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Review by agtiny 
UPDATED: 1.2 years ago
member for 6.7 years, 17 visits, last login: 1.2 years ago
 Cranberry Twp,Butler,PA
 $45 per month
 "24/7 guaranteed speed, AWESOME pings, servers allowed"
 "Going downhill since purchase by Consolidated Communications"
 "If you have North Pittsburgh Telco, this is easily your best option."
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*** NOTE: I do not work for NPTC or Nauticom, I am just a very satisfied customer. Sorry if this sounds like an advertisement.  ***
Update 8/29/08: There was a bug in the modem configuration that caused me to only get 6m download on the 10m plan. That's been fixed and I can now get the full speed. I'd gladly trade some of that for faster upload though.
Update 7/10/08: Nauticom/North Pittsburgh has been purchased by Consolidated Communications and things are already going downhill fast.
Changes:
Static IP now $20/month. Reason: "because our competitors are charging for it". Probably not a big deal for most people, and I can at least use DynDNS.
Upstream speed reduced from 1m to 512k for all account levels. Website still advertises 1m but probably won't for long.
New ADSL2+ modems, allowing me to get 10m download service. In reality I get abut 6m. These modems should allow 1m upstream but they have it throttled it down for some reason.
The new modem is a lot nicer than the old one, including a web interface with lots of options to screw up your connection, wifi support, 10/100 interface. Nice page with stats on ADSL connection rate, etc. Modem does lack a pass-through phone port though. They suggest buying a line splitter, they should probably just include one in the box.
I called to upgrade from 3m to 10m and they gave me a cheaper monthly price for a year, so that's good at least. I bet if you complain about the changes they will give you a discount to keep you around.
AFAIK, they still allow you to run servers, hopefully that won't change.
Update 6/15/04: ConnectTime is now offering 3Mbps/512 service although they never advertised this to current customers. They also lowered their 256 and 512 rates, but they won't lower it automatically for current customers unless you call them. I am getting a 3M modem on 6/18!
I have ConnectTime DSL which is simply a resold Nauticom account but billed through North Pittsburgh Telco so I only get one bill which is nice. They now also offer a 256k account for $37.95, but I'm staying with my 512k (more like 768k actually).
When I moved to my new house, they shipped me a modem before I even moved, and had my service ready to go the day before I moved in. There was a minor glitch with initial connectivity but once it was resolved everything has been smooth ever since. I've been using it for about 3 months now.
24/7 there is no drop in speed or ping time. It feels like I really do have dedicated bandwidth! My first-hop ping is always 10-14ms, and pings to my favorite game servers is usually under 50ms! Absolutely NO packet loss at any time of the day.
One minor complaint, which is really just a side effect of the limited bandwidth. If you are using up probably about 50% or more of your line's bandwidth, ping times and packet loss begin to suffer. At full usage, pings are off the chart. This is not really that bothersome, and I have configured my Squid proxy server to limit the bandwidth used when my other family members download large files while I'm playing an online game. When there is little to no line usage, you can count on rock solid pings and no packet loss at any hour of the day.
They also give you a free static IP and allow you to run servers if you send them a small written notice about what you intend to run! I have been running a Linux web server on the line since day 1 with no problems or hassle. This is really what sold me on Nauticom, they were the only local ISP that offered any kind of server support! Armstrong wanted to charge me $400+/mo for a 'business" package! HA!
There is no contract and no modem rental fee, so you have nothing to lose. If you have NPTC, give it a try!
Followup comments:  JTheobald
Premium
join:2002-08-08
Gibsonia, PA
| The OP is not a shill. I am also in this area and have had DSL service from NPTC/Nauticom/Pinnatech/Consolidated Communications since it was first deployed here. My service has been nothing short of impeccable!
It is also accurate (unfortunately) in regard to the future now that Consolidated has taken over. I "upgraded" from 3Mbps/1Mbps with static IP to 10Mbps/500Kbps with dymanic IP. When I had 3Mbps I was running right on the numbers - consistently and reliably.
I now get a consistent 6.2Mbps down and 500Kbps (or less) up - I am not satisfied with the upline speed as I am a telecommuter and must send large files. I assumed that I would have 1Mbps up so shame on me for not checking or asking in advance.
Also, the "10Mbps" service is very misleading because you will not get anything even remotely approaching that - expect to get 5-6Mbps. This would be reasonable if they sold it as a 7Mbps service, but they claim it's 10Mbps. In recent conversation with them they qualified it as "burstable" to 10Mbps. That's like the auto manufacturers with MPG - somebody, somewhere, at sometime once achieved 10Mbps so that's what they're putting on the sticker - just don't you expect to see that.
The service aspect leaves nothing to be desired, tech support is good to work with and the people are responsive and friendly. Now that CC has taken over however, I fear that things will change, I have seen a glimmer of the future with their current marketing/upline capping policy. I will stick with this while I shop for better upline offerings.
