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Mediacom vs. Qwest Internet

J

jeff0514

Member
Apr 12, 2006
585
16
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Ankeny, ia
I have been on Qwest DSL for many years. However, I live on the outskirts of Ankeny and have been stuck with 1.5 Mbps download speed. They recently made 3 Mbps available, so I upgraded. However, I've had problems lately with connectivity or speed. For example, I was only getting 0.2-0.3 Mbps download speeds last night and this morning. Had a technician come out to look at things and they said its because I'm trying to pull 3 Mbps over a very long distance (since I live on the outer edge of Ankeny. Had a similar problem before upgrading to 3 Mbps a few weeks ago, but I flat out couldn't connect to the internet then. They checked things out both times and were receiving lots of errors over my line, which they said build up over time to the point where you don't have connectivity or its slowed dramatically.

I have gotten tired of these disruptions, so I tentatively scheduled Mediacom to come out and install their 12 Mbps service Saturday morning. Its going to cost me close to $20 more a month over the first year and $5 more the second year. I understand I can save myself $5 a month by buying my own cable modem.

Anyone have any input on this? Should I stick with DSL and the periodic disruptions or pay $20 more a month and switch to Mediacom. I have DirecTV right now and have no plans to switch my TV to Mediacom. If anything, I would drop TV service all together and watch OTA and streaming with the faster speeds. If only I could get over being without a handful of channels/shows.
 
I have the 18MB package w/ mediacom. I wish Qwest would run Fiber here in our Metro! Their 60MB/sec package is $10 cheaper than Mediacom's 18MB package :-(
 
I went from Mediacom HSI to 1.5 DSL back to Mediacom HSI.

Mediacom is noticeably faster on downloads. DSL is noticeably faster on uploads.

Mediacom costs me a lot more money since I don't have their other crap products.

Both are reliable for me. DSL probably a little more reliable.

Been waiting for fiber from Qwest forever.
 
Qwest ran fiber to the node around a year ago here. I already had their 1.5 mbps service at the time. Now I have their 7 mbps service and every time I check it it's almost always running at least 6.5 mbps.
 
i prefer mediacom internet over qwest even though its more expensive...just wish that the customer service with mediacom didnt suck so bad
 
jeff0514 said:
I have been on Qwest DSL for many years. However, I live on the outskirts of Ankeny and have been stuck with 1.5 Mbps download speed. They recently made 3 Mbps available, so I upgraded. However, I've had problems lately with connectivity or speed. For example, I was only getting 0.2-0.3 Mbps download speeds last night and this morning. Had a technician come out to look at things and they said its because I'm trying to pull 3 Mbps over a very long distance (since I live on the outer edge of Ankeny. Had a similar problem before upgrading to 3 Mbps a few weeks ago, but I flat out couldn't connect to the internet then. They checked things out both times and were receiving lots of errors over my line, which they said build up over time to the point where you don't have connectivity or its slowed dramatically.

I have gotten tired of these disruptions, so I tentatively scheduled Mediacom to come out and install their 12 Mbps service Saturday morning. Its going to cost me close to $20 more a month over the first year and $5 more the second year. I understand I can save myself $5 a month by buying my own cable modem.

Anyone have any input on this? Should I stick with DSL and the periodic disruptions or pay $20 more a month and switch to Mediacom. I have DirecTV right now and have no plans to switch my TV to Mediacom. If anything, I would drop TV service all together and watch OTA and streaming with the faster speeds. If only I could get over being without a handful of channels/shows.
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How does it cost less the second year? Usually the discounts are in the first year not the second.

I have mediacom online at my home, my parents home, and our office I don't pay a rental fee for a modem at any of the 3 and I use their equipment.

Don't forget that with mediacom you get access to espn3.com I am with mediacom because it is the fastest option the service works just fine. At my office I am right next to one of qwests central stations which does allow me faster service. They offer me up to 200 mbps service, but their rates are alot higher than mediacoms.
 
