tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59619455185150206482024-03-13T22:55:45.868-07:00Lawrence Broadband ObserverWe are comparing AT&T U-Verse and Sunflower Broadband here in Lawrence, Kansas. This blog will document our experiences with each provider and its offerings.Broadband Observerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02521212195253433877noreply@blogger.comBlogger38125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961945518515020648.post-55839199119595120732012-05-13T16:07:00.002-07:002012-05-13T16:07:48.680-07:00Knology raises its rates, and its upload speedsRecently <a href="http://kansas.knology.com">Knology</a> (soon to become <a href="http://www.wowway.com/">Wow!</a>) made some minor changes to its broadband internet offerings. The most obvious change is that the prices of ever tier of services went up by $3.00, but in return for the price increases, every tier now enjoys much faster upload speeds. These improved speeds bring Knology in line with common DOCSIS3 cable internet speeds from other providers, and represent the results of some major behind-the-scenes infrastructure upgrades over the past 6 months (that's part of the reason there have been so many outages on Knology as of late).<p>
Knology's <a href="http://kansas.knology.com/internet/">Sunflower-era web page</a> hasn't been updated with the new plan information, but in return for that extra three bucks a month, here's what you'll receive:<p>
<b>Bronze</b>: Knology's low-end service retains its DSL-like 3 megabit download speed, but gets a nice boost in upload speed to 1 megabit (up for 256 kilobits). The bandwidth cap for the Bronze service gets a slight bump for 3 gigs a month to 5 GB, which is still ridiculously low. At $22.95 a month (assuming you already have cable TV), Bronze is still a very poor deal, as even a single system update or movie download would blow through the puny bandwidth cap and have you paying overage charges.<p>
<b>Silver</b>: Knology's mid-range service gets a solid speed boost, going from 10 to 18 megabits in download speed and 1 to 2 megabits in upload. The bandwidth cap remains 50 GB, for a monthly price of $37.95 (if you have cable). The bandwidth cap is still too stingy, but the speeds are very solid for a mid-range option. For most people, Silver is the definite sweet spot and probably the best value as long as you stay under the cap.<p>
<b>Gold</b>: Knology's premium service for serious internet users retains its old 50 megabit download speeds, but gets a major upgrade from 1 to 5 megabits for upload, finally making Knology useful for common tasks like online backups and video uploading. The 5 megabit speeds might even be understating things, as anecdotally, some Knology Gold users have seen speeds in the 6 or 7 megabit range at least in shorts bursts uploading. At $62.95 (with cable), Gold is pricey, and sadly, Knology has not upped the barely adequate 250 GB monthly bandwidth cap. For a premium service, it would be nice if Knology offered the 500 GB caps that many other providers offer for their highest-end service.<p>
<b>Palladium</b>: Knology's cap-less Palladium server, now $47.95 a month (with cable), still offers download speeds of between 2 and 25 megabits, and upload speeds up to 1 megabit, unchanged from before (other then the higher price). Palladium may be a good value for those who move a lot of data but do not care about speed - perhaps folks with nailed-up VPN connections, or large continuous online backups. <p>
The improved upload speeds are a good value for only $3.00 more a month, and it is nice to see Knology offering speeds that are at least mainstream, but here's hoping WoW continues to improve things - DOCSIS3 is capable of much faster speeds, and many providers off 10 megabit upload and much higher caps. Still, Knology has definitely thrown a gauntlet towards U-Verse, who offers 24/3 on their fastest data tier at roughly the same price (albeit without currently enforcing any bandwidth caps).Broadband Observerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02521212195253433877noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961945518515020648.post-82393651800216996602012-04-22T19:59:00.001-07:002012-04-22T19:59:45.323-07:00A year come and goneThe Broadband Observer has been deep deep undercover for the past 400 or so days. The good news (well, really, bad news) is that not much has changed in Lawrence in the past year or so in the world of broadband.
What are some of the highlights?
As Google continues the <a href="http://googlefiberblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/construction-update.html">rapid build-out of a true fiber network</a> just 30 miles to our East, Lawrence residents still limp along with the same <a href="http://kansas.knology.com/internet/">sloth-like Knology upload speeds</a> that the old Sunflower Broadband was selling over 10 years ago! Meanwhile, there's always <a href="http://uverseonline.att.net/">U-Verse</a>, but if you can't get U-Verse in Lawrence, you probably will never get it, because as far as I can tell, they are done with their build-out in our area. At least in some slight good news, the promised <a href="http://lawrencebroadband.blogspot.com/2011/03/at-shoots-self-in-foot-reloads.html">AT&T bandwidth caps</a> are <a href="http://forums.att.com/t5/Features-and-How-To/250GB-cap/m-p/2976787/highlight/true#M30373">not being enforced</a>, at least for U-Verse customers.<p>
Considering cord-cutting? Well, paying $10 a GB for Verizon's zippy LTE network (which blows U-Verse and Knology out of the water speed-wise) will bankrupt you quickly, but don't worry, Lawrencians, because while Verizon is hurriedly activating this wicked-fast 4G service in bustling metropolises through our state such as <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2403170,00.asp">Great Bend and Hayes</a>, Lawrence is still poking along in the slow lane with ancient 3G service without any sign of LTE on the horizon.<p>
But who needs the Internet when there's something good to watch on TV? The past year has seen Knology complete what Sunflower started by <a href="http://www2.ljworld.com/weblogs/sigmund/2010/aug/4/qam-qualms/">encrypting all of the non-over-the-air cable channels</a>, meaning that you need a set-top-box (or a CableCard device like a TiVo) to watch even basic cable networks like CNN and ESPN on a digital TV. Thus the long, 30+ year era of being able to watch basic cable by just plugging a coax into a television set ends with a whimper.<p>
Finally, the big news of the past year is that after making a quick meal of Sunflower Broadband (including several dozen local jobs swallowed whole as the appetizer), Knology has gone ahead and been <a href="http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2012/apr/18/knology-sold-denver-area-company-more-750-million/">bought out itself</a> by WideOpenWest (from hereon to be known as 'WOW' not to be confused with a certain addictive video game). What does this mean? A safe bet is increased prices, decreased service, and possibly the loss of those kicking-it-old-school <a href="http://www.calldrdave.com/wp/2012/04/my-thoughts-on-wideopenwest-wow-buyout-of-knology-formerly-sunflower-broadband/">sunflower.com</a> email addresses. There is hope for those of us eagerly looking East towards 1 gigabit speeds in KC...WOW offers <a href="http://www.wowway.com/high-speed-internet-service/">5 megabit upload speeds</a> and apparently no bandwidth caps, which will, if provided in Lawrence, move broadband in our town into the 2000s right as the rest of the country hits the mid 2010s.Broadband Observerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02521212195253433877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961945518515020648.post-41926952971255941632011-03-16T11:40:00.000-07:002011-03-16T12:12:26.546-07:00AT&T shoots self in foot, reloadsAT&T has made a major announcement that represents a significant degrading of the quality of their internet services. Starting May 2, AT&T will <a href="http://stopthecap.com/2011/03/13/breaking-news-att-ending-unlimited-broadband-service-for-dslu-verse-customers-may-2nd/">begin capping the bandwidth for all of their internet offerings.</a> Many in Lawrence are already familiar with caps such as these, as Knology (previously Sunflower Broadband) has implemented them for years. <br /><br />Needless to say <a href="http://forums.att.com/t5/Features-and-How-To/AT-amp-T-To-Impose-Caps-Overages/td-p/2704137">this announcement hasn't gone own well</a> amongst AT&T's customers.<br /><br />AT&T's excuse, that such draconian new restrictions are needed to prevent "network congestion" has been <a href="http://stopthecap.com/2011/03/15/congestion-pricing-myths-exposed-a-guide-to-the-bandwidth-crisis-at-att-or-anywhere-else/">ably debunked</a> - likely the real reason for AT&T's move is that many customers are downgrading their U-Verse television service and preferring to get content via sources such as Netflix, Amazon, <a href="http://gigaom.com/apple/how-bandwidth-caps-hurt-your-mac-what-apple-can-do-about-it/">iTunes</a>, and Hulu. Bandwidth caps are a dagger aimed at the heart of services such as these - after all, who's gonna watch TV via Hulu and HD movies via Netflix when they have to keep a careful eye on the meter? Much easier to just upgrade your U-Verse TV plan (which isn't subject to the cap - how convenient!)<br /><br />Anyway, for those of us in Lawrence, U-Verse has suddenly become much less competitive with Knology. Let's stack up how the top of the line plans for both providers now compare.