Cox Cable My home has Cox Cable's TV, high speed internet, telephone package deal.  We have had this since July 2003 and have never had any problem.  The guy they sent to the house was able to troubleshoot a minor problem - quickly.  We pay much less than we did for the same services from Southwestern Bell.  I have never had to call tech support, so I can't vouch for this service.

Cox Business Services High speed business DSL.  The one firm we set up with them went smoothly.  They seem to be pretty sharp, technically (they actually understood non byte boundary subnet masks, don't ever ask Bell guy this).

Birch Business Services High speed business DSL.  They seem to have quick and knowledgeable tech support.  They hardly ever go down, and when they do, it is fixed within minutes.  Getting a static IP is no problem.  Good pricing.  We even have a Service Level Agreement with a SDSL line.  That's SDSL (not ADSL).  Our firm's phone service goes through them.  I don't do our voice network, but the guy that does is very pleased.  2005-08 update Birch has closed all OKC offices. Nothing in the Dallas/Fort Worth area either.  I think they are in Atlanta.

NTS Communications Low cost consumer and business dial up.  These guys worked with us extensively and we have a low cost account.  They gave us a static IP on a dial up account.  This did take some work on their end to ensure the same address would be handed by their equipment. http://www.nts-online.net/.  We use this only when Birch goes down (we've never used it in production).  But if we loose our SDSL circuit, give me a dial tone and I can re-route our email through this.

Southwestern Bell Internet Services  This was the first broadband service we purchased, because no one else could offer it!   Well, the service was OK, but it did take three weeks to setup.  Once we get the SWB guy out to the house, he was very helpful.  At work, when we had a SWB problem, it took FOREVER to find someone to solve your problem, and that was on a business account.  Our work connection was through Webzone and then Telepath (both have been acquired).  When we had these guys on our side, they were able to keep SWB on their toes.  They carried a lot of weight, our firm did not.  If you get SWB as a consumer, and then try to call them, you just might get transferred all day long before anyone with a clue will talk to you.  Another firm lost their voice lines due to a mistake on their end.  Due to SWB's huge, aging and disconnected support staff, it took days to fix it.  I just simply think Cox Cable and Birch have much better deals AND tech support.

Access 4 Less Consumer dial up only, no broadband.  I know some people that have used this, but their webwite http://www.access4less.net is gone (as of 8/2005).  What happened?  I heard they were pretty good.

AOL Avoid America Online. Avoid America Online. Avoid America Online.
For years, we fought this battle at work.  First AOL Software would not run on Windows NT4.  Then they fixed it.   Then when AOL pushed their updates, AutoCAD failed, then we fixed AutoCAD, then AOL updated again.  Then MS Word failed.  Then we fixed Word.  Getting the idea?  AOL likes to take over the computer and change all kinds of settings to suit their particular needs.  Worse is that you have no choice, you connect, then they say "wait until we load up your hard drive with stuff you don't need, and you can't do anything until this completes".  They also do not use standard e-mail protocols (SMTP, POP3).  Their e-mail system is totally proprietary.  Strike that, their entire network is proprietary.  Any of the spam proxies seem to have exceptions for AOL (hint: they don't work).  You connect to their network - then they port you to the internet.

You are not directly connected to the internet (you go thru their network).  That's not necessarily bad.  Indeed, their entire philosophy is "Let us handle all your needs, don't sweat it, you've got AOL".  They even advertise that they will provide antivirus for you.  Just sign up.  My main beef with this philosophy is that it trivializes the need to run current security software.  THAT makes the problem bigger than it is now - a computer user that doesn't think about security.  To make the internet a better place, we have got to educate the people on it on how to use it.  OK, I'll stop now.

I do have some friends with AOL accounts (hi JW) but I won't run it.  They have some web browser that's forced onto your system.  I can't stand it.  NOW I'll stop!