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Roadrunner/Time Warner Cable Opinions Wanted

IJ Reilly

IJ Reilly

macrumors P6
Original poster
I am becoming serious disenchanted with my current DSL provider. One of the options I'm considering is a cable modem through Time Warner, which took over Adelphia (in my area). They provide internet through Roadrunner. I'm interested in opinions about their service. Is the bandwidth what you expected? Are they able to resolve problems quickly?

I understand that Time Warner has experienced some serious problems digesting their new Adelphia territories, at least on the TV side of the business. Many people are complaining. I'm wondering if those problems extended to Roadrunner.

Also, does Roadrunner use PPPoE? I've never had to deal with this, but I understand PPPoE can be a real pain in the neck.

Thanks!
 
My experience with TimeWarner and RoadRunner while living in upstate NY was far from positive. We had a big problem with the drop that ran to the house we were renting -- we were pretty much being kicked off the web, or having terrible speed problems, constantly. The customer service I received was awful, and the repair time was even worse. Wed that to the ridiculous cost for the service and the battle I had to fight to get my money back during other instances (even after the repair I kept a log of downtime, and that log didn't reflect terribly well on them or their service) -- well, like I said -- I didn't have a very good experience.

The real kicker is that when I moved to the middle of nowhere, CT a year or two ago, we had much better service, much better customer service and a much cheaper price from another provider (Charter).

Now I'm with that behemoth Comcast and all is very ... meh.
 
I absolutely LOVE my Road Runner connection through Time Warner. Short of FIOS, there is nothing that could convince to me to switch. I've literally had Road Runner about 8 years. The nice thing about them (at least in my area), is they seem to routinely up the speed at no additional cost. Just recent they upped our connection speed (to 6MBit I believe).

As a comparison, my father retired from BellSouth with 30 years and gets a huge discount on their DSL service. They have the top-tier DSL service, and it can't hold a candle to my RR service. I routinely get download speeds from good servers of 600-700 Kb/sec. IMO, Road Runner is the next best thing to FIOS. Everyone I work with (fellow IT people) all use RR. I honestly can't think of one person I work with in IT that use DSL.

Keep in mind though, alot of this is highly dependent on the area you live. Your mileage may vary. 🙂
 
I LOVED my Roadrunner service as well. Problem is, Comcast bought them out here in the MN 'burbs, and I hate Comcast. Terrible service. Wish Time Warner would've held on 🙄
 
twc is pretty good/fast when it's working, but it's definitely overpriced (44.95 in nyc) and their customer service is quite inept.....
 
whawhat said:
twc is pretty good/fast when it's working, but it's definitely overpriced (44.95 in nyc) and their customer service is quite inept.....
Click to expand...

Comcast is more expensive here in Atlanta.

I wish that the cable lines were publicly maintained and companies could contribute bandwidth, some competition in this business would be nice (for us consumers).
 
I live in Bergen County, NJ right by NYC and RR I'd say has a lot to do to catch up to FIOS- but that's as if they'd ever install FIOS in my town. I get pretty bad upload speeds with RR (40kbps) but download speeds are great... 4.5Mbps/600-700kbps.

They haven't upgraded ANYTHING in the past 5 years that I've had it, and each time I've asked, they said they won't be doing it soon.

I know DSL users that have 2.5x my upload speed.
 
Thanks for the opinions. My DSL is rated at 1500/364, but I rarely see over 1400 down and 150 up, and often much worse recently. The ISP and Verizon are pretty much useless when it comes to owning up to the problem and fixing it. In fact my ISP is currently insisting that I sign a new 12 month commitment before they even try to improve my service, which is outrageous (even though they can't seem to understand why I think so), especially since I'm paying them $44.95/month. I also get a static IP but would trade it for better service and bandwidth, but I don't want to deal with PPPoE, if it's as problematic as I hear it can be. So, does Roadrunner use PPPoE?

I don't know how much Time Warner charges for Roadrunner in my area. The company web site provides no clue, which IMO is not a good sign.
 
I'm out in the boonies on dial-up waiting for a reasonable price on
satellite or WiFi.
No cable or DSL out here and DirecWay/Huges is way overpriced.

I've heard some good things about Wild Blue, but you would have to see if they cover your area.
 
I'm in NYC and I've used TWC/RR for years now and I think its great. The only time I remember it ever really going down was during the big blackout a few years ago. Otherwise I'm on it all day and it's fast, especially must faster than any DSL I've used.

Their tech support is rather useless. Half the time I have to teach them what to do.
 
I'm in NYC, and my Time Warner service has been pretty spotty. My cable TV suffers the worst, though.

I'm curious about FiOS, though. Is it that much better?
 
