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Review by wildweasel0 
UPDATED: 4.2 years ago
member for 5.7 years, 22 visits, last login: 3.8 years ago
 Chester,Morris,NJ
 $29 per month (12 month contract)
 about 5 days
 "now clocking 1.5 mbps to 4 mbps - and constant"
 "web space confusing"
 "highly improved - better equipment"
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I had such high hopes for Patriot Media. I'm a former user of the horrendous RCN one-way cable modem that was so bad, I needed to write letters to the NJ board of Public Utilities to complain. When I saw that Patriot had come in and seemed to right the ship, I was ecstatic. I have Sprint DSL, which is comparatively overpriced. Sprint operates like a monopoly in my town and I was hostage to them for years. Now with Vonage VOIP, I can nearly cut them out of my picture. Patriot was going to be the last nail in their overpriced, over taxed coffin.
First, they came to my home with 3 people to install a cable modem; "trainees" they said. OK, then, they disconnected my amplifier because the cable modem would not work, OK I said. Once they finished, a mere 15 minutes of work, I was on my way. I have a fairly robust but not uncommon setup:
Linksys WAP router
1 desktop
1 wireless laptop, sometimes 2
Cisco ATA for VOIP
Xbox console
Within a few days, I noticed that my service disappeared, sort of. I went about resetting everything and a phone message on their system said they were doing work in the area. Fair enough. Then it happened again and again. I called them, they instructed me that they do not support routers. I informed them that while on DSL, the router never had any issues and all my components worked flawlessly. I had dynamic IP with both and the setting should be the same. Call was unresovled and I opened a "ticket" to have someone assist me with my webspace. That was one month ago.
Since that call, I've called them a dozen times, with the similar prblem to troubleshoot and opened several "tickets" and no one ever calls back. Their most common answer: "we don't support routers." I've begged them to help me because I really hate Sprint and really want to get off their system. I expained to them that I cannot have daily service interruptions because I have VOIP phone and when they go out, my phone goes out. They offered to send a tech out but he wouldnt touch the router and if he was unable to resolve, I'd have to pay for the visit. I told them no way.
I called linksys and they informed me that the cable modem, a Toshiba PCX 2600, needs a patch to work correctly and that my ISP should push it to me. Of course, Patriot had no idea what I was talking about. Then comes the kicker. All of a sudden, my Virus Scan began picking up various viruses. Where could they have come from? While on Sprint's DSL for the last year, 0 virusus. One month on Patriot: 8 viruses detected. Hmmm. My surfing habits did not change one bit. Today I get a spam e-mail through their system soliciting auto warranty with a bunch of jibberish links in it. What the hell was that?
Suffice it to say, they suck, their system sucks, their tech support is terrible and if you are one of the few millions who have a router, you better get used to resetting the whole network once a day. All in all, it was worth what they charge for their first month of service: $0. Major disappointment in every way. Cancelling them tomorrow.
UPDATE - 8/20/05
I re-ordered this service and had it installed again in the middle of July. So far, near flawless connectivity and service.
Had free installation and 29.99 for 1 year. Better than Sprint DSL by a mile now. I suspect that the big change is due to an equipment change as I now was given a Motorolla Surfboard modem instead of the Toshiba that I got last year. before ordering, I contacted Linksys and Patriot to ask if there was any known technical issues with these two pieces of hardware working together and they both said they should work together fine. The Patriot Media rep recommended that I receive the surfboard intsllation when I reordered and told me that the Toshiba was a problem with Linksys routers. that confirmed my problems from last year.
Anyway, I got the surfboard, called Linksys to get the router re-configured properly and I have been very happy ever since. The cable service, now being superior to the DSL service, works with my Vonage VOIP system way better and more clearly.
The only thing I have not fuigured out yet is how to get my wep space configured correctly. With earthlink, it ftped easily and my space worked like a file manager, able to file-share and all no problem. I think I may need to call patriot to get my webspace configured correctly.
Mail working well, no issues there.
Finally, I have not had to call their customer service once so we'll see what happens when I do. In the mean time, you can't complain about a service that's worked so well that I have had no real need to call them!
In a few months, I'm moving to another section of town and will have to xfer this service to my new home. Hope all the good moves with me.
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Review by MASantangelo
UPDATED: 4.3 years ago
member for 5.3 years, 999 visits, last login: 11 days ago
Pittstown,Hunterdon,NJ
$45 per month (12 month contract)
about 2 days
"Speed is consistant, Tech Support has improved"
"Not as stable as it used to be - WoW causes rampant disconnects."
"Weird connection issues are driving me batty."
