Review by billpeck 
UPDATED: 19 days ago
member for 1.1 years, 8 visits, last login: 6 days ago
 Poway,San Diego,CA
 $18 per month (month by month)
 about 5 days
 AT&T
 "Very low price, high reliability, easy install, Thanks Leo!"
 "recent mail change: poor instructions"
 "Great service & value, I won't be switching any time soon"
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Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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I have been a DSLX customer for 22 months now. Bought low-end plan, the one you hear advertised. Previously I had dial-up, this is 15X faster for just a very few dollars/mo more. The rated speed is 384k-768k down, 128k-384k up. I am about 16,000 ft from the CO and routinely get 640k down and 320k up. (Plenty enough for my normal needs.)
The initial contract is 12 months. I knew the price would increase after that. Then I read several people complaining they jacked it up 3X and put them on month to month at the end of the 12 months. Being somewhat concerned I checked the contract and lo and behold! it says they do that UNLESS you contact them in advance for another 12 month contract. So shortly before my year was up they sent me an e-mail saying they were putting me on month to month but at the 12 month price ($3 more). Can't beat that, I was expecting that price for a 12 month contract.
The order and install was no problem, in fact it was up the day before the promised date.
During the first year I had maybe 3 occasions where the speed would slow waaaaaaaay down for a few hours. Never figured out if it was them or me. The 3rd time I e-mailed Customer Service. After a while they responded that all was well on their end. My speed came back up so no problem. But then the shocker, later that day a tech called ME to see if everything was OK. After all the things I read about Level 1, Level 2 and hours on hold I thought that was pretty great.
So after a year I started learning about modems, hardware firewalls, whole house dsl filters and CAT5 cable. I have old inside phone wire so I installed a whole house filter-splitter, ran CAT5 cable to the computer, upgraded the modem, got rid of the plug-in filters, tweaked etc. So now I have had no dsl problems for months. I did get static on the phone line. Had this problem with my other phone line a few years ago and after several rounds with SBC (now AT&T) got a smart tech who figured out there was water in the lines underground in the J-box across the street (they NEVER believe it's not my fault). He switched to a different wire pair and no more problem. So I waited until I saw the AT&T truck in the neighborhood, explained the problem and he took care of it before leaving. (Is that direct to Level 5?)
The modem they supplied was a Westell 2110 (with individual plug-in filters), a basic stripped down model. It's easy to find modems with built-in firewalls on ebay so that's how I upgraded later. For about the same (delivered) price as their "self-install" kit you can do better on ebay.
I don't use the dslextreme e-mail system. It comes with one default address which I maintain. Recently they outsourced the e-mail to gmail. Their helpful instructions for making necessary changes to various settings wasn't done very well but I think I did it right (time will tell). I use my own e-mail system through my webhosting service. First thing you discover is you can't send any e-mail because it has to go through DSLX and they have port 25 blocked. So once you get that taken care of then the e-mail goes both directions. It's one of those little details they somehow missed in the FAQ and voluminous set-up instructions.
Bottom line you have to be willing to do a little work in exchange for the cheap rate. I give them 4.8 stars overall.
Final thought: I want to thank all the people who have written reviews in the past. It was because of many of those I was able to go into this with eyes at least half open. I have avoided many unnecessary surprises. Thanks again!
Update: 11/1/09
I have been a DSLExtreme customer for about 3 years now. Since I upgraded my phone line, installed the whole house filter and upgraded the modem (see above comments) I have had NO outages, NO slowdowns, NO problems!! SO I guess the problems I had before were all at my end. I remain a very happy DSLX customer. It is well worth the time to do what you can at your end.
I don't think I mentioned before that they add $2.88 "Supplier Surcharge Recovery Fee" to the basic $14.95/mo charge (and that is month to month). Is that AT&T charging them to use the phone line? The ads never mention that. BUT it is still a great deal!
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