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Review by birutak 
Posted: 3.7 years ago
member for 3.7 years, 3 visits, last login: 3.2 years ago
 Alexandria,Alexandria City,VA
 $145 per month (12 month contract)
 Verizon
 "Extremely reliable connection and customer service"
 "Too expensive in VA"
 "Good ISP for a while"
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I was a galaxy customer for almost 4 years and was very happy with the service. Customer service was always easy to reach and helpful. I think my connection may have gone down once for a short time. Four years ago, I was one of the first on my block in Alexandria Va. to get DSL. There was little to choose from back then but I was able to get a business dsl line from Galaxy (a MA co.!) 384/384 sdsl, static IP address, for $140/month. That wasn't too bad back then, but now that all the prices have come down, I can do better - much faster for a lot less money. I would have stayed with Galaxy but they don't offer the residential DSL in VA. How odd since I was already a customer. So I switched to a local DSL provider. Hope it turns out as well as galaxy.
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Review by byronshock
UPDATED: 5.4 years ago
member for 8.2 years, 184 visits, last login: 5 days ago
Boston,Suffolk,MA
$46 per month (12 month contract)
 about 18 days
Verizon
CLEC party: Rhythms
"Competitive pricing, great upstream bandwidth, rock-solid connection to date*, rapid installation (< 3 weeks)!"
"First hop ping is OK but a bit less than ideal. This was also the case with my previous provider & may be a line characteristic."
"Great service! However, please see the important NOTE at the bottom of this review."
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When Flashcom went under, I decided the easiest way to ensure continuity would be to get DSL installed on the residential phone line. Flashcom was using a dedicated line, so no CLEC swap was required.
I ordered 768/384 residential ADSL service from Galaxy at $45.95 a month plus a one-time fee of $100. The order process was painless. Due to uncertainties at the local CO, I had them check with the CLEC to make sure that my installation would not be unduly delayed. They did their homework, and as there were no obstacles to installation, I had them proceed. Within three weeks, I had received my equipment and static IP address. This was the first time (of three DSL installations I have had) that the installation did not require a truck roll. It was truly quick, and I was up and running in about 15 minutes.
The home equipment is leased from Rhythms. I think this is a great move as it eliminates some waste in the system. I still have two ADSL modems from the two previous providers. I bought these modems, although actually they were heavily subsidized by my former providers. There is really no reason that end users should be given ownership of the box. The cable companies don't sell you the cable box, do they?
Since I got the first green light, I have experienced no outages (a first) and consistent performance (a first)*. I'm keeping this ISP as long as I can.
NOTE: GalaxyDSL no longer offers Rhythms service to new customers. Aspects of this review pertaining to bandwidth, price, and service quality may not be applicable to new accounts.
* Update, 10/25/01: the connection has suffered occasional brief outages over the last two to three months. These have not interfered with my usage patterns, but have shown up in the DSLReports line monitor.
* Update, 4/28/03: adjusted Value for Money to be in line with my RCN Cable review. Adjusted downward from 4 to 3.
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Review by kentborg
Posted: 5.9 years ago
(review was emailed from domain borg.org)
undisclosed location
Contract price not specified.
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I have been a customer of Galaxy DSL for, oh, well over a year. Might
be coming on two. In general, I am very pleased with their service.
I have a static IP address and residential service. I run my own mail
server on Linux--in fact I am ssh-ed into my basement server from work
right now as I write this.
There have been a couple of price increases in the time I have been a
customer, but I haven't lost service because anyone went belly up
either. Paying too low a price isn't always desirable! The price
isn't the bargain it once was, but it seems fair.
I do have one gripe. They block some ports. I might be ssh-ed in
right now, but I have to run sshd on port 19 because the standard
port, 22, is blocked. At first the problem was that the router in my
basement had a limited number of "filters" that could be set up to
forward specific ports to specific internal machines. But then I dug
through the router manual and found the page number that explained how
to have everything get forwarded to a single internal machine, I
pointed them at the proper page, they pointed NAS at the proper page,
and I now have far more ports coming in than there are filters in my
model router, so I know they opened up the router in my basement.
But lots of ports remain blocked, and Galaxy DSL doesn't seem to know
where they are being blocked, and so they can't unblock them. Because
I am just a residential customer, they have run out of interest in
looking. This is more important to me of late because of network
changes that are planned at my work are going to be, um, annoying...
