 Review by doublea 
UPDATED: 124 days ago
member for 2.5 years, 55 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Petaluma,Sonoma,CA
 $65 per month
 about 2 days
 "Speed, All in one service, Good Router,"
 "Not using full potential, Could go faster, High Cost gap between tiers"
 "Currently the fastest provider in the area, Prices could be lower."
| Pre Sales Information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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UPDATE: If you live in the north bay please try to get sonic.net fusion 18mbps, they are not testing bandwidth caps like AT&T. AT&T has great service but they may soon cap your usage from 20-150gb per month. Sonic is a local IP, stay local north bay!
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History
Dial up with AOL 1997-2001
Netzero Highspeed 2001-2002
Att dsl 1.5/384 megs 2003-2006
Att dsl 3.0/512 megs 2006-2009
Att Uverse 18.0/1.5 2009-Current
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So my install was scheduled for 12-2pm (arrival window) Three Att trucks pull up at 12:45ish.
Two came in and had me explain to them my current setup. It took me about ten mins to explain it all, And he seemed confused on me wanting to run Ethernet from the rg to my current router, but he caught on, and told me He had a switch he could give me for that. Also my other pc upstairs had an Ethernet cable running to it, He asked me If I wanted to make that pc wireless, I said sure. (thinking to myself free wi-fi adapter.) So in total my setup has 3 wired devices, 1 pc directly into the switch, and my sling box and another media center pc in a second switch going to the first switch. (Yea I got 2 switches in a row.)
One guy headed off to the vrad, the other began removing my old telephone box and the third began to check the available connections upstairs for the RG. He started to look at the wires behind the phone jack, but he look discussed at what he found. (Our houses telephone wiring is weird.) He then looked at our coax, and was very surprised to find our rg6 double shielded coax. He decided to use that to connect to the RG.
Also the guy whom was installing the RG, gave me a switch and a wi-fi adapter to install, (I had mentioned to them I wouldn't mind getting involved in the install.)To my surprised I was handed a brand new 8 port gigabit switch. All I needed was a 4 port 10/100 switch. I got to work, and was done with installing the two devices in about 15 mins.
About 20 mins later I hear the guy downstairs on the phone saying he was ready to test, he was on the phone with the guy at the vrad. I couldn't see what he was using to test the line, but it made some interesting sounds, and the guy on the phone said good to go.
The RG was then plugged in and it started its process.The RG restarted three times which worried me, But then it connected up.
Because the coax is behind furniture normally, he installed a "elbo joint". I thought this was a nice touch.
When we were waiting for the rg to boot up I asked where my vrad was, He told me it was on adobe rd and "this road" motioning with his hand. (I still have no clue where my vrad actually is, but I think I can guess which one it is.
He got my laptop connected up and my Iphone, but none of my wired devices were working, I told the installer Ill fix that issue, (I had windows 7, he seemed a bit overwhelmed on how to find all the network settings.)
The the other two techs left at this time leaving the one, and he handed me a bunch of papers, and then suggested I should get uverse tv. "Im not trying to sell the products, but I really think you would like uverse tv." "and our phone to, its only $30 a month!" I proceeded to tell him we pay $7.95 for our basic land line, and we use our cellphones for 90% of our calls.
We talked for a few more mins, about other internet providers in the area. (comcast) We both agreed that speed boost was a joke. He then proceeded to say Att is beginning to test 30mbps service in some areas. I asked if he knew any more but he didn't seem to know any more about it.
I did a quick speed test and we were right on the money. 17.2 down 1.45 up.
About 10 mins after he left I found out why my wired devices were not working, They all had static ips and were looking for a different gateway. I had changed all my devices to statics many years ago and forgot that I had done so, I cant even remember why I did that.
Then I setup my wi-fi to have the name and password I was used to. Also I setup my slingbox port forwarding. I like the interface of the 2wire over the linksys. This is my first 2wire, and I got my slingbox setup in less than 5 mins.
A ping test--
C:\Users\User>ping youtube.com
Pinging youtube.com [208.65.153.238] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 208.65.153.238: bytes=32 time=25ms TTL=244
Reply from 208.65.153.238: bytes=32 time=26ms TTL=244
Reply from 208.65.153.238: bytes=32 time=26ms TTL=244
Reply from 208.65.153.238: bytes=32 time=27ms TTL=244
Ping statistics for 208.65.153.238:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 25ms, Maximum = 27ms, Average = 26ms
My line quality stuff--- )still don't know what it all means
Below are more photos of my install. (And Might I add they uploaded very fast!!!)
My slingbox and media center PC (for watching hulu)This was a switch I already owned. The switch in this pic plug's into the gigabit switch, and the gigabit switch plugs into the RG.
The dead remains of ADSL days
Thanks for reading.
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