Long Island, NY Cable Modem Service (Optimum Online): Speed and Reliability, despite incompetent parent company
Written: Feb 23 '01 (Updated Mar 06 '01)
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Pros: easy and fast installation, jaw-dropping incredible speed, 5 email accounts, better value than DSL
Cons: no webspace, cablevision support infamously incompetent, (support) website is useless, dynamic IP
The Bottom Line: Incredible speed and reliability, what more can you want? Well, maybe a more competent support and installation staff from the parent company...
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| herjazz's Full Review: Cablevision Optimum Online (CT/NY) |
From DSL to Cable...
If you read my story about my nightmare with Telocity DSL, you know that I moved to a new neighborhood where the exact opposite scenario exists: no DSL, but Cable Modem is available. Again, no choice but to go with cable modem if I want broadband access (don't you just love legalized monopolies?). I didn't get to choose my cable modem service provider, my location determines that: Cablevision of Long Island. I absolutely hate this company and their incompetent support, installation, and sales employees. Just to make a long story short, because my home is a newly-built home, there was no existing cable (or phone or power) line that came into the house from the street pole. It took the installer 4 tries to even find our house, making us wait ALL DAY at home doing nothing so that we could answer the door when he shows up. I should have billed THEM for the time wasted waiting for them: $3000 at least... But they finally showed up after two months, got our cable TV hooked up.
Installation
A quick trip down to Nobody Beat the Wiz and signing a contract and paying for the modem was all it took to get started. By the time I got home (30-40 minutes later) and hooked everything up (10 minutes), the cable service was up and running! Wow, I was very impressed. The setup is so simple I'm sure anyone can do it-- and the instruction booklet is pretty thorough (has great instructions for the Mac too, a rare thing). Just punch in the DNS info, run a short RJ-45 ethernet cable from your machine to the cable modem, and the cable TV line (which you split with the included splitter) to the cable modem, and you're online. 5 times more easier than DSL to set up. I think the installation box came with an installation CD, which I just tossed, but I'm sure that does the same thing in a more "helpful step by step" fashion for AOL-type users. ;)
Speed!
The speed is incredible. I was worried about the speed, since unlike DSL you are not guaranteed a set amount of bandwidth. I suspect that my neighbors have not gotten cable modem service yet and I'm just enjoying all that 1.5Mbps (megabits/second) bandwidth to myself! :) The only bottleneck in my internet connection is now how fast the server on the other end can serve the webpages and files I want. I've managed to do 0.5MB / second downloads from some really fast servers (that's MegaBYTES, not MegaBITs per second!).
Uptime/Connection
But what good is speed if everything is down all the time, which was the case with my DSL service? Well, my cable modem has not crashed in the 6 months I've had the service, and the mail servers, DNS servers, internet connection has not been down once since I've signed up: amazing! Contrast that to Telocity DSL where servers and connections going down for a few hours a week is considered "normal."
IP Address
Optimum Online gives out dynamic IP addresses to its modems whenever you "connect." I put that in quotes, because if you turn on your modem and leave it on all the time, you are connected all the time, so you pretty much have an IP assigned to you that you keep for as long as your modem is up. Since the modem never crashes and I keep it on 24/7, I almost have a static IP address. I know they forbid you from running a server, but (shhhh, don't tell them) I'm running a Linux box with FTP/HTTP/Telnet services off of it with no problems at all (awesome ping times!).
Features
With the service, you get 5 separate email accounts (POP accounts) which you can simply set up via their web interface (www.optonline.net, then click Member Services): It's cryptically called "Creating Sub Accounts." Deleting or chaging your email accounts, however, cannot be done from the web and you have to call them (say hello to Touchtone Hell™).
By the way, that web interface is pretty pathetic. You can basically create email accounts, change passwords, and that's about it. There is no web-based email interface, there is no way to set up your own personal web page (they don't give you any web space, unlike most DSL and dial-up providers!). I think they should at the very least give you 5MB of web space.
As far as I know, no newsgroups are restricted (yes dear, you can have full access to all 10,000 alt.whatever porn newsgroups), and there is no restriction on the use of Napster or Gnutella (in all honesty, that's what broadband access was made for!). This is true as of today, March 6, 2001.
Routers, Additional Computers
Also, they might discourage the use of routers, but I've been using a router for years now (dial-up modem, DSL, and now Cable) and they don't know the difference from their end, since the router acts like a single computer from their standpoint. They say that, so that you pay them more money for "additional" computers in your home, which is complete bullsh*t (or to be exact, it's $20 additional/month). Get yourself a router and some ethernet cables for $100 and set it up in 10 minutes: Linksys Broadband Router is highly recommended. I personally use a MacSense XRouter (a Mac-friendly company).
Price
The basic price is $40/month if you are not a Cablevision subscriber. If you get cable TV (must have "Family Service" or higher plan) from them, then the fee for Optimum Online is down to $30/month. (Like with cellular phone service...) With a 2 year contract, you get a $200 rebate on the cable modem (you have a choice of 2-3 modems, all are $300: I got the 3Com one) which must be purchased separately at your local Nobody Beats the Wiz store. With instant rebate (no need to mail anything), the modem cost is $100. You can opt to not do a contract, and buy the modem at full price ($300) if you don't want to be bound for 2 years to this service.
Conclusion
Cablevision really surprised me with this one. Maybe it's because I expected much much worse, or maybe because I was so fed up with Telocity DSL. In either case, they finally did something right for the first time in their lives, and I'm extremely happy for it... Your mileage may vary, since all broadband access (DSL, Cable, satellite, etc.) depends heavily on where you live.
[This was a review of Cablevision's Optimum Online service in Nassau County North, Long Island, New York.]
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 30/mo +modem
Version Number or Year: 2000
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Epinions.com ID:
herjazz
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Member: Mike Choi
Location: Long Island, NY
Reviews written: 70
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Web/Graphic Design, Art, Computers (Macintosh), Activism, Cars, Music (drums, bass, guitar, CubaseVST)
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