I Fixed the Internet Last Night
Well, I at least fixed my small portion of it. The fiasco started when we moved into our new house a couple of months ago. I tried to transfer our AT&T DSL service to our new home. In the process of doing that, AT&T disconnected our service by mistake…twice. Each time they disconnected the service, they had to start a new account. So, you guessed it, I started getting billed for multiple accounts.
That led to some glorious customer support calls with AT&T. They’re in the “communications” business, but apparently their departments are unable to talk with each other and that includes the ability to transfer calls from one department to another. Through a series of events related to AT&T’s horrible service, I ended up losing a couple thousand dollars (and a lot of time). I will never (NEVER!) use AT&T for anything ever (EVER!) again.
That experience forced me to try to find an alternative Internet provider. Currently, the only other option where we live is Comcast cable. I’ve been down this road before. That’s what led to the switch to DSL. When the AT&T service worked, DSL was actually faster.
Last week Comcast installed a new line for Internet service. The service was slow. Browsing was worse than the days of dial-up. I contacted tech support through Twitter. They were very responsive. At the end of the day, though, they indicated it was a problem with the modem. (Yes, the modem I just purchased.)
That led to a second visit from a Comcast technician. The guy that came to the house was very professional. He tested the line. It was working to spec. He concluded the wireless router was just in the wrong location in the house, so he installed a new jack and reconnected the service. I will at least give Comcast credit, they have improved their customer service. The people I’ve worked with have been friendly and compassionate.
Ultimately, though, I was still stuck with an Internet connection that tested at high speeds, but dragged on any sites (including Google Reader as an example) when pictures or video were trying to load. It gets really frustrating when you’re paying a boatload of money for “high speed Internet” and you’re waiting for pages to load…and waiting…and waiting.
Then, last night, I finally did my own investigation. I Googled complaints about slow Comcast Internet service and eventually found the problem. As it turns out, Comcast has a history of having slow DNS servers. That never came up in any of my customer support conversations with Comcast. Fortunately, Google has an answer for that as well. Google provides public DNS for free. I followed the simple Google instructions to switch my DNS settings, and, voila, the Internet connection was finally working.
I know. This post is completely unrelated to the stuff I typically write about here. However, my guess is others have or will end up in a similar situation in the future. I just wanted to share my experience with the hopes that it saves someone else time, money and frustration.
In the mean time, I’m praying that Clear makes it to my neighborhood soon. I’m sure Al Gore didn’t have these challenges in mind when he invented the Internet.
opendns.com – also acts as an internet filter. Good stuff.
Wow, I thought it was only me that had problems with AT&T. Now if we could only find another service that gave us what they promise without all the hassle. I would gladly pay extra for that service. Blessings.
Try seeing if you can get DSL Extreme (http://dslextreme.com)… Not affiliated with AT&T, but they run over the same wire and have awesome customer support
*I work for my church, Not for them…I wish I could get them where I live now, b/c their service was awesome
Hey Tony, you should try OpenDns.com too and see which is faster. I’ve used both Google and opendns and I found open faster. Plus I really like the filtering options opendns offers.
Tony, check out OpenDNS as well. Besides name resolution, they also have a crowd-sourced content filter that works surprisingly well. Basic packages are free and flexible, and they just started offering a service for home users as well (free also!).
I have had the same issues with AT&T and their departments not working well together. Hopefully that didn’t send you back and forth over and over and over and over again and try to point the blame on other departments. I really don’t believe AT&T wants to fix problems as much as they want to win an argument, even in the issue is with its own departments. Ridiculous if you ask me.
Also it was interesting to hear that you found comcast’s customer service to be much improved. I also did not like their customer service a few years ago, but it seems to have changed. They use to be very rude and quick to not help, but lately they have been very helpful and thoughtful and kind.
I’m glad to know it isn’t just me that is having some of these experiences.
Wow!!
I just did the switch in less than 10 minutes and the speed difference is amazing. I am using the same Comcast trunk as you are here in Paulding County.
Thanks so much for sharing this. I never knew I had an option.
P.S. Good to see you yesterday.
See You around.
Tony, you’re a genius.
I concur that you should try OpenDNS. We use it at the church and I use it at home, and find it fast and reliable, and you can’t beat the content and site filtering.
Use 208.67.220.220 & 208.67.222.222 in your router DNS settings. I think you will find DNS resolution faster than Google, but it depends on your carrier route path too, so the only way to know is to experiment. But, the filtering is worth something all by itself, and the price (free) can’t be beat. As an aside, when we were with you at Newspring, I noticed they use OpenDNS too.
I have been using Clear (fka Clearwire) and have been pleased, but it is not without issues. Speed is VERY dependent on having a good line-of-sight to a tower. Customer service has graduated from abysmal a couple years ago to pretty good now.
AT&T has been a customer service snake pit for years, and not just with internet service. I spent months getting a problem with my home POTS resolved, and to this day believe that if I had not complained to the State’s Public Service Commission I would still be using smoke signals.
We moved from KS to CA (with a temporary move in between) and had similar experiences with AT&T. They are the MOST frustrating company to have to deal with.
After years of frustration with our AT&T business acct at church, I have finally switched to CBeyond and am looking forward to 3 T1′s for about $700 per month. I have been counting down the days that our AT&T contract would be up…I am actually terminating earlier than my Dec 11, 2010 date because I can terminate, save $$$ and save my insanity!
I feel your pain! Glad you found a solution! Qwest frustrates me at times but the speed is okay so far.