Charter-Spectrum = DEAD! Who is better for internet service?

[ObviouslyNotAGolfer]

If you are unfortunate enough to live in the vast, pointless, mind-bendingly ugly, comically-overpriced, horrifically polluted, SUV-clogged hell-scape of Southern California, you know there is very little choice in internet service.

We have had Charter for years, and the network stability is atrocious--with interruptions happening almost constantly, with nearly non-existent customer service. ("higher than normal call volumes" LOL!!!). And OF COURSE, the rates are always increasing. Trying to listen to a radio stream or watch a video is nearly impossible. 

Our connectivity has declined markedly over the last few weeks, and, last night about 11PM went down entirely, until about 4 PM today. It seemed OK for a couple of hours, then back to FAIL, FAIL FAIL!!! Lots of unanswered e-mails piling up from work!! Tons of people complaining about this on Facebook (which my wife reads, but I don't) from all over the country! UNBELIEVABLE that these problems exist in 2020!!

Seriously, I am old enough to remember freaking DIAL UP, and freaking DIAL UP was better than this mess!

Can someone suggest a better ISP (are they even called ISPs anymore)? ??? ATT? Dish???

I have really had it this time!!!

(I highly doubt anyone at Charter cares, because  around here,  this is obviously a highly-profitable ****RACKET**** )

[Sibley]

Does Comcast have internet in your area? I hate them and they're overpriced, but need to try something.

[ObviouslyNotAGolfer]

Thanks--they don't exist here afaik.

We had them when we lived in the Bay Area, and we never really had many problems with them. Charter is WAAAAAY worse in terms of interruptions and downtime. Comcast does suck however, and after we moved down here, they insisted for months and months that I had some of their equipment and demanded I send it back. I explained over and over that I did not, then finally just ignored them. Apparently it did not affect our 800+ credit scores.

[Frankies Girl]

Check to see if Tmobile is offering internet in your area. I have no idea about them service wise, but they have begun to offer high speed internet, $50/month (if you sign up for autopay) and state it is no contact, rate will never go up, no hidden fees (you will pay a bit more for taxes and stuff but it's standard), no equipment costs (as long as you turn in their equipment if you cancel), no data caps, unlimited amount.*

Also check if Ting or Google are available.




*I have been hearing about them in my area and still debating as they are newish I think to internet so I'm waiting on trying them out...  but it really looks like a great deal. I am stupid paranoid about losing my very decent ATT DSL (which they've been trying to scare me off of for years) because it's been reliable even when the neighbors' complain about their service, and I worry about losing my really stupid old email address that I have linked up with EVERYTHING. They charge me way too much, and I hate dealing with them so I've felt trapped for years but if I can confirm my email is MINE, I'm likely to run screaming away from them at that point and the Tmobile deal seems decent. :(

[ixtap]

It has gotten so much worse since the sent out their new modems a month or so ago. We have had to reset the modem twice, the ROKU TV often can't connect. For some reason my laptop has always had stability issues with this set up, but now I can barely load two consecutive pages before having to reset the connection.

[rantk81]

All Cable companies are horrible.  You are right -- terrible wait times for phone support -- and then they are not helpful once you get them on the line.  (Waiting 30 minutes to talk to someone, who then instructs you to power-cycle your modem -- as if you didn't already fucking try that 5 times while on hold?)

With that said -- quite often with cable internet issues -- especially if they are happening all the time, a lot of little outrages or bad latency -- it's quite often the case that the "last mile wiring" is to blame.  If you have old or bad wiring within your home, it could be the problem.  If you have cable "splitters" or "couplers (connectors to link/extend a cable wire) -- those both seriously contribute to the problem.

If possible, I would recommend trying a test -- hooking your cable modem up to the cable, as it is first initially coming into your home.  Before any splitters, branching off of cable, etc.  See if the connection is any better at that point.  If it is, you know the problem is your internal wiring.  If it is not better, you should schedule an appointment with the cable company, for them to test the wiring before it gets into your home.

[Cassie]

We switched from charter to uverse with AT&T.

[ObviouslyNotAGolfer]

We switched from charter to uverse with AT&T.

Do you like it?

I actually really like T-mobile. I have had them for years, so I will definitely check this out?

