 Review by rolfp 
UPDATED: 1.1 years ago
member for 8.2 years, 3306 visits, last login: 292 days ago
 Oakland,Alameda,CA
 $50 per month (12 month contract)
 about 10 days
 Southwestern Bell
 "Recently replaced my failed 2-year-old modem for shipping + tax costs only"
 "Takes up to 2 hours on hold to get tech support; 7/27/03: Better response times, lately."
 "Good when everything is working; recent tech support has been good."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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When I was looking for dsl in February, 2000, PacBell, my telco, said it was not available. When Covad said they would provide the service through Mindspring, with a nice rebate on the equipment and install ($49.95/mo and a year contract), PacBell came out to drop another line from the pole and Covad sent out a tech to install the inside wiring, modem, and software. Everything proceeded in a timely fashion, speeds were about 1200K, and, when I called tech support, the wait was a few minutes, at most.
Then, Mindspring and Earthlink merged. The last 6 months of 2001 were full of problems for us in the Bay Area. Calling tech support meant waiting over an hour on hold (over 2 hours, once), and usually only to be told a streetlight was the problem while, outside, the sun was shining.
Most of the people I talked to tried to be helpful and, when my modem failed, I was supplied with a new one for only shipping costs but it took ten days and I had to make several calls and wait on hold for a couple of hours.
Now, for whatever reason, my download speeds are only about 95K and chat tech says the telco equipment is running in safe mode and it will take up to a week to get information. I am getting discouraged with this isp and PacBell is now offering service. Out of the frying pan and into the fire?
=========================UPDATE=====================================
It is now December 2002 and my experiences have improved. I think part is that I installed a POTS Splitter (thanks to the informations at dslreports) and part must be that Earthlink has improved the infrastructure that impacts my service. There has been no downtime in my recent memory and the throughput has been reliably optimal (~1250Kb) for quite a while. Keep up the good work!
========================UPDATE======================================
July 2003: I have been having throughput problems and have replaced all my inside wiring, POTS splitter. Covad was finally dispatched and modem was suspected of being the culprit. New modem on the way.
========================UPDATE======================================
February 2004: Earthlink dsl has been good for some months, after 6 or 8 months of problems. I have
replaced my wiring and equipment, gone through several modems, and had Covad out three times. SBC
has also been involved, more in the background, as all three entities, ELNK, Covad, and SBC have their
own responsibilities staked out, which has made problem solving very difficult and protracted. I got a
new modem that didn't work but kept the power supply, as I noticed a suspicious kink in the low-voltage power cord
coming from my old power supply. Soon after, I started getting dependable, good throughput. I think that, also, something was finally done to the equipment at the CO, as I continued to have problems shortly after changing the power supply. Finally, knock on wood, I am getting good dsl.
=======================9/25/04 UPDATE=================================
Upgraded to 3008 download sync, which is a bit marginal on my line but, usually, workable. There is something about the loop that is affected by warmer weather wherein using the phone will drop sync and static is on the line, at the hotter times of day. Sync will also degrade at the warmer times. I have exhausted all known tech support options, of which SBC is the perceived weak link as they refuse to troubleshoot this type of intermittent on a dsl line. I am thinking about ordering a new line and trying service on that. Outsourced tech support is getting bad reviews and I am discouraged from even using it. Support on this site from the Earthlink forum tech presence is top notch. I was able to get a six month's reduction in price to parallel what is being offered to new customers in this market, so that is welcome. Mostly, I can work around the problems with the phone line and dsl, itself, from Earthlink is reasonably reliable.
========================UPDATE======================================
3/17/06 Been very reliable in safe mode @ 2016/384 since last review. There have been occasional episodes of line problems/static/sync loss but very few compared to before. Connectivity has been rock solid for nearly all this time.
===========================UPDATE===================================
9.16.08
I had to give up the dsl account as my phone line has some fault that seems to show up when the warm weather starts and doesn't go away until the temperatures go back down. I spent a lot of time trying to get some maintenance via the Covad/Earthlink/ATT finger-pointing run around and did see some man hours invested. I appreciate the cost of tracing down such a fault in a long line is not justified by what I pay and have gone to Comcast HSI. I kept my email addys and web storage by changing to what used to be called Earthlink Experience for
07/29/07 Jul 29-Aug 28:Elnk Experience 1.00 9.95 9.95
New Charges: 9.95
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BALANCE DUE: 0.00
07/30/07 Paid By Visa -9.95CR
$9.95/mo. and that works for me.
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