 Review by Schmackdown 
UPDATED: 65 days ago
member for 6 years, 1254 visits, last login: 3 days ago
 Chicago,Cook,IL
 $40 per month (18 month contract)
 about 8 days
 Ameritech
 "Fast, responsive, knowledgeable"
 "Nitpick: email support will just tell you to call them"
 "Brutal efficiency for experts."
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Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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$40/month for 1.5/768 on a static IP sounded too good to be true, even after I read the positive reviews, but man does this company rule. Ordered on a Wednesday, had the 5861 by the next Tuesday, service turned up sometime between then and Saturday when I sat down and tested it. The only strange thing was that they never contacted me to tell me it was on. The only way you _wouldn't_ want to go with Cyberonic is if you expect some glossy manual about the basics of the Internet, DSL and everything inbetween- it's a pretty stark ordering process, and they don't call to make sure you're OK. That having been said, if you know how all of this works or have been through it before, it's pretty simple: call and have them initiate your order, fax back the order form, wait 10 days, plug in your router, plug in your computer, enjoy your fat pipe.
I asked them to bridge the router so I could use a Linux box to serve up goods with the IP- they didn't have any problem with that, and did it while I was on the phone. I've called twice for sales or support and they've answered the phone within five seconds each time. Never surly, never dumb. If you're the hermit type that doesn't like the phone, though, you'll have to learn how to get out of your shell- I sent a detailed request for the bridging process with all the relevant info they'd need, and they just wrote back and asked me to call them. Which I did, with everything obviously going smoothly, but I don't understand why they don't take advantage of someone _wanting_ email tech support.
Basically, this is like getting raw, cheap power. I don't need any frills, I just need the bandwidth and to be left alone.
Cyberonic keeps the router passwords and config to themselves. If you're the type that hates having a "closed" device on your own network, you might want to look elsewhere. I personally don't care, as long as it's sitting there bridging my traffic.
I signed up for the 18-month contract to get the $40/month and waive the $100 install fee, otherwise I think it's that fee and $50 month-to-month. You have to return the router at the end of the term, and as you may have surmised from the previous paragraph, I doubt if they'll let you use your own equipment. Given how much this service kicks butt, there's no real reason to get the month-to-month unless you think prices are going to radically drop, Worldcom is going to shut down UUNet, or you're going to move.
Tests are giving my trusty Portege 320CT 1190/678; it might be faster if I had a better machine, which I'll get as soon as an AMD-based cube comes out with AGP.
Pings from work(also Chicago Worldcom-based):
Packets: Sent = 34, Received = 34, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 20ms, Maximum = 110ms, Average = 32ms
From a Chicago Ameritech DSL line:
5 packets transmitted, 5 received, 0% loss, time 21610ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 41.431/44.122/45.731/1.443 ms
From a Chicago AT&T T1:
14 packets transmitted, 14 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 27.1/29.3/32.6 ms
From the University of Washington, probably on an OC-192(heh):
18 packets transmitted, 18 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 74.2/75.8/78.2 ms
Traceroutes spend what I consider too many hops inside UUNet, but pings seem to be fine. You get web space and emails, but I have the server for all of that, so I don't need it. You also don't get a newsfeed, which I consider odd, given that it'd be easy enough for Cyberonic to just put one or two up for people to use, but I have other accounts that I can use that for anyway so I don't really care.
Bottom line: get it if you can.
Last entry: I'm moving to BritSys. Same deal, 18 months pre-paid for $40/month, static IP, 1.5M/768K. $70 setup fee. Cyberonic said they'd waive the $100 set-up fee for me for being a returning customer, but after calling three times I couldn't get someone there that was authorized to actually waive that fee. I decided that the $70 was worth it to have a solid local presence on DSLR from a BritSys tech. But I'd recommend Cyberonic to anyone that wants raw bandwidth with next-to-no frills any time.
Back to Cyberonic: BritSys dumped their MCI service in favor of Covad. I wanted to stay with MCI, and between BritSys and Cyberonic they were able to get everything switched over with ZERO interruption to my service. Which is how I thought it could work, but nonetheless was surprised to see actually happen. I am now back on the Cyberonic 18-month plan and as I said above, it's just commodity bandwith. You're on the MCI and that's pretty much it.
Update 4/18/2007: I've been getting desyncs nightly. The line just drops, then reconnects. Playing MMORPGs is extremely frustrating. I have a feeling it's the craptastic router they supplied to me that I had to put into service after the equally craptastic 5861 finally bit the big one. I've sent four emails to Cyberonic, one of them offering to bump down a tier to 3Mb in order to get some stability. No responses, no service on the line. I don't even know why they bother to put up a support email address, they never respond to any of it. I've had it with Cyberonic overall- they used to provide a service few others did, but at this point they're just commodity junk. As soon as my term is up I'm just getting SBC and being done with static. If Cyberonic can't prop up a connection that's up at least 99% of the time, I'll find someone that can.
Update 6/24/2008: Cyberonic came around after the fourth or fifth email, and did a ton of legwork with Covad to get the desyncs straightened out. The problem turned out to be a flaky piece at the CO, I believe, as everything tested OK at my place, and once they pushed the issue up the chain the problems suddenly stopped. I was able to get back up to 6M via just an email, which was nice, though they didn't respond to confirm.
Our building recently changed front-door access systems, so I didn't need my dialtone anymore. I thought I'd scrap the $16/month to AT&T every month and do the 15/1 dryline dealio from Cyberonic/Covad. They said it was available at my place, but evidently ADSL2 needs to ride on straight copper, and there's too much fiber between me and the CO. Irony can be pretty... ironic sometimes. I was able to re-up with Cyberonic for another year at the same rate as I've had all along, which was great of them. The only thing I found lacking was the communication between Covad, Cyberonic and me, as I took a day off to wait for the Covad truck roll, only to get no call all day long. A query to Cyberonic revealed the fiber issue, but I don't think anyone would have told me otherwise, which is a little disappointing. But overall I still don't have to think much about my service, which is still pretty much broadband desire #1 in my book.
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