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Review by dfr1 See Profile

  • Location: Loganville, Walton, GA, USA
  • Cost: $49 per month (6 month contract)
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Review by: dfr1@mindspring.com
From: Loganville, GA (Walton County)
Rate: $99 Installation, $49 per month

Having been a happy Mindspring customer for almost four years, I had no
inclination to buy DSL service from anyone else. After monitoring
availability for quite a while, the Loganville exchange finally popped up
as available about four weeks ago. I called in immediately and arranged
for installation, which was set up for December 23. Bell South did their
part within a week, and a very friendly and efficient Mindspring technician
showed up as agreed. He tested the line, installed the card and software,
and had me up and running in about 45 minutes, while I installed the
filters on the phones. He didn't know how to test the speed I was getting,
but did a quick download to show me the marked improvement in throughput
from dial-up service. After he was gone, I followed up by performing the
registry tweaks and checking the speed on DSLREPORTS: a consistent 1.15
megs. I'm only 1.2 miles from the CO, so I think there may be further
tweaking to be done, but the speed is mind-blowing already - faster and
certainly more consistent than the T-1 line at work during an average
workday. Restarting after a reboot has been no problem, and there have
been no outages. Any ideas on tweaking would be appreciated - never can
resist the urge to make things better - but I'm a very happy camper!

member for 24.2 years, 22 visits, last login: 22 years ago
lodged 24.2 years ago


Review by coombs See Profile

  • Location: Loganville, Walton, GA, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
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I've been a happy MindSpring modem customer for over 3 years and was overjoyed when I found that my line was DSL ready. The only problem I had was when BellSouth checked my line and said it would not support DSL. Since my CO was only 1.4 miles away MindSpring asked them to roll a truck again and again they said no. It turned out they were checking the wrong line. (I had two lines at the time.) After checking the right line, I was installed with an AlcTel external modem and I could not be happier. My download speed is a fast consistent 1.43 Mbps. I am noticably faster than my corporate T1 line at work. I would highly recommend MindSpring to anyone that can qualify.

Gary Coombs

Gary.Coombs@MindSpring.com

member for 24.2 years, 38 visits, last login: 23.5 years ago
lodged 24.2 years ago


Review by (hidden by request)

  • Location: Arcadia, Los Angeles, CA, USA
  • Cost: $49 per month (12 month contract)
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I ordered DSL from Earthlink around the beginning of November. I
received a hookup date by e-mail for around the end of November. The
"software" package arrived as promised, but I recommend going directly
to the web site to download MacPoET software. The site includes a VERY
detailed, step-by-step setup procedure to configure TCP/IP. Only an
idiot could make a mistake. So, when the PacBell techs showed up on the
appointed day to install the splitter, I was ready with the software.
When I filled out the application, I made it very clear that I had an
older Mac, which has the old AAUI ethernet port, and that they should
bring an external adapter. But, the techs came with a Kingston internal
PCI ethernet card, anyway. Fortunately, I suspected they would get this
wrong, so I brought a used adapter from the office, just in case.
After, doing their thing with the line, the techs pulled out an Alcatel
DSL modem, and hooked it up. The green lights came right up, no
problems. So, I fired up the software, and was connected in no time. The
whole process took about an hour. I've never had a problem, and the
download speed ranges from 384 kbps to 768 kbps. I'm not sure why, but
they left me the PCI ethernet card.
Overall, I'm very pleased. We've got a great connection to the net and
(effectively) a second phone line.

(review was emailed from domain earthlink.net)
lodged 24.2 years ago


Review by altaf4 See Profile

  • Location: Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
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Hi

In Los Angeles, Mindspring is contracted out to Covad. The good thing is that they have Saturday installation, so I set up a Saturday time... between 8 a.m and 12 . Around 11:30, i got a bit worried, and called the COVAD dispatch. Turned out that they are closed on Saturdays, so I had no way to figure out if the installer was late, or not going to show up.

I made call #1 to Mindspring, who attempted to contact COVAD, but could not contact the installer.

Call #2 to COVAD customer service, I reached Nothern Californaia, who said they only have info. on No. California installers,and the So. California office was closed.

Call #3 to Mindspring, the rep. was very polite and sounded a bit peeved that COVAD would have their offices closed when they were doing installations... and gave me a one month credit for my account, and also said he was going to have a look at the contract... that this should not have happened.

Meanwhile I also left a couple of irate messages with COVAD dispatch that they were closed, and no one had called me to either re-schedule, or let me know that they were late or whatever...

Well, the installers showed up around 3:30, and said the original installer had called in sick! Well, okay... whatever.
They did a very good proffessional job with the installation, had to run a wire, they had some problems with their laptop, but were able to call for help and got it figured out...

DSL speed is very good: consistent 1.2Mbps, no problems at all, so far...

