Review by tezgno 
Posted: 2.4 years ago
member for 2.4 years, 7 visits, last login: 1.2 years ago
 Abilene,Taylor,TX
 $36 per month (9 month contract)
 about 1 days
 "Shorter contract since I'm a student"
 "High latency, shaped service"
 "For the casual user... this is fine. For everyone else... stay away!"
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
I switched from COX HSI to Clearwire due to several problems that I had with COX (everything from slow speeds to unreliable connections over 4 years of service with them). I chose Clearwire because we get a student discount at the school I attend and have a shorter contract. However, even with the discount and shorter contract, it isn't worth it. Since I have had Clearwire, I have had nothing but problem after problem.
Problem 1: Vonage DOES NOT WORK... well! When I had COX, I used Vonage. After switching to Clearwire, I had to drop Vonage and use my cell phone as my primary phone. Since I know how to modify my ATA, I did so that I could get a connection to Vonage. It was then that I realized how much latency existed on the Clearwire line. While I had a connection, there was so much distortion on the line that it was unusable.
Problem 2: Number of bars = Quality of service! When I first signed up, I was getting about 4-5 bars consistently. Now, after 3 months of service, I only get 1-2 bars. Since I pay for the faster service, I still get decent download speeds with the fewer bars. However, the upload speed drops down to nearly nothing. No upload = slower website requests = slower service.
Problem 3: Shaped service! A lot of people have mentioned that Clearwire does packet shaping. Well, I'm here to tell you that they do. HTTP traffic has a higher priority so that traffic is usually fast. It is HTTP traffic, however, that usually sells people into purchasing the service. All other traffic is severely shaped. My most common traffic, FTP, SSH, and IMAP crawl on Clearwire. Comparitively, I can download a file off the internet about 6-7x faster than I can from the same server over another protocol.
Problem 4: Port blocking galore! Clearwire blocks so many ports, they should give away their service. While I have been able to bypass a lot of their blocking and shaping for things such as BitTorrent, it is almost unreal how much they block. If you can think of a port, chances are that Clearwire blocks it.
Problem 5: Overselling! I don't know about everywhere, but here in Abilene, it seems as though they have oversold their network capacity... especially to students. It seems as though with each passing day, my service degrades more and more with no end in site.
Problem 6: Reselling! I have noticed that my IP (and others here in Abilene) are all owned by SBC. In fact, before Clearwire came to Abilene, a friend of mine who uses SBC had a similar IP to what I now have on clearwire. I'm willing to bet that Clearwire doing nothing more than selling SBC DSL over the air at a higher price.
I cannot wait until I move from here in the next month. I'm leaving Clearwire behind and am getting a "real" ISP.
Followup comments:  ernliz
join:2001-11-25
Abilene, TX
 ·Clearwire Wireless
| Clearwire........ Sorry to hear about your C/W connection problems. I'm surprised, because in my case, I live about 6 miles north of town, get 4-5 lights, surrounded by mesquites, and get steady, constant Internet. I'm getting my signal off the tower by the new Wal*Mart, and it's rock solid. I signed up for the mid-range speed (up to 768 kbps) and get around 850 always and about 210 kbps up stream.
As you say, your problem may be the overloading at the college. Have you tried aiming your modem around? There are several towers all over Abilene.
Bottom line: I'm happy with Clearwire because where I live, there is nothing else. The idiots at Cox don't want to expand north, and the other wireless ISPs in town are too expensive for their mediocre products.
Good luck!
EW | |
| Legolas
join:2006-03-10
Brainerd, MN
|  Overselling Isn't a Local Problem
You gave them high marks for pre-sales information. I assume then that your salesperson told you all about the port blocks and traffic shaping (throttling)? Or did he/she just pretend that Clearwire is the greatest thing since sliced bread? | |
| krozareq
join:2005-10-06
Abilene, TX
| Same EXACT problems. Problem 3: Shaped service! A lot of people have mentioned that Clearwire does packet shaping. Well, I'm here to tell you that they do. HTTP traffic has a higher priority so that traffic is usually fast. It is HTTP traffic, however, that usually sells people into purchasing the service. All other traffic is severely shaped. My most common traffic, FTP, SSH, and IMAP crawl on Clearwire. Comparitively, I can download a file off the internet about 6-7x faster than I can from the same server over another protocol.
I concur with everything you have said. Almost every protocol other than HTTP is shaped severely. BitTorrent is the primary method large files are now transferred and Clearwire tries to completely stop it to a halt. Even if you manage to get a download speed then good luck getting an upload. Due to the nature of BT, a slow upload equates to a slow download and leaving a torrent without a 1:1 sharing ratio can have you banned. I can also confirm that some major BT servers have already banned Clearwire altogether. BT is used for many things besides pirating, and is a shame that this newer technology that allows webmasters to host large files is being blocked by Clearwire. In addition NNTP (Usenet) is very slow.
