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Review by mulciber 
member for 9.9 years, 463 visits, last login: 21 days ago
updated 44 days ago
 New York,New York,NY
 $75 per month- (12 month contract)
 about 5 days Verizon "Unequalled responsiveness, reliability, superb technical knowledge, pro-user attitude, consistent high speeds" "You can't put a price on what they do best."
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I was with one ISP (i-2000.com) for 11 years, from its inception as a literal basement business. I stuck with them because I knew everyone there and everyone knew me. When I needed something done I simply asked. If they didn't have what I wanted, I'd ask for it, and if it was worthwhile to them, they'd implement it - and as a courtesy let me have that service free of charge. I-2000 grew into a large, well-run company, and then was bought by a larger and admittedly very well-run company, Transbeam.
After the sale, the crew I'd come up with all left, and so my years of tenaciously sticking with them offered me no advantage. I was also paying quite a bit for very little, something I'd previously justified because I-2K's service was so reliable, and I could consult a human being I knew on any problem I encountered.
I had known about and been interested in BWAY.NET for years, because they are headquartered in my lower Manhattan neighborhood. It is remarkable to me that when I contacted them, from that very first call they instilled the same sense of competence, knowledge and personal service in me that I'd built up over a decade with my prior ISP. I can honestly say that the company also embodies a "character" that one can easily identify with, something I could not say about my previous ISP, and one can never say about the giant nationwide providers.
That would not have been enough if the quality of the services flagged, but it's been a month now and the service could not be better or more reliable. I have 1.5/768 ADSL over voice line (DHCP - modified to what bway.net calls "anonDSL", see site), and my speeds are consistently around 1250/650 (downstream is an average, upstream is actually consistently around that mark). (One other note about speed: mysteriously, most speed tests rate my connection 3~4% higher, but bway.net's own modest test site is where I'm taking my numbers from).
I have had to make several small requests, which were handled promptly and properly. Another important consideration for NYC residents is that this provider seems to really know the ins and outs of the local telco's procedures. Although my previous connection was also Covad and out of the same CO, I did move it to another line (so the transition would be seamless), so there was some margin for things to go wrong. Nothing did, and I'm pretty convinced it was because the people at BWAY.NET know their way around the local infrastructure. Five days from first call to new connection. If you're in NYC, you know that's uncanny.
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5/06 UPDATE:
More than half a year later I can say that BWAY.NET has lived up to and surpassed my initial impressions. Service has been superb -- consistent, knowledgeable and effective. Speed is as promised and unflagging.
The one apprehension I had going in was that their office closes each evening at 7:00 pm. It so happens that I work for a foreign publisher, and so the bulk of my work is done overnight. I worried about facing a deadline and not being able to send my material at 3:00 am or whenever.
But this has not been an issue in any way whatsoever. In fact I have not experienced any noticeable interruptions of service at all since joining this ISP. And if I happen to have a question after hours, quite often a technician will be on line and respond to me regardless of the hour.
All in all I continue to recommend BWAY.NET as highly as possible. It's hard to imagine a better ISP in this town.
Comments:
 Reviews:
 ·Bway.net
| Update: 12/21/11 While my mail is completely down and I cannot work I thought I'd get around to updating this review briefly.
I've been with bway.net quite a few years now and until fairly recently I had no reason to qualify my initial appraisal of them.
It would appear that the company has changed. I'm not sure how, apart from the fact that people I used to know and count on there aren't there any more. While they used to be quite open about the business, I find that it's a bit more impenetrable now. It seems like they've been bought out/taken over by another company, but I haven't taken the time to research that.
This undercuts a lot of what people often said they paid a premium for with this company. Although I can now call a CS number any time of night, it's just a service. I'm used to sending off an email to "tech@" and getting a response from an individual at 3:00 am (I work mainly by night). I haven't needed any specialized help lately, but I've a feeling it's harder to come by now, if it's possible at all.
