Xfinity Internet/phone thoughts?

Posted this on tRCMB, as well, to get more variety of opinions. Ok, so I've reached my breaking point with AT&T, with whom I have phone and internet. I have cable with Xfinity, and prefer to not keep all my eggs in one basket, but AT&T are pissing me off more and more (I won't get into that now).

Anyway, couple of questions on Xfinity internet and phone.

- How often do they go down? Any more or less frequently than the cable? Theoretically, it should be the same, as they use the same wires, but am not sure if that's always the case (my cable almost never goes out, so if it's the same, that's good).

- Do they allow (or even try to discourage) you to buy your own modem? Opinions on buying your own? I've read some stuff that they blame any and all issues on using a third party modem, so that they don't have to take any responsibility for their own issues. My AT&T modems would be lucky to last 12-18 months, so if I'm buying one, I don't want to replace it every year, or it will cost about as much as leasing it from Comcast.

- How is the phone with Xfinity? They can't give me a triple play deal because the HOA covers the cost of the basic cable (why they can't just deduct the difference, I don't know), so I'd be paying $20/month for the phone. I have reasons to keep a home phone number, so is it worth it, or should I do Magic Jack or something?

Any other good, bad, or ugly opinions are welcome, as well.

I have AT&T TV and Xfinity cable, I don't have a landline and haven't for about 17 years now. I've bought a modem when they went from $5 a month to around $8. I remember telling myself it would take about 10-12 months to pay off the modem. I think I've had the same modem for 6 or 7 years now. Anytime I thought I had problems, it turned out it was something on the Comcast end, but yes, they will put the blame on you if it isn't working. I have a basic model Motorola, I think. When I had 75 mb/sec it pushed through that speed on the hard line connection (actually I think it was hitting 85 most the time). The router is where you're going to spend some $$, stay away from the combo deals IMO. The modem seems to be pretty stable, but routers are getting better, I think the modem just needs docsis3.0 or something like that. I have a cheap Netgear but I've gotten up to 65 mb/sec wirelessly with it.
Other than a couple of times where there have been outages, the service is decent.
You will need to call them every year to keep the price down. If the first person won't give you a deal, have the next person do it. I have a feeling this year, I'm going to have to cancel my service with them and then sign up with my wife's info.
I have started noticing that the connection with my TV while watching Netflix or Amazon goes out, but I think that's got more to do with the TV, because everything else that's connected works fine.

It is VoIP, so when your internet goes down your phone goes down. I've had it since 2005 and it has been down maybe 3 times.

I have the triple play and very rarely have any issues. I rent the modem from Comcast, because if it blows, then I just drive to the service center five minutes away and make the replacement. Of course, there's a minimum 30 minute wait in the service center.
Some thoughts:
1) I, too, hate having so many eggs in one basket, but I signed up for the cost savings and convenience. It's just easier paying the one bill. I am thinking of switching out xfinity phone because I want a wireless backup phone for my security system. I'll probably get that through ADT.

2) I had to stop having my Comcast phone forwarded to my cell because of all the sales calls and collection agencies. I don't know if Comcast sells its phone lists, but it sure seems like it. Also: Despite that (obviously worthless) Do Not Call registry, I was getting 5-6 sales pitches a day. The collection agencies all wanted one woman who obviously had my number previously.

3) The Comcast tech who set me up for phone a few years ago was really nice, but I was totally unimpressed with how he wired things outside. He connected to the old phone box, ran the wired to cable, and did the same with my internet modem in my office. He may have used two of those nail/plastic h combos to keep the wires from dropping all te way to the ground. Just a terrible job entirely. It looked crappy and any animal could've munched on it. I went through and secured the rest of the cable to the mortar between the bricks to cut down on any unwanted bites and to make things look a little tidier.

