I currently have cable internet from Time Warner. The standard service is 5m/384k and costs me a rediculous $59.95 per month since I don't subscribe to cable TV service.

I want more up-stream bandwidth and Time Warner now offers Road Runner Premium in my are which is 8m/512k service. The 8 mbps downstream will be welcomed, but I wish the upstream was at least double that of the standard service. But, I really have no other choice...

Time Warner wants me to pay about $84.99/month for the premium service (again, since I don't have cable TV service). Earthlink sells their service over Time Warner's cable system and they only want $72/month for the premium service with no price increase for non-cable TV subscribers.

So, does anyone know of any downsides to using Earthlink such as throttling bittorrent, blocking ports, etc.? Oddly enough, my service from Time Warner is totally wide-open and unblocked and I would like to continue to have a line like that.

Well, I switched. Since nobody replied I assumed everything was good, or nobody had Earthlink over Time Warner Cable. I was on the phone for about 20 minutes, but once I hung up, I rebooted the modem and I now have an Earthlink IP and the upstream is as advertised. I can't seem to break 5mbps down on any bandwidth tests, but that may be a limit of the servers. I don't know. Can anyone recommend a good bandwidth test that can effectively measure an 8mbps connection?

Oh man, we didn't have time to reply. I have had Earthlink DSL (damn wish I could get their cable) for 4 years.
They are a decent ISP:
Stable. Used to connect for 6 months straight with no problem. Little shaky lately; I blame Sprint.
Solid webmail but crappy anti-spam (Bright Mail, go figure).
10 meg web storage for each of 8 custom e-mail addresses.
4gig per 30 days (capped after) Usenet access with 4 days retention.
Same dirt poor tech support as everyone else (except my local cable company, which was pretty darn good).
Geez, what else... I know I kept them for a reason...

Those cable prices seem quite insane. My local cable company offers 6mbps cheap using eveer-changing monthly offers: $20/month for 6 months, first 3 months free, etc. With no contract, you can cancel and resubscribe whenever. I took thee 3 months free, but decided 6mbps was simply TOO fast, and their lack of extra features didn't make up for it. So, back to Earthlink 1.5mbps DSL running on (goddamn) Sprint.

For bandwidth tests, I use HTTP downloads from Microsoft (couldn't saturate 6mbps), Amazon (happily saturated 6mbps), and PaulWay's server (always surprises me, if it still does HTTP). Then try a torrent for fun and watch your bandwidth max out. My conclusion was that 6mbps+ cable was only good for multiple-stream transmissions like torrent. Single HTTP or FTP connections just couldn't fill the pipe. Thus, not worth it for me.