Cable companies are pathetic money-grubbing dinosaurs peddling a trash product.  They need to go extinct. They send me junk mail all the time trying to get me to sign up with cable TV, in which I have zero interest. Probably they are intentionally throttling everything in a desparate bid to stay alive. We have Hulu and Netflix, and I average an hour per week on them (my wife more, or it really would be a waste)

[Cassie]

Yes it works well and the first year it was super cheap because my husband was a veteran. They also give it to police, military, first responders, etc. We had to sign a 2 year contract and it went up the second year but they tell you that when you sign up.

[NumberJohnny5]

#1. Check the wiring. Get as direct a connection as you can (i.e. if you can remove splitters, do so). See if that helps.

#2. Check the modem. Crappy modem = crappy service. If it's doing double-duty (serving as modem AND router), separate the jobs out. Get a quality router, setup the modem in bridge mode if possible. This causes the modem to ONLY handle the internet connection; the router will handle the job of, well, routing (i.e. your phones/laptops/smart devices connect to the router, it then routes everything through the modem).

#3. Once you've done the above, check with your neighbors. See who they have and what their experience is. Maybe they have Charter and absolutely love it; do they have a different modem (if so, I'll refer you back to #2)? Call Charter and tell them you want the same model your neighbors have. Worst they'll do is say no. If everyone around who has Charter hates them, and has nothing but good things to say about ISP B, then sign up with ISP B.

Internet is so important to us that we have three providers. Cable, DSL, and an LTE hotspot with a spare Google Fi data sim thrown in. I have what I think is considered a prosumer router that supports multiple failovers; some devices have cable as primary with dsl as the first backup and lte as the second backup; the others have dsl as the primary with cable as the first backup and lte as the second backup. As far as I know, we've only had both primaries (cable and dsl) go out once, everything kept running on lte (just a bit slower, more buffering, etc.). The regular all-in-one solutions never work well for us (where you have the modem and router in the same unit), I've always had some kind of issues, constant complaints from the family, etc. But with dedicated hardware for each task (we even have a separate wifi solution, so the wifi "routers" are in dumb mode and don't route, then a dedicated router, then the modems for each service provider), everything runs pretty smooth. I reboot the dsl modem about once a week else it locks up, the wifi needs rebooting every few months, the router hasn't needed a reboot as far as I remember (current uptime near 3 months, extended power outage required it to be shut down before the UPS ran out).

[Daley]

Goodness, Golfer, we're starting to cross paths a lot here lately.

If you have AT&T in your area, you may actually have far more ISP options at your disposal than you actually realize.

Meet three major alternate providers who use AT&T's infrastructure in California (and elsewhere, excuse Sonic, which is a California exclusive):

DSLExtreme
Sonic
TOAST.net

DSLExtreme is decent, but they do tend to make billing a bit more complicated and the fine print messy.

I can't personally comment on Sonic, but from what I've heard, they're a fantastic provider and offer pretty sweet deals for the money.

Personally, I can't recommend TOAST.net enough, even over the alternative I have of DSLExtreme. Used TOAST back in the bad old dial-up days over 20 years ago, and used them for the past five with both VDSL and Fiber through AT&T's lines. Shame I didn't know sooner, because AT&T forced them to retire their cheaper tier VDSL and Fiber packages this last Monday, and just squeaked in under the bar ourselves switching over to their 60Mbps/60Mbps plan for $44.95/month, which is sadly no longer available to order. No additional fees or taxes or anything. Had it a week, and it's a fantastic embarrassment of speed. Before that, we had 6Mbps/1.5Mbps (actual down ran higher than promised) for $38/month since 2015 through them, and I tell you it was the most stable AT&T internet service we've ever had. Their prices are exactly what's on the tin, no modem/router rental fees despite the mandatory equipment*, only a one year contract if you want the equipment for free, and the price is grandfathered and fixed. Like I said, we had that vDSL package since 2015, and the price never once went up. It was a clockwork $37.95/month billed on the first of the month to the card for nearly five years, exactly the price on the tin, with no changes in speed. As new plans came and went with increasingly tightening upload speeds at the same price from them, ours stayed rock stable. The prices might sound more "expensive" than AT&T's introductory prices, but...

