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Review by jay_rm 
UPDATED: 7 days ago
member for 6.5 years, 1489 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Hampshire,Kane,IL
 $65 per month
 about 3 days
 "Good speed; few service outages"
 "Very few as of Oct 2008 !"
 "4 stars now that their bandwidth issues seem to have been resolved."
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October 2008 update - Wow ! The service has been simply outstanding for the last 12 months. I can hardly remember any glitches or service issues that lasted more then a few minutes (and they've never been totally down except for a few summertime electrical outages that were area-wide). They evidently have the subscriber load under control. FOUR STARS + and I'm still cruising along on my ORIGINAL Motorola Canopy module that's over 5 years old !! I'm now using a Buffalo router running Tomato firmware, which has been 100% transparent and very effective for QoS control of the VoIP lines - *M*U*C*H* better then previous firmware loads.
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August 2007 update - All has been well with FVI since late Spring 2007. They seem to have their connectivity issues worked out and apart from a few weather related outages, they've been running along fine at their advertised speed. I had to go with a DDNS supplier since one of the summers hardware retrofit's bounced me off the IP I had since day one (2.5 years !!) and I found out that they never really set me up for a static IP even though they SAID THEY DID. Oh well - DDNS solved the problem because they now want $$/mo for static IP service. Guess margins are going down
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Jan 2007 update - well, it's been a tough couple of months for good 'ol FVI. Seems their success is finally caused them the trouble I was concerned about way back when I first signed up. They've had frequent slowdowns and outages caused by lack of bandwidth. Although they've been upfront about the issue and supposedly have a plan to grow their access to backbone fiber, they've taken a beating from some of the less informed customers. They currently are renting bandwidth from one of the competition, which has helped, but it has not solved the underlying problem.
I still recommend FVI (not a whole lot of other broadband choices here anyway) but you need to understand what you're getting and HOW you're getting it.
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24 month update - service availability has been outstanding since the last Motorola Canopy module firmware update in Oct 2005 - I suspect I'm close to telco FiveNine quality (99.999% up-time). Speed test still 3000 x 512 after accounting for router overhead. The FVI equipment is basically transparent.
Still highly recommended and now the CPE is free !
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OK, after 18 months, I think I'm seeing the results of a little over-subscribing. But, in general, service is still a B+. Since I'm 3 wireless hops away from fiber, I've got multiple chances of dropping service due to equipment or power failures. I'm running un-NAT'ed with a Sveasoft-powered, QoS enabled Linksys router and see typical speeds of 2800/475. I figure I'm down about 10% in speed due to my VoIP QoS parameters.
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I'm running a multi-user LAN behind a router, with 2 lines of VoIP. I'm getting advertised speeds on a 3500/512 5.7 GHz wireless link. After 12+ months of service, I'm generally pleased with the performance.
Customer service has always been fair to good.
Bottom line is that FVI wireless is the ONLY earth-based broadband service available at my location and they've down a much better then average job.
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Fox Valley Internet
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FVI Growing Pains