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Review by Xenz See Profile

  • Location: Minooka, Grundy, IL, USA
  • Cost: $44 per month (24 month contract)
  • Install: about 1 days
Uhm, When it does work, its pretty quick...
Works general from 3am-6am then theres high latency all day
AVOID AT ALL COSTS
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

As I stated above, this connection has the potential of being very nice. I have been a long term customer of CBcast. The connection never works, they do not seem to know what they are doing. I actually can't believe they are getting away with robbing people blind with such poor service.

At first they tried to help, then I think they stopped believing me that they had issues, I ran all sorts of tests straight off of dslreports tons of bad ping high packet loss. Still wouldnt believe me. Now for the past few months latency rarely falls below 500ms so much for high speed.

This connection is wireless. They use dish to shoot to any towers they can see.

I have had them for about 3 years now, problems every day since I bought their service. To bad there is no other high speed available besides one company that charges pretty high amount, but I am considering switching because they cannot fix their problems on this network.

The other review posted here is from the network administrator OF THIS ISP. So PLEASE disregard it.

Speed is supposed to be 1mb up 1mb down, burstable 1.5mb, You will however rarely see speeds like this unless it is late at night.

Id like to be able to change this to a happy review, but that time has long past.

when they installed my dish they cracked the siding on my house! pretty cool huh? I didn't mind then because I actually thought I was getting a nice service. HA

Update - After lovely 3 some odd years with this , well I don't know if I can call a company, or a business, however these people seem to become more incompetent as the days move on.

I told them they should not be charging 60 a month for a service they cannot serve, so the owner the company went ahead and told me he would lower my price to 44.95 and leave my bandwidth at 1mb down/up. All the sudden a couple weeks ago I am unable to play a majority of my games. I also noticed that I had major issues loading larger webpages which were flash base, and any kind of streaming video from youtube or anywhere you can imagine. I have to start loading the video and come back in 15 minutes to see its half loaded.

Please for the love of dear god, RUN as fast as you can from these people, if you see their van, throw rotten food at it that MAY deter them. Anyhow without warning like I said I noticed issues so I ran some bandwidth tests and came back with about 400k up 400k down. I so I sent the owner an email asking whats up? He then told me per my request months ago I told him to lower my bandwidth he placed my bandwidth at 512k down and 256k up (wow fast huh?). This confused me because in an email I saved from him, he said he wasn't going to lower my bandwidth. Anyhoo he told me that they WILL NOT give me 1mb back because they cannot provide me with it. Which is funny because they can't provide me with 512k/256k either, maybe for 2hours in the morning around 6am then it goes to all hell.

So if you want some fun times, you can ask these people to lock you into a contract they will not let you out of, and refuse to help you (They never stepped foot into my house since install to see whats going on) then go ahead and call these people up.

P.S They want me buy a 500-1000 dollar TV tower, and install it MYSELF before they will up my bandwidth, I am also pretty sure they would fail once again.

UPDATE - 12/18/09

Connection is still basically unusable to any extent. I've noticed that sometimes your able to use it as you should but those are during such off hours, like 3am. However, one of the biggest things I have noticed lately is when breaks for school happen my connection is unusable ALL day and ALL night. I'm pretty sure its either congested or someone on the network is the cause. All Thanksgiving I could not use my internet for basically anything. Now I am afraid that during the couple weeks college and lower students that have off for X-mas my connection will be completely crap. By the way this is about 4 or 5 years with this ISP now, and since week one there has been the same problems over and over.

A friend of mine used to work for them as a installer, so he took an interest in trying to get them to get off their butts and fix it. They came out installed a more powerful radio which did nothing. The installer said there was 1 more chance to install what he called a grid dish that could help. However, the friend of mine kept bugging them asking why they weren't here everyday trying to fix the issues; they told him "Go out there and fix it yourself, we are done helping him". Big shock huh? I implore anyone that is using this ISP if there is ANY OTHER service TAKE IT!!!!! DO NOT give these people your money.

