 Review by bobrk 
UPDATED: 45 days ago
member for 8.4 years, 3262 visits, last login: a few minutes ago
 San Jose,Santa Clara,CA
 $85 per month
 about 8 days
 AT&T
 "great support, good newsgroups, instant setup"
 "only a little pricey"
 "as good as the reviews say"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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After years hearing about sonic net on ba.internet, I finally had the chance to give them a try. I was with DIRECTV DSL when they went out of business, so I ordered sonic.net on my other line. I tend to judge isp's on how easy it is to hook up on line, and within just a few moments, I had a username and a basic internet account on line. The DSL installation went smoothly as well, with a clear email telling me what was going to happen, when to expect the installer and when to expect the equipment.
The Broadmax modem came, I plugged it in, and I didn't see a sync light. It blinked a couple of times, but that was just the setup. When my supposed hookup day arrived, I went ahead and switched my router over from the DTV modem on the second line, to the new modem. Sure enough, I had traffic, and yet the sync light was not on. WAN and LAN told me that everything was ok.
I didn't know if the sync light was supposed to be on, and the modem was working fine, so I bounced this off the sonic.dsl newsgroup (one of many that are hosted there) and Dane suggested that I contact support. If you become a sonic.net customer, you will get to know Dane. He probably interacts personally with every customer. The support people offered to trade modems, to see if the modem itself was defective, and I'm now awaiting the new modem.
My only beef with the service right now is I'm getting slightly less on download then I was getting with DTV. It's countered by slightly higher upload speeds and a low 20ms ping.
I'll update this review when the modem situation is solved.
12/30/02 update
I got the new modem and it acted just like the old one. I got a sync light, though, but I had to unplug all my phones to get it to come on. Plugging them all back in did not cancel the light, so i guess it does have something to do with all the filters. In any case, the speed is adequate, and the support great. I haven't phoned them at all, but they've followed up every email inquiry and even checked up on my situation several times.
8/5/03 update
sonic.net rocks. There are simply no problems. My modem always syncs now, the speed is decent, certainly what I paid for, although I think I can get it higher by installing a point-of-entry pots device, but I haven't made the time for that yet. The email is great, with built in spam controls, which are easy to configure, and there are 3 news servers available. When there are problems with the ISP, notices are sent out via email and newsgroups as well as being posted on the web page.
2/21/04 update
Just received the 6000/608 upgrade service offered by Sonic, and it rocks. There were some problems with people that were on RTs, as I found out I was, with ratecaps being needed in the Redback routers to limit the amount of speed. This keeps the downloads and uploads very stable and gives the user the full experience of what can only be described as AWESOME INTERNET! I'm extremely happy with Sonic and would recommend it to anybody!
6/16/04
Just added web hosting to my account. This involved moving my domain name from my last ISP, repointing MX records and signing up for the new service. All were accomplished using automated tools, and everything went quite smoothly. The web hosting is a little pricey at $20/mo, but I like having everything in the same place. Basic Hosting also includes 24 email aliases and 100MB of storage.
12/22/04
Well, it's been nearly two years since I signed up for Sonic, and I still can't believe how good the service is. You can read about most of it above, but I think the thing that really needs to be emphasized is the great customer service. From diagnosing a bad card in an R/T and rolling the SBC truck to fix it to telling me to reboot my modem in a nice way when my dsl dies, it's really a company that is a pleasure to deal with.
9/14/05
I decided to downgrade my service to save money. I'm now on the Pro DSL service. Solid 3Mbps service down and a lot less money.
1/18/06
I moved. Sonic moved with me. Was pretty painless once I understood the system, and as always, the DSL synced before the due date.
7/19/06
Still great. The network seems to just get better and better, and the attention to detail and service levels is astounding. I would recommend this company to anyone unequivocally.
2/7/07
Just upgraded my speed. Took less than a week to do and the only hitch was they didn't tell me to reboot my modem, which would have been nice. Until I rebooted it, the speeds were funky, but afterwards they're great. They offered to send me a loaner Zoom modem to trouble shoot, with an option of upgrading to it for $50. I'm currently evaluating the modem to see if it's any better than the Broadmax they sent me back in '02.
2/13/07
In one week, I had to reboot the modem twice. I went back to my good ol' Broadmax and everything is back to speediness.
6/1/07
Well, it turned out that the modem was probably dying. After another month or two, the modem started dropping packets and losing sync all the time. I thought it was either the line or the internal network, but both of those checked out fine.
I asked for another loaner Zoom, which arrived earlier this evening. After a few hours, it seems to be working great. We'll give it a few more days, but I think it's going to work just fine.
6/6/07
Indeed, the connection is rock solid once again, and the speed is insane. I should have gotten a new modem right when this first started.
Anyway, much has been made of the fact that Sonic uses AT&T DSL to get the job done and that AT&T gives Sonic the run around. Well, I just have to say that it really isn't true in my case. I had an earlier incident right after Sonic started selling the 6MB service, and Sonic was able to get (then SBC) AT&T people out to check out the situation, where they did a very professional job of analysis. In this most recent case, the AT&T guy did a great job once again, and even asked me where I got my NID POTS DSL splitter--he'd never seen one like that before.
So I feel that the idea of AT&T giving Sonic the runaround is a myth.
12/6/07
Time for the 6 month checkup. I still have the high speed account. I still have dynamic IP, although it pretty much never changes.
I also signed up for the Meraki WiFi access point. They send you a tiny WAP, and an ethernet switch, and you plug it all together and if somebody uses it, either a freebie user or a Sonic customer, you get a kickback. No one's used mine yet, but hey, I'm giving it a shot.
The spam filters are pretty much perfect. I have to go save an email about once a month or less from the grey mail system, but other than that, it stops anywhere from 5 to 30 emails a day.
The network rocks. Super solid, and ping to first hop has been 8ms pretty constantly. Network issues are dealt with quickly and you always know what's happening there with an MOTD mailed to you whenever they come out.
So after all these years, I'd still recommend Sonic.
6/11/08
Not a lot new to report. My Meraki doesn't get much use from outside folks. I have a plan to reposition it, but I haven't done that yet. The Zoom modem is still working great.
I've begun using some of the other features of my account, using 4 real mailboxes, 4 mailing lists and 20 domain email addresses. It usually just takes moments to set something new up.
The spam filters catch between 5 and 20 emails a day, with only one or two hitting my mailboxes.
Otherwise, service is rock solid, with published service levels always achieved.
Followup comments:  PSINHA
join:2007-02-08
San Jose, CA
| Sneaky... Switched back to SBC Yahoo! after a year with Sonic.net. Got cheaper price and no contract for the same speed.
Sonic provisions through SBC and move to SBC Yahoo! was painless ... except, Sonic keeps charging me. They never returned calls when I leave messages, they have high call volumes and won't refund because they don't show the account as "cancelled". Sneaky little buggers...after I had talked to them a few times since the account got moved. Try to leave a message when their call volumes are high and they'll never return calls. They had removed my user-id the day account switched and say that they were charging for internet access - for what? - access the aether with no DSL? Morons...Never again. Sonic.net is a two bit player with no people to handle the call volumes.
Sonic.net totally depends on SBC for all issues...and SBC runs them around. 5 days to get a technician when SBC Yahoo! own accounts have tech onsite in a day...
Unhappy with sonic.net in the valley | |
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