Earthlink or Road Runner?
 

Does it really matter?

I'm moving to a different city, and am faced with the question of whether to stick with Earthlink as a cable Internet provider, or switch to Road Runner. I've been relatively content with Earthlink, but there are some aspects of it I am not too keen on.

Both would cost the same amount, although I do believe Road Runner comes with 5 Mbps downstream while Earthlink's 3 Mbps. Not sure about that, though...

What's the difference? I mean, if both connections go through Time Warner Cable, is there a difference? Does one have a better rep than the other?

I use RoadRunner and have been very pleased with the service. There have been occasional downtimes, but you can usually call and they'll perform a quick test to see if there's a signal from the cable modem. If there's not, they'll send someone out to check on the connection (both inside and outside).

cable is one of those things where you really need a local opinion. I've been with roadrunner in some really crappy service areas and one where it was hands down better than anything else.

I love my cable. Here in orlando it's a lot faster than the DSL offered at the same price, and it's a lot more reliable. I had earthlink at my old office and I couldn't stand it. For a business line DSL, it was down way too much

The underlying carrier can easily make a difference, even if the upstream carrier is the same. Also, I assume Earthlink is DSL everywhere? If so, well, I'd generally recommend cable over DSL (there are a FEW exceptions). The cable infrastructure physically CAN allow for more bandwidth than DSL (Great, you have fiber to your local CO? Well, you don't have it to your house, so it doens't matter). A non-fiber cable system (there aren't many left in major population areas) still has higher potential than a fiber-based telco system ALMOST ALWAYS!

Also, the whole argument that telco's used to make about "shared trunks for cable" is bogus. Yes, the trunks are shared, but at some point upstream, so are phone trunks. With more people. On a slower backbone. And usually an older backbone. That might be less reliable.

Okay, enough broken thoughts... I recommend RR over Earthlink.

Negative. 'Round here, at least, we have Earthlink DSL and Cable. And while they technically work on the same networks, in my experience RR has been slightly faster. That's somewhat subjective, however, because I haven't used them in the same physical location - just various houses in the same city.

If they're the same price, go with RR. Otherwise, get the cheaper one.

Interesting... thanks for the info Moose!

If you plan on going with Cable TV, take a close look at the features offered by RR as part of a Cable TV/Cable Modem bundle. RR offers price breaks when you buy the two services together, and they have some interesting features available in some areas with digital cable service, like Programming-On-Demand (the programs start when you tell them to.)

You should check out the dslreports forums for your neighborhood, when ex-gf had RR it was nothing but downtime, but that was a few years ago. My current girlfriend now has earthlink and it is better in my opinion. Of course it does not compare to Optimum Online which I have.

IMHO Earthlink has better customer service, so all other things being equal I'd go with Earthlink. But definately use imouseone's advice and check out www.dslreports.com for the ratings on both in the area you are heading too...