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We currently have 3mb download, 512k upload, high speed cable that is 45.95 when ordered with the standard cable tv package. It comes with 5 email addresses (including the main account used for support logins). You get assigned 1 IP address, though the next package above it includes 3, which is good for people with many computers but no desire for a router. It's a good deal in my opinion. The order and installation process was simple enough, though they wouldn't help with router installation (unsupported). It was simple enough to configure on our own however (WMP54G works very well with it).
For the past 6 months PatMedia has been nothing but smooth sailing. I've seen nary a hang or loss in service for the entire period, except for once when we lost signal for a half hour during a thunderstorm. We weren't home during that period, but a quick review of network traffic showed that we had lost all incoming and outgoing data.
Made a bi-yearly call to tech support to see if they were cleaing up their act (i.e. using knowledgeable people who can clearly convey information), and the people I talked to seemed to be quite good at what they were doing, telling me exactly all the technical information that I wanted to know with nary a stutter. People spoke quite well and conveyed information excellently, no need to ask them to repeat themselves.
Additionally, you can find support for PatMedia on the forums, courtesy a few techs who do it pro-bono on the forums. That's always a plus, it's kind of a direct line to them here.
All in all, 8.5/10 after a shaky first few months, but now things are nice and calm.
Update 7/14/05:
Frequent connection drops when playing World of Warcraft... Generic instability... Slow response time when using web-based ticket requests... LONG down time due to 'maintenance' which has no real affect on my bottom line... Really starting to drive me crazy.
Update 4/24/06:
Drop outs have all but disappeared. Connection seems to have leveled out. Thing sare back to normal and I am a happy customer once again.
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 Review by stray
Posted: 4.5 years ago
member for 9.8 years, 3599 visits, last login: 2 days ago
Stirling,Morris,NJ
 Business customer
$71 per month
about 2 days
"Good speeds, excellent support, good price/performance"
"No News Server, a few kinks left in the old RCN infrastructure"
"Good value, these guys do try harder!"
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I've had Patriot cable based internet at my small office in Stirling, NJ for about 14 months now. Currently it's 8000/768 speed, upgraded for free over the past year from 5000/512 that I signed up for. All in all the service has been pretty good, although there's been a few outages. What's been nice is that Patriot customer support (phone, here on DSLR, and by email) have been very informed and responsive. I can deal with brief outages (once every 2 or 3 months) if my ISP is responsive. Even when there's a problem or outage, somehow their phone lines are unclogged and their representative has the tools and knowledge to find out what's going on and initiate a repair.
They've sent a truck here twice, once when my modem (I owned it) flaked out, and they replaced my modem on the spot (for a $2/mo. rental fee). I was happy that they were willing to roll a truck for a problem that was with my equipment, and that they had a replacement part on the truck.
Although Patriot phone support has been pretty good, I've also PM'ed their customer service reps who hang out on DSLR. Working Class Dog (now moved on to a new life) was particularly instrumental in getting me to sign up for Patriot in the first place, instead of Verizon DSL. Interestingly, WCD gently suggested that Patriot cable might NOT be the right choice for a business because they couldn't provide business class support (i.e. mission critical connectivity). I was impressed enough with his honesty (and Verizon's total lack thereof) that I signed up. Other Patriot CS reps here on DSLR (GB, DBurton, smyle1) have also been responsive and even followed up minor problems with a phone call to me.
Here in Stirling, as in many other places, Patriot inherited the now bankrupt RCN's cable infrastructure. Given the totally rotten state of the old RCN system, Patriot seems to have done a good job in rebuilding the network. Things have become much more reliable over the past year and Patriot has graciously bumped everyone's speeds up at no charge.
Install was pretty easy, although I had to wait 2 days for an installer to come. I could have done a self install, since there was an active cable line already in my office, but Patriot would not allow the self install.
I get fairly consistent speeds near the maximum of 8000/768 and pings to most of the internet are quite good. From time to time DNS is a bit slow, but not intolerably so. I don't use their email services, so I can't comment. I wish they had a news server, as the competition, Verizon, has a fairly good one included in the (lower) fee.
Nonetheless, at $71.99/mo. it's a fairly good bargain for a small business, considering that I was paying $119 for essentially the same service at my old office with business class optimum online from Cablevision.
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 Review by peruser1
Posted: 4.8 years ago
member for 5.4 years, 31 visits, last login: 2.7 years ago
Somerset,Somerset,NJ
$42 per month
about 2 days
"Installers-Excellent, Tech Support- Informed, Speed-Super"
"None"
"Consistent and Reliable Speeds, Knowledgeable Tech Support"
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Had 3 Meg modem installed. Installers were on time and did a beautiful job. Both guys climbed up on my steep roof to run a dedicated line even when I told them there already was a cable in the room. Did a great job! Ran cable cleanly and with care. Tried to tip them but they refused.
