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Review by The Last 
UPDATED: 27 days ago
member for 31 days, 5 visits, last login: 24 days ago
 Brooklyn,Kings,NY
 $65 per month (month by month)
 "When it works. Extremely fast. Low latentcy. Rated down/up on the dot."
 "It hardly ever works. Tech Support/Line techs do not work together to resolve issues."
 "Disjunction between Tech Support/Field Techs. Hard to get coordinated response."
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9/30/09-- Tech did not show up last night. No call to explain why. I called them, they apologized and set up an appointment for Saturday 11-2. This is getting silly. Connection was still running well last night. 3 days of clear connection is the longest period I have had in 9 weeks. Hope it stays this way.
9/29/09-- Connection has been stellar for two days now, and I have spoken to both a Tech support supervisor and a Field services Supervisor. Assured they would monitor my line and neighboring connections to see if they can track down the source of the intermittant problem. Also have an appointment with a standard tech tonight. Though I have enjoyed the two days of Flawless internet, I almost wouldn't mind if the issues I had earlier in the week and over the past weeks would show its ugly head tonight. Maybe the saga is finally over.
9/27/09-- Last night I was told somone from Field Services would call me this morning. NO CALL. I called back at 12pm, and I was told someone from field services would call me before 5 pm Today.
8pm: Got a call from both a Tech Support Supervisor and Field Supervisor. They are going to monitor the line, and other lines in the immediate area to narrow dow the issue. Its evident that the two teams don't coordinate well together. Connection was EXACTLY 30/5 last night. Negligible Packet loss.
9/26/09-- 8pm-- Just got called by dispatch at the end of my 5-8 time window: They have no techs available and offered me a reschedule to tomorrow 8-11 or 5-8. Unfortunately I have a JOB between 9-6pm. I canceled plans to be here tonight, and this is how Cablevision treats its customers. I was promised that a Field Supervisor would call me in the morning detailing what actions have been taken
9/26/09--Optimum Online boost customer since 2006.
Never once had an issue. Sure there were downtimes here and there but that is to be expected.
Since September 2nd 2009, (the same day they set up Optimum Online Wifi coincidently in the neighborhood) everything went to hell.
20-90% packet loss often during primetime though randomly occuring. Usually happens from 5-midnight everyday, but today for example it has been happening pretty much the entire day.
I Have called Customer support and they can see it on thier side when they run the signal tests. They always say the signal is strong regardless of how much packet loss I am getting. What irks me the most is that they have sent 8 of the Know nothing contract techs out to my place who cannot diagnose the issue because 6/8 times the issue isn't happening during the techs work hours (8-5 pm) and the 2 times it did happen they didnt' know enough to diagnose the issue and had to refer it to "Dispatch".
What is most disturbing is that dispatch doesn't work with Customer support. You cannto call CS and get a dispatch/line supervisor to comment on the issue and let you know what has been done.
My final straw was after weeks of this issue, and nearly 100 calls, I finally got someone to promise to have my node monitored. calling back the following week?
IT WAS NEVER DONE.
They are sending another likely uninformed and lacking technical skills contract employee to look at my connection today. I have little hope of a resolution. My next step is to downgrade to the lower level of service in the hope that this alleviates the problem.
VERIZON FIOS CANNOT COME HERE SOON ENOUGH.
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 Review by Wayne GphFX
UPDATED: 28 days ago
member for 5.1 years, 2165 visits, last login: 1 days ago
Brooklyn,Kings,NY
Contract price not specified.
"It works really well when it does..."
"Slow Speeds at Times, Poor Customer Service & Support A Horror Show"
"Still the only game in town for my area but the $$$$ is getting old."
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We all know OOL is one of the best so why give a lengthy review...
As of 10-29-07:
We added BOOST and wow couldn't it get any better!
As of 12-25-08
Still one helluva service......
Customer service/support still crappy but hey most are....
As of 10/29/09
A little disappointed but still a sheep for OOL.
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 Review by thender
UPDATED: 29 days ago
member for 329 days, 439 visits, last login: a few minutes ago
Brooklyn,Kings,NY
Contract price not specified.
