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Review by Chester West 
UPDATED: 4 years ago
member for 8.4 years, 283 visits, last login: 3.2 years ago
 West Chester,Butler,OH
 $40 per month
 about 12 days
 Cincinnati Bell
CLEC party: Cincinnati Bell
 "good upload speed"
 "poor download speed at long distance, static ip extra, routing glitch/suspicious proxy issues cause small annoying pauses in IE"
 "should be 3.0 getting <1.5"
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Tech support wont resolve distance issues to allow me any better than 1.3 mb download; even 1 yr after thier so called 3mb upgrade-my speed didnt change at all.
It seems some kind of funky routing is going on at times with my connection causing an annoing pause with each web click in explorer- no noticible degredation in overall speed, just an added pause at the beginning that wasnt always there. So I can't push the issue with tech support, because a small pause and then fast burst of speed is acceptable to them.
Also, when gaming my connection to the server is randomly dropped on occasion, only to go back to windows to see my connection is still fine in every way (so no recourse as far as zoomtown support is concerned).
Let me know when the supposed DSL2 upgrade happens; I'll be on roadrunner.
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Review by laurengr
Posted: 4.2 years ago
member for 4.2 years, 0 visits, last login: 4.2 years ago
Cincinnati,Hamilton,OH
$44 per month
about 15 days
Cincinnati Bell
CLEC party: Cincinnati Bell
"none any more"
"bad speed, poor service, poor tech support knowledge, expensive"
"review other alternatives first`"
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We're in Clermont Cnt, Union Twnshp, Cherry Grove area, less than 3 miles driving dist. to the CO. When we had Fuse.net setup in out house 5 yrs ago, we were told we're "close to the CO." As of last Nov., we've gotten further from it. But WE didn't move! At the time of install, we had new line drawn from the street to the house, new demarc, & new wire to a punchdown block & separated out & then new cat 5 wiring for every room in the house.
Anyways, they came out when I complained about the poor speeds late last year & replaced the Cisco router we had purchased (which they kept!!), & replaced it with a $20 piece of junk that no longer can keep our connectivity going. It consistently performs at 768 & below & they said that because of our distance from the CO that we cannot get the 3 mbps, or 2 mbps, or 1.5 mbps that everyone else can get. Supposedly, today, we're at 1 mbps right now, but we're lucky to see 768 mbps, and that's only if the connection doesn't keep dropping. Which it does all the time. Tomorrow, they're conducting a line test.
Our neighbor gave up Fuse 2 mths ago & went to Time Warner & he loves it, no more probs. Other techies in my business all say the same thing, so I see a new ISP in our very near future. And at the same time, I believe I'll be getting rid of the old POTS stuff & saving myself a bunch of money every month.
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Review by thecrock138
UPDATED: 4.3 years ago
member for 5.8 years, 581 visits, last login: 203 days ago
Williamsburg,Clermont,OH
$44 per month
about 10 days
Cincinnati Bell
CLEC party: Cincinnati Bell
"Nothing Really"
"Price, Speed, Tech Support"
"Biggest Ripoff in my area"
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Update 7/10/2005: Zoomtown has went to crap. They are by far the biggest rip off in the area, $44.95 for 2/768, I have recently (3 Months Ago) switched to Cable on pulling 6+/768. The reason for the swicth, Zoomtowns reliability went to crap, I was losing connectivity daily. Tech support does not have a clue about anything. The price/performance ration is 100/1, they have just went downhill. Also don't expect any upgrades in the near future. I would not recommend Cincinnati Bell's Zoomtown to anyone unless its all you can get. There is a quote on their website that says its the cheapest broadband in the area, I dont think so. It also says up to 3 mbps, find someone that is getting 3 and I will give you a Dollar.
Update 3/30/2005: I just figured I would chime back in with a minor gripe. Zommtown is not the fastest BB in town anymore, Adelphia Premier plan is now 6/768 $60 and the regualr is 4/384 $42. I have been hearing of possible upgrades and this and that, but again cincinnati bell is behind the competetion. Roadrunner is faster as well, when will bell catch up and realize that they need to grab the ball. To be honest there broadband is the worst deal in town, 2.5/768 for $42 a month compared to roadrunner and adelphia, which boasts higher D/L speeds. I'm tempted to get 6/768 from Adelphia and pay the extra $18, but that brings me to my next point. ZT is so stable and pings for gaming are excellent. I guess I should'nt complain because there are some getting less or none at all.
