So the savings is not as much. I have 4 computers always connected to the internet, so 10 MB is needed. Anyone have any ideas of other providers that can save me money?

The DSL options are pretty bad in Nampa, I’ll give you that. Also, as I stated at the beginning of this post (and it is pretty dated) it is about non-business accounts. CableOne business accounts offer persistent IPs and don’t have the restrictions on some TCP ports that I was mentioning. I haven’t dealt with CableOne residential service in about two years now, but I doubt that has changed.

1) Newer subdivision (approx 2004/2005) across from the Idaho Center. For the past several years I kept hearing “No, we don’t offer fiber but your neighborhood is slated for it within the next few months”. FAIL

2) I have been a customer for several years, and i do mean several paying for a business account complete with static IPs and supposedly higher use. I was somewhere in the neighborhood of around $70 to $80 per month for Internet Access and the static IP.

3) 1.5 was the best connection I could get and their Qwest speed test was all too quick to tell me I was getting exactly that speed on the nose. Yet every other speed test in the entire world including my own internal monitoring gear said Qwest was full of it; DSLReports, CNET, etc. etc. told me that I actually got up to 512k once. More frequently the 1.5Mb Qwest stated I was getting was usually around 128k to 384k according to all of the other reports including my own. Equally as frustrating and proof that I truly was not receiving what Qwest promised was watching movies on Hulu. It was a painful experience which reminded me of dial-up in the 90’s. 50 to 60 seconds of buffering followed by about 30 seconds of playback. Try that more than a few times and you quickly realize it isn’t worth the hassle. Downloading a DVD from my Microsoft Technet or MSDN account was an all night affair. Start up the file transfer, go to bed and pray nothing hiccups before waking up the following day. FAIL.

4) Whoever told you Qwest doesn’t have caps has flat out blatantly lied. I’m living proof that Qwest does in fact have caps. As a professionally paid developer/programmer I am frequently on and downloading from my MSDN and Technet accounts. I have NOT ever downloaded a single pirated movie, song, game or illegal anything but sure enough after several days of downloading from my 100% legal Technet account, was greeted to a message in my browser insisting that what I was doing was wrong, taking advantage of the wonderful service they’re offering and my Internet Access was therefore suspended. After informing the tech from Qwest later on the phone that I was 1) a business customer paying twice what residential customers pay, 2) received no notice 3) was doing nothing wrong and 4) There was no mention of any caps at any point at any time when Qwest was happy to sign me up and take my money, I was forced to digitally sign an online document acknowledging that I was in fact taking advantage of them, they were aware of my behavior and next time my account would be canceled. Of course, it was a take-it or leave-it non-negotiable and wholly unilateral arrangement. I’m a software programmer paying for a business account (which in and of itself denotes heavier usage) who makes my living on the Internet and they sever my artery by cutting the wire?!?! FAIL

Then the Tech points me to some obscure URL containing Qwest’s “fair use” policy. 1) This policy was updated AFTER I signed up for service. 2) Was never disclosed to me EVER nor did I agree to any terms for being capped. 3) Obscure and by several person’s own admission in these comments and the author himself is unknown by just about everyone. FAIL

Approximately 7 days later I receive a snail-mail letter reiterating that I had been taking advantage of their resources, they would be explicitly watching my account and activity but I could rectify the whole situation by choosing to upgrade my account to a more expensive package; which they would be more than happy to assist me with. FAIL

Roughly 10 days later, Qwest rates increased anyway. FAIL

5) ActionTek DSL Modems? Seriously? That’s scraping the bottom of the barrel. And their “Best we Offer” line is Motorolla? Ummm, Qwest hasn’t heard of little companies like Cisco or NetGear which offer real hardware? I’m willing to bet that the only company using ActionTek is ActionTek. Also having been a Qwest T1 customer happen to know that they themselves use Cisco; not ActionTek… FAIL.

6) I’m also calling out the claim to their “wonderful” customer service and people always there to answer the phone. I triple dog dare anyone to try to get any information about a business account after Qwest office hours. Nope, Nada; Nobody’s home. FAIL.

7) After about a year the Motorolla DSL modem took its’ last breath. I called up and purchased a brand spankin new “top of the line” Motorolla. After it arrived I had zero connectivity. I literally argued with customer service for days that the phone lines in my five year old house hadn’t magically stopped working between the time the old modem broke and the new one being shipped they finally agreed to send me a replacement. Guess what… It wasn’t my phone lines. The stupid modem came broken; but that stuff happens. The gall to argue with me hellbent that it was my phone lines for days was insulting. Then to add insult to injury while I had paid for a brand new modem they replaced it with a used refurb. I was clued into this fact by the giant sticker on the bottom noting as such. After more days of arguing I decided it was no longer worth trying to recoup even a few dollars over them replacing the new modem I’d received three days earlier with a used one… FAIL

Shall I continue?

