I've never had the best services here. The TV stalls, and so does the internet. Occasionally, they all decide to stop working. Oh, and there's the phone, which is a VOIP phone, so runs off the internet. I started off with Comcast, because they were the only game in town. The service was horrible, the bills were high, and I was happy to wave goodbye. I had AT&T up in Houston and was happy with it, although back then it was just phone and DSL internet. Apparently the company has changed a lot. I had technicians out here in April because the service just cut out one day, and it took them 3 days to get here to restore service. This time, thankfully, I was able to get the service back up, although it wasn't running the greatest. The company sent me a router that I was to swap out myself, but they shipped it to the wrong address, which further delayed the repair a few days. Finally, it arrived last night. I was pretty stressed out about the installation, but it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. I think they've been working towards making it easier for customers to replace the systems, so they could save money by not having to send technicians out. I'm glad there were only a few hiccups, and it seems to be working better than it has been in a long time. I did a speed test and it's a bit higher than before, also, which is nice.
I liked AT&T the first few years I had them, then they kept getting higher and higher and I would call and they'd give me a little discount but they kept screwing me also. My discount pkg would include free HBO for 3 months which I didn't want or watch but was part of the deal. Then I'd get a huge bill, call ...be on the phone for 2-3 hrs to find out that I should have cancelled HBO after 3 months because now they were charging me. Every month I would have to call about something. They talked me into getting Direct TV instead of having AT&T TV and it would be $117 for the bundle, that's TV, internet and phone for 2 years. This was in May, they put the dish on the house. I have yet to see a $117 bill and I call every month and they tell me some reason why it's not but this bill it should be $117 and if it's not, I'm cancelling and I don't care if I have a contract or not. All they do is lie. I hate direct TV anyway...I should have just cancelled TV but they came out with this thing if you don't have a TV with them you don't get unlimited internet ....CROOKS!
I din't like cable compnies at all. The best one was At&t cable and internet in terms of reliability. However I agree with Chrissy. All cable companies are crooks and over charge.
Our internet connection is riding on the cable of our phone. And if we would transfer to another internet provider then probably they have to install a cable connection for the internet. But anyway, the modem is fine and our home computer is working all right. But when the smart phones came into fashion, we needed wifi connection so we bought a router. Installing it is not easy but not difficult either since there is a CD included that would lead us in the installation. The router is now providing us with wifi connection for our smart phones. By the way, our router is the cheap one we bought from the Chinese store, yeah, made in China.
They seem to be trying to get everyone to switch over to DirecTV for some reason. I wonder if it's cheaper than installing and maintaining the UVerse lines? BTW, I woke up this morning with no internet/tv/phone again @Chrissy Page. I waited to see if it would come back on its own, but it didn't, so I had to reset the router again. Ugh. Fingers crossed, it's still working, but I really hope it doesn't keep going down. I'm rearranging things here in the office so that it'll be more crafts friendly, and I made it so the printer/router/phone and their connections are easier to work on. Things seemed to work better back in the day when there was only one phone company, and it's not as if having competition has kept prices down.
Are you talking about the gateway that you need to reset all the time? Mine doesn't go out too often and then I reset the gateway. I HATE Direct TV. I did like AT&T but not their prices.
This is my Gateway. If you live in a stormy area I heard Direct goes out a lot since its satellite. Mine hasn't gone out but the day of installation when the tech was ready to connect me Direct TV was down....for the whole friggin day. He came at 8:00 am, I was so happy that I'd be done early but things always go wrong in my world And he didn't come back til about 8 PM.
Most likely that is what I mean, but it's the black router/modem that has all of the lights on the front for power, battery, ethernet, wi-fi, broadband, service, etc. The modem is build into the router, and the router is what enables me to use wifi. It has the AT&T globe on the front. I have another little device that enables the wireless receivers to hook into the router, as well. If the TV goes down, I have to reset each receiver (the DVR functions as a receiver), but if the internet itself goes down, I have to reset the router. Sometimes I have to reset them all. I'm exhausted just thinking about it. The tech guy I spoke with the other day told me I'd have to return the old router to the UPS center or be charged $150, and that there was no alternative, such as shipping it from my house. I was stressed out about that, since my car's not in great shape and I try not to drive that far. I read the instructions in the package with the new router, though, and found out I can return it to a UPS drop off center using the enclosed shipping label, and I'll be near a drop off center in the next week or two. It often seems the right hand doesn't know what the left is doing.
