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 Review by opus74 
UPDATED: 270 days ago
member for 6.6 years, 2154 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Coello,Franklin,IL
 Contract price not specified.
 "None"
 "Usage recording is flawed."
 "Not a good choice anymore."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Mail,DNS,News:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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Moving from Atlanta (too many people) to a "town" with less than 100 population.
Ordered service through the local NRTC provider (Hamilton County Telephone). Very professional about gathering information etc. Install was said to be about 4 weeks out.
Got a call 2 weeks later scheduling me for 2 weeks out. (Still a 4 week time-frame).
Another call 3 days later, they had another install cancel, can we come by in an hour??.....come on down.....
Installer (LR) was excellent !!! He set the pole in concrete, trenched in the cable, even helped me fish it to an upstairs room that will be the "data center" once we have moved in. Now that's customer satisfaction !!
Setup was quick....I didn't do the email setup as all I had was a company machine because of the quick notice. Installer had all the info needed for me to do it later. I really don't need the email as I have a couple of domains with unlimted EMail.
From arrival of the installer to done including fishing, trenching, setup etc...3 hours max. and it was done right all the way.
IP is dynamic, but hasn't changed in a month. Modem is not much bigger than a DSL modem. It can be mounted vertical or horizontal. If switching from DSL in the big city, remeber to reconfigure your router from PPPoE to Normal IP.
Since the install, speeds have been very consistent on DL averaging 1400 and peaking at 1800 (pro-pak). Upload has varied from 300 down to 50, I understand WB has had some issues with this. There seems to be no pattern to the variations. Mouse clicks don't take much upload, but I do need to update my websites on occasion.
I have noticed that the DNS is somewhat slow. By configuring my router to use Level 3's DNS servers, I have noticed an improvement. Once we are moved, I will have a dedicated DNS server, so that should remedy that issue.
It's great to be back in the country, and still have "T1-type" service. (DL at least).
The price is high (compared to DSL, but on target for SAT), and it sure beats the hell out of AOL !!
Let me know if you have questions or if I need to clarify anything.
Opus74 10/27/2005
Thanks to Hamilton County Telephone and installer LR .... GREAT WORK !!
Update 8/2/06
Service has still been mostly good. We are "fed" from the Syracuse gateway which has had lots of troubles since 7/11/06. Fortunately, I am serviced through a co-op so my customer support experience has not been as bad as some others that have to deal with WB directly..
As I have said before, most WB customers don't want to be WB customers. But it's our only choice besides 14k dial-up, or DWay and their somewhat strange FAP.
So far ... so good.
Update 12/15/2006
I can no longer, in good faith, reccomend WB to anyone. On 11/17/05, the service was literally destroyed by a software patch to the modems. I am paying for 1.5 down, I have not exceeded 200k down since 11/17. Every single page downloaded times out at least once. You can no longer access any sites hosted, parked or forwarded by GoDaddy.
They have "tweaked" their FAP meter to record every glitch as usage. Unplug the modem for a day, and you still will show a gig or more of download.
WB has told me and several others basically "that's the way it works now".
I have no other choice at the moment, but I would hate to see anyone else get involved with this company.
Update 1/15/08
Service has been status quo lately. HTTPS is ridiculously slow. Alltel has added EVDO to the area and will be going Rev. A soon. Until then WB is usable, but barely.
I must commend Hamilton County Communications though for excellent customer service throughout.
Followup comments:  ranlor
join:2006-12-16
Leavenworth, KS | usage Long page timeouts ridiculous fap setup terrible uploads lots of page timeouts. Downloads are good however with the fap problem you cant download much. | |
| PDXPLT
join:2003-12-04
Banks, OR
edit:
January 18th, @04:44PM
| November 17 was Black Friday I agree. Before this date it was a good service; afterward, its value has decreased to a tiny fraction of what it was. | |
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