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Review by matthew330ci 
Posted: 3 years ago
member for 4.7 years, 237 visits, last login: 66 days ago
 Ithaca,Tompkins,NY
 $42 per month
 about 5 days
 "9Mbps/1Mbps speed. Fast installation."
 "None so far."
 "Perhaps my speed is location dependent but overall I'm very happy"
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I ordered Earthlink cable through Bestbuy (as BB was giving away a $100 gift card) and signed up for the $30 promotion for 6 months and it's $42 after that with no contracts. I don't have Cable TV or phone service.
I do have to note that even though this is branded Earthlink, the company that comes out to install and service the line is Time Warner Cable. It's a kind of confusing arrangement. When I do my speed tests here, it says my domain is cable.mindspring.com though. Mindspring = earthlink.
Installation time was quick, I think the earliest spot was in about 3-4 days when I called, except none of the times worked for me, so I got it installed a few days later when the time worked. I was surprised that my speeds were so high at 9Mbps down and 1Mbps up and it's been pretty steady, during busier times, it'll go down to 7/1 or so.
Have had the service for about 3 weeks now with no interruptions. So far, very happy.
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 Review by ArgyleDSL
UPDATED: 3.2 years ago
member for 7.4 years, 3078 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Oakland Gardens,Queens,NY
$42 per month
about 21 days
"Good UL speeds"
"pricier than DSL, have to deal with TWC"
"Its ok, but so much preinstallation confusion with TWC"
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I moved and DSL is no longer available to me. I called ELNK because they were the cheapest solution. I am not a cable subscriber and have no use for bundling.
The order was easy, however TWC never called me for installation date. I called them and it was a hassle. A long wait time on the phone and they wanted to charge me for installation, although the promo was for free install. I couldnt get self install due to fact i am not a cable customer.
I had to get help from ELNK because it turned out that TWC created a new account for me when I specifically told them that i already made the order. Also there was the issue of free installation. Thanks to ELKNRobert for his help. Otherwise trying to contact ELNK via phone or email was a pain - they kept refering me to call TWC, which wasn't useful.
Cable guy came at earliest time in scheduled frame. Less than ten minutes it took him to set it up (I have live cable line in the house). Ran a line from adjoinging room, put Toshiba modem and I checked the comp and everything was fine.
Speeds are good. After running tweaks, i get about 2800/376. Better than DSL especially for Uploads...but I paid $30 for Verizon DSL (1.5/128) and I would jump back to it if it was available. I need an always on connection and decent speeds, so right now I am paying a lot for excess, but it is only thing available at low price. In few weeks, I start gaming again - I shall see how cable really is.
Update:
So far it has been good. Great download speeds. Have wireless router plugged in and up to 4 pcs/laptops have used it at same time with no degradation. Still think its pricey as compared to DSL. I would change if could get cheaper service.
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Review by phaedrus6
Posted: 3.2 years ago
member for 3.2 years, 0 visits, last login: 3.2 years ago
Santa Rosa,Sonoma,CA
Contract price not specified.
"Works most of the time"
"Give away your email address"
"Crap. Dont use Earthlink."
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I was helping a neighbor with her Earthlink. Her computer broke last febuary, and I was fixing it about 3 weeks ago. Yea, not someone who most of us can relate to, just going with out internet for 4+ months because your computer is broke. Anyways, I call up earthlink tech support because the log-in/pass isnt right. So, reset the password.
Still doesnt work.
They ask for the username. Easy right? This is been her username and email address on her busness cards for the last 2 years. Turns out, even though they were collecting the 9.95$ per month, they put her email address in the inactive list and let someone else snag it. Want to know what the seinor managment told me on the phone?
Quote
You have never had this email address.
I was blown away by the arrogance of it. Never use Earthlink.
