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 Review by skate4ltj 
UPDATED: 5.5 years ago
member for 6.2 years, 42 visits, last login: 3.1 years ago
 Denver,Adams,CO
 $39 per month
 about 8 days
 Qwest
CLEC party: Qwest
 "New 1.5down/896up is a DREAM"
 "None, believe it or not!"
 "Better than cable speed, cheaper than cable prices"
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I used to have the Qwest Choice Deluxe package with 640/256, but we recently got upgraded to the 1.5/896. Actual speed tests about 1.2/660. Couldn't be happier for the money. Only complaint is: we were switched over to the new system 4/19/04, but no one told us like they promised to. So I called 4/26/04 and they said we have to get the new modem and the new speed would be activated 5/3/04. Received the modem on 4/28/04, hooked it all up (way better modem than the original MSN one we had. Has 802.11g built in. they said the modem also had a 4-port router for wired, but it didn't, so still had to keep my Linksys router hooked up). On 5/3/04 speed was turned on as promised. Yay!
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 Review by disorder
Posted: 5.6 years ago
member for 6.6 years, 719 visits, last login: 58 days ago
Alexandria,Fairfax,VA
$50 per month (12 month contract)
about 7 days
Verizon
CLEC party: Covad
"I guess the butterfly does make it better (AOL)."
"Too expensive! (Atleast was until it merged with Verizon Online)."
"It's good to switch from AOL if you are still a internet newbie."
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.
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 Review by BeanBag
Posted: 5.6 years ago
member for 8 years, 1697 visits, last login: 44 days ago
Auburn,King,WA
$49 per month (12 month contract)
about 5 days
Qwest
CLEC party: Qwest
"The new speeds are great, made me alot happier then I was"
"Stupid DSL1000 modem can't be configured to disable firewall/Service drops out sometimes"
"It's either this or Comcast, I guess I'll stick with this for now."
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I first got MSN's 678/256 deal, and it was alright, but I've never been very happy with the speeds, espcially for gaming. Installation was a breeze, everything worked first try. I got the crappy DSL1000 modem, I hope soon to get a different one so I can open up some ports for gaming. Only once so far has my service been very poor with really slow speeds in the year I've had it. It took a call to tech support, and the guy really didn't know what I was talking about, and had me trying all sorts of weird things, but a day later everything was back to normal. I recently got upgraded to the 1.5/896 and I must say thus far I'm very happy. My cost still stayed at $49 a month. Now I just have to get a better modem.
10/26/05--Service has been off and on now. I'll drop my connection, and then it will come back a minute or so later. Annoying it is.
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Review by (hidden by request)
Posted: 5.7 years ago
(review was emailed from domain nmt.edu)
Socorro,Socorro,NM
$38 per month
Qwest
"Works great"
"Qwest wasn't upfront about costs of "free" installation, horrid customer service."
"Qwest=Qworst, but it works anyway"
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I recently ordered DSL service from Qwest in Socorro NM. Qwest was offering
"free" installation. I went ahead and ordered the basic DSL service, plus
MSN internet service, and decided to rent the actiontech DSL modem from
Qwest.
I learned that the "free installation" actually meant that Qwest would
ship me the DSL modem, and I would install it myself. I received the
DSL modem and installed it on the date that they said the service
would be turned on. It worked immediately, and I was getting very
close to 256Kbps bandwidth on file transfers to a machine on the east
coast, so bandwidth was quite good. I've made no use of the MSN
account (I use my work address for email) so I can't comment on it.
One minor problem with the actiontech that I quickly discovered is that
its NAT functionality includes a very dumb configuration setting- the NAT
forwarding forgets that a connection exists after 15 minutes of inactivity.
I solved the problem by simply setting my Linux machine to use keepalives
after 14 minutes of inactivity.
The only really negative aspect of my experience came when I received the
first bill a month later. The DSL related charges were:
- $31.99 for Qwest DSL Service with MSN.
- $3.87 in taxes and universal service fee on the above. Qwest never told
me about this charge, but I knew it was coming and wasn't surprised.
- $9.99 for "DSL CPE SHIP". This was explained to me as a charge for
shipping the DSL modem tome. i.e. they lied about "free" installation.
The funny thing is that they didn't bill me $3.00 for the rental of the
actiontech.
I read the fine print fairly carefully, and never saw anything about
this shipping charge. After wasting fifteen minutes trying to get
ahold of someone who could explain this charge, and being told that
"Our system is down so I can't get to your account.", I simply gave up
and paid the bill.
Ordinarily I would try to avoid dealing with a business that treats
its customers so badly. However, our local cable company (Comcast)
isn't yet offering (and hasn't set a date) broadband access, so Qwest
is the only game in town.