<br /><br /><br /><table border=1 cellspacing=3 cellpadding=3><br /><tr><td></td><td>Knology Gold</td><td>AT&T U-Verse Max Turbo</td></tr><br /><tr><td>Download speed</td><td>50 Mbit</td><td>24 Mbit</td></tr><br /><tr><td>Upload speed</td><td>1 Mbit</td><td>3 Mbit</td></tr><br /><tr><td>Bandwidth cap</td><td>250 GB/month</td><td>250 GB/month</td></tr><br /><tr><td>Bandwidth meter</td><td>Updated hourly</td><td>Updated every several days</td></tr><br /><tr><td>Base price</td><td>$60</td><td>$65</td></tr><br /><tr><td>Overage Fees</td><td>$25 per 50 GB</td><td>$10 per 50 GB</td></tr><br /><tr><td>Grace</td><td>Unofficial, can call CS to get overage reduced</td><td>3 overages allowed over account lifetime before charges begin to accrue</td><tr><br /><tr><td>Bandwidth tracked</td><td>Upload and download</td><td>Upload and download</td></tr></table><br /><br />(sources: public web sites from <a href="http://www.att.com/internet-usage">AT&T</a>, <a href="http://kansas.knology.com/internet/">Knology</a> and first-hand sources from both companies)<br /><br />So, basically, with AT&T, you get faster upload and cheaper overage fees although you pay a slightly higher base fee and have slower top download speeds. Knology gets you faster downloads, but it will be more expensive if you go over your cap. As a side note, AT&T's metering is a joke - it will only be updated every few days, making it almost impossible to figure out what might be using bandwidth. Knology's meter is update in near realtime, making it a useful tool. Of course, in both cases, the meter's accuracy is "in the clouds" - unlike, say, your electrical meter, there is no independent body which calibrates and audits the meter. Do you trust AT&T (or Knology) to keep accurate track of your data usage?<br /><br />Either way, the only winner is the service provider, and you, the customer are the loser, because you can't take advantage of new innovative video services or important security measures like online backups without the anxiety of watching a meter run and the risk of billing surprises. <br /><br />What will the Broadband Observer do? Probably stick with U-Verse....for now. All things being equal, still like the higher upload speed and slightly lower overage prices. However, Knology could upgrade their upload speed by flipping a switch, and will probably adjust their overage fees to stay competitive. When they do so, AT&T will likely be kicked to the curb at our house.Broadband Observerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02521212195253433877noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961945518515020648.post-44089931282317791562011-01-19T09:51:00.000-08:002011-01-19T09:55:52.337-08:00I For One Welcome Our New Knology OverlordsNot really, but I am always looking for an excuse to use an obscure <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Space_Homer">Simpsons</a> reference.<br /><br />Anyway, it is official.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.knology.com">Knology</a> is now Lawrence's local cable-based broadband provider. The old Sunflower home page redirects to a new <a href="http://kansas.knology.com/">Knology Kansas</a> page. I guess I need to update the sidebar links on the blog.<br /><br />The natives are showing signs of <a href="http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2011/jan/18/sunflower-broadbands-new-owners-change-name-knolog/">restlessness.</a>Broadband Observerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02521212195253433877noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961945518515020648.post-53254705887444908352011-01-13T18:55:00.000-08:002011-01-13T19:15:37.687-08:00Who knows? Sam knows.The Broadband Observer has become friends with Sam. Uncle Sam, that is, or at least the Federal Communications Commission part of it, who is helping run a <a href="http://www.samknows.com/broadband/index.php">first-of-its-kind national three-year study of broadband connectivity and performance in America.</a><br /><br />These are real, scientifically sophisticated automated regular tests of connectivity, bandwidth quality and speed that will be used to gain an understanding of what actual broadband performance is being delivered to customers. Over 100,000 users nationwide, subscribing to hundreds of providers and tiers of service are being studied, and the results will show if consumers are actually getting what they pay for, as well as what the true broadband infrastructure in America is like.<br /><br />I am excited to be one of the people selected for this test. The test works by having a special <a href="http://www.netgear.com/about/press-releases/2010/20100601.aspx">NetGear router with custom firmware</a> attached to your broadband connection. It regularly tests the connection and uploads statistical information to the study's managers. The owner of the broadband connection being tested (me) also gets to see my own data, which I am definitely interested in!<br />You can <a href="http://www.samknows.com/broadband/faq/monitoring">learn more</a> about some of the technical tests if you are curious. <br /><br />Watch for future posts about the SamKnows testing as I learn more about the process and find out some preliminary results.Broadband Observerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02521212195253433877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961945518515020648.post-55883998453077591992011-01-07T07:10:00.000-08:002011-01-07T08:00:57.692-08:00Odds and ends: Waiting for Knology, U-Verse hits a rough spotIt's been a while since I have written here, mostly because not too much has been happening in the Lawrence broadband arena. <a href="http://www.knology.com">Knology</a> officially <a href="http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2010/oct/16/sale-sunflower-broadband-complete/">completed their purchase</a> of <a href="http://http://www.sunflowerbroadband.com/">Sunflower Broadband</a> although as of yet there have been no changes to the technology or service offerings for Lawrence consumers. The only change of note was a rather aggressive <a href="http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2010/dec/01/knology-rightsizing-lawrence/">swinging of the layoff axe</a> as Knology decimated one of the best parts of Sunflower, their local customer service. Impact of these cuts (and any changes in services and branding) will probably become apparent later this Winter, and I will try to write about it here when it happens.<br /><br />Ironically, those changes might be happening right around the same time that Mr. Observer himself might be shopping for a new ISP. Our 18 month long <a href="http://www.att.com/u-verse/">U-Verse</a> experiment is showing signs that it may be in trouble. You might remember that <a href="http://lawrencebroadband.blogspot.com/2010/07/no-news-is.html">last summer</a>, which was the last time I really talked about U-Verse, service was humming along without any problems. This has mostly continued since then, with occasional glitchiness that usually resolved itself after a few days. The main problem we have had over the past year is internet slowdowns where our speed has dropped drastically, on its own, for a few hours or even a few days before magically correcting itself. <br /><br />However, in the past week, things have taken a dramatic turn for the worse, with significant VDSL signal problems, including random router reboots, dropped signals, and numerous line errors - more then we had ever had before (hundreds of millions of corrected blocks in a day). Topping it all off, our internet speed sometimes randomly slows way down for hours at a time before returning to normal. When this happens, speed tests to multiple sites show average speeds of less then half of the 24/3 we are paying for, with ridiculously high ping times (over 150 milliseconds) even to the local AT&T switch behind the VRAD (these are normally in the range of 40 milliseconds when things are working right). <br /><br />AT&T has already tried numerous remedies; they've swapped our in-house router (the residential gateway), cleaned up our outside wiring, and even switched our connection port on the VRAD itself, to no avail. My suspicion is that there is likely a problem with network management or a network device in the AT&T network itself (this would account for the slowdowns and terrible ping times) and perhaps something wrong with the local line as well. The problems with the AT&T network itself probably affect other customers, but I would imagine most do not notice it, as they are not as technically inclined as I am and probably do not have the higher-speed internet tiers in which a slowdown would be way more apparent.<br /><br />It just seems very weird that an installation that has been rock-solid for over a year would suddenly fall apart like this, without any obvious causes. AT&T is coming back out today, and my expectations are very low, both based on the intermittent nature of the problem, and past experiences. I am expecting a bunch of "shotgun debugging" - I predict they will try to replace the router again, and run more line tests that will show things to be "clean" and it might work for a short while...and then, ugh. This is nothing against the service technicians themselves; to a man, they have all been as helpful and courteous as possible - they just haven't been able to solve the problem!<br /><br />We've been spoiled by a year of troublefree service, and the joys of 3 megabits upload speed and no bandwidth caps, but if these issues can't be solved, Sunflower (or I guess Knology) might be getting another look.<br /><br />As a side note, I am really glad we do <a href="http://lawrencebroadband.blogspot.com/2009/09/verdict-television.html">NOT have U-Verse for TV</a> now. Slow internet stinks, but you can live with it. But I have to imagine that the television service would have just been decimated by all these glitches and we would probably have been forced to miss a bunch of our favorite shows.