# Time Warner Cable is sooo annoying!!!



## Vera Eck (Aug 22, 1999)

I am not even going to begin to bore you with the lengthy list of problems and annoyances I have had for the past 3 months with Time Warner (Road Runner) ever since they took over Comcast in October. My Comcast broadband cable internet connection worked perfectly for years. I have been beyond patient during this transition to RR, and still _nothing_ is working properly.  Grrrr.... I'm at the point where I feel that I must change providers, as inconvenient as that is...

I prefer broadband to DSL, but Time Warner has the monopoly here in Los Angeles, CA so there are no other broadband providers (that I know of). What are the best and fastest DSL providers here in Southern California? This is for my home computer which I do use for business; I use several web based applications and have no patience for slow speeds.

All comments and advice are appreciated! Thanks in advance.


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## pedroguy (Jan 28, 2001)

I have Cox cable here in the South Bay and I am very pleased with the service,but you probably cannot get them in your area.
My advise on DSL would be to definately stay away from Earthlink.My experience with them for service was very frustrating and the techs were obviously not in the US. Unfortunatley from my DSL experience,your pleasure level will very with the goodness or lack thereof of the line into your house.If you are at the end of a copper wire,as my friend was,your service will be awful,if new lines have been pulled into your neighborhood,then maybe better.But that has just been my experience with one DSL provider.I'm sure others will chime in here.


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## BBQ_SNOB (Dec 28, 2006)

Can you use SBC/Yahoo DSL in your area. I've had good luck with them in the past.
Try:
http://www.getisp.info/dsl-service.html


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

Verizon FiOS, fast as lightning and rock solid. Goodby Comcast.


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## Vera Eck (Aug 22, 1999)

Thank you all for some good suggestions. Unfortunately, NONE are available in my area and they all re-direct me to Time Warner. Wow.

I _wish_ I could order the Verizon FiOS, that seems ideal. I, too, have had negative experiences with Earthlink, so that's out of the question.

Maybe I'm forced to pick Verizon DSL. I am still open to more feedback, if anyone thinks I have any other options out there, though I'm beginning to doubt it...


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## Vera Eck (Aug 22, 1999)

I have a friend who is suggesting I get GMail so that I don't have to keep changing my e-mail address on my business cards and website when I switch ISPs. Any experience or thoughts on that? Is it any better or worse than hotmail or other webbased e-mails?


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## dr20 (Apr 11, 2003)

What are your problems with it? I've got Road Runner here in NY and I'm constantly having to reset the modem as the cable suddenly goes out around 10 to 11:00AM and then sometimes at night or even all day on and off, especially on weekends. Releasing and renewing the IP address doesn't do anything, only rebooting or resetting the modem. I've talked to RR but they've said they don't know what the problem is and that maybe it's my computer software. Well I know it's not since it doesn't do it everyday and it happens on both Windows 2000 and XP, and has on 98SE also with or without the firewall turned on. For $45.00 a month I'm seriously looking for a new provider as well since I really shouldn't have to be going through that.


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## Vera Eck (Aug 22, 1999)

Where do I begin? Most of the problems are occurring because of the transition from Comcast to RR. I have not experienced any modem outages as you described.

First, they cannot re-activate one of my Comcast sub-accounts (my daughter's e-mail account); I have called over 6 times and spent hours on the phone with these bozos trying to get it to work again, still no luck. Now my 10 year old has acquired her own Hotmail account (without my permission) and I'm just waiting for her to get those penile extension spams and ask me "Mommy, what does this mean?"...

Second, they told me we had 1 year from 10/06 to change over all our e-mail addresses and that all our comcast addresses would be forwarded to the RR account. This worked fine until 12/15 when all of a sudden I can no longer access my comcast e-mail on the webmail! RR webmail only displays the few e-mails that are sent to my RR address. This is a major pain in the *** because I read and respond to most of my e-mail via webmail when I am at my work computer... Now I can't do that anymore?!?!? Needless to say I wasted even more time with their customer service bozos: not only do they not understand my problem because of their low IQs, but they have no solution for me. They keep telling me that I should be fine because it will all download onto my home PC. But that is not the point!! This is the 21st century and I should be able to read ALL my f'ing e-mail on-line all the time whenever I want.

There, that's my hissy fit about Time Warner. Now I'm playing around with GMail. Because of this website, I'm looking at FX and Thunderbird. I'll download them tonight when I get home. I know they receive e-mail, but do they have e-mail functions?


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## ChuckE (Aug 30, 2004)

FYI, broadband is not just cable, broadband is DSL too. So your saying: "I prefer broadband to DSL" is confused. 
I am pretty sure you meant to say: *I prefer cable to DSL*.

I too am in the SoCal area where Adelphia (cable) was acquired by TimeWarner. It has been less than satisfactory, and I'm not fully switched over yet. (They put a hold on some of the switching.) My street has Verizon FIOS (Fiber Optic Cable - VERY Fast!), I am considering changing to them.

As for using Thunderbird (which I use too). That is still going to connect to your ISP's mail servers. If the screwup is with their servers/mailnames/accounts/whatever it is going to still be screwed up using any other POP mail client, such as Thunderbird.

