Switching to Comcast Ultra Business Service

[redwein]

Well I'm taking the plunge. I'm swapping out my 2 cable connections (12 Mb/s down, 2 Mb/s up), for 2 Comcast Ultra (22 Mb/s down, 5 Mb/s up) business class connections. I opted for the 2 Ultra instead of the 1 Extreme (50 Mb/s down, 10 Mb/s up) because I'm a fanatic about redundancy and plan to still use my load balancing router. That way, if a modem flakes out, my network will stay up. I'm demoting my DSL connection to just be a standby/failover connection in case there is an outage on Comcast.

This should give me plenty of bandwidth for all my stuff and HDX instant play (whenever they make that available). Also, there are no usage caps, as Jon has pointed out in the past, so I don't have to so carefully watch my usage any more.

If anyone is worried about hitting caps with Comcast, this appears to be a viable option.

[bald_]

Re: Switching to Comcast Ultra Business Service

I have comcast in new england.

Do you know the rough pricing tiers for business class?

My basic connect (12/2) is $45/mo (with modem etc) added on to my cabletv.

bald

[redwein]

Re: Switching to Comcast Ultra Business Service

I have comcast in new england.

Do you know the rough pricing tiers for business class?

My basic connect (12/2) is $45/mo (with modem etc) added on to my cabletv.

bald

I don't know for the 12/2 but for the 22/5 it's $99/month, as compared to $63/month for the same speed residential. I believe that for the 50/10, it's $189 for business and $139 for residential.

[aaronwt]

Re: Switching to Comcast Ultra Business Service

OucH!!
My 50/20 tier on FIOS is only $90 a month.

[redwein]

Re: Switching to Comcast Ultra Business Service

OucH!!
My 50/20 tier on FIOS is only $90 a month.

I'm sure the prices will come down when we have FIOS as an option. Right now we don't so this is the only way to get these kinds of speeds.

[jleavens]

Re: Switching to Comcast Ultra Business Service

Time Warner also has a business-class tier, I believe it's $99 for 15/3 and $15/mo for a static IP. I use it in conjunction with a DSLExtreme 6/.6, although I haven't taken the plunge on a load-balancing router yet. Which one are you using?

[redwein]

Re: Switching to Comcast Ultra Business Service

Time Warner also has a business-class tier, I believe it's $99 for 15/3 and $15/mo for a static IP. I use it in conjunction with a DSLExtreme 6/.6, although I haven't taken the plunge on a load-balancing router yet. Which one are you using?

I'm using one of the PePLink Balance routers.

http://www.peplink.com/balance/tech-spec/

Right now I'm using the Balance 30 but that will have to change as it only handles a total of 20 Mb/s for all the connections. It also doesn't allow you to do QoS. I'm thinking of going with the Balance 310 (or possibly the Balance 380 if I really want to be forward looking).

I will say that I am extremely happy with my PePLink Balance 30. It has been rock solid and kept my network working quite well despite the occasional outage on one of my connections and a modem failure. That's why I'm so big on the redundancy. I actually tried 3 other routers (LinkSys for example). All of them had issues with doing things with long lived sessions (like video games, VPN, etc.). That stuff just all worked flawlessly on the PePLink without having to do any configuration or anything.

[NA9D]

Re: Switching to Comcast Ultra Business Service

If you sign a multi-year contract with Comcast, the price comes down a lot.

I'm on a 20/2.5 Mb/sec plan that normally would cost $149. I'm getting it on a 3 year contract for $89.

So look at the contract deals - you have to ask for them though...

[bald_]

Re: Switching to Comcast Ultra Business Service

Wow. Contract through comcast sounds attractive. I'm month-to-month @ 45/ mo for 12/2. I know 100% I'll need it for 28 more months. I'll have to look into that. THanks for the tip.

bald

[NA9D]

Re: Switching to Comcast Ultra Business Service

Wow. Contract through comcast sounds attractive. I'm month-to-month @ 45/ mo for 12/2. I know 100% I'll need it for 28 more months. I'll have to look into that. THanks for the tip.

bald

Yeah, when I signed up, the package below me was about $5.00 more than the top tier residential package at the time and they were the same package basically.