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Review by vegasyo
Posted: 3.3 years ago
member for 3.3 years, 0 visits, last login: 3.3 years ago
New York,New York,NY
$45 per month (12 month contract)
about 10 days
"Fast upload speeds, dwnld fast at times, short hold times for support,"
"widely fluctuating speeds, clueless TWC support reps, reliability"
"w limited choice in ny, in a prewar building, its my best option"
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I've been a customer of Earthlink cable service for about 6 months now. Living in a prewar building, with no phone service, cable or satelite is my only option. The only thing Earthlink about this service is the discount provided at the intial contract and line item name on the Time Warner Cable bill. Earthlink uses TWC lines to deliver service and this is the largest issue.
I have done speed tests and have tested speeds as low as 200 kbs down... !?! and in all honestly I've never gotten the speeds they promise
Today is 8/10/06 - I'm going on my third day of no service... THREE DAYS of no internet. I run a business out of my home and with the loss of service I have no phone service and no business... TWC support has no clue as to what the issue is or even a time frame for when it will be back up. This is not the first time - this is the Third outage in 6 months. Apparently the 2nd outage (also a 3 day stint) they blamed construction down the street for cutting their lines...
TWC support doesn't even know there's an outage untill I ask them to bypass their standard support script of checking cables and connections, and ask them to look up the issue in their system... They are unwilling to credit my account for the lost time and unfortunately for them have lost a customer.
I'm currently researching alternative cable services or even satelite and will be canceling my service as soon as I'm able. This is unacceptable and I've decided not to purchase TW TV service because of these issues.
If you're considering cable service look else where if you can....
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Review by poolek
UPDATED: 3.3 years ago
member for 6 years, 1381 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Austin,Travis,TX
$43 per month
about 7 days
"Fast, no need to cable TV, better price than RR"
"More expensive than DSL. Slower upload speeds"
"Good overall value"
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**7/25/2006**
The service continues to work well. Speeds are still consisitently at 4.8mb up, 370k down (though there's rumor of a upgrade to 7mb down coming soon. Personally, I'd rather have more upload). Stability has been fine - there was one period where it was down for a few hours after a car crashed into some of their equipment, but that's it. I haven't had to contact Tech Support for anything so far, either.
The only concern I have is that I'm nearing the end of my 'introductory' pricing. At full price, It might be cheaper to switch back to DSL, even with the mandatory (and uneeded by me) landline.
**2/08/2006**
I'd been on SBC DSL for ~3 years and was quite pleased with it. It worked well, was plenty fast enough for me and was very nicely priced. However, when you added in the cost of the required landline, it wasn't such a great deal. We decided to try a VoIP provider, thinking we'd cut our POTS service down to the mimimum, keep DSL and have the best of both worlds.
The only problem with that plan was number portability. You can't port a number associated with DSL. Trying to find a way to keep DSL and port the number (add a second line, establish DSL there, ramp up, shut down DSL on the first line, deal with wiring issues, port number, disconnect first line, deal with more wiring issues, etc) was rife with complications and fees. Another alternative was to just switch to a cable broadband provider. That was much simpler and was what I ended up doing.
I signed up for Earthlink at Bestbuy. They were offering a $75 gift card, 6 months @ $30 and then $43/mth after that. No contracts required. Signup process was simple and only took a few minutes. They do require you to do it at the store rather than online to qualify for the giftcard, though.
I received a call about installation a couple of days after signing up. The lady on the phone indicated there'd be a $25 shipping and handling charge for the modem, which I thought was strange given that it wasn't mentioned anywhere along the process.
A day later, I received another call about installation. This time, the guy calling inidcated he was showing both an order for Earthlink and an order for Road Runner. Strange - I'd never ordered Roadrunner - and that was apparently what the call concerning the modem shipping/handling fee was for. He canceled the RR order and scheduled the tech to show up a few days later. There was no shipping and handling fee associated with the Earthlink modem (which is really strange considering Earthlink and RR are exactly the same service, just different DNS's and email servers - same modem, same lines, same guy installing it. Monthly price is $3 cheaper on Earthlink, too - and there's no penalty for not having Cable TV service (I could never get a straight answer from TW if there was a penalty for that with RR)).