I had a similar situation to the OP. I have had qwest 1.5 Mbps for about a year +/-. I recently canceled my dishnetwork because I just dont get $60+/mo of use out of it. My plan was to watch TV episodes over the internet from CBS, ABC and NBC etc and stream movies from Netflix. I upgraded to the 3Mbps plan because that was the fastest service offered in Waukee and I was having issues with Netflix streaming. After about a month +/- I was having what seemed to be even more issues with streaming so I called qwest. The service guy proceeded to tell me that qwest has "oversold" subscriptions in Waukee and no matter what service I had I wasnt getting the benefit because the capacity of the service lines were not high enough to support the volume of traffic during peak hrs (the typical times that I wanted to use it). It turns out that I was dupped into paying another 10 bucks a month for nothing.

I was ****** to say the least. I proceeded to tell them to cancel the upgrade and I would be looking for other internet service providers. The only issue that I have with Mediacom is that the builder of our house didnt run cable from the rear of the yard to the house when the house was built so I would have to have someone come out and bury the cable, tear up my yard. On top of that I still have time left on my qwest contract so I would have to pay a termination fee ($200).

The moral of the story is dont trust qwest to provide the speed that you are paying for, if you are having issues it is likely because they are screwing you and everyone else in your area over with slow connection speeds.
 
CykoAGR said:
The moral of the story is dont trust qwest to provide the speed that you are paying for, if you are having issues it is likely because they are screwing you and everyone else in your area over with slow connection speeds.
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Don't trust Mediacom, either... the difference of course, is that you don't run into these equipment issues with cable as opposed to DSL.

But yeah, I would recommend everybody, just every once in a while, go to speedtest.net and run a test of their connection speed. If you aren't getting what you're paying for, call and complain.

I was getting 1.5 Mbps on Mediacom for at least a couple weeks, maybe longer, so finally I called and complained.. they told me that I should be getting at least 8-9 Mbps (since I'm paying for "10" or "12"). After showing that I was clearly not getting anywhere near that, and that it had nothing to do with my router, they scheduled for a tech to come by.
About an hour later, my internet speed shot up to 10 Mbps, and has been fine since (drops to 5-6 during peak usage hours).

Clearly something was wrong on their end, or if I'm to be a conspiracy theorist about it, they just choose random people to destroy your internet speed and see how long they can get away with it.
 
Medicom

It was half this before I unhooked my camera.

1283380324.png
 
I only had a few outages with Mediacom when I was living in BFE, but service was only gone for a couple hours so I could live with it. In a place where my only option is Qwest or the cable provider that charges 2x as much, the loads are slow, I've had connectivity issues, and it just plain sucks in comparison.

I honestly wouldn't get Mediacom for internet only, but the internet for me has been extremely reliable everywhere I've had it, with the exception being one house I lived in in Ames.
 
I just switched from mediacom to quest.

I can't justify paying about 85.00 a month for basic cable (23 channels and only about 6 come in clearly) and internet when I can get Dish Network 120 plus package, dvr, and internet for less than that by combining dish and Qwest.

I'll be buying my own DSL modem to use with Qwest... any suggestions?
 
Last edited:
temperflare said:
I just switched from mediacom to quest simply because of the crap TV package.

I'll be buying my own DSL modem to use with Qwest... any suggestions?
Click to expand...

I've found it really difficult to connect my router to Qwest's. I may not be computer savvy enough, but I've been able to go from Mediacom's to mine without trouble, but this one I've had trouble with. It keeps wanting me to register my router as a computer and blocks me from the internet until I can do that. I don't know how to get around it and at this point it's not worth the hassle of figuring it out. That's the biggest thing I've experienced.
 
cloneswereall said:
I've found it really difficult to connect my router to Qwest's. I may not be computer savvy enough, but I've been able to go from Mediacom's to mine without trouble, but this one I've had trouble with. It keeps wanting me to register my router as a computer and blocks me from the internet until I can do that. I don't know how to get around it and at this point it's not worth the hassle of figuring it out. That's the biggest thing I've experienced.
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I don't blame you there. If I had to do that each time I wouldn't put up with it for very long. Lucky for me, I don't have a router. Just one computer.
 
I also live on the outer edge of Ankeny (west side). I upgraded to Qwest 7mbps about a month ago and am very happy with it. Netflix streams well, but there are certain peak times of the day like early evening when download speeds seem slower. Some newer neighborhoods with a lot of school age kids have been having bandwidth issues due to the high volume of users that are streaming, etc.
 
If you can get 7mbps (or up) with Qwest, that is the way to go. Mediacom is horrible imo but still better than 1.5m. Also, Mediacom cable is junk when compared to DTV or Dish.
 
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