<br /><br />PS: I would think an issue like this would be something AT&T would be very interested in solving, especially if it does involve something higher up in their network infrastructure that may potentially affect many people. I know that the different parts of AT&T are like islands, and the guys who come to your home to troubleshoot do not work with the network engineers, or the line repair guys. I've been told that is the corporate nature of AT&T, which is sad, because just like in medicine, sometimes you need to approach a problem from many different angles and get teams from different departments to work together.Broadband Observerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02521212195253433877noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961945518515020648.post-14846129116510671962010-08-05T06:32:00.000-07:002010-08-05T06:43:08.706-07:00Sunflower QAM channels in LawrenceAt last, a a break from speculating about the Knology purchase of Sunflower back into some good technical information on cable TV in Lawrence.<br /><br />A very helpful individual named <a href="http://www2.ljworld.com/users/Sigmund/">Sigmund</a> on the <a href="http://ljworld.com">Lawrence Journal World</a> forums has done the hard work and put together an updated list of all the QAM mappings for the Sunflower Broadband Bronze cable networks.<br /><br />As I have discussed <a href="http://lawrencebroadband.blogspot.com/2009/08/geek-super-bowl-preview-television.html">last year</a>, QAM channels are the actual digital cable channels that you watch on your TV. Most people watch these using a set-top box, which makes things easier, but at the cost of allowing "TV geeks" to use their own equipment (such as a PC-based tuner).<br /><br />Anyway, Sigmund has written an <a href="http://www2.ljworld.com/weblogs/sigmund/2010/aug/4/qam-qualms/">absolutely wonderful</a> blog post discussing the current state of QAM programming and Sunflower, as well as providing an up-to-date <a href="http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=trfwEJUly1hgC6lTE5zA0Pw&output=html">QAM channel guide</a>. <br /><br />Sadly, you'll notice the channel guide is missing some important channels, such as ESPN and Comedy Central. Commenter <a href="http://www2.ljworld.com/weblogs/sigmund/2010/aug/4/qam-qualms/#c1322934">MizzouJayhawk</a> notes that these channels have disappeared because of new contracts between the networks and cable company that require encryption...just like a "premium" network such as HBO.<br /><br />Anyway, stop what you are doing and go read Sigmund's <a href="http://www2.ljworld.com/weblogs/sigmund/2010/aug/4/qam-qualms/">excellent post</a>, and update your channel mappings in preparation for the fall TV season if you haven't already.Broadband Observerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02521212195253433877noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961945518515020648.post-83848447650557777702010-08-04T06:37:00.000-07:002010-08-04T07:10:17.104-07:00And, it's official<a href="http://www.sunflowerbroadband.com">Sunflower Broadband</a> has been purchased by <a href="http://www.knology.com">Knology</a> for (cue <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKKHSAE1gIs">Dr. Evil laugh</a>) <a href="http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=130221&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1456305&highlight=">$165 million dollars</a><br /><br />From the MBA-speak in the Knology earnings announcement:<br /><br /><i>-- Highlights of the Sunflower transaction include:<br /><br /> -- Acquisition of a very well managed business with solid<br /> operational and financial metrics<br /> -- Maintains Knology's strategic niche, operating in secondary and<br /> tertiary markets with favorable demographics and positive economic<br /> growth characteristics<br /> -- Consistent culture and value system with focus on customers and<br /> employees<br /> -- Similar hybrid fiber/coax network architecture<br /> -- Incumbent cable operator, adding approximately 54,000 homes<br /> passed to Knology's existing footprint and approximately 105,000<br /> RGU's to Knology's operations<br /> -- Geography offers attractive edge-out possibilities, tack-on<br /> acquisition and larger acquisition opportunities bridging Knology's<br /> southeast and upper Midwest footprints</i><br /><br />So what will this mean for Lawrence broadband customers? Time will tell. I am sure a lot of details will start to come out about the announcement today and in the weeks ahead, and we will try to keep you informed here at the Lawrence Broadband Observer.<br /><br />UPDATE: This <a href="http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2010/aug/04/sunflower-broadband-acquired-georgia-based-company/">rather folksy history</a> of Sunflower written by her soon-to-be-former sister company, the Lawrence Journal World, contains a nugget of news: the local cable network <a href="http://www2.ljworld.com/news/6news_lawrence/">Channel 6</a> which provides local news, features, and community access will continue to operate on the Knology system in Lawrence.Broadband Observerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02521212195253433877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961945518515020648.post-73647661565281242352010-07-28T08:18:00.000-07:002010-07-30T14:09:31.909-07:00Sunflower Broadband to be sold to out-of-state conglomerate?Big changes might be coming to the world of broadband cable and internet in Lawrence, Kansas. According to a report in the cable industry newspaper Multichannel News, <a href="http://www.multichannel.com/article/455271-Knology_Close_To_Sunflower_Buy.php">Georgia-based broadband firm Knology</a> is close to finalizing a deal to acquire Sunflower Broadband.<br /><br />This would probably mean some big changes to the broadband market here in Lawrence. It would also mark the end of <a href="http://sunflowerbroadband.com">Sunflower Broadband</a> as a local, independent entity. Buyouts happen all the time in the world of business, but I still pause to shed a few tears for the demise of another independent, local, family-owned business - especially one that has always "punched above its weight" by being technologically ahead of the curve of many much larger companies over the years - both positive (cable internet, DOCSIS 3, digital cable and HD support) and negative (bandwidth caps).<br /><br />So, what will the buyout mean for the local Lawrence broadband market?<br />Well, new logos on the bills and a new sign on the building for sure, but beyond that, who knows?<br /><br />I browsed <a href="http://knology.com/media/index.cfm">Knology's corporate web site</a> and was actually pretty unimpressed. To put it mildly, Knology is well behind Sunflower both geographically and technically. Knology offers service in rural areas much smaller then Lawrence, like Storm Lake, Iowa and Dothan, Alabama. They also offer service in a few towns that are equal or larger then Lawrence like Charleston, South Carolina.<br /><br />Technically, Knology is well behind Sunflower in what they offer customers in other cities. Top internet speeds (albeit cap-free) are only in the 8-10 megabit range, five times slower then Sunflower's new DOCSIS 3 offerings. On the television side, while it varies from city to city, Knology generally offers only 30 or so HD channels, which is less then half of what Sunflower offers. Knology offers a rudimentary DVR, but nothing like Sunflower's multi-room options. <br /><br />Perhaps Knology is interested in buying Sunflower to learn how to offer more advanced services, knowledge they can take to their other markets. I don't know, but it seems like this is a case of a large buggy-whip manufacturer buying out a smaller company that makes automobiles.<br /><br />My prediction is that for Lawrence broadband customers of Sunflower, not too much will actually change. Obviously, Knology is not going to <b>reduce</b> the service levels that Sunflower already offers. Perhaps they will make positive changes. Some folks are already <a href="http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Knology-To-Buy-Sunflower-Broadband-109612">speculating</a> that the change in ownership might mean the elimination of bandwidth caps for internet, and perhaps the adjustment of the speed tiers (as long as we are dreaming, how about maybe raising the ridiculously low 1 megabit upload speed on the high-end plans?)<br /><br />On the TV side, I noticed that nothing on Knology's site referenced support for the critical <a href="http://support.tivo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/135">cable cards</a> which are essential for TiVo use. However, the FCC requires cable cards to be supported so I doubt there would be any changes here. Of more concern would be an end to Sunflower's refreshing and fairly unique policy of not encrypting the majority of digital QAM channels. This very consumer-friendly attitude allows Sunflower customers to use a variety of independent and <a href="http://www.elgato.com/elgato/na/mainmenu/products/EyeTV-Hybrid-10/product3.en.html">PC-based DVRs</a>. However, most cable companies don't allow this, encrypting all non-premium "basic" channels except the over-the-air networks. Hopefully, Knology won't change this, but my guess is that they will.<br /><br />Another question is what will happen with customer service. Will it still be local, and will great features like live <a href="http://twitter.com/SFBroadband/">Twitter support</a> remain? I really hope Knology enters Lawrence with a very light hand and allows the good things about Sunflower Broadband - including all of its employees - to keep doing what they are doing.<br /><br />UPDATE: Broadband blog "Stop the Cap" has some <a href="http://stopthecap.com/2010/07/28/notorious-usage-capping-sunflower-broadband-close-to-sale-to-knology-caps-could-be-history/">additional coverage</a> of the impending sale.<br /><br />UPDATE 2: <a href="http://www.calldrdave.com/wp/?p=135">A great analysis</a> of the potential effects of the sale by <a href="http://www.calldrdave.com">Dave Greenbaum</a>.Broadband Observerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02521212195253433877noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961945518515020648.post-56978040403022257762010-07-21T13:11:00.000-07:002010-07-21T13:15:39.663-07:00No news is?Good news?