posted on July 8, 2001 01:21:07 PM
Our local ISP sent us a notice that they are going to go out of business soon, so we are going to have to change ISPs soon. We are considering going to cable and doing away with dial up.
What I need to know is how reliable is Road Runner? Do they make a habit of blocking emails from certain servers over spam issues? Do they go down very often?
Who Need's a stink'n Sig. File?
posted on July 8, 2001 01:32:11 PM
I have been useing Roadrunner In ny here for about a month now its great.
only thing is if you live in a remote area where your cable company might lose power due to storms and what ever you will want to have a free Juno account set up so you can get access if cable is out but for me near 30 day and no down time at all.
Unlimited pop3 email accounts and addresses and no dialing up always on line.
I can upload mass amount pictures in just seconds for auction and down loading programs and program upgrades on line I just down loaded a 4 meg file for a web editor in 45 seconds last night.
cost is high in this area with tax it cost $41 a month $99 install but well worth the money.
posted on July 8, 2001 01:32:56 PM
I have had RoadRunner for 5 years [ I was one of the 600 original Beta customers ], and have no complaints. I think my service has been out 3 times for very short periods in 5 years. I have a Hub and pay an extra $10 a month for 3 IP addresses and run at least 2 computers at the same time on the Net- and it doesn't effect the speed of either computer.
However, reliability of RoadRunner is heavily dependent on the area you're in. This is old info, but on a BB about 2 years ago, Long Island NY and Las Vegas RR customers had major problems.
I am unaware of any email blocking by RoadRunner.
The speeds on cable are tremendous. Make sure you have a good firewall, you're always connected with cable, and you have static IP address - it never changes.
[ edited by reamond on Jul 8, 2001 01:42 PM ]
[ edited by reamond on Jul 8, 2001 01:51 PM ]
posted on July 8, 2001 01:33:49 PM
i know many people, atleazst 6, in diffeerent areas of the country on RR....they all love it, great speed and reliable.......somehave had it for over 12 months
posted on July 8, 2001 01:59:32 PM
Thanks for the responses
A couple of other quick questions.
1. Does anyone know if I could have both dial up, and RR for a few weeks while we make our transistion? (this is more a hardware question, but since you are "always on the internet", could I also have a dial up without causing a computer problem.)
2. Is there ANY compatability problems with eBay?
Who Need's a stink'n Sig. File?
posted on July 8, 2001 02:09:46 PM
you can get your mail from your current provider useing roadRunner you dont need to dail in to there service to get it.
when they install raod runner they change the internet setting so every thing is set to local lan setting in order to use dailup you should turn the power on the cable modem off.
posted on July 8, 2001 02:21:02 PM
We've been using Road Runner for nearly a year, and I'd never go back to dialup.
The service has been fairly reliable. It goes down for us about 2-4 times a month, but usually only for a few minutes -- nothing serious. A few days ago it was out for about three hours, but they were doing work on the cable lines in our area.
As for compatability -- no problems here. We run Windows 98, Windows 95, Mac OS 9, Mac OS X, and NetBSD on our network, and all of the machines work perfectly with Roadrunner. I've never had a problem using it with eBay or anything else. I don't use them for email, but my husband does, and he's never had a problem.
And yes, you should be able to use both cable and dialup during the transition. I've never tried, but they use separate devices, so there shouldn't be a hardware conflict.
posted on July 8, 2001 02:42:03 PM
I have RR, and still have AOL (my employer pays for it otherwise it would be history!) I love RR. Been down once in 2 years, a car hit the pole in front of my house. Telephone was restored before cable, so I used dial up to connect to AOL, then when RR was back, I logged on to my RR account via cable. forgot to disconnect AOL untiil my DH came home and yelled 'cuz he'd been trying to call
posted on July 8, 2001 02:57:51 PM
When AT&T took over Roadrunner, they changed the dialup rules. I believe you are allow only 2 hours of dialup. After that, a per hour charge.
I was looking at Roadrunner but decided against it because of the recent rate hike and the dialup rule. You might want to call up their customer service and ask them before dialing in.
posted on July 8, 2001 03:09:26 PM
When I switched from compuserve to RR, I kept the CS for a month or so for transition. I set CS to access via LAN or cable modem, no dialing in, just click and go. It was the most enjoyable experience I had had with CS... finally.. speed!
I too am in central FL, have had only a couple of slow downs and no outages. As far as the slow downs, one was when they were working on the lines, and the other was because my cable modem had to be reset.
posted on July 8, 2001 03:09:57 PM
both aol and road runner work through local lan even though you dail up to get on AOL if your useing the AOL program your computer is useing local lan connection with modem.
People get confused AOL like RoadRunner is not a direct connection to the Internet you are plug in through a modem to there system coneected through local lan there system give you connetion to their whole network which part of it is their gateway to the internet.
