Internet Providers in Madison? (Middleton: to live, centers, assess)

[Saltinbanqui]

Hi everyone,

I moved to Madison 6 months ago and decided to get internet access from Charter Communications. The service is pretty bad, and even though I am paying for high-speed internet, the connections is quite unreliable.

Any recommendations for a good internet provider, so I can change companies?

Thanks!

[7G9C4J2]

If you have a landline telephone, you might consider using DSL.

Our landline phone provider is TDS Metrocom, and we get both phone and DSL from them. We haven't had any problems with either the phone or the internet service; there have been a very few outages (probably less than five in a decade's time) and any problems are always quickly and competently resolved. One of the things I like a lot about TDS is that they are local (headquartered in Middleton), and their call centers are in the US, staffed by people I can understand when I talk to them.

I think the satellite TV services also offer internet, but I don't have any experience with them. Hopefully some other locals will chime in with their suggestions, too.

[JesseTheK]

On the other hand, DSL uses the existing telephone lines, not fiber optic. Your home's distance from the "Central Office" has a big impact on downtime and speed. I spent 10 years cursing TDS's DSL service (the last four spent trying to arrange a switch to another provider). We were paying $80/month for 700k down/400k up, plus local/long distance phone.

We've got Charter Express now and the download speeds are consistently 8k. Upload, on the other hand, is 1k if I'm lucky. But that's fast enough to download useful files and Skype, so I'm willing to live with it.

The DSLreports.com site offers a firehouse of information (on broadband in general, not just DSL), including ways to assess what's available at your location.

In my experience, calling Charter and going through their "This is how you reset the router" spiel also involves them poking a switch that improves the connection. (Yes I lied once or twice when being baby-talked through reseting my router for the tenth time.)