I've had Cincinnati Bell's zoomtown for almost 2 years now and have experienced only a few minor problems. Installation was a breeze and I was up and running in minutes. When we ordered are connection was 768/384 until last week when we received a free upgrade to 3000/768. They also throw in 4 Dynamic IP's, which makes sharing the connection really easy. Now for the connection, it has been rock solid since I've had the service. I dont even remember the last time it was out (probably just jinxed it). Anyways I am very pleased with the price ($42) and speed (3/768) of the service and recommend it.
»www.zoomtown.com
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 Review by wallaby
Posted: 4.5 years ago
member for 9.9 years, 814 visits, last login: 23 days ago
Cincinnati,Hamilton,OH
$44 per month
about 14 days
Cincinnati Bell
"Very Stable, Static IP Option, Easy to Install Yourself"
"Price: preferred pricing requires bundling services"
"A solid alternative to cable or BPL (Yes we have BPL here)"
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We were one of the 1st to have Zoomtown DSL here in the Hyde Park area and experienced many of the early DSL evolving growing pains back when we started in 1998. The original speed was 768/384 kbps which changed to 1.5 Mbps/768 kbps and now has reached 3 Mbps/768 kbps. Somewhere around 2000 we changed to the DDSL (Direct DSL) level which gave us a static IP and a direct port on the DSLAM. Since then the service has been stable and reliable. We still use a Cisco 675 router/modem (got a backup just in case) with current firmware. Recent speed tests show around 2.7 Mps / 630 kbps actual which is quite decent. We are about 6000' from the CO and have newer phone wiring from street to house. There is no line noise. We pay $ 44.95 for DDSL and thats the bundle price! Without a static IP can get as low as $ 30 monthly. CurrentLink BPL is cheaper and RoadRunner/Earthlink cable is faster. It really depends upon have you save by bundling around here. Cincinnati Bell (Zoomtown) needs to ramp up their speeds to stay in the forefront. Also requires a phone line, no naked DSL around here!
Bottom line: a reliable alternative to cable or BPL
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Review by Spike_KK
Posted: 4.7 years ago
member for 5.4 years, 143 visits, last login: 2.9 years ago
Hamilton,Butler,OH
$45 per month
Cincinnati Bell
CLEC party: Cincinnati Bell
"Excellent Reliability - Good Support - Speed 3000K/768K (Get 85% of that)"
"Startup was lengthy for new construction home. Billing issues never fully straightened out."
"Solid company with great reliability and speed. Support is above average. Billing issues were a drawback."
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Review by knightcrusdr
Posted: 4.7 years ago
member for 4.7 years, 2 visits, last login: 4.5 years ago
Falmouth,Pendleton,KY
 Business customer
$110 per month
about 5 days
Cincinnati Bell
CLEC party: Cincinnati Bell
"Extremely Reliable, NEVER have had a problem."
"Price"
"It Can't Get Any Better Than Zoomtown"
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A Little Background On Where I am coming from....
I grew up on a farm on the outskirts of a rural town, so you can imagine the horrors from dialup that we had to deal with. The phone lines out there have to be the same ones that were there when Alexander Ghrahm Bell was still alive. The maximum connection we can get with a 56K modem is 24K.
Back in 1997, our town was flooded. Everything was devestated. To our luck, the local phone switch station was in the flood plain too, so we had to service for 3+ weeks. They had to rebuild all the circuits and they moved the station to higher land. The only good thing about the disaster is the fact that they used all new equiptment, and the technology that was emerging back then was DSL. So suffice to say, our little town, out in the middle of nowhere, got DSL really early on... I would guess most likely a decade ahead of what they planned probabally.
My uncle purchased a building downtown and the first thing that popped into my head was DSL. Well, I talked him into it, and one day in August 2002 we ordered it, and I got the appointement for installation for a week from the time I ordered it. The guy came right on time and installed everything in less than 10 minutes. He did tell me that trying to run multiple computers and servers from behind a router was impossible. (I don't think this guy knew what he was talking about, because I had all my servers running the next day.)
