Review by fivebyfive 
UPDATED: 16 days ago
member for 1.4 years, 37 visits, last login: 9 days ago
 Morgan Hill,Santa Clara,CA
 $29 per month (12 month contract)
 about 5 days
 Verizon (ex GTE)
 "Good spam and virus filtering at the ISP"
 "Install kit arrived a week after EarthLink cut off my Verizon DSL service"
 "Solid DSL service, poor installation coordination"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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I just switched from Verizon Online DSL to EarthLink DSL, mostly because I've been an EarthLink dial-up customer since about 1997. I signed up for Verizon Online DSL at a time when EarthLink didn't offer DSL in my area, but now that they do, I'll save money by getting email and DSL Internet access all from one source.
I woke up Wednesday morning, 22 November 2006, with no Internet connection. The problem was that EarthLink hadn't yet delivered the DSL "Welcome Kit" with the their modem, filters, cables and installation CD. They had cut off my Verizon Online DSL service at midnight and substituted their own signal. Thinking it might be as easy as rebooting the old Verizon-supplied Westell VersaLink Gateway Model 327W modem/router/wireless access point (Model A90-327W15-06, Rev. E; software version 03.00.63a), I cycled the power. The modem rebooted showing a green DSL light, but the Internet light remained dark. I called EarthLink on Friday to find out where the stuff was, and they told me it had shipped late Wednesday, with expected delivery next Thursday! So, here I sat, trying to run a business, limited to only 20 hours of dial-up service per month under the DSL contract! Unfortunately, they'd starting billing me for my nonexistent DSL service based on the date the order was placed, not the date at which I could first install it and take advantage of it.
When I asked about equipment compatibility at the time the DSL order was placed, the rep pleaded ignorance, saying there was no guarantee that Verizon's equipment would work with EarthLink DSL. In other words, it might work, but since EarthLink didn't supply the hardware, I'd be on my own if I tried to use it. In desperation, I spent Sunday afternoon on 26 November poring through DSL Reports forum archives to find the information needed to manually reconfigure my Westell 327W modem to work with EarthLink, and eventually succeeded (thanks to forum member Doctor Olds; no thanks to EarthLink). Sheesh! The modem reports it's now running at 1792 kbits/s downlink speed and 448 kbits/s uplink speed, which is quite good.
It would have been a lot smarter on EarthLink's part to modify their procedures for existing DSL customers -- switch the DSL connection at the phone company's central office only after the installation kit was delivered and hooked up by the customer. That would have provided a seamless transition for me, with at most fifteen minutes to swap DSL modems and reboot.
(The EarthLink installation kit arrived on 29 November 2006, a week after it was shipped. I opened it to examine the contents and the packing slip, but haven't used any of the materials, since the equipment that I had been using with the Verizon DSL installation is still working fine, and the modem supplied by EarthLink has fewer features.)
(Update 9 December 2006)
The modem is still reporting 1792 kbits/s downlink speed and 448 kbits/s uplink speed. Error rate is zero. Flawless performance, so far. My service location is just under 4500 feet from the central office.
(Update 7 November 2007)
Just one hiccup about a month ago, where the carrier dropped for a few minutes. It required a modem reboot. Otherwise, no problems.
(Update 26 February 2008)
The Westell 327W DSL modem from Verizon just gave up the ghost, so I ended up using the ZyXEL P-600 series DSL modem from EarthLink after all. It has a rudimentary router built into it, a rather poor firewall which fails the Gibson Research online firewall probe test, and no wireless capability. I turned the modem's firewall and router off using the browser-accessible configuration screen, i.e., put it into "bridge" mode, and set the modem to automatically log into EarthLink via PPPoE, so that if the carrier were to drop, in theory the modem would automatically get my home network back online within about 10 minutes. Then, I bought a Netgear WGR614 v7 Wireless Router that has better 802.11g wireless range and a better firewall than the Westell 327W had, making my computers totally invisible to the Internet. The wireless chip set in the WGR614 is by Atheros Communications ( »www.atheros.com ), the same as in the WG511 networking card in one of my laptop computers, so they talk to each other flawlessly, though the WGR614 still has trouble talking to my Compaq laptop equipped with a Broadcom wireless chip set. (Broadcom seems to make cheap junk that laptop vendors love to buy because it saves them a few pennies, at the expense of customers of said laptops beating their heads against the wall because they won't reliably connect to 802.11 hot spots half the time.) I don't know what chip set the Westell 327W uses, but it wouldn't connect to Compaq and Dell laptops with built-in wireless networking either.
Followup comments:  GZ
join:2007-02-09
Torrance, CA
| Verizon to Earthlink - Westell 327w I'm in the same situation re: switching from
Verizon to Earthlink. Could you pleeeze tell
me how to reconfigure the Westell 327w or maybe
point me to the right posts by Doctor Olds?
I started this whole Earthlink trip back on
December 10th!
TIA | |
| fivebyfive
join:2006-11-26
Morgan Hill, CA
 ·EarthLink
·Verizon Online DSL
|  Westell 327W setup for EarthLink
Protocol = PPPoE
Account ID = [my_email]@earthlink.net
Account Password = [my_EarthLink_password]
DNS Primary = 207.69.188.171 (West Coast DNS)
DNS Secondary = 207.69.188.172 (East Coast DNS)
VPI = 0
VCI = 35
NOTES:• The modem maintenance login name and password are not necessarily the same as your EarthLink account login and password.
• If you live in the eastern half of the continental United States, swap the IP addresses for the Domain Name Servers, i.e., the East Coast DNS would be your primary and the West Coast DNS would be your secondary.
• The DNS IP addresses shown are for EarthLink's "Opt Out" servers. If you try to connect to a site that doesn't exist, you'll see an error message on the browser screen. This is the way your browser should normally work. EarthLink provides these servers but doesn't endorse their use. They would prefer that you use 207.69.188.196 (West Coast DNS) and 207.69.188.197 (East Coast DNS). These servers will redirect your browser to an advertising page of their choice if the site you want is down or doesn't exist.
• Remember, if you change your EarthLink login or password, these must also be updated in the 327W. If you don't, you'll be able to connect to EarthLink mail, but you won't be able to access most Web sites. | |
|  | 
Doctor Olds
I Need A Remedy For What's Ailing Me.
Premium,VIP
join:2001-04-19
1970 442 W30
clubs:
| Re: Westell 327W setup for EarthLink said by fivebyfive :• Remember, if you change your EarthLink login or password, these must also be updated in the 327W. If you don't, you'll be able to connect to EarthLink mail, but you won't be able to access most Web sites. Actually you will not get authenticated and will not get a PPPoE session if you change your Primary Username or Password and do not update your login credentials to match in the Modem. You won't be able to access email or any web sites until after you do that.
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