<br /><br />I'm still alive here, although things have been pretty quiet. Our U-Verse Max Turbo continues to hum along, outage free and with reliable speeds, so there's not much new to report. The same goes for the Sunflower cable TV service. Of note to Sunflower customers, is the unfortunate news that the company has recently started encrypting some of the previously in-the-clear QAM channels such as Comedy Central, meaning only Cable Card devices are now capable of viewing them.<br /><br />Later this summer as the 1-year anniversary of the blog (and our broadband switch) occurs, I'll be posting some more retrospectives, so stay tuned.Broadband Observerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02521212195253433877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961945518515020648.post-71499505337214810702010-03-31T19:33:00.000-07:002010-03-31T19:51:58.697-07:00Turbo. Max. Max Turbo, at your serviceIf you read my <a href="http://lawrencebroadband.blogspot.com/2010/03/max-power-not-quite.html">post yesterday</a> you know I was quite frustrated with AT&T's customer service and inability to properly provision my line to support their new fast internet tier, Max Turbo.<br /><br />What a difference a day makes. I took my frustration onto Twitter, and god the kind of friendly helpful service that Grandma probably got in the olden days. I followed the <a href="http://twitter.com/ATTCustomerCare">official AT&T group Twitter presence</a> and directed a mention their way, describing my frustration. Within an hour, I got a response from a very helpful gentleman named <a href="http://twitter.com/ATTJason">Jason</a> who works for AT&T's Twitter team. We exchanged some Direct Messages (I pointed him to my blog entry) and he said he would contact AT&T's U-Verse team to get a straight answer.<br /><br />This morning, I got a call from a U-Verse Tier 2 technician, who, within 5 minutes, was able to look up my account, determine that my line qualified for the higher speed, actually get my line properly provisioned with the 32/5 profile, and added the Max Turbo level of service. The profile took effect immediately.<br /><br />And that's it. A tale of successful customer service. I am quite glad that it all worked out and I am very happy with the level of service I got after reaching out to AT&T on Twitter, but a part of me wonders why I had to go to this length? Shouldn't you be able to get the same service if you call in? It almost seems like there's two levels of service -- the basic, poor phone support, and for those savvy enough to use Twitter, premium, high-quality support.<br /><br />But, I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Thanks to Jason and the rest of the AT&T Twitter team, I have Max Turbo:<br /><br /><img src="http://www.mikesilverman.com/maxturbospeed.png" /><br /><br />Over the next few weeks I will put it through the paces, keeping an eye on my line stats and real-world internet speeds. As always, I'll share the results with you here.Broadband Observerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02521212195253433877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961945518515020648.post-44049193847453925522010-03-30T11:46:00.000-07:002010-03-31T19:53:04.709-07:00Max Power? Not quite.Boy I was excited yesterday. AT&T announced a big U-Verse <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">internet</span> speed increase was available <a href="http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/ATT-Says-24-Mbps-UVerse-Now-Available-Everywhere-107613">across their network</a>. For essentially no increase in our monthly price, AT&T was offering 24 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">mbits</span> download speed (up from 18) and 3 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">mbits</span> upload (up from 1.5).<br /><br />Twice as much upstream capacity, and a nice little bump on download, for the same price? Cool. The new service tier is called "Max Turbo" (why do all the U-Verse speed tiers have names that sounds like porn stars?)<br /><br />However, when I went to actually upgrade, I was reminded of why it is so frustrating to deal with AT&T. I went online to change my plan, and of course the online form allowed me to select the new tier, but when I tried to place the order, it just said "not available in your area."<br /><br />A brief perusal of the AT&T <a href="http://utalk.att.com/t5/High-Speed-Internet-Access/bd-p/HSIA">online forums</a> shows that a lot of people are having this issue.<br /><br />The technical reason why is that your U-Verse <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">VDSL</span> line is "provisioned" to support particular tiers of service. The most common tier is 25/2 which means your line can support 25 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">mbit</span> down and 2 up (remember that some of this is reserved for TV use, even if you don't have U-Verse television).<br /><br />In order to support the new faster <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">internet</span>, my line has to have its provisioning profile updated to AT&T's new "32/5" profile. Not all U-verse customers support the profile; if you are too far away from the fiber optic node (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">VRAD</span>) in your neighborhood, you are out of luck. The key statistic to help determine if you can support the new speed is your line's "maximum sync rate." If you have U-verse, you can view this number in the Residential Gateway's user interface.<br /><br />If you have the "new" <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">UI</span>, you can see it <a href="http://192.168.1.254/xslt?PAGE=C_1_0">here</a>. Here's what mine shows:<br /><br /><img src="http://www.mikesilverman.com/dsl.jpg" /><br /><br />The blue circle indicates what I am provisioned at... 25/2<br /><br />The red circle indicates my lines maximum speed, which is over 50 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">mbits</span>!<br /><br />While no U-Verse customer can actually have a speed close to the max (if you get too close to it, the number of line errors goes way up...think of it as being the same as the maximum speed your car can go...the engine wouldn't last long if you drove at that speed all the time).<br /><br />However, the 50 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">mbit</span> max speed is important, because it indicates my line can support the high-speed 32/5 profile (generally, if you max user rate is 45 or above, you definitely qualify for the fast profile). Furthermore, our line is very "clean" with no errors, making it an ideal candidate.<br /><br />So, my line can support the fast speeds, but my profile needed to be updated to actually make it work. Simple call to AT&T tech support to get this taken care of, right?<br /><br />Simple as creating world peace, perhaps.<br /><br />After a frustrating hour on hold, being shuttled between several different folks, nobody at AT&T can tell me why they can't make this simple switch. Changing line provisioning is something that Tier 2 technical support can do remotely (on-site techs can also initiate this).<br />The excuses I have been given included the whopper that "the central office in your town can't support those speeds" which is factually wrong, as well as "maybe the system will be upgraded in the future." Adding to my frustration, the Tier 1 representative, and an additional sales representative refused to escalate me to tier 2 support so perhaps I could get this fixed, or at least get an honest answer as to why it can't be done.<br /><br />Needless to say I am quite frustrated. I've reached out to the AT&T staff on Twitter (this is a good way to test their responsiveness, especially compared to <a href="http://twitter.com/sfbroadband">our local cable company's</a> responsive Twitter presence.<br /><br />I'll update this blog when I hear more from AT&T, meanwhile the "dis" in front of my "<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">gruntled</span>" is growing.<br /><br />UPDATE: I reached out to AT&T on Twitter and they responded quite well. <a href="http://lawrencebroadband.blogspot.com/2010/03/turbo-max-max-turbo-at-your-service.html">Read the full story here</a>.Broadband Observerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02521212195253433877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961945518515020648.post-71959703320243299552010-03-23T12:21:00.000-07:002010-03-23T12:45:26.029-07:00Unloading on uploadingIf you live in Lawrence, Kansas, you have some decent competitive choice amongst broadband providers, at least compared to other areas of the state. We have <a href="http://www.sunflowerbroadband.com/">Sunflower Broadband</a> offering cable internet, <a href="http://www.att.com/">AT&T</a> offering both VDSL (U-Verse) and traditional ADSL, and <a href="http://www.lawrencefreenet.org/">Freenet</a> for a wireless solution.<br /><br />All of these services have one thing in common: their upload speeds absolutely suck. AT&T, Sunflower, and Freenet won't sell you a decent upload speed at any price.<br /><br />According to <a href="http://stopthecap.com/2010/03/23/best-broadband-speeds-in-america-fly-in-the-corridors-of-power-washington-dc-new-york-city/">recent reports</a> from the <a href="http://www.broadband.gov/qualitytest/about/">FCC Broadband Speed Test</a>, the average internet upload speed amongst all broadband customers in the Sunflower State is between 1.5 and 2.0 megabits per second. None of Lawrence's broadband ISPs can provide upload service within that range. By way of comparison, the average download speed in Kansas is between 7.9 and 10 megabits per second, which is exceeded by both Sunflower Broadband and AT&T's U-Verse.