It's a $50 install, with a Nokia OTN wall outlet for FTTP, I believe that they try to only ship out Arris gateways, which of the three models AT&T is using currently, is the least crappy. Installation is an "enterprise" install, which means the AT&T tech can't touch any other wiring on the house (say, like, severing the old PSTN wiring on a fiber install limiting your potential options further in the future). If there's any technical issues, you never, ever have to talk with AT&T's Home consumer technical support. Ever. Instead, you'll deal with the friendly and competent folks out of TOAST's support office in Toledo, who deal with AT&T's circus for you. This alone for me is worth more than all the gold in the world, because I reached a point in my life where I never wanted to deal with AT&T directly again over the phone if I could help it. This said, and like I've said before, I've really not had problems with TOAST's service. In the past five years, the only outages were either from a bird trying to build a nest in the unsecured DMARC box and massive outages that impacted the entire neighborhood. It's like getting the enterprise service and uptime without the price.

Their prices are fixed, all taxes and fees baked in, and like I said, the price grandfathered for the life of the account unless you change plans. There's no data caps, either. None. No overage fees, or the other nonsense.

As for the price compared to AT&T? Well, we'll take the current only offer for fiber service: $74.95/month with TOAST.

AT&T is currently offering the same "deal" for $49.99/month, plus a $10/month mandatory modem/router rental fee*, plus a $99 install, plus varying mandatory taxes and a slew of non-mandated extra-regulatory fees. All for a 12 month contract, plus you never own the modem and will be charged $150 if you don't return it on service termination. After that? Sky's the limit, they can raise your rates without another contract and sunk time doing the stupid annual negotiation monkey dance for them threatening to leave for Charter and even more install fees and more of the same foolishness, and the standard non-contract cost is $59.99/month plus the $10/month mandatory equipment rental fees*, plus taxes, plus random hidden surcharges used to increase the price... so probably well over $75/month, plus it's an extra $30/month for actual unlimited usage without bundling service which TOAST already offers as part of the base price. Back when we had ADSL with AT&T here in Oklahoma without equipment rental fees, they still stuck on another $7/month in charges for $45/month of service back in the day... I can't imagine how bad it'll be in Cali. VDSL prices are similar with TOAST, as is with DSLExtreme and Sonic for what's offered from AT&T directly, though far less offal and wheeler-dealing to wade through.

Thanks, guys, I'll just pay the flat rate on a plan that won't go up in price, get your business-grade service at consumer grade prices, and never have to directly deal with you again.

Seriously, though, read AT&T's fine print on their services and talk about the reality of the bills on advertised prices with neighbors. It's not fun, and it's not pretty. Heck, do that with any provider.

*AT&T forces equipment rentals because of how they've set up provisioning. Even though a simple modem or ONT can handle provisioning for you, they want more money just like everyone else. Feh.

Sorry for the wall of text, I don't keep the communications guide up to date anymore... but felt the info pertinent to share, not just for you, but for both Cassie and Frankie's Girl and others as well.

Best practices for keeping a stable connection is using OpenDNS for your DNS servers in your router settings. Don't use the provided router, but use your own and configure it properly, disable remote access and cloud settings on the thing, and let the thing run silent on ping and ports. Recent discussion on routers here. Disable WiFi on the provided equipment and set it on passthrough (if it'll let you - of the AT&T modem/router gateways, the Arris is the least terrible of the lot with this, and it's still a lot harder to neuter than its predecessors) and maybe even punt its LAN IP assignment off to 172.16-31.*.* land separate from the standard 192.168.*.* configuration for your own stuff if it's aggressively stupid about not respecting your own network equipment. I had to do this with the new router when I went and unplugged the ONT to move it over to the UPS and the stupid thing hijacked my network forcing me to reboot my own router and cycle network connection on the laptop after it informed me that the ONT was unplugged. Have their equipment set up to reboot or get power cycled weekly in the middle of the night to improve stability. Speaking of, plug all your network equipment into a UPS as you'll keep connection during power outages this way. Also, change the default passwords.

Anyway, anything else you want to pick my brain about? Where shall I send the bill? ;)

I am stupid paranoid about losing my very decent ATT DSL (which they've been trying to scare me off of for years) because it's been reliable even when the neighbors' complain about their service, and I worry about losing my really stupid old email address that I have linked up with EVERYTHING.[/i]

Normal wisdom states that old AT&T email addresses stay active after departure due to account hosting being done by Yahoo/Verizon (which, yeesh! Yahoo Mail got so bad, I literally closed out a 15 year old account just to stop dealing with them), but they've never committed that to writing outside of rogue AT&T employees on their forum saying that they do but still can't quote or link specific TOS that promises such over the years. This said, GOOD NEWS! AT&T is trying to abandon the PSTN this year and force people over to fiber and wireless like Verizon did. They aren't taking new VDSL orders after October 2020, and their TOS states that they can now force you to upgrade to fiber, including forcing the new pricing on you at the same time. Many have already gotten the dreaded 45 day notice in their statements.

