Which Broadband service

Kartoffel · n00b Joined: 23 Apr 2002 Posts: 29

Hi I've been using gentoo for a while now. I did all the installs over a modem because that's what I had at the time. But now it's time to upgrade. And this is the only linux community that I know and trust.

My question is which service should I get? I want it to work easily with linux. I've got a nic built into my motherboard that should work with linux. I don't know much about networking or high speed internet. I just want to be able to download faster and be able to leave my computer on the internet so I can access it from work. Decent upload speeds would be nice as well.

Att Broadband is the only service I know of. Will that work? I'm sure they won't support linux. Cost is an issue so I'd like to keep it <= $50 a month.

What do you guys recommend? I'm in Denver (Golden) if that helps.

Thanks
Jeff

rtn · Guru Joined: 15 Nov 2002 Posts: 427

It really depends on what services are available to you. ATT cable should
work just fine, and should be a breeze to set up. If I were you, I'd avoid
USB cable/dsl devices if possible, and go with something on 10/100Base-T.
I know several people who'd have tremendous success with Linksys DSL/Cable routers, which I think are priced at or around $100 US.

I have DSL, using a linux box as a router for my lan. It was easy to set up
and doesn't really require any maintenace...

YMMV.

--rtn

NerfYoda · n00b Joined: 25 Feb 2003 Posts: 20 Location: TEXAS

I'm a speakeasy.net customer, and a happy one at that. They have one of the free'est (as in speech) end user policies I've ever seen in an ISP. They don't do PPPoE or any of that renewing IP nonesense on ya to boot. If you're in their service area I say give em a go. They're not the cheapest out there, but IMO you definately get what you pay for.
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PT_LAmb · Posted: Tue Feb 25, 2003 10:05 pm Post subject:

rtn · Guru Joined: 15 Nov 2002 Posts: 427

AkiAki007 · Posted: Tue Feb 25, 2003 11:01 pm Post subject:

Cable is working for me, then again I'm in NYC, so there are nodes everywhere. My speed has been great, and I set up a nice Linksys router to get my room-mates on as well. Works great.

Cable of course is best if you already have cable, you might be able to get a discount. We have Time Warner Cable, thus I have Road Runner Cable. Though I'm not a terribly big fan of large companies nor do I trust the politics of companies such as Time Warner (regarding user priviledges and privacy), but RR has been great. All my ports are open, well, what I've tried thus far. I've had no problems going and playing whatever games I want (though I still can't get file xfer to work in AIM in windows, but that's a seperate problem with AIM sucking and router port forwarding).

Anyway, my recommendation would lie with a cable modem. Don't worry about OS, most of them allow you do to Self-Installation if you don't have Windows lying around somewhere. If you have Windows, you can let them "install" the modem. Either way, I don't think you'll be able to avoid the initial cost, because if they install, they charge you 100$ for installation, if you install it yourself, they make you buy their modem, which also costs 100$. You might have better luck and be able to buy your own cable modem (Linksys has some nice cheap ones) and avoid that initial cost all together.

Best of luck.

NerfYoda · n00b Joined: 25 Feb 2003 Posts: 20 Location: TEXAS

pjp · Administrator Joined: 16 Apr 2002 Posts: 20067

Moved from Networking & Security.
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PT_LAmb · Posted: Tue Feb 25, 2003 11:35 pm Post subject:

I didn't know it was possible to avoid the ppp connection. That makes DSL installation identical to Cable.

Anyway, if you know a highly considered broadband ISP that can offer you a good service with the possibility to install a modem with an Ethernet interface, then it wouldn't matter if it was DSL or Cable. Obviously considering that the prices weren't too different.

Ricardo Cordeiro

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xkalibur · n00b Joined: 21 Jul 2002 Posts: 25

I have Earthlink cable. i am quite happy with them. switched from Earthlink DSL last september. waayyyy better performance for a better price. Earthlink does not block port 80 like roadrunner (saving me a little trouble).

carambola5 · Apprentice Joined: 10 Jul 2002 Posts: 214

I've got Charter cable. From what I can tell, they block both 80 and 8080. *sigh* i guess 88 works well enough

modal · Apprentice Joined: 02 Oct 2002 Posts: 277

I'm using AT&T broadband, and it has been great. I get around 300K, all the time, and there were no problems setting it up. Just DHCP and that's it.
I have heard many horror stories about DSL, especially in regards to Qwest (actually lying to customers, and horrible support)
I have had cable for seven months now, and only once has it gone out (and that's because of a bad snow storm)
I say cable, unless you want 7Mb!

PT_LAmb · Posted: Thu Feb 27, 2003 1:32 am Post subject:

yokem55 · Guru Joined: 18 Apr 2002 Posts: 360 Location: Oregon

I've had ATT broadband for the past year and a half or so and its been great so far. At first, when they were still using the @home network it was absolutely awesome, getting 400k+/sec downloads, but once they moved onto their own network they capped us all at 1.5mbit or around 180k/sec download which still isn't worth complaining over. I'm curious to see how things go now that Comcast has taken over the ATT broadband division.

li1_getoo · l33t Joined: 20 Oct 2002 Posts: 661 Location: Queens , NY

www.dslreports.com

i am using roadrunner , never had a problem :-)