Update - 12/28/09

Anyone with issues with Cyber broadcasting that read this or reads this in the future please go to »esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm and file a complaint. I have done so and hope others will also maybe they will get off their butts and help us.

Update - 3/11/2010

I have changes services to a 3g laptop card ISP ( Millenicom ) MUCH better more stable. Anyone in shady oaks using Cyber Broadcasting that has issues should change to this asap.

member for 18.8 years, 591 visits, last login: 12.9 years ago
updated 14 years ago


FireSokar
@municationsinc.com

FireSokar

Anon

SH*T

This is the only option for internet we have, we live in shady oaks and no cable company will come here. We are fed up with the poor customer service, the inability to fix our speed issues and latency issues. They were supposed to fix it and it only seems to have made it worse. We are paying for the 2mbit package but barely see speeds over 100k/s on a download. Very pissed off and do not recommend this to anyone. I have seen better latency and speed over satellite.
Xenz
join:2005-06-10

4 edits

Xenz

Member

Re: SH*T

They claim that shady oaks wont allow them to install a repeater on the warehouse, and that that is the only way to correct the issues. YET they tell me the high latency is due to normal usage, so I do not see how a repeater is going to fix that.

As for comcast, they WANT to service us, but shady oaks said no I am guessing. All comcast was able to tell me is they could not come to an agreement with shady oaks management.

I am assuming shady oaks has a contract with mediacomcc.com however they do not offer cable modems to us, I asked if they were changing their systems over to full digital and making high speed internet available to us on February 17th when the transition was "supposed to" take place but they couldn't answer that. They just told me we will be able to get digital when they change over, which means we should get cable internet but who knows.

I plan on writing a letter, or confronting shady oaks management myself about the high speed internet issue in this community sometime soon, not sure it will effect anything.

Edit - When I first got their service it wasnt bad, but something happened. And it doesnt seem that they know what they are doing. Or at least want to come clean with their customers about what it really is. I've sent probably over 100 emails to them, I talk with the owner frequently. Last email he basically told me its never going to get better, and take it or leave it.

I drove around shady oaks and counted about 8 dishes that look like their part of this ISP's network. I fail to see how their system is overloaded to cause such bad service. I was told from a reliable source that they are using old equipment to run this systems, maybe that is it.

I am a gamer, so latency is everything. However there is one other service, they claim we are in range, its a 3g cellular PC internet, they say shady oaks is in the second level of their highest signal. The downside is the latency of that is 200-1000 generally, so it wont work for me, and its pricey 200 activation 89 a month. www.cyberonic.com/
they do not list this service on their products, you would have to contact.

FireSokar
@municationsinc.com

FireSokar

Anon

Re: SH*T

Im damn near right next to you. look for a yellow monte carlo

gamerhere2
@municationsinc.com

gamerhere2

Anon

signal loss

i game up on xbox as well. the comp seems to be working at a decent rate compared to dial up. since last double xp weekend for call of duty 5 (1-29-09) it has hit rock bottom. that weekend i couldnt believe the signal strength. that had to be the best since installation date. place call with tech at the number to reach them at.said everything is working here and seems to be hooked up correctly. I did speed tests at dsl reports and came up with at least a .6m up and even worse .5 down.
Xenz
join:2005-06-10

Xenz

Member

Re: signal loss

I used to game on my Xbox with this connection till I got fed up with lagging and discontinued my subscription. But yeah, it was working decently then all the sudden it turned into a piece of crap. As I said above I wrote about 9 emails before I got a response. That is when they told me that their equipment is "fine", and mine radio was "fine". Then he stated that they are assuming the high latency is due to "normal usage", and that if I was not happy with the way it was I could cancel my service, but they damn well know they are the only ones providing so we can't cancel.

If the problem is normal usage I would assume the only thing they could do is upgrade the towers equipment because they are congested, or overloaded with to much traffic, yet they insist that if shady oaks allowed a repeater to be installed they think the problem would be fixed.