Speed has been great so far. Have called tech support a few times for questions regarding email accounts and router setup. First Class customer support. Actual Live Person!! Haven't had any down time except for a half hour one day and outages due to power loss. I love the speed!!! (Did I say that already) I know others may be spoiled but to me 3+ megs is beautiful. Ran a few speed tests at night and consistently get over 3 megs usually 4. Had the service for almost a year now and always wanted to give kudos where it is due (just never had the time).
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Review by krewl1
Posted: 5.3 years ago
member for 6 years, 624 visits, last login: 59 days ago
Asbury,Hunterdon,NJ
$56 per month
about 7 days
"fast intstall,my initial problem handled fast and courteous"
"none so far"
"fast reliable speed"
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I changed from Sprint where I basically had the same package but I paid over $100 a month for the service. I have had no regrets in doing so. So far my connections have not gone down and the speed has been consistent. I had an intial problem in signing up which was taken care of swiftly by employees who monitor these forums. I could not be any happier.
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Review by rct828
Posted: 5.4 years ago
member for 5.4 years, 5 visits, last login: 3.2 years ago
Mendham,Morris,NJ
$69 per month (month by month)
about 1 days
"Fast Reliable Connection"
"None so far"
"Very Good Connection"
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I have frequently used broadbandreports.com to check my internet connection speed throughout the day. I have found the results to be pretty even and level. I am always around 3.5 mb/s down and 1.5 mb/s up. That is relatively acceptable. I haven't had any problems with my connection so I haven't had to call their customer service staff (which I hear is horrible), but the guy who installed the cable for us was friendly and knew what the hell he was doing. I haven't had the chance to use the network for gaming yet so my review from a gamer's perspective doesn't really mean anything. But overall I find that Patriot Media's internet connection is just fine.
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Review by nayeen
Posted: 5.4 years ago
member for 5.4 years, 59 visits, last login: 3.1 years ago
Hillsborough,Somerset,NJ
Contract price not specified.
"fast in the day"
"slow at night"
"its so slow at night"
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ive had patriot media for awhile now and ever since about 3 months ago it has always been crap at night. its worse than 56k at the night time. but during the day right up to 8pm its fast as anything. i just had a tech guy over and said everything was fine but did give me a new modem and said to check it out. i dont think it will help. is anyone else with patmedia lagging a lot at night time? im guessing they dont have a lot of bandwith to go around or something i dont know but i need some help cause it really pisses my off. waiting so long for a page to load!
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Review by lmg1
Posted: 5.6 years ago
member for 5.8 years, 14 visits, last login: 4.7 years ago
Somerville,Somerset,NJ
$55 per month
"High speed, high quality, no disconnects"
"None"
"Highly recommended"
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I've read a number of complaints here about Patriot Media, and I simply cannot relate to them. Patriot Media took over the cable system in my area from RCN last summer.
I had been using the RCN 1-way cable modem for about a year, and was very dissatisfied. Disconnects were frequent - probably due to the telephone uplink - and there were occasional outages. The uplink was limited to 23KBps because of the phone hardware in my development. It took RCN three service calls over a week to finally get me up and running, with no apparent coordination between the techs and customer service. All I can say is that it was a little better than dial-up.
When Patriot Media took over, I received a letter in the mail telling me that I would have 2-way cable modem service within 30 days, and all I needed to do was arrange for the service call. I did. The tech arrived on time, and within 30 minutes I was up and running. There was one minor screwup: The tech told me to reboot my computer (I forget why), and he left before it was back up. When the computer came back up, the modem wasn't connecting, and the tech had driven away. I cursed and called Tech Support, they did something, and all was well.
Since installation last summer, I have had zero problems and zero interruptions.
The other day, Patriot informed me that they were boosting download speed from 1.5MBps to 3.0MBps, while raising the monthly fee by $1. I now have 3.0MBps down/512KBps up, and my real-world numbers are usually 90%+ of theoretical according to the tests here.
Speeds are variable, yes: You are sharing a bucket of bandwidth with all the users on your cable segment. When everybody comes home from work and gets on the Internet, your speed will drop, but that's life. In real-world use, I don't see it. Differences between web sites are probably a bigger factor in variability than local network congestion.
Bottom line: I'm happy and appreciative of the service, and would definitely recommend Patriot Media as an option.