Tech showed up on time and installed everything quickly. He verified connectivity and was on his way. I chose not to install the Earthlink SW and just moved my router over and changed configs. Everything was working pefectly. My download speeds are in the 4.8mb range and uploads are 370k. That's on the 5m/384k package, so I can't complain at all. The download is almost double the speed of the DSL connection it replaced, though upload is slower. Latency seems about equal between the two. For general surfing, the difference in speed isn't noticable. I do notice a bit quicker downloads of virus updates and other larger files, though. I did switch my default DNS from Earthlink/Mindspring to a set of Level3 DNS servers that were providing consitently faster ping rates to me. I'm not using the Earthlink email account, so I can really comment on it.
I live in a well connected neigborhood - I can pick up 6+ different wireless connections sitting on my couch (all protected with at least WEP - good job neighbors!), and I assume that the vast majority of folks here are connected to broadband with most on RR or Earthlink. I notice no speed slowdowns during 'prime' hours.
Stability so far has been good. No downtime, no needs to reset the modem (Webstar something or other - it's locked down tight, you can't even view the stats). No need to contact tech support. My VoIP is working well with the system. It is strange to see the modem flashing with activity all the time compared to the DSL modem that only flashed when I used it.
I'm pleased with the service so far. It's more expensive than DSL of comparable functionality, but cheaper overall when you factor in the cost of the required landline for DSL.
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Review by JpMaxMan
Posted: 3.3 years ago
member for 5.7 years, 7 visits, last login: 2.9 years ago
Brooklyn,Kings,NY
$75 per month
about 10 days
"Quick Install"
"Slower than dial-up. Literally. I'm not kidding."
"I can't believe they are allowed to charge for such a slow connection!"
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Every speed report is like 2.7kbps down. Things crawl. I worked from home yesterday and couldn't get a thing done. Pages take minutes to load. Most of my time is spent waiting. This is miserable. Dialup is literally faster. Shockingly poor support. Shockingly poor service. I can't believe that there isn't a riot in the streets. People actually put up with this #&#@?
Forgot to mention I got the PREMIUM SERVICE for $75/month!
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Review by Loverboy58
Posted: 3.3 years ago
member for 5.1 years, 59 visits, last login: 1 days ago
Brooklyn,Kings,NY
$41 per month
about 5 days
"Good Customer Service"
"Speed fluctuates too much"
"An average service. (There are better ISP's out there."
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When it comes to customer service, they are fast and the solutions so far have been right on the money. If we talk about the speed that is another issue. Time Warner Ccable in my own words "SUCKS" The speed on the line fluctuates too much and the customer service from Time Warner "SUCKS". It took me three years to get Time Warner to correct a loss of signal that used to happened every month, so far it's been a year and I haven't loss the signal not even one day. The problem with Time Warner was that when they connected my service in the back of the house they connected my line to the wrong port. After three years of arguying with the company they finally got it right and even the tech told me that the original connection made was incorrect. Now my service is more stable and I haven't loss the signal for a little more than a year. The Earthlink.net service it's great they just have to get a better cable company to provide their service in my area. I am pretty sure that if they have a better cable company to provide the service, their service will improve about 40% more. Thanks for the oportunity to let us customers express our concerns. After all these are not free services, we are paying for them and we should get the service that we deserve.
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 Review by rds24a
UPDATED: 3.4 years ago
member for 8.9 years, 3690 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Springboro,Warren,OH
$41 per month
about 22 days
"Speed, Price (compared to RR), Features"
"TimeWarner had issues"
"Good service...just stay on top of your cable co."
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6/12/06 Email is running 40 hours to come through. Earthlink is apparently throttling email from certain domain services. Calling their support is hopeless. Switching to RoadRunner.
