[BrianRF]

Thanks as always, Stylo. You've offered some great advice on every thread I've put on this board. I appreciate it.

[Yellow Saltbox]

YES, you use Aquarion for water, UNLESS you have a well, which many many people in Westport do. Do you know which you have??

[BrianRF]

I don't, actually. Will look into it.

Originally Posted by Yellow Saltbox

YES, you use Aquarion for water, UNLESS you have a well, which many many people in Westport do. Do you know which you have??

[mlassoff]

Have you gone through inspection? If you have a well, you should get that inspected before closing...

[Comp625]

Originally Posted by Stylo

I've had great luck with it. Wonderful customer service and it's been reliable. I had Optimum/Cablevision and hated the ancient/slow box. The Internet was a little faster but there was more downtime. I plan on cancelling cable and trying U-Verse's top speed.

Over here in Stratford, Cablevision is far superior. I rarely ever have downtime on both Internet or TV (can't recall the last downtime aside from Hurricane Sandy -- even then, it was only down for a whole day).

Cable performance can vary by city/town/neighborhood/street. For Internet, each household essentially shares a "node" (think of it as a shared pool of bandwidth). If/when that shared pool is saturated, things become slow -- especially during primetime hours when everyone is use the Internet simultaneously. I live next to a guy who works for Cablevision, so I bet he does some maintenance to keep his own neighborhood stuff up to snuff.

Furthermore, Cablevision's internet service in CT is widely regarded as better far superior to that of service other parts of Connecticut and especially in NYC boroughs.

• Many folks in Bronx, Brooklyn, etc. complain about Internet speeds because you have TONS of people (in shared apartment complexes) who are all trying to access that same node simultaneously. Even when I was living in a Stamford apartment, I had experienced some of the same speed issues.
• I have friends in Central CT who have Comcast, and their internet speeds are poor, customer service is poor, etc. The only highlight seems to be better cable boxes -- something that Cablevision is actively trying to fix with its Samsung and Sony boxes that they've been distributing over the last year.

Specific household issues (e.g. a lot of downtime) may be due to poor a coaxial line in a neighborhood and/or in your own household. For example, many issues tend to be related to the Signal Strength. Not to get too technical, but the cable's signal strength, signal-to-noise, etc. have to all be between between "X" and "Y." If it's too strong (greater than X) or too weak (less than Y), you have stability/speed issues for both TV and Internet.

Stylo - I'm surprised to hear of your issues in Milford. Again, generally, CT residents' chief complaint about Cablevision tends to be price. I wonder if Cablevision started slacking on node upgrades, etc. since Milford is on the border of its territory. Beyond Milford, I think it turns into Comcast territory (e.g. Orange).

BrianRF - If you are an enthusiast (e.g. you play online games or do a lot of tech stuff), then I would suggest trying Cablevision first. If you are looking for simple TV or Internet, I think either AT&T's U-Verse or Cablevision is fine. I have a ton of non-tech friends who love/hate both companies. It ultimately depends on who is offering them a better price.

[Stylo]

Generally speaking, I think Optimum's Internet is faster. U-Verse's set top box is far superior though.

[Stratford, Ct. Resident]

Originally Posted by Comp625

Over here in Stratford, Cablevision is far superior. I rarely ever have downtime on both Internet or TV (can't recall the last downtime aside from Hurricane Sandy -- even then, it was only down for a whole day).

Cable performance can vary by city/town/neighborhood/street. For Internet, each household essentially shares a "node" (think of it as a shared pool of bandwidth). If/when that shared pool is saturated, things become slow -- especially during primetime hours when everyone is use the Internet simultaneously. I live next to a guy who works for Cablevision, so I bet he does some maintenance to keep his own neighborhood stuff up to snuff.

Furthermore, Cablevision's internet service in CT is widely regarded as better far superior to that of service other parts of Connecticut and especially in NYC boroughs.

• Many folks in Bronx, Brooklyn, etc. complain about Internet speeds because you have TONS of people (in shared apartment complexes) who are all trying to access that same node simultaneously. Even when I was living in a Stamford apartment, I had experienced some of the same speed issues.
• I have friends in Central CT who have Comcast, and their internet speeds are poor, customer service is poor, etc. The only highlight seems to be better cable boxes -- something that Cablevision is actively trying to fix with its Samsung and Sony boxes that they've been distributing over the last year.

Specific household issues (e.g. a lot of downtime) may be due to poor a coaxial line in a neighborhood and/or in your own household. For example, many issues tend to be related to the Signal Strength. Not to get too technical, but the cable's signal strength, signal-to-noise, etc. have to all be between between "X" and "Y." If it's too strong (greater than X) or too weak (less than Y), you have stability/speed issues for both TV and Internet.

Stylo - I'm surprised to hear of your issues in Milford. Again, generally, CT residents' chief complaint about Cablevision tends to be price. I wonder if Cablevision started slacking on node upgrades, etc. since Milford is on the border of its territory. Beyond Milford, I think it turns into Comcast territory (e.g. Orange).

BrianRF - If you are an enthusiast (e.g. you play online games or do a lot of tech stuff), then I would suggest trying Cablevision first. If you are looking for simple TV or Internet, I think either AT&T's U-Verse or Cablevision is fine. I have a ton of non-tech friends who love/hate both companies. It ultimately depends on who is offering them a better price.

Sony cable boxes? When did they start distributing those? The Samsung boxes don't need to be rebooted like the Scientific Atlanta boxes did, but the Samsung boxes are painfully s.l.o.w.

[Stylo]

My dentist got one of the new Optimum Scientific Atlantic cable boxes. Holy slow! Clunky interface that still looks dated.

The Samsung U-Verse boxes I have are excellent.

[BrianRF]

The "boxes" you refer to are for internet or you mean the cable boxes? I think we'll do Directv for TV, U-verse for internet.

[Comp625]

Originally Posted by Stratford, Ct. Resident

Sony cable boxes? When did they start distributing those? The Samsung boxes don't need to be rebooted like the Scientific Atlanta boxes did, but the Samsung boxes are painfully s.l.o.w.

I think they may have only distributed the Samsung boxes to NJ and/or NY folks now that I think about it. Candidly, I built my own Home Theater PC ("HTPC") that has a TV tuner - the setup replaces the ancient cable boxes entirely.