Please Sonic, come to Ingleside Terraces!!!
Most internet service providers are gone – Sonic has survived and thrived
11–20 of 122 posts
Re: Most internet service providers are gone – Sonic has survived and thrived
#12I miss the days of competing ISPs. I remember having Speakeasy for my DSL back in the early 2000s and being impressed at the range of services they offered and relatively high speeds they offered for less than what Verizon wanted to charge for a DSL line. Usenet, a shell server, personal webhosting, a POTS phone bank you could use as a backup when you were on the road. But the limitations of DSL meant they couldn't c…
FIOS wasn't actually why that market segment died; it was due to the FCC decision to re-classify DSL [0]. This was in response to a lawsuit resolved a few months earlier that did the same for cable internet connections. [1] By re-classifying both cable and DSL as Title 1, rather than Title 2, that meant that they were no longer common carriers, and could kick all the competing ISPs off their network. This is why it s…
> The phone companies say that the ruling will free up more of their resources to improve their broadband services, although at least one FCC commissioner says he will be watching to see if that's really the case.
> ISPs such as EarthLink, which already have a hard time competing on price, may still negotiate access contracts with the phone companies but are looking for alternative ways to deliver their services.
EarthLink sold the next year to Windstream for $673 million in an all-stock transaction. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/11/dial-...
Three years later... Windstream unloads legacy EarthLink internet assets for $330M https://www.fiercetelecom.com/telecom/windstream-unloads-leg...
Re: Most internet service providers are gone – Sonic has survived and thrived
#13Visits site > Clicks Check Availability > Enters Address Info > Clicks Check Availability > Google Captcha > Selects Audio (because I've been caught in a loop too many times) > Clicks Play > Enters Text > Receives "Try Again Later..." > Closes Tab
There has got to be a better way. I mean Sonic just lost a potential customer because I won't "Try Again Later".
Ubuntu + Firefox FWIW
Re: Most internet service providers are gone – Sonic has survived and thrived
#14Visits site > Clicks Check Availability > Enters Address Info > Clicks Check Availability > Google Captcha > Selects Audio (because I've been caught in a loop too many times) > Clicks Play > Enters Text > Receives "Try Again Later..." > Closes Tab There has got to be a better way. I mean Sonic just lost a potential customer because I won't "Try Again Later". Ubuntu + Firefox FWIW
so you are complaining that sonic uses google captcha, and google captcha did not work for you today? lol.
Re: Most internet service providers are gone – Sonic has survived and thrived
#15Visits site > Clicks Check Availability > Enters Address Info > Clicks Check Availability > Google Captcha > Selects Audio (because I've been caught in a loop too many times) > Clicks Play > Enters Text > Receives "Try Again Later..." > Closes Tab There has got to be a better way. I mean Sonic just lost a potential customer because I won't "Try Again Later". Ubuntu + Firefox FWIW
I’d suggest calling them. Not only will they help you figure out whether they can provide service to you, by they’ll probably also take your complaint about reCAPTCHA seriously and work to fix the site. Their reps are friendly and helpful, which is such a bizarrely wonderful experience for anyone accustomed to talking with Comcast/ATT.
Re: Most internet service providers are gone – Sonic has survived and thrived
#16Just wanted to chime in about how happy with their residential service in SF. I have their 1Gbps package. With Comcast, this would most often translate to a real-life asymetric 250mbps download, 50mbps upload speed. With Sonic: I'm consistently getting SYMMETRIC 900mbps+! It's insane and comes in real-handy when you're pushing a few gigs of file from your home server to AWS... Edit: I have cat6 ethernet wired through…
additionally, because comcast and DSL providers are using existing wiring in what are often very old buildings that are difficult to rewire (at the building level moreso than the unit level), that stuff is often just going through mazes of wiring with tons of interference and really inconsistently performs. fiber is honestly just easier to pull through three stories of 100yo walls than coax, afaict, and it doesn't care if it runs next to power or other data as long as you don't break it.
i wasn't able to get full gigabit when i lived in sf with sonic, but my latency and general reliability was WAY higher than even with comcast business.
Re: Most internet service providers are gone – Sonic has survived and thrived
#17Visits site > Clicks Check Availability > Enters Address Info > Clicks Check Availability > Google Captcha > Selects Audio (because I've been caught in a loop too many times) > Clicks Play > Enters Text > Receives "Try Again Later..." > Closes Tab There has got to be a better way. I mean Sonic just lost a potential customer because I won't "Try Again Later". Ubuntu + Firefox FWIW
so you are complaining that sonic uses google captcha, and google captcha did not work for you today? lol.
It's a valid critism. They decided to use Google Captcha and it often blocks 'advanced' users. ReCAPTCHA often has problems with Linux, non-chrome, VPN users, and users that use ad or javascript blockers.
That's the kind of advanced user that appreciates and uses an internet provider like Sonic.net.
It would be like a mobile phone service provider requiring people to pass a turing test if they call into the sales line from a mobile phone.
Re: Most internet service providers are gone – Sonic has survived and thrived
#18I have Sonic at home, despite that it is basically AT&T dual bonded DSL and slower then my old Comcast connection. Its fast enough and I really like Sonic. Comcast, not so much.
Re: Most internet service providers are gone – Sonic has survived and thrived
#19I have Sonic at home, despite that it is basically AT&T dual bonded DSL and slower then my old Comcast connection. Its fast enough and I really like Sonic. Comcast, not so much.
Yeah. Have same here. Ordered via Sonic.net and was confused when AT&T guy showed up to do the whole install.
That being said, still better than comcast, and hopefully they continue to roll out fiber for residential [1].
1 - https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Internet-provid...
Re: Most internet service providers are gone – Sonic has survived and thrived
#20I'm really looking forward to their fibre rolling out in my neighborhood (for an entire year now). Last week I saw one of their trucks installing cable on the street right perpendicular to me.
So close.