YOUR ISP (INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER)
I don't have good experiences with the various ISP's that I've used over the years, both at home and at work. I feel that they overcharge, that they could have faster service and that most of their customer service sucks. Other than that, I think they're great!
But you have to have one, so do some research and pick the best one for you. This discussion is specific to Chicago-area ISP's, but the considerations involved are relevant for all ISP's wherever they are. First you have to have a basic understanding of Internet Service Provider technology.
TYPE OF INTERNET CONNECTIONS USED BY ISP'S
DSL - A DSL connection runs on regular telephone lines and therefore is delivered to your home by the phone company. There are 2 types, synchronous (same up and download speeds) and asynchronous (faster download speeds). DSL generally can deliver speeds up to 100 mbps.
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The type of connection has a big influence on how fast the internet “feels”. Satellite internet is notorious for seeming “slow”, despite having respectable download speeds (Up to 25Mbps on HughesNet). The reasoning behind this is sheer physics. The signal is sent from your satellite and travels around 22,000 miles out to space. From there, the satellite in orbit contacts a network center to find the requested site. That information is then sent back to the satellite in orbit and then back to you. Even at the speed of light, this process takes almost 500 milliseconds plus any additional processing time for the request, which takes place on both the server and client side. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but adding an extra 1/2 second to every action makes it seem so slow if you’re used to a traditional connection. By contrast, even the latency on 4G-LTE signals is around 100 milliseconds versus 400+ milliseconds for satellite connections. Other connections, such as Fiber, offer much lower latency, often under 20 milliseconds. |
DSL can be a cheaper internet option, and because you're getting your own line, you're not sharing it (and therefore bandwidth) with others. However, your ability to get DSL and the speed of the internet they can deliver to your home depends on the distance that your home is from a phone company "Central Office" or distribution center. If you're too far away you're SOL.
CABLE - Your local cable TV company is also an ISP and can also deliver internet to your home over their cable. Typically it can be much faster than DSL and does not depend on your distance from anything. If your neighborhood can get cable service, then you can get their internet service. However, you share the internet line with others in your neighborhood, and when a lot of people are streaming a lot of stuff simultaneously, your service can degrade. I have cable and Sunday evenings can show a real slowdown.
SATELLITE - Satellite service provides internet beamed from orbiting satellites to a dish on your roof, making them ISP's in the sky! Currently in all of their plans, Hughesnet (probably the largest satellite provider) offers 25 mbps down and 3 mbps up putting them on the low end of the various providers. But if they're all you can connect to then they're way better than no connection! Their plans differentiate by how much data you're allowed to download during a month. They have a 10GB, 20, 30 and 50 GB plan. The 10 GB plan starts at $59/month.
The downside to satellite (besides its being pricey) is something called latency. Latency means the time it takes in milliseconds for 
data to travel between source and destination. There's a lot of latency in a satellite internet connection, see the sidebar.
But there's something new on the satellite horizon. Everyone's favorite erratic billionaire Elon Musk has formed an ISP called Starlink, to provide internet from space to ground. They greatly reduce the latency of traditional satellite internet by having a swarm of thousands of inexpensive low-Earth orbit satellites instead of one satellite positioned geosynchronously 25,000 miles up, as Hughesnet does. Ping and latency are much lower since the satellites are so close. The service is not available yet but I am enrolled in their beta test for this so should I get more info I'll report my experiences here.
FIBER - Sometimes called FIOS,this is internet over a fiber-optic backbone (literally glass strands finer than a hair that use light to transmit data). Right now the Chicago internet company most known for their fiber service is AT& T; they offer 940 mbps. FYI I just checked; Google fiber does not offer service to my area (NW Chicago). As far as I'm concerned, this is probably good, as high-speed fiber service from Google would only allow them to surveil your internet habits that much faster. Much to my surprise, Comcast also offers fiber service up to 2 gbps symmetric, which is aimed at commercial users.
BANDWIDTH - Hopefully you read my previous article about Internet bandwidth, so you should have a good idea of your home's general bandwidth requirements. If not, please go back and read it! You should look at an ISP after you have a sense of what bandwidth your home needs. Err on the side of caution for future growth.
Knowing roughly what bandwidth you need, go to the web sites of these ISP companies and do a little research on what's available at your location. Be wary, as they mostly all have the first year at an artificially low price which jumps up afterwards. And you'll probably have to sign a contract for at least a couple of years. Check and see if there are early termination fees (if you have to move or otherwise change ISP's). You'll also find that there are bundles that offer favorable pricing...for instance, internet service plus TV service, or internet service plus phone service. Only you can tell if this is a good option for you. Price everything out and make an informed decision.
WHAT ABOUT DATA CAPS? - Note that all internet service plans have an upper limit of data that you can download in one month. If you go beyond this you'll either be significantly throttled or you'll pay much more for that data. How do Comcast & AT&T handle caps?
AT&T calls them "Data Allowances" and has a chart that lays it all out:
What are the data allowances?
AT&T internet service data allowances include the following:
150 Gigabytes (GB) per month for customers with DSL service. 1
250GB per month for customers with Fixed Wireless Internet service.
