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Review by qworster 
member for 10.2 years, 3468 visits, last login: 13 days ago
updated 99 days ago
 Tucson,Pima,AZ
 $48 per month Qwest "Finally!!! after 2 months of nightmares it's working ok!" "They've TRIPLE BILLED me the past two months!" "A class action suit looks better all the time!"
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Update: December 30, 2001
Finally, after two months and over 25 calls to MSN tech support, MSN DSL seems to be working okay. I'm not getting quite the speed I got with Qwest, but it's close (540 down, 212 up on average on a 640/256 DSL circuit) and reasonably reliable.
Yesterday I got my Qwest phone bill....today I opened it....
The monthly charge to MSN there is:$143.70 or exactly THREE TIMES the proper charge of $47.90. Last month I was away and my roommate paid the bill...I went and looked at that one..SAME THING!! I just assumed that she had made a bunch of LD calls.....
THESE BASTARDS HAVE BILLED ME $287.40 FOR TWO MONTHS OF DSL SERVICE!!!!
To make things worse, Qwest has overcharged me 100 bucks on the Cisco modem. They never gave me the credit for a second modem I returned to them MONTHS AGO (I have their RMA number to prove it..and they acknolowlege that it got sent back...they just REFUSE to credit it...apparently shipping and billing "don't talk").
Is anyone planning a class action suit? I've heard this bantered around... If so, I'm THERE!!!!
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I migrated from Qwest DSL to MSN DSL two weeks ago..
No , let me rephrase that...
I was one of the suckers who bought MSN and Qwest's bullsiht that nothing would change concerning my (former) Qwest DSL circuit. Everything has changed!
Before I migrated, I called MSN and was assured by them that the only difference I would see is that they (MSN) don't support VPN just yet. Otherwise, my connection (640/256) would be identical and might even be a bit faster then with Qwest (average 560k).
Let me put this as succinctly as I can: THEY LIE!!!
First of all, their Usenet is filtered to death. Qwest didn't filter a single one, MSN filters out over half of them! Plus along with the obvious (porno) ones are the not so obvious such as alt.microsoftsucks.
Of course, they do have their own usenet that has virtually nothing useful on it.
At five past midnight on Thanksgiving, my DSL quit. I went to bed. Ten hours later it still wasn't working so I called MSN support, where I was informed that they were having a system wide outage. "OK" I thought. Equipment fails. I can wait.
Near as I can tell, DSL came back about 6 PM, 18 hours later. Problem was, it had very poor speed. In fact, a dial up connection was faster. I called MSN support again and they told me: "Give it a day to come back up to full speed". Fair enough.
I waited another day. No difference. Called them back and got the same spiel. I asked for escalation. They refused. I asked for a ticket number. They refused. They said it was probably Qwest and gave me a number for them. I called it and a recording said they were closed until Monday. In desperation, I called my old Qwest DSL support number and told the person there my tale of woe. He said he believed I was being given the run around by MSN, and gave me the inside Qwest wire line number. I called it and got a real nice guy on the phone. After telling me that I had reached an inside number and he shouldn't even be talking to me he agreed to check out my line. He said it was working fine but that he could see very slow throughput from MSN. I hung up and went to bed.
Now it's Sunday night....almost four days after the DSL failed. My speed is now up to about 210k (1/3 of what I pay for). I called the MSN number again and they tried to go through the same BS they always do (flush your cache, etc.) I'm a radio and network engineer. I know what I'm doing. Don't patronize me, MSN.
Finally...they admitted that the number I had been given was usually for dial up and gave me a broadband number. I called it up and here's what I found:
First of all, unlike Qwest (who guarantee you 80% of the speed you pay for), MSN only guarantees 56k(!!!!) speed on DSL lines!!!! I was stunned when the guy told me that My 200k throughput (1/3 0f what I'm paying for) met their minimum bandwidth for a 640k line!! (now rememember what I was told by them in the first place). So, I asked him: "Why then do you offer (cheaper) 256k service then. It would seem to me that I should at least get service on my 640k line that's faster then 256k!" His reply: "I don't know".
Finally, I managed to get them to escalate my problem (that he claims is no problem). I'll keep you updated as to what happens, though I'm now most certainly going to change over to cable (yes, I know that I can get another ISP, but I really feel like hitting Qwest in their pocketbook for getting me into this nightmare!)..
The bottom line: AVOID MSN DSL LIKE THE PLAGUE!!!
