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 Review by smw315 
UPDATED: 5 days ago
member for 8 years, 3389 visits, last login: 1 days ago
 Edison,Middlesex,NJ
 $40 per month (12 month contract)
 about 1 days
 "Reliability, speed, prompt and professional service, cost"
 "None that I can think of, except for rare service outage (4 in 3 years)"
 "Good service, friendly staff. Overall rating on scale of 1-10 = 9"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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I haven't had a bad experience yet, except for 4 short service downtime occurrences in the past year.
Service and technical staff is very responsive, friendly and knowledgeable.
Service speed is beautiful; but then again, I don't violate the Terms of Service either.
Overall rating = OK
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Review by SixSpeed
UPDATED: 10 days ago
member for 8.5 years, 2379 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Bridgewater,Somerset,NJ
$169 per month
"None to speak of lately."
"Service has become unreliable."
"I have triple play, the price is rising steadily."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
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(ratings below consensus)
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**UPDATE BLOW**
*THE GOOD POINTS:
* Quick and easy to set up and get going.
* The install package is very complete, software, manuals, cables, splitter, etc.
When things are right, the download speeds are excellent.
* Tech Service has gotten better, even offering a direct forum on DSL reports.
THE BAD POINTS:
* Connection is spotty, often erratic download speeds ranging from sub dial up speed (25k) to blazing fast (1.5 Mb/sec). This instability happens often and is due to old infrastructure in my area. They are working on it with me.
* Mail service is spotty but getting better.
UPDATE - * News servers have been outsourced and have much better retention, Connection speed on the news and mail servers is still capped. 2 connection limit.
* Unless you get the right person, Technical service can be frustrating. Every time you call them you start from scratch which is frustrating if you have a long term problem.
* DNS is unstable, I had to go to a 3rd party DNS server application.
CONCLUSION
If all you are concerned with is download speed, this *MIGHT BE* your ISP. When the system is humming along the download speed and page loads are very fast which is nice.
All in all I am no longer with OOL. I dont D/L tons of files and spend all kinds of time in front of my computer but when I do I want it to work. Lately it doesnt work often.
**UPDATE** As of 7/24 I will be switching to Verizon Fios. My areas service has degraded to the point where TV service is pixelated and internet is 40% of advertised speeds on good days. I have has multiple tech visits and one manager visit, all with limited results. The SA HD boxes are frustratingly slow and infuriating to use. The service has lost all its shine and gives me more problems than any sane person can put up with. I honestly did not want to go through the hassle of switching all 3 services and losing my 9+ year email address but CV left me no choice.
Followup comments:  JDCMAN
join:2006-02-23
Somers, NY
| You verified the cap, right? You've verified that you've been capped via DocsDiag, right? I got those kinds of speeds at one point, but my modem wasn't capped (I never called; I verified this with docsdiag).
The cable modem had the proper status lights, but it was defective. Swapped the modem, 14mbps/1.8mbps behind my router.
Try the 1 month boost trial, and switch back if you don't want to pay extra. Boost is hard to get capped (according to forum members), and the capping might be removed when you downgrade back to 15/2. | |
| hottboiinnc
ME
join:2003-10-15
Cleveland, OH
 ·Time Warner Cable
·buckeye cable
| Email this is why you never use ISP email. and have you ever tried replacing the modem? i'm sure you didnt since you never state they tried a new one. But oh well. Have fun on VZ. Just remember they don't get much of the CV channels.
--
www.twopugsbrand.com Kosher, Vegan, and Organic Certified Dog and Cat treats/foods and other products! www.etsy.com/shop/snakx4u/ Organic, Kosher, Gluten Free, Vegan Human Baked Goods | |
| | SixSpeed
join:2001-12-24
USA
·Optimum Online
| Re: Email said by hottboiinnc :this is why you never use ISP email. and have you ever tried replacing the modem? i'm sure you didnt since you never state they tried a new one. But oh well. Have fun on VZ. Just remember they don't get much of the CV channels. Yes, the modem has been replaced but even so a moden has nothing to do with the horrible TV service. | |
| | | hottboiinnc
ME
join:2003-10-15
Cleveland, OH
·Time Warner Cable
·buckeye cable
| Re: Email cable box? line issue from the pole to the house? inside wiring? see these all play a fact in how it all works. but yet you're too quick to jump the gun and praise VZ for their FiOS you'll be praising them even more when they're prices start going up too. Especially since they're services are month to month now and they can do what they wish with just a simple notice.
--
www.twopugsbrand.com Kosher, Vegan, and Organic Certified Dog and Cat treats/foods and other products! www.etsy.com/shop/snakx4u/ Organic, Kosher, Gluten Free, Vegan Human Baked Goods | |
| | | | SixSpeed
join:2001-12-24
USA | Re: Email I take it you didn't read the review?
Ive had all of the above items addressed/replaced.
