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I’m posting this here to get SoCal specific responses. Please post any experience you have with TW, good, bad, ugly.

Here is what I’m dealing with. Monday morning I come into the office and I’m greeted by the VP of Sales and Marketing (who also functions as the telecom point of contact/tech, and is a board member) who revels to me that he has ordered TW wideband service, and that it will be installed this week. He asks me if this upsets me (to which I tell him no, but secretly I’m seething inside).

Anyway, I go my merry way, stupidly assuming that it won’t be much of an issue. TW will come in and install their equipment and I’ll configure the modem/router similarly to our AT&T DSL modem/router and be up and running with minutes. For those of you that have TW Business Class IS, you know that I’m toast at this point.

Yesterday was D-day, and I fire off an email to all board members outlining the issue and letting them know how I feel about TW (I’ll never let TW get with 50’ of my front door).

So, besides your war stories, for those of you that are TW customers, enlighten me on how best to incorporate their service into my LAN. What firewall/router, etc. is best. Our needs are low, and my first inclination is to setup a pfSense system. However, the CEO has a negative view of OSS. I’m leaning toward an inexpensive appliance at this point. Recommendations please, and thank you for responding.

4 Spice ups
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So I’m not sure I understand why this is a bad thing?

  • Email where / how do you manage it?

  • What are you using now for a firewall? - Why would this be any different via TW?
    unless you’re using a company provided nat device like 2Wire?

  • How many devices are going to be using the connection - (wireless and hardwired all devices)

Have I had issues with TW yes… but I also recommend them in some cases depending…

a Flex T1 data/voice - They suck - reliable in general but slow

But for FiberOptic connections they’re typicalliy pretty solid and have some pretty reliable service, more than I can say about straight DSL / Cable -

Seems lowgrade equipment (modems) they place on client side seem to cause more of an issue than anything else.

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Thanks for responding B-C,

Email is Google Apps for Business

Netopia Model 3347-02 AnnexA High-Power Wireless DSL Ethernet Managed Switch (Yes NAT)

<100 devices, with only about 25 being critical or using the connection significantly. No VoIP, voice is not in my control.

This “Wideband” service they offer is basically a “straight” consumer grade service that TW does not offer any type of SLA for. At least that is my understanding.

What really gets me is that TW “locks down” the modem (actually it’s a modem/router/firewall), forcing the end user to use an external device to incorporate their service within a LAN. All our needs could be met by what is lurking inside the device. Lame. So, this was just a rant I needed to get off my chest. Thanks for listening.

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Yeah… simply have them set the device to bridge mode - NO Vendor controlled NAT…

Then put your own firewall in…

100 devices - 25 systems priority - w ould figure a firewall listed in this thread would be good.

2 Spice ups
5

A little late but…

We have TWC Wideband in LA, with AT&T Uverse as a backup connection.

So far, the TWC connection has been reliable.

Customer service is fine - for that location.

Like you, I have plenty of TWC bile stored up.

What I am finding though, is that region matters very much.

Customer service in NYC - at a TWC store - was very helpful when I was in town.

I need to swap some hardware, but that account was in an individual’s name.

The counter person waited while I had the account holder scan and send me their driver’s license.

Phone support, on the other hand…

They have terrible off shore support.

It’s not the people manning the phones in Elbonia - it’s the infrastructure.

They simply do not have remotely up to date info on service outages and such, and that’s the fault of the tools they are given.

After being told for 24 hours that “we know there is an issue - we’re working on it - no eta” - I asked to be transferred to a US based call center.

There I discovered that the reported outage had been marked as resolved.

If I had not pushed, I would have been told for days that “there is no eta” - since no one knew there was still an outage.

Still had to demand a supervisor to get someone to actually call the dispatch to get some sort of a clue as to what to expect.

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We have had little to no issues with our wideband service from TW, and when there has been an issue they have been very responsive and quick to act. We use a MicroTik Router, its very powerful feature rich and extremely cost effective. We also have a 100x100 fiber connection and a business cable connection as backup once again little to no issues and its been 5 years.

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Billing and how it effects your service on the other hand can be a nightmare! TWC’s internal structure is an old fashion silo business model with very little communication between. We moved a small site that was AT&T phone and DSL two blocks away and decided to try TWC at the new location for both services, since the building was already lit as they say with their service. They forgot to include the suite number in the address. So, instead of being able to update the account, they had to create a new account with the updated address. Then they started to bill us for both accounts! I talked to their billing department, promised that I only had to pay the one updated account and would cancel the other. Well, that didn’t happen. We kept getting billed for both. They kept saying just only keep paying the one. So, several months later about half way thru the day on a Friday, that office disappears from the WAN. At first we only notice that we can’t access their server, since no one is physically at the site at the time. By Monday when someone is there, we realize that their phones don’t work either. After being on hold for several hours, we find out that TWC had disconnected us physically for not paying the other bill. Two days and a new account number later, the office is re-connected! The pessimist in me is still waiting for further fall out on this in the coming weeks before it’s fully resolved.

1 Spice up
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Hello all,

I’ve always found TWC service a problem, as a consultant, this raises flags everywhere I go. After generating tons of speed tests in different locations, I’ve seen the speed fluctuate all over the place. What this means for end users is they might hit send on an Outlook email, and have it sit there in the outbox for 30 secs at some point. Remote Control sessions are the worse on TWC. Just my experience going around.

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It has been just over a year since we had TW service installed, and all I can say is that nothing has changed, I hate it just as much now as in the beginning.

Since I’m on the subject, I’ve been told that TW wants us to upgrade our equipment. The new equipment, I’m told, will piggyback TW’s public WiFi service on the device. So I did some searching, and yes here is the news article explaining their offering.

I’m going to call TW and ask for access to the cable modem… one more time.

Did I mention that I find it absolutely ludicrous that I cannot access a device I have sitting in my data center?