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Review by firedrakes 
member for 4.1 years, 773 visits, last login: 2 days ago
updated 25 days ago
 Arcadia,De Soto,FL
 $140 per month- (12 month contract)
 about 2 days "decent price, great tech support and insane speed" "need faster speed" " if you area is good for centurylink. then its worth it."
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i am paying $140 with phone,tv,dvr. it is the 25mb dl plan. mind i am very close to the centurylink building..
this is bonded dsl. my only issue is i know they do some fiber here where i live. but wont do it to my house.
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Review by ozar
member for 4.9 years, 1120 visits, last login: 4 days ago
updated 38 days ago
- USA
- $90 per month
- (24 month contract)
- about 3 days
- "The best point by far is the help provided by CTL_Joey, right here at DSLReports.com"
- "Speeds all over the place, terrible office support, far too expensive for the service provided"
- "Inconsistent internet connection at best... I seriously wish there were other options locally"
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The only other options available to me in this area are dial-up, cable, and satellite. The cable service in this area is down quite often for no apparent reason, so I didn't consider that as a viable alternative.
I'm currently on the "Up to 10.0M download / 896k upload" package and the price I've listed for this review includes the regular phone line charges, plus the DSL service.
The initial order process (about 5 or 6 years ago) went fine and while it was a self-installation, the actual DSL signal was reaching my line in about 3 days and I was up and running. I started out with the 645 Series modem supplied by Sprint/Embarq and the 1.5 M download package, then I upgraded when 3 M package was available, then again when 5 M download package became available. In all cases, the upgrade was totally painless and without any effort on my part. However, when I recently upgraded to the 10 M downloads package, Embarq sent me a new modem (Embarq EQ-660R) that was supposed to be easy to install, but it turned out to be very problematic and took several different Embarq support techs a number of hours to get things so that I was up and running again.
The newly supplied modem drops the DSL sync signal quite often, but intermittently. In fact, it will sometimes drop out about every 5 or 10 minutes during the evening, then the signal re-syncs and you can connect again. Another thing that I've noticed that happens frequently is that the speed will suddenly drop drastically and I get download speeds around 5M/7M. Rebooting the modem will usually get things going faster again.
I recently replaced the ISP supplied modem with a D-link DSL-2540B modem/router and have not lost sync again since doing so. I've also not noticed the degraded speeds suddenly appearing, but I'm not certain just yet that all is fixed, as it's only been a few days since the ISP modem was replaced.
Update (04-28-09): the speed of my 10 Mb/s connection has dropped to about 2 or 3 Mb/s and stayed there over the last 4 days. Rebooting the modem doesn't seem to help speed it up any longer.
Update (05-17-09): just wanted to update my review to say that the speed finally did move much closer to the 10 Mb/s that I pay for, but I'm back to having to reboot the modem every few hours, or sooner, in order to maintain decent speeds. I'd definitely give Embarq a lower score for connection reliability if there was a lower score available. Otherwise, their DSL services are mediocre. Hopefully, the CenturyTel/Embarq merger will bring some improvements, but I've learned through experience not to count on it. Time will tell, and I'll be back here to report on whatever happens, either way.
Update (03-3-10): upgraded scores for Connection Reliability, Tech Support, Services, and Value For Money, all based on help received from our very own CTL_Joey. DSL service here was truly lousy for several years but Joey pulled the right strings and got things working properly. Thank you again, Joey!
Update (07-08-10): the CenturyLink DSL connection that I have at home and work have both been absolutely horrible for the last week or two with very slow speeds, constant page timeouts, and page hangs. Both, my 10Mb/s and 5Mb/s connection are getting speeds similar to a dialup account and are unusable for all practical purposes. In addition to that, every time it rains, my home connection goes on and off repeatedly as long as it's raining, making the connection useless.
