mamajumps 0 #1 October 1, 2007 I currently have Brighthouse for all the services in my house...Cable, Phone, Internet... I pay $99 a month for the package. This is absolutely the worst service that I have ever had and I was wondering if any of ya'll had the same issues with them. The problems Im having are: 1. Service is very crappie... on again and then off again... phone doesnt work half the time, internet is slower than dial-up and the cable freezes all the time in the middle of shows... pixelates as if it were a satellite. 2. Getting someone out to address the issues is like pulling teeth, I have so many credits on my account due to tech no-shows. I was considering going to Verizon, they now offer the same package of all 3 services for $99/m. I didnt have these issues with Brighthouse when I lived in town. I have been a customer of them for 3 years now, I hate to switch, but I wanna get what I am paying for.... Has anyone else had any issues with Brighthouse? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
normiss 798 #2 October 1, 2007 who hasn't? Is the Verizon delivered over Fiber???Is the performance of the internet connection as fast as cable is supposed to be? I would love to have another provider besides Brighthouse...but it just isn't practical where I'm at. but a side thingy...why would anyone want internet phone from them???? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mamajumps 0 #3 October 1, 2007 Quote who hasn't? Is the Verizon delivered over Fiber???Is the performance of the internet connection as fast as cable is supposed to be? I would love to have another provider besides Brighthouse...but it just isn't practical where I'm at. but a side thingy...why would anyone want internet phone from them???? I guess thats what I needed to know. I got the internet phone b/c I already had cable and internet with them and it reduced my bill by going with the package. I needed the home phone for my daughter, its unlimited use long distance... she was killing me with her cell phone...(which is no more) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
normiss 798 #4 October 1, 2007 I just prefer Vonage, almost half the price and at least twice the reliability. I just hate sending my money to cable companies! Plus they seem to have worked out their legal issues so far as I know... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mamajumps 0 #5 October 1, 2007 QuoteI just prefer Vonage, almost half the price and at least twice the reliability. I just hate sending my money to cable companies! Plus they seem to have worked out their legal issues so far as I know... What legal issues? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
normiss 798 #6 October 1, 2007 Patent infringement suit based on the protocols they use for the service. It's just a matter of whether it will cost them, and how much. cricky Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bodypilot90 0 #7 October 1, 2007 Quote Vonage - Verizon Judgement Remanded Court upholds two out of three patent violations, retrial ordered... 03:06PM Wednesday Sep 26 2007 by Karl tags: legal·business·trouble·VoIP·Vonage·Verizon VoiceWing Tipped by travelguy Back in March, a federal jury ruled that Vonage infringed on three of Verizon's patents, and said the company had to pay $58 million in damages, as well as a 5.5% royalty rate on each Vonage customer. Today, an appeals court upheld the ruling on two of the patents, but remanded the ruling on the 880 patent and vacated the award. The U.S. District Court now must retry the single patent case, though Vonage could still be forced to pay up. Vonage, for its part, continued the flood of press releases that insist everything is going to be ok: http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Vonage-Verizon-Judgement-Remanded-87905 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rick 67 #8 October 1, 2007 I got comcast for tv and internet and I must say they are not much betterYou can't be drunk all day if you don't start early! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jceman 1 #9 October 1, 2007 Quote Has anyone else had any issues with Brighthouse? In spades! The only thing I could ever rely on was their internet, never really had any problems in almost 5 years. TV, on the other hand, was an absolute disaster! It got worse with each step up in performance, digital cable had occasional pixelation and noticeable hesitations/dropouts on the music channels. When I got an HD TV and went to their HD service, the dropouts and hesitations increased exponentially -- could not even listen to the music stations as they all tended to play like damaged CDs. Just as bad was their lack of HD content -- as of March of this year, no ESPN2HD and no NFL network (SD or HD). I quickly got DIRECTV and have never looked back with anything but gratitude to D* and disgust at "bright" house. Rain fade is but a minor problem more than offset by the plethora of new HD progamming. My BellSouth DSL is rated at only 1/3 of my bh cable, but the actual throughput has not suffered at all and at time has actually been faster in practice. I have seen Verizon's FIOS at my son's place near Tampa; I am/was very favorably impressed and would have jumped had it been offered here, but this is ATT&T (old BellSouth) territory. AT&T does have UVerse which is similar to FIOS, but I don't expect to see it here until late next year at the earliest; probably will pass on it due to the superior programming on DIRECTV. Faster horses, younger women, older whiskey, more money. Why do they call it "Tourist Season" if we can't shoot them? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
