looks like a good switch.  As for the D+ compared to the rest of the internet - it all depends on speeds wanted, lol .  Enjoy the faster speeds than what you had.  


Now if they would offer the 100Mbps here, I'd be all over it - but then I'd do gigabit internet if it was offered here.  

I guess my question is why would I need 100Mbps service at this time?  Why does anyone?  I mean unless you have 15 people in your house streaming Netflix at the same time?  Do games take up that much bandwidth?  I thought streaming HD video took more than anything?  I certainly wouldn't want to pay for 100Mbps if it wasn't necessary.  I could get right now 50Mbps from TWC but it's $70 a month.  I'd hate to see what 100Mbps service is.

EDIT:  When I called Bell today to set up a cancel date they were like can we look at your account and see what speed we can offer and price to keep you.  I said sure, go ahead.  At this time 10Mbps is the fastest in your area but we can lower your bill to $42 a month.  I said well I just had TWC installed 15Mbps for $35? month so you are $7 more and 5Mbps slower.  Ok let me process this cancel service order for you.  LOL!

I like the edit - it gave me a chuckle (imagining the look on the Bell employees face ).

As for 100 Mbps service - I use the internet for more than just watching movies, and I don't play games online (although 2 of my kids do).  Also I like to have the speeds necessary for work/school/personal.  The 50 Mbps I currently have is plenty fast enough for now, but looking towards the future, I would like to have faster speeds.  The internet is increasingly being tailored towards faster speeds and having the faster speeds to make for a nicer experience online.  (just my opinion of course.  .

http://www.speedtest.net/result/4153637342.png

pay for 30 down and 3 up and you think your getting screwed.

Download speed isn't the true test of the network, almost everyone has decent download speed. What you really pay for is upload speed. Sure fast download lets you stream great, but any serious work or gaming its the high upload that makes it.

I think you made the right choice though with what you had to choose from. I never had any issues with TW, other than long term costs. However their customer support sucks, so hopefully you don't have to deal with them.

Yeah I can see that.  I guess if I was doing something and it was not fast enough and it was a pain in the ass all the time I would upgrade to faster.  But for what I do online which is watch Netflix, The Blaze TV and browse gun boards, it seems plenty fast.  

My son plays some game, League of Legends, and he will complain sometimes and I'll be like, well, move out and by the fastest internet connection on the planet if that's what you want.  But while you're here, we got what we got.  LOL!  (He's 16)  When I was 16 you had to go to a game room and put quarters in the game to play it.(Donkey Kong, Tempest, Asteroids and such)  Total waste of time and money.  And these days, nothing has changed other than it's a bigger waste of time and a bigger waste of money in more graphic detail and you can do it from your couch.  At least we could pick up girls at the arcade.

Yeah I did see in the packages as your download speed went up so did your upload.  Biggest upload I have is an occasional video to YouTube or FaceBook.

If anyone is wanting to signup for service with TWC and wants to make sure you get the best pricing you are welcome to PM me.  I normally handle accounts for SWO but can do both MID and NEO also.

Been with the company now for about 6 years in Retention originally and now Retail Sales.

Damn....  Day late and dollar short I guess.  Can you do anything now that I already signed up?

PM me what exactly you signed up for and what you are paying and I will let you know.

Nice.  Get ready to be ass raped and pay about $70/month for that if the Comcast deal goes through.



 

And if it does I will shop around again.  It's just a matter of time before Cinti Bell Fioptics is all over Cincinnati and the surrounding suburbs.

If the FCC bullshit goes through unchecked, net neutrality, the internet will be over anyway.  So it won't matter.  Everyone will be choked down to the lowest common denominator, we'll be lucky if Netflix and companies like it survive, and all of it will be more expensive than it is now.   They are going to regulate the internet as a public utility under the Federal Communications Act of 1934.  What could possibly go wrong with that?  From 1934 for the next 50 years the biggest innovation in the telephone was going from rotary dial to touch tone.  Yippie!

Any chance of adjusting folks paying month to month at this point? Contract has long expired.

TWC was out to the house this morning for our internet service install.  Overall went well (cable needs trenched in).  But right away I noticed that my router was only getting 8 mb download vs. the 30 mb it should.  suprisingly, it was doing 5 mb up, like the service level it should.

Plugged in an old router and its getting 30 mb down/5 mb up.   surfing arfcom and other sites for either options to adjust/update the original router or consider a new one (uggh).

My cable laid on the ground from Feb 18th until today.  They finally came and buried it.  

After a little over a month, I'm happy with the service, speeds etc.  Netflix and Blaze TV stream like a breeze.

What kind of router are you looking to update?

Update:

1) Reset my router and started from factory settings. Working fine now, 34 mb down/5.5 mb up.  Incredible compared to my shitty Zoomtown service @ 8 mb down/.7 mb up.   Still going to get a new router because its older and slower, but it will do for now.

