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Review by eschuler3 
UPDATED: 2.2 years ago
member for 2.2 years, 1 visits, last login: 2.2 years ago
 Stockbridge,Henry,GA
 $94 per month (12 month contract)
 about 13 days
 "VERY reliable"
 "Expensive, but you get what you pay for"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
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One of the biggest things I like about this ISP is they have a Service Level Agreement and they stand by it. If they fail to provide you with reliable internet, they will give you a refund, or at least they say they will. I've never asked for a refund because I've never had any downtime. I've had this ISP for almost 2 years now and I've only had about 48 hours of downtime. That was only because a contractor working in my yard severed the phone line when he was pouring my concrete driveway. I have a UPS and my internet is more reliable than my electricity, you can't ask for much better than that.
The tech support from this ISP is excellent. They don't put you on hold. A real person answered the phone within 30 seconds whenever I've called AND they knew what they were talking about AND they spoke fluent english. When does that ever happen in this day and age?
The speed isn't exactly lighting fast, but it is what is advertised. I've always gotten the speed I paid for in my plan, no more, no less. I've had experiences with both Comcast and Charter that were faster, but not as reliable or knowledgeable.
Their prices are much higher than the market rate, but you do get what you pay for. Installation was expensive, but it was quick and efficient. The monthly rate is expensive compared to bellsouth, but the fact that they offer a dry loop helps to offset the cost. In their defense, I'm sure the best equipment and tech support money can buy are expensive too.
Unless a newer technology comes to my neighborhood, I will probably keep this ISP until I sell my house.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Lightning Bolt DSL |
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Review by unknownone
UPDATED: 2.2 years ago
member for 2.3 years, 1046 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Elmhurst,Queens,NY
$129 per month (12 month contract)
about 21 days
 Verizon
"ASDL2+ 15/1"
"Impersonal Customer service"
 "If you want ADSL2+ for a good price LBDSL is for you."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
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I order the ADSL on the 10th of August (faxed sign contract) I tried calling customer service but I couldn't a good phone connection to them. Some weirdness on their phones. I could only make out every 3rd word he were saying.
The next day on the 11th, I got an email asking me to resend the fax signed contract. I did call back to see what was happening if they received the faxes or not. I get a reply " if you sent it we should have received it and it will be processed " I got an answer but it seem a bit cold but ok.
On the 13th I got an email from Lightning Bolt with a web link to Covad to check the status of my install.
Verizon was schedule for the 21th between 8am to 5pm, The guy got to my house around 2:30pm and was friendly got it done in about 45mins.
Covard was schedule for the 30th , between 8am to 12pm. I waited until 12:15pm to phone lightning bolt to find out what was happening. The person pick up and said he would check and call me back. about 10mins later the Covard guy calls to tell me on the way. The lightning guy call to ask if Covard guy called yet. Which was nice.
Covard guy came and installed the line and router for me. he was nice and friendly. I did noticed the router he gave me didn't come with any instructions or cd. which is weird. Luckily, I'm familiar with how dsl and routers work without a manual or instructions.
The connections is nice and fast upload/download so far.I got the ADSL2+ with the 5 extra ips package. 15/1
My overall thoughts about Lightning Bolt DSL, I'm happy I have the new line, but if you want to feel reassure about an isp you have never heard of outside of DSLreports calling and speaking to the customer service doesn't help.
August, 31, 2007
I was try to log into their news server and couldn't. So sent an email to the tech support via the website. I got an answer very fast.Email was sent at 1:08am and I got a responds within 15mins . wow. BTW, if you are a new user of their isp, you need to wait 24 hours before using their news server.
Followup comments:  
sonicbuddha
@sonic.net | Actual speed of ADSL2+ I'm curious about what the actual speed you are getting. I've read the service agreement and they don't guarantee anything at all, which is tough for a year contract. | |
| | unknownone
join:2007-07-21
Elmhurst, NY
 ·RoadRunner Cable
| Re: Actual speed of ADSL2+ I'm getting 12.78mbs/863kbs right now. I haven't got a chance to tweak it or anythings but it seem to be working well.