My experience with Mindspring has been very positive as a dialup customer, very good customer service. But this business with COVAD might tarnish Mindspring's reputation... I hope they will put some pressure on COVAD customer service to improve their services, and installation coordination.

However, relative to Pacific Bell with whom I'd initially signed up, and then cancelled... this was a far far better experience largely because of Mindspring's customer service efforts... no thanks to COVAD, though..

Altaf

member for 24.3 years, 9 visits, last login: 24.1 years ago
lodged 24.3 years ago


Review by cingram2 See Profile

  • Location: Alpharetta, Fulton, GA, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
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THE ONLY COMPLAINTS I HAVE ARE:
--> For the first two weeks or so, the connection was completely unreliable. When I would contact tech support, they would not help me much most of the time because I run Linux. So, even in times when the problem was on their end, I had a lot of difficulty convincing them of that.
--> DSL service does not fit nicely into their normal tech support system, so when I had to call to report a problem with the connection, the support reps. could not help much sometimes. Hopefully, this will get better over time.
--> I wish that they'd have told me before hand that the connection was via PPP over Ethernet (PPPoE) so I could've researched it more before hand.
--> They sent messages to my Mindspring e-mail address before I was connected, so I couldn't get them (e.g. Skip, the nice guy who installed the service, sent an e-mail before he came; I obviously didn't get that message until after I was connected).
--> When you report a problem on their tech support web site, they allow you to enter an alternate e-mail address, but they only send responses to your Mindspring e-mail address. What's the point?

THE GOOD POINTS:
--> High speed connection that has been fairly reliable (except for the first couple of weeks).
--> The sales department gave me a $25 credit on my next bill due to the connection problems I'd had during the first couple of weeks.
--> They have no problem with you using an unsupported operating system (but they won't talk to you much when you call their tech support either).
--> They allow multiple connections at the same time, so I can surf from my computer at the same time my wife is surfing from her computer.
--> They allow you to run personal (i.e. non-commercial) web/mail/ftp/etc. servers.
--> At only $49.95 per month with only a 6 month committment, this was by far the most reasonably priced service I could find at the time.

THE TECHNICAL POINTS:
To get PPPoE working with Linux, I had to download:
--> The PPPoE Redirector program version 0.3 from Luke Stras from »www.ecf.toronto.edu/~str ··· poe.html. Unfortunately, this program had problems with syncing, so someone patched version 0.2 of the driver which works flawlessly for me. It is available at »www.hub.org/~gfischer/pppoe.html. The redirector can be used with 2.0 kernels and above. I am using it with kernel version 2.0.36.
--> The latest PPP software (2.3.10).

Since the problems I had during the first couple of weeks, I have been extremely satisfied with the service from Mindspring.

member for 24.3 years, 2 visits, last login: 23.4 years ago
lodged 24.3 years ago


Review by (hidden by request)

  • Location: Plano, Collin, TX, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
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I was already an Earthlink dialup customer and called for the free DSL upgrade. I believe the offer extends to GTE customers in North Texas. There was some confusion between GTE and Earthlink as to the time the installer was to show up. Earthlink said in the morning and GTE said anytime during the day. The installer showed in the late afternoon.

The CD Earthlink sent me didn't install correctly so I had to call Customer Support and waited on hold for 25 minutes. The tech. did a great job of helping get the software setup.

Everything was working great. I decided to install a PoET upgrade and crashed the software. Called tech support again, waited 5 minutes, great help. Back online again...and I won't try to fix what ain't broken.

(review was emailed from domain earthlink.net)
lodged 24.3 years ago


Review by harkinsc See Profile

  • Location: Atlanta, Dekalb, GA, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
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Ordered ADSL service from MindSpring in Atlanta. Had a good install and the installer came within the time window that their coordinator had set with me over the phone.

The install went well with the NIC card installation taking the longest. Had some initial connect problems after my first week, but tech support has been great at helping tweak my system.

Craig

member for 24.3 years, driveby review (so far)
lodged 24.3 years ago







Review by mballard See Profile

  • Location: Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
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I live in the Los Angeles area and ordered DSL from EarthLink as soon as it was available from them (after calling them for at least a month for them to release it) and the installation went with very few problems. I called them on a Monday, and they had to call back that day after doing a line check, which they did. (I called them around 2pm and they called back by 5pm). After finishing that up they said PacBell would call back for the appointment time the next day, which they did. Unfortunately because we weren't home, and we didn't want to reschedule, it was an all day appointment. PacBell did arrive by the end of that day (even though it was at the end of the day, but within time period). They guy who came to install it was very knowledgeable and friendly who apparently normally did DSL repairs, but was moved to installation at that time due to the load. There was a syncing problem due to a line checking device left in the phone box that the previous installer forgot to remove, but once it was removed, the DSL modem synced and expect when I actually turn it off (rarely) it has never desynced with the DSLAM. There was a configuration problem for the first few days where the WinPoET software (for PPPoE) could not connect to EarthLink, but once it was fixed, we have had less than a 1/2 hour of downtime in total. They used the Alcatel 1000 DSL modem at the 384K min down and 128K up, which I typically see performance in the 800K-1.3M download speeds, so I am very happy with that. The Technical Support has generally been very good, especially during the day.