There's also been a lot more downtime. It's only happened during overnight hours, but as I say I work at night. Right now I have sync, but no mail, in or out. This is happening every other month or so. Far more than before.
There have been other bad signs, but I have to emphasize that these are only impressions. As I say, I haven't researched the company's situation. My service is still generally acceptable, and I'm still fairly sure that I'm better off than I would be with any other alternatives available here in lower Manhattan, but the changes I've seen lately are cause for some concern. | |
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Review by Morocco
member for 1.7 years, 0 visits, last login: 1.7 years ago
updated 1.7 years ago
- New York,New York,NY
- Contract price not specified.
- Verizon
- "Quality, service, attitude, speed of service/solving of problems"
 "Haven't found any yet ...."- "Even though there are cheaper ISPs, I'm staying there"
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I've been online since 1996, have had 3 other ISPs, which were quite good for back then, but NEVER have I gotten anywhere near the quality of service I get from Bway. Their techs are fab, willing to explain even to a technologically challenged fogie such as me.
They are on-the-job almost 24/7/365 - only been down for a couple of hours twice in the over 10 years I've been with them *&* they are right here in the same city & time zone where I am, so I don't end up with a sweet & polite, low-cost but totally incompetent "tech" half a globe away NOT solving my problem, after having me on hold with horrendous Pachelbel looping for over an hour ...
I now have speedy Bway DSL in two locations - my office & my home & in getting it set up for my new home last week, Joe Plotkin was a total pleasure to deal with - even programmed the DSL box for me.(told you I'm technologically challenged!)
Not only was the DSL service prompt, speedy & excellent, it was up & running two days before I had been told it would be: when I connected the box to make sure it worked (as Joe recommended) the DSL was THERE & running!!!
YAY, Bway!!!
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Review by Jrmcgrail
member for 1.8 years, 0 visits, last login: 1.8 years ago
lodged 1.8 years ago
- New York,New York,NY
 Business customer- $140 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 14 days
- Verizon
- "Friendly, professional, DELIVER what they promise, not the cheapest but worth it here in NYC"
- "I had to wade through Months of Verizon and a f@ck off from Time-Warner on installing before I found these guys"
- "Go-to guys for DSL Broadband in NYC"
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Spent literally months on phone and four truck rolls with Verizon before they finally admitted there was infrastructure overloading and heavy congestion in my area (10003) AND that there was nothing Verizon could do "any time soon" to get my 5MB static IP DSL line to deliver more than (get this) 100-700kbps. My download speeds were ALWAYS faster than my upload speed.
So moved on to Cable. Time-Warner happily signed me up with bait and switch pricing but no choice, right? A week and a half later, when was not hearing anything back from them in terms of timetable they tell me that "construction costs" of $7,500 would be required to wire my building with cable so they were declining my business. great. thanks for getting back to me and letting me know ... @ssholes.
Even though always thought that CLECs like COVAD/bway.net just resold Verizon's DSL service and we would likely have same throughput issues with them as with VZ, was desperate so called and spoke with Joe Plotkin at bway.net ... WHAT A DIFFERENCE ... explained that they (via COVAD) has their own equipment co-located at the Verzion Central Office near me and that the network congestion problem that Verizon was stuck with would definitely not be an issue with them.
The whole sign up and installation process was a model of well-oiled sanity and precision and we were up in less than 2 weeks with rock solid DSL - we are near the edge of our local Central Office geographically but still getting consistent 8.8-9MB out of our 10MB down/1MB up static IP DSL line
Joe at Bway.net could not have been more helpful - great guy. Great service.
Thanks guys.
(BTW, although had to spend an hour plus on the phone cancelling Verizon yesterday, due to all the service tickets and truck rolls we got them to waive all charges: installation, months of crap service totaling $556 as long as we sent them back their POS Westell modem/router. Done.)