Problem 4: Port blocking galore! Clearwire blocks so many ports, they should give away their service. While I have been able to bypass a lot of their blocking and shaping for things such as BitTorrent, it is almost unreal how much they block. If you can think of a port, chances are that Clearwire blocks it. Without a doubt; I tried so many ports to finally get BitTorrent to operate at all.
Problem 5: Overselling! I don't know about everywhere, but here in Abilene, it seems as though they have oversold their network capacity... especially to students. It seems as though with each passing day, my service degrades more and more with no end in site.Month by month it becomes increasingly worse. In fact today alone I have been disconnected many times and even while loading this thread I had to wait for my service to come online. I run Clearwire on a PC and on my Laptop, I am still experiencing the same problem on both and have tried it by bypassing my router: all conclude with the same results.
It is great that people in the rural Abilene area are able to have a decent alternative and may not be experiencing the same overload as people in town. I personally have lived on Fort Phantom lake and can understand the headache of using dialup or a wireless service which has a very high latency. The latency with Clearwire is manageable, I have been able to play some games such as Counterstrike, even if the latency is at times bad enough to cause problems. Although this was over a year ago, my service has degraded considerably since that time. It's a shame Clearwire does not market their service for rural areas atop of tall rural cellular towers; this is definitely the market who benefits from Clearwire's service. From my experience their service is a bane to most in the cities.
By the way; I am receiving service from HWY 277(S. 14th) and HWY 83/84(Winters Freeway); the wireless signal originates from the water tower on Hartford and S. Clack St. | |
|  | | | Legolas
join:2006-03-10
Brainerd, MN
| Re: Same EXACT problems. I'm afraid to say I think the throttles have been increased. This may be a bit presumptuous but the past 3 days have shown traffic impeded to the 256k level for any NNTP traffic.
Word to the wise: If you complain too much, you'll be threatened with service stop. Be sure you have an alternate provider if you are planning on lodging a complaint. What a great complaints department, eh? | |
| | | ProfessorX
join:2006-06-18
Bellingham, WA
| Re: Same EXACT problems. Well, Holy Cow, 256K on NNTP traffic you say? Looks like Clearwire has been giving me the runaround. I called them on June 7, complaining that my Usenet speeds had decreased to a steady max of 256Kbit. After not giving in to their b.s. excuses (they said it was probably a bad receiver - wtf? protocols and ports are logical), the service rep "supposedly" did some research and talked to an upper tier of technical support, then informed me that Clearwire was having problems with the NNTP protocol and that it would be repaired within the week. This was, of course, after I accused them of throttling my service. Also, any torrent activity is a negative - it's basically non-functional. I'm glad they covered up their lies with a little story about a malfunction on their end, as this gives me cause enough to cancel their service and avoid the early termination fee, as their own terms of service agreement states that they are not responsible for events out of their control, but are responsible for events concerning their own in-house processes and equipment.
I've also had the same horror stories concerning trouble tickets. In the 3 months that I've had Clearwire, I have opened 4 trouble tickets online, and have NEVER received a response to any of them. In fact, 3 of them were outright closed with no reason given. Lack of technical support is also a valid cause for termination of contract. This company is shady, and I have every intention of filing a complaint with my state's regulatory commission. | |
| | | | Legolas
join:2006-03-10
Brainerd, MN
| Re: Same EXACT problems. If the excuse from Clearwire was that the NNTP protocol problems would be fixed within the week then the repair is LONG overdue.
Speeds are still impeded at 30KBps (roughly 256Kbps) on the downstream.
If Clearwire is trully having trouble with a protocol then this gives even more evidence to the fact that they are tinkering with traffic shaping.
I do believe, however, that you have been duped with a stock answer to get you to stop calling. Which, after all the troubles posted about Clearwire, is not a surprise in the least. | |
| | jrw5
join:2006-06-29
Killeen, TX
| I, too, had to cancel Vonage since it did not work with Clearwire. After using Clearwire for a short time, it became extremely slow. I cancelled Clearwire and returned to Roadrunner. I was not charged an early termination fee, however, a month later, my checking account is still being debited. I am convinced Clearwire is over their heads.
JRW in Killeen, Texas | |
| | | beep7
join:2006-08-15
Killeen, TX
| Clearwire Sucks When we first signed up, Clearwire claims they were going statewide in about 2 months and nationwide within 6 months. It is now about 9 months and they are not even statewide.
Furthermore, it's hard to even get a connection in certain parts of Killeen. When we went to San Antonio, Dallas, Austin, etc, we tried the Clearwire and couldn't get a connection.
The connection speed is worst than dial up as I have to keep resetting the modem.
I hope they let me out of my contract. So if anyone else out there was sold because of the mobility of the modem, post on. | |
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