Mediacom

[CYdTracked]

Qwest's speed is 1.5MB/download (can get up to 7MB) and 256k upload. Mediacom's upload is also 256k but has a higher download speed.

Qwest.

Actually Qwest is 1.5 MB download 896k upload not 256. The 256 upload comes with the 256 download package not the 1.5 MB.

Like someone else mentioned, unless you are a gaming geek you won't notice a difference. In fact there are some myths behind Mediacom's actual speed and what they advertise. If you want to test your actual download and upload speeds this is a good site: http://www.dslreports.com/speedtest

Here is the biggest difference between cable internet and DSL.

Cable: Shared bandwidth. The line coming into your house is shared with your neighbors so you will never get the max bandwidth unless you are the only one on your node using it. If you have several neighbors that use cable internet and some of those are gamers or constantly downloading large ammounts of data it greatly decreases bandwidth for everyone on that node. Also, Mediacom tends to "cap" their upload speeds which is where some of the things you may use online such as instant messengers, FTP, online gaming, etc. that send data back is where you might notice the differences.

DSL: The line coming into your house is dedicated just to you. This means no matter how much your neighbors use DSL, that line is not shared with your neighbors and you will always have 100% utilization of available bandwidth.

If you do mostly web surfing, email, or occasional downloading of media you will not notice any difference between the 2 and if anything maybe even think the DSL is faster even though Mediacom advertises as being faster in reality they are about the same if not slightly slower than Qwest in some aspects. I've had both and I have not noticed any decrease in performance of my internet since switching to Qwest and in fact it's been much more reliable than Mediacom.

 

[cytech]

the previous post here is completely wrong.........

Mediacom guarentee's that you get 5 mbps but you can get more, he is correct that it is shared but you can actually get more then 5 mbps it is just guarenteed that you get 5. If you are constantly getting below 5mbps with mediacom it is likely there is a wiring problem in your home.

The upload speed with mediacom is 256. And I have never heard of a quest dsl line with 896 upload with quest I know that their basic $30 a month is only 256 upload though. (Edit: After doing this I did a little more looking and I was incorrect about the 896 upload. That must be something new they started offering)

You will notice a difference between the 2 with basic web browsing. Mediacom will be alot faster on websites with alot of multimedia options on them. If the website is mostly text based you will not notice a difference at all.

If you download files on the internet you will notice a really BIG difference as mediacom is tons faster in this area as well.

I can't fully comment on the des moines area, but I can on the ames and cedar rapids area. And for internet junkies it is a big downgrade to goto quest DSL

Edit:
as for the prices after doing a little research....
Mediamcom is $55 per month for the 5mpbs/256 kbps servic
Mediacom max is $65 per month for 10mbps/1mbps
Quest regular is $15 per month for 256kbps/256kbps
Quest Deluxe is $31.99 per month for 1.5mbps/896kbps
Quest Premier is $41.99 per month for 7mbps/896kbps

All Quest fee's exclude Modem rental which is $5 or $8 per month depending on which you choose, Not all Quest services are availble in all areas, the premier service is only available if you live very close to thier stations. I have never seen a area where it is actually available so I have not personally used it before so can't comment on it.
Also all prices mentioned are Normal prices and exclude any bundle discounts or other promotions there might be

Edit part 2:
Also I base my opinion here from my experience mostly in the cedar rapids area. I do computer repair work, and I do onsite service frequently, and over the last 2 years I would say I have been in between 100-200 different homes in the cedar rapids area that have high speed internet wheather it be mcleod cable modem or DSL, Quest DSL, Wireless Highspeed, and Mediacom. So I have tested, setup, used these services over a wide area.

 

[CYdTracked]

http://www.qwest.com/residential/internet/pricing.html Check out the 2nd option:

Qwest Choice™ DSL Deluxe with MSN® Premium
Up to 1.5Mbps download/
Up to 896Kbps upload

I would not consider my post completely wrong. Cable internet is shared bandwidth, DSL is dedicated. That is the bottom line.

I live in Des Moines and have used both in the same house. I don't notice any difference and the upload speeds I get with Qwest blew away Mediacoms when I ran tests. For what most people use internet for 1.5 to 5 or 8 MB download you will probably never tell the difference. Mediacom went from 1.5 to 3 MB when I had them and I never could tell it was any faster after that change. I know of people in town here that have had terrible luck with Mediacom speeds in some neighborhoods.