Using a web based mail service works fine, regardless of your ISP's mail servers. I use Yahoo mainly, but I also have Gmail, and Hotmail. I prefer Yahoo because of all the extra goodies and services (file space, photos, calendar, notepad, etc.). And as long as I can get to the Internet, from any computer, I can get to my Yahoo email & stuff.


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## ChuckE (Aug 30, 2004)

*dr20* are you cable or DSL? I have a DSL neighbor who was experiencing pretty much the same problem. They suffered with it for almost a year, until they finally asked me to look at it. As silly as it sounds, they just connected one of the supplied DSL filters to their DSL modem. I was surprised that their DSL modem worked at all, but it did ... sporadically.

I removed the filter, and they have been enjoying consistent DSL service ever since. It was a simple mistake, especially since the TelCo's instructions said to connect a filter to everyone of their phone connections. (How where they to know, or realize, that it meant all EXCEPT the modem?)


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## Vera Eck (Aug 22, 1999)

Thank you, Chuck. Yes, you're right, I meant I prefer cable. I'm jealous that you have access to Verizon FIOS and you're not that far from me geographically. I put myself on their "waiting list." Perhaps web based is the way too go. So far I'm enjoying gmail. Your preference for Yahoo is inspiring me to check into my old yahoo account to make sure. I want to make a decision once and for all.


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## ChuckE (Aug 30, 2004)

One of the new features of Yahoo email is that they have a Beta version of their new look. I like the look, which is a lot like the many typical multi-frame clients (like Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird, etc) with a couple of new features. I like that new look a lot more than the old Yahoo interface. Plus, you can switch back and forth as often as you like.

Yahoo email gives you a free 1GB of space, but I seldom ever get beyond 5% anyway. It is nice to have that extra buffer when somebody sends something large, though.

The Yahoo Spam filters work pretty well, too. I seldom ever see Spam in my Inbox. I do get a lot of Spam, but it almost always gets diverted into the automatic Spam box.


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## dr20 (Apr 11, 2003)

> This is the 21st century and I should be able to read ALL my f'ing e-mail on-line all the time whenever I want.


Sounds like a lot of annoying problems that for $45.00 a month shouldn't be happening. I had a local dialup service a few years ago that was awesome and real cheap at the same time but unfortunately I prefer broadband for media content. If you can find a decent DSL service go with it, it's at least far cheaper than Road Runner.


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## dr20 (Apr 11, 2003)

> dr20 are you cable or DSL?


This is cable service (Road Runner). There's no filters or anything like that installed. I've tried everything, including bypassing the onboard network card with a pci one and nothing works. It doesn't because I'm pretty sure it's on their end since it's not an everyday event. Most of the time it occurs on the weekends when the local traffic is no doubt heavier, which suggests to me it's probably a network bandwidth problem.


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## Stoner (Oct 26, 2002)

Excuse me for butting in, I use RR but no problems.
That $45 monthly fee is negotiable when Time Warner starts their advertising on bundled specials.
I recently asked for an got a $10 reduction in monthly billing with out any additional services.
Can't hurt to ask.


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## Deke40 (Jun 27, 2002)

Vera Eck said:


> First, they cannot re-activate one of my Comcast sub-accounts (my daughter's e-mail account); I have called over 6 times and spent hours on the phone with these bozos trying to get it to work again, still no luck.


Vera have you tried going into "Account Mangement" on the RR site and deleting the sub account then reestablishing it yourself? I had to do this once and it worked fine after that.


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## dr20 (Apr 11, 2003)

> I use RR but no problems.


Maybe it is on my end then but I can't figure out what it is.

They do have those specials in the area where it's real cheap for six months but never thought to call them, thanks I will next time.


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## Vera Eck (Aug 22, 1999)

> unfortunately I prefer broadband for media content.


 Me, too. I think I'm stuck with RR for that reason alone. DSL will be too slow in comparison.



> I recently asked for an got a $10 reduction in monthly billing with out any additional services.
> Can't hurt to ask.


 Darn, tootin', Stoner. Will do. At least I'll feel somewhat vindicated with a discount.



> Vera have you tried going into "Account Mangement" on the RR site and deleting the sub account then reestablishing it yourself? I had to do this once and it worked fine after that.


Well, that was a good idea, which I just tried and of course it did not work. I got this error message: "An error occurred while trying to update user's email account status." They're trying to make me call them again, which I don't think I can do without getting enraged...

Thanks again for brainstorming with me, everyone. The best solution I see up to now is to keep the RR cable connection (barf), ask and receive a discount, and change my e-mail to web-based (Yahoo or GMail). I am still open to other ideas, if there are any.


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## jp1203 (Jul 21, 2005)

I've got Verizon ADSL 768 KBps

I actually prefer DSL to Cable because the speed is constant and almost never goes down. Mine has never gone down that I know of and I ALWAYS get 90 KB/sec downloads-no fluctuation. 

We can get the 3 meg service up here, but I didn't bother with it. Someone down the road got it and all they get is a constant 1.2 megs-but we're extremely far out. 

OTOH, I know someone in Dalton that's about 2 miles from the Verizon office and they get the full 3 megs. Around 300 KB/sec downloads


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