how-to block ads
|
»next review in page
 Review by cwozniak 
UPDATED: 3.1 years ago
member for 9.6 years, 691 visits, last login: 6 days ago
 Wood Dale,Dupage,IL
 $179 per month (24 month contract)
 about 14 days
 "Good speeds and fair uptime - Allows running a web server"
 "No usenet server access included"
 "Good alternate if you can't get a decent DSL line"
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
Update 15-Sept-2006: We had a couple more similar outages after my update on July 26. Everything has been working OK the last few weeks.
This will probably be my last DataFlo update. We had a Comcast HSI cable run under the street and to our building a few weeks ago. The inside wiring and service activation were done on Sept. 1. Our DataFlo service ends on Sept. 29.
-------------------------------------------------
Update 26-July-2006: Just downgraded their Connection Reliability from 5 to 3 and tech support from a 5 to 4. Everything had been going fine up until about a week ago. We had some heavy storms roll through one morning and we completely lost our connection for the rest of the day. DataFlo corrected a problem on their end right around 5:00 PM.
Yesterday, we could view the DataFlo web site but could not get to any other sites or our e-mail server for a while in the middle of the day. Running tracert showed that two routers on their end routing traffic back and forth between each other.
Everything is running real slow this morning. A tracert showed dropped packets and latency times of 230 to 750 mSec on their network and on cogentco.com (possibly their backbone connection?)
In every case, a call to tech support got a recording saying all support people were busy and to leave a message. I only got a call back to see if everything was OK after yesterday's problem was corrected.
-------------------------------------------------
Update 07-June-2005: We had excellent connectivity up until yesterday afternoon when our connection died. I called DatoFlo tech support after I made some checks to confirm the problem was not on our internal LAN or broadband router. They all ready knew about our outage and had service person at our office within a half hour. It took about twenty minutes to redo and test a firmware upgrade to their wireless hardware. The original remote upgrade had hiccuped over the weekend causing a reboot failure on Monday afternoon.
-------------------------------------------------
Original Review: Because of our location in Wood Dale, the best DSL line we could get was 128/128 line through Covad. We needed something faster and a fractional T1 was big $$ compared to DataFlo's wireless 1.5Mbps/384 Kbps business service with one static IP address at $179 / mo.
The order process was real easy. We were told there would a almost a 2 week delay for the installation because their installers had a backlog. They were able to adjust their schedule to a good day for both of us.
The installation was easy. I showed the installer where I wanted the ethernet jack and the location of the trapdoor to the roof. He did the rest. We were up and running in about 2-1/2 hours.
He needed to come back the next day clean up a ground rod connection and to reconfigure their hardware to resolve some static IP compatibilty issues to work with the D-Link Broadband router on our existing network.
Other than a very short period of time when they had some type of DNS server problem. We have not noticed any speed issues or other problems in two months.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of DataFlo Inc |
 | »next review in page (previous review)
Review by logic11
Posted: 4.4 years ago
member for 7.7 years, 16 visits, last login: 3 years ago
Aurora,Dupage,IL
 Business customer
$179 per month
"Technically competant staff"
"Frequent outages, heavy broadcast traffic from other customers"
"Good folks, but very poor reliability"
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
We ordered business-class wireless service from DataFlo when we moved into our new home, for my home business (some web hosting, mostly inbound email and custom networking solutions), after several happy (and incredibly trouble-free) years with Speakeasy. The sales process went easily enough; they were able to accomodate my need for an additional few static IP addresses along with the normal single static address I was assigned for my edge router. Installation was smooth; they were able to accomodate our house closing schedule without any problems, and the technician they sent out to install the antenna and premeses gear was knowledgable and courteous; he was happy to answer questions about the service, and this was the first time I found out that we would be on a bridged network. No problem, I figured; some minor reconfiguration of our router to deal with bridging instead of a routed connection. It never occurred to me that they wouldn't be doing any filtering whatsoever at the head end of the wireless link.
We've had at least one or two outages per month since I signed on with them, lasting at least a few minutes to an hour in length. Connectivity to from my end to the tower has generally never been the problem; there have only been a couple of incidents where I was unable to reach the gateway at the other end of the link, which speaks highly of the network gear they've chosen to deploy. The problems have generally been with storms of broadcast traffic involving other customers, and internal network issues with DataFlo. These have resulted in the line being practically unusable for the VoIP service we use (Vonage).
On one occasion, the IP address of my router was changed with a single day of notice (so much for static addresses; despite being set up for over half a year with a hard-configured IP address on my router, I was informed that I would be required to switch to DHCP), and they apparently forgot to add a route for my additional external addresses when that happened, which resulted in a day-long outage for all services that I host.
Calls to their tech support line (really, a receptionist in their office) are answered quickly and professionally. Generally, technical questions need to be referred to another person, and I don't believe I've ever had that connection made during the initial call. Email responsiveness is much better, and is usually directly from their primary technical talent.
They do not provide Usenet service, which is a disappointing oversight given both how many decent Usenet outsourcing companies are available, and the cost of their service. They do supply email addresses and web hosting; I've made use of neither service, so I can't comment on their suitability for my needs.
As I write this, my connectivity is basically down because of random broadcast traffic, and has been up and down for most of the day, hence prompting me to write this review.
We have had service through DataFlo for a bit over a year, at this point. Our service is provided via their Oswego, IL tower.