InTenSity wrote:I have AT&T TV and Xfinity cable, I don't have a landline and haven't for about 17 years now. I've bought a modem when they went from $5 a month to around $8. I remember telling myself it would take about 10-12 months to pay off the modem. I think I've had the same modem for 6 or 7 years now. Anytime I thought I had problems, it turned out it was something on the Comcast end, but yes, they will put the blame on you if it isn't working. I have a basic model Motorola, I think. When I had 75 mb/sec it pushed through that speed on the hard line connection (actually I think it was hitting 85 most the time). The router is where you're going to spend some $$, stay away from the combo deals IMO. The modem seems to be pretty stable, but routers are getting better, I think the modem just needs docsis3.0 or something like that. I have a cheap Netgear but I've gotten up to 65 mb/sec wirelessly with it.
Other than a couple of times where there have been outages, the service is decent.
You will need to call them every year to keep the price down. If the first person won't give you a deal, have the next person do it. I have a feeling this year, I'm going to have to cancel my service with them and then sign up with my wife's info.
I have started noticing that the connection with my TV while watching Netflix or Amazon goes out, but I think that's got more to do with the TV, because everything else that's connected works fine.

Stay away from the modem/router combo? I always like the convenience and space saving of those, but maybe that's why my AT&T ones would break down so often (though I still think AT&T likes to cause problems to get me to sign up for Uverse). Doesn't Comcast give you a combo if I do the lease, or would I have to buy a wireless router anyway to go with their modem?

If you think about, let me know the Motorola modem that you have, as I'd like to consider a reliable one if I go that route. If it's 6-7 years old, the model might be outdated, but maybe I could find the updated version.

Do they still do a cap at 300 GB or something like that down here? I'd seen something that they had tested that in Miami and a couple of other places a few months back. I doubt I use anywhere near that, but maybe I should check my usage with AT&T.

tGreenWay wrote: I went through and secured the rest of the cable to the mortar between the bricks to cut down on any unwanted bites and to make things look a little tidier.

Anal

tGreenWay wrote:I have the triple play and very rarely have any issues. I rent the modem from Comcast, because if it blows, then I just drive to the service center five minutes away and make the replacement. Of course, there's a minimum 30 minute wait in the service center.
Some thoughts:
1) I, too, hate having so many eggs in one basket, but I signed up for the cost savings and convenience. It's just easier paying the one bill. I am thinking of switching out xfinity phone because I want a wireless backup phone for my security system. I'll probably get that through ADT.

2) I had to stop having my Comcast phone forwarded to my cell because of all the sales calls and collection agencies. I don't know if Comcast sells its phone lists, but it sure seems like it. Also: Despite that (obviously worthless) Do Not Call registry, I was getting 5-6 sales pitches a day. The collection agencies all wanted one woman who obviously had my number previously.

3) The Comcast tech who set me up for phone a few years ago was really nice, but I was totally unimpressed with how he wired things outside. He connected to the old phone box, ran the wired to cable, and did the same with my internet modem in my office. He may have used two of those nail/plastic h combos to keep the wires from dropping all te way to the ground. Just a terrible job entirely. It looked crappy and any animal could've munched on it. I went through and secured the rest of the cable to the mortar between the bricks to cut down on any unwanted bites and to make things look a little tidier.

One of the things about Comcast that I like is that they now allow you to install internet yourself, as long as you already have cable. This is fairly recent, I think (last 2-3 years). I'd argued with them about that before, as they always wanted to send someone out to set it up. There's no "installing" to do. It's just getting a modem and plugging in the wires, then setting it up online. Jesus, I had one of the first cable modems in the country 20 years ago, and it's 100x easier to set up now (East Lansing had a regional office for TCI, and was always a test/roll-out market for the new gadgets such as cable modems, digital cable boxes, etc....I worked for TCI after graduating MSU, so I would get to try some of it out before the public).

MiamiSpartan wrote:

tGreenWay wrote:I have the triple play and very rarely have any issues. I rent the modem from Comcast, because if it blows, then I just drive to the service center five minutes away and make the replacement. Of course, there's a minimum 30 minute wait in the service center.
Some thoughts:
1) I, too, hate having so many eggs in one basket, but I signed up for the cost savings and convenience. It's just easier paying the one bill. I am thinking of switching out xfinity phone because I want a wireless backup phone for my security system. I'll probably get that through ADT.

