Lesser of two evils: Comcast vs AT&T

[SandrA9810]

Well for the moment, we have both services for free for one month. Well Comcast offer a 30 day guarantee, and AT&T gave a full month refund for the recent hassle. There's a couple of ups and few downs with each service, and not sure which to keep.

AT&T
Pros: The account has been active for like 7 years now, 4 years with u-verse service.
Up until now, never really had an issue with the customer service department, and usually no surprises.
The modem is a wireless modem, allowing for a static IP address.
It is consistent speed, unlike cable that can vary.
Since the new modem runs through the phone line, the jack is right behind the TV.

Cons: The fastest service available is 6mb down, 1mb up. At the old house, it was 12mb down, 3mb up.
The price of the service went up, although they can offer it for $30 a month for 1 year contract.
Ohh and during the move, they said it would take 4 days. The 4th day came and went without internet. After talking to their technical support, found out that we needed a new router, and it was on back order for another week. Also found out about the drop in the speed, and the price increase of $8 more than the 12mb. None of which was told in the initial conversation of moving the service.

Comcast
Pros: 24mb down, 4mb up speed for $33 a month, plus $7 modem rental
They were able to turn on the same day since the wire was already "hot", meaning the previous people had comcast as well and so the service just needed to be turned on at the computers.

Cons: Can not get the wireless modem to work, and the cable box is in the bedroom, which would mean drilling through the wall (if it's even possible) with a really long cable, or an extra long cable to go through the doorway (running it along the floorboards) to the TV/PS3.
It's also Comcast, the speed isn't guaranteed, although the speed tests have been fairly consistent at 24mb this past week.
It also means no static IP address which causes a bit of hassle with some stuff done on the internet.


We keep the PS3 connected to the modem with ethernet, and the laptop on the wifi, as well as the phones, and anything else that might need wifi. Having the higher speed is great and all, but comes with hassle of not having wifi.

Any one have experience with both companies? I know Comcast gets a lot of bashing on the internet, so does AT&T to an extent, but I've only dealt with AT&T.

 

[Mickeynutty]

Wow - that is a tough one. I have dealt with both companies and I think they both have TERRRIBLE customer service. Two ideas. Call each company and see how long it takes to get a live person who can answer some questions. (Not important what the questions are). Also, check and see how Clark Howard rates each company. I know he says Comcast is terrible, but I'm not sure about unverse. Good luck!

 

[dex08]

AT&T U-verse isn't available where I live but I have had dealings with Comcast and most recently we decided to buy our own cable modem instead of renting Comcast's when they raised their rental price up to $7. I found ours for under $80.

If you decide to do this, make sure you purchase a cable modem that is compatible with Comcast's level of service (speed tier) you subscribe to. You can check this site for compatible models: http://mydeviceinfo.comcast.net/

We bought ours, hooked it up and made a phone call to Comcast's internet customer service and told them we bought our own. Just had to give them some information from the device and had it up and running in less than 5 minutes. That same day we returned the Comcast rented cable modem to their office and they took it off our account effective that day.

As for your wireless router, Comcast customer service won't assist much at all if it's not their equipment, so be sure to read the setup instructions that came with your wireless router and go through the steps again. I had trouble getting ours to work when we hooked up our new cable modem and it was just a matter of cloning the MAC address (within the router's configuration settings).

 

[minushka72]

AT&T U-verse isn't available where I live but I have had dealings with Comcast and most recently we decided to buy our own cable modem instead of renting Comcast's when they raised their rental price up to $7. I found ours for under $80.

If you decide to do this, make sure you purchase a cable modem that is compatible with Comcast's level of service (speed tier) you subscribe to. You can check this site for compatible models: http://mydeviceinfo.comcast.net/

We bought ours, hooked it up and made a phone call to Comcast's internet customer service and told them we bought our own. Just had to give them some information from the device and had it up and running in less than 5 minutes. That same day we returned the Comcast rented cable modem to their office and they took it off our account effective that day.

