Review by gbh2o 
UPDATED: 47 days ago
member for 7.7 years, 1988 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Greenville,Pitt,NC
 $109 per month (24 month contract)
 about 14 days
 "Only local service permitting static IP block available at the time"
 "unreliability, cost, non-compliance with IANA requirements"
 "Worst and most costly ISP in last 20 years of experience"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
|
Unfortunately, Embarq was the only local and available service provider at the time that would even allow me to obtain sufficient static IPs to meet my verifiable requirements. But, Embarq would only allow them if I converted from residential to business telephone service and subscribed to their "business-class" DSL service. Since the forced conversion of my home phone number to a 'business 'number, I have been harassed by vendors calling to sell business services, despite being listed on the Do-Not-Call registry. My regular mail is also stuffed with continued offers for business credit cards [for the non-existent business] and supplies.
Due to the exorbitant cost as a "business" customer, this retired residential user was only able to afford 1500/386 DSL.
Embarq refuses to comply with requirements of IANA /ARIN regarding reverse DNS/ provision of detailed information to IANA/ARIN for any /29 equivalent. Causes widespread problems due to non-standard internet service. Best the can offer is a lame "we're looking at the issue an may be able to provide that service sometime in the future."
I have experienced numerous outages and failures. Each time, Embarq promises only that they'll try to have service restored in 24 to _48_ hours. If on a weekend and not physically present to reset my customer equipment to accept Embarq resettings, then service is disrupted for greater periods of time. Most failures have been verified as Embarq equipment failure.
My IPs are provided via bridging, rather than via standard routing procedures. That seems to even baffle some of their national tech support personnel as to why it was set up that way, but Embarq has yet to change it for me.
Two year contract with horrendous termination penalty even when due to Embarq failure to provide standard and adequate services. Embarq claims they're making their 'best effort' on providing services, which is all the guarantee they offer.
Forced to change to a business telephone service in order to get more than one static IP, just because it is Embarq policy. That policy is not in conformance to internet number authority provisions or requirements!
Bottom Line: This is the _worst_ ISP with whom I have had to deal, at least in the last 20 years.
February 15, 2008
I have upgrade reliability a notch to reflect the fact that I've actually been up for more than 30 days straight, I believe for the first time. I guess I'm so used to terrible that now it seems not bad :-(
No communication from Embarq though on the issue of IANA/ARIN compliance.
March 17, 2008
On my! Up for over 60 days now! Embarq must have fixed something.
May 12, 2008
I was almost ready to upgrade my reliability rating, since it had been over 90 days with out an outage of over a few minutes. Then I had two failures within 7 days of each other, so I must leave reliability as mediocre at best. During the last outage, I called the business services number and transfered to the DSL support extension. Twenty-four minutes later a human answered and indicated that there was a major outage in NC, and that although technicians were working on the problem, he had to tell me it would be resolved within 24-48 hours. _Not_ a meaningful response, just the standard script garbage. It was actually fixed in a few hours.
May 15, 2008
Well, here I am on a backup, dial-up connection and without DSL service for the last four hours. Calls to the only published business customer support number (in either the phone book or on the web site)only get me the message that they aren't open yet and to call back during normal hours. I still have a connection to the CO but the failure is upstream somewhere.... any bets on more problems in the Rocky Mount, NC center?
May 20, 2008
Several hours of sporadic service. Taped message at support indicates that people in and around Kingston, NC may be unable to reach the internet today. Note that the city should be _Kinston_, NC. Expected service repair hoped by 1545 hours today. Yep, high degree of reliability here.
May 21, 2008
I have service, although it is still crippled by something I, the customer CANNOT fix. Email from my servers is being rejected by the State of North Carolina, Office of Information Technology Services, due my address range being listed in blackholes.five-ten-sg.com because my ISP [EMBARQ] refuses to comply with their contractual requirements/obligations to provide my /29 information to ARIN. Embarq continues to refuse to report my information. The State of NC relies upon the information provided in this blackhole list, which will not change until EMBARQ follows ARIN reporting policy. Two pertinent ARIN references for these ISP requirements are at the bottom of this post.
According to blackholes.five-ten-sg.com
"IP address 65.41.xxx.xxx is listed here as 65.41.213.182.sprint-hsd.net misc.spam.
"The misc.spam group is mostly (but not entirely) composed of entire addresses blocks that have a) sent spam here, b) have consecutive or missing reverse dns, and c) have no customer sub-delegation via either the controlling RIR (ARIN, RIPE, LACNIC, APNIC, etc) or an rwhois server referenced in the main RIR records."
