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Review by mikedslva See Profile

  • Location: Vienna, Fairfax, VA, USA
  • Cost: $49 per month
  • Telco party WorldCom
Pre-sales process WAS good - Now the phone is busy all the time
Have been trying for weeks to get the service working with no luck
Be Cautious - They seem to be plagued with rapid growth problems
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

I ordered my service weeks ago with the promise that because I was switching from directvdsl on the same last mile provider (Worldcom) the switch should be painless and quick. It has been anything but that so far.

Shortly after rceiving my speedstream modem/router I called back to check on status. I was told it would be completed in the next 2 days so I waited. Nothing happened. After 4 days I called back in again only to find a long string of busy signals. Then I emailed support and waited another few days with no reply. I then just kept redialing until I finally got someone on the phone. They told me there was a problem but they would call Worldcom and it should be done in the next couple days. 5 days later I called back to find the busy signals again. Again, I sent support an email with no reply. I finally got a messaeg on my answering machine saying it would be switched during the following weekend and we should be good to go.

After the weekend with no change I started the calling busy signal cycle again and finally spoke with someone the folloiwing Wednesday. They had me plug in my modem again and as always it didn't sync with the other side. They tried to ping (obviously couldn't given it didn't sync) and wanted to report it to Worldcom as a physical line problem, again. When I explained that I am online with directvdsl on the same phone line, so therefore it can't be a line problem, they said they had no choice but to report it as a line problem.

I am now sitting on hold again (45 minutes and couting) trying to see if I can get someone more knowledgable to move this forward or just cancel my service and move to another Worldcom provider that is not out of control. It seems that from the first time I called in December to today they have melted down.

I think the problem with my circuit order is that I am in a cycle that they can't break. I plug in the speedstream and it doesn't sync, so all they know to do is report a line problem. BUT, because I have directv running, when Worldcom checks into it they obviously see a service running so they cancel the line problem trouble ticket. Then the cycle starts again.

To be honest the real issue is busy signals, long wait times, no replies to emails and lack of knowledge on the support staff. Cyberonic, what has happened to you????

To all considering buying the service, be VERY cautious!! They seem to be company out of control that has changed a lot since many reviews were written.

PS - When I get frustrated I called the sales line. When I got through, I explained my frustration and was told by the sales rep, "I can't help you with that, you need to call tech support." When I explained the busy signal and hold time problem he said "Sorry, I can't help you." When I explained that I was being forced to look for a new provider he told me "Oh, OK." Great sales department.

member for 21.1 years, 10 visits, last login: 19.2 years ago
lodged 21.1 years ago

garystevens4
join:2002-06-26
Boston, MA

garystevens4

Member

DTV & Cyberonic at the SAME TIME!

You can not have DTV and Cyberonic (Two DSL service on the same line) at the same time. If you DTV service is still on you need to continue to use the DTV, when you realize that DTV is not working any more (after Hot-Swap), then you plug in your Cyberonic Router.

I've been using Cyberonic for the past 7 months with no down time with great speeds (1300k/700k). This is the best service I have had. There are 100's of reviews and posts on successful installations. Also, it is not their fault that DTV went out of business in matter of 1 or 2 months and you all need service. The reason that they are busy is because they have a great service and naturally all DTV customers are going to them and trying to help all you DTV people without service! You need to be patient!

I think that in the near term they will adjust with the high demand as more DTV customers are finding new homes.

-gary
mikedslva
join:2003-01-27
Vienna, VA

mikedslva

Member

Re: DTV & Cyberonic at the SAME TIME!

I appreciate the good comments about them and look forward to experiencing it. I can be very patient when presented with reasonable interaction. Keep in mind that my expectations were and are continuing to be set by them, not me. I suspect that if you were trying to become a customer today you would be frustrated as well.

As you suggested, I have been told now twice that the directv would go down first (by Cyberonic) and twice that it wouldn't. I agree with you that I expect it to drop first. Of course, it will drop one day as they are going out of business, and I only hope that Cyberonic's promises (not my expectations) are met and they have it up and running.
mikedslva

mikedslva

Member

Re: DTV & Cyberonic at the SAME TIME!

