at&t outage

[patric]

...apparently affecting at&t internet across several states, and for several days now.
Sites load slowly at first then connection dies completely.  Call center not to eager to acknowledge problem in first 15 minutes of call but eventually volunteered to say "its not nationwide" which was a surprise since it was a question I didnt ask.

https://forums.att.com/t5/AT-T-Internet-Equipment/Springfield-MO-Service-Issue/m-p/5372454#M31575

[sgrizzle]

Cox threatened to cap me and I ended up signing a 2-year with AT&T. I have more outages and slowdowns in any given month with AT&T than I had in 15 years with Cox. Planning on switching to their Fiber, but it's all the same backbone so probably won't help. Maybe they offer a wireless on their fiber plans that can go through a closed door.

[swake]

Cox threatened to cap me and I ended up signing a 2-year with AT&T. I have more outages and slowdowns in any given month with AT&T than I had in 15 years with Cox. Planning on switching to their Fiber, but it's all the same backbone so probably won't help. Maybe they offer a wireless on their fiber plans that can go through a closed door.

I had U-Verse for a time last year, and I signed a contract and it sucked so bad they let me out after six months. AT&T is terrible.

[erfalf]

I had U-Verse for a time last year, and I signed a contract and it sucked so bad they let me out after six months. AT&T is terrible.

But what's the alternative. No Cox up north here. CableOne's data caps are so stupidly low that it's embarrasing. And besides that. Even at 100 MBPS, my Netflix buffered more with it than it did with the AT&T 6 MBPS. It's a bad joke.

[Hoss]

Interesting.  I have Cox 150mbps and no issues with streaming services.  No buffering.  Yes, they cap, but my cap is 1TB (that's 1000 gigabytes).

I barely use a quarter of that a month.  I'm sure those with larger families may fare not as well, but I don't see, even with Netflix, how you could go over that.  Maybe I just don't use a lot of streaming services.

Cox for sure isn't perfect (I dropped their TV service last year) but their internet reliability is tough to beat.  But, if AT&T offers 1gbps fiber like they've been talking about in the near future, I'm done with Cox.

[erfalf]

Interesting.  I have Cox 150mbps and no issues with streaming services.  No buffering.  Yes, they cap, but my cap is 1TB (that's 1000 gigabytes).

I barely use a quarter of that a month.  I'm sure those with larger families may fare not as well, but I don't see, even with Netflix, how you could go over that.  Maybe I just don't use a lot of streaming services.

Cox for sure isn't perfect (I dropped their TV service last year) but their internet reliability is tough to beat.  But, if AT&T offers 1gbps fiber like they've been talking about in the near future, I'm done with Cox.

So my experience (take it for what it's worth):

We watch all television over the internet, or I have all of our owned media set up on a server (using PLEX) that doesn't actually use any data. If I had to guess I would say that the home server is only used about a quarter of the time.

We have AT&T DSL. Originally 6 MBPS, then 10 or 11 (I honestly can't recall). The limit has always been a bit over 1 TB. And we generally used about 75% a month. AT&T has outages often, but I never had an issue with buffering, all be it we never were able to stream anything at super high definition.

At one point the outages were driving us nuts, so we switched to CableOne (our Cox in Bartlesville). They had 100 MBPS speed and a cap of 300 GB (less than a third of AT&T). The problem was that all the streaming services were able to stream all the data possible at that speed, so we got to 300 GB in a heart beat compared to what we used to do. 300 GB at that speed is just way WAY too low. Videos on Facebook and Twitter will eat it up at a pretty alarming rate at that speed. And the other thing about CableOne, was the buffering. While we did get near 100 MBPS often, about a third of the time it was more like 1 or 2. Something about other heavy users in the area at the same time is the garbage I get from the help desk. It was just unacceptable. So while AT&T was unpleasant, it was still a better option. Those are the only two wired options in our area unfortunately. BTC is making their way, but for now it is just commercial applications. Bummer.

[swake]

Interesting.  I have Cox 150mbps and no issues with streaming services.  No buffering.  Yes, they cap, but my cap is 1TB (that's 1000 gigabytes).

I barely use a quarter of that a month.  I'm sure those with larger families may fare not as well, but I don't see, even with Netflix, how you could go over that.  Maybe I just don't use a lot of streaming services.