"In particular, 65.41.xxx.xxx [Deleted Actual IP] has reverse dns of nc-65-41-xxx.xxx.sta.embarqhsd.net. Since your domain name does not appear as the last components in any of those reverse dns names, that needs to be fixed first. Any email sent to the address at the top of this page will be ignored until that is fixed."
ARIN POLICY REFERENCE:
4.2.3.7.2. /29s and larger nets
ISPs must provide reassignment information on the entire previously allocated block(s) via SWIP or RWHOIS server for /29 or larger blocks. For blocks smaller than /29 and for internal space, ISPs should provide utilization data using the format described in Section 4.2.3.7.5.
and...
4.2.2.1.2. Efficient utilization
Demonstrate efficient use of IP address space allocations by providing appropriate documentation, including assignment histories, showing their efficient use. ISPs must provide reassignment information on the entire previously allocated block(s) via SWIP or RWHOIS server for /29 or larger blocks. For blocks smaller than /29 and for internal space, ISPs should provide utilization data using the table format described in Section 4.2.3.7.5.
July 13, 2008
Embarq continues to ignore ARIN policy causing numerous rejections of my users' email by businesses such as AT&T, bizsiteservice.com and geeksnet.com. THIS IS TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE BEHAVIOR BY EMBARQ!
Followup comments:  n0ah
join:2008-01-10
27548 | you got it bro exact same problems | |
| 
rs239
@embarqhsd.net | the absolute worst Frequent outages, high price, low speeds, horrendously high latency even while the download speed is acceptable. These hacks should be taken out of business. | |
| |  | | | |
TarboroBoy
@embarqhsd.net
| Re: ARIN / IANA If you are running something that requires several static IP addresses from your place, it's likely a business. Very few home users need static IP's. Frankly, it's a premium offering, and charging you a business rate is not unreasonable. I'd be intrigued to find out how many ISP's offer static IP's for free.
If you had residential phone service while running a business (since you stated you were "forced" to switch to a busines line), then you had obviously been shafting the phone company for a while. | |
| | | |
SgtDot
@embarqhsd.net
| Re: ARIN / IANA I used to live in Greenville / Winterville i am a Bellsouth /At&t employee.. I have a Cisco 3620 with a DSL card and configure it to run Embarq's DSL 6mb Dn /768 up Works Great!! you can also use there DSL modem in Bridge mode that works very well also.
there is a ton of things you can do with 1 ip address unless you really need more with 1 Static ip you can run an microsoft windows XP 2003 server and eneble routing with 2 nic's and run an Email, DNS, Web and a routing server all in one. i would recommend you setup a domain and a DNS server on one of those ip's i did and things work a lot faster and you control your dns records.
Remember greenville is a town in the middle of the state 35 miles from I-95 the copper /Fiber lines coming into this town are Very OLD and at times WILL fail! i know this because i deal with embarq on a day to day basis and have had numerous discussion in reference to there Telco lines!
But even like this they are far better than the Cable company cox/?? there tech's have no idea how internet work and i had to give them a network layout and show them where they had failures!!
I am Cisco/Bay/Ascend/Hp Router/BGP Border routing Certified and all i do for a living.i do installations of ISP/Data centers and maintain OC192 /DS3's and T1. been here for over 10 years and have a bacgound in Computer networks for over 24 years.. been there done it.
well thats my 2 cents worth hope this helps good luck
G-Man.
| |
| | | | | gbh2o
join:2000-12-18
Greenville, NC
 ·STANAPHONE
·Voxee
·VBUZZER
·VOIPo
 ·Embarq
·callwithus
·MyPhoneCompany
·Axvoice
·Packet8
edit:
March 17th, @02:49PM
| Re: ARIN / IANA said by SgtDot :
I used to live in Greenville / Winterville i am a Bellsouth /At&t employee.. I have a Cisco 3620 with a DSL card and configure it to run Embarq's DSL 6mb Dn /768 up Works Great!! you can also use there DSL modem in Bridge mode that works very well also.
there is a ton of things you can do with 1 ip address unless you really need more with 1 Static ip you can run an microsoft windows XP 2003 server and eneble routing with 2 nic's and run an Email, DNS, Web and a routing server all in one. i would recommend you setup a domain and a DNS server on one of those ip's i did and things work a lot faster and you control your dns records. There are usually at least 6 servers running various flavors of microslop products, Linux, sometimes flavors of Unix [yes, I own licenses back to Version 7 and System III in early 80s] and occasionally even hook in a CP/M or MP/M system for grins. Some are exposed on public (static) IPs and others are protected within, as are the general workstations. I have a lot of fun...it's only a hobby! But I do provide a centralized point through which my siblings, relatives and a few friends share and communicate.
