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Review by ozar 
UPDATED: 3 days ago
member for 103 days, 128 visits, last login: a few minutes ago
 USA
 $117 per month (24 month contract)
 about 3 days
 "Decent speeds for this area"
 "Drops connection often, speeds drop off a great deal several times daily"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
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 my regular phone line, 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.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Embarq |
 | »next review in page (previous review)
Review by zach_lloyd
UPDATED: 8 days ago
member for 2.2 years, 296 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Greenwood,Greenwood,SC
$45 per month
about 4 days
"Fast installation, fast speeds most of the time"
"Primary complaint is the fact that latency times are a tad high without FastPath"
 "Great initially...has gone steadily downhill in the past few months."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
|
Broadband was not offered at my home within which I recently moved from a bigger city, so I was forced to use Verizon's EVDO card for my laptop. Needless to say, I was stoked when I received a letter in the mail stating that DSL service was now available in my area. I called that same day, and was enjoying broadband once again within 4 days! Installation was pain free, simply plug and play with my existing router.
I purchased the premier data plan for $54 a month which includes 5Mbps download/768kbps upload. Surprisingly enough, I actually receive those speeds at all times of the day. Downloads range from 4500-5000 kbps, while uploads range from 450-650 kbps. Not bad! Probably due to this area just coming online and I have most of the bandwidth to myself. Latency is a little rough...anywhere along the order of 85-115 ms.
Price is a bit stiff, and since I am forced to pay for a land line that I will never use (all of my transactions occur through my cell phone), the price jumps to $74 a month. However, this is a small price to pay for the luxury of broadband...and in SC, it is truly a luxury!!!
*UPDATE 1-11-2008*
Just wanted to follow up on my review. Still, so far so good. Still attaining 5Mbps download speeds with no downtime. Another plus is the fact that I've been able to have my line switched to FastPath which has decreased my latency to 50ms or less. If you are a gamer or user of VOIP, I highly recommend contacting Embarq and asking to be changed to FastPath.
*UPDATE 1-29-2008*
After learning of the ability to have "naked" DSL from fellow Embarq forum members, I called and tried it out. Turns out naked DSL is not available in the SC area (at least according to the CSR). However, I was able to get my phone bill reduced from $29 a month to $19 a month while still retaining most features like Caller ID (I don't use the phone anyway so it doesn't really matter). More importantly, she was also able to reduce my DSL portion of the bill from $49 a month to $35 a month for the 5/768 service. In addition to the bill reductions, she gave me a $25 credit applied to my next bill.
*UPDATE 5-5-2008*
Had a strange problem a few days ago. I totally lost dial tone (couldn't make or receive calls), but my DSL would function. Well, I say function, it would limp along and lose sync every 10 minutes or so. I call Embarq around 6:30 PM. On the phone with a tech for about 5 minutes. He states that they will send a technician tomorrow.
The tech came the following day around lunchtime and fixed whatever was ailing my line (I was at work).
*UPDATE 6-20-2008*
I recently moved back to an area that was serviced by cable as well as DSL. I mentioned this in a thread here on BBR and stated that I would leave Embarq for the Cable provider because I was forced to purchase a phone line with DSL, which escalated the price of DSL higher than Cable. Within a few days, I was contacted by an employee from Embarq who was quite courteous and helpful and offered to move my service to my new location AND remove my phone service and provide me with naked DSL (thanks to embarq_cesar!). The transition went smoothly and I was up and running within a few days.
*UPDATE 7-1-08*
I have lowered the connection reliability score because of increases in latency...especially during peak times (early afternoon/evening). See this thread for more details: »Random Spikes of Latency
*UPDATE 7-17-08*
Well, two and a half weeks later and the horrendous latency problem has no hints of going away. All was well a few months ago when I first jumped aboard with Embarq, but the connection is now totally unacceptable. I am starting to reach the end of the line with Embarq. I will not continue to put my money into a service if the service itself is as shoddy as this. Will be dropping the service in exchange for the cable incumbent in the next few weeks if there isn't a marked improvement.
Followup comments:  zach_lloyd
join:2006-04-10
Greenwood, SC
 ·Embarq
 ·Northland Cable Te..
| Service Update Just wanted to follow up on my review. Still, so far so good. Still attaining 5Mbps download speeds with no downtime. Another plus is the fact that I've been able to have my line switched to FastPath which has decreased my latency to 50ms or less. If you are a gamer or user of VOIP, I highly recommend contacting Embarq and asking to be changed to FastPath. | |
| Soldae
Premium
join:2008-06-26
Carlisle, PA
| Have you... Have you tried contacting an Embarq rep or supervisor to let them know what's going on? I don't see anything in your review that says you have. If you're having problems and don't let them know, there's no way for them to tell you it's not their problem :-P hehe, well there's no way for them to attempt to fix it either. | |
| | zach_lloyd
join:2006-04-10
Greenwood, SC | Re: Have you... I've contacted the Embarq reps that post on this forum. They stated that "since the latency appears on a peer network, it may take longer to resolve."