Regarding the one year commitment it not too bad, most the other dsl isps want you to give at least a year commitment too.
Plus there is that 21 day thing , I forget what the exact details was but basically you have 21 days after the service is install to try it out and see if it meet your standard. You should call lightning bolt to find out the details to be sure. | |
| | | sonicbuddha
join:2007-09-03
Oakland, CA | Re: Actual speed of ADSL2+ Thats pretty sweet. Are those numbers taking the TCP overhead into account or are they the raw download/upload speeds? Because if its the former, then you're getting pretty much all you were posted to get, which is, well, sweet. | |
| | | | unknownone
join:2007-07-21
Elmhurst, NY | Re: Actual speed of ADSL2+ It's the speedtest.com speed test from ny to ny. | |
| unknownone
join:2007-07-21
Elmhurst, NY
·RoadRunner Cable
| Sept 18, 2007 conection down Well it's been slightly less than 2 months being with Lightning bolt. Today, around 3-4pm I lost my connection; The support web site said "We are currently experiencing a service interruption due to equipment failure at the NYCQNYNW central office in ELMHURST, NY" That was in normal type and in big green bold letters "All Other Systems are reporting 100% Health" Usually you just see the big bold green letters saying 100% good and say cool but the regular type says this is down, so does the big green bold thing mean much? It seems a bit misleading.
It's now 7:40pm, I'm hoping to LBDSL fixes whatever is wrong soon or else I'll need to switch over to my backup isp which is a pain. I'll update the forum when my lightning bolt connection comes back up. | |
| | 
LBDSL
Lightning Bolt
VIP
join:2002-01-07
Auburn Hills, MI
| Re: Sept 18, 2007 conection down When you look at our network health page (»lbtech.com/support/dsl/networkhealth.html) you will see any current issues listed first. If there are no current issues you will see "All Systems are reporting 100% Health" If there are current network issues listed, then below them you will see "All Other Systems are reporting 100% Health" meaning all systems other then what is listed above are working correctly.
--
Lightning Bolt Technologies | |
| | | unknownone
join:2007-07-21
Elmhurst, NY | Re: Sept 18, 2007 conection down It's 10:07pm right now. My LBDSL connection is up and running. I'm happy, no need for me to move around Network cables to backup isp. Thanks for the fix, LBDSL. | |
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Review by maccrazy
UPDATED: 2.4 years ago
member for 2.5 years, 5 visits, last login: 2.2 years ago
Phoenix,Maricopa,AZ
$49 per month (12 month contract)
about 8 days
"Much better the cox"
"None"
"The best ISP I have ever had"
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I switched from Cox Cable to Lightning Bolt, and haven't looked back. Lightning Bolt was quick to install service on my phone line, they shipped us a router, and within minutes we were connected and loading web pages.
Every email, and phone calls are answered promptly and with people based in the United States, and who know what they are doing.
Update: 6/20/07
Things are great, in fact I recently upgraded my service to multiple Static IP's (/29 IP Block) to host a few servers, things are great, with zero downtime. I highly recommend Lightning Bolt!
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Review by (hidden by request)
Posted: 2.5 years ago
(review was emailed from domain lbdsl.net)
44577
$29 per month (12 month contract)
Ameritech
"much faster then dial-up"
"I should have left dial-up a long time ago, this is great!"
| Pre Sales information:
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I recently took the leap from Dial-up to DSL, and I'm glad I did. I went with a
basic package for $29.95/month for a 1.5mb download, and 128kb upload. Al I can
say, I'm not sure why I waited so long. The installation was easy, the cost is
low, and support has been great, even for someone who doesn't understand much
about computers.
I would highly recommend Lightning Bolt to everyone.