1 Terabyte (TB) per month for internet speed tiers up to and including 768 Kilobits per second (Kbps) through 300 Megabits per second (Mbps).
Unlimited home internet data for customers with the internet 1000Mbps speed tier, combined bills for home internet and U-verse TV or DIRECTV as a benefit of bundling, or the $30 unlimited usage option.
Comcast has one flat data cap for all their accounts: 1.2 terabytes in a month (1000 gigabytes). Here's how they explain it:
Only a very small percentage of our customers use more than 1.2 Terabytes (TB) a month, which is why we want to make sure you understand your options and choose the data usage plan that works best for you. Our data plans are based on a principle of fairness. Those who use more Internet data pay more. And those who use less Internet data pay less. For users who typically use more than 1.2 TB of data per month or who don't want to pay for overages, we offer an Unlimited Data option.
The Unlimited Data Option costs an additional $30 per month. This fee is independent from your actual data usage. The Terabyte Internet Data Usage Plan will not apply to customers who enroll in the Unlimited Data Option.
AT&T also offers unlimited data for an additional $30/month. Personally, I guess I'm Ok with data caps. I've used Comcast for probably 15 to 20 years and never once bumped up against its data caps, and I suspect that I'm a more bandwidth-intensive user than normal. However, regarding AT&T users who bundle their internet with AT&T TV (which is DirecTV since they bought it) read what they say about using their TV service:
Will using DIRECTV count toward my data usage?
Some DIRECTV features will count towards your data usage. These include:
Pay Per View
OnDemand
4K programming
If I stream DIRECTV on my devices over my home Wi-Fi, will this count toward my data usage?
If you stream DIRECTV on your mobile device over your home internet service Wi-Fi connection, usage will count towards your home internet monthly data usage.
Will using DIRECTV NOW count towards my data usage?
DIRECTV NOW is an over-the-top streaming service. All streaming over your home internet, wired or Wi-Fi, will count towards your home internet monthly data usage.
This would make me leery if I were an AT&T internet user with DirecTV. I don't know how much bandwidth the TV uses, but if I were in a home with heavy TV use I'd find out pretty fast! Actually, after writing that, I tried to find out how much it uses. According to this article, the highest data rate used by DirecTV is 7.5 mbps. That's per second, or 450 megabits per minute, or 2.7 GB per hour! That's a good amount of data mutliplied by your TV-watching hours.
Whatever service you choose to go with, you'll have to have a small box installed in your home as the last piece of their equipment which then hands off service to your equipment/network. If you choose Comcast, you have the option of renting their box or buying your own. Their monthly cable box rental (cable modem) is around $10/month. Your cost to buy one is around $70 - $140 or so. So you can see how long you'd have to have their service for it to make sense to buy your own. I'd suggest buying your own; odds are you'll have their service longer than it takes to pay for the modem and then you are free and clear. You can buy a cable modem at most electronic stores (Best Buy, Micro Center etc.). Just be sure that it adheres to the DOCSIS 3.0 or 3.1 standard...it'll say so on the box. It will probably also say if its compatible with Comcast. If not check their pages to see if it's compatible. Please note that unless you buy a cable modem + WIFI access point (which I don't recommend) you'll have to buy WIFI separately, but that's a good thing. We cover that in the next section. When you've purchased your cable modem, call their support line to get it activated. Also note that you can only buy your own box for Comcast, not AT&T. You've got to use AT&T's box.
Finally, when you've settled on an ISP and are discussing it with them on the phone, don't be afraid to negotiate. Oftentimes you can negotiate either a lowered monthly bill or a speed upgrade, free installation, free equipment etc. etc.
In terms of customer service, I can only speak knowledgeably about Comcast because I've used their service for so long. I can tell you this: calling Comcast for customer service is the equivalent of descending through Dante's rings of hell. You'll have to go through an automated bullshit routine regarding rebooting your cable modem (even if your outside line has clearly blown down in a storm). Then they hang up and tell you to wait ten minutes to call back to see if the reboot fixed it....then you might be put through more automated bullshit until finally you might be "lucky" enough to be put through to a live person. But that will be after a wait, sometimes a long wait, where you're forced to hear Comcast commercials. THEN you'll be connected to a live person to whom English is a second language, so they might be difficult or very difficult to understand, and because they are (apparently) working in a large room or cave with hundreds of other similar people, it's even that much more difficult to understand. THEN they put you through a script requiring ridiculous stuff ("I need a direct connection from the cable modem to your computer, no intervening distribution boxes"), and after a lengthy discussion they may schedule a service person to come to your home. It's torturous. Set aside a good block of time for this call, maybe 45 minutes to an hour. PRO TIP: I print out a page and hang it on the wall by my internet equipment that contains everything about my Comcast account, from their customer service number to the local outages URL to the account primary user and password to the account number etc. etc. etc. You'll need it all and more.
In fairness, I've almost always found that the service people that come to your home to be excellent, Comcast's saving grace regarding service. It's getting one to your home that will have you pulling your hair out in frustration. I have found myself yelling at them (which I normally never do). Enough said.
Anecdotally, I don't think AT&T is much better service-wise.