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Review by pnosker
Posted: 5.6 years ago
member for 6.6 years, 1936 visits, last login: 170 days ago
Stockton,Hunterdon,NJ
$54 per month
about 3 days
"Good connection reliability/new 3300/560kbps service/great tech support via BBR"
"Tech support not always very knowledgable on phone, little expensive"
"Great value (little pricy), if you're willing to get online tech support"
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I got the install via RCN, so I can't really comment about that. Good uptime, except in beginning after transitions. Finally we have 2-way service, and I'm very pleased with it. Raised speeds just help more. I haven't personally asked for help here, because after 2-3 calls via phone support, they fix my problems. I have seen great tech support online via WCD... they are very helpful, and eager to help users via BBR. They even provide private phone #'s to call if help is needed. I'm 99% pleased with this company, only if they didn't have (very high) invisible caps (which I haven't hit yet), and such uncompetitively high prices. (Comcast has 3Meg (invisible caps) for $29.99 for first 3 months, and less than 54.95 a month afterwards). Overall Service = 5/5
::::UPDATE:::: - 4-6-2004
This service ROCKS... great constant speeds
::::UPDATE:::: - 5-7-2004
Had some issues of disconnect for a week or so, tech support (WorkinClsDog) was right on it, fixed.
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Review by mhchin
UPDATED: 5.6 years ago
member for 9.3 years, 86 visits, last login: 1.2 years ago
Flemington,Hunterdon,NJ
$49 per month
about 35 days
"Always on."
"Variable connection speeds."
"Service and product does not justify the price."
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I miss my Optimum Online and IO Digital. For the same price/mo, I was getting stable 3 Mbps service. I moved to Flemington and had to settle for Sprint FastConnect DSL that operated at a stable 1.3 Mbps but for a premium price. OK - enough sobbing about Optimum Online but onto sobbing about PatMedia.
Patriot Media notified me that the digital upgrade was coming to my area and that I should fill out a form, indicating the services that I wanted, i.e., cable channels and internet service, and to select a time to have the installation performed, which was not to be less than 30 days from the receipt of the notice. One month later, the technician comes to swap out my analog cable box for the digital and to connect the Toshiba PCX2600 cable modem. He powers up the box and nothing - he scratches his head and calls the central office, who tells him that my service will not be on for another few days. Strike one - bad interoffice coordination / communication. Fortunately, I still had my Sprint DSL activated.
A few days later, another technician comes and connects everything. He checks the cable modem connection and it's running at 1.3 Mbps. From time to time, I run speed tests using the BBR tools and those from other sources and have found the speed to be unstable. There cannot be that much of a load on the system for me and some others to get as low as 450 kbps! Because we telecommute, we need to rely on a relatively stabe HIGH speed connection. I called PatMedia customer service to inquire about the slow service. First response from them was, "It's your router." Of course! I was born just an hour ago. My wireless router has been used with 3 other ISPs with speeds averaging no less than 1.3 to 3 Mbps, and I never had this problem! Second response, "Reboot your modem." We'll see about that. Late last night, in one hour's time, I ran several speed checks and PatMedia was clocked at 900, 400, 600, and 1200 kbps. Only after was it running at 1200 kbps was I able to tunnel through my VPN and work "normally".
It is ridiculous to pay $50 each month for such a varying product. Hmm... I better check the fine print to see if I am paying for dynamic broadband as well as a dynamic IP  Imagine buying a case of water every month and each bottle has a volume varying from full to one-third full. Would you be happy paying the same price for this as for a case of water where every bottle was full? Of course not. What can we do about such an inconsistent product? Patmedia, like all other ISPs, legally state it in black and white, "... speeds UP TO 1.5 Mbps." Without competitors like Optimum Online, we as consumers, have very few options. I can always hope that Optimum Online buys them out, then we will have 3 Mbps service at a reasonable price. In the meantime, I will keep observing PatMedia's performance. I may return back to Sprint. If the company is willing to pay for PatMedia's 3 Mbps service as part of the telecommuting package, we may look into that. The way things are now, I doubt PatMedia will be able to come through. Even if we were to get 2 Mbps, I would still feel cheated - in this case, our company, who would be paying the bill, would be cheated.
{Sigh}... just ran a quick test on the network here at work and the results are:
2004-03-09 16:38:25 EST: 26843 / 10801
Your download speed : 26843321 bps, or 26843 kbps.
A 3276.7 KB/sec transfer rate.
Your upload speed : 10801080 bps, or 10801 kbps.
Broadband! .. above the 4mbit barrier!
====================================================
2004-March-30 -- News Update!
As promised, Patmedia boosted download speeds to 3 Mbps (upload speed is still 512 kbps). Speedtests show that I am running at 86% of the advertised speed, which is pretty satisfactory. Kudos to Patmedia! Could I ask for more? Sure, I could -- 1 Mbps upload speed would be nice... some of us do work from home . The cherry on top would be to install a wireless network 802.11a/b/g throughout the Patmedia coverage area so that we could enjoy the great outdoor Spring weather or pretend to work by the public pool in the Summer  .
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