My advice? You can set other email services up to pull email from other POP3 and IMAP servers. Google does this, as does Zoho, Outlook, and most others. Set up another account independent of your ISP, ASAP, and start the transition. Keep the transition and migration up until everything that's important to you is coming to the new address after a couple months. If nothing but spam is left being pulled in on the old account after this time and you're positive all the important people and accounts from your password manager have the new address... run screaming away from AT&T and into the warm embrace of someone like TOAST confident in knowing that even if they do keep your old address active indefinitely after leaving, it won't matter. :)

After all, they're gonna force your hand eventually.

[ObviouslyNotAGolfer]

Thanks so much folks! I feel kind of guilty for coming on here and ranting about various things (about SoCAL always!) and then getting all this thoughtful advice! (I did contribute to that sock thread the other day, so I'm not totally worthless! :-)

My connection died yet again right after my last post and just came up about an hour ago (about 5 hours dead). I was planning on getting a lot of work done today, but that went out the window with no connection.

I may try to have Charter come out here and/or send us a new modem. I am ready to get rid of them if they delay or do nothing (as I've read is common with them), "higher than normal call volume" blah blah blah.

Daley, still haven't set up the new system--it's all here in boxes, although I DID receive my new BenQ 27" today a few days late (it was on that FedEx 763 from Newark that crash-landed at HELL A X a few days ago!) I will hopefully get around to it next week!

OH, and, maybe instead of sending a bill, you'll accept a beer or three if you ever want to get together after this COVID crap is over? ;-)

[Daley]

Daley, still haven't set up the new system--it's all here in boxes, although I DID receive my new BenQ 27" today a few days late (it was on that FedEx 763 from Newark that crash-landed at HELL A X a few days ago!) I will hopefully get around to it next week!

O.O oh good grief.

Better make sure everything works there while it's under both the return policy and warranty, champ.

OH, and, maybe instead of sending a bill, you'll accept a beer or three if you ever want to get together after this COVID crap is over? ;-)

Make it some hard cider, and we'll talk. ;)

[ObviouslyNotAGolfer]

Daley, still haven't set up the new system--it's all here in boxes, although I DID receive my new BenQ 27" today a few days late (it was on that FedEx 763 from Newark that crash-landed at HELL A X a few days ago!) I will hopefully get around to it next week!

O.O oh good grief.

Better make sure everything works there while it's under both the return policy and warranty, champ.

OH, and, maybe instead of sending a bill, you'll accept a beer or three if you ever want to get together after this COVID crap is over? ;-)

Make it some hard cider, and we'll talk. ;)

Cider it is! And for me, Guinness as usual!

Now, at the risk of being an askhole, would you go with DSL2 or Fiber? I am guessint the difference in speed is not very noticeable for most things. However, I am backing up very large files to my work cloud (maybe a few 350mb files a week), so I suppose that would make it go a bit faster.

[Daley]

Now, at the risk of being an askhole, would you go with DSL2 or Fiber? I am guessint the difference in speed is not very noticeable for most things. However, I am backing up very large files to my work cloud (maybe a few 350mb files a week), so I suppose that would make it go a bit faster.

I don't think you have much of an option these days. VDSL service of the options available these days are less than fiber, but remember where I told Frankie's Girl:

This said, GOOD NEWS! AT&T is trying to abandon the PSTN this year and force people over to fiber and wireless like Verizon did. They aren't taking new VDSL orders after October 2020, and their TOS states that they can now force you to upgrade to fiber, including forcing the new pricing on you at the same time. Many have already gotten the dreaded 45 day notice in their statements.
[snip]
After all, they're gonna force your hand eventually.

The choice may have already been made for you.