Remember greenville is a town in the middle of the state 35 miles from I-95 the copper /Fiber lines coming into this town are Very OLD and at times WILL fail! i know this because i deal with embarq on a day to day basis and have had numerous discussion in reference to there Telco lines! M problems have been with CO equipment and a particular redback.
But even like this they are far better than the Cable company cox/?? there tech's have no idea how internet work and i had to give them a network layout and show them where they had failures!! I think it's suddensink or something here. They wouldn't even discuss multiple IPs! 
I am Cisco/Bay/Ascend/Hp Router/BGP Border routing Certified and all i do for a living.i do installations of ISP/Data centers and maintain OC192 /DS3's and T1. been here for over 10 years and have a bacgound in Computer networks for over 24 years.. been there done it.
well thats my 2 cents worth hope this helps good luck
G-Man. Well it sounds like you've had a bit of fun, did you ever get to play back in the good old days of UUCPNET, UUCP mail and email addresses that looked like some long stream of swear words? usxbox!funbone!ibmone!fooname!vaxboy!osuedu!ohioubox!me or something similar (that's _not_ a real hop trace)
I have always tried to keep this in the hobby rhelm, although the military did abuse and misuse me for one particular project/period  | |
| | | | gbh2o
join:2000-12-18
Greenville, NC
·STANAPHONE
·Voxee
·VBUZZER
·VOIPo
·Embarq
·callwithus
·MyPhoneCompany
·Axvoice
·Packet8
edit:
March 17th, @02:10PM
| said by TarboroBoy:
If you are running something that requires several static IP addresses from your place, it's likely a business. Gee, I'm really sorry I didn't know about your comments so I could provide a more timely response. Obviously, you know little about which you speak, and didn't bother doing any research, nor to take the time to _read_ what I wrote.
I _retired_ more than a decade ago... please note that word as it is the same used in my evaluation. I never had a 'business' line, or connection to the internet as I have never had a business. I have had multiple static IPs associated with my hobby for at least twice that long. I do not believe I ever claimed to have received free static IPs, although I have had ISPs that exclusively used them for their services, back when.
What you may consider to be a 'premium' offering is the standard way we used to identify equipment before we had a need for NAT and such address stretching methods. My hobby use of the medium goes back to a day of scheduled UNIX to UNIX transfers through dial-up connections with friendly businesses and universities; but I doubt you were born then. | |
| pilot_in_fla
join:2008-04-29
 ·StarBand Communica..
| most costly ISP in 20 years, really? You indicate you are getting 1500/386 service for $109/month with a /29 static address block and that it is the "most costly ISP in last 20 years of experience". I'm not aware of any asymmetric service that was being offered in 1988 at any price so let's just treat your current service as if it was a symmetric 384k service. Who were you getting 384k service in 1988 for under $109/mo? In 1995, I was paying $1,200 per month for T1 bandwidth (1536kbps or about 4 times the upload service you are getting now) plus a telephone company local loop that cost about $400 per month more.
As far as your complaint about service reliability; DSL, be it either business or residential, is almost always provided as a "best efforts" service. If you need a more reliable service you will have to pay more. In any event, while many people get almost perfect service from DSL, there are always some who will not get such good service.
Allocation of ip address space has changed quite a bit. You could probably have gotten two class "C" blocks back in 1988 or better (a /23 in today's terminology) and if you retained them, all you would have to do is have them routed for you. I suspect you could have figured out a way to use either a dynamic address or a single static but it might have taken you some time and effort. It sounds like you made a decision to pay Embarq a bit more so that you would have to do less work.
Finally, you also state that Embarq is the worst ISP you have dealt with in addition to the most costly. As outlined above, I doubt if you were buying comparable bandwidth 20 years ago for what you are paying Embarq. As far as Embarq being the worst, I suspect you either have limited experience with ISPs and/or a limited memory. | |
| | gbh2o
join:2000-12-18
Greenville, NC
·STANAPHONE
·Voxee
·VBUZZER
·VOIPo
·Embarq
·callwithus
·MyPhoneCompany
·Axvoice
·Packet8
| Re: most costly ISP in 20 years, really? I am not sure of the purpose of your response other than to proclaim what your expenses for _business_ uses may have been over the years and for some reason to defend the substandard status quo of the US communications industry. I can never understand why someone feels compelled to try to insert their values as more correct in regard to my evaluation or try to insert their experiences in a _different_ environment. Nor do I understand why they feel that their opinion of _my_ experiences and statements must be more accurate than my own? I see that you have recently joined the DSLR/BBR community so I am giving you the benefit of the doubt that you are not just another troll hired to mislead and disrupt.