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Review by (hidden by request)
(review was emailed from domain gmail.com)
lodged 1.9 years ago
- New York,New York,NY
- $100 per month
- (12 month contract)
- Verizon
- "Excellent speed and quick setup"
- "Expensive and terrible technical support"
- "Tech support has gone downhill, service is no longer worth it"
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After some research, I chose Bway.net to be my New York ISP. Setup was a
snap. They had me up and running in no time. Service was solid. Several
months later, there was a problem with my connection and after walking me
through all available avenues, Bway replaced my modem, free of charge. For
the next year, I ran without problems.
However, in August of 2009 I began having connection problems again. After a
short telephone call, the tech support assured me that the problem was
related to the line and insisted that he send out a Covad technician. I agreed, but only after repeated assurances that I would not pay for the Covad technician. When
Covad arrived, the tech immediately found that the problem was with my
modem. He gave me a replacement and said I would be billed. I was charged a $200 fee for the technician as well as a $150 fee for a replacement modem.
The change in service quality is striking, especially for the rates they
charge. Repeated inquiries have resulted in nothing except the offer to
return the modem for a credit. I have since switched to Verizon and have had
absolutely no issues.
Frankly, they just aren't worth the money.
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| | Fees are not ISP Bway.net fees We try our best to provide our clients with "hands on" support. In this case the client insisted that the problem was not his hardware, which unfortunately turned out to be wrong. As he states we have replaced hardware for free on a previous occasion, as we like to test and troubleshoot and invest some time and effort so that our users are not hit with any posted fees.
When the client insisted that the problem is the ILEC, the only thing we can do is use the CLEC's (Covad) trouble ticket support system. The CLEC will not open an ILEC ticket unless a tech goes on-site. This issue turned out to be a hardware issue, Covad bills us $200 for this, and we are simply passing it on to the client.
If the client wishes to return the unwanted and replaced hardware we are willing to credit any fees paid for the hardware (even though we must pay the Covad for the device). | |
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Review by adowla
member for 2.1 years, 296 visits, last login: 1 year ago
lodged 2.1 years ago
- New York,New York,NY
- Business customer
- $145 per month
- (12 month contract)
- "Reliable, great customer service,"
- "A little pricey"
- "Great ISP, worth the cost for the support"
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We're a small nonprofit in the Wall Street area that moved to b-way's naked ADSL 6/768 in late 2006. Since then, we've had only one outage that was due to a Verizon issue that bway helped us resolve ASAP. Actual speeds were mentioned at the time of signing and were delivered consistently over the years. Their best feature is definitely support/customer service which has always been excellent, probably the best I've had from an ISP, and I highly recommend bway primarily for that reason.
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Review by zenolee
member for 4.2 years, 7 visits, last login: 337 days ago
lodged 2.4 years ago
- New York,New York,NY
- $67 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 18 days
- Verizon
- "Not a single problem in my 2 years with Bway"
- "A bit on the pricey side compared to others"
- "You get quality for the price. Hassle free internet connection."
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I live on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. I started off with Verizon DSL. It was OK for a while but the connection became unreliable. I switched to Time Warner Cable. They were a nightmare from the start. The connection would be OK between 3 AM to 11 AM, but any other time, it would crawl to a halt. Techs would not do anything. I gave them consistent data about how they were probably oversubscribed in the area. I called and had techs come but they would not fix the problem.
I decided to spend the extra money to go with an ISP that I knew delivered quality service. I am happy about Bway. I only wish their prices were a bit lower.
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 Review by JSY
member for 11.8 years, 2170 visits, last login: 37 days ago
updated 3 years ago
- Elmhurst,Queens,NY
- Contract price not specified.
- Verizon
- "Excellent communications and technical support! Quick response to issues."
- "The unavoidable dealings with Verizon when they somehow find a way to muck things up."
- "A great ISP that doesn't treat you like a number like it is with the big boys."
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After unsuccessfuly connecting with BA Infospeed earlier this year, I decided to go for DSL with an ISP that I had been dealing with for the last few years with dial-up service. I've always been happy with their service, so actually it was a wonder why I didn't try them as a first resort. I think it was the "ease of install/use" or BA Infospeed (that never worked). Anyway, that is how I came to be with bway.net. The whole installation process wasn't totally smooth - but that was all from a result of BA bungling one thing after another.