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Review by andynyc14
member for 11.1 years, 179 visits, last login: 332 days ago
updated 332 days ago
- Astoria,Queens,NY
- $39 per month
- (12 month contract)
 about 46 days- "."
- "."
- "."
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.
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Review by vvv00
member for 11 years, 100 visits, last login: 71 days ago
updated 2.4 years ago
- Denver,Denver,CO
- $30 per month
- about 3 days
- Qwest
- "Lowest rate I could find; tech support by phone 24/7 provided by phone company."
- "No direct contact, everything goes through the phone company; it's MSN therefore it's evil."
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I think the service is called MSN Premium; and there's a lot of Windows software that comes with it, but I use Mac OS X, so I have no idea how the software is.
I had a non-phone company ISP for a couple of years, but tech support was getting lax (see my review of VCN), and I was paying more. Now tech support is 24/7, and I pay less. Hate to say it about the big, evil MSN, but the value seems better. (Alternate views, constructive criticism welcome.)
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 Review by shadowshark
member for 9.9 years, 2548 visits, last login: 1 days ago
updated 2.8 years ago
- Lake Orion,Oakland,MI
- Contract price not specified.
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no longer have this service Comcast has been my provider for years now
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 Review by danawhitaker
member for 9.9 years, 2867 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 3.9 years ago
- Urbandale,Polk,IA
- $38 per month
- about 14 days
- Qwest
- "Connection was stable."
- "DSL train speed tanked like a rock in 2007 and techs offered no solution."
- "It depends on your situation. A year ago, I wouldn't have switched for the world."
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I originally ordered the 256/256 plan in late August of 2001 for $39 per month with no contract. My connection was up and running on September 11, 2001. I ordered the service through the website, and received the modem from MSN very quickly (Arescom 800 modem). I now have the 640/256 package, which costs $49 per month (I made this chance in August of 2002). The upgrade was delivered as per the quoted delivery date.
The only problems I have had are fairly small, and often not the problem of MSN. One was a major outage that lasted 12 hours on Thanksgiving Day of 2001. The other problem was that my connection was completely unstable (on again, off again) for about a week in early April. This turned out to be a problem with the line on my end, and was easily resolved after I contacted Qwest and had them come fix it. Since then, my connection and speed have been absolutely stable, and my IP address has not changed since April 3rd.
I would definitely recommend this service to other people living in/near the Des Moines area who are able to get it.
UPDATE: I cancelled my service with Qwest as of February 11th, 2008. Late spring and early summer of 2007, I began having numerous disconnections and speed problems with my connection after my phone line was cut for the 5th or 6th time. Long story short, Qwest came out, put a new NID on the house, and told me that there were too many errors on my line and the only option for me to was to drop the 1.5/896 speed tier down to 640/256 or 256/256. This was not an option for me, as I do a signficant amount of downloading and uploading. Since one of my chief complaints WAS in regards to speeds being too slow, that seemed illogical to suggest anyway. I kept my 1.5 service against the advice of the tech dispatched to my house and the tech he called. It rarely trained higher than 512kbit, although the upstream continued to train at around 800kbit. I called several times over the next few months but was given no other solution than to drop speeds. The connection was at least stable, meaning I wasn't disconnected multiple times per day, but incredibly slow. Mediacom finally made an offer that I could no longer refuse.
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Review by otterwhf
member for 4.2 years, 1 visits, last login: 4.2 years ago
lodged 4.2 years ago
- Cheyenne,Laramie,WY
- $47 per month
- (24 month contract)
- Qwest
- "Faster (?) than dial up"
- "MSN tech support is NOT. Have been on phone for over 4 hours trying to get my FASTER premium service...not I am down to 81 Kbit"
- "Bleah"
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I used MSN regular, which is better than dial-up. I then opted for MSN Premium which has never worked properly. The current speed rate is 81 Kbit/sec with a ping time of 998ms! Weekends are even worse, if that is possible. I have been speaking with a "tech" for over 4 hours with no improvement or satisfaction. I gave up and have been trying to "fix" it myself. It is MSN that is the culprit.
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 Review by OldschoolDSL
member for 5.9 years, 1427 visits, last login: 58 days ago
updated 4.4 years ago
- Holyoke,Hampden,MA
- Contract price not specified.