Where did I praise Fios? Fact is I gave Cablevision every chance to fix my service but they could not. | |
| | | | | hottboiinnc
ME
join:2003-10-15
Cleveland, OH | Re: Email i read the review. no where in it does it say anything about replacing internal wiring. | |
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Review by Fumbles
UPDATED: 14 days ago
member for 42 days, 5 visits, last login: 14 days ago
Imlaystown,Monmouth,NJ
Contract price not specified.
"It's Fast When It Works"
"Sometimes Unreliable, Overcrowded Nodes"
"Barely Worth The Cost"
| Pre Sales information:
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(ratings match consensus)
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Update: 7-14-10
Several days after the initial tech came out and replaced some splitters we had a line tech check the poles up and down the street. While the service is somewhat more stable with less disconnections the speeds are terrible still. The only conclusion I can draw is the node I'm on is horrifically overcrowded. I never had this problem on my old node that had an IP starting with 69.x.x.x and my troubles only began after being bumped to the New Brunswick node with an IP of 173.x.x.x
Optimum seriously needs to address the overcrowding issues and get back to the reliable, fast service I remember from years gone by.
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Update: 7-1-10
The Optonline tech came out and checked the values at the tap and during the day I'm still seeing ~6% packet loss during non-peak hours. Outdoor splitters were replaced for what little good it did. I was told that another service tech would have to come out and check some more things, but it is definitely not an issue in the house, with the routers, wiring/splitters or at the modem. It is at the tap further down the line. Right now online gaming is impossible due to constant disconnections and lag.
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Update: 6-30-10
After another night of slow down during peak hours I made the call to OOL Tech Support and it was confirmed by a level 2 Supervisor that I was experiencing around 14% packet loss(!). I had rebooted the modem/router setup and the splitters have all been changed a month ago on the advice of the first tech support call. The modem is on it's own line at the first split from the drop and all the TV's in the house are run from the second split. My modem signal levels were good and I have a scheduled appointment to have a field tech check outside for any problems on 7-1-10.
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You will definitely get the advertised speed most of the time but lately there has been frequent service interruptions and a lot of traffic during peak hours resulting in lower speeds and intermittent packet loss. Usually the congestion clears up after a few hours.
Overall it's worth the price for the average user but if rock solid reliability is your priority you might find this provider lacking.
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Review by Christopher69
UPDATED: 17 days ago
member for 8.8 years, 587 visits, last login: 9 days ago
Brooklyn,Kings,NY
$44 per month (12 month contract)
about 9 days
"Speed is really good. One outage since having service."
"Just reaching tech help is a pain. If cable goes out everything goes out."
"Worth the price, good speeds, just wish speed was better through out."
| Pre Sales information:
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(ratings match consensus)
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I had EarthLink DSL, and after trying to upgrade to 6.0 I just gave up. Major problems and techs that just don't know anything, except the tech script. Before I dropped EarthLink, I ordered Digital cable from cablevision and they auto signed me up for Optimum online. So I have to return the modem. A few months later, I decided to get Optimum online. When I called they said I already had it, I explained the situation and after about 5 calls things got straightened out. I received the modem, which was too old for the new speed upgrades, so I had to exchange for another modem, which again took 2 trips to them and a few phone calls, again it got straightened out but I was getting frustrated already. Ok so new modem (SB5100), hook up was easy, was online pretty quick. Running at a good speed. Speeds are very good, only thing is with DSL I got better consistent speeds from a west coast server then I do with optimum online. If I am connecting to an east coast server, the speed is great, west coast, I am back down to DSL speeds. I know that is how things are but I just wish that cable ran as consistent as DSL when it comes to speeds, yet keeping the higher speeds.
Only had one outage, but my internet as well as cable went out. I placed an outage call and with in 2 hours everything was up and running. So can't complaint. Only thing that is bad, no dial up when it comes to optimum, so if my cable is out then no connection at all.
So I would recommend optimum online, runs pretty good, good speeds and reliable. Oh yea when I signed up for the service I was offered a free gift.....never received it and was too much of a hassle to get it. I went for the MP3 speaks, but I really didn't need them anyway.
UPDATE..still with the service. Only had 2 down times with the internet since original review. Sometimes speeds slow down but overall still getting good speeds. Looking into Ultra but cost WAY too much.
Also still have Earthlink but just Earthlink experience. Only $9.95 a month, I get to keep my email, Mystart page homepage, spam blocker, & personal web site. Also includes a few dial up hours in case when cable goes out. It is worth it.
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Review by Network Guy
UPDATED: 21 days ago
member for 9.9 years, 3994 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Bronx,Bronx,NY
$123 per month (month by month)
about 6 days
"CV cleaned up their act. Good service again."
"Good value"
| Pre Sales information:
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*** UPDATE 7/6/2010 ***
Alright... So lots has changed in the past four years with Cablevision, I must admit.
