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 Review by bikepunk 
UPDATED: 6.7 years ago
member for 7.5 years, 246 visits, last login: 6.3 years ago
 Portland,Multnomah,OR
 $39 per month
 about 7 days
 Qwest
 "Cost, was on and ready when scheduled."
 "News groups, MSNDSL 1000"
 "Not bad for the price, but not home-network friendly."
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The setup is easy and the surfing is at the speed promised.
I ordered the 256k and that is all I get (but I do spike up above that now and then). The modem is an Accton MDNDSL 1000, and as noted by many postings only supports one address for DHCP. MSN uses as dynamic IP addressing system for its broadband here in Portland, OR.
The salesperson said that MSN broadband supported home networks. Course a call to the tech support proved this was not true. I am using a D-link DI-604 (I'm cheap) with two XP and one win98se2 machines.
There was a problem where the modem stopped responding after about 24 hours. The solution provided by MustangGrl was to delete the occurance of the DSL connection tool on all computers on the network. If you like the tool, the put your modem on a timet to power on/off/on when you are sleeping. THANKS MustangGrl.
There is minimal newsgroups with MSN. If you like newsgroups, and don't want to pay extra for a newsgroup subscription (like I said, I'm cheap), the go for some other service.
Finally, tech support stinks--but, tell me who doesn't have crappy tech support.
Mike
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 Review by MustangGrl
UPDATED: 6.7 years ago
member for 7.2 years, 476 visits, last login: 2.5 years ago
Los Angeles,Los Angeles,CA
$49 per month
about 5 days
Verizon (ex GTE)
CLEC party: Verizon (ex GTE)
"Fast and very reliable"
"Nothing"
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we were dial up customers with msn and still have a year contract so when we got the email that dsl was available in our area we signed up right away on the 49.95 plan for 768/128, we ordered on July 24 and we was up and running on July 29 we also recieved the modem the same day my line was provisioned, I'm using usb because for some reason my ethernet cable isn't working too well but usb is really fast and we're happy,we get on the speedtests 730/136 which isn't bad we can't complain its a lot better then dial up speeds and we can play all my games like Serious Sam Second Encounter and Unreal Tournament perfectly we've had no problems with the service and there hasn't been one interruption yet. we couldn't rate the tech support because we haven't had to contact them about anything. Overall we're very pleased with msn and i would recommend them to all my friends and family.
update on 3/5/02
Connection still going great, I did have some instances when my connection would go completly down every hour and it turned out to be the dsl connection tool that is with the msn 8 broadband software I removed that from my startup and get no more disconnects. I got the newer modem the dsl 1000 instead of the arescom netdsl 800 and it seems to be working great but I'm not getting my 730/136 anymore its more like 722/80 I would call tech support but I really dont feel like dealing with them right now. Now I'm just waiting for the website to turn of the nat firewall so I can go with my own firewall, it doesn't cause any problems with me or anything I do but I just rather have more control over something. So far I'm enjoying my dsl connection.
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 Review by PradaZ2
UPDATED: 6.7 years ago
member for 8.8 years, 260 visits, last login: 3.5 years ago
Silver Spring,Montgomery,MD
$45 per month (12 month contract)
about 30 days
"Good speeds for the prices"
"wat can i say now"
"Waiting Mode for the new upgrade !!"
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Plane roll to @Comcast
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Review by radi0head
Posted: 6.7 years ago
member for 6.7 years, 33 visits, last login: 4.8 years ago
Portland,Clackamas,OR
Contract price not specified.
about 7 days
Qwest
CLEC party: Qwest
"Quick Setup, did what they said they would do, Good Pricing, No Setup Fee"
"Can't host www, ftp, etc"
"Great for surfers, not for power users; Very plain jane"
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New house approx 7660 feet from CO; Home Networked; We ordered MSN, then decided to read posts; Decided to see what happens anyway.
