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Review by aaronxeriton 
UPDATED: 170 days ago
member for 170 days, 1 visits, last login: 157 days ago
 Sammamish,King,WA
 $2342 per month (24 month contract)
 about 53 days
 "Great pre-sales support and all around communication"
 "Process took a while and minor technical glitch right at the end"
 "Affordable, scalable connection with great support"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
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This was actually a downgrade of our internet connection to a slower, cheaper service. The economy being what it is, I was asked if there was any way to shave some costs on our internet service. We were previously using a DS3 line from AT&T that also connected to ISOMEDIA for ISP duties. When I saw that we were using about 3Mbits on average I quickly realized that the DS3 was overkill.
As part of a larger survey of connection options I talked to our current ISP, ISOMEDIA, asking what we could do. They immediately let us know that we could save about $2000 a month by simply going from a fixed bandwidth purchase to a variable plan where we only paid for what we used. Without any change to our service level, ISOMEDIA had already saved us $24,000 a year.
We ended up deciding on the Qwest Metropolitan Optical Ethernet (QMOE). This is basically just your standard ethernet connection sent over a fiber line. We went with the 10Mbit line, but the technology scales all the way up to 100Mbit in both directions. The cost/Mbit is a little higher than some of the other options, but I really liked the scalability and wanted to say with our current ISP to minimize friction in the transition.
This was actually ISOMEDIA's first QMOE installation. A brand new fiber optic line had to be laid in the ground so it took a little bit. ISOMEDIA handled all of the communication between Qwest and our building owner to get the connection to the demarc and then sent their own guys out to run a CAT5 line from the demarc to our server closet.
Once all of the equipment was in place we scheduled the switch over from the DS3 to the QMOE. We were able to schedule it for after hours and the ISOMEDIA tech worked from home to do the switch. Unfortunately the first night we had problems. After about 5 minutes of working fine the new QMOE line would just stop sending data. We identified the problem to be the speed/duplex negotiation between our router and the QWEST Cisco switch. Once we hard coded the settings it worked fine. It was an unforseen problem that you sometimes have to expect when moving to a new technology.
One small gripe I have is that I wish they had a tech support line just for business customers. During the transition we started having problems with our DS3 and I had to call ISOMEDIA to see if they could help. The level 1 tech that I talked to was in over his head. He actually asked me if I had a router or if the "modem" was plugged directly into my PC. I had to explain to him that a DS3 doesn't have a modem.
Once I got through to the professionals the situation was handled well, but it was a bit of a stumbling block when the entire office's internet connection was down and minutes really matter.
Overall I was very impressed with ISOMEDIA's level of service and attentiveness. They worked as hard as they possibly could have for us, even though they are probably losing money on the deal. I would highly recommend them for any business customer.
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ISOMEDIA