<br /><br />The upload speeds offered in Lawrence are a joke. The maximum speed Freenet offers is only 512 kilobits. AT&T's maximum VDSL upload speed is only 768 kilobits, and Sunflower can only manage a meager 1 megabit, even on its brand-new DOCSIS 3 cable network. AT&T's VDSL service, U-Verse, manages 1.5 megabits, the very bottom of the state average...and that is their top-of-the line theoretical speed, generally not matched in actual deployment.<br /><br />Freenet and AT&T ADSL get a bit of a pass, because technical reasons make fast speeds extremely difficult. However, U-Verse and Sunflower don't have any good excuse for their terrible upload speeds. U-Verse is capable of upload speeds in excess of 2 megabits, but AT&T chooses not to provision such a speed or offer it to most customers. Sunflower Broadband is even worse. Cable infrastructure is easily able to support upload speeds much greater then they offer; indeed most cable companies around America (and elsewhere in Kansas) offer 2 to 5 megabit upload speeds, even in their mid-range tiers. Why Sunflower refuses to offer acceptable upload speeds is a mystery.<br /><br />Upload speed is important, nearly as important as download speed. A lot of the activities you do with your internet connection require a good upload speed to function properly. Uploading HD video to Youtube, sharing photos on Flickr, utilizing online backup services, and VPNs/remote offices all work much much better with decent upload speeds.<br /><br />I don't know why the providers in Lawrence don't offer higher speeds, or why Lawrence lags behind the rest of our own state (not to mention the rest of America) in this aspect of broadband. I would guess it is a combination of factors. Perhaps the providers don't understand that the nature of the internet has been changing and that consumers utilize uploading a lot more frequently these days then 5 or 10 years ago, when the internet was less interactive and participatory. Hopefully AT&T or Sunflower will offer faster upload speeds in the future and give customers some additional choice.Broadband Observerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02521212195253433877noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961945518515020648.post-8075539210373934502010-02-18T18:54:00.000-08:002010-02-22T07:20:09.681-08:00A quiet broadband new year so far...The blog's been quiet as of late because not too much has been going on. Our broadband "experiment" in Lawrence continues to be status quo - Sunflower Broadband cable (via our Tivo and a ClearQAM PC tuner) has continued to handle our boob tube needs (can an LCD screen still be called a 'boob tube?')<br /><br />Internet-wise, U-Verse continues to be quietly reliable, with no downtime since November and reliable speed, both up and down. The only fly in the otherwise perfect ointment has been some random and minor packet loss, in the real of .1% or so. This doesn't rise to the level of causing any issues whatsoever (at least so far), but is still detected by my testing, and from a pure technical standpoint, ANY packet loss over time is not supposed to happen.<br /><br />That's where we are at, but what has changed in the Lawrence-area broadband scene in general since last Fall?<br /><br />In a nutshell, Sunflower has been busy upgrading their internet offerings, catching up to U-verse in several areas, surpassing them in others, and still trailing in one important area.<br /><br />No bones about it, Sunflower has improved their internet offering quite a bit. The speeds are much faster, and anecdotally, I have heard that the network congestion and evening slowdowns are much less frequent on the DOCSIS 3 network then on the older DOCSIS 2 network. Furthermore, they have raised their bandwidth caps to 250 GB per month for the Gold plan, which is in line with other cable providers like Comcast.<br /><br />If I were doing the U-Verse vs Sunflower internet comparison today, it would be much, much closer. The one area where Sunflower still lags is upload speed, which even on the high-end plan is still limited to 1 megabit. This seems puzzling, and the 50 down to 1 up ratio is greater then any other DOCSIS 3 cable company I was able to find, and makes it difficult to use services like photo and movie uploading, file sharing and online backup services. If Sunflower ever raises their upload speeds, they might just be able to lure this former customer back into the fold!<br /><br />Sunflower has also added a <a href="http://www.sunflowerbroadband.com/compare/">comparison page</a> similar to the ones I did for <a href="http://lawrencebroadband.blogspot.com/2009/08/geek-super-bowl-preview-television.html">TV</a> and <a href="http://lawrencebroadband.blogspot.com/2009/08/geek-super-bowl-preview-internet.html">internet</a>, of course focusing on the areas where they have the advantage. With TV especially, the equation changes based on the number of rooms and specific needs of each TV. Internet is more static in comparison; but notably Sunflower didn't note the one area where they remain slower then U-Verse, upload speed.<br /><br />In the mean time, AT&T U-verse has made little change to their internet offering. They are testing a slightly faster service providing 24 megabits down (up from 18) and 2 megabits up (up from 1.5), but it is only available in three test cities (not in Lawrence).<br /><br />By the way, as an aside, looks like TiVo is <a href="http://www.zatznotfunny.com/2010-02/tivo-schedules-nyc-event-for-march-2nd/">announcing something</a> in a few weeks, perhaps a new DVR or maybe a new OS?Broadband Observerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02521212195253433877noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961945518515020648.post-87537409578824634842010-01-13T18:14:00.000-08:002010-01-13T18:27:18.929-08:002010: A Broadband OdysseyI just discovered that I got linked from a blog called <a href="http://stopthecap.com/">Stop the Cap</a> which appears to cover internet broadband issue with an editorial position against usage caps. They linked to this blog from a post <a href="http://stopthecap.com/2010/01/13/internet-in-the-heartland-continuing-broadband-adventures-in-lawrence-kansas/">covering broadband in Lawrence</a> so it is kind of cool that a national blog not related to Jayhawk basketball has discovered our little town!<br /><br />Anyway, if you are visiting from Stop the Cap, welcome! I started my blog as a way to document a side-by-side comparison my family made of our local cable provider, Sunflower Broadband, with AT&T's VDSL service, U-Verse. The links on the right cover the highlights, but after trying both services, the end result is that we went with <a href="http://www.att.com">AT&T</a> for Internet, and <a href="http://www.sunflowerbroadband.com">Sunflower</a> for television. Even if you don't live in Lawrence, hopefully my blog will be a good comparison between cable and VDSL for anyone through the country who can choose between the two technologies.<br /><br />We made the decision in late September, and in the four months since then things have been working out well. We continue to enjoy our Sunflower television service on our TiVo (and on my Mac using a QAM tuner box) and our U-Verse internet has been nearly flawless, with a single pair of glitches over a day in mid November, and other then that no downtime whatsoever with consistent and fast speeds. <br /><br />Of course there are no use caps on U-Verse in Lawrence. This hasn't turned my family into bandwidth hogs, but it is really nice to be able to veg out to Hulu, utilize online backup services, or download massive software updates and games without worrying about the meter running. <br /><br />I don't think AT&T is perfect (hey, I have an iPhone too!) but they have been good to have in Lawrence as they have spurred competition. Sunflower has responded by raising their bandwidth caps from 50 GB per month on the Gold plan to a better 120, definitely an improvement for their customers, and hopefully both companies will continue to improve their respective offerings. <br /><br />Thanks for visiting, and I'll keep writing occasionally about our experiences with broadband here in Lawrence.Broadband Observerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02521212195253433877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961945518515020648.post-1105088275716315822009-12-01T13:34:00.000-08:002009-12-01T13:48:23.002-08:00U-Verse reliability update and some cable internet geekeryA couple quick updates...<br /><br /><b>U-Verse reliability</b><br /><br />You might recall that after almost three flawless months, our U-Verse turned to crap in mid-November, going down for four hours on the 17th and having major line noise issues the following night.<br /><br />We called AT&T for service, and they were unable to find any issue with the line the next day when they were out at our house, although the record from the previous night indicate some line noise. They did do some "wave the dead chicken" troubleshooting by switching our port on the VRAD and providing us with some noise filters for the ethernet cables.<br /><br />Did those make a difference? It's been almost two weeks since then with no additional downtime. Of course, those two nights could have had nothing to do with us, but rather AT&T head end problems. We know the 4-hour outage was a higher-up issue as U-Verse service thorough the KC region was affected.<br /><br />Oh well. After three full months of U-Verse, our uptime is at 99.74% (it was 99.99% before the glitches). Sunflower Broadband, for reference was at 99.14% for the first 9 months of 2009.<br /><br /><b>Cable Bandwidth Meter Geekery</b><br /><br />Those of you on Sunflower have bandwidth limits, which you can track using a meter provided by the company. Have you ever wondered how the meter works or how accurate it is? Comcast, which is experimenting with similar metering, commission an audit of its meters by a third party, which can be read <a href="http://netforecast.com/documents/NFR5101_Comcast_Usage_Meter_Accuracy.pdf">right here</a>.