Review by Landin_CH 
UPDATED: 1.6 years ago
member for 6.8 years, 838 visits, last login: 1 days ago
 Fredericksburg,Spotsylvania,VA
 $25 per month
 Cavalier
 "Fastest broadband ISP in my area ... bar none."
 "Takes long time to get ahold of Tech Support or Help Desk"
 "Faster than other DSL or even cable providers ... glad I have it."
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(ratings match consensus)
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Didn't have too many HSI choices. CavTel.Net advertises speeds up to fifteen megs (»www.cavtel.com/forhome/web_highspeed.php) but I actually get 4-6 megs most times. [SpeakEasy: Download Speed: 5098 kbps (637.3 KB/sec transfer rate) Upload Speed: 615 kbps (76.9 KB/sec transfer rate) History at »/testhistory/765541/b9503 and »/archive/cavte···zip=224] CavTel.Net has some packet losses en route, but can't get them to take a look at the IPs I give them as problematic hops. Doesn't affect my surfing or downloading, seems like. My CO/DCO is 7500 feet away so I should be getting more like 6-8 megs, according to some ... although Verizon tech is amazed at my 4-6 megs "since I'm not on FIOS." Anyway, besides a few line cuts by contractors or construction crews, have been up the vast majority of the time. Average pings inside CavTel.Net seems to be under 50ms compared to external times. (Don't pretend to understand their routing, though; hop selections just plain weird.) Ordered service via their web site and got the self-install kit with intro letter about a week later. I connected their Paradyne ADSL modem to my phone line, connected a spare computer and spare phone to the modem, and just waited. The modem sync'ed one overnight and I was online. After a week or so without going down, I cancelled Adelphia.Net by returning their cable modem. Recently, I switched to a Zoom ADSL modem I bought myself but it did not improve my line speeds much, although it can do wireless access and just has more options. Can't say much about their help desk/tech support, though. Long wait times, both dial-in and on-line. Best to first try everything yourself. If you need lineman to come to your house, most times local telco tech or contractor will show up - not CavTel. Bottom line is that I'm happy with what I have since »Company entry - Cavalier Telephone cites 256-960K - and the modem was included free of charge. Package cost: $68.73 - unlimited phone service (24.95), ADSL (25.00), fees and taxes.
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Update: CavTel download speed claim scaled down to "up to 8 megs" on their web, but didn't change my speeds any. Guess too many people couldn't get up that high ... Still glad I have it, though.
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Cavalier Telephone
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Re: Cavalier C2 Bundle
I'm using Zoom ADSL X6 modem, right past NID. Wireless throughout the house and garden and hard-wired PCs near router. Speeds still consistently 4-6 megs, spiking intermittently highter when running consecutive speed tests. My oldest is playing online games with very little loss and pings (normally) less than 50ns to his servers, 1 or 2ns to CavTel.Net gateway. Still quite happy with CavTel connectivty.
Understand others may have issues but I have not run into any (... yet?) and CS has been responsive to my chats and calls when I needed something. BTW, when I take the system down for something or another, router connects and is ready to go within a minute to two. (Takes me longer to go online with my AT&T G3 system while on the road and generally running up to 3.6megs on G3 GSM but costs $60/month.)