I got tired of overpaying for TV and internet with DirecTV and Verizon so I caved in to the infamous cable triple play.
For $123 per month for the next two years I get OV, Boost, family cable including Spanish package (really mostly for my Dad since he likes his international novelas), two HD DVRs and one HD receiver. Not bad IMO.
Since I had already run quad-shielded coax to every single room where service would be installed from when I first got dish and didn't wish to have additional holes drilled in my property for wiring purposes, I insisted to first install tech that he reuse this cabling. When he refused citing bullshit reasons, I told him to leave and send another tech.
After speaking to a supervisor and providing a notarized letter permitting CV techs access to the roof where existing cabling entered the premises, two new techs and said supervisor showed an hour later to get started. An hour later after that, I was up and running.
Boost is nice, and having ports 80 and 25 open is even nicer after being used to this with Verizon DSL. Speed tests show that download speed fluctuates a bit between 21 and 28 mbps, but I'm still happy. Upload is a consistent 5 mpbs.
Video quality is phenomenal. Very comparable to DirecTV if not better. The cable boxes also seem to respond well. I have two SA 8300HDs and one SA 4250HD.
So far so good.. Hopefully they keep me happy.
*** UPDATE 7/8/2006 ***
Plenty has happened since the last update of this review. There is no need to elaborate as I can easily sum it up in one sentence.
Cablevision service sucks.
I have been Optimum Online-free for a year and Optimum TV-free for three months, and I couldn't have been happier. Why people would tolerate their ineptude and continue giving them business is incomprehensible to me. They're the perfect example of decent service gone terribly wrong on a steady basis for years.
Want to throw away your money on sub-par service and deal with incompetent customer service? Go right ahead, you're right at home with them.
*** UPDATE 4/18/2005 ***
I've downgraded to residential Optimum service for some time now, so this goes back to being an OOL review. For all intents and purposes, if you're using BOOL with a cable modem on the good ole Cablevision hybrid fiber/coax network, your traffic is given no more priority than your neighboring residential customers. As a BOOL customer you do, however, have a different customer service number to call. In my experience calling them isn't as frustrating as it is to call the numb nuts that help you with the residential service. If this makes you feel better about paying $70 to $100 per month for the same Internet that others pay $45 to $50 per month for, much kudos to you.
For some time now, as others have reported, the actual download speeds achieved are often half, if not a third of what is advertised, although thankfully for me the upload speeds remain unaffected for the moment. Not that I sit at home running speed tests all the time, but when I do make use of the bandwidth I'd sure expect to be able to, and that's simply not the case. Whether it's an issue of oversold capacity or not, I do my part in not abusing or misusing the connection, yet I'm affected. I'm sure those of you researching and considering Optimum Online will come across others with similar gripes in this place, so make your sound decision accordingly.
I won't discredit Cablevision entirely. The service has been, and still is very reliable. I have yet to experience any outages to date other than the one hiccup or two when I first signed up for service.
I do not use their email servers other than to send SMTP traffic through them, as they also block access to SMTP servers other than their own. The email accounts that I did open with the OOL service are constantly bombarded with spam despite the fact that they aren't used at all.
Should Cablevision work out their current capacity issues, this service will continue to be an ace in my book. This is truly an "always-on" connection, and that's all that matters to me.
*** Update 11/12/2002 ***
DSLR has again bugged me to update my review, so here it is. 
I now subscribe to Business Optimum Online (BOOL). I run a website from home and was finally caught doing so by Cablevision staff, so I was told to shut it off or get BOOL.
The difference? Other than price, none. I still get the same marvelous speeds I got using Optimum Online, but I'm still subjected to the same port filters that everyone on the OOL network has. Thankfully there was no install, no site survey, and no tech visit, so I'm sure I saved plenty on installation fees. Getting BOOL was merely slapping a commercial status on my residential cable TV account.
Pricing? Since I already had Optimum Online there was only a one-time service level change charge of $33. Monthly fee is $70 if you agree to subscribe to Cablevision's family cable package at the minimum, $65 if you are a non-profit organization, or $100 if you only subscribe to reception service only or if you are a non-cable TV customer. Additional installation charges may apply if you don't have a coax line to your house at all. Given the speeds I get, $70 isn't too shabby.
The perks? I get to continue running my servers at home without getting hassled by their TOS for residential accounts, as it is more of a commodity and a hobby for me than it is a necessity. Hosting my servers at work can be an option for me, but given the current financial trend at my company I think I ought to do my own thing at home.
Optimum Online continues to be one of the greatest ISPs I've ever dealt with. From network response and uptime to customer support, I simply haven't dealt with a company that seems to have their act together like Cablevision.
I give Cablevision major kudos and do hope they continue to provide the level of service and support I've experienced.
*** Update 5/10/2002 ***
DSLR pop-up bugged me to update my review, so here it is.