Received MSN DSL 1000 on the day they said they'd deliver (2/26)
Looked at the quick start guide to see if there were any special instructions
Ditched the MSN 8 sofware (I just want a connection, not all the interfaces. But I'd like to evaluate the other features like parental controls, etc)
Plugged it into the phone line
Plugged the power supply in to get a signal
Setup Linksys BEFW11S4 to use 192.168.x.1 since modem uses linksys default
Powered down the Linksys
Plugged it into the modem
Powered up the Linksys
Disable/Enable Local Area Connection on Win2K laptop to get new IP. Surfed fine.
Powered up desktop computer. Surfed fine.
Speed Tests at 140kbps, 7PM instead of the 256k they advertised; Tweaked MTU later and getting 212k
Will keep service for awhile since I no longer online game and found a decent web host; Still would be nice to host a personal server for web dev and ftp; Will research other ISP's
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Review by Zero_Hour
Posted: 6.7 years ago
member for 6.7 years, 70 visits, last login: 4.8 years ago
Gallup,Mckinley,NM
$48 per month
about 180 days
Qwest
CLEC party: Qwest
"Connection has been stable, virtually no downtime of DSL connection"
"Substandard hardware, misinformed technical support, poor communication between telco & isp"
"if I had to do it all over again..."
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I originally signed on with Qwest when they rolled out DSL in Gallup, NM and provided both the LIne and ISP services. This was good. My line was provisioned in under 2 weeks from date of order, i had a total of less than 48 hours of downtime in the 9+ months I had the service. In Jan of 2002 I was "migrated" to MSN as Qwest moved out of the ISP side of things. I was able to keep my equipment, and a singlr call to tech support remedied my logon issue when the transfer to MSN came through. Then in May of 2002 I moved (just a few blocks away, kept the same phone number) this is where it all started to go downhill.
First of all Qwest's reps were misinformed of the required procedure for transferring my DSL to my new home (de-provisioning, re-provisioning - I have been told so many different things that I could not confidantly advise someone as to how to avoid the nightmare I went through) As a result, my DSL was not activated when originally stated. I was given new activation dates. At least 3 seperate times! Calls to MSN and Qwest did little to iron out the problems, even though I had full documentaion of who I talked to, what they told me, and when they told me it. Part of the problem definitely boils down to a "wall of silence" that seems to be in place between MSN and Qwest. There are apparently a whole host of issues that concenr both parties, but they are unwilling or unable to talk to each other - the customer must play go between. In the end I went a full 3 months without service (this is three months from the date I was originally told I would be back up). MSN did do right by me though, and credited me several months as a way of apologizing for the completely botched way this was handled. I again must emphasize this was not all MSN's fault.
So both MSN and Qwest get low marks for how they handled my move. But the service did get up and running again, so how is the actual service?
Since my move required a new line to be provisioned, it also necessitated a new DSL modem/router The now infamous Arescom 800/860. Installation was a breeze. The modem however has a host of issues. It is very difficult to use in a home networking setup due to the way it's DHCP works, adn many online activities such as gaming, voice chat, or netmeeting function poorly or not at all due to the way that NAT and the built in firewall are implemented. To top it off, I had two of these units fail on me within a 2 month period, which cost me several more weeks of downtime as I waited for replacements to be shipped.
The third modem I recieved is the slightly improved NETdsl 1000 by accton. It has worked flawlessly as far as uptime, but still sufferes from the same networking and NAT/firewall issues as the Arescom. I have recently remedied these issues by obtaining a Cisco 678, flashing the firmware, and programming it (which is not a task for the non-technical) with my MSN keycodes.
Other issues - no more pop3 e-mail - I had it when I migrated to MSN, but since my account was basically wiped out and renewed when I moved, I now only have the MSN hotmail through the MSN browser.
So essentially My take is this - if you are the type that can do things on your own (such as networking and modem programming) on your own with no tech support, and you don't care about the lack of pop3 e-mail MSN will eventually do what you need it too. I would liken it to a plumber doing a great job putting in new pipes but leaving you with really crappy fixtures.
When I can afford the downtime (you must deprovision your lline to move to another ISP if you have MSN) I will almost certainly move to another ISP - I would recommend MSN only if they are the only game in town, as even with all the hassles it beat any form of dialup.