I first ordered the service back in May after tons of technical questions to their extremely helpful staff. I was contacted by Covad within the next 10 days with a BA install date. BA showed up and went through their motions - only to tell me that there was no facilities or free pairs at the NID. The BA tech mention that he isn't sure how long it would take them to rectify the situation, but that there was nothing he could do at that point.
I contacted bway.net, and they tried to get the details from Covad. bway.net resubmitted my order when things appeared to clear up, and within 5 days, I received another e-mail from Covad with another BA install date. This was June. BA came again - and after doing their thing (the same tech, by the way), he once again told me that there were no free pairs at the NID and that there was nothing he could do. He did observe that they were in the process of installing new NIDs on my block (the box was already there, it was a job of connecting the lines to the new box) - and once they did that - he's be able to complete the install. Anyway, a day later - I received an e-mail from bway.net and Covad that my order was hereby canceled due to no facilities.
The next day, my phone line was crossed with a neighbor's and I had to contact BA for repair. A BA tech came by to fix the line - and then he remarked about how he bets that this was a result of the new NIDs that they were installing and that they would complete it by the weekend. I remembered what the last BA tech said about the new NIDs, and I promptly contacted bway.net to resubmit the order to see it it would work out. Once again, I received an e-mail from Covad with a new BA install date for July.
Lo and behold, third time was a charm. Because of the new NID, the BA tech (different person) was able to install the line and by the time he left, I had a new phone jack that was labeled for Covad - right next to the jack for my home phone. They used the unused pair of wires from my phone line to the NID.
Covad came by within 3-4 days, and all that was needed to be done was to plug the router in, with one line to the jack, and the other to my NIC - and presto, I was up and running. I mean, after BA did their job, all that was left was to plug in the router.
But that wasn't the end of my bouts with BA.
8 days after flawless operation from bway.net/Covad - my second phone line was down. I contacted BA for repair, and they were not supposed to come until the following Monday - but they made an unexpected stop on Saturday when I wasn't around. The BA tech was in the NID, and all I know is that by the time I came home - my second phone line was working, but my DSL line was down. I wasn't very happy.
I once again contacted bway.net on Monday morning, and they placed a trouble ticket with Covad. Covad came by within 2 days, confirmed that the problem was outside their jurisdiction, and inside of BA's. They suspected that the phone repair on the second phone line was the cause - and an untrained tech used my DSL pair thinking that it was an open and dead line. The trouble ticket was hightened for a BA repair date. BA was scheduled to arrive the next day - a day of heavy rain - yet no one ever showed up. However, reading Covad's log - the BA tech claimed, "no access". Uhh, it would help if they even rang my bell!
The ticket was again escalated by my ISP, and the next day, BA and Covad showed up simultaneously. I am surprised they didn't have a fistfight.  Together they confirmed the problem at the jack - that it was somewhere beyond the jack. They both left and went to the CO, and boom - Covad came back and told me that the line was fixed. This was Friday (after the Saturday that my service went down) - July 28. Since then, the service has been up and running perfectly.
What is most impressive of this whole matter was bway.net was so helpful and active in getting my service back up and running. They kept me in the loop for everything and responded to all of my questions. They were friendly and helpful when I had first signed up - with all 3 appointments made, and likewise, they were great when my service went down. They spoke to me like an adult, and didn't treat me like a technology novice, either. They were geniunely interested in having me up and running as quickly as possible. They may be a tad more expensive that some other services, but heck - for that kind of customer service, it's more than worth it for me.
Every apparent miscue in this whole process was brought about initially by BA, which doesn't come to as a surprise. bway.net and Covad has been nothing but wonderful in dealing with all of this - and as it stands now, I am very pleased with the service that I'm receiving.
I highly recommend bway.net to anyone.
