high speed internet (York, Tega Cay: home, transfer, live in)

[PA Family]

Are there any other options for internet access besides Comporium for Tega Cay? I am currently paying twice as much as I paid in Philly for high speed which seems crazy! Thanks in advance!

[moedog]

Not really, Comporium provides both cable and DSL internet there. I will say Comporium cable internet is about $5 a month cheaper than Time Warner, however, I agree the DSL service is pricey---costs the same as their Cable internet! Obviously, they wish to encourage people to subscribe to their other cable services...

[kelle]

I am also shocked at the lack of options for high speed internet in York County! I currently pay $45 a month for high speed cable modem in Phoenix, and I can't believe the increase in price for unlimited access! If I am correct I will be paying close to $100 a month for unlimited hours...ouch! If I'm wrong on that pricing please feel free to correct me...

[marndt]

$120.00 is my total cable bill and we have wireless internet, HD DVR with HD package and HBO...
The high speed cable internet is only around $40 or so dollars a month. They also have specials when you sign up...Ours was $19.99 for the first 6 months... Overall very pleased with the cost.

[moedog]

Comporium cable internet is 44.95 a month, and is a very good, dependable, service. You do not have to subscribe to cable to get this service, but if you bundle with several Comporium services, you will get $5 off EACH service you subscribe to. Currently there is a special on cable internet, with half priced installation (usually $49.95, including modem) and first month free.

[kelle]

Thanks for the clarification on the cost! Those prices sound more in line with what we pay here in Phoenix.

[MilesBFree]

We purchased DSL form Comporium, but when the service technician showed up and started to connect a cable modem, I asked him what was going on. He said that he had an order for high speed over cable, not DSL.

I called the customer service line, and was told that they would have to research the matter and send the guy back another day. They later called us back and said they do not offer DSL in my area (new part of Tega Cay) and we could have a cable modem or nothing.

Comporium limits your transfer rate (i.e.- not just bandwidth, but also total bytes transferred) for their cable data service. This has become a huge issue for us, since I work from home a fair amount.

The symptoms are:

- Vonage quality degrades around the middle of the month (assuming this is when we hit their transfer limit?)

- Around the middle of the month, we can do NOTHING else when one person is using Vonage. No email, nothing, zip, nada. As soon as the other person gets off the phone, we can once again get back to work.

- Instant messaging services disconnect, VPN for work drops, etc. when one person does something like transfers a large file in email, calls using Vonage, or watches something on YouTube

The plans and associated transfer limits are described here:

Comporium Communications

I don't know for sure but this seems like a somewhat recent change, like in the past 3 - 6 months. At least the technical issues; there is no date on the fee schedule above.

I guess my choices are to go to a more expensive plan, or else check out wireless services such as Clearwire, Sprint's wirless data service, etc.

[MilesBFree]

Oh, one other thing regarding Comporium's internet service: their DNS servers* seem to have recurring issues. I don't know if they have their own servers, or use an external service for this, but we used to see frequent DNS issues with our Comporium service.

These manifest as errors such as "error looking up google.com" or "host not found" when you darn well know that google or CNN has not gone anywhere.

The solution to this is to subscribe to a 3rd party DNS service such as dynDNS's recursive DNS:

DynDNS: Recursive DNS -- increased reliability, faster DNS query resolutions

No more DNS-related errors, and perceived performance is improved as it takes less time to look up the domains that are part of the URL you are trying to access. This requires configuring your router and may not be for the faint of heart / non-techies, but if any of the above makes sense you should probably be able to do this.

*DNS is how the URL to a web site is resolved. It looks up addresses such as "http://www.city-data.com/forum/york-lancaster-counties/180822-high-speed-internet.html#post2972370" and resolves the domain portion of the address, e.g.- city-data.com. Your browser then uses the information from DNS to connect you to the server at city-data.com. That server then handles the rest of the URL after that.

[bibit612]

MilesBFree - is fiber optics cable? When I called Comporium after we bought our new 4-in-1 printer, the person on the line said we are neither DSL, cable or modem. We are fiber optic connection. We do have all our services through Comporium (I live in Ft. Mill), upgraded to a faster modem, and have no DNS problems whatsoever. I do find their long distance service outrageous...we also have our alarm system through them.

[MilesBFree]

bibit612 - fiber optic is a different media, but can deliver different types of communications services on top of it.

When I said cable, I was thinking a media type of the plain old coax cable variety, carrying broadband signals (some of the bands are cable TV channels, some data, some voice. broad = many different channels).

DSL is usually delivered over twisted pair wiring (Cat5 ethernet cables are one example). It is baseband, meaning in effect one channel.

Fiber optic is likely delivering broadband, a combination of cable TV channels, high speed data service, and voice.

Sorry if this is oversimplified...