However, since I have had them for 3 years come this May; their track record is terrible I have basically given up all hope that they will get their act together and fix it. Now I am focusing all hope and effort on finding some other service that is not well advertised but services the area. I was hoping the digital transition for TV's may bring cable modems here but since it has been delayed to June I don't know whats going to happen. I was also hoping whitespace would be here sooner then later but with all the testing they have to do it will be a long time, and since the transition has been delayed they cannot start testing till June. So my hope there has been crushed as well. The only thing we can hope to do is convince the management here at shady oaks to allow comcast to service this area, or try to convince mediacom/shady oaks to set up their cable internet here.

I was thinking if we started a petition and hung it in the post office(if they do not tear it down) we could attempt to get as many signatures as possible to maybe get them to see people here want and NEED high speed internet for business, education, and entertainment.

Was also hoping the new stimulus bill would help get us something out here too. But I am not sure that would matter since shady oaks is not allowing comcast to service inside the community. So all hope is with mediacom giving us cable internet, OR another wireless service...

FireSokar
@municationsinc.com

FireSokar

Anon

Management

Feel like going up to shady oaks main office and finding out whats going on? I am very pissed I have 2 xbox's that i can barely play on live with half the time. Why am i paying for a 2mbit package if its only 56k speed half the damn time.
Expand your moderator at work
Xenz
join:2005-06-10

1 edit

Xenz to FireSokar

Member

to FireSokar

Re: Management

From what cbcast told me, they were in talks with shady oaks management about placing a repeater on top of the warehouse. Someone in shady oaks said there was frequent power surges in the warehouse, and they didn't want cbcast's equipment to make it worse, and denied them.

Then 1/27/09 the owner of cbcast told me

"We tried to work out something with the Shady Oaks management to install a repeater inside your subdivision. This would have allowed us to put in a commercial grade link directly into your subdivision. They have denied this without any given reason.

Therefore, at this time, the system is what it is. You can continue to use it as it is or if you are unhappy with it, we can terminate service."

I have to go talk to them about buying another post office key sometime soon probably Thursday/Friday I will ask then about the issues, although I am not sure if the people who work in the office will be able to answer questions that I have. But I will attempt to get down to what the hell is going on and why they are contempt at refusing any kind of high speed internet system for the community here.

P.S I have also complained to cbcast that if they cannot provide me with my 1mb package speeds or low latency that they can knock me back down to the lowest tier because obviously they cannot even provide those speeds.

If the problem doesn't get resolved by speaking with shady oaks and or making a petition, I am going to demand that cbcast stop charging me 59.95, and start charging 10-19 till they can provide the service they say they can.

FireSokar
@municationsinc.com

FireSokar

Anon

Re: Management

Btw Xenz im very close to your house according to google, look for a yellow montecarlo
Xenz
join:2005-06-10

2 edits

Xenz

Member

Re: Management

hehe, Ill take a look next time.

I didnt talk to them today my grandmother did, but they gave her a sheet of paper that shady oaks claims that they have sent out to every household here. It asks how important high speed internet is. And if we would sign up for it if it was brought to the community. I know I never received this before, but they said only 60 households out of 300 and something responded... I am going to fill it out and turn it in and ask some questions tomorrow before I have class.

p.s almost forgot, the lady in the office said she has cbcast, and has no issues with the internet. I don't know if she actually USES it or just surfs the web though.

edit - I looked on google earth, and it doesn't show me the right spot for my house, not sure if it does for you lol.

Im the first house on the left soon as you enter the entrance. Pontiac G6, blue shudders greyish paneling.

FireSokar
@municationsinc.com

FireSokar

Anon

Re: Management

Right so I talked to shady oaks today, according to them there was about 62 responses to that paper but they believe actual number of people who want hard wired internet is twice that. Comcast gave me the usual well submit a ticket, No results. I got some interesting specs tho about cbcast they goofed up and told the wrong person about the lines. The white water tower north west of our house is 50mbs but is reserved for there repeaters and business customers. The repeater we are going off of is connected to it VIA get this magic number.... 6mbit fiber. Now I dont know about you but I had 6mbit fiber just to my house before, wasnt enough back then. They also said they oversell there bandwidth but claim all ISP's do. So everyone in shady oaks is running off of 6mbit link regardless of what your paying for. So lets see here 10 people trying to use the internet at once will cause the speed problems that we see let alone 20? Right now I am scheduled for next Thursday with them to install a different antenna to try and shoot to the water tower. I will let you know how that goes.