darwin143 0 #10 October 1, 2007 I had BH in my old apartment and was forced to switch to Comcast when I moved into a new apartment complex. I had little to no trouble with BH and have had nothing but headaches with Comcast... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NeedToJump 0 #11 October 2, 2007 I use Brighthouse for cable/internet and, strangely enough, I haven't had many problems with them. The problems I have had were resolved quickly as well. I've had many more problems with my phone (BellSouth/at&t). I'd use BH for phone too, but I like having a land line instead of internet phone so I can use it during power outages.Wind Tunnel and Skydiving Coach http://www.ariperelman.com Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
The111 1 #12 October 2, 2007 QuoteMy BellSouth DSL is rated at only 1/3 of my bh cable, but the actual throughput has not suffered at all and at time has actually been faster in practice. There are two important sides to internet "speed" (a misnomer): latency and bandwidth. Both are equally important, and service providers never measure anything but bandwidth. Most people do not know what latency is. If I had to choose from: 1) connection with 5MBps downstream bandwidth and a poor latency (for example, >100ms to a popular search engine) 2) connection with 3Mbps downstream bandwidth and a great latency (for example, 30ms to a popular search engine) I would choose #2 every time. For one, a giant bandwidth is useless because you will never ever take advantage of it. It's like having a car with a top speed of 400mph vs 300mph. You will never reach either of those speeds on any road in USA with traffic. Now what if the 400mph car took a minute to get from 0 to 60, but the 300mph car did it in 5 seconds? The choice is a no brainer. The 300mph car (the "slower one") would get you to your destination much much faster, every time. It's worth noting that DSL does have more consistent (and usually lower) latencies than cable, which is why your "1/3 lower" connection can be faster in practice. I had a Bright House connection once that had the worst latencies I'd ever experienced in my life... I was into FPS gaming at the time and couldn't get lower than a 300ms ping to any server in the US. That makes gaming literally impossible. My 33.6k modem in high school was better. The Bright House internet I've had lately is great, but their digital HD cable does suck, and their customer service sucks much much much worse. I am not one to complain about customer service in general, but this is without exaggeration the worst I've ever experience anywhere. Ditto the comment about tons of free credits on my account because they have missed EVERY SINGLE SERVICE APPOINTMENT I've ever scheduled with them. Those $20 credits do not make up for the days I spent waiting in my apartment for 10 hours, killing valuable time, only to have the tech finally show up and say it wasn't necessary for me to be there. Maybe I will try out the DirecTV recommendation in this thread...www.WingsuitPhotos.com Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
normiss 798 #13 October 2, 2007 latency can be introduced into the network path in a multitude of points... the local pc, the misconfigured router that people get from Best Buy and use straight out of the box, the cable/dsl modem, and any hop across the network path to the destination...ISP's do not always have control over that path....nor does the average end user. there are some places the home user can adjust that will change a dediocre performing broadband connection into a lightening fast network... and I'll always take the fat pipe (bandwidth) when offered thank you very much...during downloads some of those DVD movies can really interfere with my dizzie.com experience if I don't have sufficient bandwidth. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
The111 1 #14 October 2, 2007 When a tracert showed that the first 4 hops past my gateway (all roadrunner routers) were introducing the latency, to the point of unplayable gaming and near unbrowsable browsing (300ms+ to Google)... I switched to "lower-bandwidth" DSL and achieved much better results across the board. That was at my old location, where I am now the cable connection is better. Besides, as cool as D/Ling movies is... it's better to get them from Netflix and "watch" them in full quality. www.WingsuitPhotos.com Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
normiss 798 #15 October 2, 2007 i do both actually...and if you're sacrificing quality...you're doing something wrong... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
The111 1 #16 October 2, 2007 Quotei do both actually...and if you're sacrificing quality...you're doing something wrong... I would love for you to correct me if I'm wrong, but there is nowhere I know to D/L full 8GB movies, and certainly not with the selection I want. (I've been watching a lot of movies from 70's and 80's recently... no particular reason, just random chance).www.WingsuitPhotos.com Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
normiss 798 #17 October 2, 2007 no bit torrent for you? I've been watching some strange grindhouse type stuff lately...no particular reason here either. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
The111 1 #18 October 2, 2007 Quoteno bit torrent for you? Not many full quality DVD images on bit torrent. Hell, even the ones compressed for a DVD-5 (4.5GB) are rare, and 99% of retail discs need quite a bit of compression to fit DVD-5. On my new TV I can notice the difference with ANY compression technique you can offer. Hence I don't watch compressed or ripped movies... only straight 1:1 quality versions.www.WingsuitPhotos.com Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Derekbox 0 #19 October 4, 2007 Usenet for the win. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
