Thinking about switching from ATT

[Jeff Flowers]

I was wondering if anyone has any comments/thoughts:

I've got AT&T DSL and it's just painfully slow. I was thinking about switching over to Sonic, but am I correct in thinking that they are still using At&t's wires - hence, would I just get the same poor speeds?

Right now I'm getting 2.5 Mbps. Would love to switch, but want to do so only if I get somewhat better speeds.

Also, would I be able to use my current modem: D-Link DSL-2640B

Thanks, Jeff

[Jeff Flowers]

I completely forgot to add - I'm in the San Mateo area

[dane]

Speed depends upon both distance and technology. Currently you are on ADSL1, a slower DSL technology, whereas Fusion is ADSL2+. So, it should be faster - but how much faster depends upon distance and line quality. Best bet is to order service and see! There's no term commit, so if you find that Fusion isn't fast enough, you could subsequently move to another option and cancel.

As for equipment - Fusion includes equipment, so no need to worry about the configuration or compatibility of the D-Link that you have.

-Dane

[milardo]

Did you check to see if fusion is available in your area? If so, how far are you from the central office. That will determine somewhat the speed you will be getting sort of, also depending on quality of phone line, etc. Also, good to know that fusion is not capped at all. If you are really close to central office, you can get up to 20+ Mbps download speed! I wish I could get it in San Mateo, I'm right next to 92/280 interchange. By the way, your modem is fine for use with fusion, I'm using a netgear dg834g v4. To get it to work you have to usually use something like LLC, 0 and 35 and auto multimode-depending on what fusion support has set it to, hope this helps.

[Jeff Flowers]

Thank you for all these great thoughts.

I'm actually also around the 92/280 (next door to CSM specifically). So, no fusion for me - yet ...

As for trying out Sonic, I think I ought to do that. I love the company's privacy ideas, so I can justify the pain of switching over using that bit of info to make it right in my mind.

Thanks! Jeff

[gp1628]

Even when the service is the same lines, Id consider Sonic to be a big step up.
There is a huge advantage in using Sonic mail servers, Sonic DNS servers, Sonic for a home web page. Not to mention less usual items such as shell and vpn.

And biggest of all is talking to Sonic tech support when something goes wrong. If its a line problem then let the sonic techs bang THEIR heads against the AT&T techs to get it resolved. It amounts to much less stress IMHO

Gandalf Parker

[cataha]

Even when the service is the same lines, Id consider Sonic to be a big step up.
There is a huge advantage in using Sonic mail servers, Sonic DNS servers, Sonic for a home web page. Not to mention less usual items such as shell and vpn.

And biggest of all is talking to Sonic tech support when something goes wrong. If its a line problem then let the sonic techs bang THEIR heads against the AT&T techs to get it resolved. It amounts to much less stress IMHO

Gandalf Parker

Yes to first part and the second part proportionally is true...

I had an AT-$$$-T at once and for about 4-6 months i went to a journey of buttheading an AT-$$$-T for a massive circuit overloads until i decided to call it a quits and went to a sonic just to find out they are partnering with AT-$$$$$$-T then i called to CA and only after 7-8 months an AT-$$$$$-T has admitted that it was there problem and engineers have been hired to work on it, at a CO in Pleasanton CA.... but that was nightmare as i considered lived trough by paying for 3-6Mb/s and only receiving 56K-255K(on a best of sunny days) via DSL

To add one thing is that for past year or so i had 50-70Mb/s and there was simply no use of such a bandwidth for me so, Now that i went back to sonic AGAIN (after year or so of absent) and it seems that they have resolved 56+Kb/s over dsl problems.... No complains for now......
But other then that they are cool dudes at a sonic office

...........

What i like about a sonic vs att that they seem to me have better circuitry then an att in general which results in lesser overloading problems
Att vs Sonic DNS - ATT uses State of Illinois DNS resolvers which takes time before you get to a http://www.WebSiteName.com that also kinda helps w/sonic since they use either SR or SF or SJ CA,

I hope this won't going to discourage you from switching but just try it out to see the deference and yes you will see it but don't expect coming from 2Mb/s and jumping on to 1GB/s-of-Future-speeds(since even Datacenters don't go that high on speeds)

"Network equals too
one big unpredictable-work(s) since you never know, out of what end of twisted pairs your will come-in or come-out for that matter" -A.V.F(me)