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Review by BronsCon See Profile

  • Location: Concord, Contra Costa, CA, USA
  • Cost: $70 per month
  • Install: about 15 days
Installed on time, fast, cheaper than Comcast
None so far
Good, good, good
Pre Sales Information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

SEE UPDATES AT BOTTOM!

First off, I could have had my service installed 3 days earlier but I wanted to be present for the install, rather than leaving my wife to deal with it. I know how installers can be; this installer did a wonderful job, though, without my supervision. I rated tech support neutral because I haven't had to call them yet; if they're anything like AT&T wireless support, they're the best during business hours and worst after hours.

Total monthly cost includes phone and modem rental, no taxes as I haven't gotten a bill yet. I'll update this once I get my 2nd bill (without install charges).

Upon install, I was pulling 18mbit/sec and was quite happy with this. The installer confirmed that this was the speed I ordered (I remembered ordering 12mbit at the time but now I recall having opted for faster internet in lieu of TV services I won't use anyway). The U-Verse portal says I'm on 24mbit; at this point I don't recall whether I upgraded to 18 or 24, so that is what it is.

Right now, I'm getting a consistent 12/3, though the modem is synced reliably at 52/5. I don't know whether this is caused by my router or by congestion. They lost points for "Connection reliability" for this, though the 12mbit may be my router (funny, I was able to peak to 36mbit on Comcast) because even without the router, it peaked at 18mbit. If this clears up, I'll update.

At any rate, so far, so good. I'll look into the few issues I am having to make sure I'm not the one causing them, then update this review. Take my problems wit ha grain of salt until then.

UPDATE 12-12-11:

I subscribe to 24/3, I've been getting 12/3. I traced that back to where I moved my router; when I can, I'll be moving it to a better location. I was able to pull 36mbit from it in its prior location, which is on the other side of the apartment (where cable comes in) from where the "good" jack for DSL is situated. Soon as I find another location for my printer, I can remedy this issue. I get 23/3.5 wired, through my router, and have tweaked things to were I get 15/3 wireless, so I know the router itself is up to the task, it's just very poorly situated for wireless.

What that means is that yes, I am indeed getting my rated speeds (better upstream, actually -- and when you factor in overhead, actually better downstream).

NOTE:

For anyone with a 2wire 3801HGV who wishes to use their own router but has noticed that it lacks a bridged mode, there is a solution. It's not true bridge mode, but it performs as though it were and has a major advantage in some situations (namely, the remaining 3 LAN ports and the modem's built-in wireless can be used to allow guests access to your internet connection while keeping them safely and physically separated from your router LAN).

Log in to the modem's interface and go to Settings -> LAN -> IP Address Allocation, then find your router in the list of devices and select the following settings:

Firewall: Disabled

Address Assignment: Public (select WAN IP Mapping)

WAN IM Mapping: Router WAN IP address (default)

These settings will use your router's NAT and firewall. When you have guests over who you don't necessarily want on your network, you can wire them direct to the modem (or hook up a wireless AP or enable the modem's built-in wireless) and they can get online (with the modem's firewall protecting them, unless you disabled it completely as well) but are completely separated from your router LAN.

member for 20.4 years, 3420 visits, last login: 4.7 years ago
updated 12.3 years ago


JFlogerzi
@cox.net

JFlogerzi

Anon

Sync Rate

Just as an FYI the 52/5 is the max sync rate your line can handle. Currently ATT only has a max profile of 32/5. Thus this means your line has an extra 20mbits of headroom if ATT decides to offer more then 4 HD streams at once, or faster internet.

Disgstdwtatt
@sbcglobal.net

Disgstdwtatt

Anon

Re: Sync Rate

Just curious what type of modem/router you were using. Most people I talk to complain about drops... I have a 2wire constantly dropping me in the middle of movies. You haven't seemed to complain about this, so just curious!

BronsCon
join:2003-10-24
Fairfield, CA

BronsCon

Member

Re: Sync Rate

It's the 2wire 3801HGV. I haven't had any dropouts, not issues with latency, but I'd definitely like to start seeing my rated speeds, since my sync rate is definitely high enough to handle them (and as was just pointed out, above, my line has some headroom above that).

Due to my work, I've become more than a bit anal about connectivity, and I do keep an eye on logs. The only dropouts I see are from me unplugging or rebooting the modem to see how those events were logged; the number and times of events match what I did, so there have definitely been no complete losses of DSL connectivity.

Of course, this is after a day and a half, so take it with a grain of salt.