Review by doctorbits 
UPDATED: 149 days ago
member for 149 days, 5 visits, last login: 122 days ago
 Canoga Park,Los Angeles,CA
 $35 per month
 about 22 days
 AT&T
 "Next day e-mail support is good"
 "Bad phone lines cause poor reliability (no upgrade until area is fiber)."
 "Poor upload speed, unreliable, not trustworthy."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
|
Known as SBC, AT&T, Pacific Bell. I have been using their DSL service for about 8 years in 3 different cities. I have been a visiter to DSL reports for about 5 years.
The quality of service depends on where you live. My review is more negative than most, because I have not lived in newer developments or downtown areas.
The good: I am glad to have DSL available. The DSL service comes bundled with Yahoo e-mail services. It also comes bundled with a software security package (currently McAfee).
The rest describes the negatives:
The biggest problem is that they have not installed concentrators to provide good coverage. I have had AT&T DSL service in three California cities, all three had marginal DSL service. They are upgrading downtown areas of larger cities and new developments with fiber to the curb. Older neighborhoods are still wired with Cat 2 or Cat 3 and there are many splices. Sometimes, the DSL will not work until a technician changes the wire within the bundle to reduce the number of splices. Weather can affect speed or cause frequent disconnections.
Most of the technicians are very good at installation using the default settings and can work with the user interface to solve many problems. But they do not seem to understand how the router works or how to work with a computer tuned for security.
Download speed is limited to 768 kb/s on basic plan. In some neighborhoods, you can upgrade to 1536 kb/s (the lines in my neighborhood barely support 768). Residential upload speed is limited and throttled (Limit: 384 kb/s; sometimes throttled to below 128 kb/s).
They only offer discounted contracts (about $30/month total) to new users. No upgrades from my current service are available in my neighborhood. Third party plans are slightly cheaper, but the service is not better.
I say that AT&T is not trustworthy, because they upload router patches without notification. This broke my older model 2-Wire 1701HG) router and required a new router ($90 for a 2701HG). The changes broke my local network setup once and currently, some functions on the router user interface do not work. I do like the router's web interface, but AT&T has removed many features (such as DHCP coordination with software). The router includes a firewall and wireless service (defaulting to low security).
I don't use the bundled software and services much. The security software supplied is not high quality. I use software from other companies (pctools, comodo, spybot, and/or sunbelt) that is free for personal use. I mostly use gmail, because AT&T filters e-mail (even though I have turned off the filter at Yahoo).
I have no TV, so cable internet service is expensive (over $50/month). Time-Warner Digital service (telephone, basic cable TV, and normal internet) is about $110/month. The upload speed is throttled to match AT&T).
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of AT&T Yahoo |
|
AT&T Yahoo
(43)
(43)