PS - The other reason I feel compelled to try to talk with them is that everytime I have spoken with them they state that it "should be working" and it is clear they are not working on anything to fix it. In other words, if I just sit back and wait I have no indication that it will ever get established as they are stuck in the loop described above.

Just trying to be a customer...

bigchris
Do Not Shoot The Messenger
Premium Member
join:2002-04-29
Leesburg, VA

bigchris to garystevens4

Premium Member

to garystevens4
Just to add to that point, I think the comment was that they WERE great (probably when you signed up) but now they've melted down. In my various posts on here about Cyberonic I've seen the same sales coordination mess and nightmare as the first post, and I keep trying to emphasize that it's not a problem that they are overwhelmed, we can all understand that; the problem is they aren't doing anything about it or improving their processes.

As an example, I spoke to a guy (Mo) one morning who told me my router was in a UPS box headed to my house as of that morning so expect it in a couple of days. Later that day when I got home he'd left a voicemail for me in the afternoon where he was trying to configure my router but couldn't understand why it wasn't online and suggested I take it out of the box, plug it in and let them know.

So to me that shows not only their sales group is out of control but general coordination of customer accounts is also which is leading them to waste valuable time chasing around. At crunch time you organize, you look for things that are time wasting and going wrong and you put organization around them. They probably waste a ton of time answering customers requests on status, hence the long wait times, well, simple, AUTOMATE it.. bring up a web site so people can check themselves then take that relief in phone pressure and organize around the next worst thing thats wasting time.

To me this is a company that's very immature and doesn't understand how to react to the events its found itself in.

Also, to comment on great service over 7 months.. I think it' not 'service' that's the problem, we don't know what the service is like because we're not on it yet. But in terms of 'servicing' their customer base, it's pretty dire. At the end of the day Cyberonic are NOT delivering your 1500/768, they are simply an administration gate to Worldcom providing you that speed.. and their administration sucks.

If there were another company offering this speed deal they'd be in real trouble. People are NOT jumping on Cyberonic for their "service" they are jumping on it for the speed/price ratio and simply dealing with the crappy sales process and then hoping Cyberonic get out of the way once it's installed and running.

I'll hopefully now be online tonight (with a following wind), then I'll put up a post showing my month of pain. To re-iterate the initial posters point.. be aware if you are looking for a nice smooth and well documented install like DirecTV. Here you get raw speed for price and the rest you just have to deal with.

Chris
Timmn
join:2000-04-23
Tinley Park, IL

Timmn to garystevens4

Member

to garystevens4
Actually, it is possible to have them both at once, I do. I have DTV SDSL which comes in over a dry pair, and Cyberonic ADSL.
cameronbar
join:2002-12-19
San Jose, CA

cameronbar

Member

email difficulties with Cyberonic

I am a San Jose, CA DTV refugee and I managed to get service from Cyberonic on the 22nd of January. I signed up on the 6th of January. When signed up I told them that I was a DTV customer and they said they would handle a hot swap. This "hot" swap took about one day of downtime. The connection has been good except for a downtime period right after I was able to make my first connection.

The problem I am having now is that all of my email accounts with Cyberonic are really slow to receive email and I can not send email through these accounts at all. I was able to reach support at 888.929.2372 once to set up these accounts and to get my modem set into bridge mode so I can use my Linksys BEFSR41 router. Since then it has been impossible to get through to support.

If you are from Cyberonic and you read this please email me at nuenergy@telocity.com My email accounts at DTV are still good: probably till the end of the month.

Cameron

Voyager2K2
join:2001-10-04
Wayne, PA

Voyager2K2

Member

Too Good to be True?