Only difference with aol is your useing a dail in connection rather then a network card.
your local internet provider you must set up a windows dailer for useing a PPP conection is a direct conetion to the internet thur there T1 or T3 line. or a dailup connetion even your email is cheking your mail useing dailup connection but with AOL and RoadRunner you must check all your pop mail accounts useing local lan ..
im not saying your modem wont dail useing roadrunner Im saying you wont be able to use both at the same time you can use one or the other its easyer to shut off the cable modem frist to use dail up.
posted on July 8, 2001 03:35:43 PM
Thanks people. Since I'm in Central Florida like a couple of you are, the info is really meaningful. From what the local cable company say's (free installation right now) it sounds really good, but I wanted to get some "second opinions". Like most of you, my internet connection is used for just a little more than sending Aunt Martha an email every few days.
Who Need's a stink'n Sig. File?
posted on July 8, 2001 03:57:13 PM
microbes
my dad is in central fla (st pete) and he has had roadrunner for about two years with no downtime seems to work just fine when we vist
We had to also leave the modem in for dial up becouse he is in real estate and when he got roadrunner the mls service only allowed dial up connection. so he used dialup for
Mls roadrunner for everything else.
It presented no problems
I have a customer who has a similar situation sitution in the yacht business and we ran the dsl line to the netwoek but left a modem in one of the workstations for access to the yacht broker version of MLS.
get a router rather than a hub and you can hook as many workstations as you want up without paying for seprate ip address
we have @ home which is comcast our cable providers version of roadrunner presently have 6 pcs networked one ip address.
posted on July 8, 2001 04:23:33 PM
My experience with RR:
I live in North Florida and have had RR for a couple of years.
When RR was installed it went on schedule and pretty fast.
They came in, took the case off, installed a NIC and put the cover back on then attached an external cable modem.
There were problems with the install because I am using windows95 and the installer did not have the experience to know what extra steps were necessary with win95. He called his supervisor and left.
Supervisor arrived, knew exactly what to do and within minutes it was online.
After the supervisor left I was satisfied with the operation but felt the speed was still lacking over what others reported online so I did a little investigating.
I discovered at DSL.com message boards that there were certain windows registry tweaks that could be performed to improve cable modem speed.
I performed the tweaks specified and the cable modem started flying!
Now I am really happy with the service (it is SO MUCH faster than dial up that it is almost unbelievable) and would never consider going back to a dial-up even though they did just raise my cable rates by $6 per month.
I have had to have one on-site trouble call. The technician arrived as scheduled and began repairs. He replaced the NIC and after fiddling with it determined that it was not at fault. He then replaced the external cable modem and the problem was resolved. He even let me keep the good NIC he had removed while trouble shooting because it wasn't worth the time necessary to reinstall it. So I got a free NIC out of the experience.
RR's phone service is average. Waiting time isn't too bad and the tech's on the phone know thier stuff, but there are communication problems between maintenance and tech because the two times I have called tech support to report my cable modem not working, I would spend a few minutes checking settings with the tech and then be passed to someone else who would know that the local service was down for a repair and be back up shortly. They were right, it was just a local repair and not a problem with my system.
Overall an excellent ISP for those that value speed.
(probably more than you wanted to know, but you asked. )
Wanted to add: service is supposed to include a home page (which I never use) and 10 meg of free image space (which has not worked in my area since I got it and don't need it anyway).
[ edited by Powerhouse on Jul 8, 2001 04:30 PM ]
posted on July 8, 2001 04:37:33 PMprobably more than you wanted to know, but you asked.
No, this is exactly the kinds of things I want to know. My first ISP had lousy tech support, and I talked to alot of local people about it before I picked another. The ISP we are using right now is great, but they just sold out to a nationwide, and if I have to switch services, set up new email address, etc, I figured it might be a good time to go with Cable.
Who Need's a stink'n Sig. File?
posted on July 8, 2001 04:54:06 PM
A good question about the AOL takeover. I couldn't see them making us change from .rr.com addresses to aol.com addresses. I have my own web address anyway so I don't care. But the logistics of something like that would be huge!
I've been waiting for SOMETHING to change since the AOL buyout, but so far everything is status quo from a user's perspective.
posted on July 8, 2001 05:03:12 PM
I think one thing that is in the works is RoadRunner shutting down our use of P2P networks like Gnutella. Time/Warner is a huge copyright/content owner.
I wonder if AOL will offer cable service to AOL members ? It doesn't seem cost effective to have a dial up ISP and a cable ISP that are not integrated and actually compete in markets where RoadRunner is available.
One thing for sure, once AOL users become more experienced they'll dump AOL for cable or a cheaper dial up ISP. Everything AOL charges for is free somewhere on the Net and many members think AOL is the Net, and AOL would like to keep them thinking that way.
posted on July 8, 2001 05:38:02 PM
Time warner is now owned by AOL BUT Road Runner is not RoadRunner is a privite independent company time warner has a exculsive contract with to provide internet services through there cable system road runner is not owned ran or operated by AOL at all.
what is in question is when road runners contract runs out if aol will allow then to continue or try to take it over then selves.