I really can't complain about this service at all. I can't recall the service going down for the longest. In the beginning there was probably two brief outages, but nothing to complain about. In fact, service did get better for me after several cable modem firmware updates. I started out getting 5595 down, and currently hit 7500 on average. Unless you live in a privileged area where you can get FTTH, there is really no competition to Optimum.
I guess the only bad point I can say about OOL is the fact that they still block incoming connections on port 80. I have grown accustomed to this limitation with port redirection anyhow, so it is sort of transparent and unimportant to me.
As with any other broadband connection, you must run a firewall and virus checking software on the PC that connects to the service. The network that runs this service is full of people who don't know any better and propagate the vile digital goodies all the time, or full of people who have fun doing so. Unless you don't mind playing Russian roulette with your data, it is strongly suggested that some kind of protection is in place.
Despite the overall current political and social climate in NYC, Optimum Online is still one of the many perks that makes you love to live in NYC. This service is simply and undisputably the way to go for residential broadband.
*** Update 10/31/2001 ***
Well.. Almost two months now since getting Optimum Online, and service continues to be great. Uptime has been superb, so now I gave them five stars for connection reliability. My IP lease hasn't changed despite powering down the modem on a few occasions, but that didn't last for days so I guess that would be why. I guess the only bad point would be availability information since their website still says service isn't available to my home yet. Hey.. I don't mind, my node doesn't need the additional hardcore surfers and gamers. Optimum Online is truly what Internet service should be; awesome speeds, near 100% uptime, and for a good price. Just hope it stays that way.
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After enduring many hassles with at least five different DSL Internet providers, and experiencing NorthPoint's fall last April, this is by far a lucky break for me. Not only will I finally start saving money in ridiculous phone bills I get from Verizon, since I'm going to toss their voice service to hell, but now I can finally experience a true broadband line for my home, once again. Okay.. Enough with the prelude about this review.. Now for the specifics:
Order process: There was none, this is the funny part of this review. I had been pondering about it for weeks, and even tried to get Cablevision to send me the modem via their optimumonline.com website, but since they checked for actual availability as per their records prior to sending it, they didn't. Since the beginning of July, most of my zip code finally became OOL ready, but not my side of the block, of course. I really would have preferred that payments for the cable modem were deferred in the two-installment option they have available, since I could afford that better, but I also didn't want to keep waiting and wasting money on keeping Verizon, and Telocity. I'm sure in the long run it'll pay for itself. Well.. Anyway.. Order process.. Yeah.. I called the Wiz at Scarsdale, asked if they had any modems in stock, and the girl on the phone said yes. I asked when their store closed, and was told 9pm. Great.. I decide to take the drive up there with my girl. She's already pissed at me for spending money on something she considers a waste of money, but I promise her a good time afterwards so she pipes down about it.  Print out some instructions from mapquest.com, and head out. Of course I miss the exit that takes me there, but after asking around, we finally get to where we're supposed to go. What was supposed to be a 23-minute drive turned into an hour excursion, but we joked and laughed about it so we were fine. Got there, wrote down my name and address on a form that this dude handed me, and waited for him to qualify my address. He comes back, tells me I can't get it yet, but I insist that he sells me the modem anyway, and that I'd wait until the service was available. Whole process took about 25 minutes.
Equipment: Motorola SurfBoard SB4100, $199 at the Wiz, comes with Ethernet and USB cable, and a CD manual that tells you how the modem should be hooked up. Cute little thing, looks pretty neat sitting on my computer desk next to my printer. Anyone with common sense can hook this up blindfoldedly though. Why I went to the Wiz and bought the modem? Simple.. Online tech support kept saying I was ready, but phone customer service kept saying not yet, probably not ready until the beginning of next year. Meanwhile, people literally across the street from me, and down the following block from me, could get it. Wiz dude that assisted me almost did not sell me the modem, but I insisted that I'd simply buy it and wait if it isn't ready yet. This worked.
Service: DHCP-based, you can only begin to surf after you register your modem with Cablevision. Whole process took about 20 minutes because the technical dude at Optimum Online was sort of slow with his mouse at his end, and there was an initial hiccup with it, I couldn't get an IP from the modem. Restarted the modem a couple of times, and configured my PC, and I was on.
Latency: Average 12ms to my gateway, about 16ms to East coast hosts, about 22ms to West coast hosts. But then again, I'm probably the only person online in my node. I can only hope it stays this way. After all, I'm sure not many in my block were as impatient and eager to get Optimum Online as I was.
Technical support: Yes.. I already had to call them. Somehow the modem mysteriously disconnected, and was not getting an IP address from the DHCP server. Called my local Cablevision office, and before the dude even had the chance to look at the modem remotely, and after rebooting it remotely from my end a couple of times, it returned an address again. Funny thing is that it returned the same IP address I had last night, so I guess TZO won't be needed for my setup.
