Need advice on DSL

[FredLocks]

My AT&T cable modem has been giving me fits during MP games(Wolfenstein). My pings are fine early morning but when I go to play after work my pings are unplayable. Im looking at speakeasy DSL and earthlink DSL.

Speakeasy offers 1.5 down 384 up for $89.99 and 608 down 128 up for $54.99
Earthlink offers 1.5 down 384/128 up for $49.99 (this seems to good to be true...anyone have experience with earthlink)

Is 608 down and 128 up sufficient for online gaming? I've heard great things about speakeasy but don't know if $89.99/month for the 1.5/384 is possible.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[QWERTY11]

I suggest do some research on those two companies.

check dslreports.com more information on both those services. Check speeds of the people in your neighborhood.

687 down should be enough for online gaming. I mean, I have 56K to play CS and it's alrite as long as it is stable.

 

[TheMagician]

It's pretty much dependant on your area, go read reviews of both companies from people in your area on dsl reports. But I've Earthlink (in chicago) and I get about 8kB/s under the advertised speed and I haven't come across a time in which I couldn't max out my up and down stream at any given time. I always consistantly have the same bandwith at my disposal so I'm happy. Their customer service I found to really suck but once I didn't have to deal with them anymore everything was good and still is going on 4 months now.

 

[videobruce]

There is so much misinformation out there on DSL!

I have had Verizon DSL for 1 1/2 years since I didn't want to deal with cable.

I didn't try one of the 3rd party vendors ( I forgot the correct term) because thay aren't providing the service, all they do is the billing, handle complaints, tech support and collect the money from you.

Your 'baby bell', in my case, Verizon does the work with their equipment!

Why would you want to go through a third party unless there was more than a $10 savings per month? They have to deal with the baby bell to get service. You are going through a middle man for no real reason unless the baby bell doesn't offer the service directly in the first place. If you were the baby bell, who would you give priority to, your own customer or someone else's?

Why would anyone expect as good or better service from a third party when the baby bell orginates the service in the first place?

That's why so many 3rd parties went under, the baby bells were giving them the service they advertised. Slow installs, slow to get service. After all they are taking care of their primary customers first.

That's why I went with my baby bell directly..... and besides, the price is the same $50 either way.

 

[crazydave]

Videobruce, you obviously haven't dealt with SBC/PacBell DSL. Seriously, their left hand doesn't know what their right hand is doing... I know ppl who've gotten charged for equipment they specifically said they didn't need (multiple times), 1.5 hour wait to talk to some idiot in tech support or customer service on the other end who doesn't know what they're talking about. PacBell also switched to PPPoE early on, which was a major pain in the butt, especially when the first routers had problems handling it and the software was buggy. PacBell also required 1 year contract.

On the other hand, 3rd parties often had the same price, static IP, often no contract, a lot better tech support and customer service. So when your Baby Bell is really crappy like that why wouldn't you wanna go 3rd party?