6/9/06 Earthlink support is overseas and horrible. They have been unable to resolve an email forwarding issue, or even speak clearly in their communications. Email in general has been up and down all week and their network status page is out of date.
12/28/05 Speed is up to 4000/350 consistently. No downtime to speak of. I had to contact their tech support online chat once for something (I forget) and they were fine albeit scripted.
8/22/04 All is well. No service calls, no billing issues, no downtime. Good webmail for checking email while on the road. Speed 2800/340.
3/5/04 Update to stop the nagging. All is well in EL land.
6/22 Token Update to restore Earthlink Cable as the ISP in my profile
4/25 Token Update to restore Earthlink Cable as the ISP in my profile.
Updated Review:
I was on EL dialup for a while after moving to an area not wired for two-way digital
cable. When I went to move back to a cable-active area, the fun began. I signed
up via Earthlink's web page to upgrade from dialup to cable, and EL immediately
sent an email saying to expect TimeWarner to call me within 3-5 days to
schedule the install, and they listed a scheduled account change on my
support web page. TWC never called, so after 6 business days I called EL
customer support, who in turn said to call TWC. TWC said that because
my neigborhood was new they didn't have a complete address database, and would
have to verify serviceability at the address...would take 3-5 business days. So
8 business days later, I called TWC having heard nothing. Their response was
"yes, it's serviceable, do you want EL cable?" Without dragging this out
any further, I ended up with two orders, which took two calls to EL customer
support to get one account cancelled and my existing email boxes and web
files move to the active account. Knock on wood I haven't been double-billed.
On a positive note, TWC was able to coordinate TV and Internet installs at
the same time, and EL Cable service is on par with my previous experience.
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
** THIS IS A CABLE REVIEW **
** EARTHLINK VIA TIME WARNER**
After waiting for months and months past Time Warner's promised deadline
to get two-way cable (and Roadrunner) online, I got an ISDN line, which I had
been happy with except for its $90/month pricetag. Decided to give Earthlink
a try since maybe a little money wasn't going to TimeWarner, and they
offered a better email (8), web (80 Mb), and dialup backup (unlimted)
package.
Called them on a Sunday night...sales rep was a little clueless but friendly
enough. Said TimeWarner would call within 72 hours to schedule an install.
They called in 10 minutes. Said they could install in 3 days, but I pushed it
back a week due to scheduling. Appointment was 1-5pm. Unfortunately,
they don't do self-installs anymore.
Cable Express shows up on the right day and at 1:02pm. Had the service
up and running 2034kbps down/368kbps up by 1:11pm. There have been
a few DNS hiccups (Site not found errors, corrected by a click of the refresh
button), but other than that it has been great. 70-80ms pings to DSLR.
Used a Toshiba PCX1100U modem via ethernet and an SMC Barricade.
As a skeptic of cable for a long time, I'm impressed. Will update the review
for connection reliability after I've had it a while.
Followup comments:  esalkin
join:2006-01-25
Tampa, FL
| Don't blame Earthlink! Earthlink is a reseller of various providers including RoadRunner. As such, Earthlink does not directly set server policy.
Chances are Earthlink is using RoadRunner as their provider, so switching to RR would do no good!
See this link for more info:
»blog.easydns.org/archives/132-rr···ing.html | |
| | | |
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Review by praetoralpha
Posted: 3.4 years ago
member for 4.3 years, 1687 visits, last login: 1 days ago
Mount Vernon,Knox,OH
$30 per month (6 month contract)
about 14 days
"good connection in my area"
"none"
"good price, good speed"
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i got the special broadband reports.com promotion last august, 6 months for 29.95/month, 41.95/month thereafter. the only cable internet company in my town is Time Warner, and my cable actually goes through them. when ordering, they had re-routed my call to time warner, and nothing happened, so i had to call earthlink back. other than that, ordering was snagless.