I've never had an outage with Qwest, have had several with Mediacom and then you get the pleasure of waiting on hold forever to talk to one of their idiot tech guys that knows nothing. I do IT work for a living and refuse to call on something unless I have exhausted all troubleshooting options so it's not like I'm one of those people that haven't checked all the connections, rebooted, etc and just overlooked something when there is a problem.

Everyone has their own expiriences with both companies but I'm sooooo glad I ditched Mediacom because Dish Network and Qwest have by far the better customer service and support plus a better bang for your buck I think. The only time Mediacom ever wanted to budge with me was when I called to disconnect and by then it was too late to win me over after all the problems and BS I had with them.

 

[ISUFan22]

Qwest allows you to buy a DSL modem, from them or elsewhere. So the comment about the cost of renting a DSL modem is not completely true.

And the prices are not correct for Qwest either - when factoring bundling with a Qwest phone and a 2 year agreement - affording you a cheaper rate for life.

 

[garn91]

FWI, Mediacom just upgraded their internet speeds:

5/256 is now 8/512
10/1 is now 15/1

I can testifiy to what Trav had to say. I cann't notice any difference between 5 down & 8 down.

 

[CYdTracked]

I'm not sure what my Qwest modem cost me but I got the basic model pretty cheap and they upgraded it to wireless modem for free. Didn't matter to me because I just plug it into a wireless router I have anyways. Mediacom you can buy one from but they aren't cheap and if you want to go buy one on your own you have to make sure it's one they support. If you rent the modem from Mediacom it's another $5 a month on your bill.

 

[ISUFan22]

It used to be $10 a month to rent a cable modem from Mediacom. We bought a Linksys modem shortly after having their service.

At the end of the month, we're completely Mediacom free and back to DirecTV and new Qwest DSL customers.

All is right in the world.

 

[cytech]

Yes I forgot to clarify in my post that with both mediacom and quest you can buy your own cable modems or dsl modems to either get rid of rental fees in quests case or lower the over all fees with the mediacom numbers. But I figured it is best to leave out any promotions or bundling discounts as both services have those.

And to travman you are right I went a little overboard on the completely wrong thing I am sorry.
As for 896kbps upload speeds yes you would get much faster with that then mediacom except you only utilize the upload portion of the connection when you are send files from your computer to another. So you would really only notice difference with hosting a web server/ftp server. P2P uploading, or sending files attached to e-mails. The upload speed has little to no effect on viewing websites or downloading.

 

[DaddyMac]

Really, you'll only notice the difference when you go to download files, rarely if ever while browsing. I have Mediacom and my in-laws have DSL. This past weekend I was downloading virus protection installs on both and you definitely notice the difference, although in the grand scheme of things - so what? I lost maybe 30-60 sec out of my life. So unless you do that constantly, who cares?

My bigger issue is that I live electronically. Newsletters, accounts setup, bill pays, etc and so on. And I'm not sure it's worth the hassle to change my e-mail address (again).

 

[cytech]

Plus I forgot the other added bonus of cable modem's.

You don't need a phone line coming into your house. More and more people are switching to cell phones and eliminating the phone line coming into your house all together.
So with Quest you have to have a phone line in order to get the service. As with mediacom you don't need cable service.
So with the assumption that most people have cell phones, in the grand scheme if you didn't want a phone line in your home mediacom is cheaper.

 

[ISUFan22]

Really, you'll only notice the difference when you go to download files, rarely if ever while browsing. I have Mediacom and my in-laws have DSL. This past weekend I was downloading virus protection installs on both and you definitely notice the difference, although in the grand scheme of things - so what? I lost maybe 30-60 sec out of my life. So unless you do that constantly, who cares?

My bigger issue is that I live electronically. Newsletters, accounts setup, bill pays, etc and so on. And I'm not sure it's worth the hassle to change my e-mail address (again).

Good points on both.

Thanks for the solid comparison on both. I'll download files now and then, so it's good to know that even when downloading files, the speed difference isn't huge.

