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 Review by Camare 
member for 10 years, 3276 visits, last login: 60 days ago
updated 4.9 years ago
 Mckinleyville,Humboldt,CA
 $34 per month- (12 month contract)
 about 7 days SBC "Haven't had any problems with it --Speed has been reliable--Price has been stable." "None" "Pretty good deal"
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I've only had it for a couple of years now. The regular price is $34.95 for the 3Mbps speed and had remained that price. Quite happy with it so far. Tested the speed with the "MySpeed PC" program and it has been very consistent.
I ordered the package, they shipped, they activated the line, and when I got the pkg 7 days later, I installed everything according to the directions, and it worked right off. Later I added a D-Link wireless router, so my son could hook up to it with his wireless laptop. No problems there either. It did help to have my computer guru son around to define the technical jargon, so I knew what they were talking about.
My service is the dynamic IP. Cheaper...big influence in decision
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Review by fcb
member for 12.5 years, 1355 visits, last login: 173 days ago
updated 4.9 years ago
- Orange,Orange,CA
- $49 per month
- (12 month contract)
- SBC
- "When working it's great. And it's finally working!!!!!!!"
- "In the past had difficulty connecting and staying connected"
- "No problems now"
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I'm not technically oriented and do not know the answer to several of the memory jog review questions. The order was handled satisfactorily by Earthlink, the installation was not. It took Pac Bell three separate visits to get everything taken care of. However, my only complaint, and I consider very damning, is the frequent difficulty I have in getting connected and the frequent loss of connection once I do. There have been numerous conversations with Earthlink techs. There seems to be short term success, one or two days of trouble free operation, and then back to the situation that prompted the call. They say they have checked everything from their end and all is well. Pac Bell came out for a fourth time at Earthlink's request. Pac Bell says all is well from this end. Apparently the trouble is somewhere in the middle. Thank heavens I brought my computer from work home for the Thanksgiving weekend. Right now I'm posting this while connected through CompuServe via dialup modem.
If any of you have ideas as to what might be causing the connection difficulties I'm having I'd appreciate getting them.
Since posting the initial review I've checked the speed frequently, but once again I'm here via CompuServe through a dialup connection. When working I generally get about 1280k down and 100+k up. One time when I thought I'd lost the connection I found that it was just reeeeeaaaaal slow. Speed test showed 14k down! Modem is Westell WireSpeed .
Saturday, February 24,2001. Have had Earthlink DSL since July 2000. Was sporadic for months. About three months ago it became very dependable. It would work fairly regularly during the day but then shutdown at 5:00 absolutely every evening. Never available again until the next day! Several calls to Earthlink, several broken promises. Finally told them if it wasn't working within 72 hours that I would cancel. Pac Bell was out at the house on January 24 for the fourth time since July. Looks like they finally got it right. Hope I'm not being premature but since January 24th its been available 24/7 and I consistently test at 1267 down and 107 up. I'm very pleased now after several frustrating months.
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 Review by jimbo48
member for 12.5 years, 777 visits, last login: 94 days ago
updated 5 years ago
- Hayward,Alameda,CA
- $100 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 21 days
- Covad
- "Fantastic set of tools. apps capabilities"
- "Tech support/ Sales do not communicate or agree on anything and will lie to get a sale or blow you off a help call"
- "Best deliveralbes for the money in my area. the Wire boys and the Cable boys are not even in the running"
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4-22-2008I've had Earthlink since the 14.4 modem days. Went to DSL with Earthlink/Pacific Bell program- a nightmare- filed a formal complaint with the FCC. Took 6 months before I was finally provisioned. I even had to "threaten" a SBC employee into giving me the DSL modem and filters when I found one in my neighborhood.(actually very nice guy who understood my frustration). Seems Earthlink "lost" my order and said they would send modem and filters out (after 6 months of waiting) . Initially terrible service reliability etc.and SBC and Earthlink pointing fingers at each others operations.
