Internet: Alternative to TimeWarner?
Are there any alternatives to TimeWarner for Internet service in the Boerum Hill/downtown Bkln. area? I am really really really fed up with their terrible service. It’s touch and go on a regular basis (we usually have to reset our routers at least once or twice, often several times, a day), and today service was…
Are there any alternatives to TimeWarner for Internet service in the Boerum Hill/downtown Bkln. area? I am really really really fed up with their terrible service. It’s touch and go on a regular basis (we usually have to reset our routers at least once or twice, often several times, a day), and today service was down all day long until just now, and yesterday afternoon as well. I’m self-employed and work from home, so I really need something more reliable! Is there any hope…?
I would like to second TWCable.Help@twcable.com … Paul S responded right away and helped me with my issue… checked my connection and had me going down the right path. He even followed up with a more detailed emailed answering my questions and explaining how cable speeds work. He’s very knowledgable and a great help. If only all of my interactions with major cable companies were that great.
I can’t suggest strongly enough that if you run into Roadrunner issues that you contact Time-Warner’s “social media expert” at TWCable.Help@twcable.com.
I had an outage problem two Thursdays ago and went through the standard, tedious T-W “support” channel, only to be told that I would be down until the following Monday afternoon.
I e-met these folks on Brooklynian.com last December and decided to give them a try. Here’s my log:
3:00 pm – sent email to TWCable.Help@twcable.com complaining about my five day wait for an appointment.
3:26 pm – rcvd email reply from Paul S, Social Media Representative – Time Warner Cable acknowledging receipt of my email and telling me to expect a call from a TW rep.
3:41 pm: first phone call from TW’s NYC Special Services desk asking me questions about the connection.
3:50 pm: second phone call asking me to confirm that my neighbor’s Roadrunner service was working (it was).
3:53 pm: third phone call telling me that a tech had been dispatched to my home.
4:12 pm: TW tech arrived, put a beeper on the line, went around the corner to climb the pole. Fixed the wire that another TW tech has accidentally disabled that morning.
4:45pm: Roadrunner restored.
They usually are open on Saturday (today), but it’s not at 22nd Street. It’s on 5th Avenue at 27th Street.
I had the same problem when I lived up in Boerum Hill. Time Warner has way too many people on their network up there and as a result it’s chocking off a lot of people’s date and cable lines. We would lost cable channels, our modem signal would drop a lot, it was a mess.
i use VZ DSL in park slope, it would go to frustratingly slow speeds about once a week, it’s been good all summer though. not sure if that’s because they fixed the problems or there are just less people around using it. On the plus side it’s $30 a month. Installing a new line isn’t too expensive either.
Thanks everyone, especially Snezan for all the detailed advice. Today and yesterday was definitely Time Warner–I called and they had a recording saying there was a service outage in the area, and we’ve seen several of their vans around.
But you’re right, that at other times it’s probably our router/modem set-up, which we’ve always suspected but were never sure exactly how to troubleshoot. So we will definitely try those suggestions. Anyone know if that office on 22nd St. is open over the weekend?
(Not sure DSL is a good option for us–we had our old phone lines and jacks removed a couple years ago during a renovation, so may not be easy to install…)
take your cable modem and swap it out at the office.
they use crap power supplies which get sporadically faulty.
there is no other option until FIOS show up except Verizon DSL which is slower and a little less expensive.
Keep in mind that it may not be time warner, it’s usually your router or cable modem that is the problem.
As a help, it’s probably that your router configuration isn’t working with the cable modem. I suggest you get a new cable modem from Time Warner (they are free) and their office is on 22nd street in Greenwood Heights.
Make sure your router likes to work with the cable modem so make sure it is up to date. I used to have a Belkin router and it would need to be reset all of the time, now I have an Airport Express and haven’t had to reset it in 7 months.
If that doesn’t work, call Time Warner and have a technician come in, you can ask them for a cable line amplifier. When I lived in a super old apartment building and our cable line was split between 20 apartments the s/n was terrible. Try to get the most direct signal between your cable modem and the line coming from outside your apartment, if it is being split a million way outside your window, ask them to reroute it directly to the main hub outside.
With cable internet, usually the cable company is not the problem… it comes down to the connection between your modem and the main line coming from the neighborhood terminal. The technician can tell you what the signal strength is. If it less than – 30db you’re probably going to have a degraded signal. If it is above that, you should be fine for 1.5 mbps internet. It’s probably your router or your modem then.
Best of luck. Keep us updated and hope this helps.
best
What about a DSL line? I’ve had a Verizon DSL line for about 10 years and I’ve never once had an outage.