Ever since that day of installation, my network has never disconnected for any reason. There has never been any downtime, and the speeds have always been consitently high.
I first ordered the Small Business DSL, which had the 768k/down and 384k/up and one static ip address for $110 per month, and then a few months ago they must have dropped that service, as my speed was upgraded to 1.5M/down and 768k/up for no addiciton charge a month. I run a few websites off servers on this connection, and have never had a problem with lag or bottlenecks. The upload speeds are great, compared to other services from other DSL providers.
The price it the only downside to everything, as being a business we have to pay $50 more than a resident for the same service. I always hated the fact that the phone company did that for all of its services. It is discrimination I tell you!  However, for the realibility that Zoomtown delievers, I don't think twice about paying that monthly, as long as they keep it up for years to come!
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Review by Granamear
Posted: 5.2 years ago
member for 5.4 years, 722 visits, last login: 1.5 years ago
Florence,Boone,KY
$49 per month
about 7 days
Cincinnati Bell
CLEC party: Cincinnati Bell
"Fast and dependable"
"Poor Service - Must keep POTS."
"Works as advertised"
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The connection is fast, I routinely get 3Mbps download speeds. Uptime is good, I can recall only two outages in the 4 years I have had them.
The only real problem I have with them is whenever I need to call for support, no one has any clue what’s going on. Fortunately I don't need to call support often. When I called to have my dynamic IP switched to static IP they screwed the service up for two weeks before I found someone who could fix it, and then it was done remotely in 5 minutes.
I don't like that I have to keep my POTS line though.
The high speeds and reliability out weigh the poor service so I wouldn’t have a problem recommending Cincinnati Bell for DSL service.
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Review by brad15058
Posted: 5.2 years ago
member for 5.2 years, 0 visits, last login: 5.2 years ago
Florence,Boone,KY
$30 per month
about 2 days
"speed"
"none"
"high speed and low cost"
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I had Zoomtown installed about 6 months ago and have had no problems at all. I installed it myself on the day they told me my account would be "turned on" which was 2 days after walking out of the Cincinnati Bell Store in the Florence Mall.
I decided to make the change from Insightbb when I was getting DAILY disconnects. These disconnects were for hours not minutes. I first talked with the tech on the phone, which had me on hold most of the time. I'm guessing asking someone else what to do next. Then they sent someone out three days later to check my connection. The guy who came and test my connection speed stated and I quote, "I'm surprised you can even get HBO on this connection. It's measuring at -17." What -17 means I don't know, but anything with a minus sign when it comes to a connection has got to be bad. Then he left stating it was a problem outside the house and would need to call to have another guy check that part out. Four days later, I get a note on the door stating the guy had been there and everything was ok. I read this note while sitting at my connectionless internet connection. I called the tech back and bah, bah, bah...
Speed? I downloaded the Windows XP SP2 (266MB) in less than 12 minutes. No kidding. .
Now let’s talk cost. The first 4 months of Zoomtown (3mb/768kb) only cost me $10/month and only $30/month after that. Insightbb was costing me $47/month w/ horrible connection speeds not including there reduction in speed they gave their customers.
Having my home phone, two cell phones (750 anytime minutes) and DSL included on the same bill of only $87/month, rocks!! You cannot beat it.
Having all on separate bills and with separate companies was costing me almost $200/month.
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Review by MTP623
Posted: 5.3 years ago
member for 5.3 years, 3 visits, last login: 5.3 years ago
Erlanger,Kenton,KY
$43 per month (12 month contract)
about 2 days
Cincinnati Bell
"Great upload speed (768K up), WAS fast"
"Been VERY unrelable (constantly disconnects during bad weather), stuck on 768K still, tech support isn't very knowlageable"
"If you live in Erlanger, GET Insight BB, untill they finally repair the issue"
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I signed up for ZoomTown back on my birthday 3 years ago. It was pretty great then, was getting the old speed of 768/384, and was allot better than my old MSN Dialup. But eventually I ran into problems, it kept on disconnecting out of no where, especally during rain storms. They eventually repaired it, though. Then, this year they upgraded their speeds. I guess they realised that Insight and RoadRunner were killing them in their download speeds, so they rased it to compete (while killing them with their upload). I was upgraded pretty quickly and I loved the new speed and liked ZoomTown better than ever..........