I have a difficult time recommended them, especially if you have the same needs as me; at $179/month for business-class service, I expected a great deal more than this, and find myself regularly missing the superior service quality and pricing I received from Speakeasy.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of DataFlo Inc |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by mhanley
Posted: 5 years ago
member for 9.8 years, 78 visits, last login: 157 days ago
Carol Stream,Dupage,IL
$99 per month (24 month contract)
about 5 days
"installation was painless, connection speed and reliability are great"
"nothing bad to report"
"great option if you can't get fast DSL cheaper"
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
A little pricey, but still much better and faster than the IDSL I had previously, for roughly the same price. The connection speed is great (1436 down / 242 up), and reliability has not been a problem. The antenna on the roof is very discreet, no high mast is required. The antenna is mounted near the peak of the roof, with just the top of the antenna visible above the peak. I haven't had to contact them at all for service or technical support since I was installed (10 months now).
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of DataFlo Inc |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by (hidden by request)
Posted: 5.8 years ago
(review was emailed from domain petlock.net)
undisclosed location
$39 per month (12 month contract)
"Bringing bandwidth to where there was none by adding a 30-foot high antenna to my home"
"Nothing bad, quality job!"
"Go for it if you want reliable connection to the Internet. Supports VoIP!"
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Services:
|
In the far eastern suburbs of Montevideo, Uruguay I have two choices that I know of for Internet service: Antel and Dedicado. Antel is the government-owned phone company that serves the whole country and Dedicado is a wireless radio network with up to 384k of internet access available to users.
Dedicado installed their 64k wireless service. It's much more stable than dialing up and is priced competitively with the cost of dialing up for a bit less than two hours each day. Internet's expensive in Uruguay.
They put a 30-foot high antenna and guy wires on my roof. The antenna is a white square object at the top. The box that provides the ethernet interface is about twice the size of a cigarette pack and is made by Ericsson.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of DataFlo Inc |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by lliquibop
Posted: 5.9 years ago
member for 5.9 years, 4 visits, last login: 5.9 years ago
Carol Stream,Dupage,IL
Contract price not specified.
"Very Fast, only provider offing higher than 768."
"very happy with my service."
| Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
i came home after a long day at school. my dad calls me up to his office room and gives me the whole parental sh'peal about my messy room. after i promised to clean it. he handed me a door hanger. the door hanger said there was high speed internet availible in my area. i have been her 10 years. never has anything but ISDN or 256 DSL ever been availible in my area. when time warner fist came here, i was asking about internet... they said shortly... then ATT came on board... still they said in a few months. years later... ATT was bought out by Comcast. still no internet. so i was frustrated to say the least. my dial up service was becoming more and more inconsistant and unreliable. so when i was handed this door hanger. i told my dad to do it. we called up that day and made an appointment. as my luck seems to have it. the day i schedualed it on was the day after the nice sunny day. this day was gloomy and had intermittent rain. but the installer got there between rains and was able to set it up. i set up the router and in 5 minutes, i was at my google home page. now i was thinking... what should i download first. well, stunned and at a complete loss of ideas. i downloaded the Service pack for XP. 125 MB. downloaded in about 15 minutes... that woulda took a week with my dial up, if i was able to keep a connection at a pathetic 26.8... or if i was lucky. 39.2. since i have signed up. i havent had a single complaint. they're service is suprisingly reliable for what i thought wireless would be. i stand corrected. i recomend this service to anyone. gamers especially. this connectin has a better upload than my buddy's cabel connection. so often he has me host the game servers.
service info...
i ordered a 1024/512 connetion, price is $69 a month. there is a contract. the equipment and installation is free. the home equipment is a grey box on the roof that is the size of a college text book. inside is a small wall mounted white box. that has the link lights and such. i use this connection to VLAN into work. i know thats a plus for some. and my ip seems to be the same all the time.
i feel i got the most bang for my buck.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of DataFlo Inc |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by lowestring
Posted: 5.9 years ago
member for 5.9 years, 2 visits, last login: 5.9 years ago
Carol Stream,Dupage,IL
$69 per month (24 month contract)
about 4 days
"Fast speeds, quick install, great tech support."
"Didn't know they had service here. Get the word out, DataFlo!"
"So far the service has been everything they said it would be."
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
I moved to Carol Stream from Glendale Heights in August of 2003. I had Earthlink DSL there and was happy with it, so I was bummed when I found out they couldn't accommodate me at the new address. We have Comcast cable but they have been promising Internet service since before I moved in and it's still not available. DSL Reports only had some wireless companies with fairly unfavorable reviews listed as covering my address so I had just about given up hope. Not long after I moved in I found an ad hanging on my door for DataFlo. They weren't listed on DSL reports at the time and all the bad things written about other wireless providers I saw kept me skeptical. I called them about 4 times during the next week and talked to both sales and techs with questions about the install, reliability, serving multiple computers at my house, etc. and all my questions were answered patiently and professionally. I ordered the 1M down/512K up service for $69 a month and they said they would be out to install in 4 days. My wife was concerned about having a big antenna on the house and made me promise to have it installed where you couldn't see it from the front of the house. The installers showed up on time and were very efficient and respectful of my wishes. It turned out the antenna was small (about 9X13'' it think) and the installers mounted it where it is barely visible. I was up and running in under two hours. I am getting great speeds and the service hasn't gone down once. We had a big wind storm a few weeks ago that was strong enough to blow over our patio table but didn't bother my connection. So that's about it. DataFlo has delivered on everything they said they would do and I am a very satisfied customer. I dropped their Pre-Sales Information rating to 4 stars because if my kids had gotten home before me and thrown the ad on the door away I'd still be in dial up purgatory. Now that they're on DSL Reports they can be found by anyone.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of DataFlo Inc |
|
|
DataFlo Inc
