I would like to start this post by stating that mediacom is the most pathetic excuse for an internet service provider that is operating in America. I cannot begin to express the joy that I recieve every time I write them a $40.00 check for “high-speed” internet access. I just love giving my money to a brood of hypocritical liars. 3MB/sec cable internet? You have got to be kidding me. Google’s homepage has been attempting to load for the entire time I have been writing this post. (Over 20 minutes now) Let me just perform a speed test. Right now, at 4:12 PM on Saturday afternoon, a time when your network should be the least stressed. Oooh….the results are in….and my speeds are 240kb/sec down and 197kb/sec upload. All I can say is UNBELIEVABLE!! That is a mere 12.5 percent of what my speed should be!! So next month, I will write you a check for $4.80, which is 12.5 percent of what you are charging me a month. Now for those of you who are thinking, “why are you complaining about this? go outside and enjoy the beautiful day…ya schmuck!” That is all fine and dandy in the middle of the summer when you can frolick around a meadow of wildflowers while holding your girlfriend’s hand, but I have 18 days until my first year review in grad school, and I am trying to do research online. I love your rambling excuses every time I call you to complain about the service…”oh yeh, we are working on getting the new fiber optic node installed and we are moving people off of your grid.” Ok, you were doing that 2 months ago. And my favorite is, “well, we can’t tell how many people are on the network because so many college students are behind routers.” Well, thats not my problem, I live in a house with one computer in a non-student populated area of the city. We need more bandwidth you idiots!! I find it hard to believe that you can’t provide quality internet to a town with a population of 25,000 people. Get more equipment, get more cables, get more nodes, get more fiber optics…or charge me less for your below average service. So thanks mediacom…for holding a monopoly on internet access in Carbondale and providing shameful service. You have further validated my faith in corporate America.