High Speed Internet -

[froggin4colorado]

We use Comcast, rarely have issues. Once in a blue moon.

[Swampy101]

I've been on Vonage for 5 years now. Wouldn't do it any other way. All the options, free calling nationwide, can't beat it. You're already paying for internet so it's there.

Just make sure your router supports QoS so you can have it direct phone traffic before anything else. Means nothing to anyone browsing really, but your phone conversations won't get garbled when downloading large web pages/pics/files.

[ryanek9freak]

I had a speedstream DSL modem when I moved here, and I tried everything in the configuration to make it authenticate with Qwest's servers, but had no luck.

ENded up having to go to Best Buy and shell out $70 for a Qwest modem. Really pissed me off.

[Swampy101]

Originally Posted by ryanek9freak

I had a speedstream DSL modem when I moved here, and I tried everything in the configuration to make it authenticate with Qwest's servers, but had no luck.

ENded up having to go to Best Buy and shell out $70 for a Qwest modem. Really pissed me off.

You might have had to upgrade the firmware on it before it would work properly. I did some reading and saw that people had to upgrade their firmware on it before it would work so I just went out and got the latest firmware and did the upgrade before I did anything.

Qwest gave me a modem for free because of installation issues out here in my area and after all was said and done with my whacky network, I ended up using the Qwest provided modem in passthrough mode and my router is doing all the authentication stuff.

Not sure if you had the same modem as me, one of mine was marked Speedstream, another was marked Efficient Networks. Both of mine are exactly the same except one is white and one is black. Efficient Networks used to make the one for Speedstream and Pac Bell among others. All the same modem really, just different branding. The model number was 5802 or something like that. There's a configuration manager you can download to upgrade the firmware and configure the modem as well.

I think what was missing from most modems was authentication over ATM or PPoA where most modems only have PPoE (over Ethernet). Upgrading the firmware would add PPoA which is what Qwest is using right now. They are working on PPoE though.

Another tidbit I found out is that my neighborhood is fed with a T1. So everyone's DSL in my area goes to this one T1. This means that I'm sharing a T1 with multiple people and my Silver Package (the only one that's available obviously) will almost never hit the 1.5mb download speeds that they advertise.

I just got the Gold Package installed at my new office and they got it up and running and said there ya go, have a nice day. Told them waaaait a minute and did some speed tests. Was hitting 800kb download and 200kb upload at 4pm. After a bunch more testing and stuff, he had to move us to another hub because the current hub was 98% full. After the move, we were getting the full 7mb. So another thing you gotta check before you let that Qwest tech go!

I need to verify, but the teck at my office said they guarantee 80% bandwidth and if that's that case, then I need to call since I'm only getting about 50% here at my house.

[ryanek9freak]

yeah, I had a speedstream 4200 and I had access to the configuration utility with the current firmware, and had it set up for PPPoE and the VCI config numbers were at 0 and 32, which is what qwest told me to set it to.

My DSL light would light up, but the modem would not authenticate, no matter what I did to the settings