installation took about 45 minutes. for the first weekend, i was at 5mbit/s. i was downloading all i could get my greasy hands on, since i said so long to dialup.
after 2 days, i was bumped down to 2700 / 470. plenty enough, since this is the only comp in the house, but still. about two weeks later, just to see if it wasnt a fluke that would go away, i chatted with a support rep, who informed me that i had signed up for the 2 megabit package.
one evening (in october, i think) i noticed that my speeds were VERY sluggish. i tested 90 / 99. then i saw that the columbus, OH cable node had went down. it was fixed within 12 hours. only outage in 10 months. not that bad. then a few months later, this idiot was cutting a tree up the street, and it snagged a few lines. there was a time warner van there within 2 hours, and i was back online.
about mid-march, my speed was bumped up to 4700 / 470, like it was those first two days that i had earthlink. it was around then that time warner was advertising that road runner had been upped to 8 megabit speeds. i assume they want as few tiers as possible, so there was no longer 3 and 5 mb tiers, but 5 and 8 tiers. its been that way ever since.
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 Review by bklynite
UPDATED: 3.5 years ago
member for 8.7 years, 3043 visits, last login: 34 days ago
Staten Island,Richmond,NY
$42 per month
about 12 days
"Stable"
"Extremely low upload speed, price is bordering on high for this package"
"Not worth it in Staten Island if FIOS is available"
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Update 05-17-2006: It's amazing how much can change in 6 months. V erizon's FIOS service is now available in my area, offering ridiculously high speeds for much better prices than Earthlink/Time Warner. Time Warner still has not budged on line speeds which is extremely irritating. 384kbps upload speed simply does not cut it nowadays, especially when Verizon is giving 5Mbps upload (the same as my DOWNLOAD speed). Overall the cable internet here is not worth it anymore if you can get something better. If TW and EL don't budge soon, they will be losing another customer.
Update 08-10-2005: IP address has now remained the same for over a year. Speeds during off-peak times are great, but I seem to suffer slowdowns during peak hours with latencies jumping from 50ms averages to 300ms+. All signs point to overloading of the ATDN network (Time Warner's routers outside the local cable system). These routers have become tremendous bottlenecks and I have found that many in the NYC area suffer the same issues during these hours (around 8PM to 12AM). I cannot blame Earthlink for this problem as they have no control over the issue, but I wish Time Warner would get on their game.
Also, I am getting pretty tired of 384kbps upload speed, especially now that Verizon offers 768 on some DSL packages and other providers are upping rates to 1-2Mbps to compete with the up and coming FIOS service. 384kbps is simply too slow nowadays, especially considering I'm paying $15 more per month than a comparable DSL plan costs. For this, I am dropping the "Value for money" rating from 5 to 3.
We'll see what develops...
Update 02-05-2005: Absolutely no problems yet. *Knocks on wood* Speeds are now 5000/384 and I usually get 4750/360 on speed tests. I'm hoping for an increase in upload speed soon.
Update 08-03-2004: I couldn't have asked for a more stable connection. My IP address is still the same, and speeds have never dropped. Thank you Earthlink and RoadRunner.
Update 01-10-2004: Still rock solid. My IP hasn't changed since the day my service went on, which is amazing. Earthlink is a terrific ISP, but a lot of the credit has to go to Time Warner Cable for providing the fast, low latency network. Keep it up guys!
I signed up for Earthlink Cable after moving to my new home where DSL was unavailable. The staff was very friendly (as always) and helped me transfer my existing account to the new Cable account.
It took a bit to get it installed as I had to wait for a worker from Time Warner Cable to come and run the new line for my modem. Installation was free and so was the modem.
I used to pay $50 a month for DSL from Earthlink, but now I pay $42 for Cable. Speeds are great at right around 3000kbps download and 330 kbps upload.
Overall I am completely satisfied with my new service and only hopes it remains this way for a long time to come.
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