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 Review by yuduyl 
UPDATED: 23 days ago
member for 3.7 years, 874 visits, last login: 1 days ago
 Cando,Towner,ND
 $45 per month
 about 5 days
 "Fast speed to most sites, reliable connection,"
 "Slow Usenet speeds, high latency at times,"
 "All things considered, it's really good service...."
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I have had this service for about a month now, it has been reliable. The Usenet service is reduced speed, but has 100k + groups, has a long retention on binaries 30 day + and has a high level of completeness. I use Gmail for email, so I have not had any experience with their email system.
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09/13/08
Taking into consideration where I live (Way out in the country) the speed, reliability and cost; MidCom provides good service. Download speed is really good and the connection has be very reliable. The service is better than what DSL offers. Both are reliable, but MidCom has higher speed for about the same price.
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11/04/2008
Good service all around, Internet is always up and running, excellent download speeds. I'm really happy with their service.
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8/5/09
Continued good service no outages, Usenet still at dial up speeds, but other than that I love this service.
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10/31/09
MidCom has stop offering newsgroups, not a big deal as the speed was at or below 56k, so it was almost useless for binaries.
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Review by ganjah
UPDATED: 62 days ago
member for 7.6 years, 33 visits, last login: 62 days ago
Vermillion,Clay,SD
$45 per month
about 7 days
"Reasonable speeds"
"Very oversold in Vermillion, slows to a crawl after 3:00PM - Update: The 9/14 node splits have reduced congestion!"
"It's an internet connection, but how good remains to be seen. - Update: Pretty solid now."
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Update 09/21/09 - Midco performed the scheduled node splits and now things are significantly better. In fact, I have no major complaints whatsoever now. I have been getting full bandwidth since the day after the node splits. My only minor complaint is pings aren't very stable, but I think that's just a factor of poor peering options in the upper Midwest, not Midco's fault specifically. Thanks for making this connection worth the money! 
Original:
I just moved here, and the only two decent ISP options in Vermillion, SD, city limits are Qwest DSL and Midcontinent cable. I chose the latter, called up, and was installed on an early morning appointment a week later. This was prior to all the college kids arriving back for school.
At first the service was fine, right at about the advertised 15/1 speeds for $35/mo + taxes & fees, both day and night. Then the college kids started coming back into town. Over the course of a week of collegians moving back to town from their summers off, the service has gone from good to 100% completely unusable after 3:00PM on weekdays, and this is my first weekend.
When I say unusable, I mean that on speedtest.net the Midcontinent test server location (in Sioux Falls, SD) which had previously been 7-10ms ping and exactly 15/1 all times of the day and night is now, at the time of this writing at noon on a Saturday, latency is at 153ms ping (we're talking a mere 5 hops to support.midco.net, all completely in-network) and speeds are atrocious, 2.43mbit down / 0.17mbit up.
It may be just my local node, but it's not my inside my house. My wrt54gl running dd-wrt claims zero additional bandwidth usage, and the cablemodem status page (Ambit SpeedStream U10C018) is showing a ton of critical errors, such as:
Time Not Established Time Not Established Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Time Not Established Time Not Established Critical (3) No UCD's Received - Timeout
Time Not Established Time Not Established Critical (3) SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Failed to acquire FEC f...
Time Not Established Time Not Established Critical (3) Init RANGING Critical Ranging Request Retries exhausted
Time Not Established Time Not Established Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Time Not Established Time Not Established Critical (3) SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Failed to acquire QAM/Q...
I've spoken to the houseful of college girls next door, and they're experiencing the same exact issues. In researching this a bit more on campus, I've found a bunch of people say this happens every year. I've placed a service call with Midcontinent, but apparently they may charge me for being called out? First I've heard of that, although having moved from KC where there's a lot of competition, I suppose I was spoiled with the customer service from EverestKC.net, Time Warner, and Comcast all competing.
I guess it's good that Midcontinent has no contracts required, because if this continues or gets worse or is not resolved satisfactorily, I may have to go with the phone-line-required Qwest, which I know for a fact isn't a lot better (having used it at a relative's house) and is more expensive. At least I'd get a local phone number out of that deal, though.
Followup comments:  ganjah
join:2002-03-28
Kansas City, KS
 ·Midcontinent Commu..
