Cable, internet, and phone service

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OrdinaryAvgGuy

OrdinaryAvgGuy

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After several years with the cable company I've decided that it is time to call it quits.

Year after year I have successfully negotiated with Time Warner to keep my phone, internet, and cable service under $90 per month but have found the task of renegotiating to be redundant and an annoyance. Negotiating my services has become a dreaded task and the thought of going through this yearly ritual has quickly gained rank, surpassing the task of tax preparation.

So what are you cheapskates out there using? I'm looking for all three services for less than $90 per month without the introductory runaround. Unlimited long distance and high speed internet a must. We are not huge on TV so this is not as important. Just looking for reliability and value.

I'm willing to pay the upfront equipment cost of a decent VOIP system or other equipment to make this possible.
 
I have this newfangled thing called a cell phone that I make all my calls with:ban:

I only have cable internet. Pay 55 a month for it. I know it's not much more to get the TV and blah blah blah, but like you I don't want to go through the hassle. So I use Hulu, Netflix, and some other means to watch anything I want to. Only negative is you can't watch it when you want to. Whenever I move I'm purposely gonna try to go somewhere where I can get Fios so I can actually have good TV and internet.
 
hoppyhoppyhippo said:
I have this newfangled thing called a cell phone that I make all my calls with:ban:

I only have cable internet. Pay 55 a month for it. I know it's not much more to get the TV and blah blah blah, but like you I don't want to go through the hassle. So I use Hulu, Netflix, and some other means to watch anything I want to. Only negative is you can't watch it when you want to. Whenever I move I'm purposely gonna try to go somewhere where I can get Fios so I can actually have good TV and internet.
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This cellular phone device you speak of... Will it work for my home office if I am unable to receive even 1 bar in my house?

The only reason why I have a home phone is because I use it 4+ hours per day for business and need reliable service.


How much all together for Hulu, netflix and other means for TV?
 
day_trippr said:
Don't provide a single clue where such services would be required. That would take all the fun out of this...

Cheers! ;)
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Where as in my physical location? If so, a good indicator would be the "location" section under my user name.
 
Mine works fine in my house. But I guess for what you need yuo'd probably need something like Vonage or something else.

Well the other means may or may not be legal in certain countries and thus have a cost of zero (and why I won't post them on a message board, those you need to find on your own) Hulu is free, but I use Hulu Plus so I can watch older TV shows as well as watch stuff on my XBox (soon to be Roku3) on my big screen TV and that's 7.99 a month, Netflix is 7.99 as well and has tons of TV shows, movies, etc. I've made both worth my money.

Also I watch a lot of stuff on their native sites, like Conan. when I can't get them on Hulu and Netflix.

There are tons of negatives to not having TV but after the way they tried to screw me out of my money, I'm giving as little to Optimum as I can.
 
CliffMongoloid said:
How were able to negotiate a lower price?

I've heard purple using a roku or boxee i think it's called
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I have a friend that purchased the roku box and says that its great if you want to watch old tv episodes. What else is out there?

BTW, negotiating the promo rate is simple. It is just a pain to do year after year. Here's an article on how to do it. http://www.homeandautorepair.com/how-to-get-your-cable-bill-reduced-with-time-warner-comcast-or-cox-how-to-play-the-negotiation-game-and-save-840/
 
hoppyhoppyhippo said:
Mine works fine in my house. But I guess for what you need yuo'd probably need something like Vonage or something else.

Well the other means may or may not be legal in certain countries and thus have a cost of zero (and why I won't post them on a message board, those you need to find on your own) Hulu is free, but I use Hulu Plus so I can watch older TV shows as well as watch stuff on my XBox (soon to be Roku3) on my big screen TV and that's 7.99 a month, Netflix is 7.99 as well and has tons of TV shows, movies, etc. I've made both worth my money.

Also I watch a lot of stuff on their native sites, like Conan. when I can't get them on Hulu and Netflix.

There are tons of negatives to not having TV but after the way they tried to screw me out of my money, I'm giving as little to Optimum as I can.
Click to expand...


