Comparison of RR and RCN in NYC? - Time Warner Cable - Legacy (2024)

JSY

Premium Member

2001-Jul-9 4:30 pm

I originally posted this in the RCN forum, but I thought that I'd like to also here about any pros and cons from this side as well. Any info would be appreciated:

*****
Does anyone know how RCN cable modem service compares to RoadRunner here in NYC? I post this here as I read an awful lot about RoadRunner, but not much about RCN (despite them littering my mailbox with fliers, etc.). Anyway, I currently have Covad DSL and if this goes the way of the Dodo (seemingly like everything else about DSL that doesn't say "Verizon" on it), I'll have no other alternative but Verizon DSL or cable modem access from TimeWarner or RCN. It'll be a cold day in hell before I sign up with Verizon DSL, so it would look like it would be up to these two. Any information would be appreciated!

Rhaps

Premium Member

2001-Jul-9 5:51 pm

willardk to JSY

2001-Jul-9 7:08 pm

A friend of mine who has RCN reports slowdowns at night...last time I dropped by I noted that RCN does 1 hour leases on IP addresses as opposed to TW having a 24 hour lease.... nothing more than that though.

Will

Rick5 to JSY

Premium Member

2001-Jul-9 7:11 pm

While I think RR is a great service, if I had the option of the two...I'd also give RCN a very close look.
In looking at their website, their offering seems very comparable to RR's both Speed and price wise.
In looking at DSLR's overall reviewer ratings...RCN actually scores a bit higher than RR...although it's based on
many less reviews. I'm not sure what your particular area would be, but there are a couple RCN reviews
that show their upload speed higher than RR's...although that may be an area by area thing. There
are also a few negative reviews as well so...those should be considered too, namely a couple people
reporting slowdowns at peak hours.

When all things are equal, I personally like to go with more Regional type of companies, vs the big
conglomerates. I think overall, they give more attention to service and customer satisfaction and it's easier
at times to get in touch with the right people to get problems resolved.

Another thing to consider about RR is now that Time Warner has merged with AOL...It won't be long
until AOL is pushing their dial up customers very hard on signing up with RR.
This could literally push millions more users onto the RR system. Not to mention the deals they announced
with Earthlink..Juno..and HSAC...which will give them access to Time warners cable systems as well.

Not to say they won't be able to handle it or RR's service will degrade in any way....but, there is certainly going
to be this huge push by AOL in the next few months.

In my area, we have two companies offering RR. Time Warner..and a smaller, more regional cable operator.
I'm with the more regional one...because of many of the things noted above and am even happier now
that this AOL/TW merger happened. TW RR obviously delivers very good service though, even in a city the
size of NY and I'm sure their resources will help them deliver very good service...even with many more users
coming on board.

Tough call between the two. Toss a coin.

RRR
[text was edited by author 2001-07-09 19:12:26]

the monkey to JSY

Premium Member

2001-Jul-9 8:23 pm

I've had both and I believe that RR is MUCH better. However, my service with RCN was not 2-way, rather my upstream was via dial-up. This, of course, was really lousy, but the only choice at the time. There were numerous outages and sales lied about if/when my building would go 2-way. Surprisingly, my experience with RCN tech support was very good. But that didn't make up for the down time.

Bottom line, go with RR. Good luck.

JSY

Premium Member

2001-Jul-9 11:12 pm

Wow - thanks for the great responses!!

Cocoh - I know exactly the fire you talked about because my (and many other people's) cable went out. That sounds like some pretty good numbers - and I'm glad you posted being from Elmhurst as well. You probably know that RCN really just recently moved it - shortly after TW installed my digital cable. What is enticing about RR is that I already have cable from them and they offer a pretty good deal. I understand they have self-installation kits now, too.

Willardk, that 1 hour IP lease - do you know if the same IP is leased or is a new IP leased every hour? That sounds like it might cause some problems, so I am assuming that the lease just renews. I wonder why RCN would experience slowdowns. I can't imagine it having anything to do with load. I don't know anyone with RCN! On a sidenote, I think I would have tried RCN digital cable, but they don't carry NY1, and I actually value that channel! So, if I were to go the RCN route, I'd be doing the TW cable and RCN internet thing. But, I think so far of what I read - RR seems to have an edge.

RRR, one of the reasons why I am considering RCN is actually because I really hate to give any more $$$ to the AOL-TW conglomerate, as I was never impressed with their customer service. However, I am more apt to choose what would seemingly perform the best in my area. It's hard to get an impression of how RCN is - and as of now, no one has replied to my post in the RCN forum. However, one of the reasons why I picked my Covad DSL service with a smaller regional company was to avoid the "big company" thing. I agree - it's hard to decide, and I'd love to hear from someone with first hand experience with RCN.

Monkeyweb, that's interesting that your brought the 1-way thing up because I was wondering about that after having read about it in another thread. Gee, that's one set up that I do not want. The whole point for me is to avoid tying up my phone line. It reminds me of DirecPC. I wonder if it's 2-way here... If 1-way is the only way, then I can say that RCN is not even an option for me!

Thanks again everyone!

Rick5

Premium Member

2001-Jul-10 2:10 am

I've had cable internet since early 1998 and up until February of this year, it was one way service.
Most, if not all of the early providers of it had the one way setup until they upgraded the cable lines
to allow 2 way service. It worked great for me. Actually, I've had more problems with the 2 way
service than I ever did with the one way...although they've all since been cleared up and were
basically attributed to them getting things up and running smoothly on the new system.
Most of my bandwidth needs were on the download side, so the modem upstream didn't
matter really. Yes, it did require the extra phone line but it was also nice because you
also had a dial up service included with the cable. If the cable went down...you just connected
via the modem...or, you could use it on the road to dial in.
So, it really wasn't much different than now cost wise when you consider it all.

Something to check on though with RCN to see if they've upgraded your lines. It's been awhile
though. Unless they're pretty slow at it...they should have it done by now.

As far as RCN's service though...you have two people here now on this thread talking about the
slowdowns. As I noted in my post..if you check the review section, there are others as well.
That's not something you really see here on this thread with RR..especially considering the # of users.

That alone would probably tip the scales towards RR for me.

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