Review by clamps 
member for 96 days, 8 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 96 days ago
 98272
 $82 per month- (12 month contract)
 about 8 days Verizon "Consistent speed and reliability, non-offshore support, short wait times" "Some order confusion" "Generally positive"
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(ratings above consensus)
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We've had DSL from Verizon (now Frontier) for about 7 years now, and it has generally been problem-free. During the Verizon-Frontier transition, the DSL went out once, but it was resolved quickly by tech support.
We also had some ongoing issues with the modem losing sync, but it turned out to be internal wiring and not Frontier's fault at all; we ran new CAT5 directly from the NID to the modem and disconnected the house wiring completely. The problems vanished, with a consistently good noise margin.
I recently called to upgrade our service from 3mbit to 7mbit and it was switched over 5 days later (at 9pm on a Sunday -- weird).We have a downstream attenuation of 45dB, so I was not sure if 7mbit service would work; however, the line must be of high quality since we still get a good 16dB noise margin after the upgrade (was 22 before). Based on the attenuation, we are probably about 3.3km from the DSLAM. Google Maps says we're more like 5.5km from the CO, so we must be fed out of a remote.
Last week I ordered a second 7mbit line via their SecondConnect offer. The tech showed up on time and connected the line, but there was no DSL signal after he left. There was a dialtone however. I called the next day to report the issue, and they will be sending out a tech today or tomorrow to look at it; although I expect the problem is at the CO. Neither modem syncs up on the new line, and they both sync on the old.
My intention is to bond the two lines together using a GRE tunnel with a Linux box as a router. The Linux box has multiple NICs, one connected to each modem and one for the LAN. The GRE endpoint is a Linode VPS in a datacenter somewhere. Aggregating the bandwidth should let me achieve approx. 14mbit download speeds. I will route bandwidth-intensive protocols like HTTP through the tunneled connection and route latency-sensitive ones (gaming, DNS) through one of the DSL connections directly.
There was a mix-up regarding the second line's phone number; they one they gave me was different than the actual number I see on caller ID when I call out. This may or may not have something to do with the DSL not working on that line. I'll update this review with the resolution.
Some people have reported billing problems with SecondConnect; obviously I haven't seen the first bill yet, so I will update the review if there are any problems.
Overall, I'm happy with Frontier. Despite the installation mix-ups (assuming they are resolved shortly) I'm glad that somebody provides broadband at my location. Satellite barely counts as broadband, and Comcast would require thousands of dollars to run cable up the street, and neighbors have reported that it is slow in this area.
We have luckily not had any speed issues that others are reporting; however, I would like them to improve their routing in the Seattle area. It seems that connections often get routed down through CA and back when connecting to other servers in Seattle. This is a bit inefficient with regards to latency, but it's not a show-stopper.
[Update 2/10/2012] No tech visit, but the DSL started working on the second line this morning. They must have finished the work connecting me at the CO. My first speed test on the bonded connection showed this result:
Download Speed: 15652 kbps (1956.5 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 1415 kbps (176.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
A few downloads show a pretty consistent speed of about 1,500K/sec. Needless to say, I'm pretty happy!
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