Not exactly sure what that means, but they've had several weeks now. | |
| | | Soldae
Premium
join:2008-06-26
Carlisle, PA
| Re: Have you... You may want to call, as there is only one rep left that does anything on the boards and I'm sure he's swamped. I wouldn't talk to just any tech though, I'd chit-chat a little, find out where they're located (PA or Florida would be best), and find out how long they've worked for Embarq. If the answers satisfy you, tell them your issue. If not, ask for a supervisor. They're very very geared toward customer service right now and will actually have one of their managers contact you if you request it. By all means, this doesn't mean anything will be fixed, but they may be able to let you know what's happening or what they're doing. | |
| | | |
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Review by cpollock
UPDATED: 8 days ago
member for 4.6 years, 136 visits, last login: 1 days ago
Copperas Cove,Coryell,TX
Contract price not specified.
 Sprint
"Tech-Support is Linux friendly, a real plus"
"Blocking of reports to Spam Cop and other anti-spam related sites."
"Things were, believe it or not, better when Embarq had the contract with Earthlink"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
I've actually had DSL since 2002 when Sprint made it available in my area. It was a far cry from my dial up days. If I remember I started off with the only speed they offered at the time which was 512 down and I believe I was paying about $40.00/month for this, again that was 5 years ago so things are a bit fuzzy. I had just began running Linux at the time, the day I got my modem I couldn't get it to work, called (Sprint) DSL tech support and amazingly a Linux savvy tech came right on the line and talked me through my (simple) problems. Since then I've upgraded twice speed wise to 3Mb and now to 5Mb. I can't complain about the up-time of my DSL, my box has been up for 44 days now with no reboots and no DSL problems either. The one bad experience I'd like to relate however is the fact that now that Embarq has teamed with Synacor their way of handling spam is, in my opinion, unacceptable. First of all it appears that if they deem a message is spam its not put in your spam folder or sent to you tagged as spam so that YOU and decide whether its spam, rather they appear to just drop the, in their opinion, message on the floor. I've missed several important messages in several mailing lists just because Embarq decided it was spam. My other complaint is that they, Embarq, are blocking some of my reports to Spam Cop and to other anti-spam services I report to. I discovered this when I would report for instance 100 spam to Spam Cop but only receive 60 or 70 confirmations from Spam Cop for the reports they received. I've asked multiple times why they can't whitelist spam.spamcop.net, always receiving a reply such as:
Sorry, we cannot accommodate this request. If we white list a domain we
open up a door for someone to spoof an email address at the domain with
no kind of protection or warning. So in theory if we white list
spam.spamcop.net someone could potentially send email to embarqmail.com
as any email address @spam.spamcop.net.
During the Earthlink days a customer could choose the amount of spam/virus filtering they wanted, myself, for my own reasons always had these two turned completely off, I've asked about this also and have only received replies such as we're thinking about it.
All in all the speed I'm seeing is what I'm paying for, the Tech Support, the few times I've had to call seems to be adequate, however, as stated above, the new Embarq mail service leaves much to be desired.
-----UPDATE------UPDATE---------UPDATE
After sending several emails to the below
Harrison.S.Campbell, James.A.Hansen@embarq.com, Daniel.R.Hesse, Vallerie.Parrish-Porter, Dennis.G.Huber
Going to this site will explain who the above individuals are »www2.embarq.com/newsroom/executives.html
I received a phone call from "Bob" who said he was the manager of the High Speed Data Center and that after careful consideration they, Embarq, had decided to whitelist the spamcop reporting address. I was pretty happy about this, now my next endeavor is to get Embarq/Synacor to let us, the customer choose the amount of spam/virus filtering we want similar to how it was with EL.
-----UPDATE------UPDATE---------UPDATE
17 July 2008
As I noted in my earlier review spam tagging could be much improved on. It would still be much better if the customer was allowed to choose their level of spam/virus tagging. Personally I think that the Cloud Mark Authority Engine setup they are using now is totally useless in tagging 'some' spam that my Anti-Spam setup catches with ease. The fact that the MediaMax/Linkup site is now defunct is another negative in my review. Again on the plus side though I haven't experienced an outage in I can't remember how long.
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Review by gbh2o
UPDATED: 12 days ago
member for 7.6 years, 1936 visits, last login: 1 days ago
Greenville,Pitt,NC
$109 per month (24 month contract)
about 14 days
"Only local service permitting static IP block available at the time"
"unreliability, cost, non-compliance with IANA requirements"
"Worst and most costly ISP in last 20 years of experience"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
|
Unfortunately, Embarq was the only local and available service provider at the time that would even allow me to obtain sufficient static IPs to meet my verifiable requirements. But, Embarq would only allow them if I converted from residential to business telephone service and subscribed to their "business-class" DSL service. Since the forced conversion of my home phone number to a 'business 'number, I have been harassed by vendors calling to sell business services, despite being listed on the Do-Not-Call registry. My regular mail is also stuffed with continued offers for business credit cards [for the non-existent business] and supplies.
