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Review by puphus 
member for 11.3 years, 239 visits, last login: 1 days ago
lodged 5.4 years ago
 Cincinnati,Hamilton,OH
 $65 per month about 7 days Cincinnati Bell "OK speed for the price & not Time Warner" "A few out packet errors, could be faster" "Best for what is available in Cincinnati"
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Used Roadrunner for years and have always been unhappy with upload speed. Changed to Zoomtown for an increase to 768, but a drop in d/l to 5ish. Noticed a big difference in upload and little to none in down. Install went fine, then sent the package, I hooked it up and it works. I have the Westell 327w modem/router, but just use the modem option with my Zyxel X-550. No real problems. The modem records a few out packet errors now and again, but I really do not notice any issues. I hope Cincinnati Bell upgrades to a 10/1 speed soon!
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Review by cortana
member for 5.8 years, 14 visits, last login: 1.3 years ago
lodged 5.4 years ago
- Xenia,Greene,OH
- $50 per month
- about 9 days
- Cincinnati Bell
- "Easy install, provisioned a few hours early even. speed higher than expected"
- "none yet"
- "Good speed and value for my area"
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After getting fed-up with AT&T having incessant cross-talk on my line, I was ready to change providers to see if it would get any better.
Cincinnati Bell offered a 1 year deal (no contract) at $50 for phone and DSL monthly, free long distance, free caller ID and call waiting. Wireless gateway option was $50 more (rebated after 90 days service), and they offered a start date 9 days forward from the order time.
Cincinnati Bell took care of all the telco paperwork, and the DSL and number port was all painless and done 12 or so hours before they actually promised it.
Modem is a Westell 327W, new in box, delivered a day early. Wireless signal is strong and works everywhere in the house.
I wish every DSL company could make the install this trouble-free. With both AT&T and Speakeasy before (in other places) I've had a rash of random issues from line faults to provisioning errors. No problems here, at least.
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Review by mudtoe
member for 7.6 years, 774 visits, last login: 38 days ago
updated 5.5 years ago
- Cincinnati,Clermont,OH
- Contract price not specified.
- about 120 days
- Cincinnati Bell
- "Once up and running it's very stable. Also works if power goes out as long as you have a UPS."
- "Can be problems if not installed right at local C/O. Download speed not as fast as cable."
- "Once done right it works all the time from then on. Speed could be better."
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I had Zoomtown in the 90s, and then switched to Road Runner cable. I built a new house further out in a county adjacent to Cincinnati, and Road Runner wasn't available, so I went back to Zoomtown. I went with the static IP option on Zoomtown because I needed to run a VPN, and the regular Zoomtown connections are often "double NATed" (i.e. the Zoomtown ADSL modem only presents your router a private address, not an internet address, which your router would then NAT again), which costs an extra $5 per month.
Once everything was up and running it's very stable. After the initial install problems were resolved (see below) the service has never been down as far as I know, and if the power goes out it still works as long as you have a UPS for your ADSL modem, which is a bonus versus Road Runner whose service goes down when the power goes out because they have equipment on the utility poles that need power. Download speed is stated at 5mb and I get about 4.3mb. Upload is stated at 768kb and I get close to that. Road Runner is offering about 7mb download right now, but only 384kb upload for their residential service.