If only I could get FIOS! | |
| JTheobald
Premium
join:2002-08-08
Gibsonia, PA
| Improvement to my service Nauticom (Now Consolidated Communications) contacted me PROACTIVELY and said they had found an issue which effectively throttled my download speed. Within about a day, they had made the necessary adjustments and I now see 9.4Mbps down om my 10Mbps service which is what I expected. These guys are really good! | |
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Review by ktarn
Posted: 1.7 years ago
member for 7.9 years, 103 visits, last login: 30 days ago
Saxonburg,Butler,PA
Contract price not specified.
"Only one Issue in the 2 and half years I had them."
"First tech support was rocky. But I seem to have this issue with every company."
"One of the best choices for internet I had."
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I First sign up for nauticom after a very bad experince with vontage and Armstrong zoom internet.
At first the service was a bit rocky. With connection speeds dropping at times. However after some initial issues with customer service. (the normal type problems I seem to face with most company who want to treat me like idiot who can not turn on there computer vs some one with a Bachelors degree in Computer Information Science.) The probelm was resolved. It took longer then I would want, however the problem was intermittent and seem to only appear when the it was raining rather bad.
What is important is the probelm was fixed and since then there have been no other issues.
Of course one other strange thing was one of the techs did not want to trust the speed results from DSL Reports that come.
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Review by chuckman4112
UPDATED: 2.2 years ago
member for 3.3 years, 4 visits, last login: 85 days ago
Gibsonia,Allegheny,PA
$37 per month (6 month contract)
 about 6 days
 North Pittsburg Telecom
"Always Connected"
"NONE!!!"
"Awesome service and Great speeds at a good price"
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I have had this service since May of 2006 and maybe...just maybe I have been down for 3 hours at best (total). Speeds are always constant and strong.
Cost is 37.95 a month for 3meg down and 1 meg up. Introductory offer was 19.95 a month for 6 months.
I really can't say enough good things about this service.
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Review by chuckman4112
Posted: 2.2 years ago
member for 3.3 years, 4 visits, last login: 85 days ago
Gibsonia,Allegheny,PA
$37 per month (6 month contract)
about 6 days
North Pittsburg Telecom
"Always Connected"
"NONE!!!"
"Awesome service and Great speeds at a good price"
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I have had this service since May of 2006 and maybe...just maybe I have been down for 3 hours at best (total). Speeds are always constant and strong.
Cost is 37.95 a month for 3meg down and 1 meg up. Introductory offer was 19.95 a month for 6 months.
I really can't say enough good things about this service.
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Review by crikb
Posted: 2.4 years ago
member for 8.4 years, 66 visits, last login: 284 days ago
Beaver,Beaver,PA
$607 per month (36 month contract)
about 10 days
Penn Telecom
"3 meg up/down"
"None that I see"
"Just that dam good"
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Reliability/Speed
Was using a T1 Now Using Wireless point to point 3 meg up/down
Having the existing infrastructure (DSU/CSU, Routers, Firewall) it was a mater of switching ownership of the lines.
The good thing is NOT PAYING FOR T1 from Verizon and someone else for the ISP.
I cant wait until it comes to my town!!!
I don't work for Nauticom.
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Review by sgdoerfler
Posted: 2.5 years ago
member for 6.9 years, 908 visits, last login: 3 days ago
Pittsburgh,Allegheny,PA
$39 per month (month by month)
Verizon
"Reliable, fast, static IP, good phone support"
"Email support can be iffy"
"Good service"
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I've had DSL from one provider or another since 1998. First I was with Bell Atlantic, then Zyan (using NorthPoint, defunct), then Stargate (defunct).
I signed up with Nauticom in November 2003, getting 512 Kbps/512 Kbps service for $50/month. I upgraded to 3072 Kbps/1024 Kbps (at $40/month) when it became available in January 2007. Both included a static IP and free dialup service in case the DSL goes out.
Apart from planned and announced maintenance periods (a few hours in the middle of the night, every few weeks), outages have been rare. Phone support is good, but email support requests doesn't always get a prompt response. For my current connection, Nauticom supplied a Westell C90-600010-06 DSL modem.
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 Review by V0X
UPDATED: 6.7 years ago
member for 9.2 years, 915 visits, last login: 141 days ago
Wexford,Allegheny,PA
$47 per month
"Excellent reliability"
"None"
"Great speed, low cost, reliable service = Nauticom"
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I was one of the first residential customers of Nauticom DSL service. Nauticom utilizes the MVL or Multiple Virtual Lines flavor of DSL from Paradyne. Nauticom is affliated with the local telco in my area, so they are very professional, and my service has NEVER been down..
