Have an uncle in Bloomington and trying to see what company provides better internet service. Looks like Comcast/Xfinity and AT&T U-Verse are the two biggest providers, but I've read that Comcast has shitty service, or at least customer service. In fact I think my uncle may have said something along those lines years ago.

Anybody in Bloomington that can offer up an opinion on the subject? Flying out there to see him next week and would like to take him some options. He doesn't have any internet right now (don't think he has ever had internet at the house), cancelled his home phone line and does not have a cell phone so it will be a little easier to check on stuff before I get there.

Check if he's in smithville telephone's service area. It's fiber and generally cheaper than comcast. Been using it for a couple years with no issues whatsoever.

Thanks, will check on that today!

I live in bloomington: Southside inside city limits and AT&T sucks!!!! From 1800 to 2200 my Internet is slower than 3g.

He's a few blocks south of the university. Just checked Smithville and it's not available yet where he lives. So I wonder which sucks less, AT&T or Comcast. Hmm

I would say per my experience thus far with AT&T: Comcast can't suck any worse.

Speed vs Reliability.

Personally speaking, if you can get U-Verse, get U-Verse.
If you can only get DSL, gamble with Comcast.

The rub is this - U-Verse is only 4d/1u which is absurdly slow. The only reason it wins in my mind is because it is stable. The DSL is so abysmal that you either have endless frustration with basically dial-up speeds, or occasional frustration with Comcast taking a shit. Personally, I don't like being frustrated when my shit is actually working.

If we're being 100% honest, fuck AT&T in general. 4/1 is unreasonably anemic for internet these days.

I live between Bloomington and Ellettsville, IN. I have a Smithville fiber optic "vault" buried in the front yard, but I went with AT&T Universe for internet. It was cheaper than Smithville. I bought the 12 Mbps service (I forget what it costs) - last months bill was $85, but I'm paying installation costs prorated for another month. The only issue I had was the 4 days before they buried the cable. There were lots of drop outs and lost service, but none since.
I just ran AT&T's speed test. 13.44 Mbps download, 1.00 Mbps upload - all I need.
When I signed on 2 months ago, they had a deal where you could get a free landline.

I have no idea why the word "cable" is in red, hotlinking to Brownell's

I'm not in Bloomington but I'm within 1/2 hr... I've also had both Comcast and ATT (both DSL & Uverse)

Comcast is reliable, doesn't go down, speeds don't drop too terrible during peak periods. Their customer service SUCKS BIG TIME and they will be the most expensive option by far. I ditched Comcast years ago and have NEVER looked back except to look up rates so I can threaten ATT with cancellation so they give me a better rate.

ATT DSL... can be fast, can be slow, it depends how heavily loaded the nearby switch is. My DSL started out pretty fast but kept getting slower and slower and slower as the switch picked up more customers. Then ATT started sending upgrade letters similar to "Hey man, you can have ATT Uverse internet in lieu of your DSL and this will free up our DSL switch for other people that can't get the Uverse service. We'll make you this really good deal to upgrade to Uverse internet". I finally did the upgrade a couple years ago and I've been mostly happy.  Just like the DSL it started out lightning fast but in the last 6 months or so I've been having slow periods. None of it has been bad enough that Netflix won't play or I can't browse... so I'm not complaining yet. If you can get a deal on free Uverse install or something like that I would look into this option. It will likely be your best bang for the buck. I'm currently running 18 Mbs download internet only ATT Uverse service for $30.50 per month (promotional offer that I just keep renewing by threatening to cancel).

Maybe, as it is not visible to me either.  But earlier today I was posting elsewhere on AR15.com.  While I was previewing and editing my post prior to submitting it, I kept seeing words go hotlink.  Once it was "rifle" and once it was "JHP".  In both instances the links were to Brownell's.  Just a FYI.

Thanks. I run Malwarebytes and SuperAntispyware weekly-might be time to do it again!

Hmmmm.... we might be neighbors. I live between Bloomington and Ellettsville too. I have Smithville fiber and love it.