UPDATE: September 5, 2000 (Original review posted on 7/30/2000)
Only the following was added. Nothing else about this review has changed (ratings, etc.). Just a minor update - my service has not suffered any downtime since it's reconnect (knock on wood). Perhaps due largely to the Verizon workers on strike with no time to fiddle with the wires?
UPDATE: January 22, 2001 (Original review posted on 7/30/2000)
The uptime for my circuit has been nothing short of outstanding and constant. There have been approximately two minor and temporary slowdowns over the last 3 months, but this line has been ol' reliable. However, not a day passes that I don't worry about Verizon coming by and having to do some work on a line at the NAT. Ever since Verizon has been out of the picture, I've not had to contact anyone for anything. Let's hope it stays that way!
UPDATE: July 6, 2001 (Original review posted on 7/30/2000)
It's about a year now and total uptime has been above 97% It's been as reliable as I could wish for, and most of all - it's basically been trouble free. Verizon has come to repair some phone lines in the interim, but luckily enough, they didn't screw things up as usual. I couldn't be happier with my DSL service. (Well, I guess I could be happier if it was free, but. . .)
UPDATE: August 14, 2001 (Original review posted on 7/30/2000)
My DSL is down! It appears that the reasoning is exactly the same reason why it was down over a year ago - and that Verizon has disconnected me at the NID while servicing a line from a neighbor (we all share the same NID). Can these geniuses ever get it right? It's not like disarming a bomb at the NID, is it? There must be more sophisticated equipment then just listening to a pair and hearing nothing (and assuming that it's free). Anyway, a service call has been put it and with the current situation with Covad, who knows how long it'll take to remedy. It took about 4-5 business days last year. Well, excuse my soapbox - but as always, Verizon seems to be the culprit once more. Until they start sending out qualified people to do their job in the field, they'll always be second rate in my eyes.
UPDATE: April 27, 2002 (Original review posted on 7/30/2000)
Once again, my DSL connection has been as reliable as can be. There has been no noticeable downtime since the last update. On the plus side since the last update is that Bway.net now employs Giganews as their usenet provider, which is a huge improvement over their previous provider, Newsfeeds (slow and unreliable). Before all this, Bway.net use to run their own news server which was actually quite good. Giganews is the best commercial news service I've used. Bway.net also now has (well, it's had for a while) nationwide dialup, which is great to use when you are out and about. The mail server continues to get top marks from me. It's coming close to two years of Bway.net DSL service, and it's been very pleasant sans Verizon intervention. In my eyes, Bway.net remains to be among the best local/regional providers in NYC.
UPDATE: January 26, 2003
Bway.net DSL has been great as usual - not having had any real downtime at all since my last update to this entry. Their switch to Giganews last year was probably amongst their best moves and Bway.net continues to be amongst the most hassle free ISPs that I've ever experienced.
UPDATE: February 2, 2009
One thing I've always liked most about bway.net is the customer service and attention. If I ever had any problems - they were on it immediately and gave you the confidence that they are doing everything they can to solve the issue. Thankfully my issues have been few and far between and usually because of something Verizon did. This time was no diferent.
Somewhere along the line - one day, my dedicated DSL line was no longer giving me access to the internet, however the indications on the modem showed that everything was connected properly. Confused, I sent an e-mail to their tech area (I think it was around 8p or so). It wasn't long before I received a response asking for voice contact after they showed that my circuit appeared to be ok.
After some brainstorming with Joe from bway.net (great person by the way) we finally determined that it looked like someone at the Central Office reconnected my dedicated DSL line to a Verizon DSL line! We discovered this when we found out that I was able to gain access to the internet again after using PPPoE and checking the IP. Verizon strikes again!!! Granted, I don't know who guffawed at the Central Office but the fact is that someone did and Verizon is at least involved in this way. (Read above and you'll see that each problem I've had over the years was because of Verizon.) So, Joe wrote up a ticket to solve this and by the next day, everything was back to it's proper self.