I just looked up a neighbor's address with TOAST prequalification, and they can only order the 1000Mbps fiber plan. A little over two weeks ago on the 7th when I checked to see if fiber was finally available in our area as the wife needs to teach via Zoom? We still had the option of VDSL plan upgrades as well. Oof. Clearly, AT&T is screwing over the reseller partners and trying to choke 'em off by eliminating the slower packages they can offer so they aren't as financially competitive while still "honoring" their legal requirements with the FCC. Meanwhile, AT&T appears to only offer 100/100, 300/300 and 1000/1000 fiber plans, and even the cheaper tiers aren't that cheap or appealing given... you know... the doing business with AT&T directly tax.

What honestly only matters is upload speed when you get right down to it. Given 60Mbps at theoretical full speed can transfer 450MB of data in a minute... it just depends on how much data you want to push around. But again, the choices may have already been made for you.

Cider it is! And for me, Guinness as usual!

One of the joys of Celiac is not getting to enjoy chewing a good stout ale anymore. So I, and my small intestine's villi, thank you... and I'll just enjoy your Guinness by proxy.

[ObviouslyNotAGolfer]

Sorry to hear that. I am actually writing an article on the evolution of those intestinal microvilli as we speak (I am a biologist). Turns out that microvilli are found projecting from cell surfaces of most animals, as well as their close protozoan relatives--choanoflagellates and filastereans. The microvilli are specialized pseudopodia (false feet, by which amoebas, by definition loocmote) with a specialized core of cytosksleton (protein). Microvilli and derivative structures appear on the surfaces of many animal cells, and also play roles in hearing, cell-cell adhesion, and secretion of the extracellular matrix (which basically holds all of our cells together, since animals do not have cell walls), and a whole bunch of other things. 


Just tried Charter chat--of course it is an hour to talk to an agent. I am really ready to jump ship. I assume you still think Toast is still a good deal in light of ATT trying to screw them (and everybody)?

[Daley]

Fun stuff! And yeah, but you kind of learn to live with it. I'm just thankful that I know, and I have a diet that doesn't actively try to kill me anymore. Been at it for a decade at this point. It just is.

Just tried Charter chat--of course it is an hour to talk to an agent. I am really ready to jump ship. I assume you still think Toast is still a good deal in light of ATT trying to screw them (and everybody)?

Yup. The way I see it, they still have to at least honor contracts so long as the law of the land sits as it is. AT&T is literally pricing every internet service they have currently at $49.99/month plus equipment rental, taxes and fees for a 12 month contract with who knows what sort of pricing at the other side of that.

Worst case scenario? You get some time with AT&T fiber internet at a fair price without ever dealing with AT&T directly for as long as TOAST, their contracts with AT&T hold, and the USA exists. And right now? All of TOAST's customers are grandfathered in on the services and prices that they have, and they've had enough customers and good enough loyalty to keep their doors open for 20 years at this point, and those inside TOAST probably won't want to leave when they see what's going on outside. If the Death Star takes a move with an iron fist on that level or the law of the land collapses, I suspect we'll all have far bigger fish to fry than reasonable and reliable internet speeds.

Just remember, the folks in Toledo take the weekend off there in the sales office. You'll have to call Monday morning.

There's also a referral program, but you don't have to if you don't want to.

EDIT: I know the scenario above is kind of depressing in theory, but this is me being immensely pragmatic and genuinely trying to look on the bright side, and that bright side is simple: as long as there's TOAST, I don't have to deal with AT&T. Whether it last a month, a year, a decade, the day I have to (un)willingly cancel the account myself, until I push up daisies, another Carrington Event, the decline and collapse of empires, or the sun going nova, whichever comes first. Each one of those days before were days where I didn't have to directly interact with AT&T for the utility I currently need to pay for. The day that I lose TOAST.net will most likely be a day where life's priorities will skew far more urgent on the Maslow scale than something silly like internet. Or another way to put it? Tomorrow has enough worries of its own, and this is one less thing to worry about in the moment. Take advantage of that gift horse for as long as you can ride it!

[katsiki]

I can second the recommendation for toast.net.  Have had their service for a bit over 2 years.  Rock solid pricing and excellent service.  Moved over from UVerse TV / DSL at the suggestion of someone on this forum.  I think it was probably Daley..

Good luck!

[Daley]

One last bit of advice if you do go with fiber service, either through TOAST or directly from AT&T. Pay attention during the install and be prepared. Whatever hole the installer is going to poke through on the house, the other side of that hole is where your ONT and router are going to wind up for the entire house, so make sure you know where and which exterior wall room you want the install to happen in before they show up. "Rewiring" fiber after the install either extending the fiber or properly running new ethernet to another location if you can't do it yourself gets expensive, fast.

