looking for a few suggestions

[dkff49]

My wife and I have been looking seriously into changing our internet and television providers.

Right now we are on comcast for both. We have the digital line up for cable and nothing special as for the internet.

We are looking at going with one of the satellite providers and leaning towards direct TV, this is due to a small regular price difference and a better promotional offer.

The internet though is another issue. I checked a couple of those websites where you can find out what is available in your area as far as high speed internet and it seems that the only options available are Comcast and Embarq. My question here is which internet plan do I use and how much will most likely suffer (if at all) when switching over in speed.

here is a quote from their FAQ about which to use.

Up to 768k download / 384k upload: This speed is for customers who want our basic High-Speed Internet option. This speed is great for customers who check email and browse the Internet occasionally.

Up to 1.5M download / 512k upload: This is our most popular choice for seeking the right balance of price and speed. This speed is excellent for beginner to moderate Internet users to check email, send pictures, download music, trade stocks, shop online and browse favorite web sites.

Up to 3.0M download / 640k upload: This speed is recommended for customers who are seeking the right balance of Internet access for personal and work use. It is the best choice for households that share their Internet connection between multiple users. This speed is perfect for customers who are remotely connecting to their company's network, running a home network and downloading/uploading large files. It is the best choice for households that share their internet connection between multiple users.

Up to 5.0M download / 768k upload: This is the premium speed option for facilitating intensive online activities such as gaming. This is the most popular speed for those who heavily access the Internet.

Up to 10.0M download / 896k upload: Customers who require maximum speed will want this top-of-the-line product. This speed will provide the ultimate gaming experience, simultaneously send and receive large files, streaming video, TV, music and picture libraries.

now I am trying to keep cost down as much as I can without sacrificing anymore than necessary.

We don't really download alot of movies or other things but we do have more than one computer hooked up to the network from time to timeand that will only get more frequent since my daughter is starting to near that age where she wants to use the computer more and more often. I of course will be playing AH alot too so that needs to be a consideration(probably the most important of all  )

thanks for your help.

[angels10]

 i think there is a thread on the tec boards about sat providers and the time it takes to send back and forth to each other on sat internet providers. Do a search on sat providers first and gaming results.

[dunnrite]

Satellite internet and gaming sucks...bad. 

[AAJagerX]

One thing to keep in mind about sat service...  It can take 1 to 1.5 seconds for the sat to relay your signal.  The lady I talked to at wildblue said that for gaming, I'd probably be better looking at other options.  BTW there's a thundersorm over my house now, and my sat TV is stuck searching for a signal .  I go through Verizon on a usb based modem for internet, and with the added antenna it works great.  I think the UM175 usb modem (what I have) is free with activation right now too.  It's a good option if you're rural and can't get standard cable service.  If you CAN get cable internet, that's always the best.

[Raptor]

For TV, Direct TV is great in my opinion. I lived in the mountains of NC in an area that gets a lot of rain, and the only time it really was interrupted by weather was when the storm was so bad you probably shouldn't be watching tv.

[dkff49]

Ok I should have been a little more clear. The high speed internet I am asking about is DSL. I thought I said that but must have overlooked it when typing out my post.

in other words the only high speed in my area is comcast cable and embarq dsl. I was looking for advise opinions on the satellite TV providers and then some help on selecting a dsl plan from the quote in my first post if I switch to the satellite TV.


thanks

[eagl]

The cheapest internet plan will be more than enough for AH unless your wife will be doing a lot of internet use while you're playing.  But even if that's the case, one of the cheaper plans ought to be plenty of bandwidth for web browsing, email, and AH.  You only really need more speed if you do a lot of large file downloads or if you're doing work from home that involves a lot of data transfer...

As for TV, it all depends on what you want to watch.  Dish and DirectTV always have specials on that make it fairly cheap to try them out for a year or two, mostly free installation and equipment discounts combined with a lower subscription rate for the first year and 1 month trials of premium channels.  Just make sure you get the "super dish" or whatever they're calling it nowadays to ensure your dish will also pick up local channels.  The cheapo satellite dishes don't pick up local transmissions but a simple upgrade gets you a dish that will pick up local channels.

As for telephone, I dunno what's the best however you might get a deal from your internet provider by bundling internet phone service with your data plan.  I use time warner cable for tv, phone, and internet and I save about $40/month on the package vs. the price of getting them all separately.  The cable tv service isn't as good as what I could get with Dish or DirectTV (most of my neighbors use ATT phone and directTV or dish) but I did the math and I'm saving about $20/month by giving up a handful of HD channels I probably wouldn't watch anyhow.

[fuzeman]

Speed or upload download speeds are not the important factor, its the stability of that connection.

[stroker71]

I have Embarq DSL 3.0...it's great.  The best part about embarq is when I do need help and I call in....I talk to an American.  Must of the time I get someone in the south east...very nice people and really good quality service.

I have DishNetwork for TV....once again I like it never had a problem with service.  I like the fact I can go to their website and pay my bill or change the programing.  I am sure you can do that with any but this is my only experience with satellite tv.