Jeff Key

I had the same problem. I signed up for earthlink last week, and had to end up cancelling because I could not work with their tech support.

I use Earthlink's online chat, with roughly 50/50 split between talking to complete idiots (suggesting I empty IE's cache when I can't even ping a host I know is up, let alone connect to any services running on it) and talking to guys who absolutely know what they're doing, to a point that I wonder somebody this knowledgable works customer service.

As for using cable companies to access the net - I'm staying w/ Earthlink because my upload is 384 kbit and I get three public IP addresses (so I don't have to NAT my home network). I love calling cable companies' sales and asking about upload speeds. They always say that a normal person only uses download, and all the stuff you can do with broadband, like sharing pictures, video conferencing or telecommuting and so on don't really use upload at all ;)

Comcast has upload at 384k as well, and up to 4MB download. I've been very impressed with their service, and the price (the plan I am on gives me cable and Internet for LESS than the price of cable alone) is great!

Hey Jeff! Same problem, but with AT&T. Also, I wanted to make a complaint after 7 calls with no results and talking to a rude guy, but he wouldn't give me a last name or employee #. plus AT&T doesn't actually escalate calls to management when you demand it (i finally got a letter saying to go back through their customer service line), so i said F U and switched to speakeasy DSL. With Speakeasy, I won't even need local telephone service. Yay!

That sux...sounds like a good idea to switch. I've been on Mediacom (sister company of Comcast) Cable for a few years and have been very happy.

Jerry: Haha, I tried chat. Told the guy the same thing (no ping, nothing) and he wanted to know what error I was getting in my browser. Click. Sounds like you have a good deal. The new cable upload speed is as good or better than my old DSL, which was pretty pitiful. The only stuff that's going through that side of the pipe are Remote Desktop and music, so I don't need much.

Darrell: Bravo! I'm getting ~3Mb. 33% faster than my old DSL.

Geoff: Ouch, what a mess! I'm glad you mentioned the local telco -- now that I'm on cable I won't need it either!

Erik: Glad to hear it. I've been leery about the whole cable thing for a while, but from what I've heard it's much better than it was a few years ago. I'm a very happy camper so far.

My recent descent into dsl hell... I've been an earthlink/mindspring customer since '98 (dsl since early 2000). In March, I decided to move all the way across the hall to a bigger place. Earthlink told us they first had to cut the service before moving it, and it would take a week to get it on in the new place. Since I'd be moving stuff in the evenings after work, a week without dsl didn't seem so bad. On March 9th the dsl went away in the old place. After a few weeks earthlink said they couldn't deliver service to the new location! Great, whatever, so fine, I'll use someone else. Two weeks later (late-April) I had sbcyahoo working for two days, then it suddenly dies. After a few days and some phone calls, come to find out that earthlink has, without any warning, asking, getting permission, whatever, just up and decided they can provide service at my new location after all and takes over the line for themselves. Called them and they said they'd release the line immediately, but after a few weeks they hadn't (also there was also no dsl signal on the line to try to use). Cut to the end (over 50 phone calls)... had to get a second phone line and finally got sbcyahoo up and running on that line June 11th.

+1 for Comcast Cable

I've have had their service here for about 4 years. Good support response and good speed.

Bravo, Noel! You definitely win first prize. Ugh.

Adam: That makes me feel better..

Just cancelled my Earthlink service.  They want to offshore jobs, then I don't have to do business with them.