<br /><br />The summary? The Comcast meter is accurate within about 1% of actual use. FWIW, I don't know if Sunflower's meter uses the same technology as Comcast. <br /><br />As an aside, one of the major problems with meters is that there's no real-time way to know if you (or something on your network you don't know about) is sucking down the bits. Sunflower has improved their meter to the point where it shows hour-by-hour usage, which helps somewhat, but what is really needed is a real-time "tachometer" to see the actual bandwidth. This probably needs to be built-in to the router or cable modem. Ironically, U-Verse's home gateway includes a built-in meter exactly like this...I say ironically because U-Verse doesn't cap bandwidth, so the meter is informational only, although still quite useful for figuring out of someone in my household is killing our connection by hogging the pipe. If you have U-Verse you can see the meter at <a href="http://192.168.1.254/xslt?PAGE=M01">http://192.168.1.254/xslt?PAGE=M01</a>Broadband Observerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02521212195253433877noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961945518515020648.post-75332126119725304712009-11-17T06:19:00.000-08:002009-11-17T06:38:55.129-08:00A couple quick updates<b>U-Verse Internet</b><br /><br />After over 10 weeks of uptime, our U-Verse connection suffered it's first extended outage last night, going down for about 4 hours between 11:45 PM and 3:45 AM. The actual DSL link stayed up, but there was no internet access - i.e. the lights were on but nobody was home!<br /><br />My guess is that there was an equipment outage in AT&T's "head end" rather then any problem with the DSL line itself. Either way, the result was the same, 4 hours downtime. <br />This knocks our overall uptime since we got U-Verse down to 99.70% (from 99.99%) which is still better (so far) then our average uptime with Sunflower Broadband, which was 99.14%. This U-Verse downtime better not become a habit. I'm cutting them some slack since everyone gets a freebie, but yeah, I'm not quite as enthusiastic as I was a day ago.<br /><br />As an aside, as part of my troubleshooting when the net went down, I rebooted the home gateway. It made no difference for the main issue, but it did end up fixing a nagging problem I recently discovered where the home gateway wasn't fully opening up mapped ports through the firewall. It would kind of "half open" them in a weird way. The reboot fixed that. The router had been up for two months prior, which for a consumer router, is probably simply too long to remain running reliably without a power cycle.<br /><br /><b>Sunflower Broadband cable TV</b><br /><br />Sunflower Broadband just announced a new <a href="http://www.sunflowerbroadband.com/news/multi_room_dvr.html">multi-room DVR</a> which is very similar to what we tried with U-Verse TV. As I mentioned in my <a href="http://lawrencebroadband.blogspot.com/2009/09/verdict-television.html">TV overview</a>, U-Verse has a multi-room DVR where you can watch recorded shows in any room and pause a show in one room and pick it up in the other. Sunflower is offering this as an "add on" to the existing TV service for an addition $25 per month (for two rooms) which makes their price (with this service) about the same as U-Verse. <br /><br />For the technically curious, Sunflower is using <a href="http://www.multichannel.com/article/367648-Cablers_Put_Pace_Multiroom_DVR_to_Test.php">Pace's</a> multi-room DVR for this, and is actually one of the first companies in the United States offering the service. Pace's system works over ethernet or coaxial cable, and is similar to U-Verse in that there is a main unit with a hard drive acting as a network-attached storage device serving the other set-top boxes. The UI (at least for the Sunflower version of the box) is similar to their existing HD i-Guide, in other words, it's not going to put TiVo's UI designers out of business any time soon! <a href="http://www.engadgethd.com/2009/10/27/pace-and-rovi-work-together-to-make-a-standard-set-top-a-true-mu/">Engadget</a> has more details about the system's tech specs. <br /><br />We're still satisfied with our TiVo, but having a multi-room option on both cable and U-Verse to choose from is certainly a good thing.Broadband Observerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02521212195253433877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961945518515020648.post-32628194610558547172009-10-26T19:01:00.000-07:002009-10-26T19:12:24.752-07:00U-Verse internet update . . . 46 days and countingOur U-Verse internet has been up now for 46 days without a single glitch. No downtime, and no noticeable or sustained dips in speed or ping time. I am probably jinxing myself, but I find this absolutely amazing. I guess I shouldn't find this too stunning (wait, you mean we're actually getting the service for which we paid?!?) but in over 10 years of service with Sunflower, we never went for longer then 7-10 days at a time without some downtime (if even for a few minutes), and frequently the outages and slowdowns were much worse.<br /><br />I'd actually be interested in know why this is so, from a technical standpoint. I would think coaxial cable would be more reliable then copper, but perhaps it has to do more with the network management rather then the medium. Alas, it is a mystery.<br /><br />Now, if the AT&T folks who run the U-Verse network could only give the guys who run their cellular data networks a few clues...Broadband Observerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02521212195253433877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961945518515020648.post-83936627523308309882009-10-05T09:32:00.000-07:002009-10-05T09:52:49.445-07:00U-Verse Internet caveatsOur U-Verse internet has continued to be rock-solid (keeping fingers crossed) but during the month we've used it so far, there have been a few minor issues we have come across, which I will document here for Google and posterity. Two of these have easy workarounds, and the other two will not really matter to most people, but might to you, if you are a special flower....so read on....<br /><br /><b>First, the two issues that have workarounds:</b><br /><br />1. <a href="http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r21748105-Uverse-2Wire-Wireless-Apple-Problem-Solution">The U-Verse gateway's DNS doesn't like Apple computers</a>. <br /><br />The workaround for this is easy. If you use a Mac, simply set your DNS to use <a href="https://www.opendns.com/start/device/apple-osx-leopard">OpenDNS</a> (or if you have a bunch of Macs, you can <a href="https://www.opendns.com/start/device/2wire">do this in the router</a>)<br /><br />2. U-Verse's head end blocks outbound traffic on port 25 for non AT&T email accounts. <br /><br />This is the port that is used by most mail programs when they send outbound email. This isn't something you can change locally in your router, but luckily AT&T will unblock it if you ask them. We were able to get this done in 5 minutes via their online chat support, but other people have had to call in to tier 2 technical support.<br /><br /><b>And second, the two issues which might be deal-killers for some folks:</b><br /><br />3. U-Verse utilizes interleaving for their data transmission. <br /><br />Interleaving is a method of transmitting data in non-sequential chunks to increase overall performance. This is good for things like TV, but it has a side-effect with internet...slightly longer ping times, up to 20 milliseconds or more. This doesn't matter to most people....unless you are an online gamer. Online gaming relies on very fast response times from the servers, and the added overhead of U-Verse's interleaving may degrade game performance in some games. This isn't a "100% for sure" thing...it depends on the game and the server, but it is certainly something that should be at "yellow alert" for any gamers considering U-Verse. Take advantage of the 1-month free trial and test with all your favorite games.<br /><br />4. There's no way to get pure unrouted internet access to a local device.<br /><br /> U-Verse allows you to set up a DMZ, which for an individual PC will allow in all internet traffic. This is considered dangerous and only experienced folks who know what they are doing should use the DMZ. However, some physical devices, such as hardware VPN routers and firewalls do not like being in a DMZ; they prefer pure, unrouted "raw" public connections to the internet. U-Verse's residential gateway cannot be placed into the "bridge" mode that is required to do this, so if you need this functionality, make sure you test your devices with U-Verse during the free trial period to make sure they work.Broadband Observerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02521212195253433877noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961945518515020648.post-85607021274943154422009-10-05T09:01:00.000-07:002009-10-05T09:17:34.736-07:00U-Verse TV parting shot and wireless gateway weirdnessAs I mentioned last week, we decided to go with Sunflower Broadband for television, keeping U-Verse for internet. This weekend, I disconnected the U-Verse set-top boxes in preparation for shipping them back to AT&T (this shipping is handled by the UPS store; AT&T has an account with them, so we just drop the boxes off there).<br /><br />This gave me the chance to snap a couple extra pictures of various aspects I hadn't mentioned before. Specifically, you can now get a <a href="http://www.mikesilverman.com/backconnections.jsp">good view of the various ports on the back of the unit</a> as well as seeing how the <a href="http://www.mikesilverman.com/twounits.jsp">two units stack up right next to each other</a>. (the smaller box is the secondary unit, <i>sans</i> DVR hard drive.)