looking for feedback on Fair Point internet

Fishy Cover · 01-16-2016, 09:21 AM

Approx 3 years ago at 9:45 AM on a Monday morning a winter storm knocked a tree down on our dead end street, breaking the power line, Metrocast Internet and Fair Point telephone line.

I reported the interruption using my cell phone. NH Coop removed the tree and had power restored by 11:30 and Metrocast was up by noon. It took Fairpoint until 1 PM on the following FRIDAY to restore service. I cancelled Fairpoint the following Monday and switched to Internet phone by Metrocast. I have never regretted the switch, and it even saves money.

jazzman · 01-26-2016, 12:02 AM

OK, so I confess I'm on an island.... Fairpoint works really well until it breaks... Then it usually takes then 2 weeks or so to fix it. It doesn't break very often and there really aren't any other choices, so I deal with it by having cell backup.

My web cam did manage to stay alive all last winter (with the help of a timer that power cycles the modem once a day)

radar4401 · 01-26-2016, 10:35 AM

I used to have Fairpoint in Wolfeboro and was satisfied with the service until I wanted to get a higher speed and it wasn't available at the time. I would check out the speed first before signing up. When I talked to a service rep. recently, he suggested I try it for a month before switching. Then you can evaluate the service and see if it is adequate for your needs. I would consider switching back if their line speed improves if nothing more than to support the local phone company. I like to have a land line for the reliability factor.

2islandboy · 01-29-2016, 10:05 AM

For islanders, with generator backup, or even a large UPS, the big advantage of Fairpoint DSL over cable is that cable requires amplifiers both on and off the island, whereas DSL runs copper from island homes to the mainland, where it connects to fiber lines. If one of the three cable amplifiers between my home and the mainland loses power, I'm dead. With DSL, all the equipment is on the mainland, so no power, no problem. When my backup generator is on, I have DSL internet, over copper lines clear to the mainland. Except for cut phone lines, Fairpoint can service me from the mainland. Metrocast must come to the island to access amplifiers and cable taps. I don't want TV, so no loss without cable.

wifi · 01-29-2016, 10:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 2islandboy

For islanders, with generator backup, or even a large UPS, the big advantage of Fairpoint DSL over cable is that cable requires amplifiers both on and off the island, whereas DSL runs copper from island homes to the mainland, where it connects to fiber lines. If one of the three cable amplifiers between my home and the mainland loses power, I'm dead. With DSL, all the equipment is on the mainland, so no power, no problem. When my backup generator is on, I have DSL internet, over copper lines clear to the mainland. Except for cut phone lines, Fairpoint can service me from the mainland. Metrocast must come to the island to access amplifiers and cable taps. I don't want TV, so no loss without cable.

Though, it may be true for your island, it is a big assumption not to believe that Fairpoint doesn't have SLICs on other islands, where they have run out of cable pairs to the mainland. SLICs do require local power on the island, but have (small) backup batteries.

Slickcraft · 01-29-2016, 01:12 PM

Like many other islanders we use Fairpoint DSL as it is our only option other than cell data. We get a fairly consistent 1.5 to 1.6 Mbps down and about 0.5 up. Enough for web browsing and Netflix.

We had no issues in all of 2015.

In 2014 we had an outage due to trees down and another time a router that went bad due to a voltage surge. Customer service was a real pain to deal with. At that time the traditional plain old telephone service (POTS) part of the company was totally separate from the DSL part. A call to line repair about the severed lines directed me to internet service as we had only DSL. A call to internet service told me that I had to talk to line repair. A call back to line repair and I said that I could see the severed 26 pair cable out back. The line repair rep asked "What is 26 pair cable, how do you know that it is phone line"? Sigh. I finally got to talk to a supervisor who actually had some clue as to phone lines. After a bit, a trouble "ticket" was finally issued.

Hopefully they are more integrated now. We did get the bad router fixed, I happened to see a lineman out back climbing a pole. He had not got the trouble ticket yet but took care of the problem anyway.

MDoug · 01-29-2016, 04:29 PM

We keep Fairpoint because the phone and DSL stay on during power outages.
Have had good service from their tech support and service guys.