"Beats DSL. Good latency."
"I pay for 30/5. I get 15/5. 15 mbps downstream costs $15 less. Why do I pay for 30?"
"Paying for 30/5 is a waste of money on the downstream."
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I used to have FIOS, 30/5.
I got this. 30/5
I get 16/5.
Sometimes I get 14/5. The most I've ever gotten is 18/5.
If I used the upload more, I'd keep it, but I am going to downgrade to 15/2, since it's not like I get the 30 I pay for as it is.
The install tech said he'd be here at nighttime. He called me at 1 PM to say he'd be here in 30 minutes. I was in riverdale.
The ups are that, in spite of being lame compared to Brooklyn and Staten Island FIOS, that it beats Verizon DSL into the ground. I'm not going to get anywhere near these speeds with DSL, and the latency is fine at any time of night. When I paid for 30/5 with verizon, I got 3850 KBps down, and 1150 KBps up. When I paid for 20/20, I got 2400 KBps both ways. They never lied.
I am not used to not getting the speeds I pay for. In seven years, this is the first time that has happened to me. I did not have high expectations for cablevision, and they delivered as expected.
I forget the exact monthly rate, and the brand of the modem. It is 1:12 AM, and thought it more important to post my experience without all of the specifics than to not post it at all. Please think twice before ordering 30/5. It's not like FIOS.
UPDATE 10/19/09:
I get 27 mbps down now. Getting better, OOL. Not FIOS good, but good.
UPDATE: 10/28/09
That did NOT LAST!
This is at 9 AM.
Attachments:
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 Review by njrichie
UPDATED: 31 days ago
member for 8.6 years, 2322 visits, last login: 7 days ago
Matawan,Monmouth,NJ
$55 per month
"OOL and Boost, continues to give great performance!"
"None"
"Great service! OOL since 2001"
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It was an easy ride called the toll free number the day I got the letter from Cablevision. The rep was good and and asked the right questions. UPS delivered the Self- Install Kit in a few days. I purchased a nic card at CompUSA for less than what they were offering worked fine. Had to have a tech install another outlet on the second floor because of the computers location. Installer came and did a clean job running the wire and drilling through the outside wall. After he left was up and running in about 2-3 hours. I was too far from the CO to get DSL from Verizon and it seems that they really didnt care to give us BroadBand. Cable Modem is $99 and the service 29.95 a month which costs approx $5.00 more than what I was paying for an extra line and ISP for the dial-up. If you are handy you can install yourself. It would be better than waiting for someone to install your system for you. The speed have been a blazing 646-715 kbps.
UPDATE!
Ok...did the speed test from speedtest.net got the following values:
3260 down
887 up
65 X faster than 56K
downloaded test64 from the Opt ftp site...shows 560 kb/sec
CNET Speed meter reports 709.6 kbps
Did speed tweak...looks good RWIN increased
Have gotten better values with speedtest.net than trying to get to the dslreports server in NY when its up to run a test. The other values were from the West Coast server. The above speeds were blazing compared to 28.8 modem speeds that I was stuck with as my phone lines did not support 56K. Living close to the Matawan line we have been cursed with having our C.O. in Keyport which is outside the technical limit for DSL to Old Bridge. As I did look through the numbers others were getting I noticed my values were low. I have posted the new test values under the 07747 zip and they are more in-line with everyone else.
UPDATE!
Service is rock solid. Am now getting over 9MB down and 1MB up this happened when I changed the cable modem to a Moto SB5100. Price of course was increased to $ 44 per month with cable TV, $49 without. Speed is without a doubt one of the fastest in the country for a cable provider.
UPDATE!
Download speeds have been reduced now getting 6MB on a good day. Upload speed has not changed still just under 1 MB. Now OOL with OV have noticed no speed drop with OV. The issue of speed drops have been noted all over the system not only here. Other than speed drop, service is still solid and zippy. DSL not available here so have limited options for Broadband maybe one day FIOS.
UPDATE
Download speeds have improved back to 8MB to 9MB during the day. Upload speeds unchanged at 1MB. Now have Triple Play with all three services (OOL,OV,IO). Moved from DirecTV back to CV due to pricing and defective box from DirecTV. NO DSL here, now no POTS either.
