Cox Essential HSI in San Diego

[Happs]

I am a part time/seasonal resident of San Diego. For many years I used to have basic $10/month DSL with AT&T that was 768 kilobits per second download and 128 kbps upload. It was so cheap that I never bothered to disconnect and reconnect. When the plan increased to $20 per month and the connection speed started to frustrate me, especially watching YouTube videos, I cancelled at the end of my seasonal visit last summer.

I will in town again soon and would like to know what you all think of Cox Essential HSI Internet Service? I am in an older apartment building that provides Cox Cable Television to all units. About 10 years ago, I had a Cox technician come out to somehow bring the RG6 coaxial cable line for the cable TV from upstairs to downstairs so I could connect a television downstairs and when he connected his electronic instrument to the line, he mentioned something to the effect of me being on the border line as far as being able to receive a good high speed internet connection. I assume that I will have to use a splitter downstairs to run both high speed internet and cable TV, correct? How will that impact the connection speed and the cable TV signal? Does the number of people in the same building and nearby using Cox HSI affect the connection? I know my immediate neighbor has Cox and the guy across the walk path in the building opposite has two computers in the same room and is on the internet the entire day.

Will Cox Essential be adequate for me speed wise? I primarily read news on the internet, send/receive lots of email and watch YouTube videos. No gaming, Netflix or downloading.

Am I going to need professional installation or will a brand new splitter and Motorola Surfboard SB5101 modem be ok?

[bearishgurl]

Happs, I think if you try the splitter with your TV, your internet connection will be very slow. Cox Essential Internet service is only 3 mbps to (compared to 18 mbps for Preferred svc) and Essential TV service does not include Advanced TV or Hi Def. I’ve worked in several law offices in older SD bldgs which did not have cable. They had DSL internet service which seemed comparable to Cox Preferred Service to me.

I believe AT&T Uverse serves downtown SD, Hillcrest and Golden Hill. They have 2-3 speeds of DSL service to choose from. Bundled with TV, this might be a better bet for you. The thing is, you might have to sign a 6-24 month continuous contract with them to get the best rates. Cox is now requiring a 24-mo (ETF) be paid of $2 or $10 (per remaining month) if the customer gets a bundle of two or more services with a price-lock guarantee and terminates their service before 24 months is up. I just finished negotiating with them yesterday as I will likely not be here for 24 more months and my bill was going to ratchet up again, this time to $48 more per month.

I believe Cox may have 90-day bundles as well and this may be all you need until next year, when you come back and are a *new* customer again (who is eligible to sign up for another bundle) 🙂

Maybe some other Piggs have some good ideas on how to get good internet service without signing a contract. With good internet service and a TV tuner installed in a PCI slot of a desktop computer, you might not really *need* TV service.

Broadband internet service has more doubled in price in SD in the last decade.

Based upon your OP, I don’t think you need to pay Cox or anybody $60+ to come to your residence and set it up. Your surfboard modem will work fine with Cox and Uverse will let you buy or rent a DSL modem if you go with them.

[spdrun]

I have 3/1 service in NYC, and it’s adequate but not great. Have you considered any prepaid wireless-to-wifi carriers?

[moneymaker]

You could use a SB5101 but that is a DOCSIS 2.0 modem. If you’re planning on still being around a few more years you might as well get a DOCSIS 3.0 modem. Then you will have up to 8 download frequencies instead of just 1. It’s true that a DOCSIS 2.0 is not required for Essential but I don’t believe they cost much more, so if you are going to buy a modem don’t buy a DOCSIS 2.0 ,for streaming I think Essential is fine. Try the self install and once you get online go to 192.168.100.1 in your browsers URL and you will see what kind of signal you are getting. S/N should be greater than 34 downstream should be higher than -10, don’t worry about transmit typically if you downstream is good your upstream will be too. Now if you have intermittent issues then you’ll want to check the TX.

[FlyerInHi]

You could make friends with your neighbor and use their wifi. That’s what I do at my part time residence.

[carlsbadworker]

1. Use your government tax dollar and go to http://broadbandmap.gov/ Find out the providers serve your location there. And call them to find out which one would give you the best deal for your situation.
2. Splitter has signal loss. You may try replacing it with a splitter with signal boost/amplifier to compensate that loss.
3. Speed-wise, 3Mbps will allow you to watch video but not necessarily high quality. But almost of video providers now have adaptive video, so your video quality will be adjusted to the broadband speed rather than constant bufferring, which is what you got with low rate DSL.

[spdrun]

You can also BitTorrent video — it will take a while to download, but then you can watch in high quality.

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