 Review by Deus 
UPDATED: 331 days ago
member for 9.1 years, 4350 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Brooklyn,Kings,NY
 $45 per month
 about 3 days
 "Blazing fast speeds."
 "A bit on the expensive side. Some network congestion during peak hours."
 "Great speed if you can afford it."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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8/24/06
I went to the Optimum Store on Monday 8/21 to find out more information about the Optimum Online service. After having the representative answer every question I had, I signed up for service on the spot. I even got in on a special offer of 6 months for $29.95. After that it jumps back up to the full price of $49.95. After paying for my first month and installation costs at the store, I was out the door. A technician was set to arrive at my place to do the install on Thursday, which is today.
Before the tech arrived, I was called by Cablevision through an automated calling service confirming my appointment. When the tech was supposed to arrive the next day, I received a phone call from the tech stating that he would be a little late, but still well within the 8-11AM appointment I made. Within an hour, he was at my house ready to work. Installation of a line to my computer and reconnecting the service took about 2 hours, but the tech was upbeat through all the work I had to make him do.
Now I am up an running with 12Mb/1.8Mb. This is very close to the 15/2 speeds that were advertised. If OOL can keep me happy, I will stick with this service.
6/13/07
Speeds are still pretty consistent. I haven't had any issues with the service so far. The price, however, has since gone up since I first ordered, which was to be expected as the promotional price I was under expired ( first 6 months for $29.95 and then $49.95 afterwards). I wish it was cheaper or that FIOS would get here sooner. Competition is nice. 
8/19/07
Since my last update, I've had a modem replaced twice, and had four technicians come to my house. Let me start from the beginning.
When I first signed up for OOL, I received a refurbished Motorola Surfboard 4200. It took about a year, but the modem eventually died on me. It wasn't able to power itself on and run its start up diagnostic tests. I had to drive 30 minutes to a walk in center to replace my modem. When I got back home, I couldn't get online because the representative at the walk in center didn't properly unregister my old modem's MAC address and register my new refurbished 4200's MAC address. A quick call to Cablevision fixed the problem. Unfortunately, a few hours later, the refurbished modem I received died on me, so I had to call tech support again to schedule an appointment with a technician to come make a visit. Luckily, I was able to get a technician to show up the following day with another refurbished 4200. To my chagrin, the modem the technician brought was broken too. Fortunately, he had 1 brand new Motorola SBV5120 modem left, which worked and I was happy.
Fast forward a week or two. I am getting disconnects again. This time I contact OOLDirect about the issue. Within 3 days I received a response about the new modem not being properly registered (again!) and that the problem should have been solved. Within another few days, I was getting more disconnects. Frustrated, I tried to get help from the OOL Forum members. After posting my signal levels, it was found that my upstream transmit signal was high, about 54-55dBmV. Needless to say, I had 4 technicians stop by before the last one finally figured out that my transmit upstream power was high, which was something I told each and every previous technician and technical support rep on the phone. Hopefully the last technician, who was supposed to be a senior tech or supervisor, figured out the issue once and for all.
9/20/07
The last technician finally solved my problem. You want to guess what was his conclusion? The signal level was too high coming from the node. Gee, I wonder why I didn't think of it. Oh wait, I did! After the tech visit, it took about 2 weeks for my signal level to go back down. It's now sitting at 45-46dBmV and my modem has an uptime of 10+ days, which I haven't seen since in a long, long time. I'm glad someone finally got it right. And for talking to 1 customer service rep and having 1 intelligent technician figure out my problem, tech support's score goes up 1 notch.
