Moving to Chicago

Arminas

Hello H/A!

This June, I will be relocating to Chicago from California (the bay area). Specifically, I'll be living in Oak Park, a little suburb West of Chicago. I have some guide books that have explained some of the utilities to me and what not, but what I'm looking for is any advice or experience you may have about broadband in Chicago. What ISP's are available or which ones are recommended? I've used Comcast for the last 3 years here in Berkeley, but am looking to try something else if possible. But if Comcast is really the best the area has, then so be it... (but god, comcast during peaks hours was unpleasant at best)

Any words of wisdom?

Oh, and I'm open to any advice or help concerning other details of the relocation as well.

Hlubocky

I live in the city, so Oak Park might be a bit different, but your options are basically:

1) AT&T DSL (which I use)
2) Comcast Cable
3) RCN Cable (if available in your area)

Daenris

I lived in Forest Park which is immediately adjacent to Oak Park. We have AT&T DSL for about $20/month (+$20/month for phone, not sure if they offer naked DSL at all). The speed was 3mbps, and I usually got about 2.5, so pretty good. We had Comcast for internet when we actually lived in the city and it sucked -- wildly varying speeds, nowhere near the advertised cap usually, and frequent outages.

If you have other questions about the Oak Park area post them. I loved the area for the 1.5 years we lived there.

JHunz

I live somewhat north of that (Mount Prospect), and Comcast sucks ass in my suburb too. My AT&T DSL, on the other hand, has been rock-solid since I canceled the cable in frustration with the service and customer support.

I have a friend who swears by Speakeasy DSL, but it's a little pricey and not available in all areas.

Hlubocky

Once I got the phone lines fixed by an AT&T tech at our condo in the city, I have had zero problems with DSL.

Sir Landshark

I live in East Lakeview and we had RCN initially, but after getting dicked over by them (took me 2 months of fighting to get $86 back in bullshit fees) we switched our internet to AT&T DSL and not only has the customer service been loads better, the connection is faster and more stable to boot.