·RoadRunner Cable
| Sunday Night After not being around much of the weekend, here's my results at 11:30PM Sunday night. Keep in mind that school starts tomorrow...
Not your typically high-usage night, and you can see that the service is horrible. Supposed to be 15/1, and please recall that this is 5 hops, all in-network. Atrocious. | |
| | ganjah
join:2002-03-28
Kansas City, KS
·Midcontinent Commu..
·RoadRunner Cable
| Re: Sunday Night Called to report it, again, and it's getting worse. Starts at about 3:00PM when kids start getting home from school. Continues most of the night until the wee hours of the morning, and goes all weekend apparently...
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| ganjah
join:2002-03-28
Kansas City, KS
·Midcontinent Commu..
·RoadRunner Cable
| Possible Resolution on the Horizon So, I've spoken at length with Midco and they've acknowledged that almost all of Vermillion is oversold. Their exact words were (from the local tech and the team leads on phone support), "We're planning to resolve insufficient amplification issues with node splits in the near future."
In layman's terms this means that the current node structure in Vermillion is beyond capacity, and they don't have enough bandwidth on their DOCSIS 1.1 system to handle the user density (and probably the college student usage profiles).
Apparently my node is scheduled to be split into two new and independent nodes on Sept. 15 between 12:00AM and 6:00AM. I'll wait to pass final judgment until then. In the meantime, I suppose I can tether to my 3G phone if it gets really bad. Speeds with that unlimited data plan are pretty good, and latency is at least stable, if a bit high.
On a positive note, they did acknowledge all of this information and have credited me my first month of service. The customer service has been good so far, and that's a mark in their favor. Had it been crap, I would have had no incentive to stay. Here's to hoping month two (and beyond) passes without incident! | |
| | ganjah
join:2002-03-28
Kansas City, KS | Re: Possible Resolution on the Horizon Resolved; see updates to the original review.
Current:
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 Review by FenglerF1
UPDATED: 99 days ago
member for 4.6 years, 1806 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Minot Afb,Ward,ND
$58 per month
about 10 days
"Fast Connection, Cheap, Reliable"
"No Self Installs"
"Only Broadband Company in the Area, unless you consider 1.5/256 DSL Broadband."
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Mid Co has a few speed options, 1/384, 15/1, and 25/2 in the area. I went with the 15/1 for $35 plus taxes and fees, I always get the advertised speeds and have not run into any caps yet.
Installation went well, only took about 30 min for the install tech. Mid Co does not offer Self Installs even if you already have a cable modem. Cost for install is $35
Edit: I upgraded to the 25/2 speeds for an additional $20 a month, I get ~23/2
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Review by GamerGeek9
UPDATED: 152 days ago
member for 4 years, 16 visits, last login: 149 days ago
Sioux Falls,Minnehaha,SD
$35 per month
about 3 days
"Great Speeds, Excellent ping times, very very cheap"
"None"
"One of the fastest ISP in the country and very cheap."
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I' ve had Midcontinent Cable Modem service for 3 years now and it's lightning fast. I just bought a new Ambit modem from Midco and It flys. If anyone is getting slow speeds look at replacing your modem. My speeds trippled with my new modem. Some of my friends had DSL and switched to Midco as they were blown away by my speeds. My modem uptime is probably greater than 99.99%. I used to have DSL and would never go back.
****UPDATE****
I've now had Midco for 7years and it just gets better and better. They increased download and upload speeds about 2 years ago and now they have come out with the Ultimate Package! 50Mbps down and 5Mbps up!! I'm not sure I'll get that one but the Midconet Max package Im on now is just amazzing. I know a few people who've tried the local wireless and DSL providers and they all ended up back on Midco. If you want great speeds at a really good price I wouldn't use anyone else except Midco.
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 Review by Deft
UPDATED: 156 days ago
member for 6.2 years, 2551 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Grand Forks,Grand Forks,ND
$114 per month
about 7 days
"Excellent Download/Upload for the Price"
"None"
"Damn good service in the ND area!"
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1st time i got it was 3yrs ago and all i had was a 3mb down/ 128mb up 29.99/mth.. then after about 8 months they came out with an upgrade.. to 256mb up 29.99/mth then after a year or more they sent out Midco Max which is what i have now. and thats 5mb down and 512 up 49.99/mth.