We've had RR for about 1 1/2 years, and I would NEVER go back!!!! I use it for all my auctions. It is SOOO fast. We had one instance, a few months ago where an e-mail server was down for a few days, but our bill was CREDITED for that. I still had internet access, and I just used my yahoo mail account. My computer is just off the kitchen, in our 'converted' living room. I use it for EVERYTHING. I couldn't do it with out RR. I would proabbly go hungry before I give my RR up!
My husband connected the cable modem to a server, so we each have access to the internet. We are REAL geeks!!!!!
posted on July 8, 2001 07:44:32 PM
I've had RR for 3 years now...it's great! We have a DSL line at the office and it's good, but pales in comparison to RR. Go for it, you won't be sorry.
posted on July 18, 2001 06:27:35 PM
We got hooked up, and Wow, is it FAST
Installation was easy, cable guy ran a cable behind my computer, set up the cable modem, handed my a USB cable, and a CDRom, and left.(this is "free installation". )
I shut down, plugged up the USB cable, rebooted with the RR CDRom in the drawer, hit next a few times, entered name and pass word, rebooted (about 5 times, it caused my cmos to deactivate the onboard Network Card, and Windows Freaked out, but I knew what was going on ) and I was up and going, it even took care of my pop mail from my old server.
posted on July 18, 2001 07:54:07 PM
One thing for sure, once AOL users become more experienced they'll dump AOL for cable or a cheaper dial up ISP. Everything AOL charges for is free somewhere on the Net and many members think AOL is the Net, and AOL would like to keep them thinking that way.
*****************************
We have Road Runner, and AOL. I love the speed of the RR, but am not impressed with the price. Several people I know with DSL (who have had RR) prefer the DSL. DSL is $50 in our ara, RR is $40..so I went with RR. Our RR has been down a few times, but since we also have full AOL (so we can use it on the laptop when away), we just swith to the dial up on hte main screen and use dial up.
AOL is now started to offer DSL along with their AOL in limited areas. Those I know that have it, love it. It's only $19.95 (in addition to your AOL cost), so as soon as it comes to this area, we will switch. The same phone company who charges $50 a month will be hooking it up. I have never had any problems with AOL, or customers getting their EOA notices.
posted on July 19, 2001 12:27:46 AM
Road Runners great!
HOWEVER!!!! ANYONE and I MEAN ANYONE who has Road Runner MUST GET FIREWALL SOFTWARE, if you dont your taking an AWFUL RISK.
Hackers regurlary scan ranges of Time Warner RR IP addresses and there are numerous trojoan horse programs out there that once on your PC they can look at anything they like, even use your connection to hack OTHER connections.
BlackIce is a good firewall and under $30 most places. MUST HAVE ITEM.
I installed it on our systems and not a day goes by it doesnt come up with 8-30 people trying to attempt access. Its also VERY important to keep windows UP TO DATE w/ all the security patches.
posted on July 19, 2001 12:28:24 AM
Road Runners great!
HOWEVER!!!! ANYONE and I MEAN ANYONE who has Road Runner MUST GET FIREWALL SOFTWARE, if you dont your taking an AWFUL RISK.
Hackers regurlary scan ranges of Time Warner RR IP addresses and there are numerous trojoan horse programs out there that once on your PC they can look at anything they like, even use your connection to hack OTHER connections.
BlackIce is a good firewall and under $30 most places. MUST HAVE ITEM.
I installed it on our systems and not a day goes by it doesnt come up with 8-30 people trying to attempt access. Its also VERY important to keep windows UP TO DATE w/ all the security patches.
posted on July 19, 2001 07:39:55 AM
I live in Kansas and a small town (3500) as well and LOVE Roadrunner. I have two others before that and Roadrunner is fantastic. I have had a couple of downtimes but, not for very long. Once was because someone hit a cable and the other was storm related. But, I had far more down time with the other servers so, Roadrunner has been much better. I have never had any emails blocked and the only time I had problems getting them out was when Texas had their floods and it was another server that couldn't take them. The speed is fantastic and love being up and going the minute I turn my computer on in the a.m. and not getting shut down after being on for 8 hours because there is a limit to how long on regular servers. I have several friends on Roadrunner and we all agree - IT IS THE BEST!
posted on July 19, 2001 09:56:13 AM
While DSL is somewhat comparable, it is very limited as to who can get it. There is a limiting facture of how far the service can be from a main phone hub, and it is slower than cable. The cost for DSL hinders its use also. How many PCs can you operate on a DSL service ? I know with cable you can operate several PCs with no problem by adding a $20 hub.
If you need a backup ISP to use should you be in an area that has frequent cable outages, why pay for AOL when you can get a backup dial up service for as little as $8.95 a month ?
The costs of AOL just isn't worth it. If you can get reliable dial up service for $8.95 a month, the difference is paying AOL for what is otherwise free on the internet. I know people that think you must be an AOL member to use AOL's IM.
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