Due to the exorbitant cost as a "business" customer, this retired residential user was only able to afford 1500/386 DSL.
Embarq refuses to comply with requirements of IANA /ARIN regarding reverse DNS/ provision of detailed information to IANA/ARIN for any /29 equivalent. Causes widespread problems due to non-standard internet service. Best the can offer is a lame "we're looking at the issue an may be able to provide that service sometime in the future."
I have experienced numerous outages and failures. Each time, Embarq promises only that they'll try to have service restored in 24 to _48_ hours. If on a weekend and not physically present to reset my customer equipment to accept Embarq resettings, then service is disrupted for greater periods of time. Most failures have been verified as Embarq equipment failure.
My IPs are provided via bridging, rather than via standard routing procedures. That seems to even baffle some of their national tech support personnel as to why it was set up that way, but Embarq has yet to change it for me.
Two year contract with horrendous termination penalty even when due to Embarq failure to provide standard and adequate services. Embarq claims they're making their 'best effort' on providing services, which is all the guarantee they offer.
Forced to change to a business telephone service in order to get more than one static IP, just because it is Embarq policy. That policy is not in conformance to internet number authority provisions or requirements!
Bottom Line: This is the _worst_ ISP with whom I have had to deal, at least in the last 20 years.
February 15, 2008
I have upgrade reliability a notch to reflect the fact that I've actually been up for more than 30 days straight, I believe for the first time. I guess I'm so used to terrible that now it seems not bad :-(
No communication from Embarq though on the issue of IANA/ARIN compliance.
March 17, 2008
On my! Up for over 60 days now! Embarq must have fixed something.
May 12, 2008
I was almost ready to upgrade my reliability rating, since it had been over 90 days with out an outage of over a few minutes. Then I had two failures within 7 days of each other, so I must leave reliability as mediocre at best. During the last outage, I called the business services number and transfered to the DSL support extension. Twenty-four minutes later a human answered and indicated that there was a major outage in NC, and that although technicians were working on the problem, he had to tell me it would be resolved within 24-48 hours. _Not_ a meaningful response, just the standard script garbage. It was actually fixed in a few hours.
May 15, 2008
Well, here I am on a backup, dial-up connection and without DSL service for the last four hours. Calls to the only published business customer support number (in either the phone book or on the web site)only get me the message that they aren't open yet and to call back during normal hours. I still have a connection to the CO but the failure is upstream somewhere.... any bets on more problems in the Rocky Mount, NC center?
May 20, 2008
Several hours of sporadic service. Taped message at support indicates that people in and around Kingston, NC may be unable to reach the internet today. Note that the city should be _Kinston_, NC. Expected service repair hoped by 1545 hours today. Yep, high degree of reliability here.
May 21, 2008
I have service, although it is still crippled by something I, the customer CANNOT fix. Email from my servers is being rejected by the State of North Carolina, Office of Information Technology Services, due my address range being listed in blackholes.five-ten-sg.com because my ISP [EMBARQ] refuses to comply with their contractual requirements/obligations to provide my /29 information to ARIN. Embarq continues to refuse to report my information. The State of NC relies upon the information provided in this blackhole list, which will not change until EMBARQ follows ARIN reporting policy. Two pertinent ARIN references for these ISP requirements are at the bottom of this post.
According to blackholes.five-ten-sg.com
"IP address 65.41.xxx.xxx is listed here as 65.41.213.182.sprint-hsd.net misc.spam.
"The misc.spam group is mostly (but not entirely) composed of entire addresses blocks that have a) sent spam here, b) have consecutive or missing reverse dns, and c) have no customer sub-delegation via either the controlling RIR (ARIN, RIPE, LACNIC, APNIC, etc) or an rwhois server referenced in the main RIR records."
"In particular, 65.41.xxx.xxx [Deleted Actual IP] has reverse dns of nc-65-41-xxx.xxx.sta.embarqhsd.net. Since your domain name does not appear as the last components in any of those reverse dns names, that needs to be fixed first. Any email sent to the address at the top of this page will be ignored until that is fixed."
ARIN POLICY REFERENCE:
4.2.3.7.2. /29s and larger nets
ISPs must provide reassignment information on the entire previously allocated block(s) via SWIP or RWHOIS server for /29 or larger blocks. For blocks smaller than /29 and for internal space, ISPs should provide utilization data using the format described in Section 4.2.3.7.5.
and...
4.2.2.1.2. Efficient utilization
Demonstrate efficient use of IP address space allocations by providing appropriate documentation, including assignment histories, showing their efficient use. ISPs must provide reassignment information on the entire previously allocated block(s) via SWIP or RWHOIS server for /29 or larger blocks. For blocks smaller than /29 and for internal space, ISPs should provide utilization data using the table format described in Section 4.2.3.7.5.