Heaven knows what Cyberonic has waiting for you folks.
Remember the Northpoint 768/768 SDSL loss-leader?
Exactly how much does that service cost from any of the surviving providers?
I find it impossible that only one provider is able to provide this much bandwidth at this price and make a profit.
Maybe they are being underwritten by the BSA, RIAA, or the MPAA as a honey pot to nail all you P2P users at one time?
Well at least you ex-DTV subscribers are getting some experience in switching providers.
IMHO Cyberonic is either gonna come up with a massive price increase or will bleed themselves to death.
mikedslva
join:2003-01-27
Vienna, VA

mikedslva

Member

Moving to Britsys

An fyi for those suffering with Cyberonic over the last several weeks. I just called Britsys, and although they are slightly more expensive, I got through to both sales and tech support immediately and am going to cancel Cyberonic and move to them. Given the flood of directv users, Britsys seems to be handling the load much better and not melting down like cyberonic.
forichon
join:2000-12-01
New York, NY

forichon

Member

Disgusting reviews

All you people who put one star for connection reliability and service are just going way to far. This is ridiculous. You should be complaining about DTV. In fact if you look at speed, Cyberonic DSL customers have stable and strong connections....So be somewhat reasonable ...

crashnburn
join:2000-12-13
Bay Area

crashnburn

Member

Re: Disgusting reviews

What is so disgusting about the review. it reflects the truth because cyberonic is not up to date in term of technolgy. They do no even implement a phone system to better serve their customers. They make promises that was not carry out. e.g. say they will call back but never do. Speedwise, if you are lucky then you do not experience degrade or maybe not yet. I would say at least 35-50% of the people have seen unstable speed. And tech support is horrible because they open ticket but provide no status. And not to forget the 1% chance of having your call thru.
forichon
join:2000-12-01
New York, NY

forichon

Member

Re: Disgusting reviews

Who cares about fancy phone systems.... As long as the work is done. You are right, they do not send you email updates, but with the two installs I have done with them (and just finished one), things moved along fine. No, I do not call daily, like some people do. Speed...my speed has been great. Anyhow, worldcom is the pipe, so if there is a problem with worldcom in your area, it does not matter which isp you are with. You are right, right now they do not call back (sometimes they do), but they do take care of the issues and this is what does count. I am an IT professional and I have dealt with many companies and many products, Cyberonic is an honest company ran by honest people. So stop the bashing.

Review by chrisduncan See Profile

  • Location: San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
  • Cost: $49 per month (month by month)
  • Telco party SBC
Up and down speeds are really good - 1290 up and 670 down
2 weeks and still no static IP, SMTP server claims I'm relaying when I send an email, can't get tech support
They aren't delivering what they advertise - too much longer and I'm writing the FCC and FTC.
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

! It took them three weeks and 6 phone calls from me just to get my equipment. And during that time, three different techs, gave me three different responses as to where my equipment was and when it should arrive.

! I signed up for a static IP, it's been almost two weeks and I'm still on DHCP.

! I have two domains that I send email from, yet whenever I send an email, their SMTP server claims I'm relaying - what, you can only use a cyberonic.com email address???

It would be really nice to try to get some of this figured out but the last communication I got from tech support was 8 days ago. I've sent two email (6 days ago and yesterday), left a message (their support line voice mail asks that you leave your number) and still no response.

I have all this documented with emails to them.

For the time being, I'd stay as far away from this company as possible.

member for 21.1 years, 1 visits, last login: 21.1 years ago
lodged 21.1 years ago

JoeMar0
join:2001-05-05
Del Mar, CA

JoeMar0

Member

Getting a static IP address

Hi chrisduncan, I believe that the routers are shipped in DHCP mode. Yesterday, I got my line, installed the router and called Cyberonic and asked them about the static IP. The agent said "oh, okay, you want a static IP" and asked me to wait a minute. I believe he was remotely using the software in my Cisco 678 to put in the info (as I used to do in my Linksys router from my PC). Then he came back and read off my IP and Default Gateway addresses, my subnet mask and DNS server addresses. I believe once your router is set with a static IP, then you can send email from their account.