I'd been up and running on their 1.5 DSL (very stable) for about 2.5 years when I took the hook and went their Premium High Speed DSL. Their provisioning didn't match their sales ads/promises/lies- almost grounds for a lawsuit for bait and switch in my opinion. Terrible tech support- I've drained phone batteries waiting for a "tech support " person to answer much less care. They do know how to read their canned scripts though. That's not to say all tech support was terrible. There were some points of light in the sea of darkness, just not enough light to know where they're taking you..
Specs promised by ELNK "SALES"
8000 down /768 up
final provision speed 3MB/sec maximum 2.3 nominal/384 max with 300 nominal
Line was so unstable that they had to CAP me at 3.0 MB for download and 384 Upload- COVAD said I'm 12K feet from the CO-must be a LOT of twists and turns because I'm not that far by auto by a long shot( about 2K feet difference)!. ! still experience random DSL synch loss and poor VOIP quality yet they (ELNK) keep charging me their "Premium DSL" rate. They cut 5.00 off for awhile then turned around and added it back in (see post on DSL reports about the 5.00 surcharge). ELNK sales will say/tell you anything to sign up and their provider COVAD (here in the Bay area) can't deliver on the promises ELNK makes. ELNK then cites their "best effort" clause for everything related to promised vs delivered issues.
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Its too bad that ELNK has slipped up so bad as their offering of DSL Voice and VOIP services is outstanding and well-priced IF they would/could deliver on what they say they would/could. Chalk this situation up to my being too trusting and uninformed -Thanks to DSLReports participation I know a LOT more
Price is 69.95 per month DSL and phone and another 24.95 for 2nd VOIP line
PPoE
WIN XP SP2 home, WIN XP Professional and Vista Home Premium, WHS2003
Zyxel modem P-660ELNK
ATA2100 VOIP router
dynamic IP
Linksys WRT54G router
Self installation- Earthlink charged too much to install
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 Review by lunarPlexus
member for 10.2 years, 4244 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 5 years ago
- Chicago,Cook,IL
- $49 per month
- (12 month contract)
- AT&T
- "Very smooth startup;Modem came quickly;Installation a breeze"
- "Customer Service; What customer service?"
- "Excellent if you need a provider that just provides"
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Ordering online was straightforward. Modem came in about a week and the line was on. Plugged it in and synced right away. Speeds generally in the 1100-1250/108 range, which I think is great as I have a mess for inside wiring.
One day, after about 2 weeks of service, I lost sync. I tried all the steps in the help, i.e turn off modem, reset. No luck. Then, all of a sudden, I got alternating green and amber sync lights on my modem. Nowhere could I find what this meant. Not in the docs that came with the install kit and not on earthlink's site. I went to live chat support and after an hour with no response I gave up. I posted my dilemma on DSLR and got a quick answer that fixed me right up. This is why I say, "What customer service?" If any of my 49.95 a month (well, still in the 21.95 intro period) goes toward customer service, they should forward that portion to DSLR!
Update: 4/22/2008 Haven't had to have any interaction with Earthlink in several years - other than paying the bill. Service has been good. Speeds are adequate. I could probably get price lowered, but it's not worth my time. It's been like any other utility. That's a good thing.
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 Review by DrStrange
member for 11.8 years, 5269 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 5.1 years ago
- West Hartford,Hartford,CT
- $49 per month
- (month by month)
- about 45 days
- Southern New England Telephone
- "Reliable. Rock-solid for 6 and a half years"
- "Outsourced tech support: Given 4 weeks, they couldn't fix a misplaced wire that resulted from a hardware migration at the CO."
- "It's fine if it works 'out of the box'. Don't expect much of anything from tech support."
