[conspire] Internet, cable and phone suggestions

[Tony Godshall]

> I am moving to 27th and Telegraph in Oakland from Walnut Creek.
> Occasional telecommuting to my new job in SF  will be critical for me as
> my wife is somewhat disabled as you may know. I was looking into going
> to Astound cable internet phone from current  SBC a t & t for dsl 2nd
> level enhanced and comcast, but no Astound yet in Oakland. It all costs
> about $113 per month from at&t (and comcast cable only) now and
> performance is fine, but I did not like how at&t handed info over to the
> feds. i do not have spare money to increase my bill, at least for now.

I had good luck locating my old DSL service through DSLreports.com aka
broadbandreports.com.  They have lots of reports from people all
around the country and a service-picker that helps you find what's
available at a particular address, etc.
Based on their results I switched to speakeasy.net DSL and was very
happy with them.  They didnt make me do pppoe etc. like SBC did- it
appeared to be a simple vanilla always-on ethernet DHCP connection.
The only reason I switched back to Cable was because Alameda Power &
Telecom started offering service, but I suspect they are not an option
in Oakland :-)

Good luck.  Report back.