[Frankies Girl]

@Daley

With apologies to the OP for this highjack...


I have an anxiety disorder that makes me literally get physically ill at the thought of dealing with some things - and for some reason changing up the internet became one that sends me into total panic mode. It's why I've let ATT get away with the crap they've done to me for over a decade. I'd love to just get rid of them and I do live in a major city/state that would allow me to change to someone like TOAST.

That being said, can I trouble you for a small step by step so I can try to get my brain wrapped around how to proceed?

I have ATT DSL right now. I know they'll be forcing me off soon and that causes even more panic.

I have an old school landline phone. I would like to keep my phone number and would be fine porting it over to a VOIP or even to a stay at home cell phone (currently use Ting for cell service and happy with them as we are low usage). Also would love to keep our ATT email addresses even if we aren't using them as main emails, as we've got them tied to so many things even making a list and going through everything is likely to miss something.

ATT ran fiber in our neighborhood (it was a disaster - they hired incompetent contractors that destroyed yards, hit numerous gas and water lines, actually shorted out an entire grid somehow) but the fiber IS available, just not connected to our house. Which is small and yard is small.

So first step - Get new emails set up (we do have gmail accounts I intended to start using at least a year ago, but never got around to switching things over because I had a wee breakdown dealing with the other messes and this is really one of those things that has turned into almost a phobia to deal with). Spend the next month or whatever checking any and all contacts/bills/logins. Move the ATT emails to secondary or just stop using for anything remotely important.

Once we're pretty confident we got it...

1. Get TOAST (or what do you think about TMobile's new internet offer since it seems even cheaper and has no contract even?). Worker will come out and need to be in our house to install fiber connection, and set up our internet so we just need to reconnect our devices (and assume set up new passwords for a router and wifi gateway - that they will provide?)

2. Once that is set up and confirmed internet is working - port over phone number from ATT to - where? I have read both good and bad things of Ooma and MagicJack. We want to have a dedicated home phone with our existing phone #. Could port to a cell phone even. Easiest best option here - money savings is great but would really love to have home phone done easy with good service as priority.

3. Once home phone is figured out - that likely will make our ATT DSL non functional (I assume since it's configured through our phone #/line?) So the only thing left is to cancel ATT. Which likely will be a horrible pain and require phone calls where they try to talk us out of it.

4. Celebrate being free of the evil horrible nightmare?

I can control my panic if I have a gameplan and know what to expect. I know I need to do this and appreciate any help you can provide. 

[rantk81]

@Daley
I have an anxiety disorder that makes me literally get physically ill at the thought of dealing with some things - and for some reason changing up the internet became one that sends me into total panic mode.

May I suggest you wait to cancel your current internet service, until you are set up with a new service -- and confident that it works well?  That way you don't have to worry about a lapse in service or being offline for any length of time due to any snafu's with a new company?  Hopefully that relieves some of your stress with respect to that situation.

[Daley]

@Daley

With apologies to the OP for this highjack...

Whoof. Let's see what we can do.

I have an anxiety disorder that makes me literally get physically ill at the thought of dealing with some things - and for some reason changing up the internet became one that sends me into total panic mode. It's why I've let ATT get away with the crap they've done to me for over a decade. I'd love to just get rid of them and I do live in a major city/state that would allow me to change to someone like TOAST.

That being said, can I trouble you for a small step by step so I can try to get my brain wrapped around how to proceed?

I have ATT DSL right now. I know they'll be forcing me off soon and that causes even more panic.
[snip]
I can control my panic if I have a gameplan and know what to expect. I know I need to do this and appreciate any help you can provide.

First, take a deep breath. Don't panic. Bear with me, I'm gonna get a little philosophical here.

This crap 'aint worth panicking over. Honest and truly. Remember, something, something, Maslow's hierarchy. Frankie says relax.