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I ordered Earthlink DSL in July, 2001. It took about seven weeks to get up and running due to poor co-operation between Earthlink, Covad and SNET. I had to order the service on my second phone line when they couldn't get it to work on the first line. Once they got it running, it was flawless at 1536/384 and later 3008/384 [except for 51-hour outage caused by 9/11 that certainly wasn't their fault] until 2/1 of this year. On 2/1 the connection inexplicably went dead. I called India tech support and they ripped and rebuilt the PVC to no avail. A bit of asking around behind the scenes yielded the probable cause: There was a hardware migration from AT&T to Covad splitters [forced on Covad by AT&T] at my CO on 2/1. Someone apparently didn't re-connect my DSL correctly to my phone line during the migration. I forwarded this information to India tech support and they basically ignored me. They insisted [on 2/5] that the problem was (1) a bad modem [I had three working modems at the time], then (2) bad inside wiring [although I told them I had no sync at the NID, they had AT&T send a line tech to my house [2/12]. The line tech found [obviously] nothing wrong. India tech support's next excuse was that the line had suddenly, magically become 'technically not feasible' [3/3]. I responded by cancelling Earthlink. I changed my service plan to 'Premium E-mail' with no Internet access. For $5 a month or $49.90 a year, Earthlink will provide five e-mail accounts.
The 'technically not feasible' line is now running at 6016/768 [3/15] with a 19dB downstream margin. I switched to another Covad partner [reviewed separately] and Covad had the connection up and running nine days [3/15] after Earthlink was 'disconnected' [3/6; note: they'll try and keep the line 'connected' for up to a month unless pressed to disconnect immediately; the disconnect should take a week or less; mine was done in three days].
Earthlink used to have some first-class techs working in support. They also had an online presence at this site, which saved many customers from switching as I was ultimately forced to do. These operations have been entirely outsourced [and the online presence here is no more]. A few of the techs in India are competent, but the rest are script-readers. Earthlink's ill-conceived efforts at cost control have rendered its tech support operation useless for anything beyond common user errors, bad modems and circuit rebuilds.
I won't say 'stay away', but I will say 'be warned'. If you order and everything works, just pray to all that's holy that it stays that way. If it doesn't work [or it stops working] and they can't fix it on the first or second try, cancel and go elsewhere.
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 Review by neoabacus
member for 11.7 years, 131 visits, last login: 17 days ago
lodged 5.1 years ago
- Dayton,Montgomery,OH
- $41 per month
- "fast"
- "speed advertised as 5mbs get mostly 3 -4 at most"
- "ok deal"
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Never had to use tech support so i rated it middle of the road
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Review by indyattic
member for 7.4 years, 24 visits, last login: 2.4 years ago
lodged 5.2 years ago
- Hoffman Estates,Cook,IL
- $29 per month
- (24 month contract)
- about 15 days
- AT&T
- "Cheap, little down time"
- "Their service is AWFUL"
- "Only suitable for DIYers"
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I am a non-techie soccer Mom, who doesn't download music or play WoW. I tend to only surf and watch Netflix.
Before Earthlink, we had AT&T DSL. It was down a lot, so we switched to Earthlink when we moved. It does not seem to experience the outages that AT&T did.
But - argh - their customer service is horrible. They really should just fire everybody in India, knock $10 off the price and turn it into a DIY DSL service.
I finally got my problem fixed when I found a blog written by an executive. I posted a comment, and got a phone call the next day. Once I spoke to somebody with the intelligence to deviate from script, the problems were fixed, but nobody should have to work that hard to get a service issue resolved.
I use Gmail now, so when I have to leave earthlink my mail won't be disrupted.
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Review by ed
member for 12 years, 484 visits, last login: 41 days ago
updated 5.2 years ago
- Los Angeles,Los Angeles,CA
- $39 per month
- about 30 days
- Verizon
- "Good, reliable connection"
- "Changes rate plan on some customers"
- "If they lower the price to $40 again I would recommend you sign up"
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I have EL DSL for almost 2 years now. I've had the dial-up at first and then I was among the first to signed up when they've announced DSL for $49.95. It took them almost a month to finally get it working on my computer. The reason was miscommunication between EL, Verizon (my local phone company) and the third party from outside hired to install the splitter. But once it was up and running, I have no complain. The speed was pretty consistent. Once in a while they would have routine system maintenance (which they would announce on their website). Overall I would say I'm pretty happy with them. I've heard some stories that they were not honoring the $39.95/mo. on some of the customers which is pretty bad. I work as a computer consultant and have recommended them to a few of my clients which if they ever sign up with EL for 30 days, I would get credited for $20.- which they did. Oh! almost forgot to mention the equipment. I've got the Fujitsu DSL modem (Speedport) and the first one has to be replaced with in hours of installation. The second one lasted until now. Another one is the cable coming from the splitter into the DSL modem was also replaced after a few weeks. After that it's smooth sailing.