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Review by rbsmith2000
Posted: 5.7 years ago
member for 5.7 years, 0 visits, last login: 5.6 years ago
Arvada,Jefferson,CO
$40 per month (24 month contract)
about 10 days
Qwest
"Good if it works"
"Huge outages covering multiple Colorado cities for days"
"Don't bet your life or livelihood on it"
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Can count on outages over multiple cities in the Denver area that last several days. Currently in 4 day outage. MSN nor Qwest can say what the problem is or can predict if or when it will be over. Same thing happened last year and outage in general Denver area lasted 6 days. Weather is definitely not a factor. It's a beautiful sunny spring day today. These guys are clueless on running a network. My house network (HPNA) has higher reliability.
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Review by unclefhoppy
UPDATED: 5.7 years ago
member for 8 years, 30 visits, last login: 2.8 years ago
West Jordan,Salt Lake,UT
$39 per month
about 9 days
Qwest
CLEC party: Qwest
"Qwest was very helpful in getting order info re-sent to MSN (MSN servers seemed to always be down some reason or another!)."
"MSN servers down. They couldn't access my account for 3 days!"
"A very rocky start, but equipment did show up as originally promised."
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I reformatted and did a fresh install of WIN XP Pro SP1 Monday evening(31/MAR) when I saw that my DSL modem had arrived. While Windows was installing, I read all of the manuals that came with the modem. The next morning (first of April), I installed the software and hooked up all the cables as instructed. Nothing worked! I called MSN Tier 3 Tech Support, and we started to troubleshoot the PROBLEMS. It took 2 hours, starting with dailing the #, going through the options menu, waiting on "hold for the next available representative", to getting the damn thing (sort of) working!
It's been 5 days now since starting with MSN DSL BroadBand, and so far, I have spent more time on the phone with "tech support" than working and/or surfin' the net! Every day, it's something else wrong! And every day, it seems that my connection gets slower, if and when it works at all!
So far, I'm really impressed with MSN (I was forced to migrate to MSN dial-up last year, and it was and is just as impressive!)!!!
17/MAR/2004: Called Qwest a week ago and found out that both of my phone lines are DSL qualified and now rated for 640k service. Shannon put in the upgrade order and said it would be 5 business days to complete (and several dollars cheaper that my 256k service!). Came home tonight with a voice message stating "it should be up and running". It was and I am very happy with Qwest. Plus, and I don't know how long it will last, I have 1224k down and 588 up! But I still want to dump MSN (India Tech Support!) and go back to Qwest.net for my ISP. I was extremely happy with Qwest Tech Support back in the day!
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Review by gayboi3129
Posted: 5.7 years ago
member for 5.7 years, 164 visits, last login: 132 days ago
Sumner,Pierce,WA
$39 per month
Qwest
"Good Content, Fast Speed, Better Modem"
"Sometime drops service"
"Its a great service for me and my family."
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YAY, Qwest finaly added 1.5Mbits/1Mbits. It works very good with the new MSN software that came with it. I had MSN when it was 640k/256k, this is a great inprovment. Know if Qwest will make it 3Mbits/1.5Mbits. But i love the service, i use it with my MSN Radio Plus account and it works great. I just wish MSN would add more Content. And that Qwest could tell me why my Line will drop the Signal. Its like the Signal disappears. The modem is good, i think it works great. Overall i am very ahppy with it, it does what i want.
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Review by BloodMist
UPDATED: 5.8 years ago
member for 6 years, 25 visits, last login: 4.8 years ago
Fort Lupton,Weld,CO
$40 per month
about 7 days
Qwest
"Everything you could ever want really"
"I don't think i can host game servers.Big whup."
"If you can't get cable, it's fantastic."
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Update:It's been about, i dunno, 4 months now, and the service is still solid.Also, it looks like i'll be paying 45 a month after a year, as the prices have been reduced.MSN is, of course, still supplying the service.They did not leave the DSL arena, at least not with Qwest anyway.
Okay, well, the place i've lived at for 4 years is in kind of a rural area, sorta.So, for 4 years, i had nothing but dialup, which really sucked because at the place i lived before i had cable.So i mean it really, REALLY sucked.4 years on dialup.After cable.Needless to say, it was god awful.
But then, finally, at long last, the horrible phone company here, Qwest, got DSL available where i live.Needless to say i was happy as can be.The horrible cable company, Comcast, STILL doesn't have cable internet here, BTW.So i'm checking things out, seeing what they got.So i see you can get MSN powered by Qwest 650k/256k for only $40 a month for a whole year, and $50 after that.With free activation and free equipment.No cancellation fee either.And, if i keep it for at least a year, i actually own the modem.Never having to return it.The only catch is i had to pay 10 bucks for the shipping of the modem.Big whup.
Allright, so i sign up for it, everything is explained to me, every charge, everything.It's great, so i go for it.It takes 7 days for Qwest to get the service on.Took 2 days after that to get the modem.So the modem arrives, and i plug it in...