2) TW installer messed up connecting the TW phone service to my house wiring.  I still have my home office line with CBT and he cross connected everything.  Just took 30 min and focus on things, re connected everything and its working fine.  Need to set up the voicemail options and the software you can install.  the phone2go sounds kinda cool too.
3) I'm evaluating the whole TWC service for the next week or two, then I'll cancel Zoomtown.   Still need to find an alternative for my home office line.  I do like having one landline, but not sure what CBT will want to charge me.   TWC is asking $30/month for a second VOIP line which seems steep.  Then there is Ooma, Vonage, etc.

I have a Linksys E4200 v2.  Wish I could update it to DD-WRT, but no go.   The new Asus units are very interesting, but I'm open to other options too.  I want good wifi across 3 floors and ease of control/setup/security.

That Marvell chip is the reason the v2 won't run dd-wrt or tomato.  But this site shows the v2 can run with Debian, openwrt, etc.  Candyhouse

As for other routers.  The Asus routers are nice, I've heard good things about Buffalo routers (haven't had the chance to try one yet) Example of Buffalo router  <- this router comes with dd-wrt, and I have a few Linksys routers that I've run DD-wrt on (they are in my box o' computer stuff).  There are other brands - the best thing to do is whichever brand you decide on, research first if you want to install custom firmware (find out if it the router you want is limited on custom firmware or if there is a lot of options) - or there are sellers on ebay that sell routers with dd-wrt already installed.  If you want to keep the stock firmware - then reading loads of reviews might help in finding one that would do what you want it to do.  

Thanks, good info.  I didn't realize there were other firmwares to try on the E4200 v2, I've only used DD-WRT in the past on an old WRT54G (saved me today for a while, its a keeper).  The Asus says you can also run DD-WRT on it, so I'm learning towards that, plus the hardware seems very advanced.  But want to look at some of the semi-pro stuff to and see what cost is vs. reliablity/rock solid.  I'd like to get a couple or 3 AP's and have an AP on each level of the house for seamless wifi, plus have router and firewall.

I've run DD-wrt on Asus routers in the past - but, in my experience, I find that Merlin works better on the asus routers.  Sure it looks like it is stock - but it has a lot more features than stock, is easy to install and setup.  The link for Merlin firmware is Merlin firmware  If you want the latest from Asus, it would be the RT-AC87 (runs a/b/g/n/ac for wireless,).  It has more features than the one I'm running - but is supposed to give even more coverage The link to it is RT-AC87  
One of the routers I have and use is the RT-AC68 and it works great for coverage.  My routers are in the basement and I have no problems getting a good signal on the second story of my house.

As for semi-pro stuff - are you running a small business or is there a reason to want to go that route?  Just curious.  As for firewall are you going to configure the NAT firewall or are you looking to set up a computer between the modem and router that will act as a dedicated firewall (running one of the linux security distros)?

Helpful info, thanks Sniper69.  I've been reading ARFCOM and other online sites for info regarding latest gen of home/SOHO routers and I wasn't even aware that Asus did routers now.  I have built a couple of home pc's years ago with Asus products and was happy with them, but nothing recent.  During my problems yesterday with the Linksys E4200 I started surfing looking for help and came across a lot of good info, esp the comments in the help me built a home network thread.  Refreshed my perspective on SOHO networking.  I work from home and have a seperate office on the lower level, primarily use the hardwired connections all day.  I wired my house myself when we built it 11 years ago and built out the basic infrastucture on my own (home server, punching down cat5e, coax terminations, equipment rack, SOHO phone system,etc.) and I pretty much just went with the regular "higher end" consumer grade stuff for routers/wifi at the time.  Started with a Linksys WRT54G, added DD-WRT to it and updated it, then finally replaced that with a E4200v2.  Biggest challenge has been getting decent wifi across all 3 levels of the house.  Its about 4500 sqft total, fairly boxy and vertical.  I pre-wired 11 years ago all 3 levels with cat5e/coax everywhere, but didn't include drops into the ceilings for wifi AP's like you see more of today.  Used to be just me worried about wifi, but now wife and kids have a ton of wifi devices so I'm looking for alternatives to the traditional combo router/wifi all in one in the basement.   I have an older Linksys G AP on the second/main level...but I was thinking of doing one new/modern AP per level in the house (might be overkill with today's AP's from what I read) and then run a seperate router/firewall/switch(s) in the basement equipment rack...seperate wifi from the rest of the stuff.  just an idea.

ETA:  The Ubiquiti Networks products mentioned in the other thread caught my eye and got me thinking of seperating the wifi AP's out from the router/firewall/switching.  Can't afford a wholesale change over right now, but looks interesting.  I also need to replace my now dead Windows Home Server with something (home NAS or server) as well as I want to add in perimeter video.  I'm on Cat5E wire and Cat5E switches (with the CAT5e punched down to the terminals on the back, so I'd like to keep them as long as I can lol).

NukeThemTillTheyGlow - sounds like you are on the right track.  When our house was built, cat5e was ran to areas we specified (we kept it on a budget, as I didn't like the cost and if allowed to wire myself, I would have done it differently - and saved money).  Can you post what you decide to go with (as reading the thread you linked to gave some interesting information with some expensive setups.   ).