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Review by birutak 
Posted: 4.8 years ago
member for 4.8 years, 3 visits, last login: 4.3 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 tringali
UPDATED: 7.6 years ago
member for 8.9 years, 25 visits, last login: 4.3 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: 7.9 years ago
member for 8.9 years, 8 visits, last login: 7.9 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 JLeslie
Posted: 8.1 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: 8.2 years ago
member for 9.3 years, 1362 visits, last login: 7 days 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: 8.2 years ago
member for 8.2 years, 4 visits, last login: 7.3 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: 8.5 years ago
(review was emailed from domain plaut.com)
Brookline,Norfolk,MA
$48 per month (12 month contract)
Verizon
CLEC party: Rhythms
"Don't do business with GalaxyDSL"
"They will charge you $450 w/o your approval"
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Massachussetts Residents:
Do NOT use GalaxyDSL. This ISP will unplug you and charge you $450. Here
is how:
I had their service with them for less than a month. One day, my DSL
connection went down. I was calling everyday to tech support and there were
not helpful. Here is what I heard from them:
it was a Rythms connection problem
the CO had a short circuit
Verizon unplugged the DSL line
I can ping your router (although my DSL modem did not have an IP and second,
the connection was down)
...
Anyway, after 2 weeks of downtime, GalaxyDSL disconnected my line and
charged me $450 without my approval. I called David (the Manager) and asked
some explainations. He mentioned that it was Verizon that unplugged my DSL
line. They said that I must deal with Verizon directly. Surprisingly, I
never dealt or had business with VerizonDSL. After calling Verizon, they
mentioned that GalaxyDSL wanted to get out of the business with me and found
some excuses to point fingers at other providers.
We are currently considering a Class Action Lawsuit againt GalaxyDSL. ...
John Kim
Sr. Network Engineer
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Review by (hidden by request)
Posted: 8.5 years ago
(review was emailed from domain plaut.com)
Brookline,Norfolk,MA
$47 per month (12 month contract)
Verizon
CLEC party: Rhythms
"Cancellation fee is $450, no chance to escape even if your connection is down!"
"Worse Customer Relationship w/ Management. Choose another ISP"
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I wanted to express my disatisfaction with GalaxyDSL located in Newton, MA.
due to a long downtime and lack of professional management. I had the
service for less than a month now.
My DSL connection is down for almost 10 days and GalaxyDSL keeps stating
that the connection should be back online in the next few days. I've been
calling them every day for an update. First, they said that it was my PC
config, then they blamed Rythms, next it's Verizon... Come on, who am I
dealing with here???
When it came to GalaxyDSL management (Dave), this is the worth customer
relation I ever had. I asked for a cancellation and they want to charge me
$450. I understand that they can charge me $450 if my connection was fine,
but they still want to charge me even my connection is down for about 10
days. No matter if people are down or up, they will still get your money.
Additional note. He (the manager) mentioned to transfer to a business line
DSL instead of residential since I used it for both. I told him that I
didn't want to use a business line to cruise the internet and on top of
that, what guarantee do I have if the same connection problem occurs (as I
have now). He did not answer my question on this one.
Well, I strongly do not recommend to go with GalaxyDSL for the simple reason
that the cancellation fee is very high.
John Kim
Sr. Network Engineer
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Review by mikek36595
Posted: 9 years ago
member for 9 years, 2 visits, last login: 8.8 years ago
Boxborough,Middlesex,MA
Contract price not specified. (12 month contract)
about 90 days
Verizon
CLEC party: Network Access Solutions
"The are no good points"
"HORRIBLE install coordination & support"
"Avoid this ISP at all costs"
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First off, I'm an IT professional and have used a lot of ISPs, both professionally and privately. Therefore, I feel very qualified to say that, without a doubt, Galaxy Internet is the worst ISP I've ever dealt with. I can't even detail all the problems I've had with them, so here are just a few highlights:
First, they took over 90 days to install my service. I understand that DSL installs are still a little quirky, and I wouldn't be so angry about this length of time if they hadn't sent me an unsolicted spam^H^H^H^H email loudly proclaiming that they were ready to install service at my address immediately. Even worse, as soon as I signed up, they sent out a clueless contractor who disconnected my modem line and left me with a without a dedicated means of connection for 80 more days, until they finally get around to connecting the DSL. Repeated phone calls did absolutely nothing to move this along.
Second, the service is terrible. Again, I realize that Galazy is just a DSL reseller (via NAS & Verizon), but my connectivity is awful. I constantly lose connections and my bandwidth is frequently 10% of what they advertise (and I'm only signed up for IDSL, with a max of 144k!) Even worse, in the just-over 5 month's I've had DSL, I've had to miss SEVEN days of work to wait for repairmen to show up and work on my lines. on the majority of those days, the people didn't even show up. AND Galaxy was frequently unable to arrange for their (supposed) visit until that day, (forcing me to change my plans that morning). I'm fortunate enough to have a job where I can get away with that... I can't imagine what it's like for those poor people who don't have that luxury.
Third, and IMO worst of all, Galaxy's customer service sucks. They are, without a doubt, the most apathetic, arrogant, and poorly trained staff I've ever come across. I'm on the phone with them a lot (because their service is so horrible) and I almost never fail to get the runaround. Calling one tech right after hanging up with another yields an entirely different excuse as to why service is out and when it's expected to be repaired. I've even been hung up on after asking to speak to a superviser. I supervise an IT helpdesk as part of my job; if ANY of my personnel EVER acted the way Galaxy's does, I'd fire them without hesitation. Also, Galaxy technicians refuse to take responsibility for problems. Hey Galaxy: I don't care who you buy your service from. When I report an outage, the problem is YOURS. You own it and it's your responsibility to fix it. Simply shrugging it off as NAS' or Verizon's fault is absolutely inexcusable. I can't say it enough: GALAXY'S CUSTOMER SERVICE IS HORRIBLE.
Those are just three examples... I could go on for pages. If I hadn't spent (read: wasted) so much time and money on them already, I'd get rid of them in a heartbeat and go with someone else. I may even still do that, even if it means going back to a modem. They're that bad.
Bottom line, if you can at all avoid Galaxy, do yourself a favor and do so. Knowing what I know now, I'd never deal with them again.
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GalaxyDSL