Good info. Any ideas for live streaming TV?
 
Last year we switched over to Ooma Telo for our home phone service. Unlimited domestic calls for ~$4.00/mo. Works great. When we made that switch we also dumped our DSL internet and signed up for Time Warner cable internet for ~$30/mo. I think that's still at the intro rate and it may eventually go up to $45/mo, but whatever, my company pays for it. We also have Dish Network for $48 and Netflix for $16.
 
jwalker1140 said:
Last year we switched over to Ooma Telo for our home phone service. Unlimited domestic calls for ~$4.00/mo. Works great. When we made that switch we also dumped our DSL internet and signed up for Time Warner cable internet for ~$30/mo. I think that's still at the intro rate and it may eventually go up to $45/mo, but whatever, my company pays for it. We also have Dish Network for $48 and Netflix for $16.
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Good call on the Ooma. I was actually looking at this a while back. Any issues with dropped or distorted calls? This is perhaps my biggest concern as it will be used primarily for business.
 
Right now my laptop. Except a few channels I watch it via Hulu or the show/station's website. Aside from that some stations (FX and AMC are 2 big ones) you have to find other ways.
 
I don't mind negotiating with the cable company. The reason I don't mind is simply that I am ready to leave them for at least 6 months if need be.

I use voip phone service. It costs 0.99 to reserve a phone number per month and about 0.01 per minute to make phone calls.

So your basically looking for high speed internet, cable, and phone for $90. So if you use the voip for phone and high speed internet is pretty much $30 or more (you haven't defined what high-speed is to you) at a minimum. That leaves about $50/month for tv. Unless by high-speed you mean broadband, then it would only leave$40/month for tv.

You have to be willing to pay for equipment, if your provider charges you for modem lease, than buy a modem ($40), if the cable package you want requires dvr then buy dvr equipment.


I pay about $90/month. Currently under special though which includes:
- digital cable tier (uses cable card through computer) this allows dvr and premium channels. I use home gigabit network for multi-room(have my own wireless gigabit router)
- upgraded internet 20 down 2 up.

Worst case scenario with no special I would pay $80/month this may have been under $60/month can't remember now
- basic cable, 24 channels, no dvr or digital
- light dsl internet (this can still handle voip phone service) 2 down 0.5 up


There are other options like tethering a cell phone for household internet, but you didn't mention a cell phone.



My voip equipment was about $25. I use the grandstream ht701.


If your streaming is slow it could be your laptop. graphics card and memory play a big part in streaming as well as connection speed. If your getting 2 MB download at speedtest.net and Hulu is stuttering than it's probably your laptop.
 
grathan said:
I don't mind negotiating with the cable company. The reason I don't mind is simply that I am ready to leave them for at least 6 months if need be.

I use voip phone service. It costs 0.99 to reserve a phone number per month and about 0.01 per minute to make phone calls.

So your basically looking for high speed internet, cable, and phone for $90. So if you use the voip for phone and high speed internet is pretty much $30 or more (you haven't defined what high-speed is to you) at a minimum. That leaves about $50/month for tv. Unless by high-speed you mean broadband, then it would only leave$40/month for tv.

You have to be willing to pay for equipment, if your provider charges you for modem lease, than buy a modem ($40), if the cable package you want requires dvr then buy dvr equipment.


I pay about $90/month. Currently under special though which includes:
- digital cable tier (uses cable card through computer) this allows dvr and premium channels. I use home gigabit network for multi-room(have my own wireless gigabit router)
- upgraded internet 20 down 2 up.

Worst case scenario with no special I would pay $80/month this may have been under $60/month can't remember now
- basic cable, 24 channels, no dvr or digital
- light dsl internet (this can still handle voip phone service) 2 down 0.5 up


There are other options like tethering a cell phone for household internet, but you didn't mention a cell phone.



My voip equipment was about $25. I use the grandstream ht701.