July 13, 2008
Embarq continues to ignore ARIN policy causing numerous rejections of my users' email by businesses such as AT&T, bizsiteservice.com and geeksnet.com. THIS IS TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE BEHAVIOR BY EMBARQ!
Followup comments: n0ah
join:2008-01-10
27548 | you got it bro exact same problems | |
| 
rs239
@embarqhsd.net | the absolute worst Frequent outages, high price, low speeds, horrendously high latency even while the download speed is acceptable. These hacks should be taken out of business. | |
| | | | | |
TarboroBoy
@embarqhsd.net
| Re: ARIN / IANA If you are running something that requires several static IP addresses from your place, it's likely a business. Very few home users need static IP's. Frankly, it's a premium offering, and charging you a business rate is not unreasonable. I'd be intrigued to find out how many ISP's offer static IP's for free.
If you had residential phone service while running a business (since you stated you were "forced" to switch to a busines line), then you had obviously been shafting the phone company for a while. | |
| | | |
SgtDot
@embarqhsd.net
| Re: ARIN / IANA I used to live in Greenville / Winterville i am a Bellsouth /At&t employee.. I have a Cisco 3620 with a DSL card and configure it to run Embarq's DSL 6mb Dn /768 up Works Great!! you can also use there DSL modem in Bridge mode that works very well also.
there is a ton of things you can do with 1 ip address unless you really need more with 1 Static ip you can run an microsoft windows XP 2003 server and eneble routing with 2 nic's and run an Email, DNS, Web and a routing server all in one. i would recommend you setup a domain and a DNS server on one of those ip's i did and things work a lot faster and you control your dns records.
Remember greenville is a town in the middle of the state 35 miles from I-95 the copper /Fiber lines coming into this town are Very OLD and at times WILL fail! i know this because i deal with embarq on a day to day basis and have had numerous discussion in reference to there Telco lines!
But even like this they are far better than the Cable company cox/?? there tech's have no idea how internet work and i had to give them a network layout and show them where they had failures!!
I am Cisco/Bay/Ascend/Hp Router/BGP Border routing Certified and all i do for a living.i do installations of ISP/Data centers and maintain OC192 /DS3's and T1. been here for over 10 years and have a bacgound in Computer networks for over 24 years.. been there done it.
well thats my 2 cents worth hope this helps good luck
G-Man.
| |
| | | | | gbh2o
join:2000-12-18
Greenville, NC
 ·VOIPo
·Embarq
·callwithus
·VBUZZER
·STANAPHONE
·MyPhoneCompany
·Voxee
·Axvoice
·Packet8
edit:
March 17th, @02:49PM
| Re: ARIN / IANA said by SgtDot :
I used to live in Greenville / Winterville i am a Bellsouth /At&t employee.. I have a Cisco 3620 with a DSL card and configure it to run Embarq's DSL 6mb Dn /768 up Works Great!! you can also use there DSL modem in Bridge mode that works very well also.
there is a ton of things you can do with 1 ip address unless you really need more with 1 Static ip you can run an microsoft windows XP 2003 server and eneble routing with 2 nic's and run an Email, DNS, Web and a routing server all in one. i would recommend you setup a domain and a DNS server on one of those ip's i did and things work a lot faster and you control your dns records. There are usually at least 6 servers running various flavors of microslop products, Linux, sometimes flavors of Unix [yes, I own licenses back to Version 7 and System III in early 80s] and occasionally even hook in a CP/M or MP/M system for grins. Some are exposed on public (static) IPs and others are protected within, as are the general workstations. I have a lot of fun...it's only a hobby! But I do provide a centralized point through which my siblings, relatives and a few friends share and communicate.
Remember greenville is a town in the middle of the state 35 miles from I-95 the copper /Fiber lines coming into this town are Very OLD and at times WILL fail! i know this because i deal with embarq on a day to day basis and have had numerous discussion in reference to there Telco lines! M problems have been with CO equipment and a particular redback.
But even like this they are far better than the Cable company cox/?? there tech's have no idea how internet work and i had to give them a network layout and show them where they had failures!! I think it's suddensink or something here. They wouldn't even discuss multiple IPs! 
I am Cisco/Bay/Ascend/Hp Router/BGP Border routing Certified and all i do for a living.i do installations of ISP/Data centers and maintain OC192 /DS3's and T1. been here for over 10 years and have a bacgound in Computer networks for over 24 years.. been there done it.
well thats my 2 cents worth hope this helps good luck
G-Man. Well it sounds like you've had a bit of fun, did you ever get to play back in the good old days of UUCPNET, UUCP mail and email addresses that looked like some long stream of swear words? usxbox!funbone!ibmone!fooname!vaxboy!osuedu!ohioubox!me or something similar (that's _not_ a real hop trace)
I have always tried to keep this in the hobby rhelm, although the military did abuse and misuse me for one particular project/period  | |
| | | | gbh2o
join:2000-12-18
Greenville, NC
·VOIPo
·Embarq
·callwithus
·VBUZZER
·STANAPHONE
·MyPhoneCompany
·Voxee
·Axvoice
·Packet8
edit:
March 17th, @02:10PM
| said by TarboroBoy:
If you are running something that requires several static IP addresses from your place, it's likely a business. Gee, I'm really sorry I didn't know about your comments so I could provide a more timely response. Obviously, you know little about which you speak, and didn't bother doing any research, nor to take the time to _read_ what I wrote.