UPDATE 8/30/07
Connection reliabilty has declined with modem rebooting and sudden loss of signal for the past two months. Tech support has been unable to fix the problem after two home service calls. My signal levels and wiring is fine but yet the signal goes down for no reason multiple times during the day. The Motorola modem being swapped for a Webstar has had no change, proving that the problem is an ongoing system issue. I cant make or receive calls during the morning hours as my OV gets disconnected!
Many people in the OOL forum are reporting the same issue, so it is a system wide problem. As you see from my above posts, I was a big fan of OOL, but no more.
Beware!
UPDATE 12/29/07
Connection reliability has improved after the problem was determined to be a voltage leak for the next door's neighbor's central a/c unit. The line from the post to the splitter was changed and the problems disappeared. I now have my rock solid connection back again. I have Boost and I am getting the 30 mbps down and 5 mbps up. Be aware that you need the right router to be able to pass these speeds if you have one. Not all routers support this fast pass through. Hooking up direct will not be a problem but have a firewall in place. I have raised my review as now the problems of the past summer was resolved. Make sure you get a good tech if you have a problem!
UPDATE 5/10/07
Great service continues, Boost is right on the money with 30 Mbps down and 5 Mbps up as advertised. Don't blame OOL for bad speeds if you have crappy cable wiring and splitters in your home.
UPDATE 10/26/09
Boost continues to give great performance. Web Site hosting excellent and easy to manage and many tools included. Connection rock solid NO complaints. Continues to out perform other services for the money.
Followup comments:  njvictor
join:2007-08-13
Brick, NJ
|  Cablevison outlook
 I have all three services installed almost 2yrs, and now - 40 Hi-Def channels included... when I sat back and thought about it, I have io Fam, with over 180 channels, I look forward to my News 12,, I can order movies as I need, I even get some for free,,, along with my high Speed internet,, which has been working quite well,, with an added firewall protection,, built in,, and the phone, with 40 calling features including free 411,,,,, plus 1 box, my bill has been the same since, even after my promotion had ended,,, I don't understand what people are complaining about, I get the same bill each month, unless I add something or remove it,, they call it partial month billing, ok, so what's so hard about that too understand..?? your paying for services that you have used at the time, and.....??? they have customer service open 7days a week 24hours a day..? where can you go for that..? allways someone to talk to..?
I have other friends who had jumped over to FIOS,, one mishap, they don't disclose in full detail is the taxes and surcharges on everything, the video,the internet and the phone,,, they tax you on all 3 services,( based on useage ), oh, and get this,, the Box, they mount on or inside - the house,, needs electric to run **,, it goes in to your electric,, and you have to pay taxes and surcharges on that to...? so over all wheres the savings there,,
Verizons customer services is allways on hold, never there after 6pm,, differn't stories each time..? when you ask about bill ..? after this mess, they switched back to Cablevision,, others who live in Comcast,areas, went back to them as well.... with those 2 companies, at least you know what your getting for your money... both cable companies your only charged taxes on their equiptment and video,,, why would anyone switch ...?? stay with what you have and work it out,, someone at either Cable company allways helpful or at least try...
who wants to sit around all day to have the phone company all day for an install.. ? then have to deal with the bill... Verizon also charges to take their equiptment back,,, ask about that price...."
( thanks kevin+Lisa for that info... ) | |
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BLUNTED 1
join:2003-11-13
Floral Park, NY | Re: Cablevison outlook After all the problems i have had the last year with OOL i am willing to take any chance with Verizon.
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Optimum Online sucks and always will ! ! | |
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Review by only4luca
Posted: 35 days ago
member for 8 years, 427 visits, last login: 35 days ago
Brooklyn,Kings,NY
Contract price not specified.
"Cheap"
"Almost everything else"
"If you can't get FIOS, you get this..."
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Had CV for almost 3 years, and was great. In the last 6 months tho, the service quality dropped lower and lower. Frequent losses of signal, disconnects, pixelated TV, etc...