The reason why I am updating this review is because that is one thing that is so lacking when speaking to Verizon or even Time Warner. You will get a knowledgeable person with those places about 20% of the time the first way through. With bway.net - I've never had an instance of contacting them and being confronted with someone who had no clue what I was talking about. I haven't had to contact bway.net much, but each time I have, they have always left me with the impression that things will get done and I have never been left confused. I can't say that about the big phone/cable companies and that type of customer service is amongst the most valuable things you can hope for. That's what it comes down to when you get past all those numbers.
case in point - I contacted Time Warner Cable yesterday regarding CableCards for my TiVo and I spoke to no less than 3 persons and also 2 persons at one of their service locations - and they all had no idea what I was talking about and one insisted that he was 150% sure that they did not do that and he gets the question all the time - DESPITE their own website saying that they do. He said that the fact that I know people who have them installed is "impossible". This epitomizes it all, doesn't it?
So, yes - 5 years after my last update - I continue to overwhelmingly endorse bway.net. They understand the customer experience - and they also seem to know what the heck they're talking about!
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Review by willgmcc
member for 9.2 years, 57 visits, last login: 269 days ago
lodged 3.8 years ago
- New York,New York,NY
- $77 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 14 days
- Verizon
- "Good service, great people, reliable"
- "I wish every city had an option like these guys"
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I've had 3Mbps/368Kbps DSL service from bway for the past 8 months and have been quite happy with it. For a year before that, I'd suffered Time Warner's intermittent service, lackluster technical support and slow technician dispatch times. I chose bway simply because they're local and seemed more "human" than the mega-ISPs in the area. The only other local ISP I could find was New York Connect, but they didn't have as many speed options and didn't appear as progressive as bway did (bway does static IPs by default, explicitly lets you run servers on the connection, etc.)
Pre-sales was simple and straightforward. I'd basically already gathered all the information that I needed off their web site, so it was mostly just me making sure I understood everything correctly and then placing the order. The fellow on the phone was chatty and very pleasant. He was also quite able to field more technical questions and was very knowledgeable in that department.
Everything on bway's side of things went smoothly, and Covad had the line ready just 4 days later! Verizon, however, was not at all on the ball, because I didn't have a dial-tone, and my DSL modem (which I was just able to walk into the bway office and pick up in person) couldn't establish a connection. I rang Verizon, navigated their infuriating automatic voice assistance system and ultimately got them to dispatch a technician. I set a time and date with that horrible computerized voice and it confirmed. However, the technician never showed. I called Verizon again, finally got a human being, and they declared that I'd never made an appointment. I had to be pushy and finally got them to dispatch a tech the next day. The fellow, who appeared to be the only competent person at Verizon, showed up and said, surprised, "Oh, they never sent someone to switch on the line?" I told them no, that the sales person told me they could do it remotely, to which he smirked and politely told me they'd misinformed me. He went around the block to flip a switch (or something like that), came back and it worked. I plugged in my DSL modem and 30 seconds later I was online.
Since then, it's been smooth sailing. Speed has been steady, I've only noticed two disconnects and both were in the early hours of the morning and the modem was able to reconnect within 60 seconds both times. Today my download speed plummeted to 1/10th of what it should be, so after spending a few minutes ruling out my router and so on, I gave them a ring. I got a tech right away and he immediately started poking and prodding at my connection. As he was doing this he told me Covad had some trouble a couple hours prior but wanted to make sure my trouble wasn't something unrelated. After a few minutes of tests he concluded that things on my side appeared healthy and that he suspected Covad's earlier troubles as the cause. He advised me to give it a few hours and see if it improved, as he suspected Covad was still recovering, and to call them back if it didn't. He was right, because less than an hour later my line is back to normal. That's been the only real glitch so far, and as far as glitches go it was a pretty minor one, so I'm still happy.
I'll check back in a few months and update.