If your streaming is slow it could be your laptop. graphics card and memory play a big part in streaming as well as connection speed. If your getting 2 MB download at speedtest.net and Hulu is stuttering than it's probably your laptop.
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Thanks for the info.

Broadband 20 mbsp down and 2 mbps or so up will be sufficient for what I am looking for (I believe). Might need more if I'm using streaming video, VOIP and downloading at the same time.

I'm leaning more towards Ooma as it seems to be dependable from what I have read.

I have a wii that I may be able to use. Anyone use the wii to watch ABC, FOX, etc?
 
Here's my plan so far:

I'm ditching DirecTV ($105/month) when my contract expires in October. Basic Netflix is $8/month. Basic Hulu Plus is $8/month. Everything else I want to watch, I'll podcast.

The NFL has NFL Rewind for $25/season. Most games can be viewed immediately after the game is over. The rest are available the next day. I know the other major pro sports can be streamed but I don't know the details.

To make streaming to the TV easier, I'll pick up an AppleTV for $100. For local channels, I buy a rooftop antenna for $100.

For phone, i get to cheat. My wife and I share a $150/month cellphone bill. Her half is tax fully deductible for her business - it's the shop phone. I claim a portion of my half for telecommuting.

My housemate picks up the high speed internet for about $50/month.

The only thing I haven't figured out yet is streaming college sports. But with the money I save from trading in a $105/month bill for two $8/month bills, maybe I can buy season tickets next year.
 
If you are working from home and aren't sure what it is you may want to monitor your upload speed. For the work I do, the highest level of DSL (40 up with 4 down) would kill me. I need a much bigger upload pipe for my development environments to work with the company servers so I'm stuck with comcast
 
OrdinaryAvgGuy said:
Good call on the Ooma. I was actually looking at this a while back. Any issues with dropped or distorted calls? This is perhaps my biggest concern as it will be used primarily for business.
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Never had a dropped call and have never noticed any distortion. Sounds every bit as good as our old AT&T land line. My internet speed is 45 down/4 up.

The only issue I've had is that it has gone offline a few times - maybe once every other month. The logo blinks bright red so it's easy to tell when this happens, if the unit is somewhere visible. A quick unplug resets it and all is good again. I don't get many calls on our land line anymore so it's not much of an issue for me, but that may be an issue if you're using it for business. That said, you can set it up to forward incoming calls to your cell automatically if it ever does go offline.
 
JeepDiver said:
If you are working from home and aren't sure what it is you may want to monitor your upload speed. For the work I do, the highest level of DSL (40 up with 4 down) would kill me. I need a much bigger upload pipe for my development environments to work with the company servers so I'm stuck with comcast
Click to expand...

40 up and 4 down would be overkill in my case.
 
I also do the whole Internet only thing. Hulu, Netflix and the occasional streams are enough for my TV watching. I hardly miss it aside from no live sports. Am thinking of installing an physical antenna and just go with OTA television for that. Cell phone for house phone and I do not spend all that much.

As for the question about 1 bar in your house. I have that problem in my basement and around my house and called up my carrier and told them that i always drop/miss calls at my house. After a short conversation they sent me out a range expander that I hooked up to my internet (they say it is only used for updates, I am not sure I believe this) and it gives me much better service in my house. This requires some sort of cell network signal where you put the unit though. It is free, and you are supposed to return it if they improve signal in your area.
 
ok.. reporting back after a little research and help from the folks at HBT..

new Ooma device on ebay $100
VGA to HDMI converter box and 50ft of HDMI $40

$140 upfront cost

Ooma state taxes and fees per month $4
Netflix $8
15 down 3 up highspeed $50 (intro rate)

$62 per month

I plan to convert the VGA output on my computer to HDMI then stream major network shows and netflix for swmbo.

I'm saving roughly $30 per month but still.. Have to deal with that damn intro rate every year.

So i guess it comes down to the internet connection. We have Uverse in the area that offers a similar deal.

EEh.. I guess a yearly call to TWC or UVerse is the price that one has to pay to save $100 or so a year.
 
