I've been happy with my comcast. I'm getting nearly 2x the speed I'm paying for (appx 17Mbps down), the tv and phone are reliable, they've sent cheerful and capable techs out when I needed, blah blah. There have been a few outages of the broadband, but not too bad. However, I do not use comcast as my email address. No point in being locked in. I use the same Earthlink address I've had since '95. And if I didn't have that, I'd use gmail.

"....because the gubmit has told them "enough!" "

Wrong. Our local government provided Comcast with the monopoly. There is no free market.

I gave them up years ago and use Direct TV and Verizon internet. Virtually trouble free.

Comcast used to be AT&T

+1 gmail....

Or spend $30 a year, and register your own web/email addresses.... http://www.101sitehosting.com/special-offer

I'm thinking of going to Comcast internet....I am sick of ATT DSL. Those are my only two choices where I live. Is Comcast internet really all that bad ? What are the issues...drop off's ? My DSL goes out many times per day for 1 to 10 min at a time. Friends nearby lose it for up to two weeks !! Also, I'm at the end of the line so it's pretty slow...

Ugh! The worst, hands down. I'd rather communicate by smoke signals than have to call their customer service. The only thing they're good at is adding on late fees if you miss the payment due deadline.

See if they offer dial-up service. My ISP has dial-up for $9.99/mo. When I go to cancel (which will be soon), I'll "downgrade" my service to dial-up in order to reserve my e-mail address. Then, I'll use the new DSL/e-mail, but refer the old e-mail to the new account. After 6 months, I'll cancel the dial-up as everyone I deal with should be informed of my new e-mail address by then.

Change your "reply-to" address on your old e-mail account to reflect your new address pronto.

Whatever you pay for cable it is worth it to you, no matter who your provider is and no matter how poor their service is. If it weren't, you wouldn't pay it. My cable bill is $0, yours could be as well, the only reason it isn't is because you want what they are offering.

Superman, does the government offer an alternative as efficient as the market does, or am I stuck paying the government no matter how poor or expensive the service is?

There is only one provider in my area. So my choices are pay them, or have no TV/Internet.

Charter Communications just filed bankrupcy.

I have Comcast in NorCal and am exceedingly happy with the high speed internet service. It's fast and the few times I've had a challenge, they dispatched a tech pronto and fixed it.

Hint 1: Get the inside house wiring service (a buck or two). Just in case something goes wrong inside your walls, you are covered.

Hint 2: Call every 18-24 months, ask for Customer Retention, explain your plan to go to DSL, agree that they are faster but you don't care. Usually that takes $10 to $40 a month off your bill.

Your provider is not only competing against other cable tv providers. They are competing for your money. As long as you can find no better use for your money, you should send it to them. Should you find a better investment of your time and money than wasting away as an audience for advertisers then your provider will lose you as a customer.

Ahh, OK. I get it now. I'll cancel my service ASAP and get all my media/news, etc. from talking to the folks down at the General Store. Thank you, Mr. Kaczynski :rolleyes:

That indeed is the choice. If you want your cable bad enough, you'll pay regardless of the service. And by the way, I quit hanging out at the General Store when Lowes bought it.

FYI, I believe tv to be a negative influence on society as a whole, and me in particular. Even if cable was provided for free, I would disable it in my house. But I'm just the kind of hypocrite to condemn tv and waste my precious time and money on the internet. I wasn't offering alternatives to Comcast's poor service, but rather commenting on Superman's idea that markets have left us with no choice, and we need government to protect our right to choice.