Untill on a Friday in late April, around 4:30 PM, it started disconnected again. I couldn't connect at all. I called the tech support upwards to six to seven times, and all they did is lowered my speed to 768K (since it was the only way I would stay connected, but it still drops during storms), and sent a tech out twice that just replaced my line, which did nothing. They continued to tell me "You can't get 3M where you live". I GOT IT FOR A FULL MONTH, before they messed it up. Their techs didn't seem to know what their talking about either, like they were just reading from some dumb book. One even said I was connected at 3M when I took a test several times ( »download.fuse.net ), and got like 690K. I know its a line issue, but they REFUSE to fix it. My old dialup sometimes seemed more relable than ZT can be sometimes.
I hate to say it, but I am about to switch to Insight BB. I know their upload stinks but I want something that will be RELABLE and will have faster than 75KB/sec downloads when I should and used to get 275KB/sec downloads. I download ALLOT, so the problems I been getting really tick me off. And I don't play online games too much, all I usually upload is a few images here and there.
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Review by bsdbytes
UPDATED: 5.3 years ago
member for 9.3 years, 438 visits, last login: 185 days ago
Cincinnati,Hamilton,OH
$45 per month (12 month contract)
about 7 days
Cincinnati Bell
"Low latency. Mail and News servers are fast."
"Must use Cinbell SMTP server. Only get half of advertised speed."
"Don't plan on using many of broadbandreports.com tools."
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First the good. The connection is very stable and fast. I signed up for 768/384. I'm maintaining a connection at 736/416. There is very little latency. You get a dynamic IP in the 10.X.X.X range. The mail and news servers are quick too. There is no contract except for the equipment which you must return if you cancel in the first year. Cincinnati Bell provides you with a Westell DSL modem (model 2110) and they ship it to you home via FedEX a day before service will be turned on. With the modem is a self-install kit. It's very easy, plug in the filters on each phone and hook up the modem. You can use Ethernet or USB to connect to the computer. They include a piece of paper printed very large with the date you can start using the service. On that date turn on the modem, power up the PC and start surfing. There was no login or settings in my case that I had to mess with, it really was that easy.
Now for the bad. The news servers are horrible. Yes they are quick, but that is because there is nothing on them. Retention is a few days at best and not complete at all. The mail servers leave somthing to be desired too. Currently the ISP Fuse (which is run by Cincinnati Bell) is blocking ALL emails from MSN. As a result of the recent spate of viruses, they have also decided to block all ping traffic too. This makes my job very hard. I have to login to a computer remotely and perform my traceroute and pings from there. I have emailed their tech support a few times and to date still have not received a response. I tried calling tech support and gave up. Their hold time was more than 30 minutes.
Overall the connection is solid and the speeds are consistent and reliable. But if you need basic internet features enabled and emails to get through, you might want to look elsewhere.
***Update July 4, 2004...Cincinnati Bell upgraded my connection to 3000/784 for an additional $3. It used to cost $42, but now cost $45. The funny part is they advertised this as a free upgrade. My speeds are now on par with Roadrunner downloads and almost double the upload speed. The connection is usually pretty solid, but lately has started to retrain for no reason. Last week my speed has dropped to dial-up speeds. A tech will be out next week to fix and hopefully will correct the retraining issue. In my previous review I stated that MSN emails were blocked. That has been corrected but pings and traceroutes are still blocked. Unfortunately I will be forced to go back to RR by the end of summer as I will need these tools available to me.***
***Update July 24, 2004...My prior connection problems were traced to a bad ethernet cable. My speeds are in the 1500/600 range with an advertised 3000/768. I still have very low latency with ping times still in the teens, even after 10 hops. I did have to cancel my service and switch back to Roadrunner for several reasons. I would strongly consider going back if Cincinnati Bell offered naked DSL and lowered the price.
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Cincinnati Bell
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