DrunkleJon said:
I also do the whole Internet only thing. Hulu, Netflix and the occasional streams are enough for my TV watching. I hardly miss it aside from no live sports. Am thinking of installing an physical antenna and just go with OTA television for that. Cell phone for house phone and I do not spend all that much.

As for the question about 1 bar in your house. I have that problem in my basement and around my house and called up my carrier and told them that i always drop/miss calls at my house. After a short conversation they sent me out a range expander that I hooked up to my internet (they say it is only used for updates, I am not sure I believe this) and it gives me much better service in my house. This requires some sort of cell network signal where you put the unit though. It is free, and you are supposed to return it if they improve signal in your area.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip! Ill have to check this out.
 
+1 for OTA antenna. Watching sports in uncompressed HD on a 1080p screen is jaw-dropping. And free, on the margin.

We use antenna for live network broadcast (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, PBS...) and HuluPlus for everything else. Only thing I miss is ESPN during football season. And Food Network...at least the old food network before they spammed reality shows and Diner's Drive-ins and Dives 24x7.
 
You can get a DVI-> HDMI cable for somewhere around $10 and a vga to hdmi cable for $6 or so. You really dont need a box for it.

here are examples.
DVI -> HDMI
VGA -> HDMI

I have my home PC operating as a media server and connected using one of the dvi to hdma cables to my 46 inch tv. With windows media center and hulu desktop I can watch that using a computer remote, can hook up netflix the same way, and with a program mymovies i integrated image files of all my dvd's. everything on one remote.
 
DrunkleJon said:
You can get a DVI-> HDMI cable for somewhere around $10 and a vga to hdmi cable for $6 or so. You really dont need a box for it.

here are examples.
DVI -> HDMI
VGA -> HDMI


I have my home PC operating as a media server and connected using one of the dvi to hdma cables to my 46 inch tv. With windows media center and hulu desktop I can watch that using a computer remote, can hook up netflix the same way, and with a program mymovies i integrated image files of all my dvd's. everything on one remote.
Click to expand...

It seems from what I read that you need to use a converter box when going from VGA to HDMI. One like this http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEWEST-1080...=US_Video_Cables_Adapters&hash=item5af013908c

Seems not to be so in your case as you are going from DVi to HDMI. Have you tried connecting VGA->HDMI without a converter box?
 
DrunkleJon said:
Not yet. for $6 i may give it a go though.
Click to expand...

After looking at the back of my computer, I have a Displayport output which sends a digital signal. Never heard of it until I just researched it.

Looks like it would be safer to use an adapter from DP to HDMI.. These are also only $6.
 
My parents got one of those Magic Jack Plus things. They kept their home phone number, it plugs into the router so it does not interfere with the computer. They seem to be really happy wiht it for $19/year.

I have a cell phone so its not a necessity for me.
 
I recently upgraded my Roku boxes to a couple more current ones. Have a few 1st gen boxes available. (1) XD and (2) XD|S with all the fitments (I "think" I still have the boxes too). One of the Roku's has a quirky remote in that the springs need tweaked a bit now and again to line up with teh battery.

Asking 50% retail plus shipping. PM if interested.
 
Airplanedoc said:
My parents got one of those Magic Jack Plus things. They kept their home phone number, it plugs into the router so it does not interfere with the computer. They seem to be really happy wiht it for $19/year.

I have a cell phone so its not a necessity for me.
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We tried the magic jack a couple years ago.

When I plugged it in to the computer I got all excited when I heard the dial tone.

Made a few short phone calls and I was sold.

3 days later it was repackaged and sent back to Magic jack because it was unreliable for business purposes. Calls would go in and out at least once an hour or so and there was occasionally no dialtone.

This would be a good option if you need a cheap line to talk to friends and family members but looks bad if you use it to speak with customers on a regular basis.
 
OK,

I just got turned on to the best current Movie Watching thing on the Net.

Kodi

If it's free, it's for me! Take a look at the YouTube reviews.
 
BrewSwag 300

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