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Review by logic11 
Posted: 4.5 years ago
member for 7.8 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:
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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.
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DataFlo Inc