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Review by BrianBones
member for 5.2 years, 1 visits, last login: 3.2 years ago
lodged 5.2 years ago
- Brooklyn,Kings,NY
- $111 per month
- (36 month contract)
- Verizon
- CLEC party: Covad
- "Solid, fast DSL service, great support, responsive staff"
- "A few bucks more than some services. Only a few minor glitches in 5 years of service."
- "Wish more companies were like Bway"
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OK, posting now as a long-time customer from 2 different NYC residences, once in Manhattan's East Village (~2 years), the other in Wiliamsburg, Brooklyn (3+ years) so they have a track record with me now. Currently running once of their excellent "SoHo" options: 3.0Mb down/768kb up (we upgraded from 1.5Mb a year ago). We have a house with around 8 users. Speedstream 5260 modem, SMC 7004ABR wired router, Mac Airport wireless network.
I don't remember how long they took to activate the service but it happened 2 days ahead of schedule - it was only a few days in total.
In short, I'm a huge fan. Bway is solid, fast, reliable. Did I mention solid and reliable?
I end up calling them maybe once a year on average and talking to them on the phone is a delight. You get someone knowledgeable immediately, you always learn a few things from them and they get right on top of whatever the issue is. I'm not aware of any company that I'd rather be calling up than them. They're so responsive it sometimes feels like I'm their only customer (judging by the reviews page, this is not the case).
Except for one minor problem with their webmail access -- my email account got full when I was abroad and I couldn't determine what the problem was (no notification email came, and for some reason I couldn't see the folder sizes on their site) I have no complaints at all.
I really don't want to use anyone else in NYC -- I suffered through endless problems and wasted time on the phone with our last provider (Time Warner cable) and the telco (Verizon - total and endless nightmare of customer service). Wish more companies were like Bway.
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 Review by sporkme
member for 11.6 years, 4778 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 6.4 years ago
- Montclair,Essex,NJ
- $95 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 7 days
- Verizon
- CLEC party: Covad
- "They rock, and I'm putting my money into a local small business"
- "Hah!"
- "Very happy."
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First of all, a big fat disclaimer. I checked with a mod here about this, and he recommended that I just not rate areas that don't apply to me, and that I disclose that Bway is a client of mine. I just want my little posting tag to denote who my ISP really is, as I was previously with SpeakEasy, and I don't wish to advertise for them when I talk about how great my DSL service is.
In short, the line is great. I left Speakeasy for two reasons:
-degrading line conditions that could not be fixed apparently (paid for 1.5/768, a few months ago that dipped to 768/384 with no decrease in the rate)
-terrible, terrible support. Not that they couldn't fix it, but it took about three months to get an answer that "no, there's nothing we can do". All of my web-submitted tickets would sit for weeks awaiting a reply. The only way to get things done is to hound them on the phone or talk to their BBR rep. I don't have the inclination to go through those gymnastics for every problem.
So now I'm using Bway, synced at 1.5/384 with noise margins in the low 30's. I'm about 2K' from the CO.
Joe placed the order, got Covad to realize it was going on a new POTS line for my fax machine (line was new enough to not be in Covad's database yet) and that was it. Brought my modem home, plugged it in and it worked.
I'm confident that the attention and service that I get is the same that normal customers get. There's a whole group of people there that just deal with DSL, and the support line has no queue -- the phone rings, a human answers. Very refreshing.
Just about anything you need, they can do it. Static IP or DHCP, PPPoE, a block of bridged IPs, a routed block of IPs, custom reverse DNS entries, anything (within reason). Bway is small enough to offer things that aren't "on the menu" if you ask.
They also have a really nice new mail server that supports IMAP and SSL on pop/imap/smtp. It's fast, has good spam filtering, and oh yeah, I built it.
I highly recommend this service to anyone in the tri-state area. IM me with any questions.
And if any mod has any issues with this, please tell me.
The nag screen here keeps asking for an update, so here it is. Covad's rates have dropped so I now sit at 3.0/768. If my line can take it, I'll have to give the 6.0/768 a try. Still been very good overall (I use this line for all my work and my business phone runs VoIP). I'm happy.
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