Review by JazzJRabbit 
member for 9.6 years, 2033 visits, last login: 4 days ago
updated 1.6 years ago
 Naperville,Dupage,IL
 $60 per month "Same day install, English speaking support" "Extremely unreliable in the peak hours" "Mixed bag, good CS, bad techs/reliability"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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2011-09-30 update, bought standard WOW webstar modem from ebay and hooked it up about a week ago. So far zero connection issues. So it looks like even though WOW says they support 6120 there are still some incompatibilities.
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2011-07-21 Complete loss of connection for several minutes at a time around 10pm. From forum discussions it looks more and more like the problem is Motorola SB6120 modem. The modem is approved by WOW to use on their network, but for some reason it just doesn't work well during peak hours.
2011-07-13 Had download from Microsoft Technet fail because of intermittent connection problems at 10pm yet again.
2011-07-12 Random packet loss around 11pm.
2011-07-05 Heavy packet loss around 10pm as usual.
2011-06-17 Friday, heavy packet loss around 11pm and high pings up to 2000ms.
2011-06-09 heavy packet loss and basically loss of all connectivity for about 2-5 minutes around 10pm.
2011-05-24 unreliable connection again around 10pm, very high ping variations >500ms and occasional timeouts, frustrating because I was trying to pay my insurance bill online
2011-05-23 from 9pm to 11pm 25% to 50% ping time outs or pings with >500ms latency, just as I try to pay my bills online.
2011-05-07 25% ping timeout to google around 4pm, was kicked out of a game because connection was so unstable, 10 minutes later everything seems to be fine again, but the game was already ruined
2011-05-03 Update - Connectivity problems yet again in the evening, half the ping attempts started timing out around 9pm, then internet went down completely for about half an hour, even though the lights on the modem showed it was still connected. The internet restored itself around 10pm. This has been happening pretty regularly lately. I wish WOW would upgrade their network to prevent these outages.
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Well, I've had WOW cable for more than a year now so it's time to update the review, or rather completely rewrite it because of the recent issues I've been having.
The initial order and install went very smoothly, however first tech used subgrade cable from WOW post to the WOW box on the side of the house so after a couple of months I've started having connectivity issues and the tech that came out to our house had to replace the cable leading to our house. Fast forward couple of months later and I'm losing connectivity again. The second tech that came out determined it's a bad connection inside the WOW cable box so he had to reterminate the cable. Smooth sailing again, that is until now, 6 months later... I have 15/1 plan and during peak evening hours, especially on weekends, my pings and speeds become erratic. I do not game a lot, thankfully, only about two hours at most a week, but evenings are the only time I can play and it becomes an exercise in patience because unsteady ping times result in 1-5 second lag twice a minute which is extremely annoying. Speeds slow down to about one third of what I pay for as well. I've done speed tests to both WOW and SpeakEasy servers and both show me pretty much the same results - during peak hours my connection slows down to about 5/0.5 which is less than half of what I pay for. During night and day I have no problems hitting 15/1 speeds, but during those dreadful 4 or so hours in the evening my connection is suffering. I occasionally remote in to work and I can tell when congestion issues are coming because suddenly my remote terminal becomes a lot less responsive taking several tries to register a mouse click and in severe cases even completely losing connection.
So to sum it up:
-Botched initial cable install
-Botched cable termination while fixing bad cable install
-And now I'm having speed issues during peak hours that I haven't had before
To WOW's credit I like the fact that their stuff are all English speaking, no outsourcing nonsense, I have never had problems while calling WOW, they always pick up right away and I always get English speaking person. However, on the technical side WOW has been mediocre at best. When it comes down to it, WOW techs screwed up twice, and recent congestion issues are a big pain in you know where. And the saddest part is I can't really switch service to anyone else, I do not want Comcast because I do not want to deal with their 250GB cap and I cannot switch to ATT because they can only provide 1.5/384 service, and those speeds are way too optimistic anyway. So for now I'm stuck with WOW.
