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Review by borg1 
UPDATED: 224 days ago
member for 5 years, 5 visits, last login: 224 days ago
 Hermitage,Davidson,TN
 $48 per month
 BellSouth
 "Rock solid"
 "Have to have a phone line"
 "Best ISP I have ever seen"
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Thanks to recommendations here I picked Butler Networks when I bought this house almost 5 years ago and the only time my connection has not worked was when my power was out. I already had a modem and subscribed immediately after I ordered the phone line so Bill let me pick up the phone filters in person and I had internet as soon as the phone line was working. I have not needed much in the way of customer service but the two times I had questions (both when I did a network trace and saw something new, such as when they changed email providers) one email and I get a prompt reply from Bill himself. About the only downside is I have to have a land line which I otherwise would not need and I now see that they offer wireless so I may be talking to them again in the near future.
I have the 1.5 package and this is what I just got on a test with Speakeasy in Palo Alto, CA:
Download: 1200 (Kbps)
Upload: 211 (Kbps)
In kilobytes per second: 146.5 down 25.8 up
A lot closer to home, here is what I just got with EPB in Chattanooga:
Download Speed: 1303 kbps (162.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 210 kbps (26.3 KB/sec transfer rate)
I would love to hear from some Butler customers who have the wireless service since I occasionally hammer my connection (downloading an OS, etc)....
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Review by ke4rzi
UPDATED: 4.2 years ago
member for 7.2 years, 230 visits, last login: 11 days ago
Columbia,Maury,TN
$49 per month (6 month contract)
 about 2 days
"Low ping like BSFA used to have, static ip without extra charge like BSFA, speed is a touch better than BSFA, no ports blocked"
"Lack of a usenet news server, more expensive than cable internet and slower too"
"If you are a gamer this is probably the best ISP you will find in middle TN."
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I had already bought my own Alcatel Speedtouch Home ADSL modem and had been using it with Bellsouth Fast Access. When BSFA changed their routing from Atlanta to New Orleans that made my online gaming experience unbearable so I started looking for a low ping alternative. I had the fine folks at Butler ping a few game servers for me so I could see what ping times I could expect with their service and they were even lower than BSFA so I went ahead and ordered. Butler had me up and going in no time since it was just a swap over. My peak speeds are slightly better than what I had with BSFA for the 1.5 Mbps down and 256k up package and the price is a little lower but, no newsgroup server. Static ip is free with Butler and no ports are blocked so I can send and receive E-mail through my own webserver with no problems. BSFA had blocked port 25 and I had to send e-mails through the BSFA SMTP server and receive through my webserver's POP server. I consider myself to be a real consumer and always looking for the best deal and if price were the sole issue I'd go with Charter cable but, since I am a competitive gamer Butler is the clear choice. Now if Butler would only offer 3 Mbps. down and 384k up like Charter for $40 that would rock.
I left Butler for Charter after Butler's routing changed and instead of going through Atlanta they started going to somewhere in the North East. Butler's ping soon became no better than Charter and Charter was $10 cheaper a month and more than twice as fast downloads. If Butler or Bellsouth had kept their routing good through Atlanta then I would still be with one of those ADSL providers. Meanwhile, I'll enjoy my lower priced and faster Charter cable internet with comparable ping.
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Review by wikimiki
Posted: 4.2 years ago
member for 4.2 years, 0 visits, last login: 4.2 years ago
Nashville,Davidson,TN
$55 per month
about 2 days
BellSouth
CLEC party: BellSouth
"Excellent service, static IP"
"None really"
"The best!"
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Bill and Karen Butler provide superb DSL service. Itś a small, local company, they work hard and like the mailman, they deliver. I´ve used them for several years and I am totally satisfied with the product. The few times that I´ve had a problem (and all of the problems have been modest), they have responded quickly, usually within the hour. I wish the service cost a few dollars less but if this is what they need to charge to stay in business and prosper, then so be it. Itś worth it.
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Review by HarperJG
Posted: 4.5 years ago
member for 7.6 years, 290 visits, last login: 237 days ago
Nashville,Davidson,TN
$50 per month (6 month contract)
BellSouth
CLEC party: BellSouth
"Was up and going in 3 hours from first call"
"No 3 meg serivice, but that is a Bellsouth limitation"
"Excellent service; Beats other hands down"
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After dumping Comcast (see review at »/dorateform/ISP/1579/48705), I decided to try Butler Networks. I was really tired of the phone menu and script reading reps, and wanted to try out a local provider.