Let me just say that I would really like to have port 443 open and it
isn't. It might force me to look for another DSL provider, and I
would rather not have to switch. Dang. (A related annoyance is that
I can't do traceroutes.)
Conclusion: The service mostly works (very reliable of late, less so
at first), they are nice people, they don't seem to have nasty
policies that require blocking ports, but neither are they technically
competent enough to easily handle oddball requests like mine.
-kb, the nerdly Kent who has learned a *lot* about Linux since he put
a box on his DSL connection.
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Review by tringali
UPDATED: 6.4 years ago
member for 7.8 years, 25 visits, last login: 3.1 years ago
Hudson,Middlesex,MA
$60 per month (12 month contract)
about 15 days
Verizon
CLEC party: Network Access Solutions
"Nice home hardware, good uptime and bandwidth"
"Sucky services: slow mail, non-existent news"
"No brainer over dial-up."
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Well, reading the other reviews here shows me that Galaxy is inconsistent. I've have a decent experience with them.
Installation:
I ordered 128K SDSL service for the above $35. A week or so later, Verizon came by and put a new interface on the side of my house. A week after that, they showed up to run the cable into the house and hook everything up. (Their cable-running skills are minimal; I'd suggest running it yourself.) There was a minor problem on NAS's end, so the connection wasn't up until the next business day, a few days later. All told, it was about 2 weeks from order to ping.
Connection:
The equipment is nice, an Ascend DSL router with a built-in four-port hub and firewall. You get one static IP address and everything behind there is NAT'd. The default setup was a little restrictive, but good from a security standpoint. I could get mail, use the web, but multiplayer gaming was out. All incoming connections were dropped.
The problem is that they refuse to hand over the router password, even if you're knowledgeable. That means, each time I want to open up a hole in the router for a particular service, I would have to call them back. This is a pain; I want to be able to change this at will when I add more computers or services. (If you know what you're doing, this really isn't a problem; it's not too hard to "give yourself" access to your router.)
If you don't know how to get around it as above, you have another choice. Call them up, and ask them to allow incoming traffic. Then, run a firewall behind it to protect yourself. Simplest is a software one like ZoneAlarm; you can also buy a LinkSys box or run a Linux box. Doing this, however, wastes the firewall and hub inside your nice router and adds an extra hop.
Galaxy, if you're reading, give up the iron-first control of the router if the customer can demonstrate knowledge of network admin.
Performance has been good; with the tools here, I usually get 100% of the advertised bandwidth.
One nit is their services stink- the mail server is very slow, the DNS is slow and the back-up is on the same network, and they have no NNTP (news) server. Their "news server" is a redirect to Deja News, what a joke.
Tech support, while not the brightest in the world, do a good job. They have the decency to keep you posted on the status of problems. The techs call back letting you know the progress, and will ask you if they can close out a trouble ticket. Nice.
All in all, the service is a good value, and far better than dial up.
[Update 4/21/2002]
They raised my rate to $50/month, which really isn't so bad, considering the lack of options in 01749. I'm considering switching to their ADSL offering which only a few bucks more, but much faster. However, I am loathe to mess with something that's alreadying working, so I keep putting it off.
Downtime has been very minimal, maybe a day out of each year. This is very good. I telecomutte occasionally and unpredictably so having the DSL there realiably is a big win.
Gaming pings are excellent. I usually pick the quickest server I can find (sometimes in Germany!) and usually get 50-75ms. Good for FPS.
Mail and DNS has improved a lot lately. Still no real news service. (Sorry, Google does not count.)
[Update 9/7/2002]
Rate now raised to $60/month now, which is a little high for 128/128 SDSL. I'm deleting a value point as there appears to be far faster/cheaper services available. Galaxy, please stop messing with the rates. I'm starting to feel like a sucker who fell into a bait-and-switch.
[Update 11/23/2004]
Dropped service in favor of Verizon, which is offering 3.0/768 for $40/mo, and comes with a real newsfeed.
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Review by wtan20006
Posted: 6.8 years ago
member for 7.8 years, 8 visits, last login: 6.7 years ago
Sharon,Norfolk,MA
$14 per month
"None"
"Fradulent billing practices. Unsatisfactory rating with BBB as of 12/14"
"Don't sign up"
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Tech support and connection quality was poor.