Bottom line - get in contact and do the above and you should be fine. I agree that we have to work a little harder during this install - but look at the speeds you're going to have.

whitecollar
@64.36.x.x

whitecollar

Anon

Re: Getting a static IP address

i did the same thing. after i called them which took about 2 hrs of hold and busy signals. A tech switch me over to static and everything seems great right now. i am getting 1.2 megabit down and 600 up. Hope it stays up.
garystevens4
join:2002-06-26
Boston, MA

garystevens4

Member

Be Happy!

1. I have now 5 of my friends and my self connected through Cyberonic, Cyberonic always told us the service will be installed in 7 to 14 business days. In most cases (including mine) it was up and running in about 7 days. You calling 6 times or not at all did not expedite your process as the DSL installation is usually in the phone companies queue for processing.

2. You need to call and request them to switch your DHCP to Static IP, call support or send them an email.

3. I highly support ISPs that block relaying against spamers. You need to provide them with your IP address that you are getting so they can add it to their mail servers. I and one of my friend's had to do this the other installations where already setup in the mail server. It took them 1 or 2 days to set this up for us.

4. They have one of the best deals right now, and with the DTV situation are probably very busy. You just need to be patient and grateful that they had service in your area and you have one of the best deals around

I have been very happy with my service over the past 7 months, with great speed and no down time. Only had to call support when I got my line installed at first to setup my router to bridge mode, and they were very polite and courteous and took care of it while I was on the phone.

-gary
[text was edited by author 2003-01-22 11:50:43]
bob3er4
join:2003-01-21
Louisville, CO

bob3er4

Member

WHOA DUDE! YOU NEED TO SELECT PROPER MAIL SERVER!

OK. You may have already got this figured out, but just in case.. The way mail is handle; which server from, which server to, is specified by you. I bitched at my provider only to be humbled when they showed me where I specified their server for checking email at my old college mail server (DOH!).

If you use Outlook Express, I can very specificlly point out what you need to change. Outlook Express->TOOLS->ACCOUNTS-> (there should be at least two accounts here). An account for your cyberonic email, and an account for your old email (and old server).

Higlight the cyberonic account, then click properties then click Servers tab. It probably says Incoming: Pop3.email.cyberonic.com or something and Outgoing: smtp.email.cyberonic.com - thee are examples and are just my guesses! But note, these are the mail servers for cyberonic mail! Just right down whatever incoming and outgoing servers they told you.- close first account properties window.

OK, now open your other account and click on servers tab.
If you se either the incoming or out going servers are the same as the Cyberonic info, then YOU need to find out what servers your old mail uses. If you specify cyberonic servers here, then you are forcing them to forward email traffic across their servers- not cool - pure wasted bandwidth for everyone. Its just making them handle something you could get directly yourelf. You dont want or need cyberonic servers to touch your email from your old email server. Spammers often do this forwarding mail through several servers to try and hide their local. That's another reason it really irqs tech support that you do that.

If you dont know the incoming and outgoing servers to use for your old email just post the domain (the part after the @ symbol) and Ill try finding it for you or you can go to www.checkdomain.com and put the domain in and you will get contact info like email addresses and/or phone numbers of who can tell you and if you need a password to use either of those servers, etc.

Ok, good luck, and please understand you shouldnt be getting pissed at any ISP for forwarding complaints. In fact, you are the first person I have heard that was even able to use forwarding because most providers do not allow it at all - you just got lucky. Actually, after you read this and fix it, ask the moderator to remove this so the spammers dont read it and all flock to cyberonic, lol.
JoeMar0
join:2001-05-05
Del Mar, CA

JoeMar0

Member

Re: WHOA DUDE! YOU NEED TO SELECT PROPER MAIL SERVER!

I'm not sure I completely follow. I also continue to have the same problem. I setup my email client with only one account (cyberonic's) and set up for their mail server (it's the same for both incoming and outgoing). I deleted the other account out of my email program (using Calypso, but it would be the same on Outlook or Eduora). When I send out an email, if the domain is cyberonic, it goes - otherwise I get the relay error and it leaves it in my pending outbox. I'm not sure what the problem is exactly - but I just got my static IP from them yesterday and someone told me they think it may be a day or so until the IP get into the mail server.

