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 Review by JDC69 
member for 9.1 years, 701 visits, last login: 36 days ago
lodged 8.1 years ago
 Oakridge,Lane,OR
 $50 per month about 5 days Qwest "they are better than PCINW." "By far the worse routing that I have ever seen, so of course latency is horrible." "If you do any gaming or if you flat out dont want delays, avoid this ISP like the black plague."
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I have never encountered routing as bad as that at Nw Link. I do a lot of online gaming and with this isp it is impossible. The lowest pings I ever see are over 100ms. I have performed several trace routes using visual route and am apalled at the number of hops I have to make just to get off of their network. To reach a server in Eugene which is 45 miles away from me I make 7 hops on their network. I bounce from portland up to seatle then to a few other places in Washington back to portland back to washington then off thier network. I am hitting the same blocks of ip addys so many times it is sick. The pings are not stable they range all the way up into the 200ms range. I dont understand their routing and it seems that none of their tech support people do either. I have had one in particular become very rude with me on the phone. I am dropping them as an isp as soon as I can get my service switched. If you would like to see a copy of some of these traces from visual route let me know and i will post them.
Well I am sorry NWlink, I switched isp's and got one that is even worse. Man what is wrong with the dsl around here. I can not game at all on my connection now and get download speeds below 500kbps. DSL is crap.
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Review by othermark
member for 8.8 years, 44 visits, last login: 38 days ago
lodged 8.8 years ago
- Everett,Snohomish,WA
- $25 per month
- Verizon
- "shell access, static ips, accurate billing, low outage, no speed limitation"
- "spam control, minimal website"
- "I can't score them all 5's but they're one of the best in the area."
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Northwest Link recently has changed hands, and is now known as infinity internet (not to be confused with the infinity internet you can find on the ISP search). I've been a customer since GTE advanced services first rolled out DSL in the area. Being first has a few draw backs, and
I had GTE back to the house several time to correct problems (plus they shorted out their own card at the switch). But being first also had an advantage -- whole house line filters tied to a spare wire pair at the point of entry. But I digress..
Northwest link has rarely been at fault for outages and I rarely use all the allocated bandwidth I've paid for, and I have two static non-natted IPs. I use one for the firewall, and one for testing, or I'll turn it on for the occasional game that can't/won't work with my NAT. There's no speed limitation as well, which means you can just deal with verizon when upgrading your service and nwlink won't throttle you.
The only problems I had with nwlink was with spam, and my nwlink account has become a junk account. Recently they've gotten better at this, but they used to have no protection whatsoever and spam would roll into my nwlink box by the 100s. I run my own domain/mail server on my static IP, so I don't fret about my nwlink mbox, it's basically a sinkhole. Besides that I can't fault them for much. They do a pretty good job, and recently bandwidth has even been better.
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Review by jjohns78
member for 9.9 years, 11 visits, last login: 9.9 years ago
lodged 9.9 years ago
- Bellevue,King,WA
- $10 per month
- about 10 days
- Qwest
- "Great Tech Support. More reliable than Qwest as ISP."
- "Uninformative Website. No technical info at all."
- "Sooooooo much better than Qwest..."
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The basic DSL service plan is $10/mo and a static IP. There were a few snags getting it going but that was Qwest's fault...
The tech support people have been really helpful. They can answer my questions without telling me to call other numbers. (Qwest had me call four different numbers before someone understood what I was asking...)
I just wish I didn't have to go through Qwest and pay $32/mo for DSL.
I've been thinking of upgrading to the $25/mo plan that gives you two static IP's, more disk space and limited dial-up access.
As for the people who think metering is a rip-off, if you're an average user it's wonderful. I'm paying half of what I did with Qwest as my ISP. MJRITCHE's post back there explained it perfectly.
It's your website. I need more content...
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 Review by django beans
member for 10.8 years, 301 visits, last login: 6.7 years ago
lodged 10.4 years ago
- Seattle,King,WA
- $10 per month
- about 5 days
- Qwest
- "Static IP, bridged connection, cheap metered service"
- "Not very good info on their web site"
- "Excellent low-cost alternative to Qwest/MSN"
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I was with qwest.net, and prior to that nwnexus.com. I wasn't about to "transition" to MSN so I went looking for a reputable local ISP that could offer bridged service. These are the guys. For $10 I get 640/256 (or thereabouts) plus an additional $12/GB of data transfer. I guess I'm a light user because I've yet to pay more than $15/mo.
