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Review by Hunckercast 
UPDATED: 1.3 years ago
member for 2.2 years, 6 visits, last login: 118 days ago
 Park Hills,Saint Francois,MO
 $19 per month
 about 6 days
 AT&T
 "Top speed connection, reliable"
 "Sloooooo customer service, long telephone waits"
 "Great value for the money"
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My main criteria was reliable high-speed DSL with a reasonable price, and that is what I got. The few problems I had were quickly resolved (but with long waits on the tech support line,)
The speed package I purchased was 348k to 1.5mbps down and up to 128 up speeds for $13.50 plus telco user fees and tax. It comes to19.97 a month. The DSL modem came with the package as did 3 email accounts, and 30 Mb email storage.
The modem was the standard SpeedStream 4100 DSL modem.
Except for the long waits for customer service, I have no qualms about recommending this service. (Note - my local provider is Brick.net. They were bought by AccessUS a few months ago. The customer service is still through the Brick office.)
After almost 2 years with Brick/Access US, I have to say it is great. No service outages, major upgrades to their hardware, and email filtering at the server makes them an even better choice. Also, the price has stayed the same.
The call center must have added some new staff, because the wait times are much lower (about 5-7 minutes at peak hours)
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Review by Gentle1969
UPDATED: 5.1 years ago
member for 9.5 years, 95 visits, last login: 3.8 years ago
Saint Louis,Saint Louis City,MO
$48 per month (12 month contract)
Southwestern Bell
CLEC party: Southwestern Bell
"SBC Yahoo Expert Plus - 2.5Mbps (*WAS* 6Mbps down.)"
"Loss of connectivity, drop in throughput...."
"Somewhat mostly happy with the connection."
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(10/19/2004) - Update. Experienced intermittent noise on the line, and also intermittent loss of internet access. Made the mistake of calling SBC Yahoo tech support, when I should have dealt with it purely on the "phone" side. They "capped" me at 2.5Mbps, saying... "To stabilize you, we are changing your profile to a lower throughput..." Urgh.
(9/27/2004) - After that last update, I stuck with AccessUS a little while longer, but in the end, I left them. I went with SBC Yahoo, got the Expert Plus plan based on my distance of under 9,000 feet, I get 6Mbps down. Very happy with the stability. Nice pings on game servers. Overall, happy with the service so far.
(02/09/2004) - Update. Well, my experience with DSL has changed. From my original connection (which did not use filters since it was a separate copper wire drop from the phone pole) to my current connection which uses filters on my original phone line, my connection has been less than great. It's been... "o.k" I've had a few sync issues, and my connection download throughput dropped to 1.1Mbps and the upload throughput dropped to around 110Kbps. On 2/6/2004 a major (as far as I'm concerned) interruption occured where sync was not occuring. I called DSL tech support at 6pm all the way up until 8pm (posted hours of operation for technical support are 8am to 8pm CST Monday - Friday) and did not even get a chance to leave a message. At this point, since I did not have internet, I couldn't very well E-mail technical support, could I? I left a message with the account manager and did not receive a call back. Service did return that night, but not having any information about what was happening was disconcerting.
I am seriously considering going to another provider. If I could get the SBC Expert Plus (Download 1.5-3.0Mbps, Upload maximum 384Kbps) I would go to it no question. It's only $44.99 or so and that would be acceptable to me.
I think 8 years from one company (Primary/MPower/AccessUS) might be long enough.
(09/26/2001) This review is primarily a notice to AccessUS. I do not require additional support at this time (9/26/2001) from AccessUS.
I was a Primary Network/MPower customer from around March 2000. As you may see in my review of Primary, they had some initial issues as well, but of a different sort. (But the connection was nice....)
I contacted AccessUS in August to ask them to add an additional email to my account as I was told that DSL customers would have 5 email accounts available. From that request (give me another email account) someone decided to enter my account as "Customer unhappy with DSL account and wishes to cancel..." (*This issue has been corrected.)
Then there was the bill after the "cancel" episode and guess what, they wanted to charge me around $150 for my connection. (That's not the price I paid with Primary/MPower, and the paperwork I had seen to that point all stated "Pay the same amount you paid with Primary/MPower for the same performance or better...") (*This issue has been corrected.)
Then in September, I received a piece of mail at home from AccessUS stating something to the effect of... Please return your hardware since you are cancelling your DSL account, *per the terms of the lease*. Well, if they had checked their records, I passed out of the "lease terms" after a year, so the hardware is mine now. (*This issue has been corrected.)