Speeds: Ran a couple of speed tests on this site, and from nyc.speakeasy.net, and averaged at 3550 down, 998 up. This surely kicks the crap out of my former Telocity ADSL's sh*tty actual 511 down, 85 up speeds, and for $20 less. Why would anyone waste their time with Telocity nowadays anyhow is beyond me, but I had to for a few months since I had no choice. Well.. Yeah.. I did have a choice, but I'm not too fond of 56K modems nowadays.
The verdict: I'm very happy that I finally got this in my house. Downloads averaged at 253KBps/sec last night, around midnight when I finally got it up and running. My only complaint is that they still block incoming connections on port 80, I'm assuming due to Code Red's doings. I'm sure there's a way around it, but since I really don't care if my website is online right now or not, so be it. If you can get the service, by all means get it soon. For all of you still waiting.. Trust me, it's worth the wait.
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 Review by Jeffrey
UPDATED: 29 days ago
member for 7.5 years, 3022 visits, last login: 1 days ago
Long Island
$40 per month
about 17 days
"Price, uptime, ease of exchanging broken equipment"
"customer service, internal/external/environmental changes effect speed"
"Excellent speeds if you do your homework and everythng is wired properly."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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3/4/2010
It's been a while since my last review, but not much has changed. Still on Boost, and still having great results, getting just about the speeds advertised. As far as I can tell, uptime remains excellent - no noticble drops in Internet connectivity.
Optimum Voice seems excellent too. While I barely use my home phone, any time I have needed to, it has worked and worked well.
The TV can get a little annoying, but I believe that is an issue with the Scientific Atlanta STB--odd things like the channels changing on it's own, DVR not working right 100% of the time, etc. Not a huge deal, but something a box swap might fix.
4/28/09 Update:
Via the use of the Cablevision Direct forum here, my Boost ordering problem is fixed. After weeks (since 3/7/09) of the run-around on the phone with the representatives unsure why my modem would go offline as soon as Boost was ordered, the issue has been resolved.
Technican came to the house the evening of 4/27 to investigate. Found bad tap, stripped RG6 leading to first and only splitter in my garage, which also was bad. Replaced what needed to be replaced, and now the speeds are FULL Boost speeds. The technician took merely an hour to assess the situation, run new lines from the street to my garage. He ran one of the lines right for the cable modem and the other line leading to my one splitter for the TVs.
A speed test on 4/28/09 displayed:
down - 31718 kbps
up - 5105kbps
Solid. Truth be told, these are higher speeds on my parent's current Fios connection.
Excellent work, and review changed to reflect recent CV performance.
4/22/2009 Update
Over the last 2 months, the connection seems a little better. Two outages since I signed up in late December 2008. Web browsing speeds have improved, and there has been no slowdowns in peak times that impact any sort of normal usage on our part. If this is a change from my use of OpenDNS, or just that congestion problems don't affect my neighborhood, I don't know.
The only issue I have had will hopefully be corrected soon. On 3/7/09, I tried to order Boost. Chatted with a technician online, who said he'd order Boost for my account. I waited for a few hours, and Boost speeds did not show up. I then chatted back, and they saw a problem and suggested I call tech support. So, I called tech support and asked for Boost. The technician saw the issue, enabled Boost, and then the modem lost sync and couldn't regain it. This was my first outage. After an hour of watching the modem try and regain sync, I called back and CV confirmed that Boost was enabled on my line. I explained that while not on Boost, I had a good connection. With Boost enabled, my modem appears to lose sync. So, I asked that Boost be removed. Representative said OK, and my modem regained sync.
A week ago, my bill shows I'm being charged for Boost. So, I called support on 4/12 and asked to have the charges reversed. The rep said they would, and after a week, the charges still were on the bill. So, at this point, I figured as long as I am being charged for it and the charges seem unable to be removed, I figured I'd try and get Boost. Posted to the CV Direct forum here on DSLReports, and a technician has to make a housecall to fix whatever needs fixing.
If the Boost speeds can occur, and this problem is resolved, I'd have to say I'm pretty happy with CV and their Optimum Online product. The customer service is sometimes spotty, and while I haven't had the best of luck, Optimum Online has been much better at this address than my old address.
*** NEW review at a different address ***
If you have read my review below, you may be wondering why I'm back with CV. Well, let me do some explaining. The review below was for my old address where I did have CV for the times described. I did get Fios at that address, and you can read my review of that separately. I recently moved to a non-Fios area, so I am back with CV, and this review will be as accurate and as honest as possible.
My fiancee and I moved into our new home in December 2008. Realizing that Fios was not in our area yet, and that I did not want the hassle of Dish or DirecTV, I elected to subscribe to CV's "triple play" package. There has been some good, and some bad, and I'll explain below.