Guess I've met all the so-called "repair guys" CV is contracting out the repairs to. Worst attitude possible. If you actually need something done, you might wanna try tip them. It's the only way to actually get them to drop the bad attitude.
Called couple days ago to disconnect the service in order to move to FIOS, and got a guy from the disconnects department, asking for one more chance, promising he's gonna send a "senior/supervisor" to work on my issue. The issue being that i had no internet whatsoever at that point. Took a day off to w8 for the guy, who never shows up. Called 2 hrs after the appt was supposed to happen, and was told that it was canceled since nobody answered the phone when they called to confirm.
At that point I've asked how can I answer a phone, when I have no service on that phone ( VOIP line from CV as well ).
Long story short, I've signed up for VZ, and today, 2 days later i have the Fios installed. I actually prefer to pay 45$ extra but get good service, than staying with CV and their bad service / awful attitude repair guys.
Do yourself a favor and get FIOS if you can....CV is going nowhere but down. VZ doesnt need to get into a pricing war with CV. CV sends them customers on its own.
End of my rant,
One former customer,
Luca M
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 Review by MIKAS
UPDATED: 37 days ago
member for 6.6 years, 241 visits, last login: 24 days ago
Brooklyn,Kings,NY
$49 per month (12 month contract)
 about 2 days
"Cheap"
"Terrible Speed"
"Stay away from this ISP"
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[10/20/09] Update.
After so many promises by tech support to fix the speed issue, nothing has changed, even got worse. Will definitely switch to FIOS next month.
Well, kind of late for my first impression of their service, since I'm an ‘old’ customer with OOL for almost 5 years. When I’ve sign up for the OOL, I was promised 15mb/2mb, for $25.95 a month for a year, which I’ve received, and was very happy about it. The speed was always constant. After a year the price went up to $49.99 and I was paying that ever since. You can also "boost" your speed up to 35mb/5mb for $10.00 more. Overall the best internet company I’ve ever dealt with. Comparing to FiOS, this company offers best speed for the fair price, when you getting your bill, it's one page and it's $49.99. On the other hand - $54.99 + plus fees and taxes, it's like 10 pages statement to understand which, you'll need a degree in finance, on the last page you'll find your total around $79.00 (for the same speed of 15 down / 5 up "FIOS Fast Plan").
What's good about OOL, in my experience, is that I never had a problem with my service, never got disconnected nor I have had any problems with my speed, until recently - for the past few month (from Jun.09), I was having problems with my speed, it drops right after 6 or 7 PM, and it drops dramatically down to 1.5 mb/1.8 mb, I've contacted tech support, the guy was trying to read something of his screen about disconnecting my printer and rebooting my modem, then after couple of hours of explaining that speed is fine during the day and it’s only drops after 6 PM, he asked me "what would I want him to do", to resolve this issue, so my point is that OOL shouldn't outsource tech support to a bunch of clones oversees who had no clue or basic degree to even qualify for a tech support. For that I'll give them 3 out of 5. However after scheduling a service call and meeting with one of the special technicians, I found him very knowledgeable, without arguing to disconnect my printer or insisting on changing my modem (Motorola that have a life time warranty) he scheduled to monitor my line, and have someone sitting on the local node from 5 to 9 pm for 7 days, to check what causing speed to drop. Well it's 2 more days to go, and my speed is improving already, so I hope it will be back to usual soon enough, I will really hate to switch to Fios. Thanks for reading. Hope this review will help you decide your Internet provider.
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Review by asharif101
Posted: 37 days ago
member for 5.4 years, 1708 visits, last login: a few minutes ago
Brooklyn,Kings,NY
Contract price not specified.
"usually works somrwhat reliable"
"expensive, inconsistent speeds"
"better than verizon dsl but waiting for fios"
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i only get advertised speed in the morning. at night it really slows. supposed to be 15/2 sometimes download is about 300kbps , upload is more consistent.
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Review by sc0ri0n
Posted: 40 days ago
member for 7.5 years, 20 visits, last login: 25 days ago
Nutley,Essex,NJ
$50 per month
"Great speed (10MBps) during day-time."