BroadHopper · 01-30-2016, 09:20 AM

Anyone have any luck with satellite internet? A friend of mine gave them a call and their new Gen 4 technology promises up to 15 mbps in speed. As fast or in most areas faster than DSL. Huges claim it is available on the lake.

wifi · 01-30-2016, 10:07 AM

Be sure to check out their "fair access" policy, and be able to take into account high latency (no way to overcome the time it takes for radio waves to reach space and back). Trying to ssh over one would be nerve wracking.

BroadHopper · 01-30-2016, 11:25 AM

I'm assuming they are one and the same. Metrocast in Laconia with high speed internet subscription averages around 20ms. They claim after the last upgrade I should see 35 mbps. The latest mbps is 20, the same as it has been since I upgraded the router to DOCSIS 3.0.

My neighbor has Fairpoint DSL, which average around 10 mbps with average ping around 5 ms. His browsing speed appears faster than mine. Is it because of the ping?

Both testing is done over a year time span with speedtest.net.

Comments wifi?

radar4401 · 01-30-2016, 11:50 AM

For the person who asked about Hughes Gen4, I haven't heard many good reports about it. Unlike Directv (which I've had for 20+years and love), a lot people have had problems. I know a couple of people who have had it and they couldn't get it to work. Also, it's very expensive. Just be wary.

Slickcraft · 01-30-2016, 11:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BroadHopper

I'm assuming they are one and the same. Metrocast in Laconia with high speed internet subscription averages around 20ms. They claim after the last upgrade I should see 35 mbps. The latest mbps is 20, the same as it has been since I upgraded the router to DOCSIS 3.0.

My neighbor has Fairpoint DSL, which average around 10 mbps with average ping around 5 ms. His browsing speed appears faster than mine. Is it because of the ping?

Both testing is done over a year time span with speedtest.net.

Comments wifi?

Not one an the same as ground based ping time.. As wifi stated it has to do with radio wave propagation time. The satellite is about 22,200 miles up. Click on a link and the request goes up & down, then up and down again with the reply. Over 88K miles overall. Here the latency time would be about 477ms added to whatever the ping time would be from the satellite ground station to the web site server and back.

The speed of light is finite.

SIKSUKR · 02-01-2016, 01:43 PM

186,000 miles per second. And yet that star I'm looking at took 1 few million years for the light to get here? Yikes!

Slickcraft · 02-01-2016, 05:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SIKSUKR

186,000 miles per second. And yet that star I'm looking at took 1 few million years for the light to get here? Yikes!

I does not sound anyway near as fast if you tell someone that light travels only about one foot per nano-second.

wifi · 02-01-2016, 08:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BroadHopper

I'm assuming they are one and the same. Metrocast in Laconia with high speed internet subscription averages around 20ms. They claim after the last upgrade I should see 35 mbps. The latest mbps is 20, the same as it has been since I upgraded the router to DOCSIS 3.0.

My neighbor has Fairpoint DSL, which average around 10 mbps with average ping around 5 ms. His browsing speed appears faster than mine. Is it because of the ping?

Both testing is done over a year time span with speedtest.net.

Comments wifi?

Yes, I was referring to Satellite lag time. Browsing speeds and download speed really have some skeletons in the closet.

I have Time Warner at my house. Typically, in the earlier times, ISP's would use "bursting" to give an allusion of snappier browsing. This is where they give you a fixed time or amount of data, before dropping you back to a lower speed. Heavy downloaders get penalized, rightfully, for a fixed resource i.e. total network bandwidth.

If you run a test on, say: speedtest.net you can see the "speedometer" and graph and get a feel for your speed over a few seconds. My Time Warner residential account, get a very slowly building up to my paid for bandwidth, before the test terminates. Their test takes the maximum speed it sees and reports that as your bandwidth. Well, it always comes up to close to my speed, before the test terminates. So, one has to wonder what happens after that ??? Why build it up slow ?

So, I go to www.thinkbroadband.com/download.html and download their 1 gig file, and it shows roughly 10 Meg(vs the 30 purchased) download speed. So, TW uses a reverse burst method, to fool the tests, then drops it way down to throttle downloads. I don't fault them, they can't support everyone running full speed over forever. I see that problem too, they have fixed resources, just like I do.

So, in answer to your Verizon vs Metrocast experiences, there is a lot in play behind the scenes with bandwidth shaping.