Your business communication requirements are no more relevant than would be those that were applicable to my work environment at any point in time. Why try to compare apples and oranges? But, continuing with these 'fruity' lopsided comparisons, and recognizing that I don't know anything about you or your experiences, most likely my available work assets, network environment and requirements in 1988 were watermelon-sized compared to any of your grape-sized requirements of the day. And, that the price for, and expectation of, services in that environment also has little or no relevance to my evaluation of Embarq today.
In any case, nowhere in my evaluation did I say I have had the same speed or type of connection for 20 years. I did say they are the most costly ISP I have ever had; that is a simple fact, like it or not. I am still a hobbyist, and until coming to this market, have never had to purchase so-called 'business grade' services to support that hobby. 'High speed' or great bandwidth is largely a luxury that has until recently been a waste for me and my uses. Since I am not now and never have been a business, as I have previously stated, I have never had to pay business prices before. Residential prices and the associated expected service quality are indeed much less expensive, but only if available. Please remember that I was also 'forced' to convert existing residential phone service to business service in order to 'qualify' for this 'business-class' DSL and to be 'eligible' or allowed to have multiple static IP addresses in Greenville, NC. Why should I pay for something I don't really need, and that obviously has little increased value or reliability? Why should I believe that I should only be entitled only to substandard service and access from my ILEC for residential use? I have no more use for a T-1 than an OC-3, and don't plan on paying for either for my hobby use. I have. however, experienced great service and value from many ISPs _other than_ Embarq. Therefore _I know_ that not all ISPs offer only substandard and failure-prone service to their residential customers. How could _you_ possibly consider, compare and contrast the quality of service from the majority of other ISPs with which _I_ have had positive experience?
I am quite aware of how DSL has generally been offered. I have been primarily served by asymmetric DSL for many years; I was previously lucky enough to have been able to obtain reasonably priced sDSL and other services at lower speeds which were more than sufficient for my uses. At one time I considered myself very lucky to have obtained a great price on ISDN services during an initial offing in a particular area. Indeed, I have even run over multiple dial-up connections, and am quite capable of effectively playing with 'dynamic' addresses or limited static IPs; but why should I have to? Dial-up accounts were sufficient in the '70s and early '80s when I ran BBSs and used UUCP mail, but things have changed. I have always been able to justify my use of IP space when requested or required in the past. Unlike many corporations and their IT/IM or whatever they wish to call their departments, I have never claimed to have a need for more than the number of IP addresses I could reasonably use. I have never had a valid requirement for anywhere close to a class “C” and would have been embarrassed to have attempted to hog IPs like so many commercial entities. But then, I am primarily a hobbyist.
I do have to admit my memory may not be as good as it once was. I did have a bad experience with PSN when it went bankrupt a little more than 7 years ago. I guess the tremendous subsequent support and service I quickly received from an outfit called Liberty Communications [libcom.com] helped me forget.
So, if you have some pertinent first-hand knowledge specifically about Embarq in Greenville, NC with which to dispute _my_ experiences and evaluation, please post it. For example, perhaps you know if, or when Embarq will really fix or replace the equipment in Rocky Mount, NC (rumored to be a particular, known Redback ) that has failed multiple times, causing regional service loss? Or, if they really care. I'm not sorry that my definition of what should represent a “best effort”, or even reasonable effort is obviously different than Embarq's. | |
| hazezilla
join:2006-02-19
| Cheap I have followed your postings
It seems that you are reselling your DSL connection
which maybe disallowed under the the Acceptance Use Policy
I would say quit being cheap and buy bonded T1s or a Metro Ethernet. You are trying to used a product aimed at residential and small business customers for a ISP purposes.
And your whining about Embarq not helping you rip them off. | |
| | gbh2o
join:2000-12-18
Greenville, NC
·STANAPHONE
·Voxee
·VBUZZER
·VOIPo
·Embarq
·callwithus
·MyPhoneCompany
·Axvoice
·Packet8
edit:
July 16th, @10:00AM
| Re: Cheap I must question whether you are an Embarq shill trying to misdirect a viewers attention, or perhaps just a troll, based on the inflammatory rhetoric and nonsensical and unsupported allegations used in your comment. I base this comment on your indicated knowledge of alternative products offered by Embarq, your false characterization of my status and use of the business DSL, and your false accusation that I am in violation of the Embarq TOS.
One should refrain from opening one's mouth when one does not know what one is talking about and makes assumptions. One only reveals one's ignorance.
IF you had read the above review and postings, you would know that I resell nothing, and none of my uses are disallowed. In fact, my uses are precisely those for which I obtained the service after discussions with, and recommendations by, Embarq staff. | |
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