I have a really nice connection of 1.5Mbps/384Kbps (Give or take) and I'm deliriously happy when it comes to my online gaming pings... I can on most days pull down in excess of 150KB on downloads, and that is just nice... They have for the most part kept their word as far as honoring my account being transferred from Primary/MPower to them. Just some annoying "What are they doing?" times as most issues have been taken care of reasonably...
Oh, and I almost forgot, when they first sent me the "Conversion Packet" which contained the introduction to AccessUS, their list of contacts for the account, a referral slip, and some other information, they sent installation instructions for a dynamic IP connection rather than the static IP connection I was told I would be getting. This installation routine did not work. (*This issue has been corrected.)
Jim
Note, at this time, my connection seems to be o.k. Although, as I write this on (09/26/2001), the "Nimda" worm has been making trouble on all sorts of servers out there and this may be impacting my performance a little bit.
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Review by tdclauss
Posted: 5.5 years ago
member for 5.9 years, 45 visits, last login: 17 days ago
Saint Louis,Saint Louis,MO
$32 per month (12 month contract)
about 35 days
Southwestern Bell
CLEC party: Southwestern Bell
"Customer Service, particularly pre-sale. Price"
"Some recent turnover, but that was sales staff. Everything else has been great."
"This company went above and beyond to provide me with service."
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You can read my escapade with our previous ISP here: »Review of Valuenet.net by tdclauss
Bottom line, I was with a ISP that hosted spammers. I needed out, with a good clean ISP that could provide me with the service I required. Problem was, I couldn't just apply for an ISP switch, I had to have the service totally cut off and and then re-installed. Thing is, I found this out because I called Access US. Before ever spending a dime, or even comitting to spending a dime, they started doing the research on what it would take to get me off my old ISP and with a new one. They told me things that SBC couldn't tell me. Mostly because they kept pressing and talking to techs at SBC when I couldn't get further than a sales person.
We ended up needed to drop a second line so we could keep service continuous through the cut over. As a result, it took some time to get the service going. They also discovered that there is a new RT that is less than 10k feet from our house. Access US didn't have the agreements in place yet to use it. Did that slow things down? Not a bit, they had the papers signed in a couple of days. Of course, it took SBC a couple of weeks to execute them, but Access US was happy to keep after them on my behalf.
They had offered the superfast service that SBC had on special 6M/1.5M prior to having the wiring in place. Once they had the hookup, they found that it was not technically possible to provide that. Instead of messing around with me, they apologized and gave me a discounted 1.5/128 service. They even allowed me to set up e-mail accounts with them a couple of weeks before the service started, just so I could get away from the SPAM box at our old ISP.
Oh, and the e-mail is sweet. It has a good web-interface, and can be access either via POP or IMAP. I really like having the IMAP capabilities. So nice if you use multiple computers as I do.
Now that we're running, the speeds have been exactly as advertised, if not a little faster. Nice, since we supposedly had the same 1.5/128 from the old provider and the best we ever did was 340/100, but we were 16,500 ft from the CO, so that was a distance issue.
We've had one 4 hour outage when their bandwidth provider's DNS machines suffered a meltdown. And when I called them about it, they had a Network Status message that had been updated in the previous 15 minutes. All I needed to know was that something was going on, and they made it very easy to find out. Since then, we've been hauling right along.
The prices are easily the equivalent of our old ISP, but I don't have to worry about our e-mail disappearing into SPAM filters. So far, I've got nothing but big thumbs up for Access US.
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Review by glamouriz
Posted: 6.5 years ago
member for 6.5 years, 3 visits, last login: 6.5 years ago
Saint Louis,Saint Louis,MO
$19 per month (12 month contract)
about 3 days
Southwestern Bell
"Great Customer Service-Tech support- Sales"
"cant think of any"
"All around good company"
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Access US must be in a new phase- I've read some of the other reviews for this company and cant imagine what they are talking about.
I recently moved to the area- and decided to get connected. With having had bad experiences in the past with DSL companies that folded- I thought it would be a good idea to start small- see how they are... then move up in speed from there.
After getting connected, I dialed in, and lo and behold- NO busy signals.. NO booting off... wow- I'm connected!
I had a minor question about my email- sent a quick note to CustomerCare@accessus.net, and was responded to quickly! Now that was a suprise to me- no holding on waiting for DAYS for a reply...
I think whatever issues this company was having in the past- hopefully its just that- the past... and wont come back to haunt me!
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Review by WATYF
Posted: 8.1 years ago
member for 8.1 years, 21 visits, last login: 4.1 years ago
Saint Louis,Saint Louis,MO
$49 per month (12 month contract)
"Fastest Connection for the Money... Period."
"Connection problems here and there...."
