<p>Hi guys. I wanted to know what internet service most people use at Berkeley. I'll be in a northside apartment about a block away from Etcheverry. Part of me was hoping that I would be able to mooch off of airbears, but I unfortunately don't get the signal from my place.</p>
<p>So what's the best internet service to buy, considering both price and reliability? (I don't need any packages that contain phone/cable--I only need internet.) And for my curiosity, how long will it take for the delivery/setup? </p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>I tried comcast then switched to AT&T. Comcast has a bad reputation of monitoring or “disrupting” P2P download packets, but I switched to AT&T mainly because I realized I don’t watch tv and $30 for 1.5mbps is good enough for me.</p>
<p>Thanks. Could anyone else please give their insight on the best internet provider?</p>
<p>Bump please! Comcast is so expensive after their first 6 month introductory price :(</p>
<p>I currently have AT&T. 3.0mbps for $24.95/month no contract. It’s good enough for me since I’m not home often. They make you buy their modem gateway but they end up mailing you a visa gift card that can cover the cost of the money, though I haven’t received mine yet.</p>
<p>I would start with comcast to take advantage of your intro price. If you call after 6 months and threaten to cancel, they often let you keep the same price I heard. Two other things to keep in mind:</p>
<p>The fastest speed that AT&T offers in this area is 6 Mbps, so if you need faster than get Comcast.</p>
<p>AT&T’s cable TV offering in the area is hosted by DirectTV, which requires a 2 year commitment. All of the Comcast’s services are month-to-month.</p>
<p>how fast is comcast? I mean 6 Mbps is pretty good…and how long does it take for comcast to set up? also, doesn’t comcast go down often?</p>
<p>I just got comcast cable and internet in my apartment… It was really easy to set up, I just called the day before and the guy did everything in about an hour. It says download speeds up to 15mbps, it’s really fast. But yeah $69.99 for the first 6 months and $109.90 after that… Haha might try the threatening to cancel thing.</p>
<p>Flutterfly, I’m guessing you got Digital Starter and Performance bundle? What kind of speed do you get under a bandwidth test?</p>
<p>By the way, the quoted 15 Mbps is with Powerboost. The actual sustained speed is 12 Mbps.</p>
<p>For anyone that’s ordering Comcast, I believe you can waive their $25 installation fees by asking for a self install kit and doing it yourself.</p>
<p>You basically have two options:</p>
<p>Comcast: very fast, somewhat expensive, very unreliable</p>
<p>AT&T: slow, cheap, quite reliable</p>
<p>Typically, you can get a 16mbit plan from Comcast for $30/mo. However, during peak hours, you may get less than 1mbit.</p>
<p>In contrast, the fastest AT&T provides is a 6mbit DSL connection for $25/mo. However, you’re always getting close to the advertised speed.</p>
<p>You will usually get the best deals by playing off AT&T and Comcast, switching each time the introductory offer is off and mooching off the cancellations department. I personally find 6mbit to be fast enough, and reliability is more important than speed. If I need the speed, I take my laptop on campus and sign onto AirBears, which functions closer to 50mbit if you’re in the right places.</p>
<p>get comcast at best buy. we got 16mbps for 25 a month for a year. they took out the installation fee too. they have no contracts so feel free to cancel anytime.</p>
<p>Also deals will start coming in this upcoming months.</p>
<p>Alright big problem. The previous tenants haven’t canceled their internet plan or some ish and so now I can’t have internet at my place. Any solutions? (Calling those guys and talking to them was like talking to a brick wall and I doubt they’ll be “getting to it” any time soon)</p>
<p>They haven’t cancelled internet with which provider?</p>
<p>If they don’t want you as a customer, their competitor does!</p>
<p>Eg. if your old tenant used Comcast, go with AT&T, and vice-versa.</p>
<p>In the worst of situations, you can go with the more expensive, but more reliable (and much less evil) Sonic.net.</p>
<p>AT&T is reliable??? I have the most expensive DSL plan yet the internet connection goes down randomly at least 10 times everyday, and it takes around 5 minutes for the router to reboot. In addition to that, any torrent activity is an instant kill to the connection.
I’m looking to switch to Comcast. How stable is the connection? Also, does Comcast monitor torrent activity and report you to MPAA or something?</p>
<p>AT&T is reliable, as long as your phone line is reliable and you use your own quality hardware instead of the junk they give. The wireless router they give goes down all the time, but their “single computer” DSL modem is decent. I used my own wireless router, and I’ve only had two downtime incidents of 4hr and 1hr, respectively, over the course of 9mo.</p>
<p>Comcast, on the other hand, gives you quality hardware, but the connection is very unstable. It tends to slow to a crawl and go on-and-off when the connection gets overloaded. This usually happens almost daily during peak hours and becomes especially bad during football games, etc.</p>
<p>The difference is that with AT&T, you get your own N-mbit uplink that’s directly connected to a properly provisioned amount of fiber at their node, while with Comcast, hundreds of users share the same 154-mbit uplink, most capped at 16mbit (depending on plan), which then connects to their fibers. With a car analogy, AT&T is like having a 25mph road with stop signs but is always empty, while Comcast is like a freeway with a 70mph speed limit but with extreme traffic during rush hour. In fact, the ratio in speed difference, with caps considered, is characteristic of this situation.</p>
<p>but with att, you need to have a phone line too…doesnt that cost extra? i mean, i would go with at&t, but i’m trying to save some money. comcast sounds terrible though, especially with the random down times and all. thanks for the advice though excel</p>
<p>Yes a phone line costs extra. With AT&T I pay 7/month for the phone line and my monthly DSL is 10/month (deal for first timers with slowest speed offered last Fall). After taxes and fees I pay 25-26/month.</p>
<p>I live in Oakland now, but I’ve had the same experience as Corona with AT&T. If I could switch – and I can’t, really, as the only other option where I am is satellite – I certainly would.</p>
<p>AT&T has an internet-only option now! You don’t need to maintain the phone line. I went from paying $50+/mo for internet to $20/mo. Granted, my $20 only covers their lowest tier of internet, which is SO not worth the savings, but still. Not having to pay the $20+ for the bare minimum phone service is very nice!</p>
<p>I just realized my internet is actually 6.0mbps from AT&T for 24.95/month no contract. It was a promotional offer.</p>
<p>You can use AT&T if you don’t have phone service.</p>