[Hidden-tech] Comcast v. Verizon

[Jonathan Dill]

In case I haven't mentioned it before, if you want to get an idea of all 
of the options that may be available in your neighborhood, check out

http://www.dslreports.com

I haven't used it in awhile, but you used to be able to plug in your 
home address or (non-internet) phone number and find out what services 
are available.  I hear Verizon FIOS (fiber) is worth looking into if you 
can get it, but I doubt it's available anywhere in Western Mass.

For the original problem that was described of parts of web pages not 
loading, I would tend to suspect the web browser software, "internet 
acceleration" software or firewall rather than the cable service 
itself.    The cable should just be providing a TCP/IP connection, it 
shouldn't care what is contained within the stream of data.  However, 
some ISPs have been known to sneak a "web cache" into a connection and 
force all traffic to port 80 to go through there (this is to conserve 
bandwidth on their "back end" and peer connections to other ISPs).

As for cable modem, the cable modem that you have can make a lot of 
difference, especially if it is an older unit that uses old standards.  
I recommend Motorola SurfBoard or at least something that is "DOCSIS 2.0 
Certified".

As for Verizon, my experience is the DSL modems they give out are cheap 
junk and at some point start flaking out on people.  You can hound 
Verizon until they send you a replacement cheap junk, or just bite the 
bullet and try to get something better yourself.  However, it's hard to 
find ADSL modems that you can buy as a regular consumer.  The Zyxel Zoom 
X5 or X6 are sometimes available at places like Staples or CompUSA, I 
know a couple people who have replaced Westell units from Verizon with 
the X5 and had very good results.

For DNS problems such as on Comcast, some firewall / router can be set 
up to work as a "caching DNS".  If you have a Linux box, Mac, or Windows 
Server, it might not be too hard to set up a caching DNS on there as well.

As for DHCP problems on Comcast, you could look into getting a static IP 
then set up your cable modem with a "static" address accordingly, but I 
have no idea how much Comcast charges for that, or if it is even 
available for other than business accounts.

Jonathan