Looking for a New ISP

Speakeasy is planning to be acquired by Best Buy sometime next year. Speakeasy has been far from perfect in the 5 years or so I’ve had it (roughly since Northpoint went under). However, it’s usually been adequate, which is more than I can say for most ISPs. That’s why I’ve been willing to pay more for the service. It’s hard to believe simple competence will continue under Best Buy. (Just consider what a Best Buy acquisition did to the Geek Squad.)

Any other suggestions for quality ISP service? I’m currently paying about $120 a month for SpeakEasy. Perhaps I should just combine a couple of different low cost ISPs (e.g. Verizon and Cablevision) along with a hosting package at DreamHost or some such. Probably wouldn’t cost any more and would provide some level of redundancy for the inevitable outages.

5 Responses to “Looking for a New ISP”

  1. Bas Says:

    I can’t say much about ISPs (I have Rogers Cable here in Ontario/Canada), but as for a hosting package… Dreamhost isn’t bad. Naturally it’s “cheap hosting” so you have to put up with some things like the site being slow here and there. Most of the time my site loads just fine, but just sometimes, you know. They offer a ton of options, and shell access which I really like. They probably have upgraded plans if you want more reliable hosting.

  2. Jon Says:

    I have been very happy with my ISP (www.cqhost.com). I don’t see them mentioned very often, but one of the reasons I went with them was their Java Servlet support (via Resin). Might be worth checking them out.

  3. Dolan Halbrook Says:

    I can recommend Kattare firsthand. They’re willing to work with you do do pretty much anything and they actually have knowledgable support staff. They also have solid Java support, which is waht drew me to them in the first place.

  4. Dolan Halbrook Says:

    My bad – somehow I read hosting and not ISP. Kattare is an excellent host.

    I would have recommended Speakeasy as an ISP… :(

  5. Jon Says:

    My bad also – my ISP is Frontiernet (www.frontiernet.net) and they have been fine. My only complaint is that when I tell people my email address, they always wonder if I am accidentally saying net twice at the end :)

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