Comments:
 | | service 22 days in a row sound studderung and pixelation i pay for entertainment what do i get shitty service and wo w wants there money every month (bullshit ) every nite at prime time this bullshit happens ive tried nicely but to no avail wow has aLOT OF GALL EXPECTING PAYMENT FOR THIS GOD DAMM SUBSTANDARD SERVICE you all better get your heads wired to your assaes or direct tv here i come your reception absolutly sucks i got better reception fron a set of rabbit ears this is by no means entertaining it just pisses people off FIX THE SHIT ! | |
| | | Payment If you use the service; you are bound legally to PAY for their services; regardless how shitt you think they are! Suck it up and pay for it. or face disconnection, report to credit; and or going to court (depending on who their collection agency is). You use the service so stop being a bitch about it and pay for the damn shit. | |
|  | | | Re: Payment Did I say anything about not paying my bill? Is there any point to your post besides trolling? | |
| | | | | Re: Payment Actually yes your post used to say about payment about giving them half of what they give you due to the service not working fully. But in the end was changed to remove that part of the review. And if you work from home; you're legally bound to change to a Business Connection. Making money on a residential connection is against TOS/AUP for ANY residential Internet connection. So if you want services to work for your job; pay for it and then you can bitch in the review about them not work. Otherwise get in line with everyone else that's on the residential connection. | |
| | | | Reviews:
 ·WOW Internet and..
 ·AT&T Midwest
 ·AT&T U-Verse
| Re: Payment If you want to get technical about it, unless your residence is your primary workplace (defined as greater than 50% working time is based from there), you're not abusing the TOS/AUP.
By your definition, if I log into my work's webmail server from home and send 1 work related email EVER, I have to pay for business class interenet for eternity. Not how it works... | |
| | | | | | | Re: Payment That's not what i said. And you're putting words in my mouth. And that's not what the TOS/AUP state. It says if money is MADE from the service or you are WORKING and making a PROFIT you must have WOW! Business Services. Checking work webmail does NOT apply to @work and i NEVER said that at all. Stop putting words in people's mouth that were never said nor implied. | |
| | | | | | Reviews:
·WOW Internet and..
| Re: Payment said by hottboiinnc:It says if money is MADE from the service or you are WORKING and making a PROFIT you must have WOW! Business Services. Well, that sentence is vague, because checking email or occasionally remoting to work can constitute to making money, because it lets me stay employed, therefore it makes me money. Of course that's not how I would interpret it, but the choice of words you used was unclear.
I am not self employed. I do not run servers on my WOW connection. I work for a company and I do not typically work from home.. Occasionally I do have to remote to my work computer from home to check email or to launch some process because it's easier to do from home than to come in to work at 9pm or on a weekend. Very occasionally, couple of times a year I will have to work from home because I feel sick enough not to come in to work, but not sick enough not to work (or because there is something pressing that needs to be done). I would not say that this justifies business connection, it's the same way millions of people use internet to increase their productivity.
And it is frustrating seeing how unreliable connection has become. Occasionally it will go out for half an hour, occasionally there will be 10 minutes with 25-75% ping loss. You can point me to TOS which says the service is best effort, and I will grudgingly agree with you. However, this is a review forum, and I am reviewing WOW so that others can make a decision when looking for a new service. | |
|
 SLed
@wideopenwest.com | Used to sing their praises! I used to sing Wow Cable's praises. I used to love them and told everyone. Well I obviosuly was sadly mistaken and I don't even know where to begin!
It started with one day learning that we were losing some channels and needed a digital adaptor. We got the items from them including the two remotes we needed. They are junk! The channel button changes the volume and the volume sometimes changes channels or randomly mutes the tv. That was annoying but we could live with it in the short term. Then the tvs would randomly freeze or go black. Three nice tvs and sitting dwon to relax and watch a tv program and none of them work. Frusterating that you pay for a service that is unreliable. Lastly, you try and call the numbers online or on the tv when it would go black, and they would be busy every time. Could never get through and get someone to resolve the issue.
Sabve your money and headache. I was once the happiest customer now I can't wait to get rid of Wow! and use another company. | |
| | | | Re: Used to sing their praises! The exact same thing is happening to me The channels randomly turn when Im trying to turn the tv up and now for the second night in a row the tv went black and it says to call a number but when you call its a busy signal its been out for about an hour now and Im missing big brother Im done with wow | |
| | | | |  Re: Used to sing their praises!
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