The CenturyLink techs have been out several times and they've told me to call in a repair request when it rains next so they can come check for the problem during the rain, but by the time they get to my house, it's no longer raining. Living in a small town of less than 3,600 people, you'd think they would know when it's raining and think to themselves that they need to go troubleshoot this problem immediately, but that doesn't seem to be happening.
For all those reasons outlined above, I've downgraded the "connection reliability" section of this review to the lowest option possible and the connection itself will have to become and remain far more reliable for some time before I'm willing to upgrade it again. At the current time, I'd advise any viable option over CenturyLink for those that need a reliable internet service.
Update (08-15-10): downgraded rating once again due to the horrible Connection Reliability and Value For Money that we've experienced recently. Also downgraded rating for Tech Support, but that is not intended to reflect on the help provided right here by CTL_Joey, as his help is the only good support provided by Century Link. I'm currently paying about $100 per month for phone and DSL service whereas it's certainly worth no more than about $40 per month due to the lousy connection reliability and terrible tech support.
Consider your options closely before signing up with Century Link because even if other available options are slower, they might be better if they work properly and consistently. Any improvements with the service from Century Link will have to remain steady and consistent for some time to come before I'd be willing to upgrade this review to a more positive one. Check the forums for more details about what users are experiencing under Century Link, and consider yourself warned.
Update (09-22-10): the DSL connection has been working slightly better over the last couple of weeks, but I don't feel confident at all that it will stay that way for long. I'd still be quick to try an alternative provider if there were other DSL providers in this area. As indicated earlier, we have a local cable company that also provides internet services but the speeds they currently provide are far to slow, and the cable service was too expensive the last time I checked it. The Tech Support score I provided is based on the support provided by the company, not by our own CTL_Joey here on the forums. We'd need a separate section to rate him where he'd definitely receive a 5 score from me... Thanks, Joey!
Update (11-15-10): I've lowered the review ratings on CenturyLink once again. Connection speeds are all over the place and latencies, too. I don't know what's wrong with the service CenturyLink provides to its customers causing it to be so inconsistent, but if my automobile acted up as much as this connection does, I'd be getting rid of it in a hurry. Sure, I'd leave CenturyLink in a heartbeat, but there aren't any real alternatives in this local area. I keep hoping that they will take the steps to improve their service, or that a better company will come along and buy them out, and then make things better, but it's looking more and more like neither will ever happen. If I could pay what the service is actually worth, I'd be out about $20 to $25 bucks each month instead of $80.
(02-28-2013) Here we are over 2 years now since my last review and things have not improved one bit, but have only gotten worse. Each and every night from about 6pm to around 11pm, the 10 Mbps downspeed connection that I've been paying for drops all the way down to dial-up speeds and remains there, most likely due to CenturyLink overselling the service compared to what it can actually handle. The rest of the time, speeds are erratic at best and are rarely what I'm paying for. With any luck, perhaps this provider will fold so that other options will make themselves available in this area.
This ISP is absolutely horrible, end of story!
Comments:
 | | Sez it all. "If you have a decent option, consider going elsewhere... seriously!"
If we had any other option we would begone.
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| | | Concur on deterioration in CenturyLink service Western Washington: Generally the CenturyLink DSL service has been good, but not equal to the 10Mbps promised. The past month has seen a significant deterioration and or variability in speeds - from worse than dial up to 6 Mbps. Other friends who have their service also complain. No straight answers from tech support. | |
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 Review by Hazy Arc
member for 6.9 years, 2388 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 64 days ago
- Greenwood,Greenwood,SC
- $39 per month
- about 4 days
- "Connection is ok during the day"
- "Connection slows considerably during evening, no forseeable speed increases on the horizon"
- "If there was a viable alternative, I'd be gone in a heartbeat."
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I've been a Centurylink (previously Embarq) customer since 2007. I'd like to sit here and tell you it's been fun and games since I became a customer, but sadly that is not the case.
