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March 10, 2011 at 4:53 pm #598258
ekrispinMemberHas Qwest put in any new infrastructure in West Seattle in the last year? I just looked at their site and it seems i’m eligible for the 40MBps service? Im on thistle and 37th, I remember when I was first looking a few years ago, the speeds offered weren’t that great. Comcast is getting pricy, just looking for an alternative.
Anyone have any insight?
March 11, 2011 at 1:54 am #719971
ekrispinMemberNobody?
March 11, 2011 at 2:21 am #719972
lucky chickMemberI can only say that my speed seems fine most of the time (I have trouble streaming Netflix, but I’m beginning to think that my router is the problem – ideas welcome!), but I don’t think my wireless is any bargain at $50/mo (that’s after all taxes, and I don’t have a land line or TV).
March 11, 2011 at 2:29 am #719973
Michael WaldoParticipantI lived at 47th and Genesee a year ago and the best Qwest had was 5MB. Their switching station is on California just north of the post office. The closer you are to the station the faster speeds you can get.The 40MG is in upgraded areas, you will just have to call.
March 11, 2011 at 2:40 am #719974
cjboffoliParticipantUntil I switched to Comcast last year, I was on Qwest’s highest tier DSL service. But the reliability was terrible. Speeds were all over the road. Somehow my connection kept getting bumped down significantly. Customer service calls would route directly to India where service reps would tell me everything was fine and were really not empowered to do anything. Only when I escalated to US customer service would the engineers acknowledge there was a problem. This would happen repeatedly every month or so.
At one point one of their engineers candidly told me that they only had so many of the super-fast connections. So when new customers would sign up they’d bump other customers off the fast tier, hoping no one would notice. Of course, Qwest corporate disavowed it. But the engineer I spoke to seemed sincere.
I finally grew weary of dealing with it and signed up for Comcast business class service. I don’t have cable TV service, just internet. It is wicked fast, bilateral service. Not as sweet as the FOIS service my friends up in Edmonds or Camano Island get. But as good as anything I’ve had in Seattle.
I figure it will tide me over until Google moves the goalposts by bringing Gigabit fiber service to Seattle someday.
March 11, 2011 at 3:08 am #719975
Genesee HillParticipantQwest is fine with me. Cheap and reliable.
March 11, 2011 at 3:21 am #719976
valvashonParticipantHow to get Comcast speed and reliability for cheaper: sign up for “Earthlink cable internet powered by Comcast”. We have just that (no cable TV) and it’s 45.95 a month- regular Comcast (just internet) was $53 or so.
March 11, 2011 at 4:13 am #719977
maudeParticipantWe just made the switch from Qwest to Comcast. Qwest was getting slower and slower and we’d have to re-boot several times a day. Very annoying. We pay a bit more now but Comcast seems to be moving along quite well.
March 11, 2011 at 3:54 pm #719978
lucky chickMemberI revise my former statement that Qwest seems fast enough. Nothing streams well. I’m annoyed by the business practices that CJboffoli reports, too – more than annoyed. Going to dump them. Thanks for the input!
March 11, 2011 at 4:43 pm #719979
ekrispinMemberI just happened to be looking at their page yesterday and they seemed to have a 40 and a 20MBps service, I was just curious about it my comcast bill for 20MBps was almost $70 this month!
March 11, 2011 at 5:24 pm #719980
lazybeardParticipantI upgraded to the latest QWest product back in September and I have had no issues as of today. The billing isn’t an issue, the speeds aren’t an issue and the customer service is easy to work with.
I’ve never had to reboot my QWest modem, it just hums along. I have 5mb upload, which has been a huge help since I’ve been doing my initial backup of photos to Crash Plan.
March 11, 2011 at 5:29 pm #719981
PatrickKeymasterWe got the Qwest fiber package last fall and have found it to be roughly the same speed as Comcast’s basic service.
March 11, 2011 at 6:56 pm #719982
hoffanimalParticipantI am on 15th and Trenton and have the 40 MB plan. it has bee totally reliable. I don’t think I get the promised 40 MB all the time though.
March 11, 2011 at 7:26 pm #719983
ekrispinMemberGood to know, I think Ill give them a call. Anybody do the do it yourself install? How did that go?
March 11, 2011 at 9:45 pm #719984
hoffanimalParticipantSuper easy. Don’t run their software.
April 14, 2011 at 1:24 am #719985
ernieusafretParticipantA word of warning about Comcrap.
They give you faster speeds, but when you start using it more they drop you like a hot potato.
April 14, 2011 at 4:14 pm #719986
BigPhilParticipant35th and Holden (thereabouts) and running on Qwest’s 40 MBps. I pull about 35-38 24-hours a day.
Note that if you’ve got 40MBps coming in, you’ll likely want to upgrade to Wireless-N routers if you use wireless. I get that 35-38 via Gigabit Ethernet, but the overhead of 802.11g WIFI pulls it down to about 25 MBps, on a good day.
Before that I was on the 6MBps and it was relatively quick, but nothing compared to roughly 1MB/sec..
April 14, 2011 at 4:27 pm #719987
amaliaParticipantOk Big Phil, I have no idea what you just said, but it does lead me to believe you can answer my question: I have Qwest (in the area of 35th and Holden) and can’t stream most Netflix movies (only short ones). I have a wireless router that has no distinguishing name/number on it, but I got it 2 years ago from Qwest. First, could not having an “N” router be the problem with streaming, and second, how do I know if I have an N router by looking at it?
,
Thanks for helping a normally-savvy but computer-illiterate neophyte.
April 14, 2011 at 4:49 pm #719988
BigPhilParticipantFor “N”.. there are four major types of wireless routers, with letters that correspond to their theoretical maximum speed and a few other technical details.
They are: 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, and 802.11n. 99% of routers today are 802.11b/g, meaning they can do both b and g. Unless you specifically went looking for it and purchased it, it’s very unlikely that you have an N router, because they’re only really reaching prominence in the last year or so and Qwest surely wouldn’t provide one.
For 802.11b/g, the theoretical maximum speed is 54 MBps. The *actual* limit can be in the 20 or 30 MBps range, because of the ‘overhead’ involved in sending a wireless singla.
For most people this isn’t an issue.. using something like 6MBps or even 20MPbs from Qwest, there is no issue because the ‘pratical’ limit of the router (20-30 MBPs) exceeds the speed coming into the house.
For me, running 40 MBps, the router itself was actually limiting the speed.
Are you streaming Netflix on your computer, your wii, an xbox 360? Are you using Wireless or are you directly connected with Ethernet? And when you mean “can’t stream”, is it just a poor connection (1 or 2 bars) or is there some sort of error?
If it’s wirelessly connected, its very likely that you have significant obstructions between the router and the device, or you have interference from other things in the wireless spectrum (wireless phones, microwaves). Without knowing more it’s hard to say, but you could boost a signal by considering the placement of the router (it should be up high) and whether or not it has directional antennas you can aim towards the streaming device.
April 14, 2011 at 5:38 pm #719989
amaliaParticipantThanks so much for responding, Phil. I have my Blu-Ray, through which I’m streaming, directly connected to the router via ethernet although I do have wireless in the house. Netflix gives me a “unavailable, try again later” error notice (they won’t stream if the quality is too poor). I have a Mac which won’t stream at all, even though it meets requirements – that’s another issue.
The house is on a hill, on the east side of 35th, halfway down. Sometimes the phone is cranky about reception. Does any of that help?
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