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Review by D3daved See Profile

  • Location: Parkesburg, Chester, PA, USA
  • Cost: $49 per month (24 month contract)
  • Install: about 33 days
  • Telco party Focal
  • CLEC party: Kennett Internet
Focal out of biz
Focal out of biz
Focal out of biz
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

Focal out of biz

member for 23.2 years, 528 visits, last login: 16.8 years ago
updated 20.7 years ago

goddfather40
join:2000-12-16
Aliso Viejo, CA

goddfather40

Member

Wrong ISP

DSLextreme is a local ISP in Southern California. You must have accidentally listed them as your ISP.

cabana
Department of Adjustments
Mod
join:2000-07-07
New York, NY

cabana

Mod

Re: Wrong ISP

Moderator's note: Review has been moved to proper ISP listing.
D3daved
join:2001-01-19
Parkesburg, PA

D3daved to goddfather40

Member

to goddfather40
OOPS!
Thanks
Good thing we have moderators.






Review by whuppy See Profile

  • Location: Lambertville, Hunterdon, NJ, USA
  • Cost: $84 per month (24 month contract)
  • Install: about 50 days
  • Telco party Verizon
  • CLEC party: Focal
only DSL provider in Lambertville
unhelpful customer service
it's them or Comcast, and I'm thinking about Comcast now
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Tech Support:
Services:

I ordered the Residential ADSL with a static IP address for an additional $5/month. I don't fault Kennett or Focal with the installation delay because the bulk of it was Verizon's usual shenanigans. In fact, during this period I enjoyed a healthy "us against Verizon" camaraderie with my contact person at Kennett, whom I will call "S".

My problems with Kennett began last Friday, when the sync light on my Westell Wirespeed DSL modem went steady, indicating that it was finally connected to the internet. A quick examination of the modem's diagnostics revealed that it was using a PPPoE connection, and that the static IP number was assigned to the modem. I thought that was odd because with my previous ISP, the excellent Atlantech Online, the static IP was assigned to the computer hooked up to the modem and not the modem itself. After all, wasn't the whole point of having a static IP to access your computer from the outside world? What good is outside access to your modem?

So I read the documentation that came with the Wirespeed and discovered that the way it worked was that it would assign an address to your computer via DHCP and would send all incoming IP connections to the assigned address via network address translation ("NAT"). So I turned the "Static NAT" option on and allowed the Wirespeed to reboot. A brief look at the diagnostics after reboot indicated that Static NAT was turned on, but incoming traffic did not get rerouted from the modem to the computer.

When I called Kennett to try and figure out what to do next, they treated me like I did not know what I was doing. For example, S said that the Wirespeed was merely a "bridge" and that it didn't do NAT and that the modem's Static NAT option did not do what the modem's documentation said it did. I presume that S thought that when I used the term NAT that I meant that I was trying to get the Wirespeed to do IP masquerading for an entire LAN. This is not the case. (I did try bypassing my NAT box at first, but gave up on that approach quickly and did a factory reset on the Wirespeed.) All I wanted the modem to do was take incoming IP connections from its PPPoE connection, and use its 192.168.0.1 interface to forward the connection to my computer's 192.168.0.10 interface. (Both IP numbers are factory default.)

S offered to send a technician out to fix the problem for the low, low price of $95 an hour. Apparently, Kennett believes that they had "already gone above and beyond" (their words) the call of duty because they had already set up my computer on the DSL line. This is not true. People from Focal came out and set up the DSL modem, only to discover that the Verizon line was defective. They said that once Verizon fixed the problem, everything would work fine. Kennett did not hook up my computer: I did. They did not even do their duty, much less perform above and beyond, and they then refused to follow through and make my static IP the least bit useful, choosing instead to try to intimidate me by reciting the RFC number for private IP addresses.