I want broadband Internet/TV/Phone all together in one package that I can use through my system without individual service charges.

It's rediculous in this day and age to pay $59.00 for broadband internet, another $30-50 per month for TV and another $30+ for phone.

You should be able to do it all for $50.00 a month, unlimited.
 
Well,

Here in SC, RR is pretty good, speeds @6mb/s, decent service, but overpriced @100/month for net & tv.....

Unfortunately, years ago, the gov't here allowed them to monopolize the cable market, buy up all of the smaller service providers, and stomp out any hope of competition before it even got started......

But OTOH, Bellsouth's DSL service sux doggybiscuits, so I guess thats some consolation 😱

And BTW.....YES, PPoE sux 😛
 
IJ Reilly said:
Does Roadrunner use PPPoE?
Click to expand...

I can't vouch for RR in your area, but I'm on RR right now and it's connected using DHCP.

As for setup, I can't imagine it being any easier. No software BS. Just plug it in, power it up and you're good to go.
 
IJ Reilly said:
Does Roadrunner use PPPoE?
Click to expand...

Not in WI.

I may have been spoiled when I had TWC RR since I was in a less populated area and I often saw speeds exceed the advertised 6Mb/sec. I rarely had issues (maybe 4 times in almost 4 years), my IP never changed (awesome for home based servers) and when I did have the occasional outage, I would simply call and get a one day credit on my bill. Also, they never blocked any "hosting" related activity as I used to host my website, SSH home when needed, and P2P was never an issue.
 
I had my Roadrunner service installed today. So far, I'm disappointed. Although the installer assured me that the cabled tested "awesome," I'm getting at best 2.0 mbps down and about 200 kbps up, which is far less than I'm supposed to be seeing, and it varies a lot. The installer thought the problem might be with the modem, but in my experience, these things either work or they don't. He's bringing another tomorrow, so well see about that.

Also, Time Warner has not given me any information about my outgoing mail server. So I took a wild guess at smtp.socal.rr.com. This is seems to work, but only some of the time. Does anyone have any experience with Roadrunner's mail servers?
 
SmurfBoxMasta said:
Well,

Here in SC, RR is pretty good, speeds @6mb/s, decent service, but overpriced @100/month for net & tv.....

Unfortunately, years ago, the gov't here allowed them to monopolize the cable market, buy up all of the smaller service providers, and stomp out any hope of competition before it even got started......

But OTOH, Bellsouth's DSL service sux doggybiscuits, so I guess thats some consolation 😱

And BTW.....YES, PPoE sux 😛
Click to expand...

I'm in SC also. I live in Hollywood by Charleston and where I live they don't have cable internet. I have DSL from bellsouth and they do suck, but it is still better than dialup.

Sorry to hear about your dial up ffft. It sure does stink. I had RR and comcast at a couple of times in my life. They were awesome. My brother has RR now and he has had Knology. He loves his RR but hated Knology.
My co worker has Knology and loves it. (they both live in the same area)

I can't get any cable internet where I live, I might be able to get satellite from Direct tv, but it is too expensive. I checked at one point and it was about 72.00 dollars.

So needless to say I am stuck with Bellsouth DSL, but I keep calling about the cable. God,I hate the country. Give me a city any day.
 
I'm in Upstate NY using Road Runner (Time Warner) and it's great. I've had positive experiences with repairs. They always send someone over to the house the same day I call, and the repair guys are great, willing to stay all day if they need to in order to fix the problem.

RoadRunner does not use PPPoE. I believe no cable provider does, that's a DSL thing.

If you get Road Runner installed by them, insist that you don't need them to install any software. Just the modem with a connection (they'll use your browser to activate the service). You don't want their dial up dialer, etc. Don't have them set up your e-mail program. They'll give you a main account (write it down), and you can visit rr.com later to make your e-mail account and set up Mail or whatever program you'll be using. Servers are smtp-server.domain.com and pop-server.domain.com, domain differs by area. For example, mine is twcny.rr.com (time warner central NY), so I use smtp-server.twcny.rr.com and pop-server.twcny.rr.com.

If you have any other questions, just ask.

EDIT: Also, if you didn't know, Time Warner runs like constant promotions on Road Runner's service. You should easily be able to get it for $29.99/month for your first year. After that year, if you call to think about canceling, they'll offer it to you again, most likely. 🙂
 
The cable guy didn't insist on installing any software. Never even asked. I was all ready with my PowerBook and Airport base station, standing by to hook up and test the connection when he arrived. The installer called back to the office to initiate the service. He didn't have any information about the outgoing mail server. He was just a drill, wire and screwdriver guy. He was at a loss to explain why I was getting such crummy bandwidth. The only thing he could suggest was the modem. I doubt it, but I also have no idea what else to suggest except possibly that the office has my line provisioned incorrectly.
 
