dslreports logo

Review by Pureincognit See Profile

  • Location: Saint Anne, Kankakee, IL, USA
  • Cost: $50 per month
  • Install: about 13 days
Great for rural residents out of DSL/Cable range
Very inconsistant.
I would only recommend it if it is the only option.
Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

I live in the rural area of Saint Anne, south of Aroma park, and as far as internet is concerened you won't do much better than dial up without the assistance of a WISP. The total time from me contacting them to the install was less than 2 weeks. When Brian the tech arrived he could'nt get a signal if his life depended on it. Just when I thought it was useless to try harder I came up with the bright idea of installing the radio receiver on top of a fourty-foot corn silo. This allowed us to get over the obstacles and acheive better line of site. Brian was all for it except he is not permited to climb more than 25-feet. This is were the fun began as I had to do most of the mounting myself. after climbing up we got a signal within seconds and was ready to mount and test on my home PC. we ran the ethernet cable to my roof and down into my office and powered the radio via ethernet(POE). the inter net worked fantastic at a blazing 420Kbps per second(LOL). It did have good latency at 40-100 MS and loaded web pages much faster then Dial-up. I was very satisfied and was ready to pay the $150 instalation charge with the first months service of $50, but then the inevitable happened and I could not use the internet the very next day. I called the ISP and they said they locked me in on someones private radio and they must have saw me and locked me out. At this point I thought she was joking how could it be that I got free internet from a radom guys house miles away and they were going to charge me for it. Afterwards we schedualed another date for brian to come and correct the problem. When he arrived he did'nt even touch the radio he just dillied with his laptop and volia I was locked in on DACAs tower. The new speedtest improved slightly weighing in at 480Kbps per second. It was great for several days when all of a sudden I started haveing very inconsistant connections. They were and still are so bad that for days at a time I can't even use the Internet. After several calls to Customer service I was told that I was going to get a Yagi antenna added to the radio and it would increase my range and fix the random outages. I am still awaiting the antenna and will update when it arrives. For now I appreciate the service but am still very unsatisfied with the performance as of late. I don't want to completly dog them because I am a whoping six miles from their acces point and am very fortunate to get a signal at all. The previous reveiwers got their service 4 and 5 years ago and are having the same speed as me and obviously better connections. This just shows how often they upgrade their equipment. After further reveiw I have decided if the atenna does not do the trick I will pay someone three miles away and make a point to point bridge with some overpriced equipment such as the radio that DACA has installed at my location. This will yeild way better speed (2-6 Mbps) and will be closer to my house for the same price.

member for 15.2 years, 74 visits, last login: 13.6 years ago
updated 15.2 years ago


Review by r0ul3tt3 See Profile

  • Location: Bourbonnais, Kankakee, IL, USA
  • Cost: $50 per month (12 month contract)
  • Install: about 2 days
Got an installer out fast
Pings jump sometimes....
Great company, good service if you can't get dsl/cable
Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

I first sent DACA an email on sunday the 12th, they called me on Tuesday the 15th. I talked to them and i asked if they supplied a router or if i should buy my own, they said they could re-sell me a linksys router for $90, so i bought a refurbished one off Tigerdirect for 20. They asked if i do alot of gaming, i do, and they said they don't garuntee any latency. This made me kind of dissapointed. They told me they would forward my order to an installer and he would contact me. The next day he called me and said he would come out tomorrow (Thursday the 17th) and install it at 2PM. He got here at 1:30P.M. and sarted checking signals on my roof. He mounted the antenna on out Broadcast TV Antenna stand and laid the wires. The first radio (modem) he tried didnt work... i guess it was just a bad piece of equipment. Then he opened a brand new one and tried it, i would've liked the brand new one in the first place, considering you buy the radio with the install. The install took around 2 hours from arrival to live. It was $200.00 for the install, which is ok because other WISPS in the area charge atleast $500 for install. They promise a symetrical 512kbps connection. Before he left he did a speed test which said 580kbps, this was around 3:30P.M. The speed depends on the amount of people on, so during peak hours its usually around 600kbps symetrical. I did other tests and you can view them on my zip code. They offer only 1 dynamic IP. There is no bandwith limit. I typically download at 80Kbps and 120Kbps off peak times. While playing online games i typically get pings of 80ms-130ms during peak times, and 30ms-50ms off peak times. I wasnt expecting such good pings. Considering we were paying $75 a month for our second line and dial-up, it is a great value with very nice speeds. One year from now we will have saved $100 including install price.

member for 19.8 years, 22 visits, last login: 18.7 years ago
lodged 19.7 years ago


Review by dgoner See Profile

  • Location: Bourbonnais, Kankakee, IL, USA
  • Cost: $50 per month (12 month contract)
  • Install: about 28 days
Great bang for the buck given that Cable and DSL could care less about servicing our area
Takes a while to get an installer out Inconsistant pings and high pings.
Great value compared to satellite and available to more than Cable and DSL
Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

I was told DACA's wireless service would be 500K/500K and in my 2 months of
testing it has been close to that but most times better than that speed at around 700/800 down/up.
During peak hours I may see download fall off to around 400K. Installation
was reasonable given DACA does not require equipment purchase so the install
cost me around $150. I was hoping VOIP service would work better over this
technology but so far it leaves a lot to be desired in the sound clarity and
reliability department. Some of this can be attributed to VOIP technology
itself but the sometimes inconsistent pings (fluctuation 40 ms - 500 ms) from DACA cause problems. Ping averages are generally low at just under 100 ms to Yahoo which was a vast improvement over Direcway satellite but sometimes they creep up to the 200 ms range during peak times. I would like to see them improve upon this if possible. Gaming works well over the system despite a minor speed bump in which I encountered with overloading their router while running All Seeing Eye but they have since upgraded equipment and there is no longer an issue. DACA offers static IP for an extra $5 per month. The time from calling and ordering the service to installation was a bit long at
over 3 weeks but they are fairly new in town and have a backlog. The installer set up my router for me at no additional charge which was nice. I hate to
advertise them as great for fear of them overselling the service but this
hasn't happened so far. I would highly recommend them to anyone in the
Kankakee / Bradley / Bourbonnais, IL area as most of our area still is not serviced by
cable or DSL and those that are servered may find Daca's bandwidth more consistent if you tend to be on the fringe areas of DSL. According to one of their installers they are hitting out almost 6 - 7 miles from their tower which is by Olivette Nazarene University so most of the city area and those on the outskirts should have a chance at the service.

Dgoner


member for 22 years, 3442 visits, last login: 120 days ago
updated 20.2 years ago


cbrigante2
Wait til Next Year
Premium Member
join:2002-11-22
North Aurora, IL

cbrigante2

Premium Member

How's the speed?

Could you post a speed test?
dgoner
Premium Member
join:2002-03-08
Knox, IN

dgoner

Premium Member

Re: How's the speed?

» ··· 72502827