P.S. Yeah your about where I thought you were. Yellow Monte Carlo when you look to the left of your side street You should see at the first turn you come to when you leave your house. Look right in front of you. Some stupid rocks in the yard that some kid hit the other day. Were on the corner.
Xenz
join:2005-06-10

1 edit

Xenz

Member

Re: Management

They had me on a commercial grade link before but they said my house is to short and it would have to be changed.

"We have already tried to put you on our commercial grade system, but you did not have a good enough view to the water tower for this to work consistently. If you had a taller house or a TV tower that would give us a better view of the water tower, this solution would have probably worked."

If you have aim and or email address I could show you what I get for ping off the tower right now, I run a program called ping graph and it records ping for up to a year, I use it for day to day purposes. Just to see how bad it gets or when it seems to have been clearish

FireSokar
@municationsinc.com

FireSokar

Anon

Re: Management

FireSokar@hotmail.com Kinda crushed my hopes with the commercial. What kind of problems were you experiencing then? worse or better now?
Xenz
join:2005-06-10

2 edits

Xenz

Member

Re: Management

It was basically the same, they installed it, it was great for about 5 days, then it turned to complete crap. Then they told me my line of sight wasn't good enough which boggled me because it WAS fine, and then it wasn't....

But how they explain it there isn't anything they can do.

"George has tested your connection multiple times and does not see any problem with the equipment at your house or at the tower. He has been watching the traffic and has seen “spikes”, but has never seen any that have been prolonged in time. At this point, our assumption is that you are seeing normal usage on a shared internet access point"

To them its just normal usage, everyone is congesting the network. which means there is no fix unless they can get better equipment on the tower or something that can handle more consumers.

Edit - I sent you an email with a graph from around 8:30pm-9:30pm

Also not to crush you hopes any more then I may have. This dish they currently have on my house is my 3rd different dish all of them ending up being as bad as the one before it.

But maybe you will get lucky and get a nice clear view or something.
mxlchgo
join:2005-10-12
Minooka, IL

mxlchgo

Member

cbcast at shady oaks

Try »www.millenicom.com/nmb.htm
it is unlimited Sprint broadband and should work well. I have Sprint broadband unlimited (grandfathered) we have 4 or five people on Walnut st. that use it NO Complaints! Good luck
Xenz
join:2005-06-10

Xenz

Member

Re: cbcast at shady oaks

Id love to switch over to a 3G broadband service, but there are a few problems for me. 5GB a month isn't nearly enough for me seeing how I download demos for games, files, and patches. They can be 1GB or higher per file sometimes, Id breach 5GB easily without downloading also.

However I would attempt to buckle down and not exceed 5GB but there is other services around here on 3G that do not have the 5GB caps. Here rises another problem, I game heavily and 3G broadband ping tends to be around 250 sometimes lower during off peak hours. I need pretty good ping for most games I play.

If you could provide ping times maybe they aren't as bad as most people state. I heard 4G internet has really decent ping.

Thanks for the info.
mxlchgo
join:2005-10-12
Minooka, IL

mxlchgo

Member

Re: cbcast at shady oaks



»www.speedtest.net/result ··· 1598.png

This is sprint pcs. The link I left below is for unlimited Air Time. But for 69 Dollars it 10 dollars more that I pay a month. see below
»members.millenicom.com/m ··· ckage=88
Xenz
join:2005-06-10

Xenz

Member

Re: cbcast at shady oaks

Yeah, that bandwidth would be fine it's about what I get the problem is ping. The 128 you were getting there would work but I did some research and most of the ping graphs I see people posting sit around 200-800 during the course of a day. I may beable to play world of Warcraft with that but not any of my fps's. I see 4g services like clear.com running pings of 50-150 I'd love to try that but we are listed at the moment as future coverage.