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Review by scuzzcatt
member for 11.7 years, 389 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 5.3 years ago
- Plainfield,Hendricks,IN
- $50 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 14 days
- "Reliable"
- "Tech support"
- "It works"
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Since dslreports keeps bugging me to write this here goes. I've had the service for 6.5 years so some of the install info is best estimate.
At the time I got Earthlink DSL it was the only broadband option available where I live. I got the 1.5Mb up/300Kb down package. After a couple years they upgraded me to the 3 Mb down service which turned out to be a disaster at my distance of 17,000 ft. I say disaster because it took several days and hours on the phone for their tech support to figure this out. Once I got to tier 3 support though they sorted it in minutes by setting safemode speed of 2 Mb down. Speed is consistent at 1650 down and 325 up
Install was self-install package. Took maybe 30 minutes total to install the phone filters, plug in the modem, and set the PPOE ID and password in my router. None of the supplied software was needed. The supplied Speedstream 5260 modem has been reliable.
I can't emphasize tech support issues enough. Anytime you call no matter what the situation they will run you through the drill. Doesn't matter if you've already done it. Reboot the modem, reconnect the phone line and then start in on your computer settings. Don't start this process on a cordless phone. No battery is big enough. Once they've beaten your computer network settings to death you'll (maybe) get sent up to a higher level support. On one instance they made enough changes to my PC that it was simpler and faster to Ghost it back instead of trying to go back and straighten out the 6 hours of changes they made to finally figure out it was a problem on their end. They've even told me the modem itself was bad to try and get me to re-up on a contract. In all cases these issues have turned out to be network issues on their end. In 6 years the only one decent tech support experience was when I called sales and told them I wanted to upgrade by switching to someone else. I was immediately sent to a higher level tech who traced the line problem in minutes. Of course I'd spent hours on the phone the day before with the entry level without a fix...
Fortunately the thing has been reliable enough to not drive me away. If I had to deal with tech support any more often then every one or two years I'd be gone. As time has gone by more options have come available. However, the local cable company has difficulty with TV so I can't imagine how they'd do as an ISP and their tech support is even worse than Earthlink. The one time I tried for another DSL service the loop distance stopped it.
So in the end the good is definitely the reliability. As to the bad do I need to say anymore about tech support.
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 Review by fractalman93
member for 8.8 years, 685 visits, last login: 70 days ago
updated 5.3 years ago
- Newport News,Newport News City,VA
- $39 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 10 days
- Verizon
- "Reliable connectivity. Good customer service."
- "Tech support was better before the Mindspring/Earthlink merger."
- "As with any DSL service, you have to be within about 2 miles (not necessarily straight line) from CO to get 3MB dl / 384KB ul"
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I signed on with Mindspring in October of 1998. Tech support was great and they were cheaper than my previous ISP for dial-up access. Mindspring merged with Earthlink in February 2000. From that point, tech support quality went down a few notches. Nevertheless, I have stuck with them because connectivity has been reliable and I really don't want to change my e-mail address.
I upgraded to DSL in July 2004. On the downside, I had to restart my contract when I moved across town in April 2005. On the upside, I got the current discount (19.95 for the first 6 months) when the contract restarted.
I would sign a 2 year contract if they would guarantee me $29.95 / month for all 24 months. The total would probably come to about $35, but that's better than the $46 that I was paying.
I am currently paying $39.95 for 3mbps dl / 768kbps ul. I'm happy with that.
Fractalman93
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