Currently, I am awaiting a replacement DSL modem, which S has said should solve my problems and work as advertised. Even if it winds up working perfectly, I

am still very dissatisfied with Kennett's attitude. I expect this sort of indifference, contempt, obfuscation and ducking of responsibility from the likes of Verizon and Comcast, but not from a small operator like Kennett. If I'm going to be treated this poorly, I feel that I may as well be doing business with Verizon or Comcast -- at least I won't have any dashed expectations.

member for 23 years, 18 visits, last login: 20.1 years ago
lodged 21.7 years ago

whuppy
join:2001-03-22
Lambertville, NJ

whuppy

Member

Week-and-a-half (and counting) Service Outage

Hi there, me again. My DSL went out last Monday the 28th, and I've been calling them every day since. Even now they have no idea when (or if) it's going to be reconnected. They blame Focal, who blames Verizon. And of course Verizon won't tell Focal what's going on, and Focal won't tell Kennett what's going on.
whuppy

whuppy

Member

Re: Week-and-a-half (and counting) Service Outage

I wound up terminating my service with them. They were not able to give me any answer about when my service would be reconnected, even after I had been disconnected for over a month. Hell-o, Comcast! (Shudder)

Review by onehundred See Profile

  • Location: Parkesburg, Chester, PA, USA
  • Cost: $59 per month (24 month contract)
  • Telco party Verizon
  • CLEC party: Focal
Guy on the phone seemed knowledgable; Smaller Co. servicing rural areas
Guy on the phone seemed knowledgable
Decided not to go with them
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

This is a little late but I finally had time. I had called Kennett around Sept. hoping to be able to get DSL by Thanksgiving. Well I asked the person who was helping me if I could just sign up over the phone. He said it would be easier to use the Internet. I think he was trying to save himself from some headaches by not writing 'all' that information. So, I call back a week later and ask him what should I expect and when should I expect it to be done. I also asked him to confirm my information. He told me that the phone co. would have to come out and the clec and he had all my information. So a week later I think gee this is funny should'nt they at least confirm some kinda of appointment because my box is inside my house so I call back. He says that they are coming and I don't need an appoinment. Well Thanksgiving is getting close and I'm think this'll be sweet; Three days off to check out my high speed connection. So I call about a week and a half before Turkey day since I'm getting nervous that what I planned to do for the holiday will be shot to hell. Well lo and behold he has no information on me and doesn't remember talking to me. Cripes am I steamed. I would like to thank Kennet for ruining my holdiday weekend. I mean I had a nice weekend of course but I had been waiting several years to get broadband.

member for 22.3 years, 221 visits, last login: 3.2 years ago
lodged 22.1 years ago


cool_breeze
@kenets01.pa.comcast.

cool_breeze

Anon

kennett sucks

I tried to deal with those folks to. Some lady joan was the biggest dipshit i have ever talked to
and some ignorant salesman who treated me like he didn;t care if i signed on with them or not accidently got discconnected with me when i raised my voice to him about the same issues you explained.
anyway comcast is finally here and screw kennett internet

Review by eu3203 See Profile

  • Location: Kennett Square, Chester, PA, USA
  • Cost: $79 per month (24 month contract)
  • Install: about 40 days
  • Telco party Verizon
  • CLEC party: Focal
Much faster than Verizon at my previous home
Took a long time, still used Verizon for local loop......
Excellent speed, reliable news server
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

I thought that there was no hope of broadband at our new home--Comcast keeps saying 6 months till cable modems, Verizon doesn't offer service. A little ISP right in town said they can hook me up-and they did( took about 6 weeks though!)

1.5 x 512 ADSL for 79/month. Speed test has shown maximum of about 1200 x 400, which is much faster than my old Verizon ADSL, so I am content with that.
Good news server, no major complaints.

member for 22.2 years, 1 visits, last login: 22.2 years ago
lodged 22.2 years ago


PACAVER
@162.33.x.x

PACAVER

Anon

did you get your speed ??

If you actually believe that you received anywhere close to the speed you ar touting, check again!

Review by natesmith See Profile

  • Location: Kennett Square, Chester, PA, USA
  • Cost: $80 per month (24 month contract)
  • Install: about 35 days
  • Telco party Verizon
  • CLEC party: Focal
Great network support from kennett.net, they have their act together.
Stuck using the hack that is pppoe; this is Focal's fault though. Focal also discourages use of static IP's
Only provider in the area,Considering the cost of dial up is $25/mo + $25 extra line, you'd be crazy not to pay $50/mo for DSL
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

I ordered 1500/512 at $79/mo, + $5/mo for static IP. I rarely get more than 150KB/s down (~1200kbits/s) but can usually push 450kbits/s out (55-60KBps). They gave me the first few months of static service free as it was not ready when my service began. AFAIK, we still have no reverse dns even on my static ip (Little help there guys?) But it's not the worst thing in the world. The service out of kennett.net is great, (people-wise) and the pppoe setup, although a hopeless kludge, requires me to use the Roaring Pengin pppoe client on my firewall.