- about 1 days
- Verizon
- "Its normally free with other ISP's and comes with free safety tools"
- "no comment (n/a at this time)"
- "It's great as an add on, but I wouldn't pay for it"
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My review speaks for The MSN Premium Software and not MSN as an ISP directly It was offered to me for free via Verizon DSL
MSN (Microsoft Network) first made its public day view at the start of Windows 95. It was a cross of trying to offer something for the business world, which did not want something an flaky as AOL, but user friendly and eye catching for the home user as well.
MSN Explorer for the most part, started off the "kick off" for MSN Premium over time. Which when first released was free. MSN Explorer allowed the user to access their Hotmail.com or MSN.com e-mail, directly through their computer with the look and feel of normal e-mail, as you would in Outlook or in today's Mozilla Thunderbird. As they improved the browser they also included Messenger (know known as MSN Messenger), Encarta Online, MSN Money, and many more.
Today with a wide range of other useful services included into MSN Premium, Microsoft has also partnered with McAfee to help secure people's pc's with McAfee Anti-Virus and McAfee Firewall. To much of many people's surprise, they have also teamed up with Webroots Spy-sweeper to improve users awareness of spy-ware, ad-ware, and root-kits. This was unexpected as Microsoft is currently offering their own free program, Windows Defender.
Over all, I would say it does make things a little easier for users who do not want to visit Hotmail.com and have to log in and wait for pages to load. It's also cool they've included Webroots & McAfee into the deal. However its best as an add on.
As much as I do like it, I do not ever see myself paying for this. Most of the Premium content and services, I can now get for free. I no longer use McAfee, as I paid for Kaspersky (Kaspersky.com) and Webroots does make for a nice add on, but if I had to buy it I would and could do so cheaper then MSN. I normally use AIM, Google, or Skype over Messenger. And most of everything else they offer I could get else where.
In truth, I use it only to view my MSN account without having to visit their web page.
UPDATE - 09-17-2007 - MSN now being fully replaced by Microsoft Live or known as Windows Live. The MSN Browser service is still out there, but I've ended my service about 1 month ago. The above all remains true.
~ END REVIEW ~ 09/17/2007
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 Review by bilydkid1970
member for 8.3 years, 531 visits, last login: 2.6 years ago
updated 5.3 years ago
- Ogden,Weber,UT
- $45 per month
- about 7 days
- Qwest
- "1.5M down/ 1M up Fast Connection - Easy Setup - Cheap Price and Now it's Cheaper"
- "none"
- "Just Get it."
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Below the asterisks is my last review. Since then, things have gotten even better. With a one year agreement, your monthly payment is now 25.99 plus taxes and fees for this same connection. In regards to the "what about ports other than 80" question posted previously - I can open and close all the ports I need just fine with my actiontec modem. If you're like me and must have a landline phone at home, there's no cheaper alternative than Qwest/MSN DSL where it's available. They offer faster connections now for a little more money, but I'm very content with 1.5 mbps. My bottom line is still the same...Just get it.
-BdK
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This was easy to set up. The connection is alot faster than dialup. There is no contract required.
I've had a 640K line, the 256K for awhile, and now qwest/msn have dropped their prices again! $40 plus tax for 1.5 mebabits down and 1 megabit up!
DSL is inching closer to cable speeds, and I'm not sharing a line like cable subscribers do. My bandwidth is MINE. I have 1.5 megabits 24/7.
This package is a winner.
Just get it.
-BdK
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 Review by Dave Steggs
member for 5.8 years, 60 visits, last login: 1.3 years ago
lodged 5.8 years ago
- Grand Island,Erie,NY
- Contract price not specified.
- Verizon
- CLEC party: Verizon
- "None"
- "Bad interface, popup blocker dosent work, email is hard to check"
- "At least its free."
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I got msn with my verizon dsl (wich btw is awesome!) and i hate it. I never use it to browse, bacause i hate the interface and the popup blockers are bad. Also the download manager is horible! So instead i use Mozilla Firefox. But unfortunatley it is the only thing i have for e-mail.
Update: i just tried to log on for e-mail and it gave me an error... friggen hate this thing
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 Review by thorgod
member for 10.5 years, 3832 visits, last login: 304 days ago
lodged 6 years ago
- Socorro,Socorro,NM
- $45 per month
- (30 month contract)
- about 5 days
- "It's DSL"
- "It's expensive"
- "It's quick, and you pay for it"
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I really wish I could have a naked DSL setup, but the local phone company denies any such thing is possible. The line goes out at least once every two weeks, maybe more. But hey I've got DSL in the middle of no where, so good.
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