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Review by bshensky
Posted: 2.5 years ago
member for 5.2 years, 34 visits, last login: 176 days ago
Auburn Hills,Oakland,MI
 Business customer
$89 per month (12 month contract)
about 12 days
AT&T
"This Covad reseller's services and speed way better than AT&T dweebs"
"May have to absorb cancellation fee as part of our office relocation. Yuck."
"An honest and credible alternative to the sheisters at AT&T"
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At 15,000 ft from the CO, AT&T claimed our old DSL circuit was maxed out at 768/128.
I called LBDSL - they offered 1.5/768 on the same twisted pair length from the same CO. Plus, they offered a satisfaction guarantee - if we didn't get the speed increase we were hoping for, we'd cancel and owe nothing.
Sure enough, we got around 1.2/768 on post installation tests.
Even better, their tech support was willing to give us what we needed to execute an (unsupported) configuration of putting the DSL router in bridge mode to let our wi-fi router do the DSL PPPoE handshake.
They offer DSL over dry pair, a rarity that shows these guys know their stuff.
I highly recommend LBDSL.
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Review by MouserW
Posted: 2.7 years ago
member for 2.7 years, 1 visits, last login: 2.7 years ago
Los Alamos,Los Alamos,NM
$55 per month (12 month contract)
about 19 days
Qwest
CLEC party: Covad
"Installation required no effort."
"Installation cost $225. Inflexible business policies, not customer-oriented."
"Not exactly bending over backwards for customer satisfaction."
| Pre Sales information:
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I am technically a new LBDSL customer, though I have been living in an apartment with LBDSL service for the last two years. I didn't pay the bills at that location, but I have still been using their service for a reasonably long time.
At the old location, we signed up for a 3.0/384 shared line and had numerous problems. Most importantly, we never got the 3.0Mbps speed advertised and had to run in "safe mode" constantly. Despite this 30% cut in our bandwidth, no reduction in the fee was made available. We were told that we had signed a contract for the 3.0/384 service and that was what we had to pay for, whether or not our line could support the full rate.
In addition to the reduced bandwidth, we had frequent short outages that would result in lost connections.
When I recently moved into my own place, I checked the line distance at the new location and found it to be very short. I assumed that this would alleviate the reduced bandwidth problem, and my roommate convinced me to set up my own contract with LBDSL. I was impressed with the professionalism and courtesy of Brent during my initial calls to him regarding the particulars of the service.
My one gripe leading up to signing the contract was the issue of having to pay a hefty ($225) installation fee for dry line service. He insisted that it was necessary because the technician would have to test the line, configure the router, and do a host of other operations that I was not qualified or capable of doing. It sounded like a scam to me, but more importantly it sounded like the process was engineered such that even a reasonably competent end-user could not complete the installation, thus allowing them to require the installation service and fee. While I find such business practices unscrupulous, I didn't see that I had much choice other than finding a new ISP, which would probably do the same thing. I went ahead and signed the contract.
Everything went ahead according to the schedule LBDSL had sent me in an email. The phone company checked (and in my case, replaced) the line leading up to my house (free of charge), the free package arrived containing my router, etc., and today the Covad tech showed up to do the "professional installation."
Before he arrived, I went ahead and connected my internal wiring to the TLI and tested the house jacks to make sure that all of the customer-side wiring was functioning. When I told the Covad tech this, he went ahead and just plugged the router in using the supplied cabling and verified that the connection came up automatically. We then transferred the ethernet cable over to my laptop and verified that the connection worked there as well. That was it for the professional installation, it took approximately 3 minutes.
The tech told me that I could have just plugged it in myself and it would have worked, and it would have saved him the two hour drive up from Albuquerque. I told him that I hadn't done so because Brent gave me the impression that some sort of black magic had to be done with the line and/or router configuration that I was not able to do. "Two hours to drive here, five minutes to do the work," he said. I clocked it at more like three minutes. At $225 for three minutes of work, that's $75 per minute that I was charged to watch a guy plug in a cable and fire up a web browser. I was not impressed. I told the tech this and he said that I shouldn't be charged for it since it was already setup and he hadn't really done anything.
