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Review by cosimo2 See Profile

  • Location: New York, New York, NY, USA
  • Cost: $79 per month
Covad/Inch coordination good. Tech support helpful.
Flaky Bell Atlantic site visits
Reasonable so far...
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:

Update as of 07August (two months of service):

Reliability has been quite good so far. The network was down for about an hour this weekend & that was the first time I had no access. A couple of times in June I had slow access (equivalent to modem speed)- it looked like the primary gateway was down- in any case this hasn't happened since.

Speed has been fine- I frequently get estimates of 125KB/second on downloads. The DSLreports tweaks definitely helped me to get the fastest speeds. Usually videos/web pages don't use the full speed of my connection.

I've had a couple of queries to technical support, and they were answered efficiently, as was a query into billing.

So overall, now that the service is up & running I'm quite happy with it.

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

This is a preliminary report, as this is the first weekend of DSL for me...

One of the main benefits of Internet Channel so far was letting me know about the dslreports web site. They also were helpful on the tech support side, after Covad confirmed my line was working, and yet it still wasn't working on my PC. Also they were good about letting me know about Covad visits- I'd usually get email from Covad, followed by phone calls both from Covad & Internet Channel confirming the visit (& Covad would keep the visit).

Finally, I liked that Internet Channel didn't take a big deposit up-front (to be offset by a Covad rebate later).

My order was for Telesurfer Pro, which is supposed to be on the order of 1500 downstream /380 upstream (don't have the exact figures). In practice, by dslreports speeed tests give me 1250 downstream / 310 upstream, which would seem to be quite good. (note initially my downstream was 384, but I used a dslreports speed tweak to improve the downstream speed).

Service has consistent so far, the only problems I've had have been with my own computer, which seems to crash a lot now on certain programs (in particular realplayer). The order included a static IP. Tried out the dslreports security test, which I got -61 at first. But after installing zonealarm (www.zonelabs.com) my site was assessed at "firewall" status.

On the downside there was one no-show from Bell Atlantic, and another time when they said they were booking an appointment in the next week but then they never actually scheduled the appointment. There also was a reasonable delay while Covad & Bell Atlantic were sorting out the line. Covad first installed the modem & what not on May 4, but couldn't get a synch from the Central Office (not that I know what this means). But installation delays are far less irritating than fruitless or missed site visits.

member for 23.9 years, 103 visits, last login: 23.4 years ago
updated 23.6 years ago

System

Anon

Bell Atlantic the 3000 lb company sitting on PSN

Hello

Does anyone know of a site where people annoyed at Bell Atlantic can go to organize an email campaign to write to Bell Atlantic to get the slackers at Bell Atlantic to stop missing appointments for service and to open up new lines? I signed up with PSN.NET on May 23, 2000 on this day I still do not have DSL because Bell Atlantic cannot find an extra port and line pair so Northpoint can install DSL.

I may have to look for another DSL company that can install DSL over my existing line instead of having a new line put in.

write to dbaer@hoflink.com first and then post here too.

Thank you.

Dennis Baer

Anon

they lost my biz

well had their service and to tell you the truth every thing went fine from day 1 to 26 and the dsl service was good >but beware of lying salesman!!!!ii had them for i month and droped em like a rock when i got my bill ...they tryed to charge me 400 $$$$$ for install and thats not what i agred too 152$$$ was the agred price well they lost my biz.. so beware of salesman with falk toung!!!!!

Review by mvsastry2 See Profile

  • Location: East Brunswick, Middlesex, NJ, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
None
A lot
Worst ISP
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

Hi,

My name is Sastry.It's a nightmare to get DSL.My home
is about 1800FT from the CO.
I get 3 replies from ISP's for service, i choose
Internet Channel, they entered my name and address
wrong in the Covad order.My address was 5 oak street
EastBrunswick,NJ,08816(Phone:732-238-7597).They
changed it to 5 edward street.Now Covad was writing me
every few days saying that the Address and phone
number dont match.Then they send me an email saying
that April6th Bell Atlantic would come to
fix/configure my phone system.On the 6th of April they
never show up.I wrote 3 emails and 3 phone messages no
answer.I get a voice mail from Covad saying that my
service wont be available till November 2000.It has
been 7 weeks so far.

I thought USA was one of the Leaders in Technology,man
was this ride rough.I am just wondering if i was a VIP
of Bell Atlantic or Covad, how would they feel.I bet
they would never even dream of this happenning. What
am i just a sincere scrape goat paying my bills and
be treated like a nobody

Sastry

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger.
»im.yahoo.com

member for 23.9 years, 26 visits, last login: 14.4 years ago
lodged 23.9 years ago


Review by

  • Location: Passaic, Passaic, NJ, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:

A joke. They're a Bell Atlantic DSL partner. They couldn't tell me the status of my order or even confirm that they had received it. Instead they wanted me to sit and wait for weeks and hope something happened. Nobody would return my calls or give me anything other than stupid answers.

*** AVOID ***

(review was emailed in)
lodged 24.3 years ago

System

Anon

My only other option is to use bell atlantic as an ISP, which also has terrible service. Is internet channel's connection at least reliable? Because Bell atlantic's isn't.......

Anon

An ISP is only as good as its providers..

No.

If Bell Atlantic is being lousy handling its DSLAMs, then because INCH's lines are provisioned through them (but handed over to Inch's router), you will suffer the same fate.

Same for Covad, NorthPoint or any other (this is why ISPs disclose who their DSL provider is). If you felt there was a problem with the way any of these handle your DSL line, then any ISP using them is going to have the same problem. This is why you find out who your chosen ISPs DSL provider is. Incidentally, same thing for IP connectivity, unless your DSL ISP happens to be a tier-1.

Bottom line, if you don't like BA, then no matter how good INCH may be (I don't know), then when a problem surfaces and it involves BA, You/Inch are going to have to struggle with BA. From the sounds of the review, they are as helpless as any of us when trying to get BA to solve a problem.

Line problems aside, then your choice of DSL ISP determines whose router you talk to, and thus, what network you go through.. which can be for better or worse.

HtH
Jose C.

Anon

Re: An ISP is only as good as its providers..

Inch.com is no longer with BA...They just lowerd their installation fee and increased the speed of upload/download. It really ws not their (inch.com)fault.

Anon

Re: An ISP is only as good as its providers..

INCH is an even more of a clueless company then Flashcom. When I called them to find out about availability of service in my area (now mind you I already called BA and Acecape and both of them said the service is available) INCH, being a BA partner (as stated on BA site) told me that service was not available. I asked the sales rep to tell me if they had an ETA -- he blew me off with a sort of answer you get when you call a Cable company to inquire about Cable modem access (may be some time in the future).

INMHO -- INCH sucks.

Anon

Re: An ISP is only as good as its providers..

I can't believe I didn't see this thread sooner...... it's been 5 weeks since I ordered
DSL from COVAD -> internet channel ...... they just sent me an e-mail last week confirming my order..... still no DSL .. and today ... another e-mail saying that my address is incorrect and they can't proceed? ( yes.. I think i DO know where I've lived for over a year! ) UNBELIEVABLE.....

And then Bell Atlantic calls me up saying that THEY can now offer DSL to me (afer rejecting me over a month ago) -> I guess they just used Covad to insall the DSL equip at the CO or something..... man, I'm upset...