Review by jtimleck 
member for 3.4 years, 38 visits, last login: 341 days ago
updated 1.4 years ago
 21218
 $35 per month "Value for speed, customer service, full mac support (including the install CD), easy to set up wireless router at home" "install was problematic, but tech support helped, no cheap wimax (or skype?) phones" "Best value for the money for the speed of connection."
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This is an UPDATE (Jun 10, 2009) at the start here - recently I tried to connect to the advanced aspects of the ZYXEL modem (see »Advanced Zyxel Modem Interface-Get A Mac OS Optimizer Widget ) and guess what... On Feb 28, 2009 the modem was updated. But I didn't update the modem. THEY did.. And in doing so they blocked out access to the advanced features again. Look, when I buy hardware it's MINE to change - not Sprint/Clear etc. - at least not without my permission. So that's a BIG blemish on them in my books.
Now here's my initial review:
OK, so today I bit the bullet and bought the modem and signed up for the Home plan - 25 bucks for 6 months and then 35 after that. A helluva good deal considering we were paying 25 bucks a months for Verizon DSL at 85kB/s max before.
OK, so what do I think?
First impressions matter - what mattered more were the impressions of others before *my* first impressions. I really couldn't find one person that said they hated it, or it didn't work. Comcast is *ridiculously* expansive for broadband and they rape you with their packaging of services. Verizon has gone from 14.00 a month for life to 25.00 in just 2 years. Not cool. So from there I did my homework, checked for coverage (I'm "green" in Northeast Baltimore, near Greenmount and 33rd (which, btw is good because coverage is in the "not so great" neighborhoods too I might add) and went and bought my modem from Towson. No hard sales pitch either. Nice, polite, fast.
Got the ZyXEL modem home and pulled out the setup install CD. Supports Macs the lit says.... but in most companies this NEVER means install software (are you listening comcast, verizon, etc.). Popped in the CD and there was the familiar Mac install dialogue, which they also didn't futz with or change or "skin" as so many other developers do in windows (And the reason they shouldn't - the GUI for macs is made to be the same in similar states of an app for a reason - you know what the app is doing...windows, are you listening?). Software for the install modem and activation wizard went without a hitch.
Basically you install the software which directs you step by step for the modem, cables, etc. and then you click and the modem, using the proprietary signal for xohm, brings you to the activation portion of xohm.com's site. And now things went south...
The link was flaky. 3 "bars" strong but it kept stalling after entering info (there are 5 screens you need to do, ending in confirmation basically). I'd enter, it would "spin", waiting to receive or send info - I have Little Snitch installed (monitors network traffic) and I was getting *no* traffic whatsover. I restarted the process. And got a page further. And then... same thing. I would get "You are not authorized to view this page" webpage errors - which to me suggests problems on their server end. This of course rendered the registering process moot and I had to start again. I reset the modem, and restarted the computer several times to no avail. I phone customer service and after literally 20 rings passed I hung up.
Now a caveat - this was Christmas eve at 4pm (it was a present) so *everyone* and their dog could have been a) using their cell phones, b) activating new cell phones and c) karma... So I went back and tried again. Got to "enter your credit card info" and did this and then .... spin. ARGH! OK, this time I phone and selected "I have an account" (as opposed to account activation... It was more true than I didn't, I had 80% of an account, lol) and immediately was able to speak with Carlos....
Carlos then spent the next 25+ minutes with me setting up my account. This was WAY too slow honestly, but given the holiday and what appeared to be slow servers on their end was not a big deal. He was professional and courteous. And he got it done. Which involved entering all the info again and reseting my password which I had tried to log earlier. Which brings a "caution":
CAUTION - if your registration stalls at a particular screen STOP and call. If you do not then you will "void" the option you chose for your name and email listing - because I had already entered a user name (which is also your email name) the "system" will not let you use that name in another account establishment attempt. That *sucked* - I had my full name for my email and now I couldn't use it. So anyways I settled for something else I could live with and we went ahead.
Activation then onwards was a snap. Setting up the wireless router was also quick and easy. Something to keep in mind which I forgot: If you have wireless devices (I have a Roku music server, for instance) if you set them up on anything but the *default* IP address of your wireless router it won't be able to "see" the router if you reset that router for use with the XOHM router (which in most cases you will/should I would think). So this caused a "stupidity-induced" headache on my part for a bit, but no problem otherwise.
Performance:
»www.speedtest.net/result/378504798.png
Well I'm not exactly "wowed" just yet.... I'm getting 1.5 to about 2.3 and not much higher. Not sure why so "low" (I was expecting 3+ given the great coverage I have). But I've also dropped to 2 bars - but that shouldn't matter I thought. I also have experienced dropouts of services intermittently. Not sure why. Only a minute or two, but annoying. But hey *twice* as fast for only 30% more coin is still a deal - and that's at it's worst performance, which seems rare. Will try some alt setups and see how I fare.
Overall ... do it. 30 day money back guarantee on the modem. Great pricing. Very good customer service, etc. Recommended
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