As for your wireless router, Comcast customer service won't assist much at all if it's not their equipment, so be sure to read the setup instructions that came with your wireless router and go through the steps again. I had trouble getting ours to work when we hooked up our new cable modem and it was just a matter of cloning the MAC address (within the router's configuration settings).

I've never had AT&T so no opinion there. I have had Comcast for 12 years now for Cable and switched my internet and phone to them about 7 years ago after I had several problems with Verizon (horrible customer service there).
Anyway, for the internet, I went to Best Buy and bought the modem and then did the self install when I got home. Took only a few minutes. When we switched out the phone, the tech came and hooked that up and that was done quickly also. I have never had bad customer service from Comcast, quite the opposite as they have always been very polite on the phone when we have had questions and any service calls have been taken care of quickly and with great people who were very polite and courteous when in my home.
My only complaint with comcast is that they are more expensive than most. my internet service is great, never have a problem connecting.
I also have a wirless router hooked up to the modem for the laptop, Kindles and Wii.

 

[usnuzuloose]

I only had the phone and internet from AT&T, it was cheap, but I finally got rid of it due to many problems. I went back to comcast and have only had a couple of problems. But nothing to get rid of the service over.

 

[mickeyfanfl]

Cons: Can not get the wireless modem to work

I've had comcast internet for 8 years now and have wireless with no issues. Sounds like it is a problem with your router and not Comcast. Is it a comcast supplied wireless router?

It's also Comcast, the speed isn't guaranteed, although the speed tests have been fairly consistent at 24mb this past week.

Have never had a speed issue (in my area). I download movies/music/run multiple online businesses and the service has always been smooth

It also means no static IP address which causes a bit of hassle with some stuff done on the internet.

Like what? Unless you are running your own dedicated servers what would you need it for?

 

[SandrA9810]

The modem is provided by them, and the cable router is a cisco wrt160n. We picked up the rental box just to get same day service, although we'll probably find one for cheap at the flea market soon enough. The cable router is also from the flea market, originally picked up to sell on ebay, so it wasn't purchased specifically for this reason. We just happened to have it.

Even with cable, the line in is at the back of the bedroom. The TV sits on the other side of the bedroom wall, and would probably need a 25' cable to run to it. Since he plays games online, he only plays it with a direct ethernet cable to the PS3. By using the wifi on the PS3, it creates frame lag in some of the games. Trust me, you don't want to hear about the frames, move counts, and lag caused from wireless, and all this other stuff that goes into it. Pretty much, the PS3 has to be directly connected.

As for the static IP address, he says that Ebay blocks his account from logging into it if the IP isn't the same. Like he logged into his account at the school, and he had to call to unlock the IP he was using and verify it was him. In all honesty, I'm not sure why they do that to him. I've never had any issues using my account any where, home, public library, Florida to California. I just know he has had it set up with a static IP on the UVerse modem since he got it.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Any deal with Comcast is a deal with the devil.

 

[LilyWDW]

I will never use Comcast for internet. The amount of BS I have seen many people go through has made that a sure thing. Even though I have had really good CS with them with our cable, their internet service is just down right the worst I have ever seen.

 

[TosaTrio]

Love Uverse! You should be able to get faster Internet than you mentioned you previously had with Uverse. We love the whe house DVR, the smartphone apps and I can't wait to get the wireless DVR like they show in the commerical.

Comcast is not in my area so I cannot comment on them.

 

[SandrA9810]

They haven't updated the wiring in this area in a very long time. The max available is 6mb, with no prospects of upgrades.

My bf said the first time they set up UVerse, they came and rewired the house (well from the box on the outside of the house, with a line directly to into his room, and the original modem was connected via a cable line. Not through a phone jack. The house was also much newer, built in 2002.
This modem connects through the phone jack, not the cable wire. And this building is like 60 years old. Plaster walls, very 50's kitchen and bathroom, and wonderful wood beam ceilings. Even most the outlets are old two prong outlets which create a whole other issue. So unless they rewire this whole area, I don't think the speed can increase because the lines can't handle it.

