Having been an Optimum customer for 5+ years, my recommendation is that nowadays you should NOT order Optimum Online. Why? Because it is EXTREMELY SLOW.

Once upon a time, I installed Azureus (bittorrent) and blazed uploads and downloads at 200 kB/s. Then one day everything stopped working. Azureus stopped working, and my web browser stopped working.

I thought it was my router, so I tried a new one. I tried a direct connection. I tried different bittorrent clients, and different web browsers. I came to dslreports and then I read about the 20 kB/s bandwidth throttling. That describes what I’m seeing now.

When any bittorrent client is running, Upstream AND Downstream speed is limited to 20 kB/s. This is equivalent to *3* dialup modems and far below the ordinary (non-bittorrent) Optimum Online speed of 20 or 50 dialup modems.

Why is this important? Because P2P is the way to get files these days, and P2P requires a fast upstream speed. Not only is the upstream speed on a cable modem already 1/2 to 1/15 the downstream speed, but the moment you fire up a P2P client, Optimum slices your bandwidth to 1/10 of what it was before!!

Take a look at Optimum’s recent product launches. They upgraded their basic service from 8/2 to 15/2 and then offered Boost at 30/2. See what’s going on? You CANNOT get upstream out of these people.

Anybody looking for internet service these days should be looking at carriers with fast upstream speed. If this means $200/mo for a half-T1, then do it. Even if you don’t know what bittorrent is, your kids will use it, and they will fail with Optimum Online.