<br /><br />Interestingly enough, once AT&T shuts off television service to your home (which they do remotely), you can't even use the DVR to watch previously-recorded shows. This is different then other devices like the TiVo, which allows you to watch shows previously recorded even if you no longer are paying for service.<br /><br /><b>Wireless weirdness</b><br /><br />Last Thursday night, our U-Verse residential gateway's (RG's) wireless interface failed. Basically, it was randomly dropping connected wifi devices, and if you tried to connect a new device, sometimes it would connect, and sometimes it would not connect. Even if it connected, it would drop after a few minutes, or the DHCP server wouldn't assign an IP address to the wifi client. I determined that this was not any type of new interference or signal issue. My solution was simply cycling wifi off and turning it back on from the RG's admin interface, after which everything went back to working properly.<br /><br />Needless to say, this glitch didn't fill me with confidence as to the robustness of the residential gateway. In comparison, our previous wireless router, an Apple <a href="http://www.apple.com/airportextreme/">Airport Extreme</a>, ran uninterrupted for over a year without any glitches like this. I should also note that the DSL signal (i.e. internet connection) was fine through this entire episode. The problem is local on the gateway itself, not the upstream connection.<br /><br />Although the RG allowed wireless to be reset without requiring a full reboot of the entire RG, we noticed later when we tried to watch a television show that was recorded during this time period that it was blocky, pixellated, and skipped a lot, indicating that the RG was really having some issues. We had already decided at this point to drop the U-Verse TV service, but this certainly reinforced our decision. <br /><br />As of now, the RG has been performing fine, both wired and wireless since then. I will certainly be keeping an eye on things though. File this under "reliability, long term, questions of."Broadband Observerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02521212195253433877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961945518515020648.post-26070150154726096512009-09-30T11:44:00.000-07:002009-09-30T12:17:35.129-07:00Sunflower Broadband Gold Internet to receive upgradeMere days after we decided to go with U-Verse for our internet needs, we (as well as presumably every subscriber in Lawrence) got a letter from Sunflower Broadband detailing upgrades to their top-of-the-line Gold Internet package, starting November 1 (the news about the upgrade still isn't on <a href="http://www.sunflowerbroadband.com">Sunflower's web site</a> as of this writing). This is the very package we recently subscribed to that we switched from to U-Verse. Does the new plan give us some serious "buyers remorse?"<br /><br />Let's take a comparison:<br /><br /><table border cellpadding=2><br /><tr><td></td><td>Existing Gold</td><td>Upgraded Gold</td><td>U-Verse Max 18</td></tr><br /><tr><td>Download</td><td>21 mbit</td><td>50 mbit</td><td>18 mbit</td></tr><br /><tr><td>Upload</td><td>.75 mbit</td><td>1 mbit</td><td>1.5 mbit</td></tr><br /><tr><td>Bandwidth cap</td><td>50 GB</td><td>120 GB</td><td>unlimited</td></tr><br /><tr><td>Price</td><td>$50</td><td>$60</td><td>$65</td></tr><br /></table><br /><br />So, to summarize, for an extra $10 per month, Sunflower Gold customers will get over twice the download speed and bandwidth, and a very slight boost in upload speed. Not mentioned in the letter is the technology which make's Sunflower's upgrade possible, <a href="http://www.cablemodem.com/primer/">DOCSIS 3.0</a>, which promises, as one of its features, better management ability of the data streams, which will hopefully end the evening congestion and slowdowns that have frustrated many cable modem customers. The faster download speed should be really nice for downloading huge files, such as operating systems and online movies and television. While many users won't see the theoretical maximum connecting to public sites on the internet, the fact that these speeds are starting to become available to home users is a great sign for the future. This is a solid upgrade and I congratulate Sunflower for bringing DOCSIS 3.0 technology to Lawrence.<br /><br />While a good value for the extra $10, it isn't quite enough to win us back for now. I am disappointed to see the upload speed of the upgraded Gold plan is still an anemic 1 mbit, which is 50% less the our U-Verse connection and barely any better then the old Gold plan. Given how much upload speed matters for common tasks like uploading home photos and movies to online sharing sites, as well as file sharing and connecting to corporate VPNs, the almost unchanged upload speed isn't very impressive.<br /><br />The increased bandwidth is very nice, and would make us worry less about unexpected overages, but it falls short of U-Verse's unlimited bandwidth, as well as continuing to be somewhat less then other cable providers such as Comcast which caps bandwidth at <a href="http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Comcast-250GB-Cap-Goes-Live-October-1-97294">250 gigabytes</a>. Sunflower does offer a bandwidth-unlimited service called <a href="http://www.sunflowerbroadband.com/internet/palladium/">Palladium</a> as an alternative, but variable download speeds and a still-slow upload don't make this an attractive option compared to U-Verse for now.<br /><br />Sunflower's upgrades are good news for customers and makes the Internet choice closer then it was 24 hours ago. In the past, Sunflower has often "tweaked" their offerings, and if they bump the new Gold upload speeds up a megabit or so and continue to adjust their bandwidth limits higher, they have a good shot at winning our business back yet. For now though, we will still stick with U-Verse as long as its price and reliability continue unchanged.Broadband Observerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02521212195253433877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961945518515020648.post-48323118764322699262009-09-30T11:36:00.000-07:002009-09-30T11:44:47.132-07:00The Verdict: Landline TelephoneIt's kinda of anti-climactic, but we are going with AT&T U-Verse for our landline telephone. This is partially because we don't have much of a choice -- AT&T requires that you subscribe to at least two of the U-Verse packages to maintain service. Since we want the Internet and don't want the television, we have to maintain the phone service to keep subscribing.<br /><br />There apparently is not concept of "dry loop" U-Verse. With regular DSL, you can subscribe without any ancillary phone service, and pay an extra $10 per month for this, but AT&T chose not to carry this ability over to U-Verse. <br /><br />Luckily, we actually like the phone service so it's not much of an issue. The main pluses with U-Verse's phone is the internet-enabled management of the line, call logs, and voicemail messages, as well as unlimited long distance. I noted before the downside of touch tones not working all the time, but this is a relatively minor issue, albeit annoying -- and supposedly AT&T considers it a bug (they should!) and is trying to fix it.<br /><br />Anyway, that's that. U-Verse for internet and phone, and Sunflower Broadband for television....or is it? This trial has been around a month. While I have gotten good ideas about each service's features and reliability, the fact is, 1 month is too short to figure everything out.<br /><br />How is U-Verse's long term reliability? What about customer service consistency? We will continue to re-evaluate our service providers based on their own performance as well as new offers and changes from competitors. I plan to keep this blog going, as a resource for Lawrence, Kansas broadband users, as well as as a resource for the increasing number of visitors from outside Lawrence.Broadband Observerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02521212195253433877noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961945518515020648.post-31746513473416453592009-09-25T13:06:00.000-07:002009-09-25T13:22:38.568-07:00The Verdict: InternetWe decided to go with U-Verse for our Internet service, canceling our Sunflower Broadband internet, which we had used for over 13 years. U-Verse' top line internet costs $15 more per month then Sunflower's; we decided that the advantages of U-Verse for internet were enough to make this extra $15 per month a reasonable value.<br /><br />My main concern with U-Verse's service was its reliability. While, as they always say "past performance is no guarantee of future results," in four weeks of testing, our U-Verse internet has not gone down once, even for a single minute. Even during intensive ping testing, U-Verse never has lost more then a few packets during any 24-hour period. Furthermore, the speed of U-Verse has been remarkably consistent, always ranging between 16 and 17 mbit down and about 1.4 mbit up, no matter the time of day.<br /><br />While Sunflower's internet service is very fast at certain times of day, it frequently slows down during evenings or other times of heavy network use, sometimes to less then half of the speed we were paying for. Furthermore, the internet services would occasionally go down, sometimes for a few minutes, other times for longer. During the last 6 months, our Sunflower uptime was 99.14%, and U-Verse's (over the past 4 weeks) was 99.99%. <br /><br />The other primary reason we went with U-Verse was because U-Verse does not have bandwidth overage fees or any kind of bandwidth limits. Although we have been careful with Sunflower and managed to avoid any bandwidth overage charges, having "the meter running" all the time was annoying, and we worried that we could always be surprised with an unexpected charge. With U-Verse we do not have this worry. One could almost think of the $15 extra for U-verse as an insurance policy...it buys peace of mind not having to worry about bandwidth overages.