I _retired_ more than a decade ago... please note that word as it is the same used in my evaluation. I never had a 'business' line, or connection to the internet as I have never had a business. I have had multiple static IPs associated with my hobby for at least twice that long. I do not believe I ever claimed to have received free static IPs, although I have had ISPs that exclusively used them for their services, back when.
What you may consider to be a 'premium' offering is the standard way we used to identify equipment before we had a need for NAT and such address stretching methods. My hobby use of the medium goes back to a day of scheduled UNIX to UNIX transfers through dial-up connections with friendly businesses and universities; but I doubt you were born then. | |
| pilot_in_fla
join:2008-04-29
 ·StarBand Communica..
| most costly ISP in 20 years, really? You indicate you are getting 1500/386 service for $109/month with a /29 static address block and that it is the "most costly ISP in last 20 years of experience". I'm not aware of any asymmetric service that was being offered in 1988 at any price so let's just treat your current service as if it was a symmetric 384k service. Who were you getting 384k service in 1988 for under $109/mo? In 1995, I was paying $1,200 per month for T1 bandwidth (1536kbps or about 4 times the upload service you are getting now) plus a telephone company local loop that cost about $400 per month more.
As far as your complaint about service reliability; DSL, be it either business or residential, is almost always provided as a "best efforts" service. If you need a more reliable service you will have to pay more. In any event, while many people get almost perfect service from DSL, there are always some who will not get such good service.
Allocation of ip address space has changed quite a bit. You could probably have gotten two class "C" blocks back in 1988 or better (a /23 in today's terminology) and if you retained them, all you would have to do is have them routed for you. I suspect you could have figured out a way to use either a dynamic address or a single static but it might have taken you some time and effort. It sounds like you made a decision to pay Embarq a bit more so that you would have to do less work.
Finally, you also state that Embarq is the worst ISP you have dealt with in addition to the most costly. As outlined above, I doubt if you were buying comparable bandwidth 20 years ago for what you are paying Embarq. As far as Embarq being the worst, I suspect you either have limited experience with ISPs and/or a limited memory. | |
| | gbh2o
join:2000-12-18
Greenville, NC
·VOIPo
·Embarq
·callwithus
·VBUZZER
·STANAPHONE
·MyPhoneCompany
·Voxee
·Axvoice
·Packet8
| Re: most costly ISP in 20 years, really? I am not sure of the purpose of your response other than to proclaim what your expenses for _business_ uses may have been over the years and for some reason to defend the substandard status quo of the US communications industry. I can never understand why someone feels compelled to try to insert their values as more correct in regard to my evaluation or try to insert their experiences in a _different_ environment. Nor do I understand why they feel that their opinion of _my_ experiences and statements must be more accurate than my own? I see that you have recently joined the DSLR/BBR community so I am giving you the benefit of the doubt that you are not just another troll hired to mislead and disrupt.
Your business communication requirements are no more relevant than would be those that were applicable to my work environment at any point in time. Why try to compare apples and oranges? But, continuing with these 'fruity' lopsided comparisons, and recognizing that I don't know anything about you or your experiences, most likely my available work assets, network environment and requirements in 1988 were watermelon-sized compared to any of your grape-sized requirements of the day. And, that the price for, and expectation of, services in that environment also has little or no relevance to my evaluation of Embarq today.
In any case, nowhere in my evaluation did I say I have had the same speed or type of connection for 20 years. I did say they are the most costly ISP I have ever had; that is a simple fact, like it or not. I am still a hobbyist, and until coming to this market, have never had to purchase so-called 'business grade' services to support that hobby. 'High speed' or great bandwidth is largely a luxury that has until recently been a waste for me and my uses. Since I am not now and never have been a business, as I have previously stated, I have never had to pay business prices before. Residential prices and the associated expected service quality are indeed much less expensive, but only if available. Please remember that I was also 'forced' to convert existing residential phone service to business service in order to 'qualify' for this 'business-class' DSL and to be 'eligible' or allowed to have multiple static IP addresses in Greenville, NC. Why should I pay for something I don't really need, and that obviously has little increased value or reliability? Why should I believe that I should only be entitled only to substandard service and access from my ILEC for residential use? I have no more use for a T-1 than an OC-3, and don't plan on paying for either for my hobby use. I have. however, experienced great service and value from many ISPs _other than_ Embarq. Therefore _I know_ that not all ISPs offer only substandard and failure-prone service to their residential customers. How could _you_ possibly consider, compare and contrast the quality of service from the majority of other ISPs with which _I_ have had positive experience?