And it works flawlessly.It gets a signal, just like that.You think you have to install some software?Hell no.I didn't have to install a single piece of software, and anyone who installs the MSN 8 software is a sucker.I just brought up a browser and went into a webpage, it went to the activation page, it activated, and it was ready to go.The wonderment after all that time on dialup.It was like i had been broken out of prison, you know what i mean.
Anyway, so i do some tests to see how fast my download is.65KB a second.I try it again.65KB a second.And this is the way it's been ever since.There has not been one time where my connection has slowed down, the server i'm connecting to permitting.It always goes as fast as possible.It's fantastic.And downtime?None yet.I've had it for about a month, so it could go down sometime in the future, i guess.
Okay, anyway, my first couple of days i hit a snag:i couldn't play any games online.So i was like, WTF is this??So i try going to this website, and it appears that the modem i got, the Arescom 800, does not allow any ports to go through, which not only means no games, but also means no networking.That is according to everybody on this and other websites.Okay, s othe next day i call up MSN, and they tell me the same thing.
Well unfortunately, the people on this site, and the MSN rep are morons, because after a little investigating on MSN's support site i found out there was a firmware upgrade you could install for the modem.I installed it, and BAM, no more problems.I can play any game online to my hearts content.I can also network through a router, simple as can be.Wireless or not(i have a wireless router with a 4 port hub as well).
I've played RTCW, ET, MOH, CS, AND Halo online.I get pings of anywhere between 100, and 60.I am very, very happy.
So, in closing, it was very easy to set up, required NO SOFTWARE to install, and the service is superb, having no downtime, and constantly going at the speed as advertised.I can do anything you can do on any broadband connection.There's no restrictions, there's no problems.And i can't even say that about cable.It's speed would go up and down.
Oh, and for the record, don't try to tell me how much better cable is, because i can download 100 MB in less than half an hour.I can download one megabyte in about 12 seconds.And i can download 400 MB in 2 hours.So, i'm not bad off, at all.Sure if they had cable here i'd get it, but they don't.But it's not that much faster, so i'm not complaining.And i'm not inept, so i didn't have any problems.
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 Review by Sr Cardgage
Posted: 5.8 years ago
member for 5.9 years, 27 visits, last login: 4.3 years ago
Rio Rancho,Sandoval,NM
$44 per month
about 7 days
Qwest
"Reliable connection, good speed"
"Unacceptable equipment, clueless MSN support, no newgroup server"
"Good once you figure out everything on your own"
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I am using the Qwest/MSN 640/256 package. I'm only very recently qualified for DSL at my house. The local cable company has been promising internet since last fall but still hasn't delivered, so I was happy to be able to get DSL.
The equipment arrived in a timely manner and the connection was installed on the promised day. I was up-and-running in a short amount of time at about 530/210 (normal losses). Trying to use the installation cd on my second computer always caused the router to lock up. I then realized I didn't need it... the connection was already working on the second computer.
The connection is reliable and the speed is good.
The firewall portion of the supplied Actiontec 1524 is unacceptable. Port forwarding only works when the router is at the "basic" (i.e. wide-open except for NAT) firewall setting. This isn't mentioned in the manual -- you have to figure it out yourself. Why they can't just give us a modem without a firewall that we can't disable (to use one of our own choosing), I don't know.
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Review by jjipmreza
Posted: 6 years ago
member for 6 years, 0 visits, last login: 6 years ago
Vancouver,Clark,WA
$34 per month
about 14 days
"Reliable so far, free bill pay, MSN 8 has some good features"
"Tech support can't help setup a LAN"
"Better than cable for the price and more features too!"
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Well it started off a little rocky trying to setup a LAN. MSN Tech support gave me information that was incorrect and seemed unknowledgeable. With some research on the web at the Linksys tech site I found good information for setting up a LAN with the router using Qwest. I have the Aerscom 800 DSL modem and a Linksys router. You have to change the IP address of the router to 192.168.1.2 due to the fact that the DSL modem uses the regular 192.168.1.1(I am sure it is the same with any router you use with Qwest). All that work trying to figure it out and it was a few second fix! Oh well it's been up and running good for 2 months so far. I use to have cable since the Excite days but overtime got fed up with the Cap and price increase and the worse was when Comcrap took it over. Rates keep going up and service keeps going down. So I decide to try DSL since they had a good sale for MSN/Qwest for $34.99 a month and this is less than the rising cable company(because you know it's going to go up again!).
They actually give you some nice free features and a somewhat decent browser. Things that an ISP should do for the money you pay them so that if you choose to use them. You also can use any browser you like and don't have to use MSN 8. Speeds are at 538 down / 218 up (promised more but this seems decent considering I have 50ft of phone cord as a temporary line). Have been gaming too much but so far seems to connect about the same as cable. Pages load just as fast as cable and transmission speeds are about half of cable but hey it's $20 cheaper ($34.99 first year) and this works best for me with my new mortgage payment!
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