And please don’t misunderstand, I’m no fan of Cable One either. Like another poster above there are simply NO viable options in the Treasure Valley (Wireless/ClearWire/ and satellite aren’t viable for technical reasons which include upload limitations amongst other things. It comes down to, which is the lesser of two evils? To which I’d choose c) none of the above. That said, I have found Cable One to be less painful over Qwest. For roughly $80 a month I’m getting a business account, a static IP, a 12Mb connection which typically clocks in at closer to 14/15Mb, have NEVER hit their fair use threshold even downloading the exact same stuff Qwest cut me off for, never been cut-off nor been throttled to the half speed by reaching that threshold, Kids watch NetFlix on the Wii while my Wife and I watch Netflix on the 360 all the while the servers in the garage chug merrily away on Technet downloads, crunching out builds and deploying releases all while maintaining a site to site VPN to Japan which also carries the VOIP which hosts our 800 number. CableOne has been down a couple times and I still choose them over Qwest. At least until something better comes along.

I also disagree with the Author’s claim that you can only connect to CableOne mailboxes/port 25. I have zero problem connecting to my Exchange server sitting in Japan. I also have no issues using Microsoft Outlook to connect to my Gmail or MSN email accounts for either POP3 or SMTP access.

My standard disclaimer applies; Your mileage may vary…

I used to be an employee of a Qwest service center — call center — sub-contracter. These Credit Cards are real. But, you have to follow all their rules…order it online.

HINT number two. Get your modem from ebay. I don’t know if you’ve already set your system up already or not. But for future individuals. Go online to your Qwest account — you can set up an account online if you don’t already have one for your account. And check out WHAT MODEMS Qwest is using NOW — they discontinue using modems. Then, go to eBay and get your modem THERE. Don’t bother paying Qwest for a new one, when you can get one so cheaply.

Hint number three — unless you can not plug in your own toaster, install your internet YOURSELF. It comes with a LARGE color coded, step-by-step sheet. Big, Glazed, and a phone tech is right at your finger tips. He/she is ready to walk you through any problems. It is a Super-simple situation of plugging a cord into the back of a box and the other end into the phone line. Then, one plug for power.
Think you can handle simple steps like that? The lines and the plugs are color coded. You can not plug something into the wrong hole. They are different Types of holds…square, rectangle, round; sound simple? IT IS THAT SIMPLE. I speak from experience.

The hardest part is reading little print on the back of the unit like serial number — to keep handy for your records. (Can you do that part?) OR KNOWING where your phone jack is.
Cheers- from Idaho Falls (if you are Still in AK, like your pix shows, enjoy being close to son I love!)

Neither option in Boise is cost effective or great compared to what’s available in bigger cities. But with CableOne since 2002 I’ve had maybe 3 days their-fault downtime that I can recall (and then various storm outages which wreak havoc on any network.) I’ve called tech support when it was my-fault a couple times and they were not rude. No complaints here.

Found your page when I was looking up what the rate cap actually was for a defect I was filing against a product designed in a city where they laugh at the up speeds we have out here in the “sticks.” Wait until I tell them the best my Idahoan parents can get for any price is 40kbps.

I’ve got Qwest starting on Monday.

I work in film production and I routinely need to upload and download large clips to off site servers, and the caps are simply ridiculous.

I’ve explained my needs to CableOne and their response was “can you set up the transfers for the AM hours”?

Yeah. That’s practical. Screw you CableOne. C’est La Vie.

It’s not unacceptable to do computer security work, is it? I constantly have to remove viruses from clients’ websites at odd hours. Unfortunately the tapping thing causes problems with that - it’ll shut their website off so I can’t fix it. The tapping is also annoying because it is used to log information that should be confidential - for example, passwords, credit card numbers, etc. Sure, they say “that information is kept safe…” But that’s not often the case - people hack into insurance companies, internet service providers, etc.

They monitor the web sites for security and legal protection. there isnt some guy at a screen watching everything you go to, a system has loaded all of the illegal sites ex: child pornography, movie downloading, illegal file sharing. when a COMPUTER sees one of these sites it gets brought to attention and a COMPUTER puts a hold on the accnt until this is reconciled. this is only UNACCEPTABLE to people who love to break the law.