Picking an ISP

Here are just some quick notes on the considerations for how to pick your local ISP.

First question to ask prior to acquiring any tool is: what will you use it for? In this case, that'll answer the question of how much bandwidth you need and does it need be synchronous? Are you just browsing the internet, streaming video content among 5 devices, video conferencing with more than 3 people, …?

Second, there are a limited number of ISPs out there relative to the region of our county: AT&T, Cox, Spectrum … (https://www.highspeedinternet.com/ca/san-diego). You'll have to check your address against their service areas.

Third, what are their terms? For example, do they force you to rent their equipment? Is there a contract, …?

In the North San Diego County area, Cox appears to be the only viable option and while their service is good (maybe 1 brief outage a year) they do sneakily increase their rates without notifying their customers and you have to renegotiate your rate at the beginning of each year. Other than that, I own my own equipment and even have the ability to use IPv6 prefix delegation. Cox's firewall in the perimeter network also doesn’t get in your way too much though they do filter certain ports (https://www.cox.com/residential/support/internet-ports-blocked-or-restricted-by-cox.html).

If you have further questions, I may be able to help. You're welcome to reach out …