I've been on the deal for about 18 months now and love it.

The contracts are either 24 or 36 months. At the end, you have the option to extend it another 12 months.

Any upgrade in service will require a new contract. Any downgrade is considered breaking your contract.

Breaking the contract is steep. You basically have to pay them the remaining about left that you would have paid had you stayed with the contract. So only go into it if you are sure you will keep it.

[aaronwt]

Re: Switching to Comcast Ultra Business Service

I'm using one of the PePLink Balance routers.

http://www.peplink.com/balance/tech-spec/

Right now I'm using the Balance 30 but that will have to change as it only handles a total of 20 Mb/s for all the connections. It also doesn't allow you to do QoS. I'm thinking of going with the Balance 310 (or possibly the Balance 380 if I really want to be forward looking).

I will say that I am extremely happy with my PePLink Balance 30. It has been rock solid and kept my network working quite well despite the occasional outage on one of my connections and a modem failure. That's why I'm so big on the redundancy. I actually tried 3 other routers (LinkSys for example). All of them had issues with doing things with long lived sessions (like video games, VPN, etc.). That stuff just all worked flawlessly on the PePLink without having to do any configuration or anything.

Try Dlink. I have zero problems with games, video, etcetera over extended periods.

I have one(DGL4500) with gigabit LAN ports and a gigabit WAN port. I have no problem hitting at least 850mbs throughput on my internal network and of course no issues hitting 50mbs down concurrently with 20mbs up through my FIOS connection.

[redwein]

Re: Switching to Comcast Ultra Business Service

Try Dlink. I have zero problems with games, video, etcetera over extended periods.

I have one(DGL4500) with gigabit LAN ports and a gigabit WAN port. I have no problem hitting at least 850mbs throughput on my internal network and of course no issues hitting 50mbs down concurrently with 20mbs up through my FIOS connection.

I just checked that out. It doesn't appear to be a load balancing rounter (i.e. you can't have 2 or 3 WAN connections). That's where the complication can come in because long lived sessions need to make sure they are maintained and use the same WAN connection for the duration of the session, while unrelated requests get routed to the most available connection.

The PePLink did this flawlessly while the others I tried gave me a variety of problems that made me have to give up on them. I tried all of the mainstream ones I could find (probably a DLink one if there is one, but I won't swear to that) before I found the PePLink. At this point, they are probably the only ones I would trust for this based on my experiences.

[redwein]

Re: Switching to Comcast Ultra Business Service

If you sign a multi-year contract with Comcast, the price comes down a lot.

I'm on a 20/2.5 Mb/sec plan that normally would cost $149. I'm getting it on a 3 year contract for $89.

So look at the contract deals - you have to ask for them though...

The price I mentioned ($99 for 22/5) was for a 2 year contract. I inquired today (as they haven't installed it yet and I have 30 days to cancel without penalty) and they said there was no additional discount for going to 36 months. They said they were giving me free installation, which is usually only available for the 3 year, since I am getting 2 lines. I guess the price depends on the area/market you are in.

[aaronwt]

Re: Switching to Comcast Ultra Business Service

I just checked that out. It doesn't appear to be a load balancing rounter (i.e. you can't have 2 or 3 WAN connections). That's where the complication can come in because long lived sessions need to make sure they are maintained and use the same WAN connection for the duration of the session, while unrelated requests get routed to the most available connection.

The PePLink did this flawlessly while the others I tried gave me a variety of problems that made me have to give up on them. I tried all of the mainstream ones I could find (probably a DLink one if there is one, but I won't swear to that) before I found the PePLink. At this point, they are probably the only ones I would trust for this based on my experiences.

I misread. i thought you tried using another router along with the load balancing router.

[redwein]

Re: Switching to Comcast Ultra Business Service

Well I'm up an running on my 2 X 22/5 connections. They are working fine. One thing I didn't realize about the business service is that they will come out and address any problems with the service and/or equipment within 4 hours (24 hours a day). Maybe I don't need to worry so much about the failover, etc. and should consider just going with the single 50/10 connection. It would be $10 less/month and I wouldn't need to spend $1500 on a new router. I have 30 days to decide that.