I am 100% with you on the e-mail change. One of the reasons I would've considered keeping the Mediacom internet service when we move for the last time. However, Mediacom is not yet in our new area - so it's moot.

I do think that they allow you to keep your e-mail for so long after disconnecting service, yet I need to follow-up with them on it. That's going to be a big pain.

 

[cytech]

I do think that they allow you to keep your e-mail for so long after disconnecting service, yet I need to follow-up with them on it. That's going to be a big pain.

I am not sure if this is still true or not, but I know about 4 years ago if you quit mediacom they offered a service for like $5 a month where you could keep your mediacom e-mail active and have them forward the e-mails to another e-mail account.

 

[cyflyer]

Plus I forgot the other added bonus of cable modem's.

You don't need a phone line coming into your house. More and more people are switching to cell phones and eliminating the phone line coming into your house all together.
So with Quest you have to have a phone line in order to get the service. As with mediacom you don't need cable service.
So with the assumption that most people have cell phones, in the grand scheme if you didn't want a phone line in your home mediacom is cheaper.

You may not need a phone line you but you will need a cable line so what do you really gain? I don't think you intended too but you insinuate no cable at all needed which is untrue. In addition there are very few people not putting a phone line in their homes and you gain little not having it there.

 

[ISUAlum2002]

Plus I forgot the other added bonus of cable modem's.

You don't need a phone line coming into your house. More and more people are switching to cell phones and eliminating the phone line coming into your house all together.
So with Quest you have to have a phone line in order to get the service. As with mediacom you don't need cable service.
So with the assumption that most people have cell phones, in the grand scheme if you didn't want a phone line in your home mediacom is cheaper.

This is one of the reasons that I started up with Mediacom, and will remain with them. However, I have heard that you can now get DSL without having a phone line. Don't know if that's true or not, as I don't care to research it, as I have no intention on changing my internet providers.

Mediacom's Connections channel is great. Get to watch all kinds of classic sports events, and also the condensed football game replays with the radio broadcast audio. Mediacom has hooked me as a long-term customer with their channel. That and the fact that I don't want to dink around with satellite receiver boxes or signal issues.

 

[cytech]

Sorry I was basing what I said on having the line active.
So yes if you are building a new home you would still need the line run to your home. Or if you are moving into a really old home with no cable ran to the home, I guess that might cost something too. But, I can't think of to many homes anymore that don't have cable and phonelines run to them unless you are in a rural area.

 

[cyclonekj]

This is one of the reasons that I started up with Mediacom, and will remain with them. However, I have heard that you can now get DSL without having a phone line. Don't know if that's true or not, as I don't care to research it, as I have no intention on changing my internet providers.

Mediacom's Connections channel is great. Get to watch all kinds of classic sports events, and also the condensed football game replays with the radio broadcast audio. Mediacom has hooked me as a long-term customer with their channel. That and the fact that I don't want to dink around with satellite receiver boxes or signal issues.

This is true, although there is a $10 difference in price of DSL service with versus without phone service.

 

[cycloneworld]

Just to clarify, you DO NOT need a phone line for Qwest DSL service.

From Qwests FAQs:
Do I need Qwest local phone service to order Qwest® High-Speed Internet service?

Answer: You do not have to subscribe to Qwest local telephone service, however, a physical phone line must exist within the Qwest service area to order Qwest DSL. See if Qwest High-Speed Internet service is available where you live.

 

[Nothingman]

For the Mediacom subscribers who got the 20% discount, did you call the 800 number of the local number?

 

[DaddyMac]

One other thing that concerns me about DSL is that it's (obviously) dependent on your phone service. In that regard, two items

1) I have about the same love for Qwest that I have for MediaCom

2) I live in an older neighborhood in WDM and lets just say that I'm not overly encouraged by the "quality" of wiring coming into the house. I know that once inside, I can (and have) do whatever I want. In fact, I have CAT5 wiring throughout my house - at least to where it counts. But the line and the distribution box on the outside is just a little earlier than "high tech". So I'm afraid that I'll give up essentially a brand new network with MediaCom, and get nowhere near the "as fast as" speeds that Qwest promotes.

I asked a few years ago, but they don't give you any type of test to see what you'd get.

 

[ISUFan22]

You still need a phone line, you just don't need to have Qwest phone service.