To rectify this problem, I have another POP email account on a web server for a site I maintain. So I set up a second account using their mail server. I set the default account for new messges to this second account. However, catch this, you'll love it... if someone sends me an email to my cyberonic address, when I reply it tries to use the cyberonic account - which gives the reply error for everyone that is not cyberonic and puts it in the pending outbox. I find it, switch the account to my web site account and now can reply. A pain, huh?
HAL6664
join:2003-01-15
Beverly Hills, CA

HAL6664

Member

Re: WHOA DUDE! YOU NEED TO SELECT PROPER MAIL SERVER!

You need to send an email to ken@cyberonic.com and in the subject line: "add IP to SMTP 64.xxx.xxx.xxx" where 64.xxx.xxx.xxx is YOUR STATIC IP ADDRESS. This tells the mail administrator to add your IP address to SMTP so that you can send email. Don't put anything in the body of the email. Check your mail server settings and be sure that the outbound (POP3) mail hostname is mail.cyberonic.com and the outbound (SMTP) hostname is smtp.cyberonic.com Note that you can also use mail.cyberonic.com for SMTP (if the other doesn't work) because they resolve to the same IP address.

Review by thissucks1 See Profile

  • Location: Westwood, Norfolk, MA, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
  • Telco party Verizon
who knows?
pathetic customer service!
no way in hell i'd trust my internet connection to these clowns!
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Value for money:

Before you signup and commit to any ISP try talking to customer service, billing, and tech support. Ask technical support about escalation procedures and get them talking about common problems. Ask them some simple questions that you alreayd know the answer to. Even if you'll never need someone to hold your hand while you configure e-mail, the quality of tech support and the escalation procedures will be importnant if you do ever have a problem getting the service running.

I saw the positive reviews here a few weeks ago and thought I might give Cyberonics a try Here are some of my experiences while evaluating them:

Cyberonics is apparently a shoestring operation. While performing due diligence I made a few calls to Cyberonics. There appears to be only one number for everything: tech support, billing, and sales. Most of the time when I tried to call I would get a busy signal. Other times I'd get dumped straight into on-hold music (a Frank Sinatra CD- I wonder if they are paying royalties to Frank's estate to use this recording in their business). If anyone did answer it was usually some guy that sounded like he was pissed off that someone bothered him by calling and he'd put me back on hold right after I asked a question. If this the way the sales/customer service department operates just imagine what would happen if I had a technical issue that needed to be resolved?

After reading the other posts that have surfaced recently about problems with Cyberonics I just feel that it's not worth taking a chance on a company that seems to me to be extremely un-professional. Sorry, 24/7 internet service is too important for me to trust to a what appear to be a bunch of grumpy, non-responsive amateurs trying to compete with the big boys..

member for 21.2 years, 4 visits, last login: 21.1 years ago
lodged 21.2 years ago


Need BB
join:2001-12-21
New York, NY

Need BB

Member

Westwood

Try the forum, which is Worldcom DSL or switch to Verizon or Earthlink Cable. Earthlink Cable has a faster DL but a slower Upload!
dellerdsler
The Other Side Of The Drum
join:2001-12-05
Berwyn, IL

dellerdsler

Member

Amateurs?

I highly doubt they are amateurs as they've been in the business for 4 years. They know what they're doing and have been a rather small company up until now when they suddenly got in the spotlight. Due to that, they now have a huge onslaught of customers to deal with what is probably now an overworked staff. It's extremely important that potential customers understand that and that they should attempt to remain patient. I'm one of those customers and I'm taking this with a grain of salt; as long as they don't bill me, it's all good. The connection later will be worth the wait.

der1269
Premium Member
join:2003-01-08
Northville, MI

der1269

Premium Member

Re: Amateurs?