This DSL is a synchronous dsl, which is great for telecommuting and gaming... my upload is close to 700 kbps... Nauticom also provides me with a fixed IP address, which is usually an extra charge at most ISP's
Installation was painless
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 Review by chaz498
UPDATED: 6.8 years ago
member for 7 years, 70 visits, last login: 5.3 years ago
Cranberry Twp,Butler,PA
$49 per month (12 month contract)
"Service Rocks!!!"
"None-No horror storys and don't expect any"
"Doesn't get any better than this!"
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Nauticom.net is a division of North Pittsburgh Telephone Co. A local
phone company serving the North Allegheny - Butler County area.
Residential service for 1 DSL line and ISP cost
Me $49.39 a month. The following is what you get(taken from their
website):
24/7/365 Local Technical Support
One Email Account
Six Free Email Aliases
5 Megabytes (MB) of space on Nauticom mail server.
Free Dial-up Account. This add-on feature allows you to connect to
Nauticom anytime, from anywhere.
Personal Web Site and FTP - 5MB of space on our servers.
Usenet Newsgroups - Currently we offer access to over 55,000 topics.
Child Protection/Security Software (additional charges may apply)
Free Internet Classes
Free routable, static IP Address
Three free telephone filters (North Pittsburgh Telephone Company
territory)
Free crossover cable to connect your single DSL connection.
Free professional installation - one appointment made with an
experienced, professional installer to suit your schedule.
I have been using their service for about 4-5 years now and recommend it
without reservation. It has only been down 3-4 times I can recall. And
has always been fixed within a half hour or so. They have a system
status line you can call that lets you know if the network is down. This
saves you from checking all the settings at your end.
Installation was a breeze. Tech came when they said he would and set
everything up in 20 minutes. They advertise 512/512 speed but I always
get 600-700 up and down.
Highly recommended!
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Review by boxkicker
UPDATED: 8.3 years ago
member for 9.1 years, 17 visits, last login: 1.3 years ago
Wexford,Allegheny,PA
$47 per month (12 month contract)
about 40 days
"works great now that I have an up-to-date modem"
"nauticom tech support leaves much to be desired"
"fast, reliable connection after working out the bugs"
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I signed up for DSL service a year ago when they were running their "free installation plus modem" deal. After setting up the modem and debugging my home network, the line speed and reliability was OK but not great. BTW, the DSLAMs which Nauticom use require that you have only one ethernet visible at your end of the line. So if you want to run a home network you need a mini-router or two ethernet cards in a PC running NAT.
Anyways, my service kept getting less reliable over time. I'd sit down sometimes at my PC and everything would be great; at other times I'd try to get on the web and only be able to get a few packets through. I noticed that picking up the phone receiver would sometimes improve my packet rate, so I figured it was probably a line or modem problem. After many frustrating calls to Nauticom, I finally convinced them that they need to send out a North Pittsburgh Telephone employee to check my line. The technician arrives on time, picks up my Paradyne modem, looks at the sticker on the bottom and says "Oh, this is an old revision modem, these things are crap." After replacing the modem on the spot, everything instantly worked better. I've had almost no problems since then (a few months ago). I'm not a gamer, so I don't know my ping times, but my web-browsing response times are great and I consistenly do downloads over 400 Kbps.
In short, it's a pretty good deal once you get the bugs worked out. The big problem is Nauticom tech support. They apparently don't use any case-tracking software like most tech support operations do. If you call someone, be sure to get their name and number and/or email address and keep calling them every couple of days until you get a resolution to your problem. Although they're often clueless, at least they are a relatively small bureaucracy compared to Bell Atlantic (which I've heard horror stories about from my friends in Pittsburgh).
Update on 7/9/2001: Nauticom has increased their fee from $39.95 to $47.95/month, which is comparable to what AT&T Broadband is charging. A friend has decided to use NPTCO/Stargate for his DSL/ISP service. For the same price he gets 768K symmetrical; maybe I'll switch to them, but at the moment things seem to be working OK.
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Review by fc33
Posted: 9.1 years ago
member for 9.1 years, 1 visits, last login: 9.1 years ago
Gibsonia,Allegheny,PA
$40 per month
"Not really anything"
"You can only get good pings for about 2 hours every day"
"They're absolutely horrible"
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I thought that since 56k was getting so bad, and it seemed DSL was getting more hype, I figured I'd just go with the ISP closest to me. That was Nauticom. During the first couple weeks I had Nauticom, 22/24 hours of the day, I would get a constant 500 ping to Quake 3 servers, no matter where they were. They finally fixed that problem, but others kept emerging. I now get 50 ping for an hour a day, and that's to the server closest to me that is hosted by a DS3 line (which is really damn fast) The tech support is the worst part. If I call in with a complaint, they say they'll call an administrator, and say that the admin will call back or Nauticom will. Neither ever did. They just give me the run-around every time I call and the problem never gets fixed. I get 14.6kb/s on average Bandwidth test speeds, which isn't good at all. I just can't take it anymore, if you live where you can get an ISP other than Nauticom, do it.
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