I called at about 8:30 am, and they begin processing my order. I orginally wanted the 3 megs/second package, but after some research I was too far from my central office to get it. So, I got the 1.5 megs/second option. I was offered the option to pick up the modem at their offices, which I did. As soon as I got home, I plugged it up, and the DSL light on the modem was on. However, I could not get connected, but a quick phone call resolved the issue that I was having and I was good to go. What was cool was that they expedited the process to get me up and going, and even allowed me the ability to demo the account to make sure the speeds that I was getting were satisfactory to me. I doubt that I would get that level of service from any other ISP such as Comcast or Bellsouth. Because of this, I'm sticking with them. I even got a static IP address.
The only thing that I wish that could be different was if I could get the 3 megs/second speed, but that appears out of their control as this is a Bellsouth limitation. However, I am getting a consistent connection at about 1 meg per second. I know that I could probably get the same service and a somewhat cheaper rate from Bellsouth or Earthlink, but their service is no where near Bulters. It is nice to call and have a human answer the phone rather that having to make you way through mutiple levels of prompts. Plus if have a problem I know it will get solved in a short amount of time, without getting the run around.
Bottom line: If you are tried of the same old run around from big compaines like Comcast and Earthink who try to blame everything else but their own systems when problems happen, switch to Bulter. You won't be disapointed.
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Review by StonieRocks
Posted: 4.9 years ago
member for 5 years, 5 visits, last login: 4.8 years ago
Lebanon,Wilson,TN
$58 per month
about 2 days
BellSouth
"Personal, intelligent service. Static IP"
"Worth the extra money if you want a solid ADSL connection"
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Background: My old ISP was Mindspring (Earthlink) via Covad. They used to be a fine ISP until a few months ago when their first level support changed from people who can think for themselves to people who troubleshoot by checklist. Whenever my service went down, instead of checking what was wrong on their end, they always wanted to verify my setup. Every call like this always turned out to be a problem or outage they had not reported to their first level support yet, and they always found out AFTER the long, unnecessary checklist. The last straw was when they attempted to change my service to 3mbps. I was constantly losing sync and instead of helping me troubleshoot the problem, they took Covad's advise of just dropping it back down to 1.5mbps. Even after dropping it back down, I still lost sync more than I did before changing to 3mbps.
Present: I sent a fax to Mr. Butler who had my setup finished in 2 days. I ordered 3mbps PPPoE service for 58.95/mo. I was out of town the entire week he provisioned the line, and returned home on a Friday evening after his business hours. My connection was not working, and I did not want to be without it all weekend. He returned my call later that Friday evening, and led me through making a change to my DSL modem. This modem was not purchased from him or familiar to him. I still had a problem keeping a constant connection, and left another message Saturday evening. He called back Sunday morning and lead me through an MTU change on my router, which again was neither purchased from him or familiar to him.
I doubt there is another ISP that would have done any of this.
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Review by miklm
UPDATED: 4.9 years ago
member for 5.7 years, 1 visits, last login: 4.8 years ago
Pulaski,Giles,TN
$48 per month
BellSouth
"Fast and reliable. Great support."
"NONE!"
"Best service in Tennessee"
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I purchased standard residential DSL (1500/256) at the end of October, 2003. Everything was running on November 2, 2003. Great turn-around.
I'm in Pulaski, TN (south of Nashville on I-65), but my service is on-par with the Nashville customers.
I formerly worked for a DSL NSP (service provider), and I must say that Bill Butler and Butler.net are the best I've ever encountered in the industry. There is no match for his personal customer service/support, and his network is absolutely bullet-proof. The speed is always consistent, and always 158 KBps. Much better than local cable or competing DSL services -- for the same or cheaper prices, and a static IP.
I can't say enough good things about Butler Networks. Thanks, Bill!
UPDATE, December 7 2004 -- I've been with Butler over a year now, and never had the slightest problem. The service is top notch; you won't find better anywhere. As of November 29 2004 Butler is offering a 3.0m down/384k up DSL service. I emailed them that afternoon to have my account upgraded, and it was done the NEXT day. Scott helped me fix a problem I had configuring my router for the new service and we were running at double the speed in no time. You just won't find a better ISP anywhere.
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Review by Tuono
UPDATED: 5.2 years ago
member for 6.1 years, 53 visits, last login: 2.4 years ago
Nashville,Davidson,TN
$49 per month (6 month contract)
BellSouth
"It just works"
"Speeds are not as fast as comcast, but still fast"
"Great service, Bill Butler knows what he is doing"
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I have two accounts in two seperate locations with Butler. Things just work. Plain and simple.