I wrote LBDSL an email stating my extreme displeasure at being charged for what amounted to nothing at all, and I found their response lacking: "Any Dry line service requires a professional install fee per our web site, per the terms of service, and per our previous conversation." When I pointed out that I felt they had been disingenuous when they convinced me that some elaborate work had to be done for which I was not qualified, they rudely replied that I had the option of ending my contract during the 21 day grace period.
The attitude I got from LBDSL, consistently, was that they were very sorry, but any sense I had that I had been deceived was an error on my part.
And in response to my assertion that the installation work took three minutes, he said, "Also, just as an FYI, looking at the work log, I see: 'Arrival Time: 9:00, Finish Time: 9:30,' So it appears the Tech was on site for about 30 minutes, not 3." As far as I can tell, he must be assuming I'm an idiot or that the tech just happened to arrive exactly at 9 and left exactly 30 minutes later. Regardless, the content of this comment (which was extraneous to the rest of the email), was LBDSL telling me that they think I'm lying. Great customer-based attitude, guys.
I guess my complaint with LBDSL is that their policies are carved in stone, and making things right for the customer doesn't seem to be one of them.
This is the second location at which I've used their service, and both times I've been charged money for service that wasn't provided or needed because it was "in the contract." I feel that making the customer happy could only help their business in the long run. I've already steered a coworker away from LBDSL as a result of this interaction (he was prepared to sign up today if I gave LBDSL the nod) and I can't imagine reviews like this will help their sales. This seems to be a pattern with the LBDSL reviews on this website; either everything goes as expected and people are happy with the service, or something goes wrong and the LBDSL service reps get defensive and hide behind their contract rather than correcting the problem.
Followup comments:
LBDSL
Lightning Bolt
VIP
join:2002-01-07
Auburn Hills, MI
| Thank you for your review The one thing which I would like to address, without getting into specific account details in a public forum.
A DSL install involves a lot of work, more work then just a basic tech visit. So if you feel your $225 install fee only went to pay for a "3 minute" tech visit, you should be aware of the basics of DSL installation.
1) A DSL loop has to be ordered and installed via the Phone company.
2) we need to stay on top of the phone company to make sure all commits of the order and install are met, this can takes hours on multiple days depending on the order
3) once the phone company delivered the loop, we must test and accept or reject the loop, to make sure it meets are specs.
4) an Account needs to be created in our system, including billing, RADIUS, email, dial-up, etc
5) The final step is to have the on-site tech visit for dry/dedicated loop products.
As we talked about earlier, I apologize you feel we have cheated you in same way, however I promise you, unless you have access to our DSLAM (equipment in the Central Office), access to the phone companies copper in the ground, access to our systems, and knowledge of all these systems, you could not have installed this service yourself.
We have not surprised you with any fees. All charges were brought to your attention prior to placing an order with us, and agreed to upon ordering service.
I would certainly understand your frustration, if we charged you more then we quoted you for installation, however we did not.
If you would like to talk about specific account issues, or a past account, which we are not aware of you having, feel free to reach out to me, or anyone else here via phone or email.
--
Lightning Bolt Technologies | |
| | rdarlington
join:2007-04-01
Los Alamos, NM
| Re: Thank you for your review The account he mentions having previously was under my name (Robert Darlington) at our previous address. The problems he mentioned are accurate and some of this can be seen at one of my previous posts here:
»Lots of great talk....
The work you describe in your 5 steps to setting up DSL hardly takes more than two 5 minute phone calls and the running of a script to add a user to your radius servers. Your techs may or may not have this script also e-mail the customer with his new account information. On the outside edge, being very conservative, I'd say this process takes no more than 11 minutes.
Mind you, I used to own an ISP in Philadelphia (long story here, please, feel free to contact me about this) and kinda know a little bit about this.