In the 5 years I've been a customer, I'd say my connection has been flawless less than 20% of the time I've had it. In fact, in 2008, I had scheduled a cable install after dealing with a high latency/slow speed problem for over 5 months. Only after I was personally contacted by an employee of then-Embarq asking me to allow them to help did I stick around. It turns out our area had been placed on bandwidth exhaust (big surprise there), and the problem was fixed another 2 months later. Since 2007, I haven't sniffed a speed upgrade - I had 3Mbps then, and that's where I'm stuck. 5 years and no upgrades? Come on!
Nowadays, I rarely get my advertised speeds, but at least the high latency problem hasn't resurfaced. I know, I know - why not go to cable? The answer is two-fold: First, my local mom-and-pop cable provider (Northland Cable »User reviews - Northland Cable Television) is notoriously bad, even worse than Centurylink (if that's possible). I have to laugh when I see folks complaining about Comcast/Charter/etc. - I'd give anything to be serviced by them. The other reason I haven't dumped Centurylink is because I have been a true dry loop DSL customer since I started, so I literally pay $39 a month for 3Mbps internet, no bogus taxes or fees that are tacked on like with their insulting "Pure DSL" offering. Since they no longer offer true dry loop DSL, I'm hesitant to drop them - especially if Northland didn't work out. If Centurylink ever removes my grandfather status, I'm outta here.
Ultimately, like many other smaller towns in the United States, the problem is lack of competition. Well, let me rephrase - Centurylink and Northland are certainly in "competition" in Greenwood, South Carolina - but it's a contest of who can provide the worst value for the most money.
Comments:
Reviews:
 ·CenturyLink
| Sorry to hear that That sucks that they can't do much. Down here in Florida they are cranking the upgrades up. We have Prism tv and 25/3 internet service now. Due to the price I have yet to go up that high though. Hope everything works out for you. | |
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Review by brugar
member for 10.5 years, 742 visits, last login: 20 days ago
updated 85 days ago
- Las Vegas,Clark,NV
- $42 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 3 days
 Sprint- "Consistent, reliable service."
- "Good value"
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Update - January 2013
I am continuing to use CenturyLink Pure Broadband High Speed Internet service at 10 megabits per second (10M/768K). I renewed again on a 12 month contract at $59.95 less $20.00 promotional discount plus fees giving me total cost of $41.93 per month. Contract has a $200 early termination fee.
My modem syncs at 11772 kbps down and 887 kbps up on ADSL2+ mode with fast data path.
I participate with the FCC / SamKnows internet monitoring service. Measurements for my DSL service during December 2012 as reported by SamKnows:
Downstream throughput: 9.97 Mbps average 8.36 Mbps min 10.35 Mbps max
Upstream throughput: 0.74 Mbps average 0.49 Mbps min 0.77 Mbps max
Latency: 31.73 msec average 25.17 msec min 829.76 msec max
Packet loss: 0.23% average 0.00% min 19.49% max
Service has been better than 99.9% reliable. Reliability would have been even better if CenturyLink had not bungled a central office equipment upgrade. The work on my line should have been done overnight instead of during the day. Once I reported the outage CenturyLink technicians promptly restored service. The equipment upgrade was completed the next day without disrupting my service.
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CenturyLink upgraded my Pure Broadband DSL service from 10M/768K to 10M/896K last week. They also changed my data path from fast to interleaved. I sent an email to TalkToUS@centurylink.com asking to be switched back to a fast data path. They responded within a day to report that my fast data path had been restored.
After trying Clearwire for several months, CenturyLink's introductory offer of 10 Mbps Pure Broadband offer at $29.99 per month on a 12 month contract was too much to resist back in January 2011. I renewed on a 12 month contract at $40 plus fees/taxes with a $200 early termination fee.
I am in an area where Prism TV is offered. I signed up last year for the Federal Communications Commission broadband monitoring program run by SamKnows.com. Data collected by SamKnows confirms my experience: consistent, reliable broadband service at or near advertised speeds. From Sprint to Embarq to CenturyLink, my DSL service has been always been reliable.
Looking back six years to my previous review, I find that I have DSL service that is more than six times as fast for only 20% more money.
