Cable modem service has been an
incredible improvement over 56K modem. MediaOne offered to cut the install
price (normally $100) to $49.95 if I chose to have basic cable TV service
installed at the same time. In addition I purchased my NIC, a 3Com 3C905,
from them as well. The charge for the card was $75.00. The physical cable
runs were installed as scheduled (the installer actually phoned to see if
it would be okay to come two hours early). Wiring was done neatly. When he
finished his work, he advised me that the cable modem installer would be
arriving later that day.
Two MediaOne techs arrived and installed the NIC, configured the system,
and gave me a brief run through on server names, customer service numbers
and e-mail support. In addition, they set up two e-mail addresses and
advised me to call customer support if I needed any more as the service
comes with four.
In general, the service quality has been excellent. I have had two minor
outages, one due to a system upgrade prior to which I was notified. The
other was reported via telephone and trouble cleared in about an hour. I
have noticed short retention times on some groups on the news server and
those people interested in warez and binaries might waish to investigate
additional or alternate services for their news feed. Downloads average
200K, with a peak of 750K downloading StarOffice from Sun's
website.