"It crawls during weekends and nights. Terrible helpdesk. No visibility to the state of network."
"Avoid it if you can"
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I've been using Optimum Online for the last two years and had no complaints until recently. There is clear degradation of service at nights and weekends now and helpdesk does not even acknowledge that issue is systematic and current network bandwith is not able to handle the load.
I'm getting 10Mbps during day time usually except weekends. Night time it's pretty slow most of the nights and download speed changes anywhere from 1Mbps to 3Mbps (120ms+ lag). Upload speed seems to be stable though.
Followup comments: joserhome
join:2002-06-08
Bronx, NY
| Optimum Online going downhill I agree with the Optimum Online service getting worse. I've been on it for several years. I used to get 10-11Mbps down and 1.9 Mbps up. Now I am getting roughly 1Mbps down and 1.6 Mbps up. This is not better than DSL from the phone companies offering DSL which Optimum keeps talking about.
Here are my results from running the speedtest on BroadBandReports.
I was thinking of upgrading to Boost. From what I've heard on the forums, doesn't seem worth the money if they can't keep the bandwidth close to what they are advertising. | |
| | sc0ri0n
join:2002-05-01
Nutley, NJ | Re: Optimum Online going downhill I was resisting to it but FIOS will soon be available in the gated community I am living in and I am ditching these guys as soon as that happens!
It does not look like they will do anything about it unless they start losing customers. | |
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 Review by thorxgal
UPDATED: 41 days ago
member for 8.9 years, 1190 visits, last login: 1 days ago
Bayonne,Hudson,NJ
$65 per month
about 1 days
"Pretty stable - only few outages since 2001, no contracts"
"Slow downs during peak times, overselling nodes, not upgrading nodes fast enough"
"It is still the best ISP in the town if you can't get FIOS"
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I waited for optimum online for 2 years meanwhile had verizon and phoenix dsl,
I took me 15 minutes to up and running (dsl 2 months), speed so far 5200 DL and 1200 up all the time, never been happier in my life, if you can get it, get it period.
Update after couple years. It has been good for 2 years. Great newsgroups, great speeds, no caps. Problems started year and half ago. First, if I upload too much I will get capped. Second, their newsgroups SUCKS. Third, week ago they started throttling connection. Let say I started downloading Linux iso (1 gig), after 10 minutes of great speed(1MB), it was reduced to one third (300-400KB). It is time to look somewhere else, for 45 or 50 bucks or even cheaper (34 Verizon) you can get decent service with decent speed 3/786, great newsgroups, not to mention 10MB webspace.
Update after few years: After many negative reviews from members of BBR - OLL stopped throttling, they started offering other speed tiers and came out with OOL Boost, which what I had until now. Newsgroups were unusable but this it trend in ISP industry. If you need decent newsgroup - need to pay for it period. (Giganews, newshosting, astraweb, etc) Boost was fine at the beginning but after a year or so I have noticed major slow downs, until FIOS came to my neighborhood. I guess many people switched to FIOS or they split the node because lately slow downs weren't that bad during peak times. (18– 23Mb down) comparing to 12 – 18 Mb before) As of now I am FIOS customer and so far I am happy to get better speeds what I pay for (15/5 plan – getting 26/25 all the time  Not to mention for $10 less. Port 80 is wide open too. OOL hasn't been that bad but I don't see anything being done to improve their service. If you can't get FIOS I don't think there is any better alternative in Bayonne right now. Let's hope that they will come out with something else until then FIOS is here to stay.
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Review by quotidian
UPDATED: 43 days ago
member for 2.8 years, 5 visits, last login: 43 days ago
Hoboken,Hudson,NJ
Contract price not specified.
"When I can actually get the bandwidth I'm paying for it's great"
"Badly underprovisioned in Hoboken. No better than 2Mbps during peak times"
"Still waiting for FIOS in my building"
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My cable modem seems to have a split personality. Sometimes everything is great and I can get 12MBps (probably limited by my wireless). Usually this is during the middle of the work day or at 2am. More often then not I'm stuck with between 1 and 6Mbps with service being especially bad during the evening during the week.
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