My review from 2006 -- 1.5 Mbps DSL service - $35.00 per month - 12 month contract
Helpful and well informed customer representative. Placed order on Monday for 1.5 Mbps DSL. Received self install kit on Tuesday (Sprint SP-660ME-61 modem/router). DSL service scheduled for Thursday. Live at 2:00 am on Thursday, as promised. Smooth as glass. No problems.
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 Review by mooch
member for 11.4 years, 4109 visits, last login: a few minutes ago
updated 89 days ago
- Sunbury,Delaware,OH
- $20 per month
- about 5 days
- CenturyTel
- "Have only had the service for a bit over a month but I have no complaints at this point!"
- "After 4 months of service...Evening slow downs are HORRENDOUS, connection becomes useless!"
- "After 5 months of evening slow speeds the issue was fixed...hope it stays that way!"
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It's supposed to be 6 meg, it's actually a very consistent 5 meg download. The upload speed is only supposed to be 512kb and that's about what I get.
Update 2/4/12: After having the service for 3 months, I've had no issues. Download speeds are pretty much always between 5 and 6 mb. Knock on wood, hope it continues to perform well.
Update 3/2/12: After 4 months of service, I've become a victim of the night time sloooowwws. For the last week, my 6 meg connection is about 1/10 the speed it should be. Hard to believe that I have DSL service that has a worse case of the prime time slows than satellite service does. Sad.
Update 3/3/12: The night time slow ups started early tonight at 6:00. Speetest.net page won't even load to check my speed (or,lack of). Started a newsgroup download just to see how bad it was...a whopping 100kbps. With evening speeds having gone belly up, I've downgraded my review stats on this service.
Update 5/14/12: Learning to just suck it up and try not to dwell on the fact that I have really, really. really bad Centurylink DSL service. Centurylink has now even come up with another way to make their service bad. If my prime time speeds aren't super slow then the pattern will be speeds running as normal for about 30 seconds and then dead for 30 seconds and then running normal for 30 seconds...continue this pattern until the wee hours of the morning and the result is a connection that is frustrating at best.
Update 5/28/12: Centurylink DSL service here is still frustratingly unusable for anything other than simple page loads. Tonight was the first time a speed test completed without timing out. VERY unhappy with Centurylink's lousy DSL service but they've got me where they've got a lot of their customers...no other service available other than dial up or Hughesnet. Hard to believe, I've contemplated going back to Hughesnet!
UPDATE 6/26/12 - Something at Centurylink was fixed as my ultra slow download speeds in the evenings have not been an issue for several weeks. My 6mb connection has been running consistently at 6mb. Knock on wood!
UPDATE 1/8/12 - Speeds have been where they should be for a 6mb connection for the last 6 months. Unfortunately, the Centurylink DSL slow speeds have returned as of 12/31/12. The last time I went through this, it took 3 months before Centurlink's DSL speeds were back out of the crapper, wonder how long it'll take this time?
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Comments:
| | Good for you! Sometimes it will be intermittent but it is so much better than Hughesnet. I was only with hughesnet for 3 years. | |
| Crusty
join:2008-11-11
Sanger, TX | Love that slowness You're lucky if the slowness @ night is just now affecting you. i've been dealing with it for over a year now. | |
| Tweak3d
join:2012-02-12
Bennington, IN Reviews:
·CenturyLink
| Me too I have been dealing with the same issue for about 18 months.
It had gotten so bad that the internet was pretty much unusable from 7am till 12:30am. Yup, you can watch youtube from 12:30 till 7am. It would take me ~60 minutes to watch a 21min episode of The Simpsons.
They have installed fiber, which made the net usable till 3pm, when the kids get home from school and start downloading porn or whatever.
