Questions for Part Time Villages Residents Using Xfinity Internet Service
 

After over five years, we are finally considering getting high speed internet service at our Villages home. Xfinity offers a budget internet only plan that is 25 Mbps for $20 per month for the first year, then it jumps to $43 per month based on current pricing. They also stated that part time residents can turn the plan on and off based on when they are at their homes. When the plan is turned off, they charge $8 per month to keep the plan on hold.

My two questions are: 1) has the putting the plan on hold thing worked as seamless as Xfinity claims? Can you simply call if you are flying down for a couple of weeks at various times throughout the year and easily turn the plan on and off? 2) are you able to stream video content, without buffering, from services like Netflix and Amazon Prime with 25 Mbps? I would greatly appreciate feedback from anyone who has experience using this service. Thanks : )

We have the 25Mbps plan and have never seen buffering on Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime streaming. We primarily use a Fire Stick but have also used the Xfinity Flex box and the Smart TV features of our television.

We are currently in our first year of the budget plan. We didn't know about the stop/start feature so we missed out on that.

Edit: Just ran three speed tests from different providers: 23,6Mbps, 24.96Mbps, and 25.3Mbps all while streaming the football game

You may want to clarify it with Xfinity. Several posters on other internet sites have said that the minimum Xfinity seasonal hold period is 90 days and the maximum period is 215 days. Also, I wouldn't trust 25 mbps for streaming. When you pay for internet service they say that the speed is "up to 25 mbps". So, they don't guarantee that speed.

There are some limits on the vacation holds for the service. I think you can do it only once a year and it is really geared for snowbirds who might want service for 6-7 continuous months. You can't turn service off and on for a long weekend.

25mbps should be plenty for watching those services on a single TV at a time. Might need to up it if you are trying to watch 4k content or multiple TV's at once. Talk to them, if you find you are buffering, you can add more Mbps for a small $$$ increase at a later date.

Cable/internet/cell phone companies NEVER guarantee speeds. Check the fine print.

If Century Link is available in your area you might look into their offerings. I think that is the company that has decent rates and grandfathers people in, so your rate won't ever go up as long as you keep the service. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

kathy

Yes the shutoff is mostly seamless but it isn't available for just 1 or 2 weeks. There's a minimum. I don't remember what the minimum was. I also agree about the 25mbps. for $50 you can get up to 100mbps from xfinity for a year. And then when your year is up, tell them you want whatever the "new customer" special is (it's the same deal that you had all year), or else you'll cancel, and then sign right back up with the new customer special anyway. That's what I did. For 2 years so far I'm paying $50/month for 100mbps.

About that speed: the speed only applies if you hook your device (computer, or TV, or laptop, or tablet) directly to the modem. If you are hooked up to a router, and the router is the thing connected to the modem, your speed is reduced significantly since it's on a shared connection.

The more thing you have turned on, that are connected to that service, the slower the speed across each device. If you only have one device and no router, you get that 100mbps easily.

I've had Century Link fiber optic in the area of St. Charles Blvd since 2011 and only had one outage in that entire time. I pay $49 a month including tax and guaranteed for life for 100mpbs speed, it usually tests out between 80 and 88.

I vaca house online, takes 5 minutes, and only takes 24 - 48 hours to start or stop.

I don't know what you mean by "I vaca house online." But no matter how seamless it is, how quick it happens, how many hours to start or stop, there's still a minimum requirement. You can stop service for a minimum of "x" weeks or months at a time. You can stop it for 2 months, minimum, or 3 months, minimum, or 1 month, minimum. You can't stop service for just a couple of weeks. It's not an option.

Well, the 100 mbps is download speed (upload may be different) always measured by the modem hardware, and can be limited by home network devices or broadband useage on your network branch. Device speeds really depends on the quality of the devices in your network, and the load/size of the broad band network to which you are connected. My network design is Modem -> router -> switch -> wired devices with 1 wireless device, (wired to ceiling wireless access point) and 7 wired devices. The switch is a gigabyte switch, so that is not the bottleneck. The nat router is high speed, with two ports, with 1 port directly to streaming hard wired television, and the other to the switch for all the other devices. Wife and I worked on our laptops with streaming TV on during the day, and never have had speed problems (I push alot of data around back and forth). At night with everyone on the TV streaming, occasional buffering issues which is the broadband network branch usage with spectrum in Marsh bend.

With the current network up north, the additional of the entire city school system on video on the network, last 5 months, only 1 day did we have work connection issues, and that was on the spectrum end. . . not ours. However, talk to the neighbors on our branch, and they are always having drop issues, due to their home network design, not the broad band network.

normally, there are always issues with networks which are complex, but always best to have quality home network components, and wired wherever possible.

sportsguy

After further research, I have learned that the minimum hold time is three months and the maximum is nine months. It is definitely a plan designed for snowbirds, who come to their homes once per year for the entire cold season. It is not a plan for snowflakes, who come to their second home often throughout the year for several shorter stays, even though their total time there during the year might be the same or longer.

I also learned that one can put their internet service on a low cost hold plan that completely shuts off the service. For a larger cost, the internet service can be put on a hold plan with limited speed and data that stills allows smart home monitoring and security systems to work remotely.

I only understood some of that (I'm a software and component PC person, not much of a network person). But my network is just xfinity with my own Netgear modem and router. My desktop computer is plugged directly into the modem. Our TV (which has a Roku stick) is in another room, the laptop is on a desk on the other side of my office. We have two cell phones (which are set to wifi when we're home since we don't have unlimited data on our cell plan), I have a tablet in the bedroom that I use for news, the weather, alarm clock, and e-book, and I have a wireless printer in another part of my office that all devices except for the TV have access to. My sister also has access to the printer remotely from Connecticut.

With all those things running on a fairly low-end high-ish speed Netgear modem and router, we have only very rare hiccups on the TV. Other than that, we can do everything we need, and I can watch movies on my desktop (I have a 26" monitor and wireless in-ear headset).

OBB,

Sounds like you are doing fine! I am originally trained in Finance but have supported IT most of my career, other than 5 years in M&A / global consolidations, with the first 5 years supporting LAN/WAN network R&D in the early 90's with some of the peeps on the Ethernet standards committee, so I have learned from experience with lunch discussions and actual WAN / LAN usage experience. Now I do finance database design work as a SQL Server dba, so I work with the network and security peeps every once in awhile. . and ask them network questions when I get stuck. .. ie, i know enough to be real dangerous but to also ask the right questions

So in your house, most all of your devices can individually handle the speed requirements, so when all on the same network, then the network components and design are the limiting factor. . . which is why I tried to give examples of a higher end design to eliminate home design issues, or when the broadband can be the limiting factor at certain times of the day. Went to best buy and they didn't understand why I was doing it when looking for components. . . and i needed two closets to get enough room for everything, in a new build. Had to call Galaxy back in because they wired it wrong, they didn't believe me until they got their network guys to the house.

So I just happen to be particular in my entire work environment with technology, including my network, pc specs and software. . . as I am sure you are with your pc and software. . . (learning python as an old dog is very, very slow)

sportsguy

OP asked is it was as easy as Comcast claims, didn’t ask the minimum or maximum of hold. Just answered the question, YES it’s easy to do. Who would stop service for couple of weeks?

Since 2009 have put Comcast on vaca hold, (north) or seasonal hold, (TV)

North at both homes, minimum is 30 days max is 6 months. In TV minimum has always been 90 days, and the maximum I have used is 9 months, with no problems. I go online, and remove whichever hold on either home, while driving, by the time I arrive it up and running.