I am moving into a new place and will have to get internet set up there. This will be my first time having to pay for internet in Portland. Any recommendations on a ISP?

I was looking into Quantum Fiber. Any thoughts?

  • jordanlund@lemmy.world
    6·
    2 months ago

    It really depends on the neighborhood, not every address has access to fiber.

    Your best bet is to hit the websites for Quantum and Ziply and see if fiber is available at that address.

    If not, then your alternatives are either Xfinity or a mobile provider like Verizon or TMobile. Mobile providers are only as good as the local cell tower. 😟

    Century Link and Frontier will try to sell you on DSL. Don’t. Not even once.

      • pdxfed@lemmy.world
        4·
        2 months ago

        Since you’re largely locked into a few major ISPs (comcast, quest/CenturyLink, ziply if you are lucky) once you figure out what your address options are, then it’s pretty much about finding the best price for the contract length you want. I recommend searching for “cheap broadband internet {city name}”

        What you’re looking for are generic URLs like “Broadbandnow.com” or “fasttinterenthome com”, as these are keyword stuffed and sites to resell ISP services.

        1. The sites may offer ISP comparison show by address and tell you what speeds (they think) you might get. Sometimes useful but not always right
        2. They will offer better prices and contract terms that you might get with the ISP.com(lower price, longer contract, free modem, etc.)

        I used to switch ISPs every 6 months for years but. Ow they just give you the new price when you call because they know they’re just a dumb pipe now.

  • AlecSadler@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    6·
    2 months ago

    I don’t know if it’s available in Portland proper but where I am an hour south, Ziply has been outstanding (far better than Comcast).

    Unfortunately, I just polled people I know and nobody has any experience with Quantum so I can’t help there.

  • agnomeunknown@lemmy.mlEnglish
    5·
    2 months ago

    I can’t speak to the options in Portland, but I’m forced to use quantum by my apartment complex due to an exclusive contact they have, and it’s mostly fine. Their website and app are fucking awful to use, and in many cases just don’t work, which results in me having to call support when I have issues. Fortunately their phone support has been solid.

    I have a fiber gigabit connection and the speed is great even through a VPN. In the year I’ve been using them there have been few outages and they were fixed quickly.

    Edit: fwiw, I was using a private torrent tracker for a while and all of my torrents suddenly stopped connecting one day and I’ve never been able to get them to start up again, nor any torrents from other trackers. I was sure it was due to some fuckery from quantum blocking torrent traffic, but nowadays I use torrentio with no issues, so idk what the deal is, but worth considering if you’re a big torrent user and have options

  • pnwmatt@lemmy.ml
    2·
    2 months ago

    I’ve had a decent experience with Quantum at two different spots in NE PDX. The first place I lived we set up with CenturyLink which rebranded as Quantum, and at the second place it’s just been Quantum since we moved in. No complaints - and no problems compared to the problems I’ve had historically with Comcast.