2) I had to stop having my Comcast phone forwarded to my cell because of all the sales calls and collection agencies. I don't know if Comcast sells its phone lists, but it sure seems like it. Also: Despite that (obviously worthless) Do Not Call registry, I was getting 5-6 sales pitches a day. The collection agencies all wanted one woman who obviously had my number previously.

3) The Comcast tech who set me up for phone a few years ago was really nice, but I was totally unimpressed with how he wired things outside. He connected to the old phone box, ran the wired to cable, and did the same with my internet modem in my office. He may have used two of those nail/plastic h combos to keep the wires from dropping all te way to the ground. Just a terrible job entirely. It looked crappy and any animal could've munched on it. I went through and secured the rest of the cable to the mortar between the bricks to cut down on any unwanted bites and to make things look a little tidier.

One of the things about Comcast that I like is that they now allow you to install internet yourself, as long as you already have cable. This is fairly recent, I think (last 2-3 years). I'd argued with them about that before, as they always wanted to send someone out to set it up. There's no "installing" to do. It's just getting a modem and plugging in the wires, then setting it up online. Jesus, I had one of the first cable modems in the country 20 years ago, and it's 100x easier to set up now (East Lansing had a regional office for TCI, and was always a test/roll-out market for the new gadgets such as cable modems, digital cable boxes, etc....I worked for TCI after graduating MSU, so I would get to try some of it out before the public).

TCI. Haven't thought of them in years. Did you work with Jay Wickham?

Stay away from the modem/router combo? I always like the convenience and space saving of those, but maybe that's why my AT&T ones would break down so often (though I still think AT&T likes to cause problems to get me to sign up for Uverse). Doesn't Comcast give you a combo if I do the lease, or would I have to buy a wireless router anyway to go with their modem?

I'm just saying that I've stayed away from them. I've gone through a couple of routers since getting the modem. I think that Comcast does do the combo though if you rent through them, but at the time when I wasn't renting, I had to buy my own router, that was probably about 8 or 9 years ago.

If you think about, let me know the Motorola modem that you have, as I'd like to consider a reliable one if I go that route. If it's 6-7 years old, the model might be outdated, but maybe I could find the updated version.

If I get around to it, I'll text you tonight.

Do they still do a cap at 300 GB or something like that down here? I'd seen something that they had tested that in Miami and a couple of other places a few months back. I doubt I use anywhere near that, but maybe I should check my usage with AT&T.

They started with a 300 gig cap, then upped it to 5 or 600, and I read, although I haven't verified, they've moved that up to 1 TB.

Important Update: Comcast raised the amount of data included with its XFINITY Internet service to 1 terabyte per month in its data usage plan trial markets, effective June 1, 2016. Read the A Terabyte Internet Experience blog post to learn more.

I use AOL 56k dial up so I can't help.

I did however check out the newest version of Netscape and it is fabulous.

I have Xfinity Cable/phone. If the internet is down the phone is down.  Went with the Xfinity phone when prices kept creeping up with AT&T and couldn't convince the wife to cut it all together. Just checked my bill and the internet is $56, phone is $45 and the modem/router combi is $10. I'm guessing you don't have a choice but use there modem if you have the phone hookup? Call me ignorant on this topic.

No idea why I even keep the phone. We never use it. WTF is everyone else paying?

tGreenWay wrote:

MiamiSpartan wrote:
One of the things about Comcast that I like is that they now allow you to install internet yourself, as long as you already have cable. This is fairly recent, I think (last 2-3 years). I'd argued with them about that before, as they always wanted to send someone out to set it up. There's no "installing" to do. It's just getting a modem and plugging in the wires, then setting it up online. Jesus, I had one of the first cable modems in the country 20 years ago, and it's 100x easier to set up now (East Lansing had a regional office for TCI, and was always a test/roll-out market for the new gadgets such as cable modems, digital cable boxes, etc....I worked for TCI after graduating MSU, so I would get to try some of it out before the public).