IJ Reilly said:
The cable guy didn't insist on installing any software. Never even asked. I was all ready with my PowerBook and Airport base station, standing by to hook up and test the connection when he arrived. The installer called back to the office to initiate the service. He didn't have any information about the outgoing mail server. He was just a drill, wire and screwdriver guy. He was at a loss to explain why I was getting such crummy bandwidth. The only thing he could suggest was the modem. I doubt it, but I also have no idea what else to suggest except possibly that the office has my line provisioned incorrectly.
Click to expand...

If you ask comcast about email service through Apple's mail they will tell you they don't support it. Have to go through entourage or what ever...

I really am having a mediocre time right now with TimeWarner I'm in the Valley (California) and I am supposed to be getting 8 mbps dl. The TW guy tested it out and I got a score of 7.5. I keep going back to the site and no matter what I try I always get around that same speed... however if I try other sites and click on my location and what not I usually get around 1.5 to 3... This is very weird. I know its not doing 7.5 because I recently tried to download some xbox 360 packs online and for like 5 megs it took like around 15 minutes... TW has great internet (so it seeems fast) when it wants to be fast, but has alot of laggy problems especially using safari.

The most ridiculous thing about time warner however is this. If you have an out of state area code (mine is Texas) then you can contact TimeWarner by phone. It rings and then says you are out of the state please call (number here) for service, or call back from a phone that is in the state... Why the hell is it this way.

Also can anyone explain to me why they don't charge tax? I asked the Customer service rep and he said on internet services we don't have to charge taxes... makes no sense to me... Second I am suppposed to be paying 39.99 for the 8mbps bill but i keep getting charged for the 6mbps (29.99). don't know what to do. Don't want to call and start getting charged the regular price, but definitly don't want to be getting a slow connection...
 
SmurfBoxMasta said:
NO it doesnt, it uses DHCP, I was only making a reference to what DSL uses and the fact that it does suk 😛
Click to expand...

I know -- got that matter straightened out a number of posts above.

poppe said:
If you ask comcast about email service through Apple's mail they will tell you they don't support it. Have to go through entourage or what ever...

I really am having a mediocre time right now with TimeWarner I'm in the Valley (California) and I am supposed to be getting 8 mbps dl. The TW guy tested it out and I got a score of 7.5. I keep going back to the site and no matter what I try I always get around that same speed... however if I try other sites and click on my location and what not I usually get around 1.5 to 3... This is very weird. I know its not doing 7.5 because I recently tried to download some xbox 360 packs online and for like 5 megs it took like around 15 minutes... TW has great internet (so it seeems fast) when it wants to be fast, but has alot of laggy problems especially using safari.

The most ridiculous thing about time warner however is this. If you have an out of state area code (mine is Texas) then you can contact TimeWarner by phone. It rings and then says you are out of the state please call (number here) for service, or call back from a phone that is in the state... Why the hell is it this way.

Also can anyone explain to me why they don't charge tax? I asked the Customer service rep and he said on internet services we don't have to charge taxes... makes no sense to me... Second I am suppposed to be paying 39.99 for the 8mbps bill but i keep getting charged for the 6mbps (29.99). don't know what to do. Don't want to call and start getting charged the regular price, but definitly don't want to be getting a slow connection...
Click to expand...

I'm paying for "standard" service, which should be at least 4mbps down. I'm getting about 1.9. Not sure how I get this straightened out.
 
I have Earthlink going through TimeWarner Cable. I have had no problems what so ever with my service. But what gets me is that when I did have RoadRunner I had problems with the service. Such as it would never stay online or connection is crappy.
 
IJ Reilly said:
I am becoming serious disenchanted with my current DSL provider. One of the options I'm considering is a cable modem through Time Warner, which took over Adelphia (in my area). They provide internet through Roadrunner. I'm interested in opinions about their service. Is the bandwidth what you expected? Are they able to resolve problems quickly?

I understand that Time Warner has experienced some serious problems digesting their new Adelphia territories, at least on the TV side of the business. Many people are complaining. I'm wondering if those problems extended to Roadrunner.

Also, does Roadrunner use PPPoE? I've never had to deal with this, but I understand PPPoE can be a real pain in the neck.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
No problem with RR here, I use their total package (VoIP, RR and TV) I get about 4.8Mbps down and 256Mbps up on average. The only thing I can complain about is severe weather does affect performance, read heavy Thunderstorms. I like the simplicity of cable; cable into modem out to 4-port 10/100 router/switch works great. 😀 Costs about $130/month. Digital phone much more clear since swicthing from land line.
 
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