That's exactly what should be said. Be patient, getting connected to the internet, especially with dsl, is never lightning fast. Delays are always to be expected especially when the bankruptcy of a large isp occurs suddenly. The speed will be worth the wait!!!!
thissucks1
join:2003-01-08
Westwood, MA

thissucks1 to dellerdsler

Member

to dellerdsler
You certainly are a trusting soul. Just remember this moment when they start having other "growing pains" and you need to open a ticket for a routing issue or a network outage and you find yourself dealing with that <sarcasm>wonderful Worcester customer service.</sarcasm>
garystevens4
join:2002-06-26
Boston, MA

garystevens4

Member

Cyberonic is Great!

I've been using them for 7 months now, I also have 3 of my friends using them. We all love the service. I had no down time in the past 7 months and never had any problems to call tech support, except when I got my router first and they configured my router to pass me the IP. The tech support was very polite and responsive and configured my router remotely while I was on the phone. The speed is consistent around 1200k/690k all the time even during the peak time.

I have the month to month plan for $49.99/mo. I should have done the 18 months and saved $10 per month.

They are very busy right now with all the DTV customers that are losing their service, since they got the best deal around.

-gary

CitYbYdBaY
join:2002-12-10
San Francisco, CA

CitYbYdBaY

Member

You didn't even sign up with Cyberonic.

So how can you write a review about Cyberonic as a horror story? If you want an isp to hold your hand and walk you across the street then I recommend u find another isp, go ahead and pay the same or more for lower speeds.
[text was edited by author 2003-01-11 09:21:24]

Review by Archvile2 See Profile

  • Location: Natick, Middlesex, MA, USA
  • Cost: $49 per month
  • Install: about 69 days
  • Telco party Verizon
  • CLEC party: Covad
It runs (when it's not down for some stupid reason)
Inexplicable disconnects, horrendous ping, abysmal speed, and a slow-as-hell mail server.
$500 for ISDN-like speed? If this isn't fixed, I'm demanding a full refund.
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

UPDATE February 4, 2001.

I just received my bank statement, and I found out that Cyberonic charged a lump sum of $495.45 on my credit card. Doing the math, I calculated that the $230 DSL modem (anyone else heard of a modem that's so expensive?), $199.99 Covad rebate (which STILL hasn't been refunded as it should've been!), and the first month fee of $49.95 adds up to $479.94 That $15.51 overcharge is getting to me, especially since the speed of the line has never peaked above 108/109 (absolutely pathetic for what it's supposed to be: 608/128). CAIS is mostly to blame, since they handle the routing and the maintenance at the CO. All they have to do is upgrade FRMNMAUN, and they still haven't done so. Their tech support number has a hold time about as bad as Verizon's, and my ISP (as well as Covad themselves) is powerless to do anything to expedite the CO upgrade. Now I know why CAIS is worse than Flashcom on the weekly charts, and we all know what happened to Flashcom...

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------

UPDATE: January 24, 2001.

I actually found out the speed of this connection: 108/109. That's pathetic when compared to what the connection is rated for (608/128), and even then sometimes the connection dies for no apparent reason. The technician admits that my speed report is the worst of my speed class ("I've heard of speeds as low as 300, but this is ridiculous!"), and he says that the speed issue should be addressed on the 26th. I have that entire day off, so I hope that whatever they're doing ends quick. (During this update, the connection died. As usual, I had to turn off the DSL modem, unplug the phone line, wait 1 minute, plug it in again, turn it on, wait another minute, and then see if the ping window is responding. Yes, it's as tedious as it sounds.)

============================================================

This order read like a hostage standoff. I signed up with 1699 (now Cyberonic Internet Communications) on November 7, and they told me that it would take four to six weeks. Every week, I'd call in for a status report, and every week, they told me the same things: "Oh, Verizon's holding it up," or, "Covad's having some financial troubles," or even, "Covad's been putting a lot of Safety Net customers on us." With every passing week, this facade continued, and it started to take a toll on my sanity.

