Review by Yikes2000 
UPDATED: 52 days ago
member for 8.2 years, 2517 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Irvine,Orange,CA
 $20 per month (12 month contract)
 about 12 days
 AT&T
 "Fast Activation. Reliable. Great Customer Support."
 "Must have patience as DSL service involves another company."
 "Best DSL ISP -- nobody is better."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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The SpeedStream 5360 I bought on eBay become unreliable a few months ago. It would stop working once a week - sync light is on, but no traffic can pass through, at which point I must power cycle the modem. I replaced it with the backup SpeedStream provided by DSL Extreme (see my original review).
Lately, latency has becoming a problem for certain servers. DSL Extreme is receptive to my complaints, and is trying to resolve the issue.
========== Previous Review November 2002 ==========
I ordered the service on 10/20/2002 for the 1.5mbps/256kbps plan. The modem (Arescom) arrived three days later on 10/23/2002. Plugged it in, no sync. No big deal since activation was 10/28/2002. Two days later 10/25/2002, got good sync but speed is pathetic at 50kbps down, 250kbps up. Called them up and was told to wait until activation date.
On activation date, the speed is still 50/250. Called them up and was told to call back the next day because they can't open a trouble ticket with PacBell until *AFTER* the activation date. Called back the next day to open the trouble ticket. They scheduled a truck roll with PacBell to check my line. PacBell technician came to my house on the same day and said my in-house wiring "could" be the problem. The next day I ran a dedicated CAT-5 telephone wire from the phone box outside my house to the DSL modem. Speed was unchanged, thus my in-house wiring isn't the problem. Called up DSL Extreme and they agreed to send me another modem.
New modem (BroadMax) arrived next day on 11/1/2002. Plugged it in, good sync. Speed test showed 800kbps/150kbps. Download speed improved, but upload is now 40% slower. It seemed the modem is also sending out "Span-Tree" packets (identified by a free packet-sniffing software). This added extra 50-100ms to packets at random. My guess is that the modem is misconfigured in the PPPoE mode instead of bridge mode.
No matter, at this point, I've read a lot of recommendations for SpeedStream 5360 DSL modems. So I went to eBay and bought one for $60. It works great; speed test showed 1.1mbps/250kbps. Better and cheaper than the $99 DSL Extreme modems. Packet ping is now consistent and reliable. DSL Extreme is replacing the BroadMax with a SpeedStream 5260, which I will use as backup.
Conclusion: good ISP, but buy your own modem elsewhere.
Followup comments:  felixml
join:2003-02-19
Sherman Oaks, CA | Excellent, no questions Totally agree, the best Tech Support around.
Highest recommendation | |
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