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Review by heihjay
Posted: 6.7 years ago
(review was emailed from domain msn.com)
Holliston,Middlesex,MA
$49 per month (12 month contract)
Verizon
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The installation instructions were easy to follow and MSN also supplied a short movie covering the installation step. The installation was simply! The connection speed has been excellent overall. On average the download speed has been between 717 and 721 kbps. According to the dslreports tool my DSL “rocks”. I’m assuming that’s good. I highly recommend MSN DSL service.
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Review by JigglyMuph
Posted: 6.8 years ago
member for 6.8 years, 8 visits, last login: 6.7 years ago
Pueblo,Pueblo,CO
$40 per month
about 99 days
"It was available in my area"
"Dial-up was more secure, and didnt have a NAT firewall."
"Save your money, MSN is worthless."
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I never thought I would miss AOL untill i got MSN...
nuf said.
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Review by joelsonoda
Posted: 6.8 years ago
member for 6.8 years, 60 visits, last login: 5.6 years ago
Boise,Ada,ID
$39 per month
about 21 days
Qwest
"I've never had problems with the connection"
"They ruined the Arescom modem they sent me"
"If I had to do it all over again I'd go with Ida.net (free static IP)"
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Well, where to begin. I've been on broadband for about two years now. College T1 connections made me dissatisfied with dialup. MSN wasn't my choice. I did MSN because using their service was the only way that I could get a new (DMT) modem, and I didn't want to shell out $100 more to connect because I wasn't certain how long I would keep DSL. MSN didn't make me sign a contract, and the modem is mine to after two more months. The modem is the downside to the service I've had so far. MSN crippled the device before sending it out and ruined it even more through some automatically fetched firmware updates. I cannot access anything on my home network from the internet.
I've had experience with CableOne.net and Qwest DSL here in Boise, and I say that the DSL is the better deal. The downloads are faster with the cable, but it seems to me that there is less latency on the Qwest networks than on the CableOne networks. Web pages just load faster.
I've never had any problems with MSN other than the modem's limitations, but hooking up a Cisco 677 which I got for $40 off of e-bay took care of that problem. I love my DSL and adamantly defend it against the cable loyalists.
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 Review by k0fcc
Posted: 6.8 years ago
member for 9.2 years, 676 visits, last login: 239 days ago
Longmont,Boulder,CO
$49 per month (12 month contract)
about 30 days
Qwest
"Stable connection with the arescomm 800, good price for my area"
"NAT Firewall blocks all Microsoft Games and many other things, Tech Support is horrid"
"If all you want to do is get email & surf, it's much better than AOL."
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I'm 2500 feet past the limit for DSL. Qwest installed a stinger and I was able to switch from IDSL to DSL. I have a very reliable 640/256 connection. Unfortunately, I can't play any games, use CVS, Freenet, some instant messengers, or anything else since the MSN Modem's NAT firewall blocks just about every port. Tech support is absolutely horrid. MSN promises to have things fixed, etc. and they consistently miss their dates but SEVERAL MONTHS. When I first got service it took them 3 months to fix my email such that I could receive email. If all you want to do is surf and read email, MSN 8 is the way to go. It's better than AOL in my oppinion. If you want to do more, look at other providers like Earthlink or Speakeasy. I'm still with MSN because my company requires remote access via Qwest, and this is the only package which falls with in the reimbursable pricing structure. MSN was supposed to have a fix for the firewall in 2002. It's Feb 2003 and there still is no fix. See the MSN forum here at DSL Reports for more information.
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Review by fllenas
Posted: 6.8 years ago
member for 7.1 years, 13 visits, last login: 6 years ago
Tucson,Pima,AZ
$49 per month
Qwest
CLEC party: Qwest
"Tech support is geat and also you can obtain support onlkine which is very convenient."
"If you have problems, Qwest can be slow at times. But they try."
"I enjoy my DSL and could never go back to dial up."
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MSN tech support has always been helpful. Speed is good. Several times I was conecting at 256 instead of 640 and a call to MSN fixed it promptly. They resetted the switch and i was back at 640 in no time.
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MSN