TCI. Haven't thought of them in years. Did you work with Jay Wickham?

I'm not sure, the name sounds familiar, but I didn't have a ton of contact with most people. I worked in advertising sales, so there were only 2-3 of us and tried to keep a low profile. Working there got me in the commercials for about every bar in E.L. (BW3, Reno's, Spartan Sports Den, Papa Leo's or something like that). Usually just one of the randoms in the bar drinking. They'd always need people to make the bars look like they were full when filming commercials at 11am....and they'd serve us free beer for 3-4 hours while there.

InTenSity wrote:

Stay away from the modem/router combo? I always like the convenience and space saving of those, but maybe that's why my AT&T ones would break down so often (though I still think AT&T likes to cause problems to get me to sign up for Uverse). Doesn't Comcast give you a combo if I do the lease, or would I have to buy a wireless router anyway to go with their modem?

I'm just saying that I've stayed away from them. I've gone through a couple of routers since getting the modem. I think that Comcast does do the combo though if you rent through them, but at the time when I wasn't renting, I had to buy my own router, that was probably about 8 or 9 years ago.

If you think about, let me know the Motorola modem that you have, as I'd like to consider a reliable one if I go that route. If it's 6-7 years old, the model might be outdated, but maybe I could find the updated version.

If I get around to it, I'll text you tonight.

Do they still do a cap at 300 GB or something like that down here? I'd seen something that they had tested that in Miami and a couple of other places a few months back. I doubt I use anywhere near that, but maybe I should check my usage with AT&T.

They started with a 300 gig cap, then upped it to 5 or 600, and I read, although I haven't verified, they've moved that up to 1 TB.

Important Update: Comcast raised the amount of data included with its XFINITY Internet service to 1 terabyte per month in its data usage plan trial markets, effective June 1, 2016. Read the A Terabyte Internet Experience blog post to learn more.

Sweet, thanks for the info!

Nordic wrote:I have Xfinity Cable/phone. If the internet is down the phone is down.  Went with the Xfinity phone when prices kept creeping up with AT&T and couldn't convince the wife to cut it all together. Just checked my bill and the internet is $56, phone is $45 and the modem/router combi is $10. I'm guessing you don't have a choice but use there modem if you have the phone hookup? Call me ignorant on this topic.

No idea why I even keep the phone. We never use it. WTF is everyone else paying?

They quoted me $19.99 for the 10MB, but after a year it would go up to $49.99. They quoted $20 for phone, same after a year as the phone wasn't part of a package. $10 for the modem/router. I think that's because of the phone. The router without the phone might be the $7 or $8 that InTensity mentioned. The only reason we are keeping a home phone, is because we technically have a home business (I do freelance work, so we incorporated for that) and we want a number tied to that corporation that is not our cell phones.

I do believe you can buy routers with a phone line that work with Xfinity. They're more expensive, but when I googled it last night, one came up at Best Buy for $200. According to comments on Best Buy's site, it's one of only a couple models that work with Xfinity for both internet and phone.

If you get Comcast internet, at least get the 25mbps. I have that right now for $29.99 a month. I downgraded from the 75 mbps but had that for a year at either 39.99 or 49.99 a month. I never really have to worry about speed at home, especially didn't have to when I had the 75. Again, data caps seem to have been beaten down for now.

MiamiSpartan wrote:

tGreenWay wrote:

TCI. Haven't thought of them in years. Did you work with Jay Wickham?

I'm not sure, the name sounds familiar, but I didn't have a ton of contact with most people. I worked in advertising sales, so there were only 2-3 of us and tried to keep a low profile. Working there got me in the commercials for about every bar in E.L. (BW3, Reno's, Spartan Sports Den, Papa Leo's or something like that). Usually just one of the randoms in the bar drinking. They'd always need people to make the bars look like they were full when filming commercials at 11am....and they'd serve us free beer for 3-4 hours while there.

Getting paid to drink beer sounds like a pretty good gig.