I am quite aware of how DSL has generally been offered. I have been primarily served by asymmetric DSL for many years; I was previously lucky enough to have been able to obtain reasonably priced sDSL and other services at lower speeds which were more than sufficient for my uses. At one time I considered myself very lucky to have obtained a great price on ISDN services during an initial offing in a particular area. Indeed, I have even run over multiple dial-up connections, and am quite capable of effectively playing with 'dynamic' addresses or limited static IPs; but why should I have to? Dial-up accounts were sufficient in the '70s and early '80s when I ran BBSs and used UUCP mail, but things have changed. I have always been able to justify my use of IP space when requested or required in the past. Unlike many corporations and their IT/IM or whatever they wish to call their departments, I have never claimed to have a need for more than the number of IP addresses I could reasonably use. I have never had a valid requirement for anywhere close to a class “C” and would have been embarrassed to have attempted to hog IPs like so many commercial entities. But then, I am primarily a hobbyist.
I do have to admit my memory may not be as good as it once was. I did have a bad experience with PSN when it went bankrupt a little more than 7 years ago. I guess the tremendous subsequent support and service I quickly received from an outfit called Liberty Communications [libcom.com] helped me forget.
So, if you have some pertinent first-hand knowledge specifically about Embarq in Greenville, NC with which to dispute _my_ experiences and evaluation, please post it. For example, perhaps you know if, or when Embarq will really fix or replace the equipment in Rocky Mount, NC (rumored to be a particular, known Redback ) that has failed multiple times, causing regional service loss? Or, if they really care. I'm not sorry that my definition of what should represent a “best effort”, or even reasonable effort is obviously different than Embarq's. | |
| hazezilla
join:2006-02-19
| Cheap I have followed your postings
It seems that you are reselling your DSL connection
which maybe disallowed under the the Acceptance Use Policy
I would say quit being cheap and buy bonded T1s or a Metro Ethernet. You are trying to used a product aimed at residential and small business customers for a ISP purposes.
And your whining about Embarq not helping you rip them off. | |
| | gbh2o
join:2000-12-18
Greenville, NC
·VOIPo
·Embarq
·callwithus
·VBUZZER
·STANAPHONE
·MyPhoneCompany
·Voxee
·Axvoice
·Packet8
edit:
July 16th, @10:00AM
| Re: Cheap I must question whether you are an Embarq shill trying to misdirect a viewers attention, or perhaps just a troll, based on the inflammatory rhetoric and nonsensical and unsupported allegations used in your comment. I base this comment on your indicated knowledge of alternative products offered by Embarq, your false characterization of my status and use of the business DSL, and your false accusation that I am in violation of the Embarq TOS.
One should refrain from opening one's mouth when one does not know what one is talking about and makes assumptions. One only reveals one's ignorance.
IF you had read the above review and postings, you would know that I resell nothing, and none of my uses are disallowed. In fact, my uses are precisely those for which I obtained the service after discussions with, and recommendations by, Embarq staff. | |
| | | |
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 Review by Silentwolf
UPDATED: 14 days ago
member for 6 years, 2951 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Kingsport,Sullivan,TN
$39 per month (12 month contract)
about 5 days
"Great support and uptime!"
"CD Install was only for windows"
"Great All around!"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings above consensus)
|
Ordered Sprint Fast connect DSL due to the past 3 years of hell with Charter Communications. Received dsl modem 9/3/03 (a few days late due to holiday) and was able to get it installed quickly and painlessly. Had to call tech support due to the fact that I dont use windows (linux) and the cd was windows only. Tech was very friendly and was able to get me going in ~5 minutes!
It's now 2008 and I am still satisfied with my service. I have been on the 5/768 package since it became available, I plan to upgrade to the 10/1 package soon.
There has been very few outages, unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a page available to post status updates or maintenance notifications which would help greatly so that I could plan around them.
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Review by CapeFish
UPDATED: 14 days ago
member for 1.5 years, 325 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Tallahassee,Leon,FL
$26 per month (12 month contract)
about 3 days
Sprint
"Inexpensive, Free Equipment, Faster than Dial-Up"
"Can get sluggish at times, May need 1 year contract"
"Cheaper than Comcast and much more reliable"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings above consensus)
|
I ordered the 1.5 MB DSL Service from EMBARQ which is $24.95+tax. The order was made along with the order for new phone service.
EMBARQ shipped the DSL modem out and it was waiting for me the day I moved into the new house. They installed the telephone line, but it got crossed with another line. However the DSL service worked correctly the entire time.
The DSL modem is the 660 Series and it works pretty well. EMBARQ is using this modem on their DHCP network now.
It can get sluggish at night, but other than that it has been excellent with no outages and a great price.
This is better than dialup and cheaper than dialup with a second line. EMBARQ gives you a $25 referral credit for anyone you tell about the service that signs up for it. You just have to fill out a form on EMBARQ.com.