It took about 17 days from making the call to sign up to actually get the technician to the house to start service. During this time, I tried to do what I could to ensure that I would have the best connection. Remembering my previous service with CV, I wanted to do things the right way the first time, so that any issues I had could not be related to anything inside my house.
So, I rewired my entire house with RG6 and cat5e. I replaced the 2-way splitter that the previous owners had in the garage where the main line came in with an identical 2-way splitter. On one of those "outs", I ran a brand new RG6 cable to a new 3-way splitter. At this 3-way splitter, I ran new RG6 to three rooms where there would (eventually) be TVs. Now, back in the garage at the 2-way splitter, I ran a new RG6 from the "2nd out" to my basement's patch panel and router, and where the modem would go when CV showed up. I then wired 5 rooms with cat5e, and terminated everything at my patch panel.
On 12/27/08, CV was scheduled to come between 2pm and 4pm. I took a half-day from work, and got home at noon. Long story short, 4PM came and went and I called customer support. They said the tech was "on the way". 6PM comes and goes, tech not here. CV still says the tech is coming. At 8PM the tech called and said he'd be here in 30 mins. He showed up at 8:20PM.
He quickly hooked up our HDDVR and a regular box, both of which worked and gave a great picture. He then hooked up the modem, and the signal was apparently good enough and everything was ok. He was about to leave before properly hooking up Optimum Voice, and he for whatever reason didn't want to hook it into my phone connection outside the house, so we just plugged it into an existing RJ-11 port inside and backfed the rest of the ports in the house. Since I barely use the phone, this was acceptable.
Upon seeing my caller ID, name name was spelled wrong, which is still wrong to this day, regardless of how many times I call customer support.
The video picture is great, although our DVD crapped out within the first few days and I had to exchange it. The replacement works fine, no problems.
The Internet is basically what I expected. It's adequate, but I wouldn't call it fantastic by any means. Jitter is relatively low, but still disrupts some of my Vonage calls. Latency is about what is expected. Initially, I had some terrible issues regarding slowness when viewing websites, but a change to OpenDNS seemed to have solved that. Speeds are exactly as advertised, although during peak ours it's not consistent. I'm on the 15/2 plan, and between 12AM and 2PM I do get that most of the time. In other times, I'm lucky to get 10/1.
I'd pay the extra $10/month for Boost, but it seems many CV customers with Boost are having lots of packet loss issue at the moment, possibly related to DOCSIS 3 deployment issues, so for now, I am not subscribing to Boost.
Unlike Verizon, up-time hasn't been 100% but it's been darn close.
Here is the bottom line. No where near as good as Fios, but it's better than DSL. Right now, I have one foot out the door, and have already contacted Fios (and received a response from Fios Engineering) that they will be here in about a year, shortly after my "triple play" will expire. At that time, without blinking an eye, I will be switching to AT LEAST Fios Internet. CV's TV and phone package is darn good, but their Internet can't hold a candle to Fios Internet.
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I've been an Optimum Online subscriber since January of 2000, so I think now, given that it's almost December of 2004, that I right a review.
Back in 2000, the price was $29.95 a month. In late 2002 that changed to $34.95, and then in 2003, it changed to $44.95. These prices also take into account our "bundle discount", as we are Cablevision TV (iO) subscribers.* (see end of review).
First impressions with the Optimum Online service were great. Speeds were great, got 500KB/sec down and nearly maxed out the 128KB/sec upload speed. The download speed I was getting was limited due to the WAN port on my routers at the time (Linksys BEFSR41 and then Netgear RP614). After I changed routers in late 2003 (Zyxel Zywall 10W), download speeds increased and top out at roughly 1.2MB/second. Upload speeds, due to the current cap at time of writing this, remain unchanged.
Over the last four years, the service's speed and reliability has been fantastic. I give an "A+" for speed and reliability. However, the other aspects of the service (something that I believe we pay for, not just the "connection") have degraded, as I will explain below.
Connection: Like I stated above, the uptime is fantastic. I've had the same IP (although no static IP is available for residential accounts) for months. After getting a Motorolla Surfboard 4200 modem in 2002 to replace my faulty CMX, things have been great.
Tech Support: I'm a bit of a tech-geek myself, so I have little use for the tech support. They have been good for me when I have asked for a repair tech to come to the house to check out water damage to the wires, so I have nothing negative to say here. The only thing that got a little annoying is when you get a Level 1 tech on the phone, and they ask tyou "do you have a router or switch, and have you rebooted the modem?" This is always step 1, and CV will not troubleshoot your connection with any networking equipment on your network. Feel free to hook it up after the issue is resolved, but they (rightly so) only care about the cable modem signals.