I know panic attacks can be difficult to manage, and I know it's easier said than done, but you need to tell your lizard brain to stop throwing you into fight or flight mode here. Planning is good, but sometimes you just need to take that lizard out behind the woodshed and give it what for with a bear-claw. Mmmm.... bare bear-claw, otherwise the lizard gets sticky from the thrashing. Anyway, fear's a tool of the adversary, and it can keep us paralyzed over the silliest things. I've been there, and I still unexpectedly find myself there occasionally. But, I say this as a person who's taken most of his overwhelming pessimism and over-arching sense of cosmic dread (despite having my hope anchored in Messiah Yeshua) and turned it into an odd little lens of optimism. Note my edit to the last post I made last night. Reality dictates that our concept of ownership is a polite fiction in the face of it all just being fancy forms of cosmic dust. It all belongs to the creator, control can be lost faster than a fart in the wind, and we're just stewards for as long as we're taking breath and entrusted with our little dirt mound. It's a kind of freeing approach, in a way. Even if I know the Universe ends tomorrow, where's the loss in planting a tree today? I just trust He's got it, and the fact that we haven't collapsed back into a singularity yet and can still shuffle these electrons back and forth pretending to talk to each other proves that. ;)

Now to the more practical and less navel-gazing bits.

ATT ran fiber in our neighborhood (it was a disaster - they hired incompetent contractors that destroyed yards, hit numerous gas and water lines, actually shorted out an entire grid somehow) but the fiber IS available, just not connected to our house. Which is small and yard is small.

Sounds like fun! Makes me glad to live in a neighborhood with phone poles.

Also would love to keep our ATT email addresses even if we aren't using them as main emails, as we've got them tied to so many things even making a list and going through everything is likely to miss something.
[snip]
So first step - Get new emails set up (we do have gmail accounts I intended to start using at least a year ago, but never got around to switching things over because I had a wee breakdown dealing with the other messes and this is really one of those things that has turned into almost a phobia to deal with). Spend the next month or whatever checking any and all contacts/bills/logins. Move the ATT emails to secondary or just stop using for anything remotely important.

If you're cool with Google having the keys, you're half-way there.

(Side note worth considering - you gotta trust someone other than yourself with email management to some degree or another unless you want to set up and administer your own email server - and no, I don't even do that. Even if I opt out of the free email providers and use my own domain for email, I still have to trust someone else at some level, but it also means I'm not at the mercy of others to keep my email address usable or risk losing it to account hijackers - even if the account theoretically may be breached, I still hold the keys to the kingdom.)

First step is to set up your Google account to access your AT&T email account, and have it label all incoming messages from your AT&T account as instantly recognizable as being received from your AT&T email account when you see it in your Google inbox. Then, just stop accessing your email through the AT&T/Yahoo portal and only access it through Gmail.

https://support.google.com/mail/answer/21289
https://support.google.com/mail/answer/118708

There's your first step.

Personal contacts are easy if you have a good address book saved and available to import to your new provider. Blast out a BCC addressed message from the new account telling everyone about the new email address, and you're done. It's easier to confirm that change was received by others using a mail provider that actually allows turning on read receipt, but Gmail and Outlook aren't on that list... but perhaps not having that feature helps you build trust with the other that yes, they got it and they changed the address on their end.

Okay, now this is where a good password manager comes in handy. Services and accounts that I have where my access and email address is important and relevant? Security is equally important, which means no half-arsed passwords and non-text message based 2FA where available, which means I have a database of all the important stuff, which means if there's accounts not in that password database? No big loss, in theory. Don't sweat the small stuff, right? One can always create a new account at the Hollywoob Stock Exchange, or Snarkfest, or whatever else fluff-ball website if push comes to shove. But with this database, just take the time to sit down, log into each account, and do what needs to be done to change the email address in the account settings, and just go down the list and make note of the change as you get each one done.

KeePassXC is fantastic if you don't already have a password manager. It even has TOTP generation baked in now, so you can have those six digit 2FA passwords generated straight from KeePassXC and pasted with a simple CTRL+T instead of having your cellphone next to you with the 2FA number generator app running and trying to quickly type the numbers in before the 30 second reset. I figure 60-90 days is probably a good confident transition window to get the important stuff imported, migrated and over.

Once we're pretty confident we got it...

1. Get TOAST (or what do you think about TMobile's new internet offer since it seems even cheaper and has no contract even?). Worker will come out and need to be in our house to install fiber connection, and set up our internet so we just need to reconnect our devices (and assume set up new passwords for a router and wifi gateway - that they will provide?)