MAY 26, 2007 UPDATE: With almost a year in, nothing but excellence. Service has improved with most of the sluggishness gone, the speeds are consistently as advertised, and not one outage. I placed the service on vacation for the summer and they will charge me about $15 a month to place it on hold without breaking the 1 year contract. I will likely retain the service month-to-month for my price of $24.95 once the contract is up. I may even consider upgrading it to 3.0MB. IF you go to FSU, you get a $3 FSU@Home DSL discount from EMBARQ by calling 1-800-877-1590, asking for the special, and providing them with your FSUCard ID number.
JULY 24, 2007 UPDATE: I have come down south to Cape Coral for the summer and EMBARQ let me place my DSL service on "vacation" for $15/month without affecting my contract. Down here in Cape Coral, my parents have EMBARQ's 3.0MB DSL Service and in the almost 5 years they have had it, it has been pretty good and reliable. Only 1 outage a year on average with it being fixed within 2 days usually. Rock solid the rest of the time. They pay $34.99 a month for the 3.0MB service.
AUGUST 23, 2007 UPDATE: My modem started acting oddly yesterday after 1 day on the job back from vacation. I called EMBARQ last night and they are sending a new modem out to me ASAP at no charge. I still have service, but the modem resets every so often.
AUGUST 24, 2007 UPDATE: Got the new modem via UPS today. Followed the directions and it works just fine.
AUGUST 24, 2007 UPDATE #2: After a while, the modem started restarting itself again. Not as often as the old modem, but it looks like the filters, splitters, and even the phone jack may have to be replaced too. I wonder if lightning hit the line or something.
AUGUST 25, 2007 UPDATE: Tech came out and discovered that the line had been provisioned for 8MB, but the modem was only authorized to draw 1.5MB. After about 10 minutes, he had it all fixed and the service was working just fine.
SEPTEMBER 2, 2007 UPDATE: EMBARQ had a large outage in Tallahassee yesterday and restored service around 10:15 PM EDT. Today, they lost service in the afternoon and it came back around 5 PM EDT. I called in for both disruptions and was given service credits for both disturbances. They told it me it was a networking problem in my area which was not letting my modem load the profile and provisioning.
SEPTEMBER 14, 2007 UPDATE: Had some outages this past Wednesday which were very frustrating. I also got a bill (supposedly including prorations from last month) that was $30 higher than normal. I am getting really frustrated with EMBARQ's inability to get things done correctly on time.
SEPTEMBER 15, 2007 UPDATE: Chatted online with an EMBARQ CSR at EMBARQ.com and she fixed my billing errors. I was credited back $25.64 bringing the bill back to the normal range. I was also given my normal credit for FSU@Home and service outage credits. I was charged $7 for a new filter to replace an older one. So now I am satisfied with both the billing and technical services correcting their errors and getting me back online both technically and financially. Also, I removed one of my bad points ("1 year Contract") because EMBARQ no longer requires it.
MARCH 2, 2008 UPDATE: Since the last update, very smooth sailing. I've been tempted to jump to Comcast as they are offering a "Double Play Bundle" for $50 which includes phone and internet, but the internet service is slower than my 1.5MB. EMBARQ really needs to get an IPTV service going! The only way I could go to Comcast is if I get rid of phone service entirely or I transfer my local 850 number to a prepaid cell phone plan to hold it since I do use it.
MARCH 18, 2008 UPDATE: I have been trying out Comcast's internet service for about 2 weeks after they offered it to me at $19.99 a month for 6 months. I have decided to keep EMBARQ DSL and tonight I ordered the upgrade to 3.0MB for $5 more a month. It should completed by Thursday Evening when I am told to reset my modem to get the new speeds. My new monthly total for EMBARQ 3.0MB DSL will be $26.95 a month due to my FSU@Home $3 discount and a discount for having Home Phone with EMBARQ. I will be able to continue using my 660 modem.
MARCH 20, 2008 UPDATE: Got home today and found 3.0 MB speeds as promised. Kudos to EMBARQ as I doubled my speed for only $5 more a month. No contract, no new equipment to buy/rent (ahem Comcast), no new expenses except the extra $5 a month.
JUNE 10, 2008 UPDATE: So far, so good on the 3.0 MB service. I may consider downsizing back to the 1.5 service though because I don't think I really need this big a pipe, but it certainly is not breaking the bank. Still no 10 MB service as an option for me, but I wouldn't need it anyways. Too bad EMBARQ doesn't have their own TV service like Fios (Verizon) or U-Verse (AT&T). They do offer Dish Network, but I do not have line of sight. Sezmi from EMBARQ would be very interesting. One note, I appreciate the EMBARQ keeps its call centers in areas that it serves. Much easier talking to someone in Central Florida than in Central India.
JULY 11, 2008 UPDATE: Internet was misbehaving a bit today and it finally gave out around 7:30 pm tonight, but it is now back. An outage of about an hour and a half, not bad. EMBARQ is to be commended for the quick response, but I wish they would bring back the complimentary backup dial-up.