BroadHopper · 02-03-2016, 12:36 PM

Based on the observations above, Metrocast must be throttling way back their speed based on usage. When I do the test for these apps, the tests shows plenty of speed to streamline the movies at HD mode. Yet halfway through a movie I almost always lose connection due to insufficient speed. It's a PITA and I have yet to be able to watch a full movie at the advertised 20/35 mbps speed!

ishoot308 · 02-01-2016, 03:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BroadHopper

Anyone have any luck with satellite internet? A friend of mine gave them a call and their new Gen 4 technology promises up to 15 mbps in speed. As fast or in most areas faster than DSL. Huges claim it is available on the lake.

I looked into it last year before I had a 1/4 mile trench dug for Metrocast. I decided against it because of bandwidth limitations and also because they will not give you a static IP address. My home security system requires a static IP not to mention the bandwidth required to run it.

The other thing to remember with satellite is weather drastically affects speed. The speed they are advertising is under perfect weather conditions, add any kind of bad weather whatsoever and expect your speed to be cut in half or more!

Dan

MAXUM · 02-01-2016, 05:00 PM

I looked briefly at Huges Net, but the down side to them is they cap your overall monthly consumption which can be a problem if you are a heavy user. From a price standpoint they aren't terribly competitive either, so clearly they are not necessarily interested in going head to head price wise with hard line cable/DSL carriers.

Can't comment on their service as a whole as I have never used it. I do however had DirecTV and it can be sensitive as Dan says to weather conditions. Heavy duty downpours, thunderheads or snow squalls can interfere with your signal.

01-16-2016, 09:21 AM	#1
Fishy Cover Senior Member Join Date: May 2004 Posts: 134 Thanks: 10 Thanked 13 Times in 12 Posts	Fairpoint Service Approx 3 years ago at 9:45 AM on a Monday morning a winter storm knocked a tree down on our dead end street, breaking the power line, Metrocast Internet and Fair Point telephone line. I reported the interruption using my cell phone. NH Coop removed the tree and had power restored by 11:30 and Metrocast was up by noon. It took Fairpoint until 1 PM on the following FRIDAY to restore service. I cancelled Fairpoint the following Monday and switched to Internet phone by Metrocast. I have never regretted the switch, and it even saves money.

01-26-2016, 10:35 AM	#3
radar4401 Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Posts: 59 Thanks: 2 Thanked 12 Times in 6 Posts	Fairpoint I used to have Fairpoint in Wolfeboro and was satisfied with the service until I wanted to get a higher speed and it wasn't available at the time. I would check out the speed first before signing up. When I talked to a service rep. recently, he suggested I try it for a month before switching. Then you can evaluate the service and see if it is adequate for your needs. I would consider switching back if their line speed improves if nothing more than to support the local phone company. I like to have a land line for the reliability factor.

01-29-2016, 10:05 AM	#4
2islandboy Junior Member Join Date: Dec 2009 Posts: 11 Thanks: 1 Thanked 3 Times in 2 Posts	Island Internet For islanders, with generator backup, or even a large UPS, the big advantage of Fairpoint DSL over cable is that cable requires amplifiers both on and off the island, whereas DSL runs copper from island homes to the mainland, where it connects to fiber lines. If one of the three cable amplifiers between my home and the mainland loses power, I'm dead. With DSL, all the equipment is on the mainland, so no power, no problem. When my backup generator is on, I have DSL internet, over copper lines clear to the mainland. Except for cut phone lines, Fairpoint can service me from the mainland. Metrocast must come to the island to access amplifiers and cable taps. I don't want TV, so no loss without cable.

01-29-2016, 04:29 PM	#7
MDoug Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 343 Thanks: 116 Thanked 42 Times in 39 Posts	Fairpoint We keep Fairpoint because the phone and DSL stay on during power outages. Have had good service from their tech support and service guys.

01-30-2016, 09:20 AM	#8
BroadHopper Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Laconia NH Posts: 5,615 Thanks: 3,245 Thanked 1,115 Times in 801 Posts	Huges Net Anyone have any luck with satellite internet? A friend of mine gave them a call and their new Gen 4 technology promises up to 15 mbps in speed. As fast or in most areas faster than DSL. Huges claim it is available on the lake. __________________ Someday may never be an actual day.

