I currently have AT&T DSL service. They tell me I can get 12mbps down (within range of the CO) but after trying that all they can manage is 6mbps down.
I absolutely do NOT want to go with Comcast or RCN! Apart from despising the cable companies my coax in my place is connected to a Direct TV satellite dish.
I am willing to pay rates higher than AT&T.
Who else can I get internet access from in Chicago?
Have you looked into 12Global?
I believe MegaPath is in Chicago, also.
Every house I’ve rented from in the burbs (5 separate places now, in multiple cities) has had AT&T DSL. It’s been equally shitty everywhere: daily disconnects all over the place even through a direct ethernet connection, never living up to the rated bandwidth. Blah!
Anyway, just throwing in my support, and hoping to hear about a good non-Comcast alternative as well.
You may oppose RCN on principle, but I’ve not had any serious trouble and for $23 I get 24MB down (according to the AT&T speed test).
I had AT&T DSL with a 2-Wire router and while not exactly speedy it was rock solid. Then AT&T said I could double my speed moving to their Uverse thing (still DSL). Got the new stuff and the DSL doubled to 12mbps…worked for a week and then had consistent problems. Although they said I was well within the range for the advertised speed something else was up and they backed me down to 6mbps.
Now the damn thing goes out several times a day requiring a reboot of the router. We have had six techs out (at different times) all of whom confirm there is a problem with the AT&T outside wiring (i.e. not a problem in my place) and all of whom then leave and do not fix anything. Just a promise they will put a “note” in the system and someone else will get to it. Needless to say they never do.
On the upside I will say calling their tech support is not bad at all. I get a person on the line within two minutes and they dispatch a tech almost always within the following day and the techs are pretty punctual.
The Uverse people don’t really talk to the phone line people. Call the Uverse support people and ask them to open a ticket to wireline repair to find and remove bridge taps on your line.
Uverse is nice when it works, but getting it to work can be a serious pain. IIRC, the bare minimum link speed you need is 32 meg, and my line is running at 58 meg right now.
Does Time Warner have an affiliate in Chicago? Here in L.A., I just changed from AT&T DSL to TW Cable, about quintupling our download speed while cutting our bill considerably. We did give up our land line in the process, but we weren’t using it anyhow.
I don’t think so. AFAICT, Comcast (and, in the city, RCN) is pretty much the only cable TV outfit in the Chicago market now. IIRC, we had Time Warner when we moved to Brookfield in the mid-90s, but Comcast bought out their presence in the market a few years later.