The Tech was excellent both times (since i moved) and both EARLY!! so yea all in all if youre in the ND area and are within the 2800 feet i think.. definitly get MIDCO dont get that crap DSL.. just isnt the same.
***UPDATE** I've moved back to GF,ND its been 2yrs since ive had Midco and WOW they just updated yet again!!! i now have 10mb/1mb down its just amazing! and the Price is unreal 99$ for 1 YEAR!! thats of course without taxes! but you cant beat that hell no!
*****UPDATE**** Recently went to a new package of 89,95 for 6mths and get unthrottled download *16meg* and 768 up, also get 30HD Channels all HBO channels and 200+ channels with that rate..
******UPDATE***** Went to another new Package and its even better 114.00 for ONE YEAR no CONTRACT same as above but with phone and midco just upgraded thier servers yet again! now i get 25mbps down and 2mbps up! woohoo!
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Review by ase500
UPDATED: 196 days ago
member for 7.6 years, 20 visits, last login: 151 days ago
Bemidji,Beltrami,MN
 Business customer
$95 per month
"Very Fast"
"None"
"The Best service In Bemidji Hands down!"
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I am a Midcontinent Business customer I currently get an average of 28-33 mb down and alway 1mb up. I run web, email, ect from this connection no problem. Techs are very helpful and knowledgeable. I would recommend their service over all others in The Bemidji Area hands down. I would also like to note that MidCo has told me that by the end of summer 2009 that they would be full docsis 3.0. This means our already fat pipes are about to get even fatter!
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Review by kerplunknet
UPDATED: 243 days ago
member for 6.6 years, 1 visits, last login: 243 days ago
Grand Forks,Grand Forks,ND
$55 per month
"Unlimited download speed, affordable, great customer service, no downtime, no issues"
"768kbps upload, latency could be better"
"Absolute best internet option in North Dakota!"
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I am going to keep this short. I have used Midcontinent Communications for cable Internet for three years now in Grand Forks, ND, and I have to say that you will find no better internet service.
They have different packages... I think I pay $55/month for unlimited download/sec (I have gotten 23 Mbit/sec before) and 768kbps upload/sec.
I can't think of any real cons to Midco except that the upload speed could be better (but for this area it's great) and latency could be better (but once again... North Dakota is very far away from major cities).
Overall: Midco offers the best Internet service in North Dakota. You will not regret it.
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 Review by kados
UPDATED: 1.2 years ago
member for 6.7 years, 2077 visits, last login: 2 days ago
Watertown,Codington,SD
$39 per month
about 4 days
"Blazing fast, excellent retention on usenet"
"none, yet"
"Love em"
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I was with Qwest DSL for a few years. They kept raising prices, so I cancelled and went back to cable. With dsl I only had a 1.5 mb connection with my wired pc, and about 800 with my laptop on wireless. With my cable on midco, I'm getting 8.5 mb with the desktop, and 5.5mb with my laptop. Couldn't be happier.
Laptop speedtest
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Review by titanmiller
UPDATED: 1.6 years ago
member for 7.6 years, 379 visits, last login: 59 days ago
Grand Forks,Grand Forks,ND
$50 per month
"INSANELY FAST - 30mbps"
"Horrendous Upload - 768kbps"
"Woah!"
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I just upgraded to "Midco Max" which has unrestricted downstream bandwidth and 768kbps upload. The unrestricted downstream varies of course depending on network congestion and server speed, but I have witnessed download speeds of up to 30mbps and bursts up to 45mbps on good servers at off peak times of the day. This just might be one of the fastest connections in America!
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Review by Eugenitor
Posted: 1.6 years ago
member for 1.6 years, 0 visits, last login: 1.6 years ago
Bismarck,Burleigh,ND
$65 per month
about 7 days
"Speed, always connected, no problems"
"Can't think of any"
"Can't believe it's this good"
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God I love the cable connection in Bismarck.
No ping problems with games. BitTorrent and other P2P is absolutely blazing fast. I NEVER, EVER DROP- I only get a new IP address when I reboot. Holy CRAP do I love this ISP.
Monthly fee includes phone, and they've recently upgraded to new cable/phone boxes. Good thing too, POTS in my house is old shit...
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