member for 24.3 years, 1511 visits, last login: 19.1 years ago
lodged 24.3 years ago


Review by rickpark

  • Location: Manhattan Beach, Los Angeles, CA, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
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I've been an Earthlink dial-in subscriber for a number of years and recently decided to go for the ADSL service due to their program offering free installation and connection equipment (with 1 year service commitment of $50/mo. The service for my area is GTE's Bronze Plus package which is 728K down/128K up). As I had an existing second phone line costing me around $30/month and Earthlink service for another $20, it made it almost a no-brainer decision. A few months ago, I contacted GTE to see if they supported ADSL in my neighborhood. At first, they said no because of the way my connecting office (CO)supported my phone line (fiber multiplexer). So a few weeks after that, I contacted Earthlink about their DSL and now, my existing line is now supported. I used DSLreports to check it out and it confirmed that the CO now supported it. I called GTE to set up a time, they never got back to me so back to Earthlink who then set up the time and date (Nov 2.) A week before the install day, I got a voice message from Earthlink at work saying that the install date was now Nov. 3. A day later, I got Earthlink's DSL welcome package with the WinPOET high-speed access software and travelling access disk.

On Nov. 3, the tech from GTE arrived and proceeded to install the splitter box and RJ45 for the ADSL modem. He straightened out some existing wiring after finding a ground of some sort. All of this took about 45 minutes and John the tech was very diligent and professional. He told me that GTE had recently run a fiber from my old CO to a closer one so instead of being 12,000+ feet away per DSLreports, it was actually only 8,000 feet away. We hooked the DSL modem (Fujitsu Speedport) up to the line and then a straight-through twisted pair jumper from the modem to my hub (if you go directly to the NIC, you use a cross-over cable). The connection appears to be PPPoE.

At first, there was no sign of life on the modem lights, John called GTE and found they had not activated the line as ADSL. John took off for a coffee break after telling me the line would activate in a few minutes and that he'd be back. In about 15 minutes, the lights went on during which time firmware updates were uploaded and installed automatically to the modem. John wasn't back yet so I went ahead and installed the WinPoet software. After setting up the login info, I launched the application, it logged me in and I was browsing. At this time, John arrived back, everything from his end seemed OK so he left.

I started Windows System Monitor with connect speed, download and upload Byte rates enabled and used IE and Outlook express to test download speed and was very disappointed as it was barely better than 56K dial-up. I called Earthlink's DSL support and told the tech about the situation. At first, he was somewhat condescending, implying that I didn't understand the difference between Bytes/sec vs bits/sec until I told him what the rates were from System Monitor. He then had me go to computingcentral.com and run their bandwidth test page and sure enough, I wasn't getting anything above 50Kbits/sec download. Next he had me go into Windows Registry to edit a bunch of parameters which eventually got the download rate to 200-250Kbps - better, but far short of 768Kbps which is what Earthlink/GTE says they provide. The tech then said he would open an incident with GTE to check the DSL line.

Today (Nov.8), I tried to get Earthlink DSL support again but after 3 tries with waits of 15+ minutes, I gave up and called GTE directly. The tech there told me there was no existing incident so opened a new one. I talked with her while she checked out the line and said that everything looked OK and that I needed to go home and check the line out again. Now, as I'm writing this, the computingcentral.com bandwidth page reports download rates as high as 1500kbps, with an average of around 750Kbps and Byte download rates of 25 - 40KBps, so it appears the problem was fixed.

I have good things to say about GTE's tech support, I feel that Earthlink is going to have to fix a few thing with theirs, but overall, I'm happy and the speed is great. For the price, I'm glad I did it.

(review was emailed from domain earthlink.net)
lodged 24.4 years ago


Review by mradich See Profile

  • Location: Glendale, Los Angeles, CA, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
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I have not had any problem with earthlink and my install. I recieved my software in the mail before the install of the dsl modem. i called to check on my account to verify my install date and what i need to do left. nothing more untill dsl modem is installed. the pacbell guy came 2 days later and installed the modem and left. i installed the software which installed fine. I was browsing with in minutes.

Great service and the time i had to call tech support was no problem. i did have to wait one time for 18 min for a responce but that is to be expected from time to time. another friend got dsl with earthlink and had no problem with them but did have a problem with pacbell. pacbell blamed earthlink and earthlink proved to me that it was pacbell, which it turned out to be the case. typical with pacbell, they don't wan't to take responsibility for their own incompetence.

member for 24.4 years, driveby review (so far)
lodged 24.4 years ago