Your response post is also very typical of previous defensive measures I've witnessed after a problem. Guys, take a lesson, hire some hand holders and don't let your techs answer the phone. They're not good at assuring the customer that your business is working on the problem, is on top of things, etc. "It's not us" really doesn't cut it in this business. ISPs are easily replaced by another ISP more willing to serve the customer. | |
| MM331
Premium
join:2005-01-22
Miami, FL | I told you so Just scroll down and keep reading. I said it a year ago. | |
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Review by megawhizz
UPDATED: 2.7 years ago
member for 7.7 years, 130 visits, last login: 12 days ago
Detroit,Wayne,MI
$70 per month (12 month contract)
"Good service, easy to contact"
"Outages more frequent than expected. Condescending, petty approach to customers"
"LBDSL has a good product, but needs to develop some business acumen"
| Pre Sales information:
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I've been with LBDSL for almost 2 years now, and have have consistent, fast service. They provide a number of extras, such as dialup access and dedicated IPs. Speed is as advertised - I have the 3.0/768 line share package (static IP).
The only complaint I have is about outages. Though not quite frequent, I have noticed outages every few months that last for a couple of hours. While most of the time LBDSL has been "aware" of the outages, sometimes I have been the first person to report them. The outage is generally fixed overnight, and is apparently always the fault of entities other than LBDSL.
I am happy with my service and will stick with it. I have been thinking about upgrading my speed, and I may consider another ISP for this.
UPDATE
If you do business with LBDSL, be warned that they will nickel-and-dime you for everything they can. After over 2 years with LBDSL, I needed to move to a different address. I contacted them to provide service at the new address, which they happily agreed to - however the address change would constitute a breach of contract, requiring me to sign a contract for the new address, and pay a fine equal to the total cost of service remaining in the old contract. Effectively I would pay LBDSL double the money for the same service. This was contrary to what LBDSL said when I renewed my contract, however since that conversation happened over the phone, I had no documentation of what promises were made. Result: LBDSL loses my business, and gets an F in customer service.
In this highly competitive market, I would advise business-class DSL buyers to look for an ISP that is willing to work with them - inflexibility is a big red flag for any small business. If you buy the cheapest service, you get what you pay for.
Followup comments: bshensky
join:2004-09-20
Ann Arbor, MI
|  Solid connection; sympathetic to "nickel and dimer" post
However, I must agree with the recent post affirming that LBDSL nickel-and-dimes its base. We were 6 months into a yearlong contract with LBDSL when our company owner wanted to relocated to a new suite in our office complex. LBDSL did their due diligence to suggest that we find a way to cross-connect to the new suite from within the office complex, but geography was against us, and we clearly would have been forced to cancel the old location's service and establish new service at the new address. With this would have come office-move breach-of-contract and new-office installation fees that, honestly, approached the cost of a plain-vanilla breach-of-contract cancellation fee.
That is, it would have cost us darned near as much to move the DSL service as it would have to cancel it outright, amounting to a lack of incentive for us to continue to commit to LBDSL.
I understand that DSL business is unusually cutthroat, especially with AT&T loss-leader carpet-bombing. And I understand that companies like LBDSL have upstream relationships and contracts that they must nurse to stay afloat. And, yes, we read the fine print in the TOS that outlines the early termination penalty. Still, these are awfully bitter pills to swallow, and I'm a surprised and a bit disappointed that LBDSL seemed to lack wherewithal to "think outside the financial box" in any effort to keep its customer base. I wouldn't so much call it poor customer service as I would a disappointing customer satisfaction approach.
That said, if you read the fine print, your connection is solid, and you plan to stay put, LBDSL is actually a pretty good value, and despite the tummyache, I'd still cautiously - cautiously - recommend them. | |
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 Review by AuroraMike
UPDATED: 3.2 years ago
member for 7.9 years, 2185 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Aurora,Arapahoe,CO
$79 per month (12 month contract)
about 10 days
Qwest
CLEC party: Covad
"Reliable Service, Good Value"
"Customer Service Lacking"
"Hanging On"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
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I had Speakeasy DSL the last 9 months. Once Speakeasy shutdown the Denver POP, performance decreased substancially. I really liked the people at Speakeasy, but based upon performance I couldn't see paying premium prices for marginal service. They were nice enough to allow me to terminate my contravt early.