Attached images and files
Followup comments:
brdspirt
@Level3.net
| Embarq I got a sales call last Tuesday from Embarq and decided to utilize their "high speed" internet connection. When asked if I had a 'large' connection at the back of my computer... he asked if had a particular port that was larger than the regular phone jack port… I said I saw something "larger than the usual phone jack plug-in" and we thought it was the "Ethernet" port. Well I received my 660 series 'box' to set up promptly the next day... after trying to plug in the 'Ethernet' cords, I found out I do NOT have this port to utilize and as of today, now Saturday, I am unable to get on line with this system. Tried to use the on line ‘chat’ with no success and of course if you try to actually CALL them , you have a 10 to 20 min. wait on the phone. So at this point I've had to purchase the connection for my computer at an extra $29.00, which I should receive in a few days... | |
| | 
ph03n1x
join:2003-02-15
Sanford, FL | Re: Embarq So you're computer was not properly equipped for the service. It's your responsibility to be prepared for this. The reason hold times are that long is partially because people such as yourself call for issues like this. | |
| | 
Titus Pullo
I came, I saw, I slept
join:2004-06-26
·Embarq
| The uptime is the name of the game. I was an adelphia drone for years and bailed out right before the comcast takeover. The fact that my connection survives thunderstorms (so long as electric stays up) is sooo much nicer than cable going down with storms miles away. People may wallow in their powerboost all they like; I'll take the reliability of my slightly higher ($45 for 3000) dsl service. I've had 2 hours downtime in going on a year with Embarq. Two hours downtime was a weekly event with adelphia, and routing problems that took weeks to figure out, and that TS knew nothing about for the entire time, happened at least once a year near the end of my doomed romance with the whore that was adelphia cable HSI.
--
A monthly desktop thread should only happen when Paris Hilton buys a computer. | |
| USSCJonU
join:2007-09-04
Bossier City, LA | the conn the connection you are talking about refers to a ethernet to usb adapter.. most computers built since yr2000 have ethernet ports. | |
| | | |
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Review by GTurlington
Posted: 17 days ago
member for 17 days, 2 visits, last login: 15 days ago
Lillington,Harnett,NC
Contract price not specified.
| |
I inherited this service when Embarq took over my local phone service. It is my only option for broadband as I am sure with others.
It has a great email program, which has a good interface with unlimited storage and one can access all emails from anywhere. BUT, it is slow and the server constantly times out. This has been a real problem. I have the same issue with browsing. I keep upgrading the service. Now I am paying for a 10mps service. The best I have recieved is 5mps and most of the time it is below 1mps. Since it is with my phone company, I get the predictable--that's an internet problem we dont handle that, and, that sounds like a line problem and we dont handle that. The proverbial catch 22. I have given up and and am asking them to al least change my service to thier lowest speed (1.5mps).
Everyone is very courteous, but there is just never any resolution.
Followup comments: Soldae
Premium
join:2008-06-26
Carlisle, PA
| Make sure... That you're calling the DSL tech support number. If you're constantly getting slow speeds to the internet, but not to their FTP speed tests, then there's probably another issue going on. Possibly some packet loss or a terribly high latency. Either way they will fix it, but it may take some time. They're geared toward customer service right now and the first thing they'll say is something like "if you're not completely satisfied, I encourage you to speak to my supervisor" (they're told to do this, either way you can ask to speak to one). But yeah, the only way to get your problem fixed is to make sure they know you have one. You can also check out the forums as there's a tech that visits there that can help with your issue. | |
| embarq_llewi
VIP
join:2007-12-13
Orlando, FL
| Here to help. Hello GTurlington,
This is a message from Lamont with Embarq Customer Support. I would like the opportunity to research your speed concern. Please send your phone number in a private message or email and I can look at your service to see what we can do to improve your speed. We can also explore other options to view your email if the speed for email continues to be a concern once we correct the total line speed. Thank you for using Embarq, your complete communications solution.
Lamont L.
Embarq Customer Support
embarq_lamont@embarq.com
For additional support please visit www.embarq.com/freetv or call 1-877-646-3282
Voice | Data | Internet | Wireless | Entertainment
--
Lamont L.
Embarq Customer Support
Embarq_lamont@embarq.com
For additional support please visit www.embarq.com/freetv or call 1-800-339-1811
Voice | Data | Internet | Wireless | Entertainment
| |
| | | |
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Review by jimblaine
Posted: 22 days ago
member for 7.6 years, 21 visits, last login: 22 days ago
Mabank,Henderson,TX
$34 per month (12 month contract)
about 6 days
"Customer Service very good; uptime also very good."
"Nothing so far..."
"I would recommend this ISP as a good value."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
I am in the 2nd tier of service: 1.5mb to 3mb per second download. I test the speed often and have never been below 3.2 so I consider this to be excellent and would not hesitate to give good reviews to anyone caring to listen. I moved from Dallas Texas to the sticks (60 miles SE of the city) and did not expect this level of service.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Embarq |
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Re: Earthlink DSL was better than embarq