They have forced me to become more physically active because it is not entertaining to sit in front of the computer watching a movie buffer forever before you can start to watch it. | |
| | |  latency
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| jimfoto
join:2012-08-18
Winter Park, FL Reviews:
·CenturyLink
| Slow, Slower, Slowest. I've been having problems with CenturyUnLink speeds for a while now. Tech showed up unannounced today, one day late and installed a new router. Speed was fine while everyone was at work. Now I'm:
»www.speedtest.net/result/2130992313.png
Can it really get any slower and still be connected? | |
| | | Century link slowdowns new firmware PK5001z They released new firmware for the PK5001Z modem router that is suppose to fix several issues related to disconnects that. I installed it last night. Too soon to comment if service is improved. | |
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Review by moodydan
member for 94 days, 1 visits, last login: 2 days ago
lodged 94 days ago
- Gate City,Scott,VA
- $40 per month
- (12 month contract)
- CenturyTel
- "Reliable, good customer service, willing to work on rates"
- "Slowish for today's needs, far behind in upgrades"
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I've had Embarq (Now Centurylink) for years now. I live in a rural area and they are still my only option for high speed. I've been fairly happy with them and they've worked with me on getting my bill down, customer service has been very good, and my connection has been reliable very rarely going out. That being said I've only seen some minor speed bumps over the years and I've been stuck on 6 Mbps for around two years with no speed upgrades on the horizon. This was fine years ago but in an HD video world this is getting sluggish and I can feel my internet slow down if I'm using the connection on severel devices especially if they are doing video. Honestly if I had another choice that offered a reliable connection but faster speeds I'd switch. Centurylink really needs to be moving to a fiber option, DSL is just too slow for many users these days.
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| | Not that bad You're lucky as hell that you get 6 Mb in a rural area. 1.5 max here. | |
| | | | Re: Not that bad I just dumped CenturyLink. My area has been wired for a new company and they offer speeds up to 10 Mbps download/ 2 Mbps upload. They also offer a home phone service and TV. So I have a triple internet/home phone/TV package with them now. Due to my living situation and living with somebody that gets an employee discount I get TV/Home Phone/Internet for only $33 a month!!! This can't be beat and honestly the internet part at least seems to be better than CenturyLink. | |
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Jammers
join:2009-01-15
Tillamook, OR | None I've had 10 Mbps for about five years now and still no upgrades in speed in sight. Going over 5 years without CenturyLink bumping up the speed is ridiculous. | |
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Review by jimmybruhah
member for 11.4 years, 29 visits, last login: 99 days ago
updated 99 days ago
- Schenectady,Schenectady,NY
- $99 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 5 days
- Sprint
- "never a ping above 95"
- "not a static IP ... yet"
- "well worth the money"
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nothing but great things from them...optimization of system settings was a paint in the butt, but once done, stability, speed, and ping is AWESOME !!!!!!
1500/384 ROCKS !!!!!!!!
Comments:
BigVe
join:2005-07-15
Gulliver, MI | Well........ If you like them then you should rate them appropriately | |
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Review by kagatosama
member for 9.4 years, 3026 visits, last login: 3 days ago
updated 120 days ago
- Henderson,Clark,NV
- $75 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 5 days
- Sprint
- "Much better than 512kbps"
- "More Upload Speed"
- "Rock Solid"
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12/01/12 had to cancel service. Moved to an area of town that was only getting 1.5 meg down. I'm sorry to say I am going with the competition since I can get up 50 meg down. I would've stayed but going from 10 to 1.5 is not an option. I can and have recommended to Centurylink to people.
08/08/05 Called Sprint to ask about 5 meg and to see why when I upgraded to 3. my static ip didn't drop in price from 9.95 to 4.95. The Lady on the phone punched some things up and I could get 5 Meg no problem it took her some time to find out what I was talking about on the static ip price. Ultimatly took 2 other phone calls over 2 months to get it right. I really like 5 meg service. It's been rock solid since the upgrade and I tested the pings to servers and found they have now turned fast path on or lowered the latency. Got to love them low pings for online games. When Spring finally brings FTTH/P/C what ever they want to call it I will be signing up for that. Only thing I would like to see is faster upload. Other than that love it.