Email: In recent months, the email servers have been better than in the past. However, off and on, Optimum Online's email has been less than relaible. Delays in sending email (even to another optonline.net) customer have often been delayed hours. Many people complained that email they know was sent to them was never received. Additionally, sometime in 2001 I believe, CV installed "Brightmail spam filtering" on their email servers, which has been less than reliable. When it was introduced, you couldn't opt-out, even though their TOS said you could. This presented a huge problem for me because I only trust me to handle my spam; I prefer a client-side anti-spam package (like Spampal) as opposed to a server side (Brightmail) anti-spam package. The occasional email server issues still continue, where using your POP client to download your email results in an error of some sort. Most people will agree that email is relatively unreliable, and many people - including myself - have opted to buy our own domain and handle the email that way, which leads to my next point.
Port 25 blocking - CV recently (mid 2004) blocked port 25. This presented a problem for many of us who use email on our domains. Unfortunately, this is a relative common practice in the industry now.
Newserver: From 2000 through early 2002, the newserver from CV was good. Retention on text groups were about 3 weeks, and binary groups were a few days. Download speeds peaked at about 400KB/sec. Sometime in 2003, and continuing through the present, binary groups barely have 48 hours of retention. More importantly, stalling and reduced speed have been big problems. It will often take the good part of an hour to download the headers, which before the speed decrease, would only take a few minutes. Speeds, if you're lucky, top out at 80KB/sec instead of the old 400KB/sec. The solution to this, for me, was to use a 3rd party for Usenet. I pay about $25/month to Giganews for unlimited usage, and speeds often top out at 1.2MB/sec down, maxing out my connection.
Many people might read this and say, "gee, pay someone else for your email and news, why bother staying with CV. Just go get DSL." Well, easier said than done. DSL is not an option for me because it's not so much the download speed that I'm interested it, but the upload speed. CV's 128KB/sec upload is very good, and overall the connection is very reliable. I'm serious when I say I do not remember the last time the connection went down for me - may be the "great blackout of August 2003." (Incidently, some people on Long Island with generators reported that their Optimum Online connection was working for a short time during this outage.) DSL is not a viable option for us, even though it would be $30/month compared to my $45.
*Note: Due to ever-rising Cablevision TV prices and lack of channel additions, after 19 years of service with us, we will be dropping them as our service provider for cable TV. Instead, we will be getting The Dish Network. This will result in a $5 increase in my Optimum Online service, as any person without a certain level of Cable TV service from Cablevision will get charged $5 more per month for Optimum Online.
I hope this review is helpful to those who have the service, or who are persuing it.
Jeff
---update:3/6/05----
After 4+ years with CV's Optimum Online serivce, I am now leaving. FIOS from Verizon is now available for my town, and that is the better option.
Recently, CV has had many problems. User's speed connections are now throttled every 10 mins to 1/3 of max speed. In addition, DNS issues have been wide-spread lately.
Coincidently, this comes at a scary time with CV's future, as Mr. Dolan fired some of the board members and declared himself king.
So, my time with Optimum Online is now over. It used to be a great service, but no longer.
On a positive note, thank you Cablevision, for 4+ awesome years of service as the country's leading internet provider. Until recently, no caps, no throttling, and 10mb/1mb performace was normal.
Good luck with any potential sale to AOLTW.
---Update 6/4/05:
Well, after my 3/6/05 reply, two friends of mine cancelled their Optimum Online service and went to Verizon Fios. They said install and service was great. So, I weighed certain options, read reviews, and made an appointment to have the Fios install. Coincidently, between the time I made the appointment w/ Verizon and when they actually came, my Optimum Online service deteoriated repidly. Pages not loading, slow speeds, non-constant throughput when transferring large files, etc.
This being said....from when I signed up with CV for Optimum Online in Dec. of 1999 through about the Spring of 2004, service was excellent. Email was not too reliable, and neither was the newserver, but I use 3rd party providers for those. My connection was the full 10/1, and uptime was impecable. Uptime is still awesome, but the throttling, capping, and reduced speeds (see the Optimum Online forum for all this talk), made me realize that I'm paying the same price $44.95 for half the speeds.
1999 - 2002; $29.95 [Speeds: 10Mb/1Mb]
2003; $34.95 [Speeds: 10Mb/1Mb]
2004-present; $49.95 [Speeds: 7Mb/less than 1Mb]
Fios provides me with true 15/2 service, a fiber line, and awesome uptime. No issues at all.
Thank you Cablevision for 4 years of service, unfortunately, something better has come along. Bye bye.
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 Review by bob1954
UPDATED: 35 days ago
member for 10.3 years, 3179 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Hackensack,Bergen,NJ
$29 per month (12 month contract)
about 7 days
"Reliability, Speed and support"
"Charges more if not a cable TV customer and price"
"Fast connection , reliability ok, but pricy"
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I have been a DSL customer for 4 years from the begining and I have had the 640/90 plan, 1.6/90 and most recent the 1.5/128. There is no comparing DSL to the OOL service... The service is much more reliable, and the tech support is much superior than DSL..