T-Mobile is just offering a flat rate 4G LTE data plan on a WiFi hotspot. There will be caveats, just like there always is with "unlimited" mobile data plans. I can't find the details and gotchas currently, but this article from Ars covers the basics of what to expect from last year, excuse the invite only option:
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/03/t-mobile-now-sells-50-home-internet-but-good-luck-actually-getting-it/

Biggest downside is going to be data throttling. Might be a decent deal out in the sticks where the only other option is the gouging of satellite broadband or the faint promise of Elon Musk's thousands of tiny cubes of low earth orbit space junk eventually giving you interbutts for who knows how much, but not a great option in high density urban areas.

But yes, TOAST will send out a pre-configured router/gateway with default settings. Use it if you want. I don't love the thing, personally, especially the AT&T specific... uhh... quirks, which is why I run my own equipment and just do data passthrough on theirs. Just be sure to stick everything on a UPS and make sure the monolith router they send you gets plenty of airflow to ensure longevity. The cool thing about TOAST is the install is an Enterprise install. They aren't allowed to cut your existing lines when they install the fiber to the premises. However, if you've already been given the deadline, not to cause anxiety, but... uh... tick tock.

Hopefully and fortunately, at least in the past, people have been able to continue to access their old AT&T accounts after termination. How long now? Anyone's guess, but if past history holds and Yahoo still treats AT&T accounts as just another domain attached to free webmail after departure...

I have an old school landline phone. I would like to keep my phone number and would be fine porting it over to a VOIP or even to a stay at home cell phone (currently use Ting for cell service and happy with them as we are low usage).
[snip]
2. Once that is set up and confirmed internet is working - port over phone number from ATT to - where? I have read both good and bad things of Ooma and MagicJack. We want to have a dedicated home phone with our existing phone #. Could port to a cell phone even. Easiest best option here - money savings is great but would really love to have home phone done easy with good service as priority.

Trusty, rusty VOIPo might be a good option, as might Phone Power. Port your number out, and go, go, go. Both were kicking around as options when I started the guide... *gasp* over eight years ago here. Wow, I'm getting old. They provide the ATA, you get a flat bill for 5000 minutes a month of talk time with all the bells and whistles.

I've been concerned over both Ooma and MagicJack in the past, as the features, costs, and quality never really quite worked out for what you got. If you want more details, use the forum search tool. Won't be hard to dredge up the old info.

It's also worth noting that outside of higher volume multi-line setups, there's cheaper per line than Ting. We went to Ting ourselves after P'tel folded shop, and couldn't keep the bill under $25/month after being used to only spending about $15. USMobile cost about the same but got us more, but we still would run out of minutes or data on occasion. Finally caved and went to Red Pocket a couple years ago, and now $20/month gets us way more of... well... everything. Enough that we've never hit our limits. YMMV.

3. Once home phone is figured out - that likely will make our ATT DSL non functional (I assume since it's configured through our phone #/line?) So the only thing left is to cancel ATT. Which likely will be a horrible pain and require phone calls where they try to talk us out of it.

I'm pretty sure you can port your number out independent of the DSL, unless they're on the same phone line, then you might have problems. Err on the side of caution. Order the TOAST account first, get it installed, then port your number and tell AT&T to pound sand across the board the instant the port goes through and you can make calls with your new phone provider.

4. Celebrate being free of the evil horrible nightmare?

Yup. Mazel!

Hope this genuinely helps.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled Coen-fan inspired Charter rant.

[ObviouslyNotAGolfer]

Your wife owes money to Jackie Treehorn, that means you owe money to Jackie Treehorn!

[Daley]

And so, Theodore Donald Karabotsos, in accordance with what we think your dying wishes... might well have been... we commit your final mortal remains to the bosom of the Pacific Ocean, which you loved so well.

Speaking of death, you looking to put Charter out of its misery in the morning?

[Frankies Girl]

@Daley

With apologies to the OP for this highjack...

Whoof. Let's see what we can do...

THANK YOU!!!!!

[ObviouslyNotAGolfer]

Daley is not into the whole brevity thing.*





*but that's ok, because we all appreciate his advice!!!

[Daley]

But try not to ask me anything about this stuff on Friday night or Saturday.

Shomer Shabbos.

...or at least a kinda vague reasonable facsimile with some hope of grace peppered in. It was easier for me to unplug when there's community, and I still struggle with the rest thing when dealing with the well of creativity related to what I've done in the past for pay, even if its offered for free. Aiming for the spirit of intent over the letter and still sometimes feeling like I missed the mark, I guess.