"Overall, I wouldn't go with anyone else..."
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Alright... here's the deal.. I'm readin' all these horrid reviews about AccessUS, and up until a few days ago, I was a little cheesed at them too... but now I feel like stickin' up for em...
Let's just get this straight... EVERY SINGLE ONE of the bad reviews (that I noted) was from a former MPower customer who had conversion issues... so.. if you are a former MPower customer who needs converting.. (which there are no more left of) then sure... I'd stay away... (or else cancel out Mpower totally and start fresh with AccessUS, but hey... hindsight is 20/20) anywhoo..if you are NEW to DSL and want the best bang for the buck,... then go with AccessUS.
And here's my story just so you don't all come back with, "well.. I hope you never have to use TECH SUPPOT!!" 
I signed up with AccessUS and they said it would take about 7 working days to get it set up... that was great... after they had already set up the appointment, I had an issue that made me think I might be moving to a new apartment, so I called them and had to cancel my install... well... a day later I found out I didn't have to move, so I called back and they were very prompt to reschedule. On top of that, I don't use SWBell for phone service (cause they're evil ) and so they had to install a second line in my house just for DSL... all of this was handled just fine, and the total cost of the install was 50 bucks (cause of the second line thing,.. it would have been free otherwise).
Now... I also was planning to serve (both web serve and game serve) so AccessUS's connection was the most attractive to me. I consistently get 1000/1400 down connections (once I clocked it at 1.59Mps.. whoo hoo) and 325/350 up... which is perfect. There is no other provider that offers 1500/384 for 50 bucks a month, except for Earth Link, but they charge you 15 bucks a month MORE for a static IP, which Access includes for free. So... thus far we have the best bang for the buck,... and great speeds... my online gaming is insane... with dial up I had 300 avg ping (on a good day).. now I go on some servers with 40 ping... 40 PING!?!?!?! that's just crazy... anywhey...on to the problems.
I've had my line go down for a few hours a couple times... once for almost a day. But fairly sporadic. Most of the problems happened within the first month and since then have been fairly smooth. Now.. each and every time I had a problem I called tech support and got through RIGHT AWAY to a live person... I don't know what friggin' line you people are calling, but I have NEVER once had to leave a message because if I get that "please leave a message" thing, I just hang up and try again. Now... One time I had an connection problem and they, in attempting to fix it, thought that maybe my Router was bad.. so in the span of ONE HOUR I had THREE PEOPLE call me... one from AccessUS tech.. another from AccessUS customer service who wanted to send me a new router.. and another from IP communications explaining why I had the problem. All this was corrected within the day and I didn't need the new router.
A little over a week ago I had my line go down on a Saturday... unfortunately, AccessUS relies on IP Communications for their hardware tech support... so if something happens on a weekend (when IPC is closed) then you might, under certain circumstances, not be able to restore service until Monday... which is what happened.. My service was out all day Saturday and Sunday... and I called during that time to report it... (and talked to a few people and opened a trouble ticket) well.. when I woke up Monday it was on... apparently IPC went out a FOUR IN THE MORNING and fixed the thing... BUT... they had to reconfigure some things, so my upstream bandwidth was stuck at 128 temporarily.. (still had great downloads)... then later that week they changed my upstream back to 384,... BUT... then the download speed was screwed up (really slow and choppy).. it ends up there was a Card fried at the CO... and so IPC went out and fixed that... I am now back to my blazing fast speeds that you can't get anywhere else for 50 bucks a month.. and just so you all know.. the WHOLE TIME that little scenario was going on... I called repeatedly as each problem came up and was ALWAYS able to get through to someone... and my problems were always taken care of... 2 days downtime is the longest I ever had, and that was cause it was on a weekend. Other than that, I'm very happy with the service... You MPower whiners need to cancel your DSL service altogether and just start over with AccessUS under a new name... it looks like you'll get your service just fine then...
WATYF
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Review by rue1517
Posted: 8.2 years ago
member for 8.2 years, 1 visits, last login: 8.2 years ago
Saint Louis,Saint Louis City,MO
$149 per month (month by month)
about 8 days
Southwestern Bell
CLEC party:
"Great service, glad I do not have Primary/Mpower"
"Primary/Mpower hung customers out to dry"
"Glad to have a stable provider"
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I just looked at the reviews for Access US and noticed that they had great marks until they acquired Primary/Mpower customers. Did all of these pissed of Primary/Mpower customers consider that their old provider went out of business! Sure it was tough to get through to get support for a few weeks, but I am glad Access US stepped in to limit my down time a few days. The only alternative is the CLEC and ordering a new line and that could take weeks.