I waited 7 days for the installation which came with a free 1 month service with no installation charge and a free modem with a guarantee for life as long as I am OOL customer. I guess the speed is really what impressed me the most. 9000 down with 965 upload is the best.
The reliability of service I have to say is still good and the speed is also still one of it strong points.. The mail system and the news server still need to be upgraded, but I hope it will come along with a little more time. Very satisfied so far..
07-04-06
Very fast connection, but the price is a little high, but it you compare others to the speed and price, IO is the best value.... News servers have to be improved.. Downloading at 15 meg and uploading at 2 meg is great..
The took the plunge and ordered the Triple play...All is good so far...I ordered the Boost and the increase in speed in quite a bit...I am very happy so far and would recommend it to others....
06-23-10
Well it now has been over a year with the OOL and Boost and I am still very happy with the service...We did have a couple of minor problems, but they were taken care of right away..I love the 30/5 service and it has been good and reliable...
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 Review by kdshapiro
UPDATED: 48 days ago
member for 10.3 years, 2885 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Eatontown,Monmouth,NJ
$200 per month
about 1 days
"Very fast speed and above average reliability"
"Telephone help line routing system is frustrating to use"
"Very satisfied with overall service"
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June 2010:
Nothing much has changed since May 2009. Within the last two months speeds have been extremely erratic. I made a service call, a Cablevision employee came right on time. Ended up replacing the modem with an a new SBV6220. Tech was very thorough. Speeds are now back to normal.
Other than this blip there have been no other issues with the service.
May 2009:
Triple play recently ended, No major outages to speak of since last review. Speed is consistent. Thinking of ordering ULTRA.
Dec 2008:
It's been about 7 months since the account has had the triple play for $185.
OV quality has been excellent. Internet service with Boost has seen a upload speed bump from 4.6mb to 5.2mb.
OOL for the last several years has had excellent uptime records and service since last review has been excellent.
Area has had a number of power outages and the cable modem is protected via ups. However, Cablevision should throw the battery pack into their VOIP modems for free, for those customers whose equipment is not protected. Why do they make you spend $40 on a batter?
May 2008:
Got OV, ported one copper number to OV, Cablevision gave me Triple Play. Installation went without a hitch. Tech found issue in feed to house from box and reran feed. Cablevision came a few days later to bury the cable. Netting everything together saving about $30/month.
Speeds have been great, service has been great.
Prior review:
In the area I live OOL is the exclusive provider. So it's a good thing the service is great. The account has Boost for $10/month. Policies recently have changed to uncap downloads. Rumor mill has it uploads might be increased to 10mb. That's more upload bandwidth than I was getting when I ordered OOL 7 years ago.
At my current location I had OOL come out for service visits twice. Both visits were handled professionally, with the techs doing exactly what we asked. I've been to the walk-in centers a number of times for different reasons, they sales staff was courteous and handled the requests quickly.
I've never had a problem with tech support, and have used them a few times. They were always willing to help and were very courteous.
Biggest complaint is with the telephone routing system, thank goodness I don't need to use it often.
Bottom line: TV and internet cost $195/month with gold package, Boost, 2 non DVR converters and 2 DVR converters. A bit pricey, but we are satisified with the service.
Followup comments: Rojo
join:2009-04-14
New York, NY | Did you get Ultra? From your monthly $bill it looks like you did. How have your Ultra speeds been? | |
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Review by BlindBandit
UPDATED: 70 days ago
member for 116 days, 1 visits, last login: 66 days ago
Bronx,Bronx,NY
$30 per month (month by month)
about 27 days
"15mbps, very stable internet, no triple or double play bundle need it, great tech support."
"Very slow internet speed with docsis 2.0. modem."
"Best internet company out there with great tech support & fast services."
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I join Optimum Online on April 23,2010 after i cancel Verizon DSL service. they have the worst speed i ever saw on a internet company. i had the 7.1mpbs plan & i was getting max 500kb but use to get 800kb max, don't know what happen but if i was lucky then i get 100kb to 200kb max. so i cancel my service & change to OOL the next day. OOL give me a docsis 2.0. modem at first & i was very happy with the speed i was getting 13mbps but days later to weeks was getting bad speed like 2mbps to 8mbps then i had to call tech support on May 17, 2010 & they was so helpful that they send a tech to change my modem the next day.
I was having speed issue again on May 18,2010 so i call tech support & they send a tech but this time he had a docsis 3.0. modem, once he hook everything up i was getting 15mbps again. if you have the very slow speed issue then call Cablevision & they will help you, you even get a docsis 3.0. modem if a tech ask you.
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 Review by thinkpad
UPDATED: 71 days ago
member for 10 years, 3012 visits, last login: 1 days ago
Stamford,Fairfield,CT
$45 per month
about 1 days
"Fast FAst FAST!"
"None at this time"
"Get this service"
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It's Fast, Fast, Fast
Not really more that I can say at the moment.
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