Company only accepts cancellations over the phone, and refuses to provide confirmations. Continues to bill for cancelled accounts.
I have filed a complaint with the BBB.
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Review by (hidden by request)
Posted: 6.9 years ago
(review was emailed from domain radiosonline.com)
Hudson,Middlesex,MA
 Business customer
$49 per month (12 month contract)
Verizon
CLEC party: Network Access Solutions
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Anyone that is contemplating Galaxy dsl service in Massachusetts, think twice. They raised the rates several months ago, and since then the connection has been horrible. Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not. But what follows below is a copy of the email I sent to their support dept. When the service goes down it usually takes them 8-24-30 hours to fix it also.
What is going on with my dsl line! It has been down 7 times now this month
alone. When it goes down, i'm stuck dialing in and get horrible connections
at 28.8 and 26.4!
Never ever has there ever been this many problems! I'm to the point where
i'm disgusted enough to tell you people if this doesn't straighten out soon
that I will be changing carriers and providers. I've had enough.
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Review by JLeslie
Posted: 7 years ago
(review was emailed from domain tibersoft.com)
Andover,Essex,MA
$45 per month (12 month contract)
"Nothing Good"
"Everything Bad"
"Worst Company I have delt with in any industry!"
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I have never worked with a more frustrating and unprofessional company.
They have illegally broken a binding service contract and have been
completely unmotivated to rectify the situation.
I am currently reporting Galaxy DSL to the Better Business Bureau and may
possibly seek other legal action against this joke of a company.
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Review by carlje
Posted: 7.1 years ago
member for 8.1 years, 1149 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Peabody,Essex,MA
$47 per month
about 45 days
Verizon
CLEC party: Verizon
"Verizon won't go chapter 11"
"There software is buggy"
"Work great with a linksys router once you get installed"
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After waiting a month and a half, I was promised a August 28th start date,
however, was unable to login, getting "Access Denied".
Was unable to reach tech support after a hour on hold!
The verizon software caused a major startup problem with Windows 98SE!
Still DO NOT have internet access through GalaxyDSL.
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Review by brokk
Posted: 7.1 years ago
member for 7.1 years, 4 visits, last login: 6.1 years ago
Waltham,Middlesex,MA
$50 per month (12 month contract)
Verizon
CLEC party: Rhythms
"They are the cheapest I could find"
"Bad points: It never worked"
"Go elsewhere"
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I spent 9 weeks from initial request, through the install, trouble
shooting, giving up, and removing the service.
I ordered an IDSLR, 768/384, for 49.95/month, static IP.
They shipped the modem to the wrong person, signature required to a home
address where no one would ever be during delivery hours. It took us four
days for finally make arrangements and go pick it up. Very annoying. They
never told me in advance that they were shipping something or gave me an
option to ship it elsewhere.
I had to call in to tech support to get it working, then suffered severe
packet loss. There was much finger pointing between Rhythms, Verizon and
Galaxy. I had long protracted discussions with all of them which even
included two truck rolls by the TelCo, unanswered messages to the manager
in charge of things at Galaxy and many hours on an upper level tech
support with Rhythms. I spent three weeks trying to get things working,
including rewiring my home phone lines with Cat5 wiring. Nothing. It
never got fixed, then they finally decided to drop me as a customer
because it was too much hassle to keep working on it. It took another 3+
weeks to get the line removed at the CO.
Once my line was freed up, I called SpeakEasy and got it installed and
working in 18 days. Initially there was the same packet loss as with
Galaxy, but after getting Covad involved they figured out the problem and
it was easily resolved.
SpeakEasy costs me twice as much as Galaxy, but it's worth every penny to
not have to deal with the hassle of never having a working DSL line.
Brokk...
PS. I've now received a bill from FedEX because the account number I was given to mail the hardware back was invalid. So now they want me to pay $42.62 for shipping my DSL modem back as I was instructed to.
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Review by (hidden by request)
Posted: 7.1 years ago
(review was emailed from domain allpar.com)
Teaneck,Bergen,NJ
$89 per month (12 month contract)
Verizon
CLEC party: Network Access Solutions
"Cheap, got me going, nice people, router includes hub and firewall"
"Outages at first - quickly resolved"
"Surprisingly good."
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Very friendly and effective. Good tech support. Got me up and running
despite many Verizon problems and long distance to CO.
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