Good-bye Verizon. Hello Comcast.

Verizon pissed me off so much that I've switched to Comcast for voice and internet. I had Verizon DSL and voice phone, over a copper pair of course. The service was rock solid. But since earlier this year, when I switched to 7mb DSL service, they've been cramming my bill with stuff I didn't order. First it was a bunch of internet related products that I didn't ask for (about $20 a month!). I had to call to get that removed, and they didn't want to credit my account. Then a month or two later I noticed $2.49 on my bill for a DSL Gateway Service Plan. Turns out this is an extended warranty on my DSL modem. Had to call to get that removed.

They also pissed me off when I switched from 3mb DSL to 7mb DSL. I called just to find out what it would cost. This was early April. They told me it would be the same price. I pressed them on this and they assured me there would be no price increase. I was skeptical! When the bill came there was a $10 increase. When I called they said it was a promotion that started 17 days after I called. I called too soon, so I wasn't eligible. Then why did they offer it to me? They said I can't have it. I had told the guy I was thinking of switching to Comcast for their high speed internet but figured 7mb was fast enough for me and was wondering what it would cost. In the end it wasn't necessarily the $10 that pissed me off as much as being lied to.

So Comcast was installed yesterday. Only 24 hours, but so far its been good. The internet is lightning fast, at about 20mb download (with power boost) and 2mb upload speeds. The voice is crystal clear and comes with some nice features.

I have to admit that I'm a bit worried about the reliability of Comcast. Verizon was rock solid. Only time will tell if Comcast is as reliable. I'm committed now, so we'll see how it goes.

It is interesting that Verizon recently told investors that the company just isn't interested in phones connected with wires anymore. This explains why they're selling landline operations in 14 states. In my case it wasn't the service that was the problem; it was the shady practice of billing millions of people for extra stuff they didn't ask for. This is how VZ raises extra revenue.

Internet Explorer 8

I'm not having a lot of luck with IE8. I tried the Beta way back and had some problems. I tried the Release Candidate and had similar problems. When it was finally released I tried it and continued to have problems. Last week I loaded it again and tried to use it for a week but there are just too many problems. The only regularly reproducible problem was when loading my Google Apps Mail, which is a variation of Gmail. It would freeze with a big white screen that says "Loading". If I hit refresh it would load just fine. It happened every time. Other problems with IE8 included a lot of locking up - IE would just freeze. I had to kill the process. Very annoying.

The Gmail problem would not happen if I ran without any add-ons enabled ("Start Without Add-Ons). So I removed all the add-ins that I knew I didn't need, and upgraded all the others. I upgraded my antivirus (ESET NOD 32) and the Google Toolbar. Nothing seemed to help that Gmail problem.

Then there were the compatibility problems. I had to set a lot of web sites to run in compatibility mode. Whats up with that? Why can't it just be compatible? If IE had always followed the standards correctly we wouldn't have these compatibility problems.

I think Microsoft is pushing people away from IE and into FireFox and other browsers by putting out such a problem-ridden browser. A quick peek at this thread over on Yahoo Answers is a good example of what I'm talking about. I'm telling you, this thing may drive me into using FireFox in the end. If IE7 is ever taken away from me, or it gets too old for proper support, then I'm probably jumping ship to FireFox.

MagicJack Phone Service

I could have used a cute little title for this entry, like MagicJack, is it really magic? But I see those posts all over the place and it gets old. MagicJack sure seems to bring out the emotions in people. Either they love it or they think its pure evil. My review of MJ can be summed up in a few words: "its $20 a year phone service!"

I bought MJ at WalMart a week ago. I plugged it into my computer, installed the software and it worked. I've used VOIP services in the past so I was familiar with what to expect. It does the job over my DSL internet line and does it pretty darn good for only $20 a year!

People complain because it doesn't run on Linux, or it displays advertisements, or they can't make it work, or whatever. It is what it is... a really cheap phone service.

The software must be running on the PC to make or receive calls. It pops up a window every time you pick up the phone. That gets old. There are plenty of hack sites with ideas on how to run it as a service so you don't get the popups and other geek stuff like that. There is no uninstall. But I don't think I'll have a lot of trouble uninstalling it manually.

Calls are clear and it seems to work very well considering the price. The advertisements are not intrusive at all in my opinion. There are a few quirky things about it, but the price is right so I'm not complaining.

My advice is not to take it so seriously. It works pretty darn good for the price. If you need rock solid reliable phone service then steer away from all VOIP providers and get a copper pair POTS line installed.