Review by jsh139 
member for 11.8 years, 61 visits, last login: 5.8 years ago
lodged 11.8 years ago
 Pottstown,Chester,PA
 $49 per month- (12 month contract)
 about 20 days- CLEC party: Covad
 "Very fast install. They seem to be very knowledgable about DSL." "News server is DOG SLOW .. installation is STILL expensive" "Whatta deal! $49 a month for 608/128 .."
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Well, I've been checking out dslreports now for about 2 months laboring over which ISP to select, and whether to go with Bell Atlantic or not. I can honestly say that I am 100% certain that I made the right decision with FASTNET. FYI, I don't work for FASTNET or any other ISP .. Just thought I'd say that since people seem to be touchy on here about giving ISPs good reviews. (Not all ISPs are created equal!!)
My install was probably the quickest I've ever seen from all of the reviews. It took exactly 20 days from the day I ordered DSL to the day the Covad guy left me surfing the net at 608/128. Pretty good considering that even FASTNET said it would probably take around 6 weeks to get everything installed. The Covad guy was absolutely shocked to learn that Bell Atlantic had actually done their part a day early!
Wanna know what my secret was? Well, don't quote me on this, but it seems that Covad couldn't care less WHEN they install their part, just as long as the Bells have done their job. Plus, since Covad has separate dispatch offices for different areas, they really don't know much about your order except your name, number, email, etc, etc. So, use that to your advantage. When Covad emailed me that they had a committed date from Bell, and shot off two install dates (one for Bell, and one for them), I immediately rescheduled the Covad appointment for two days after Bell. Of course, I had an honest reason to do this because I wasn't going to be in town during the initial install date. The initial dates had been 11 days apart! The Covad guy was really cool. He was supposed to be at my house anytime between 3 and 7pm. He actually called me at 3:15 to let me know that he would be there around 3:45. It wasn't like the cable company. Pretty cool.
Well, enough of that. More about FASTNET. These guys really seem to care about people. I've submitted a few tech support emails to see how fast stuff gets answered, and I've always gotten a response from an actual person within a couple of hours. I just submitted one about 10 minutes ago because their news server is consistently giving me 88 Kbps (that's bits) downloads .. That's why the Mail, DNS, and News got a 3. I'm not sure what's causing the problem, yet. It also looks like they trained their sales people to answer just about any high-level question you could ask about DSL and their services. I'm consistenly getting 480/130 speeds with the Speedstream 2060 which is pretty good. Covad estimated my house to be 5800 feet from the CO, so I hope that 480 turns into a 608 in the near future. But we'll have to wait and see.
Dates:
March 23 Order Placed
March 24 Confirmation from Covad
April 6 Bell Atlantic and Covad install dates given
April 7 Covad installation rescheduled
April 10 Bell Atlantic installed the 2nd line
April 12 Final Covad install
Plusses: Very fast install. Static IP (extras at $5 a month). Ability to run a personal web/mail/FTP server. Good tech support.
Minuses: Expensive installation. $200 for installation (there's a full rebate from Covad, though) + $200 for the modem (full rebate IF you sign a 2-year contract). Very slow News server (Tech support ticket placed).
Any questions, feel free to email me at jhoffman@fast.net
-Josh Hoffman
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