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Review by (hidden by request)
Posted: 5.4 years ago
(review was emailed from domain askjssi.com)
Chicago,Cook,IL
 Business customer
$75 per month (12 month contract)
BellSouth
CLEC party: BellSouth
"small companies are nimble"
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We have a satelite office in Nashville. When looking for a broadband solution Bellsouth originally looked to be most useful co. But after Bellsouth upgraded we lost use of our outlook over VPN, more so they were very unhelpful in finding a solution. So I searched DSL reports for a company, I ran across Butler Networks, Mr. Butler was extremely helpful, and told me that my contract would be voided if they were not able to get us totally running, including my previous issues with Bell south. So I called on a Monday at 3 to schedule. he called my satelite office at 4, then he accomadated turning off the previous dsl at midnight on tuesday as not to put us out of action, and on wednesday ( 1.5 days Later) we had DSL service, all working. My associate in the office told me bill was professional and very knowledable, also when i called thier office, who ever picked up the phone, was friendly and helpful.
Again THank you butler networks.
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Review by drwx
Posted: 5.8 years ago
member for 5.8 years, 4 visits, last login: 4.5 years ago
Antioch,Davidson,TN
$49 per month (12 month contract)
about 3 days
BellSouth
"fast.. static ip.. great ping to gaming servers"
"no free newsgroups =\"
"serious isp for serious users"
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when i first moved to nashville, dsl was not available in antioch. so i did what seemed like a smart thing and went with comcast. i had dsl previously with bellsouth in alabama. comcast seemed flaky a lot of the time. seein as how i did not have a phone line, it was really hard for me to tell when dsl actually was available here. i resorted to using the phone number for my apartment complex to check for dsl. =) finally after 6 months of living here, dsl became available. i hurriedly signed up for a phone line and bellsouth dsl. i was actually referred to butler.net by a friend of mine that i game with. i did a little research and quickly canceled my order for bellsouth dsl. i called up butler to sign up for service.
here's the kicker. you know when you call an average isp, you get to wade through several layers of menus and finally get through to a real line where you get to hold and listen to crappy music? sucks don't it? well that didn't happen with butler. called up and the phone rang 3 times. a HUMAN answered the phone. imagine that. no menus and no crappy music. the only real waiting i had to do was for about 30 seconds while she went to her desk to type in my info. right away it made me seem like a person instead of just a random username/telephone number. i placed my order on a friday. my duedate was the next tuesday. i got off work at 4 and hurried home to try out my new service. to my avail, there was nothing. i couldn't get sync. i fiddled with my modem for a little while and checked my phones and filters. by this time it was about 530. their office closes at 5. well, no problem there because bill sits on AIM. i asked him on aim and he said my acct hadn't been finalized but they had till 7 to do it. still wasn't finalized by 7 so i gave up on it until wednesday. i was in no rush. i still had my cable internet access to use.
wednesday when i got off work, i had synch. so, to figure out what the hell i was doing, i called them again. this time, i got yet another answer on 3 rings to a REAL PERSON. it was bill. he walked me through the installation. simple and painless. i was up and running within a minute of being on the phone.
the bottom line is that if you live in nashville and can get this service, get it. they treat you like you're a real person. i feel comfortable knowing i can call and get to talk to a human without wading through menus and crap. it's nice to not be talkin to some random op in a call center.
prolly the only drawback is no free newsgroups. this isn't a huge drawback because most people don't use the groups anyway. comcast didn't offer free groups either. binary retention usually sucks on isp newsservers anyway.
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Review by der_panzer
Posted: 5.8 years ago
member for 5.8 years, 343 visits, last login: 2.3 years ago
Nashville,Davidson,TN
$74 per month (12 month contract)
about 2 days
BellSouth
CLEC party: BellSouth
"48 hour turnaround and *ohhhh* so fast"
"I'm thinking..."
"Super fast, rock solid - best deal in Nashville"
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I ordered Butler's "Business 1500/256" DSL service on a Monday afternoon, and was up and running Wednesday before noon. A 48 hour turnaround - I'm impressed!
Mr. Butler dropped off a Best Data DSL router to me at my home. It was pre-configured in bridged mode - I plugged it in the phone jack, reconfigured my computer's network settings, and away it goes!
I'm a residential customer, but I decided to go with Butler's Business package because it included a range of 5 useable static IPs ($74.95/mo). Butler also offers a lower priced "Residential 1500/256" service at only $48.95. It includes 1 static IP instead of 5.
So far, the performance has been unbelieveable. 12ms to my first hop, 37ms to dslreports.com, 1214 Kbps down / 217 kbps up no matter what the time of day, 24/7 - it never fluctuates. The low latencies make it unbelieveably responsive. Always downloads at a solid 150 KBytes/sec.
Having Butler DSL is almost like having my own personal T1! It kicks the snot out of my buddies' cable modems! 
If you are in the Nashville area, you need this service! 49 bucks for a connection with this level of performance and a static IP can't be beat! I am a fairly new customer - so far so good. I'll update in the future.
Thanks Bill! Keep up the good work!
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