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 Review by Count Hogula$ 
member for 11 years, 218 visits, last login: 10.5 years ago
updated 10.7 years ago
 Corona,Riverside,CA
 $25 per month about 5 days "Excellent speed, static IP, lenient TOS/AUP including VPN" "Low DL limits claimed (but I've never seen it enforced), erratic latency" "At $25/mo for typical 900/500 it's an excellent value"
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Overall my experience with Unplugged Internet has been very good. I was one of their first customers so my time for order to success was actually almost 3 months because I was on the waiting list for startup. After they started serving customers it took them about 5 days from the time I was notified that service was available to the time I was up and running. Being a small provider I get good customer service and have only had a few outtages. Other than latency issues (which are important to me since I play online games) the service is fast (typically in the 1Mb/1.2Mb UL/DL range and has given me no problems. For the $70 I get top network priority (which keep my service fast during peak times while those who pay less get bandwidth throttled, otherwise everyone regardless of price gets 1.5/1.5 service). So if you don't mind getting throttled during peak traffic times, you can get 1.5Mb service the rest of the time for $25...pretty good. Even cable slows during peak times...and no where can you get cable for $25. All customers get a choice of static IP or DHCP which is cool and the gateway/modem thing supports 5 PC's with a simple hub, but they don't seem to care if you buy a router to connect more. They permit VPN and servers with all service levels (as far as I know). The main drawback is their limited coverage area and the typical line of sight requirements. But if you qualify you will get synchronous speeds at what is for wireless, great pricing. There is no cable or DSL service here so wireless is our only source for broadband (other than satellite). Even the 10GB "limits" don't bother me since they don't shut off the service...just lower your priority level. The slowest I've gotten is 600kbps so even when it's "slow" it's fast. The install was clean and took a few hours to install the antenna and set up the Orinico AP.
My main digs of the service are the occasional latency issues (which I consider in a reliable connection), tech support (not being able to fix the latency issue) and while a great price...gaming is important...and the higher latency lowers the value for me. In the last week or so, the latency has gotten better...but I'm reserving judgement until I see it's back to the reliable low lever it was when I first signed up. 200-1000ms ain't cool. I expect less than 80ms (to their router) for a broadband connection latency to be "good". Some people here have bitched about the so-called caps...I download A LOT (over 10GB / month) and haven't been affected by it. I VPN all the time, backing up files from my office, uploading files to my office and have never had any problems with speed. My slowest upload was 400kbps, most in the 1200s, again, slowest DL speed 600+kbps, most 1000-1450kbps...and this is all during prime time. Want to check speeds, look up Zip 92883 on the speed test board. I heard that they're planning an upgrade to 3000/3000 service so hopefully speeds will improve eventhough they are adding customers. I'm also a subscriber of their competitor and while Unplugged was the better service, now they are more on par with each other. If I had to get rid of one, I don't know which I would choose.
Equipment is roof mounted ORiNOCO AP
********Update 8-10-02
After seeing network performance degrade recently and short but painful outtages become more frequent, I've elected to lower my service plan as being a top priority level customer doesn't seem to do much as I pull 680/270 numbers from my 1500/1500 service and shift some of the load over to their competitor which I also subscribe to. I still give Unplugged high marks cause now at level 3, it's only $25 which is only $15 more than local dial up and for that I'll definately take the 700kbps+ performance I still get (and I still occasionally pull some great numbers but for $70/mo I expect to get those numbers more often than not). As I mentioned earlier, they're supposed to do an upgrade and maybe I'll up my service level again...but until then...I'll live with some bandwidth throttling during prime time as I hit the 1GB limit and keep the extra $50.
*******Update 9-4-02
After switching to the $25 plan I have blown through my "cap" by multiple times but still haven't seen any speed slow downs that would indicate any type of cap enforcement in fact my speeds have increased a little to typical speeds of around 900/500kbps. At $25/mo...there is no equal. Even though I'm not getting "advertised speeds" because of my plan level...800-1200kbps down and 500kbps+ up, plus the fact that latancy has improved greatly...$25 is a SMOKIN' deal.
After a few weeks on the $25 plan...I'm still very happy with the service. I have done a ton of downloading and the network monitoring that regulates everyone's through put is transparent. The so-called caps aren't what people would recognize as caps. Even though I'm on the lowest plan I rarely see sub xDSL (768kbps) speeds. Uploads aren't as fast as they used to be but still 500+kbps is faster than any other local provider. Kudos to this efficient provider.