I called Brent at LBDSL and ordered the 3008/384 service.
Transfer of the service went pretty smooth. performance so far is great and everything is working well. I'm very pleased so far!!!
UPDATE
I have been using LBDSL both at work and home for over 6 months. Service, and performance has been excellent. The few times I needed help, service was great. I would highly recommend them!!
UPDATE January 11, 2006
I called Brent today to upgrade my account to a higher speed and renew my contract. I was told I needed my account number to do that. I don't have a clue what my account number is, nor do I carry it around with me, but was told it was emailed to me with my welcome letter 18 months ago. I was also told I could go digging around my invoices to find it. All I'm trying to do it give them my business but it seems like they don't want it.
I ordered a competitors package today with cheaper rates and faster service. I'll cancel LBDSL once its installed. I liked the product but am disappointed in the company.
UPDATE September 5, 2006
I did install a new Qwest primary DSL line at 7168 down and 896 up. I needed the additional bandwidth and have been very happy with Qwest. Being only 4000 feet to the CO it works great. Having said that, I also kept my existing LBDSL line for a backup email server. The LBDSL line works great and always has. I'll probably keep it just as long as I don't have to deal with LBDSL support.
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Review by JonR800
UPDATED: 3.2 years ago
member for 6.3 years, 1459 visits, last login: 2.1 years ago
Farmington,Oakland,MI
$110 per month (12 month contract)
about 14 days
Ameritech
CLEC party: Covad
"Reliable, Static IP, Reverse DNS, Support that cares, Speed"
"PPPoE"
"I like it a lot so far."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
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I recently moved out of a Comcast area into a Time Warner. My new place is just down the street from the CO. I read a lot of reviews on LBDSL before. The fact they were based in Michigan also gave me some confidence.
I ordered 6/768 on 4/15 and had it installed on 4/29. I did all the wiring on my own. I'm in a condo and the wiring was pretty bad. I didn't want to have to pay the Covad tech to do the wiring for me. He ended up just dropping the modem, and doing a little configuration.
It's now 5/26, and while I haven't had much time to use the connection yet it's had 100% uptime. Tech support was also very helpful. They were even understanding when I jumped the gun and called/emailed about issues that I soon figured out on my own. They were also able to set me up with reverse DNS which is very cool. I haven't had time to test their news servers or anything yet. I will in the next month or so.
Summary: So far flawless. I do wish my bill was a little lower, but I can't complain too much for what I'm getting. I also wish it was DHCP instead of PPPoE. PPPoE overhead blows.
Update 10/22: Had what I would consider my first "major" outage yesterday. Around 11am-11:30am I lost internet access. I checked my modem's status page and everything was dandy but the test for the Carrier's Connection kept failing. I decided to wait an hour or so and see if it resolved itself. An hour later I was still down. I put a call into LBDSL. Brent answered immediately and checked my modem, after which he asked me to reset the configuration to default and reconfigure it. We got part way through the process and it stopped at PPPoE authentication. After that Brent went ahead and put in a ticket for me. Probably about 5 minutes later he called to inform me that they were just declaring a major outage in my area with no ETA on restored service. He said that he would call back when service was restored. Around 4:45pm service was restored, and I was back up and running once I restored my backup configuration for my DSL modem that I had made a few weeks back. I never did hear back from Brent but it's not really a big deal. Maybe he was swamped or saw that I was already back on. Either way I'm very happy with how the situation was handled.
Side note: earlier that day in the wee hours there was a Level 3 outage. Which was annoying, but that's L3's fault.. not Covad, SBC, or LBDSL.
Update 6/24/06: Service has been rock solid. Really nothing to report. Our Lightning Bolt mug did break, I might try to con Brent out of another one. 