The big downside with Zoomtown for me was the install. I had nothing but problems. I put the order in for the service when the house was about 3/4 complete. I was told that I'd have to be on a waiting list because the local C/O's equipment rack was full and they were going to have to swap out the existing DSLAMs with higher density equipment. This caused about a 60 day delay. When I finally got the service installed the speed varied wildly. I downloaded a test utility and found that about 4% of my packets were getting discarded, and the connection would drop every 70 minutes. It took me several calls to get this information to technical support and get past level one to someone who actually knew something. At first they blamed the problem on my in house wiring, so I had to move the ADSL modem to the dmark location and run a 50 foot ethernet cable to my equipment room in the basement. Problem persisted. Then they sent out a technician who replaced my Westell modem with a Lucent model. Same problem continued. Then I went through a few calls where they basically said that all they were guaranteeing with the service was an average of 128k download, and since I met that they were not going to pursue it further. Good thing for me I "knew" someone at Cincinnati Bell. I called and complained and then they sent out another technician who tested the line all the way back to the junction box in the neighborhood; still no luck. Finally a day after that my whole phone service goes down. I call on my cell phone to ask what's going on and nobody knows. Two hours later my phone service comes back on, the ADSL modem synchs up, and no more lost packets. It's worked perfectly ever since. When I called to find out what they did nobody has a record of my service ever being down or any repair ever taking place. I'm guessing that something was messed up at the local C/O and that they moved my connection to a different DSLAM port. However, nobody would ever fess up to the problem being on their end.
The bottom line to the story is that installation can be a big problem with Zoomtown, and that you have to really be a pest and stay on them in order to get things fixed, or they just blow you off.
If cable became available in my area I'd probably stick with Zoomtown at this point, despite the install problems. The service has been rock solid once the install issues were addressed. Also, since I use a VPN the upload speed is more important to me than the download speed, and Road Runner's upload speed is miserable. Of course if FIOS ever made its way to my door I'd switch in a minute, but since I live in an exurban area I doubt that's ever going to happen.
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Review by jarethfox
member for 7.2 years, 22 visits, last login: 3.6 years ago
lodged 5.5 years ago
- Cincinnati,Hamilton,OH
- $30 per month
- about 12 days
- Cincinnati Bell
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I needed better upload speed thant my RoadRunner, which is 396K up.
I ordered 5M/768K at 30 a month
It took over a week of tech support rebuilding my lines outside and I still have problems.
Westell 610 ADSL2+ was supplied and kept producing dropped out packets.
I still have my Road Runner running, but testing the dsl loss by running two mmorpgs simultanously, but I can no longer log into the modem they replaced it with, which is the older Westell 6100 ADSL serial # C90-611010-06 ,and so I can no long PROVE I'm losing packets being sent.I'm sure Ill find a way to test it, even though I cant find drivers for the USB connection. I'm sure thats how I would need to access it since the ethernet won't access it.
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Review by dualsub2006
member for 5.8 years, 559 visits, last login: 1.5 years ago
updated 5.7 years ago
- Newport,Campbell,KY
- $45 per month
- about 25 days
- "Connection was reliable. Slow, but reliable."
- "Price, (lack of) speed, support"
- "If you have the chance to sign up with Cincinnati Bell; don't."
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I had Zoomtown for years. The 3 Mb package that was never faster than 1.5. I hung in there with Cincinnati Bell forever. Kept paying and paying without getting anything. I called in to tech support about my slow speeds. Every time I was told the same thing, you're too far away for the speed to get any better. Nobody would ever answer why it was installed in the first place if I were too far away. I was always treated like a 2nd class citizen whenever I called Cincinnati Bell.
I switched to Insight and Vonage about a month ago. Best move I ever made. Got my speed up in the ballpark of what is promised (8.5+ on a 10 connection) and attentive support. They actually want to come out and "look in to this" speed issue. Wow. Cincinnati Bell never did that one.
Vonage call quality is PERFECT! I had always been told that my multi handset cordless phone system wasn't capable of delivering high quality sound. I only paid $50 for it so who knew. Vonage on the same phone system sounds crystal clear.
Cost savings is nothing short of amazing. For 2 phone lines and Zoomtown from Cincinnati Bell was $163 with zero (cell phone) long distance usage. With Insight Broadband (Internet only, DirecTV subscriber here) I pay $40 a month. 2 phone lines from Vonage (long distance included) $43. $80 in MY pocket every month.
Funny, when I called Cincinnati Bell to cancel everything nobody treated me like a 2nd class citizen. The dude even called me sir. He was shocked that I wanted it all shut down and shut down now. Didn't even want to talk about "specials". His last question was "do you want to make payment arrangements for your final bill?" I asked what he would do if I didn't, shut me off?