<br /><br /><b>The Internet victor: AT&T U-Verse</b><br /><br /><i>Addendum....Advice for the losing team on what they can do to win a customer back...<br /><br />So, for now we are with U-Verse for our Internet. What could Sunflower do to win us back as Internet customers? The main things would be to raise their internet bandwidth caps to a level where they would not be a worry (but would still deter immense hogs). Comcast has set a cap of 250 GB, way above Sunflower's current 70 GB limit. Sunflower could follow Comcast's lead here. They can also improve the speed and reliability of their network. A new cable internet standard called DOCSIS 3 may provide much greater speeds and more reliability. When Sunflower rolls this out (rumors have it coming later this fall), they might win some customers back, us included.</i>Broadband Observerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02521212195253433877noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961945518515020648.post-10231500052225878892009-09-25T12:50:00.000-07:002009-09-25T13:27:48.975-07:00The Verdict: TelevisionWe've decided to stick with the local cable company, <a href="http://www.sunflowerbroadband.com/">Sunflower Broadband</a> (with an assist from <a href="http://www.tivo.com">TiVo</a>) for our television service. U-Verse had some exciting features, but in the end, these additional features were not worth an additional $25 or so per month (for the television portion of the bill), especially given our bias toward the TiVo UI and experience.<br /><br />The quality of the HD signal ended up being a push. Neither U-Verse nor Sunflower seemed dramatically better or worse then the other. The only noticeable difference was that U-Verse's picture seemed somewhat darker (something <a href="http://utalk.att.com/utalk/board/message?board.id=Uverse_TV_Programming&thread.id=31940">others had noticed</a>). Actual watch-ability of HD on both services was fine. As an aside, during my research, I found this <a href="http://utalk.att.com/utalk/board/message?board.id=DVR&message.id=6580&query.id=10575#M6580">great guide</a> to the interpretation and understanding of HD quality, I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the subject.<br /><br />When we compared the two providers, the main advantages of U-Verse was the seamless integration of the service on multiple TVs, excellent online and remote scheduling, and a greater selection of channels. U-Verse's main disadvantages were that it was more expensive, the UI of the devices was inferior to TiVo, and it wasn't as good with advanced recording options (such as prioritizing shows and padding recording times).<br /><br />The main advantage of Sunflower/TiVo was a cheaper price, more local channels, the excellent TiVo UI experience, and (at least for now) clear QAM support for the digital cable, allowing viewing on my Mac and other TVs without needed a set-top box. Sunflower's main disadvantages include the lack of seamless integration between TVs, poorer remote scheduling (although TiVo has been beefing this up), and the random 'jumping' of QAM TV channels.<br /><br />In the end, the main determining factors came down to UI and price. Minor differences aside, both systems offer all the same major channels in HD that we would ever watch. Both offer DVR capability, and the picture quality of both is very similar. In the end, we decided the small advantages of U-Verse television in some areas were not worth an extra $25 per month.<br /><br /><b>The television victor: Sunflower Broadband.</b><br /><br /><i>Addendum....Advice for the losing team on what they can do to win a customer back...<br /><br />So, for now we are with Sunflower for our television. What could AT&T do to win us over as television customers? The main thing would be for them to work on their pricing structure, as they are simply not competitive with 'standard' cable prices. They could start with killing the ridiculous extra $10 charge merely to watch HD television, and try to get the price for the typical 2 to 4 television household down within 10 or 15 bucks of cable. I understand they will always charge a bit more for some of the advanced features they provide (such as the seamless integration and such) but price is still an area they must work on. The second thing AT&T could do is hire a few human interface design experts to go over the set-top box UI, both on the screen and the remote control and try to make it a bit less annoying. TiVo is the gold standard, but in spite of my love towards TiVo, it is somewhat dated...so combine the usability of TiVo with a modern look and feel, and AT&T will have a winner.</i>Broadband Observerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02521212195253433877noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961945518515020648.post-35329587582113960162009-09-22T08:01:00.000-07:002009-09-22T08:44:21.449-07:00Over halfway there...So we are over halfway through our month long U-Verse trial, and we are finally at the point where we have a decent amount of real-world experience with the services to start thinking about whether we want to go all U-Verse, all Sunflower, or a mix of the two.<br /><br />Here are some brief updates...<br /><br /><b>Internet</b><br /><br />As I <a href="http://lawrencebroadband.blogspot.com/2009/09/some-quick-updates-on-u-verse-internet.html">mentioned earlier</a> the internet has been rock solid since our service call two weeks ago. In over two weeks of ping testing, I have had a single test cycle (out of several thousand) with any lost packets. Additionally, there has been no actual downtime so far. This is better then I have ever gotten with Sunflower, even after their network improvements at our node last Spring.<br /><br />Internet speed has stayed pretty consistent at about 17 mbit down and about 1.45 mbit up. We tested dozens of times the first few days after we got our line serviced two weeks ago, and only occasionally since then, and have not seen any speed dips (other then when expected, such as during a big download). For comparison, our Sunflower Gold has been bouncing around between 10-18 mbit during recent evening tests.<br /><br />We did discover, to our annoyance, that AT&T blocks outbound traffic through port 25 on their network, making it impossible to send email using the standard SMTP protocol. This doesn't affect things if you use web-based email (like GMail) or AT&T's own email servers, but if you use a third party server, you will be dead in the water. Luckily, you can call AT&T and they will unblock it if you request. We did this via a brief online chat with an AT&T rep and port 25 was opened up with no problems.<br /><br /><i>Score after 2 weeks: lean towards U-Verse. The service costs $15 more per month over Sunflower, but in return we get more reliable speed, faster upload, and no bandwidth limit. </i><br /><br /><br /><b>Television</b><br /><br />I've spent a lot of time examining U-Verse's and Sunflower's HD signals. I've watched a variety of shows, a lot of football, some fast-action nature shows and the usual prime-time dramas and comedies, and HD quality is quite similar. I give Sunflower a slight edge in overall HD quality. It seems a bit "tighter" especially handling faster motion (such as sports). The picture on Sunflower is also a bit brighter. U-Verse seems to be darker, which is especially noticeable in images with high contrast, such as the shadows and sun that mark outdoor scenes in "Lost." U-Verse seems a bit better handling very slow scenes, and sometimes human actors appear sharper with U-Verse. Overall, it is very close, and I suspect that the compression each provider uses probably explains the differences.<br /><br />Honestly, I could be comfortable watching HD with either service. Neither one is remotely unwatchable, and neither one is a lot better then the other in quality.<br />U-Verse offers a lot more channels then Sunflower in the same service level, but of all these channels, only a few are ones we would ever want to watch. The ability to seamlessly watch recorded shows in multiple rooms is a huge win for U-Verse, but even after two weeks, I still do not like their remote control or UI, although I have gotten more used to it.<br /><br /><i>Score after two weeks: Leaning towards Sunflower. It's not just that I love my TiVo (although that is part of it). U-Verse is more expensive for television, and the added value so far doesn't appear to justify it. Slightly better HD quality doesn't hurt Sunflower's case either.</i><br /><br /><br /><b>Telephone</b><br /><br />The phone service has been perfectly fine, with one glaring exception. U-Verse phone service has some <a href="http://utalk.att.com/utalk/board/message?board.id=calling&thread.id=94&view=by_date_ascending&page=1">major problems</a> when you use it to access automated systems that require you to make menu selections via touch tones (i.e. "Press 2 to be transferred to sales")<br /><br />These tones are called DTMF tones and the U-Verse system has issue "translating" them to VOIP and back again. This issue doesn't happen all the time to all people. Based on some forum research, it looks like it depends on the local phone, the system at the other end, and the fickleness of AT&T's systems in the middle.<br /><br /><i>Score after two weeks: mild lean towards U-Verse. Better value for the money then Sunflower, but not being able to do something as basic as hit touch tones definitely harshes my mellow</i><br /><br /><br />So, how does it look overall? If I had to guess, I would say we will probably end up keeping U-Verse for phone and internet, and Sunflower for television. However, things could still change. It's not over til it's over!Broadband Observerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02521212195253433877noreply@blogger.com0