06/17/05 Well called Sprint to see if 1.5 or 3 meg service was now avalible. Was told 3 meg now is. Tole them to set me up. Was told that on the 16th I would have it. Had to call today the 17th and talk to tech support and 3 meg was proceced, but not All the way. took 10-20 minutes for engineering to fix the problem and I was up and running.
I recommend Sprint over Cox just for the reliablilty. very solid haven't been down in over a year.
5/10/2004 Well I had problems with my Static IP again. This time going even log in to PPPoE. I called Sprint and the guy had no problem with me having a router they didn't sell me. We troubleshooted it an finally saw on his other computer screen that had me on PPPoE. Called engineering and they fixed rightaway I will recomend this Product to some of my friends but will tell them of the Static IP problem.
4/21/2004 I have gone threw my first outage. I didn't like it but once it was up Enngineering put me on PPOE instead of my Static IP. I called tech support very friendly help me with that and even gave me credit for my week of no service. I love Sprint DSL I will stay with them.
3/23/2004 I like it seems fast to me. I got a static ip and 512 for 50 a month. The installer was very friendly and knew some of his stuff. When it came to the computer he had no clue.
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 Review by GCoop
member for 8.3 years, 1356 visits, last login: 5 days ago
updated 126 days ago
- Gordonsville,Orange,VA
- $29 per month
- (12 month contract)
- CenturyTel
- "Stability"
- "Customer Service"
- "Its my only shot at Highspeed. But I have been pleased for the most part."
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Had the service since Dec 2004. No major Problems. In 2009 there were a few latency issues here and there during the typical holiday high usage times. From my experience I would give them an "A" rating. They are closing in on the ever so coveted five nines (99.999 %) uptime for me. 2010 has been uneventful which is good. 2011--I cant remember the last time there was any trouble with the service!! 2012--Upgraded me to 10Mb at at no extra charge per month. I continue to be very happy!! As with any service dependant upon location and load YMMV.
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 Review by DustySilicon
member for 10.5 years, 1170 visits, last login: 1 days ago
updated 168 days ago
- Oak Grove,Jackson,MO
- $40 per month
- about 7 days
- "Rock solid & fast connection."
- "It was not available sooner."
- "Great service for a great price!"
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Good things come to those that have to wait. . .
After 10+ years of some of the worst ISP's and connections to the internet (from dial-up, ISDN, satellite, WISP), DSL has finally arrived at our rural suburban home. TG.
After a few months of waiting for CenturyLink to finalize the installation of our new DSLAM, it was officially activated on 12/15/09 and I ordered service that same day. Activation was scheduled for 12/21/09 (Merry Christmas!)
On the Friday before activation the new 660R modem arrived via UPS in pristine condition -- my 17 year old is now about to bounce off the ceiling and can't wait for me to install it on the evening of the 21st 
Setup was simple (especially since I completely rewired my LAN and phone connections in preparation for the activation with CAT5e cables.) After plugging in the modem and connecting it to my laptop, a few web pages later, our connection was live and speeds were excellent, compared to our 1MB connection with our flaky WISP, yet not quite as fast as I expected. . .
I next connected the router to the modem (Netgear) and asked my wife to test out her work connection (she does medical transcription remotely). It worked fine, however, she said she was getting a buzz/hum in the background of her phone connection -- hmmm... let me think, I connected 4 DSL filters to all of the phones in the residence, but now I'm thinking did I miss one? Sure enough, there was a phone on her desk that was plugged in as an after thought and it had no filter! I unplugged the phone and had her test dial her transcriber again: buzz/hum GONE! I tested the internet connection again and a documented 30% faster connection was now possible from the first speed tests. (NOTE: DSL filters are VERY IMPORTANT on all phones & satellite boxes!)
It is now day four and our 10MB connection is ROCK SOLID FAST; not one hiccup, burp, fart, etc. The wife is extremely happy, the teenager is thrilled, and I am finally at peace, just in time for Christmas.