On January 6, I asked them for my Covad Order number so I could get to the source of the hold-up: Covad themselves. I called them, and they said that Verizon planned some maintenance on January 10, so that would be the time that the ball would start rolling. Sure enough, at 10 AM on that day, my sister was awakened by the Verizon techs. I also received my DSL modem (Efficient Networks SpeedStream 5260) in the mail. I eagerly plugged it in and turned it on for a diagnostic. Suddenly, I heard a loud pop, saw a spark from inside the modem, and started to smell that oh so dreaded smell of printed circuit board on a hot skillet. I called Cyberonic, and they said that they would overnight a new one. Sure enough, the next day I received a new one, and it worked.

On the 11th (Friday), Covad started to incessantly call my house, and eventually I found out why: one Covad tech wanted to take care of the wiring on the 12th. I told him that it was okay. He arrived, connected the chiclets, and then we turned on the modem. No synchronization. He clipped a beacon onto the line and went back to the box outside. This time, he came back and the modem synched and was all set. However, I still couldn't get online. It turned out that Cyberonic ditched the DHCP system and was going with all Static IP. Therefore, I asked for my IP address. They told me that call me with the IP address soon.

Well, soon didn't come soon enough. Friday passed, and soon came Saturday, the 13th (day 67). I called them, and they said that they wanted a MAC address. "No problem," I said, "my Linksys router has a configurable MAC address, so I can just give it to you." I gave it to him, and he said that the IP address should be ready in an hour. I received no calls from them after that. Every three hours, I called them, and every time they said that they were still working on it, wait a couple more hours. They never did call back on Saturday, and I abandoned hope for the day and went to a CD release concert for The Naked Sams.

On Sunday (Jan 14, day 68), I tried calling support, only to find out that no one would pick up the phone (or that there was no one there to answer). I sent an e-mail to support, and they said to wait until Monday, the 15th (day 69). On Monday, I did get my IP address, and I could finally use the connection that I had waited so long to have. I went to download Counter-Strike 1.0 (I've been sans DSL ever since Halloween, and back then the latest CS was still beta 7.1). I was aghast at the download speed: a paltry 10K/sec. I dismissed it as an overloaded FTP server, but later on, even HTTP downloads were around that speed. How could this be? My speed was supposed to be 608/128, and it was performing like 256/64 (I can't even do a speed test; one machine fails to load the Java applet, and the other takes so damned long to even start the process that I gave up on it!). I am 9800 feet from the CO, so distance isn't an issue (DSL is supposed to work at up to 1.5Mbps at 15,000 feet, right?). Furthermore, I can't ping the Q3 authorization server, and traceroutes always yield 13 hops, with 150ms being the lowest ping on the list. My Counter-Strike ping is 210ms, but I did manage to make one pistol kill in my first session (yay). The mail server is a joke; I could walk to the mailbox in front of my house faster than the SMTP server takes to process my mail. However, I do have 10MB of web space. I can finally build my UnrealSucks page.

Either way, I hope that Covad irons out the kinks, turns a profit, and improves the performance across the network. The connection is pretty stable, but it's slow. Oh well, I guess that's better than my experience with Verizon where it was fast sometimes, but then it broke down 75% of the time and always cut me off after a half-hour of solid usage.

member for 23.4 years, 107 visits, last login: 22.7 years ago
updated 23.1 years ago


capnbob
join:2000-10-25
Amesbury, MA

capnbob

Member

TWEAKS?

Have you done the online tweaks?
The Registry MaxMtu and Rwin settings have a HUGE impact on speed.
Go to TOOLS-ONLINE TWEAK TESTER on this site for the details.
mikeMIT1
join:2001-01-27
Boston, MA

mikeMIT1

Member

Learn from each others experience

With all these DSL companies going out business overnight, I think 1699 Access/Covad connection is one of the most reliable right now. We had the same slow connection for a week while 1699/Covad was upgrading in my area but now the speed is superfast. I have SDSL connection for my business and wish I could get ADSL connection for my home. The best I like about this guys, the pick up the phone right away. I really don't want to go with Verizon.