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Review by NeaLMaN
Posted: 8.3 years ago
member for 8.3 years, 244 visits, last login: 1.2 years ago
Perryville,Perry,MO
$49 per month
about 25 days
Southwestern Bell
CLEC party:
"blazing fast speeds"
"tech support"
"I recommend them if you don't need much tech support"
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My initial sign up was through a local computer store and it was botched severly by accessus. Something about a bad fax and I was'nt notified for two weeks, so we had to start all over. I was supposed to get the self install kit, but for some reason they proccessed my order with the premium install. That means I got a dedicated line and the superior modem instead. The last technician I talked to said that since it was thier mistake that I would not be charged extra ! That is so cool....after we got the order straight I was up within a week...very kewl...and the speed is increadible. Tech support really kinda sucks though...no one seems to know what is going on when you call and you get put on hold alot. Seems as though Rich can get things done quickly though. I am willing to give them the benefit of doubt though because they just took over MPower snd I am sure they are really busy from that. The static ip at no extra cost is cool too. Overall I am pretty impressed with these guys...Great speed at a great price...Highly recommend them
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Review by ken_mcghee
UPDATED: 8.5 years ago
member for 8.5 years, 36 visits, last login: 5.6 years ago
Saint Louis,Saint Louis,MO
$52 per month (12 month contract)
about 15 days
Southwestern Bell
CLEC party:
"Informative people, great support..the speed, 1.22mbpsDOWN/322kUP"
"none."
"Quick turn-around, great speed, ready to help with problems"
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1.5Mbps/384K
2 static IPs
Efficient 5861 Router
12,000 feet roughly from CO
UPDATE: I'm still getting ready to set up a primary DNS on one of my IPs and then start hosting my own domain name(s)...we shall see how that goes...i'll be updating this. My major update this time is that my upload is 322k..which seems when i transfer from it I get about 32kbytes/sec which is great since I will be serving from it. Hey, it's better than the 12k-15k on 128k connections
I was very impressed with the turn-around after my order. My DSL was installed in 15 days. I also was able to receive 2 static IPs. One IP for the router, the other one I wanted for a server I will be setting DNS, IIS, Exchange, etc. on. I noticed at first on my win 2k server that I was reaching about 1.2Mbps Download and 322k UP which I am happy about since I am about 12,000 feet away from my CO(STL11, On WEBER ROAD) and I only have one bridge on my line that only adds 500 feet. The installers, IP.net, were great. They even hooked up a tool to tell me what my line was cappable of handling....the results, 1.9MbpsDOWN/400kUP, of course this depends also on my distance from the CO..but this test was for the quality of my line and line noise. They answered all my questions. Now I just need to make sure I set up my 2nd Static IP right so that I can go through the router...if anyone has done what I'm doing by having my second IP behind the router..let me know what ya did
ken
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Review by jjrstl494
Posted: 8.6 years ago
member for 8.6 years, 2 visits, last login: 8.3 years ago
Saint Louis,Saint Louis,MO
$50 per month (12 month contract)
about 15 days
Southwestern Bell
CLEC party:
"downstream spread ranges between 1.2Mbps and 500Kbps"
"upstream speed ranges between 100 and 165Kbps"
"good Internet access for surfing and downloading"
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I want to compliment Access US on the installation of an ADSL dedicated circuit and router endpoint in my home in a period of just 15 days from the date I ordered service (March 29 order date; April 13 installed date). In my opinion, this represents outstanding performance in provisioning, and coordination of services provided by Access US, IP Communications and Southwestern Bell.
I also want to compliment sales representative David Husted at Access US for his thorough knowledge of DSL products, which enabled him to meet my specific needs as a DSL customer.
Congratulations to Access US on a job well done.
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Review by jwaller
Posted: 8.7 years ago
(review was emailed from domain mail.millikin.edu)
Saint Louis,Saint Louis City,MO
$49 per month (12 month contract)
Southwestern Bell
CLEC party:
"Service, Price, Reliability"
"Nothing comes to mind...."
"Other providers, take note!"
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I'd been hesitant to sign up for DSL for a while because of some of the
things I've read on forums like this. But when my cable service became
impossible to work with, I signed up with Access US for their 1.5/384
ADSL.
What a breeze! As soon as I faxed my contract back, I had a personal
account manager that kept me updated on the installation process. Man,
what a relief that was, after pulling teeth with Cable America for every
scrap of info I could get.
My line is up and running, and it's nice to know that I can call and
chat with them whenever I need something. For the same price as service
from the phone company, I'm treated as a CUSTOMER and not just a billing
entry.
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