Bottom line, unless Cincinnati Bell is the only rat in the race do yourself a favor and try someone else first. None of these companies are perfect, but you can get a better product elsewhere.
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Review by RouterRunt
member for 8.7 years, 42 visits, last login: 4.4 years ago
lodged 5.8 years ago
- Mason,Warren,OH
- $30 per month
- about 3 days
- "Reliable, easy to set up, minimal problems > 6 months"
- "Happy with choice so far"
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Have been with CincinnatiBell for more than 6 months now, previously with Road Runner.
(1) Until the last couple days, never have had any connection problems. Working with customer service today to reolve problem was helpful--will see if changes work.
(2) Road Runner previously was really spotty, both in connection and transfer speeds. Too often would slow to crawl. Also, couldn't ever get RR and ATT CallVantage to work properly (both said call quality problems were the other's fault) together.
(3) DSL may be slower than cable in my case, but on average when you factor in connection down time and peak time throughput loss, I still think I come out ahead and am willing to wait the extra few minutes when it comes to large downloads. Day to day surfing I don't notice any real difference.
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Review by kcarmody
member for 8.2 years, 124 visits, last login: 37 days ago
lodged 6 years ago
- Dayton,Greene,OH
- $19 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 7 days
- AT&T
- "was up early on the scheduled switchover day; running full speed within 10hrs."
- "none so far"
- "50% faster than AT&T PRO DSL and a better package price."
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advertised 5000/768 and delivered 85% by end of first day. No problem with self install. Westell VersaLink wireless network router included at nc (rebate cost after 90 days of service)
Good move for me....RR is overpriced and owned by Time Warner...yuk!
*Bundle price with home & wireless*...Reg. 29.95/mo for ZoomTown
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Review by mmphoneman
member for 6.7 years, 10 visits, last login: 2.6 years ago
lodged 6.1 years ago
- Cincinnati,Hamilton,OH
- $20 per month
- about 3 days
- Cincinnati Bell
- "Reliability,value"
- "none yet"
- "great speed for money"
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Great news! Cincinnati Bell has turned up their speed to 5M! in certain areas. I've got a question though, my router shows connection at 5M,but when I test it here or at other sites I don't see the full 5M download speed. Courious. I have a Westell Versalink wireless modem/router. Dynamic IP.
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Review by Volomon
member for 6.8 years, 1 visits, last login: 6.1 years ago
lodged 6.1 years ago
- Batavia,Clermont,OH
- $29 per month
- "None"
- "Sniffs Packets, Blocks Sites, and has Poor Service"
- "Look else where for better speed and service."
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I've had Zoomtown for years I would not currently be using it if it wasn't for the fact that the apartment I currently live in would allow alternatives. It has poor service, my previous experience (nearly 2 years ago) was great until I started using my internet more and more. Then one day the internet stopped working all together. It took about 4 days of calling, not one single tech attempted to reach any higher level techs all the same level 1 techs kept giving me ignorant answers that even I who does not work in a tech field could figure out was BS. I switched to Road Runner and immediately it started working again.
Recently however I've found out they block sites with their DNS server I actually had to switch to an OpenDNS, they also sniff packets and throttle your bandwidth, and generally its just poor service they have copper wiring that when it rains the Zoomtown actually loses connection! This is the quality of Zoomtown.
What speed did you order, at what monthly price?,
I got the standard intro package its 29.99 for what is suppose to be 2-3megs but ended up being below 1 sometimes near 56k but recently they have boosted it and it has been stable around 2megs.
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Review by bltplease
member for 7.4 years, 310 visits, last login: 6.7 years ago
lodged 7.1 years ago
- Cincinnati,Hamilton,OH
- $20 per month
- Cincinnati Bell
- CLEC party: Cincinnati Bell
- "good up time"
- "none"
- "well worth the price"
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I have enjoyed great uptime. I also like that zoomtown screens for spam on the server side. I currently receive no spam on my zoomtown email account.
Zoomtown is rated at 3000/768 and I usually get 2500/620.
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