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Review by dreign30
member for 10.9 years, 3 visits, last login: 10.9 years ago
lodged 10.9 years ago
- Corona,Riverside,CA
- $55 per month
- (month by month)
- about 7 days
- "Very fast for downloads and browsing, good tech support"
- "Elevated/unstable latency for games most of the time"
- "Great for browsing and downloading/uploading files"
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Recently moving to Horse Thief, I was a bit disappointed to find out that there's no cable or DSL service here, having a fast DSL & cable connection at my previous residence spoiled me. I decided to go with Unplugged Internet since they have good reviews on here. The install was fairly quick, about 1 hour or so. The speed is nice, when I did the speed test on the lax.speakeasy.net server I got around 1250 down, 1330 up. If you like sending files, you will love the upload speed. One thing I don't really like is the download/upload bandwidth cap (4GB a month for me). Since I'm a bit spoiled with having no cap for over 2 years. If you like to browse and download files I would recommend Unplugged. Gaming is kind of another story. Like I said, I was a bit spoiled, I used my DSL connection for games and got around 15 to 25 ping to most servers in California. Playing games can be kind of difficult now. Some servers get around 40 ping but while in the game it spikes to 80-100 or more very often. I guess this is from high traffic or something. Overall I am happy with my service, hopefully they can do something to stable out the pings, that would make them even better. My only other options are ISDN or Coastinet (I've heard they arent very good for games at all). ISDN is way too expensive through Verizon so I guess I'll have to stick it out with Unplugged until cable or DSL become available. I like the symmetical speed though, if they can fix the ping problem then I would go with them over cable and DSL.
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 Review by animejunkie$
member for 11.1 years, 45 visits, last login: 11 years ago
updated 11 years ago
- Corona,Riverside,CA
- $55 per month
- about 30 days
- "Great personalized service. Low latency, synchronous speeds, static IP"
- "Download caps, no news server"
- "The best broadband service in Horsethief Canyon Ranch"
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I get excellent service, minimum downtime, great speed and low latency from my Unpluggedinternet connection. I routinely get over 1Mb/s from my 1500/1500 synchronous service and sometimes more along with static IP. Another thing great about Unplugged's connection is you get the speed no matter what service you sign up for. Typical of most wireless ISP's there are download caps but they price based on monthly download useage. Also seeing as more and more terrestrial ISP's are moving toward caps, my account isn't such a bad deal. Starting at $25 you can get a great web surfer account and get faster speeds than a $50 DSL account. Their gateway supports up to 5 PC's but there are no restictions other that "for residential use only" on how many computers you can have. They'll help you set up a domain, mail servers, and a boat load of mail accounts. For $20 more than my service, the cap is upped from 4GB to 10GB/mo which for most is plenty. Most people complain about caps without even knowing what their usage is or that they probably don't even get close to 10GB in a month.
I can't say enough about their service other than it's just plain GREAT.
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Review by jca2050
member for 11.3 years, 1572 visits, last login: a few hours ago
lodged 11.1 years ago
- Corona,Riverside,CA
- $70 per month
- about 6 days
- "Great speed, technical support, very good latency"
- "Slightly increased latency during peak-times, shouldn't be a problem after 3mbit upgrade"
- "The best ISP in Horse Thief by far, great value for money, excellent staff"
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I first heard about Unplugged Internet from Aerosurf, I called Aerosurf because a friend of mine had it and I wanted to see if I could get it. While on the phone he told me it wasn't available in my area so I should try Coastinet or Unplugged Internet. A friend of mine has Coastinet, I got on his computer and pinged a few things, the pings were a bit high so I decided to go with Unplugged. I called them up, I got a pre-qualification appointment a few days later. On schedule, Duane showed up and asked me a few questions about my computers and network setup. After that the next day he scheduled an installation date the next Tuesday (about 4 days). Duane and Russell showed up on Tuesday and did the installation, it took about an hour maybe less, quick and easy with no problems. I got online and naturally the first thing I did was ping some servers, my favorite server is static.com, 22ms! I am very pleased with their service till this day. They have many planned upgrades to make the service even better. They are upgrading their connection to 3mbit next month, can't wait for that!
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