01-26-2016, 12:02 AM	#2
jazzman Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Mont Vernon NH & Big Barndoor Island Posts: 323 Thanks: 4 Thanked 184 Times in 62 Posts	OK, so I confess I'm on an island.... Fairpoint works really well until it breaks... Then it usually takes then 2 weeks or so to fix it. It doesn't break very often and there really aren't any other choices, so I deal with it by having cell backup. My web cam did manage to stay alive all last winter (with the help of a timer that power cycles the modem once a day)

01-29-2016, 01:12 PM	#6
Slickcraft Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Welch Island and The Taylor Community Posts: 3,343 Thanks: 1,249 Thanked 2,121 Times in 970 Posts	Like many other islanders we use Fairpoint DSL as it is our only option other than cell data. We get a fairly consistent 1.5 to 1.6 Mbps down and about 0.5 up. Enough for web browsing and Netflix. We had no issues in all of 2015. In 2014 we had an outage due to trees down and another time a router that went bad due to a voltage surge. Customer service was a real pain to deal with. At that time the traditional plain old telephone service (POTS) part of the company was totally separate from the DSL part. A call to line repair about the severed lines directed me to internet service as we had only DSL. A call to internet service told me that I had to talk to line repair. A call back to line repair and I said that I could see the severed 26 pair cable out back. The line repair rep asked "What is 26 pair cable, how do you know that it is phone line"? Sigh. I finally got to talk to a supervisor who actually had some clue as to phone lines. After a bit, a trouble "ticket" was finally issued. Hopefully they are more integrated now. We did get the bad router fixed, I happened to see a lineman out back climbing a pole. He had not got the trouble ticket yet but took care of the problem anyway.

01-30-2016, 10:07 AM	#9
wifi Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Lakes Region Posts: 1,321 Thanks: 282 Thanked 287 Times in 169 Posts	Be sure to check out their "fair access" policy, and be able to take into account high latency (no way to overcome the time it takes for radio waves to reach space and back). Trying to ssh over one would be nerve wracking.

01-30-2016, 11:25 AM	#10
BroadHopper Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Laconia NH Posts: 5,615 Thanks: 3,245 Thanked 1,115 Times in 801 Posts	Latency vs Ping I'm assuming they are one and the same. Metrocast in Laconia with high speed internet subscription averages around 20ms. They claim after the last upgrade I should see 35 mbps. The latest mbps is 20, the same as it has been since I upgraded the router to DOCSIS 3.0. My neighbor has Fairpoint DSL, which average around 10 mbps with average ping around 5 ms. His browsing speed appears faster than mine. Is it because of the ping? Both testing is done over a year time span with speedtest.net. Comments wifi? __________________ Someday may never be an actual day.

01-30-2016, 11:50 AM	#11
radar4401 Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Posts: 59 Thanks: 2 Thanked 12 Times in 6 Posts	Internet For the person who asked about Hughes Gen4, I haven't heard many good reports about it. Unlike Directv (which I've had for 20+years and love), a lot people have had problems. I know a couple of people who have had it and they couldn't get it to work. Also, it's very expensive. Just be wary.

02-01-2016, 01:43 PM	#13
SIKSUKR Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 5,075 Thanks: 215 Thanked 903 Times in 509 Posts	186,000 miles per second. And yet that star I'm looking at took 1 few million years for the light to get here? Yikes! __________________ SIKSUKR

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02-03-2016, 12:36 PM	#16
BroadHopper Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Laconia NH Posts: 5,615 Thanks: 3,245 Thanked 1,115 Times in 801 Posts	Netflix / Vudu streaming Based on the observations above, Metrocast must be throttling way back their speed based on usage. When I do the test for these apps, the tests shows plenty of speed to streamline the movies at HD mode. Yet halfway through a movie I almost always lose connection due to insufficient speed. It's a PITA and I have yet to be able to watch a full movie at the advertised 20/35 mbps speed! __________________ Someday may never be an actual day.

02-01-2016, 05:00 PM	#18
MAXUM Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Kuna ID Posts: 2,755 Thanks: 246 Thanked 1,942 Times in 802 Posts	I looked briefly at Huges Net, but the down side to them is they cap your overall monthly consumption which can be a problem if you are a heavy user. From a price standpoint they aren't terribly competitive either, so clearly they are not necessarily interested in going head to head price wise with hard line cable/DSL carriers. Can't comment on their service as a whole as I have never used it. I do however had DirecTV and it can be sensitive as Dan says to weather conditions. Heavy duty downpours, thunderheads or snow squalls can interfere with your signal.