Cox for sure isn't perfect (I dropped their TV service last year) but their internet reliability is tough to beat.  But, if AT&T offers 1gbps fiber like they've been talking about in the near future, I'm done with Cox.

I think I had the 60mb plan with AT&T, and that was a max I never hit. 25mb was the best I ever saw. And daily there were times where I wasn't getting 1mb and beyond that the modem crashed constantly.

I have the 150mb plan with Cox and regularly get speeds closer to 200mb when I test. I just now tested and got 182mb.

[patric]

I had U-Verse for a time last year, and I signed a contract and it sucked so bad they let me out after six months. AT&T is terrible.

I know they are phasing out U-verse TV, and even rebranded U-verse internet (ADSL2+ or VDSL2) to simply at&t Internet.

[TeeDub]

So my experience (take it for what it's worth):


At one point the outages were driving us nuts, so we switched to CableOne (our Cox in Bartlesville).

I hear good things about BartNet from a friend of mine that direction.  (Really, I just don't hear much grumbling...   He doesn't have many real alternatives.)   No personal experience though.

I have the 150mb plan with Cox and regularly get speeds closer to 200mb when I test. I just now tested and got 182mb.

I had the 300Mbps promotion to $79.99/mo for 12 months.   Once that ended I dropped to the 100 until that price went over the $80 i had been paying as well..    I am currently on their 30Mbps.    

I have 3 kids and a wife at home and typically there is at least one stream going and many times there are 3.    Strangely, except for large downloads (game updates, large file transfers) I can't tell any difference in the speeds and everything seems to work fine.

[Conan71]

We are stuck with 12MB DSL via Centurylink at our B & B so I ventured out and got Hughesnet Gen 5 last summer.  It. was. awful.  It would show 40MB on speed tests but performed much slower than the DSL would.  Their "no cap" on a 75 gig plan was BS. They would shut it down to 1MB after you exceeded the limit but we could always purchase more data al carte for what I thought was an outrageous fee.  Their supposed video optimization never worked.  From people we talked to in the know, they said our data consumption for streaming Netflix was excessive.

Needless to say, they have been kicked to the curb and their customer service was atrocious.  They figure since their competition is limited in rural areas most people will just take it.  On our new venture in the village, we are next to the Centurylink switch building so we will get 20MB there.

[Hoss]

I think I had the 60mb plan with AT&T, and that was a max I never hit. 25mb was the best I ever saw. And daily there were times where I wasn't getting 1mb and beyond that the modem crashed constantly.

I have the 150mb plan with Cox and regularly get speeds closer to 200mb when I test. I just now tested and got 182mb.

I don't get that fast but typically I do get more.  Just wish their upload was a little less asymmetrical.

[rebound]

I know they are phasing out U-verse TV, and even rebranded U-verse internet (ADSL2+ or VDSL2) to simply at&t Internet.

I run UVerse for everything.  TV and Internet.   Wife and I both work from home when not travelling.  She regularly does video conferences with EMEA, LATAM etc.   She's hard-wired and I work wireless.  The occasional outages are rare, but do happen.   Wired speed generally matches our plan.  I do have issues regularly with wireless speeds.  I've played with the channels and such and have improved it, but think I need a better router to make significant improvements.   Can stream movies fine wired, not so much wireless.  Overall though, we are happy with it.

[swake]

I run UVerse for everything.  TV and Internet.   Wife and I both work from home when not travelling.  She regularly does video conferences with EMEA, LATAM etc.   She's hard-wired and I work wireless.  The occasional outages are rare, but do happen.   Wired speed generally matches our plan.  I do have issues regularly with wireless speeds.  I've played with the channels and such and have improved it, but think I need a better router to make significant improvements.   Can stream movies fine wired, not so much wireless.  Overall though, we are happy with it.

The wireless router that came with the service was garbage. I didn't use it.

[swake]

I don't get that fast but typically I do get more.  Just wish their upload was a little less asymmetrical.

You can get a symmetrical connection, but it will cost. I don't know that Cox has that option except for business service.

[Hoss]

You can get a symmetrical connection, but it will cost. I don't know that Cox has that option except for business service.

No they don't.  But other markets have residential uploads at 30 or 50.  Why do we have just 10?