Have to switch to Big, Bad Comcast :(

[sonic_in_san_jose]

I've been one of the biggest advocates of Sonic. And everything they fight for. Telling friends/family about them and urging them to switch.

Now I must bid farewell... After hanging on for a few years, due to my location from the CO (I only get 5mbps down for the $67/mo) and a couple grounding issues, it just wasn't the solution for me. I had to switch to cable :( (my work from home was being impacted if I didnt)

I'll continue supporting Net Neutrality and will tell people who Sonic does cover about them :)

When/If Sonic roll's out fiber to San Jose, I'll be the very first to come back!

Until then, thanks for allowing me to "release" on this forum to help justify that this is the only route for me due to my location. Gawd how I wish I lived in a place Sonic truly covered.

[digitalbitstream]

You might have possibility of FTTN, buying AT&T U-Verse service through Sonic...

[dane]

I'll echo that - before you depart, ring sales at 707-522-1000 or email sales@sonic.net and see if we've got an options for you!

[VisionCastingBandito]

Why is it so compelling to provide Sonic with your money and then end up with a ghetto fabulous solution where the access is provided by AT&T and the IP involves some intricate series of protocol tunnels like the viet cong? Get real. This whole Internet for Good basura reminds me of some seriously whack vision casting or something. No idea who comes up with your marketing stuff but I guess maybe Humboldt University? For EVAR it has just been grab up every single possible penny and then waste it on stupid initiatives. Like selling cell phone service, 2-way satellite and all the other ludacris ideas that have come out of "invented here". Good good just be good at something and then shut up when you are the beggar at the big persons table.

[mwedel]

Unfortunately, there are still some pockets where comcast is the only really good options. AT&T has yet to put fiber behind my house (Santa Clara) - going to their website, they best internet they can offer me is 10 mbs.

I currently have fusion x2, but for similar price, I can get much faster internet through comcast. At some point, I'll get tired waiting for faster options and probably do comcast if no better option shows up.

[VisionCastingBandito]

Precisely - if you can't get Internet Access from Sonic for WHATEVER reason, why would you even consider an inferior resold AT&T service whereby multiple parties are involved? Because Sonic has Internet for Good and deletes your logs after awhile?

I've seen how much of a PITA it is to support those types of access connections for C and D level teleworkers who get extremely pissy when their corporate IPSec or TLS VPN flakes out and it's not good latency, packet loss metrics, or ideal routing, and there's the extra encapsulation involved and other technical factors.

It's really simple to me - buy your own Arris modem for $65 from Amazon, the one with the 37k+ reviews, get ~180Mbps or more for $59/mo. and just deal with it. It's not like Sonic has wonderful rates, or even unique offerings that would dictate someone is completely missing out by having to use a competitor.

About time people simply faced up to the reality - Internet Access is a Commodity. Like toilet paper or bottled water, it's just a means to an end.

If you are feeling bad because you can't maintain a connection with Sonic then maybe offer to go hand out flyers for them or help Marketing at the next pop-up Gigabit Fiber / Internet for Good stand.

[cakewalk]

It's really simple to me - buy your own Arris modem for $65 from Amazon, the one with the 37k+ reviews, get ~180Mbps or more for $59/mo. and just deal with it. It's not like Sonic has wonderful rates, or even unique offerings that would dictate someone is completely missing out by having to use a competitor..

Do you have a model number for the Arris modem on Amazon? I just looked and everything I see are Cable Modems and none have anywhere near that number of reviews.

Thanks...

[RonTheSavage]

I was on the phone with Comcast yesterday and just could not pull the trigger being they are SO expensive not to mention the data caps. I work from home at times also and the speeds I get from Sonic for the price is just not good. I like what Sonic is trying to do but there are times I feel like a sucker. I'm here in Alameda with my only options are the worst company in the world Comcast, AT&T who are not much better, or Common Networks who wants to walk all over my tile roof to install a dish to get internet signal.

What's this Arris modem thing about? I cant find it on Amazon either. Any help/ideas are very much appreciated.

[VisionCastingBandito]

Sorry, I misread / typed it's the Arris SB6183 with ~3.8k reviews. Anyways, this is dirt simple, you get Ethernet and you can't really configure much, put your choice of WiFi / Ethernet router behind it because this does not do NAT for multiple devices on your LAN. This way you own the cable modem, Comcast can suck it when they try to auto-provision the XFinity Wi-Fi which allows any other Comcast customer by default to login to the captive portal and use your Internet pipe because guess what - it's not their managed equipment so they can't do that, don't pay them monthly for their POS all-in-one Customer Premise Equipment, and wait until Sonic can deliver a product you actually want, or perhaps you might relocate somewhere and Sonic will already have a great product available for you.

At that time you can e-waste the ~$70 investment in your Arris which is useless for anything other than DOCSIS cable, or give it to someone who is stuck with Comcast and tired of paying them monthly for equipment rental which allows them to do things which I think are flat out wrong (don't share my paid Internet connection with other customers, even if they authenticate to the captive portal) - folks can go find open WiFi somewhere else.

Yes the data caps suck, yes the privacy is essentially non-existent, and yes personally I would rather have Gigabit Fiber Internet from Sonic, although after paying nearly $100 per month for ADSL1 and some mailboxes, I can't get anything else except resold U-Verse and for me that would be going backwards.

I hope this is helpful, just kind of tired of seeing folks struggle in the same situation, if you can't get what you want from Sonic then maybe consider ways to minimize the Comcast suckage until your specific situation develops and allows for more options.

Have a great Friday :)

[cakewalk]

I'm sorry but I'm not quite following.

I get this part:

Sorry, I misread / typed it's the Arris SB6183 with ~3.8k reviews.

But the only ones I'm finding are listed as Cable modems - "ARRIS SURFboard SB6183 Modem 16x4 Docsis 3.0 Cable Modem- Retail Packaging- White"

The next part, you keep referring to Comcast.

Anyways, this is dirt simple, you get Ethernet and you can't really configure much, put your choice of WiFi / Ethernet router behind it because this does not do NAT for multiple devices on your LAN. This way you own the cable modem, Comcast can suck it when they try to auto-provision the XFinity Wi-Fi which allows any other Comcast customer by default to login to the captive portal and use your Internet pipe because guess what - it's not their managed equipment so they can't do that, don't pay them monthly for their POS all-in-one Customer Premise Equipment, and wait until Sonic can deliver a product you actually want, or perhaps you might relocate somewhere and Sonic will already have a great product available for you.

So I guess you're telling people how to enjoy Comcast if they have it and this isn't a recommendation for a DSL modem or DSL modem/router?

I also detest Comcast. I'm not thrilled with 10-11 Mbps down and 1.2 - 1.4 Mbps up. The work I do requires probably more uploads than down. I just get them going and do something else while the upload takes place. Worst case and I have *absolutely* nothing else I need to do, my kittens are more than willing to appreciate and enjoy the attention.