I recently ditched the POS Intel 3200 DSL "modem" that qwest gave me for a practically brand new Cisco 678 which I picked up on ebay for half the $ qwest wanted. It was plug-and-play. I've got a fixed IP and a bridged connection. I couldn't be happier.
So far, no service interruptions. The two times I've had to call tech support (soon after signing up) they were courteous and quick with the answers I needed.
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Review by peterwi
member for 10.5 years, 95 visits, last login: 2.7 years ago
lodged 10.5 years ago
- Woodinville,King,WA
- $87 per month
- (month by month)
- about 30 days
- Verizon (ex GTE)
- "Reliable service, you get the bandwidth you pay for, competent staff."
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I have been a member since January 99. I moved to NWLink because my previous ISP was too slow in moving to DSL. I've gotten great service from NWLink and have recommended it to many friends. The service is very reliable and the few times they have had to go down for maintenance, they email you in advance if they know. When I had technical problems with Verizon when I first signed up for the service, they took care of the issues. The technical and service staff are very knowledgeable and competant. I signed up for the Silver Plus 1.5 Mb/384Kb package for $62.50 from Verizon and the $25 ISP package from NWLink. I get two static IPs, and 1GB of transfer per month. I was initially concerned with paying above 1GB but I rarely go over that and I run a web server, use it to VPN into work, and listen to lots of audio/video. I do bandwidth tests often and I always get very close to what I pay for.
Go for NWLink if you want quality service.
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Review by blairj
member for 11.4 years, 39 visits, last login: 2.2 years ago
lodged 10.8 years ago
- Seattle,King,WA
- $46 per month
- about 20 days
- Qwest
- "Metered service! (more on this below)"
- "We have to go through Qwest to get to NWLink"
- "go for metered service"
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I have been very happy with Northwest Link's DSL service. All the setup hassles were with Qwest. Qwest fumbled my order repeatedly, and it took FIVE MONTHS to get the billing straightened out! NW Link, on the other hand, was very professional and got their part up and running quickly with no problems. Over the 6 months we have had the service there have been about 5 outages, most cleared up instantly by a call to NWLink tech support. One outage, however, lasted about three days.
Now for the metered part: The $46 per month cost includes Qwest's $30 per month for the "first mile" (or is it the "last mile"?). For NW Link's part we pay $10 per month flat rate, plus $12 per gigabyte used per month. We have a PII 266 mhz PC & a PIII 800 mhz PC networked to our external DSL modem. We use about 1/2 a gigabyte per month.
Here is why I recommend using a metered ISP: (1) It is in the ISP's interest to provide you with the fastest upload and download speeds they can. The faster you can upload & download, the more bytes you use, and the more money they can make. (2) It is in the interest of other people who use your ISP to get online, get what they need done, and get off, since they are paying by the byte. So NWLink is constantly trying to give you the fastest service they can, and your fellow users are trying to use that service as efficiently as they can - and then they get off line. It's a win-win situation. A typical ISP gets your flat rate, and then as long as they don't get too many people cancelling their accounts they'll let the service get spread mighty thin.
So, NW Link, if you're listening, KEEP THE METERED RATES!!! Smart people will appreciate it. Let all the dumb people get lumped together into ISPs that have less incentive to provide fast service.
Good job, NW Link! [No promotional consideration was given to me for this review.]
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Review by alvint2
member for 11.1 years, 6 visits, last login: 7.8 years ago
lodged 11.1 years ago
- Redmond,King,WA
- $60 per month
- Verizon (ex GTE)
- CLEC party: Verizon (ex GTE)
- "Super-reliable service, static IPs, extremely knowledgeable personnels"
- "Metered connections"
- "Great ISP, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED"
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NWLink has been my DSL ISP since 1999 (and have been using them for a long time for dial-up services.) I like almost everything about this ISP, with the single exception for the metered connection usage.
Recently, I registered my own domain name and called NWLink to have them host it, as well as my new e-mail aliases. The transition went about as smoothly as I could expect! These guys have always had very helpful and knowledgeable technical personnels. I've not had any unexpected connection downtime from NWLink since the day I got my DSL connection, and the 1 or 2 downtimes they've had so far were to upgrade the routers, etc.
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Review by briand67
member for 11.4 years, 53 visits, last login: 3.7 years ago
lodged 11.4 years ago
- Snohomish,Snohomish,WA
- $25 per month
- Verizon (ex GTE)
- CLEC party: Verizon (ex GTE)
- "Great ISP. Responds to users quickly. Knowledgeable techs."
- "Meter's usage. Though rumor has it 2001 will bring changes to that policy."