By having to wait so long for Embarq/CenturyLink to install the DSLAM that services our residence, we got the latest and greatest equipment, so there was a bright side to having waited so long. The entire installation of the DSLAM could have been much faster if it were not for our local power COOP's ridicules demand of $10,000 to run power from a pole approximately 50 feet across a tar & gravel road to the DSLAM! Shameful that West Central Electric would stymie an upgrade that would benefit their customers access to the internet -- I guess they would rather peddle their Wildblue crap to more people. Anyway, CenturyLink simply "end arounded" them and contracted a local company to run the power cable under the road for a fraction of what WCE wanted -- way to go CL project manager.
We love our new connection -- thank you CenturyLink and Embarq_Joey for putting up with all of my IM queries on the status of the DSLAM installation, it was well worth the wait.
»www.speedtest.net/result/661313282.png
»www.pingtest.net/result/6177197.png
5/26/2010: Still a rockin solid connection. Only a couple hiccups (middle of the night) brief resets. The only bad thing I can say, is that now with a solid connection to the internet, a lot of those sites I used to think were slow because of our crappy WISP service are just SLOW sites i.e. Rotten Tomatoes is one that comes to mind.
10/21/2012 Update on service:
What can I say, but "FANTASTIC SERVICE" from CenturyLink and our local service techs.
In May of 2012 we experienced a lightning strike on our home. It fried just about every piece of electronics equipment in our home and blew the cover off our phone box about 30' into our front yard. After calling the power company (fixed power that evening) and then CenturyLink, CL showed up the next business day and the tech fixed the customer box on the outside, rewired our connection so that I no longer needed the DSL filters, and installed a new Westell modem/wireless/router. I asked the tech what the charges were and he said "anything on my truck" is free for a lightning strike. Wow! I did not expect that. The new router works very well and I no longer needed to purchase another wireless router. Phone and internet was restored and working better than before the lightning strike. SUPER SERVICE AWARD.
Fast forward to September... my wife, who works from home, started to notice a lot of static and hum on the phone line, especially in the mornings. I called in a ticket and the next afternoon the tech arrived. Of course, by then, the hum was gone and my poor wife had to drive 40 miles one way to work in the main office (the hum was that bad.)
The tech said, tell her not to drive into work the next day and he would be here at 7:30am to personally checkout the line noise. The next morning, he called and said he was on his way (I think this may have been on his own time, but I'm not positive.) He arrived and tracked the trouble to our buried cable to the house. He switched pairs (bad pair) and the noise was gone.
Not content to leave it at that, he submitted an order to bury a new cable to replace the bad one. Within three weeks, a company arrived, buried the new cable and connected it to the house. It was a good thing the tech ordered the new cable, because the switched pair started to exhibit the same hum within a couple weeks after the change... Once again SUPER SERVICE AWARD!
Fast forward again to last week. Our internet stopped working on Thursday for about 30 minutes... odd. It came back up and everything was working as normal. Later that evening I noticed that we had no dial tone. I called CL and opened a ticket to fix it. At 7:30am the next morning, I got a call from the same (GREAT) tech that fixed the original line noise and he said, Tell Sharyl not to drive downtown, that he would be right out to fix it! What! Not only did he remember my wifes name, but he also remembered that she worked from home and would have to make the 80 mile round trip drive if the phone line was dead -- SUPER, SUPER, SERVICE AWARD! The line was fixed before 8am.
I'm hoping that we will be getting PrismTV in our area soon, because they have been laying new fiber in our area for the last month. I had some reservations about PrismTV because of potential internet problems, verses our current DirecTV (which we lose everytime it rains or snows heavily.) Now, I'm looking forward to the day when I can dump the dish off the side of the house and go with a company that obviously cares about it's customers.
I know others have had different experiences with CL, but for my area, it has been nothing but GRAND -- Thank you CL techs for the best service I've received from a company in a long time.
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