@Chrissy Page how tall is that? It does look like my router/modem, but looks a lot taller. I haven't had DirecTV in years, and when I did, all I had was a receiver, since I was sharing the landlord's system, so I don't know how big the gateway is. My router/modem looks like that, but is only around 10" tall. By the way, I'm glad you mentioned your issue, because I have considered switching over to the DirecTV system, since I could be paying about the same I'm currently paying, but have a lot more channels.
It's about 12 inches I think. I had to return all my AT&T TV receivers and controls, etc...I had 3 Tvs hooked up. It's easy but if I didn't do it, I would have been charged $475! Just take everything to UPS, they wrap it, box it and ship it for free. KEEP the RECEIPT for a long time. The ups guy told me that. They must have had issues. I was worried too that I'd have to box and pay and all the hassle but very easy to do. Edit: I measured it...it's 10 inches, maybe the angle I took the pic at made it look taller.
Ha, yes, it looked as if it was about 24" tall in the picture. The place like that is too far away, so I'll end up dropping it off at the UPS drop off center. Hopefully I will get some sort of receipt. Maybe I'll even take a picture of my package at the drop off center. I have heard that also about holding onto the receipt, and don't doubt it in the least. I don't trust the company as far as I could throw them. If I can get another Roku or two, I might sign up for SlingTV, which would give me the local channels plus some extras, and I could add HGTV and Lifetime for another $5/month. I still need to see how much I'm paying for the receivers, to see if it'll be worth it. I will not be happy about paying that $20/month unbundling fee if I do that, since I'd only have 1 service from AT&T (internet), but it might ultimately be worth it.
One problem is that when you are choosing an Internet plan, the Internet speeds that they give you are on the high end, promising only that your connection won't be any faster than a specified number. For example, Time Warner Cable's packages include their Standard Internet, offering "speeds up to 15Mbps," while its Turbo promises speeds "up to 20Mbps." Since they aren't guaranteeing you a minimum speed, these options could very well be the same thing. They haven't violated their promise unless they give you a speed faster than what you're paying for. People read that and assume that, with their Turbo Internet package, they will get an Internet speed of 20Mbps when, in reality, the fastest speed available to you could be 10Mbps or even 5Mbps, without violating their promise. Would you buy a car if the guarantee promised you that you would get "up to 20,000 miles" on it before it fell apart? That is simply guaranteeing that it won't carry you any further than 20,000 miles, and that it might fall apart before you leave the parking lot. Yet this is standard among Internet service providers.
It has become such a chore, hasn't it? I didn't even want TV and was calling to cancel but got conned into Direct. I can't wait to see my bill, if it's not $117 I'm calling and cancelling...let them sue me. I have nothing they can take anyway.
@Ken Anderson I ran a speedtest on mine after I replaced the router yesterday and the speed was up about 2 Mbps from before. I ran the test on the desktop, not wireless, but I'll do that later, if I remember, to see how fast that is. I agree, they're very deceptive, and they seem to think customers are stupid, which really irritates me. @Chrissy Page I don't think any of them are any good. My mom has Comcast, and I had them before. I had to stream from the neighbor's house when I had them, because the router signal couldn't even make it down the stairs. My sister has Verizon, and she's also always aggravated about the level and cost of her service. Charter seems somewhat better, but it's not available here (nor is Verizon), but the best I've ever heard of is a local coop in Wisconsin. I'd take them in a heartbeat if I could...he got excellent service, plus they offered a new device (desktop, laptop, or X-Box) every 2 years for very low cost, and they portioned that cost out among the 24-month period of the contract.
My daughter has had them all except AT&T and they didn't like any of them either. Right now they have Xfinity which I think is Comcast. My first service was Dish, it was okay but then I switched to AT&T Uverse about 10 yrs ago and was happy with them. Then about 2-3 years ago I just kept having issues and would have to call periodically and I reached a point where we weren't getting anywhere and here I am now with Direct and still unhappy. This may be the month I get rid of them. I'll have to figure out how to get out of my contract or they charge me $20 a month for nothing.