Update 8/31/06: Been using the news server some.. it seems to have MUCH better retention than any of the pay providers I've used (Easynews, Giganews, and Newshosting). Also, speeds are great. On a side note, Brent sent us another Lightning Bolt mug! I didn't even have to contact him! The wife was thoroughly impressed.
Update 4/4/07: BBR asked for an update.. Things continue to work well. No issues to report. A price break might not hurt, but I'm happy for what I get.
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Review by Skud6
Posted: 3.2 years ago
member for 7.6 years, 14 visits, last login: 2.6 years ago
Beachwood,Cuyahoga,OH
Business customer
Contract price not specified.
Verizon
CLEC party: Covad
"None that I can see"
"Refuses to help....."
"Not Recommended.."
| |
I am an IT professional who manages a client with a few remote sites using LBDSL.
I got a call from one of the remote locations who lost their internet connection. Their setup is a briteport DSL router in bridge mode with a Sonicwall TZ170 doing the PPPoE authentication. This setup has been working for quite some time and no changes had been made on our end.
I walked the on-site manager through logging into the sonicwall, printing off the logs, and then faxing them to me. The logs indicated that the PPPoE authentication was failing with a Bad Username/Password. PPPoE discovery and everything leading up to the authentication was working, leading me to believe that the connection was fine, but there was an issue upstream.
I called up LBDSL and was greeted by Bxxxt. Bxxxt said that they needed my account information and couldn't help me. I asked if he could search his database and he said he would not. I understood his point of view regarding security and I got the required information from the remote site. I called back and told him the issue of the failing PPPoE authentication.
Bxxxt's first questions was "What is doing the PPPoE authentication?". I told him a Sonicwall TZ170 has been doing it for quite some time. It was as though a light just switched off. After this point he refused to help me at all. He said this configuration was not supported and that he wouldn't do any troubleshooting until the modem was reset to factory defaults and the sonicwall was taken out of the picture. I asked him if he could do anything because all of the other DSL companies I have delt with have been willing to do some basic troubleshooting. He told me that he wouldn't because he can't try and support every configuration.
I asked him if he could check his logs if he could see anything which would might indicate the issue. He refused. I then asked him for the PPPoE username/password to double-check our settings. He gave it to me and we hung up.
After this incident I had one of the higher-ups at my client call him to try and see if they could get some progress on the troubleshooting. Bxxxt told him the same thing he told me, but he decided to look at our line. He said everything looked fine and the problem must be on our end. I don't understand how this could be as our equipment was reporting a "Bad username/password" which would indicate that our equipment was connecting fine and it was an upstream issue.
We had a spare briteport lying around, so I was going to get that setup for them in non-bridged mode and ship it out to the remote site so everything was perfect for LBDSL to start troubleshooting.
The next day, before I had even sent out the modem, I got a call from the remote site that said their DSL was working again. Nothing was done overnight to fix it. It just started working.
Out of curiosity, I browsed to LBDSL's website. On their DSL status page there was a note saying "There is a problem with nationwide PPPoE authentication for @bzn and @xxx users...."
I don't understand what the whole issue was. If I were to call in and say "Hi Bxxxt, we're having some PPPoE authentication failures can you take a look" I would expect him to say one of two things
1) Yes, we know about ths issue and we're working on it.. It should be fixed shortly
or
2) I haven't heard anyone else with that problem. Let me look into it and get back to you.
I have never in my life talked with anyone in support who refused to make *any* attempt in resolving the situation until the circumstances were "perfect" for their troubleshooting. How would you like it if everytime you called into Dell with a computer issue they said "Oh, you have Microsoft Office installed. That's not a supported configuration. Format your hard drive and call us back when it's done so we can troubleshoot it".
This entire situation could have been resolved had LBDSL done 5 minutes of troublehooting and in the process of that troubleshooting they could have found out that it was a nationwide issue (if they didn't already know about it)
While I commend and applaud your view on the owner taking part in his/her business it's of no use if that part doesn't help the customer.
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Lightning Bolt DSL