3/19/08
Last week I was unable to get online after I got home from work. It stayed that way until Sunday. I could get online intermittently, but nothing was stable enough to allow much web surfing, chatting, or checking of email. I had to call tech support to troubleshoot the issue. We figured out that the line from the tap to the modem needed replacing as I was able to get online using the tv cable to the modem. Since I had 2 separate lines this was a no brainer. Customer service said that I would be called by Cablevision within 24 hours to have an appointment set up. That phone call never came and I was given an appointment that I didn't pick. Fortunately, I was able to get someone to stay home to let the OOL technician fix the issue. After replacing my old coaxial cable, my modem has been up for over a day, which it hasn't done in over a week. I'm not sure if I got any credit for the down time, but I will be calling Cablevision to make sure. Otherwise, I'll complain the old fashion way through pen and paper. Hopefully someone will take me seriously.
12/29/08
I just wanted to report that I haven't had any major issues with my service since my last entry back in March. The connection has remained fairly reliable in terms of up time. There have been some nights where speeds were really slow, but it was tolerable. Overall, I'm quite content with the service.
Also, note that I now currently subscribe to Cablevision's tv package so my internet rate is now $44.95 instead of $49.95 (internet alone).
Followup comments:  
BLUNTED 1
join:2003-11-13
Floral Park, NY | OOL SUCKS if you want consistent speeds and a reliable connection your better off with dsl and if verizon fios is available that is way better and will save you alot of trouble and stress getting anything but OOL. | |
|  | broidoj
join:2001-03-17
Morristown, NJ
| Re: OOL SUCKS Hmmmmmm... That doesn't match my experience or the experience of many others. Chances are, you had a particular problem which soured you on the service, but of all the ISPs I've ever used, OOL is by far the best, and this includes Verizon DSL (which I started using in 1999 when it was still Bell Atlantic). I had miserable service with Verizon DSL, this due to particular problems in my neighborhood involving ancient pole-mounted equipment, but I would never say that one shouldn't use Verizon just because I had a bad experience. | |
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Shamayim
I already have a Messiah.
Premium
join:2002-09-23
1 edit | OOL does NOT suck I've had both services as well. Verizon DSL was great but OOL has been blissful 
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"tick...tick...tick..."
»www.jtf.org/
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rd
@optonline.net | Re: OOL does NOT suck Oh yea. I'll give Version $179 for their 30/5 when I can get the same speed from OOL for only about $50.  | |
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BLUNTED 1
join:2003-11-13
Floral Park, NY | They suck  | |
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Deus
Premium
join:2000-10-04
Brooklyn, NY
clubs:
 ·Optimum Online
1 edit | Actually, I switched from Verizon DSL to OOL. I once loved Verizon DSL cause it was cheap, fast, and reliable. Now in my area of Brooklyn, it is anything but fast, and reliable. When I switched, I was getting dial-up download speeds from about 5PM to 1AM. Upload was fine, which told me that they had over sold their lines. I was also unable to stay connected to the internet when I wanted to go online. My modem kept losing sync with the CO and when I called up tech support, they told me to pay for a new modem as the one I was using was out of warranty and defective( which btw, it wasn't). That was the end of the line for me. I switched to OOL after that phone call and I haven't looked back since... though that doesn't mean I haven't had issues with OOL.
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R! U! R! U! R! U! | |
| Attack Gypsy
join:2007-05-10
Bridgeport, CT | Credit? yeah, right. You won't get any credit. It was your coax cable, not theirs.
Sounds stupid? Yes. But its the truth. Don't expect a credit. | |
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Deus
Premium
join:2000-10-04
Brooklyn, NY
clubs:
·Optimum Online
1 edit | Re: Credit? yeah, right. Actually, I've had good experiences getting credit when my OOL service was down. I suppose it just depends who you talk to.
*** Edit ***
I just called and spoke to a person from customer service. For my outage, I'll be getting back $11.99. It's not much, but any bit helps. YMMV when calling Cablevision, but it did help that the customer service representative was able to view all my issues documented within their system. | |
| | | Attack Gypsy
join:2007-05-10
Bridgeport, CT | Re: Credit? yeah, right. Yeah, they just got that ability not too long ago. CS can see the tech support tickets now. Up until about January, they couldn't see them, and had to call us to process the credit properly. Had like 2-3 of these a day. | |
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