- "Great ISP"
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Details: Northwest Link DSL does not charge based on the speed, so when I recently upgraded my line to Platinum (1500/768) I did not have to change a thing with Northwest Link.
Northwest Link uses Static IP addresses and they have several packages depending upon your needs.
I've had GTE (Silver) dsl with Northwest Link as my ISP for the last 18 months, and I've been completely satisified. Northwest link has been super with very few outages during that period (3 that I can count). I have had to call them a few times for various reasons, and their tech support staff is pretty knowledgable - a rareity in this age!
Anyone who gets DSL through Verizon should realize that you have a choice when it comes to the ISP portion of your service. I recently upgraded from Silver (384/384) to Platinum (1500/768). At first I was planning to change ISPs (because NWLINK meters and charges for the download) and I had even put in the order to switch to Verizon Online. 3 Weeks later nothing had changed so I called Verizon. They told me they were waiting for circuits to open up and explained that Verizon Online (the ISP part) was oversold. So I just stuck with NWLINK. I contacted Northwest Link about my concerns (that they charge for the download when most others do not) and the told me what's coming up in the future at nwlink and I was convinced to stick with them. I'm now very happy that Verizon Online sucks so much!
So my advice is to go with Northwest link! »www.nwlink.com
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Review by MCodanti
member for 12.1 years, 192 visits, last login: 3.5 years ago
lodged 11.4 years ago
- Portland,Multnomah,OR
- $54 per month
- (month by month)
- about 120 days
- Qwest
- CLEC party: Qwest
- "Fast, Reliable Service, Static IP, Allow Servers"
- "Charge for bandwidth usage"
- "Great if you don't surf much but you want it fast and cheap."
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I got my DSL Service back when it was first available in Portland, OR. (1+ years ago) I was one of the first people to order service. It took FOREVER to get it setup, but it was all due to US Worst. First the didn't have NW Link listed as an ISP they dealt with, and then after I got them to get that fixed, they had used all of the capacity at me CO to fill orders for customers choosing USPest.Net. After a complaint to the PUC, they got me turned on fairly quickly only they put it on the wrong phone line. It took a couple months for them to get more capacity and get it switched to the correct phone line but they managed. (And I ended up with an extra Cisco 675 modem out of the deal)
Enough with US Worst. NW Link did everything they could to help me during the process, and once US Pest got everything setup I was instantly online. I had a few problems at first with someone stealing my IP address and kicking me off, and eventually NW Link locked my IP address to my MAC so it couldn't be stolen anymore. They, also, were more than happy to setup the reverse DNS name for my IP to the name of my domain.
I started on their $10/month (+$12/gig) plan, and they didn't charge usage for the first year or so. (Because they couldn't get it to work.) Once they started charging I moved to their $25/month pland (First gig included, $10/gig for anything past) They give you a static IP, and have no problems with you running any servers as long as they are legal. I got the 256/256 plan, which US West have as a 640/370 at no extra cost, and NW Link didn't throttle it.
NW Link has been very upfront about the few times they have had outages, and have a notification list you can subscribe to so you know when they have planned downtime for upgrades, etc..
Overall I am very happy with their service other than now that more music and video stuff is coming I am using too much bandwidth.
One last note, I had a few friends in the Gresham, OR area sign up with them through GTE (now Verizon) and they all complained in the last 6 months about speed problems. Two of the three people have switched to a different ISP and the problems went away for them. I haven't seen these problems but I am in Portland with QWest.
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Review by (hidden by request)
(review was emailed from domain mee.net)
lodged 11.8 years ago
- Seattle,King,WA
- $57 per month
- (month by month)
- "Static IP & awesome support at a great price!"
- "They keep a low profile so I didn't find them sooner."
- "If they service your area, don't hestitate!"
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I switched from US-West as my ISP after using them initially to minimize
hassles - or so I thought. I wish I'd gone with NWLink to start with because
US West was a huge hassle to deal with (see other much older review
elsewhere here)!
NWLink customer support is excellent. I always get someone knowledgeable
when I call or email. I chose them mostly because they're one of the few
ISPs in town that still provide static IPs for a reasonable price and don't
seem to mind what you do with them. I don't spam, port scan or hack so that
probably helps, but I do run a (low traffic!) linux-based mail and web
server for a few friends as well as NAT for a small home network. The few
times I've had related queries they've been very helpful despite my
"non-standard" OS which most ISPs won't support.
The service hasn't been 100% reliable, with about 3 short ( 10min) outages
(that I"ve noticed) in the last 9 months. But, when I've called about these
they were always already aware of it and working on it. For the price, I'm
not complaining!
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