Review by TroyErnst
(review was emailed from domain klinesteel.com)
lodged 11.9 years ago
 Columbia,Richland,SC
 $50 per month
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
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Phone Service: Bellsouth
Location: Columbia, SC
Distance from CO: 1 mile
I signed up for Telocity's service via their website on February 23. I
checked back there every day to get the status of my service. By March 6,
my DSL circuit was installed and by March 10 I had my modem. Setting up
was not as simple as I thought it would be. In retrospect, I can see why.
I opted for the USB connection since it was my only option. Installing the
software was a snap and installing the drivers wasn't too bad. After going
through all of the normal setup process, the modem wouldn't work. That's
when I decided to read the addendum that came with the installation. It
seems that if you have a VIA USB controller, you have to download a patch
from their website. After doing that, the modem worked fine. It just
didn't work as fast as it should...
I was getting a steady rate of about 300Kbps, which in my opinion was not
enough of a speed increase to justify paying $50 a month. The voices in my
head suggested that I try to connect via Ethernet so I went out to Best
Buy, bought a 10 Base-T card for $25 and installed it where my dial-up
modem used to be. I reinstalled the software to configure it for Ethernet
and everything was a go...only I couldn't get on the internet.
I called their customer support line and sat on hold for 20 minutes when a
fellow named Melvin answered. I explained the situation and he explained
that when I orginally connected via USB that the modem configured itself to
run that way. The only way to make it reconfigure to run on Ethernet was
to call them. He reconfigured the modem, I reinstalled the software and
voila, it worked! Only...I was still at 300Kbps...
Then I went to this wonderful site called speedguide.net. I downloaded
some registry fixes and tweaked some of my settings and guess what?? I'm
consistently running at 1-1.5Mbps. Couldn't be happier!
The lesson to this story is...make sure your registry settings are
reconfigured for broadband use.
An interesting post-script to this story is that when I signed up, their
special was for one month's free access. The week I was to receive my
modem, I heard a commercial that said the setup was free and no yearly
contract was required. I called the billing department to see if I could
take advantage of the 'no setup fee' in lieu of the 'one month free'
special and they changed it over in five minutes. That really won me over.
If you don't have a lot of options, I say Telocity is definitely the way to
go. There's always the possibility that something better is out there.
Troy Ernst
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