member for 22.6 years, 13 visits, last login: 22.3 years ago
lodged 22.6 years ago

whuppy
join:2001-03-22
Lambertville, NJ

whuppy

Member

technical and customer service cluelessness

I ordered a similar deal from Kennett and just went live. (I'm not going to grouse about how long it took to go live because that was under Verizon's control, not Kennett's.) Like you, I also ordered a static IP number. What I got was a Focal PPPoE connection where the static IP number is assigned to the DSL modem itself. This struck me as kind of screwy because my previous DSL provider, the fantastic Atlantech Online, assigned my static IP number to the computer hooked up to the DSL modem and not the modem itself. This was as it should be, right? I mean, I'm not paying an extra ten bucks a month for the privilege of pinging my modem from the outside world, right? I'm paying for the ability to reach the computer hooked up to the modem!
Anyway, all is not lost because the dsl modem, a Westell Wirespeed, has an option called "Static NAT" whereby all incoming connections get rerouted to the computer hooked up to the modem.
Anyway, long story short, the static NAT function doesn't work as advertised, Kennett says it's my problem although they'd be glad to fix it for $95 an hour, and that the dsl modem just "bridges" and doesn't perform NAT. In other words, they'll charge me for the privilege of a static IP, they just don't think it's their problem to make it the least bit useful.
Needless to say, I'm looking for another provider. Can anyone help me?

Review by CountryBoyX77 See Profile

  • Location: Essex, Baltimore, MD, USA
  • Cost: $79 per month (12 month contract)
  • Telco party Verizon
  • CLEC party: Covad
Attractive prices for service
Did not keep me up to date to my satisfaction on the status of switch
I wanted to change my review since I feel covad.net is partly to blame for this as well
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

I emailed and emailed them and they never responded until I told them I wanted to cancel the install! I am editing my review because covad.net is partly responsible as well. In my dealings with covad I have found this out and I think Kennett deserves the benefit of the doubt. I do hold kennett partly responsible along with covad so I have changed my review to reflect such.

member for 22.8 years, 5 visits, last login: 22.6 years ago
updated 22.7 years ago







Review by whataboutme4 See Profile

  • Location: Kennett Square, Chester, PA, USA
  • Cost: $49 per month (24 month contract)
  • Install: about 33 days
  • Telco party Verizon
  • CLEC party: Focal
Only provider to offer service in my area, fortunately-its pretty good...
Install sub-contractor somewhat clueless, PPPoE
Good value-only service available
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

Ordered 768 x 128 , tested around 700 x 110--not bad. Efficient Speedstream 5260, dynamic IP-static was $5/month more which I did not need.

member for 22.8 years, 1 visits, last login: 22.8 years ago
lodged 22.8 years ago

D3daved
join:2001-01-19
Parkesburg, PA

D3daved

Member

Wonderfull!!!

Im in the process of getting same service and price through Kennet Internet as well here in parkesburg 19365. Glad to hear it went mostly smooth and hope to have a smooth ride as well.

[text was edited by author 2001-06-10 18:14:17]

nowayman
@voicenet.com

nowayman

Anon

NOWAY!

Anyone in the Mendenhall CO (610-388-xxxx, 19317 or 19348) would be CRAZY to pay $149+ month for IDSL! Verizon will never offer DSL out of the Mendenhall CO because it does not have it's own switch (it runs off the Chester Heights and Kennett COs). Hold on just a little longer... Comcast (@HOME) is working hard to complete digital cable and broadband system updates... Should be done sometime early 2002 (or sooner)!
System

Anon

Kennett Fails on delivery

I reviewed DSL reports at the end of August (after receiving notice that my current DSL provider "DSL.net" was going out of business and I had only 1 day's notice) and based upon current reviews it appeared as though Kennett Internet (also called Beacon) might be a good choice. When I initially contracted with them in the beginning of September they informed me that they would have my connection set up in about 4 weeks. About 3 weeks later they called and said they would be scheduling the instal. One week later I called and they said they were setting it up. Two weeks later I called them and they said they would have the line installed and running in one week. After not hearing anthing during the next week - I called and spoke with them and they said that they could not instal DSL because of the distance. So, in summary, Kennett Internet led me down the rosey path for almost 8 weeks - and then after my constant calling them - they tell me that I can't get DSL service - even though I've had for the last year and a half. I didn't even get an apology - just "we can't do it".