We'd take 12mb speed in a heartbeat again and be done with it. But since that's not available, it creates a conflict.

 

[Bell30012]

Sandra, pick up a cheap $40 - $50 Belkin or Linksys wireless router. You just plug the new router right in like a computer. *poof* You'll have service throughout the house. Remember to use the wireless security or your neighbors will have service too.

Comcast isn't available where I'm at, we have City of Monroe Cable. Talk about a monopoly utility company (They also are the electric, water, gas, sewer and trash pickup for the city). While the price is low, the service is not at Comcast levels.

I have the cable company modem/router in the home office and then have a Belkin router coming straight off of it. The Belkin that I have is an N+ with dual band. We've never had an issue. There are several computers, Bluray players, game systems, iPhones, etc. that connect. No issues.

 

[Colleen27]

I have had both and in my area ATT/Uverse is the lesser evil. Customer support sucks from both but with Uverse I'm getting better speed, don't need a router in addition to the modem, and am paying less. And you'll never convince me that Comcast doesn't play games with their bandwidth limits because when we were with them we were hit with overage charges twice our of our last 3 bills but never have been with AT&T despite adding two more wi-fi devices (one of them an Xbox, which uses quite a bit of bandwidth) since dumping Comcast.

 

[SandrA9810]

Sandra, pick up a cheap $40 - $50 Belkin or Linksys wireless router. You just plug the new router right in like a computer. *poof* You'll have service throughout the house. Remember to use the wireless security or your neighbors will have service too.

It is a Linksys router, and there's nothing wrong the router. It turns on and connects to the computer just fine. If you do a google search, there's a million solutions to similar problems.

The other problem with AT&T is websites keep popping up with "DNS" errors. Sometimes it's the whole page, mostly it's the ads on the page, or a video on the page. It's really annoying.

 

[Judique]

AT&T U-verse isn't available where I live but I have had dealings with Comcast and most recently we decided to buy our own cable modem instead of renting Comcast's when they raised their rental price up to $7. I found ours for under $80.

If you decide to do this, make sure you purchase a cable modem that is compatible with Comcast's level of service (speed tier) you subscribe to. You can check this site for compatible models: http://mydeviceinfo.comcast.net/

We bought ours, hooked it up and made a phone call to Comcast's internet customer service and told them we bought our own. Just had to give them some information from the device and had it up and running in less than 5 minutes. That same day we returned the Comcast rented cable modem to their office and they took it off our account effective that day.

As for your wireless router, Comcast customer service won't assist much at all if it's not their equipment, so be sure to read the setup instructions that came with your wireless router and go through the steps again. I had trouble getting ours to work when we hooked up our new cable modem and it was just a matter of cloning the MAC address (within the router's configuration settings).

This is our exact experience and set up. No need to rent their equipment.

I've had no problem at all with Comcast.

I do subscribe to a higher speed level of internet service.

 

[Colleen27]

The other problem with AT&T is websites keep popping up with "DNS" errors. Sometimes it's the whole page, mostly it's the ads on the page, or a video on the page. It's really annoying.

That's actually a simple fix. It is an issue with the modem AT&T is using right now, but can be worked around by going into your network settings on the computer and manually specifying DNS server addresses.

Find the addresses at your router configuration page, usually at 192.168.1.254. Click on the Broadband tab and the DNS server addresses are listed in the Broadband Status section.

Then go into your computer's control panel, choose networking, and find the connection you're using. Go into the network properties (either by right-clicking the network name or, in Windows 7, clicking on the connection to bring up the status screen and then clicking the Properties button there). Select TCP/IPv4 and click properties. By default it will be set to "Obtain DNS server addresses automatically"; you want to change that to "Use the following DNS server information" and enter the addresses you copied from the router status page as primary and alternate DNS servers. Apply the changes and the problem disappears.

The only downside to this is that it needs to be done on each computer accessing the network. The problem doesn't appear to effect non-computer devices, or at least I couldn't seem to replicate it using the Xbox, Wii or iPod, and the fix is quick enough that making the change on the two computers we run only took a few minutes.