Any important questions I should ask my new ISP?

Something the ISP’s like to hide from their customers? Besides the obvious stuff related with speeds and caps.

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If you can ask your ISP questions I’d say there not hiding anything. Otherwise if this is just a normal ISP your wasting your time unless you know someone on the inside.

It’s hard to give you an answer when you’ve not said what you know.

@Eden I take it that the OP is searching for a new ISP and wants to know things to watch out for. @Netami please clarify your situation.

Ask whether the ISP-provided router can be switched to bridge mode so you can use your own instead.

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I’m don’t sure of any specific questions you can ask that you will actually get a straight answer to, as @Eden has said. From my experience working for an IT support company, I can give you a few pointers.

  1. If they aren’t charging you a rental fee for a modem (this you can ask), then just use theirs and get your own router. You might have to call them and have them put it in so-called “bridged mode”, which will disable any routing functions the box they give you has besides the modem. Having your own modem just gives them one more excuse to give you subpar service, blaming it on “your equipment”.

  2. Besides asking about data caps and deciding the speed you need, do speed tests on a fairly regular basis to keep them honest. Do this from multiple sites and sources if you can. ISPs are not above using QoS tricks to get full speed out of a speedtest.net test but not from other less known tests.

  3. Consider getting a decent VPN service if you care about your privacy. Your ISP will track your traffic and sell that info. With any VPN you will take a hit on speed and latency, but if this is important to you it’s worth the investment. With a decent router you can set this up so everything goes through the VPN and you don’t have to worry about it. Just remember that you are removing that tracking ability from your ISP and giving it to your VPN provider, so choose wisely if you go down that road.

As I usually say in life, don’t overthink it too much. Get price, caps, taxes, fees, and all that normal stuff and then just enjoy your Internet access with a healthy dose of skepticism. :slight_smile:

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Background: I work for a small ISP

General:
Do you have 24/7 technical support?
what are your average repair times?
What are my payment options?

If it’s Fibre optic/PON:
What standard? (EPON, GPON, 10G-PON)
What’s my Signal level? (should be -8-30dB, ideally low but higher numbers aren’t a huge problem)
How many other subscribers am I sharing a port with?

If it’s DSL:
How far is the DSLAM from my home? (Ideally you want this to be short, like less than 300m)
Do you own the local loop, or are you reselling?
What is my SNR / Noise margin? (You want this to be high. 10dB is ehh, 15dB is good, 20dB is fab, 25+ is great)
If I don’t have a phone/POTS line, am I charged a dry-loop fee?

If it’s Wireless: (PM me, I’ll give you questions to ask)
What standard is the equipment that I’m using? (LTE, WiMAX, proprietary, etc)
What frequency / band am I using? (licensed, unlicensed, light licensed, etc)
If it’s proprietary / non-LTE:
What manufacturer?
What standard (M, .ac, etc)
If it’s LTE:
What’s the subscription rate on my access point?
What manufacturer is the CPE?
If it’s Satellite:
No, You don’t want satellite. It’s worse than no internet.

I don’t know much on DOSCIS/cable, as it tends to be a fairly expensive / specific industry to get into, but the general questions above should suffice. If you have any specifics, let me know.

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Who is the provider or are you shoppling?

Thanks for all the help guys but I got shot down instantly.

Right now I’m on a 40/1 inet from a local cable tv provider the upload is god awful and pretty much always was but the download at least kept upgrading but the last 5 years it’s been pretty stale. Best they offer is 120/5.

Last month I got info that another company is laying down fiber network and were offering 900/100 mbit for a reasonable price and my street was supposed to be done by the end of last month. Well it turns out buildings #2 and #4 on my street get it but building #6 (where i live) and most of others on this street don’t get it. Now why ? Because the ones who own/manage the buildings also own the cable company that provides the shitty inet and tv. So they told the other company laying the fiber that my building is not suitable for new technologies (??? lol) even tho the building #4 is the same kind and same age ~100 years but it’s privately owned :slight_smile: . I was told they’re in the process of negotiating but the chances are slim I’m gonna try petitioning the chairman or w/e you can call the dude in charge of the buildings.

So yeah basically I’m fucked and doomed for crappy inet for now. I mean technically I can switch ISP’s but they don’t provide anything better over the copper anyway but I might just do it to spite the fucks trying to monopolize inet and tv in my city. Oh and I’m from Poland and yet I feel like the inet situation is turning into what’s in the US well in my city anyway…

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