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Review by bloodbox 
Posted: 2.7 years ago
member for 2.7 years, 4 visits, last login: 1.7 years ago
 Altadena,Los Angeles,CA
 $25 per month (12 month contract)
 about 8 days
 "Very easy installation; good community reputation; no corporate BS"
 "none"
 "Skip the big telcos and cable cos. and go with the FreeNet"
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I found out about LAFN.org through this site. I'd looked around for DSL and cable service and was almost wooed by the ATT deal of $15/month. Then I remembered how I hated dealing with corporate customer service in general and figured that it was only a matter of time before the entry price would be increased. (This isn't my first experience with high speed. I had Charter cable in 2000-2001 but then cancelled. It was quite expensive then, plus they made you pay an extra $10 if you didn't want cable TV.)
The actual connection is provided through ATT, so FreeNet is really the reseller and the mail service.
I like the fact that the FreeNet is a non-profit and provides free dial-up accounts to school kids. I got the Silver wireless package, which is a dynamic IP, 1.5 max down, plus a Zoom combined DSL modem/wireless router. That's $300 for the service (per year) plus $95 for the modem/router. While $95 price wasn't the drop-dead cheapest (you can probably find it for $10 less online), LAFN ships it to you and provides line filters and instructions. You don't have to use their modem anyway, if you have one already.
All the communications I've had with them have been very personable. Emails are quickly returned. You can also see from some other reviews that they helped people worked through some tricky problems, such as legacy lines.
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Review by bj558
Posted: 2.9 years ago
member for 2.9 years, 0 visits, last login: 2.9 years ago
Altadena,Los Angeles,CA
$25 per month (month by month)
about 30 days
 SBC
"Straightforward connection, no ads or unwanted "features", dependability, price, friendly assistance"
"Need some technical knowledge to set it up"
"LAFN is the best kept secret on the internet"
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I had a really knotty situation with the phone company--I had my phone service for so long that SBC (PacBell) and AT&T did not recognize it. Honestly, they said no such number existed even though I'd been paying bills for nearly 30 years!
The tech from LA FreeNet stayed with this case, tracking down people at the phone company and (most likely) badgering them to get me hooked up. That's why the long time from order to success. It wasn't LAFN, it was the phone company.
He had to learn all the jargon, and finally found the solution was to use the words "legacy line" in order to trip the switch in the minds of the SBC techs. Potential subscribers with old phone numbers should remember to use that term.
The LAFN tech also checked back with me several times to make sure things were working well after we got connected and to help work out some of the configuration bugs.
I ordered the lowest speed, but it is really fast enough for streaming videos and everything else I need. My techie son says it is faster than the actual (as opposed to advertised) speed one gets with other providers. I haven't had any problems at all since we got it up and running.
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Review by annalavinia
Posted: 2.9 years ago
member for 2.9 years, 0 visits, last login: 2.9 years ago
Los Angeles,Los Angeles,CA
$31 per month (12 month contract)
about 4 days
SBC
"It's all been good for us. No problems."
"Oddly, everything's worked. Kind of surprising, really. Other-worldly almost."
"We're very happy with the service. Thrilled, actually."
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We've been with LAFN for 10 years. Dial-up burps and hiccups now and then but we could almost always get online right away - none of that waiting for a line stuff people used to experience (or still do, for all I know). I work at a school and LAFN hosted our website for free for 10 years and the school still has a free LAFN acct. for email.
We love LAFN. It's the little ISP that could. It's down home. It's LA. It's great! And, as was noted in the previous review, no one knows about it. This isn't my fault. I tell everyone about LAFN. People are impressed but seem reluctant to change, even when they've just related horror stories about their current ISP. Even when its tech support is in another country. Even when they're tearing their hair out. Even when they're complaining constantly. Go figure.
LAFN has one employee, as was noted in the previous review - one very knowledge, helpful employee to whom doing a good job obviously matters. The volunteer staff is top flight also. Is this refreshing? I ask ya.
Several mos. back LAFN announced they were considering offering DSL service. They initially asked how many members would be interested in the service and we indicated we might be interested. We are online A LOT and, toward the end, dialup was like an open wound. We finally signed up for LAFN DSL in September.
I'm afraid we bombarded that lone employee with questions once we'd painfully made our decision. We were a little nervous about installing the modem ourselves. We didn't know which modem to buy. We didn't know what speed to get. There are three speeds: Silver - 384 Kbps-1.5 Mbps download speed, Gold - 1.5 Mbps-3.0 Mbps download speed, and Platinum - 3.0 Mbps-6.0 Mbps download speed. You pay for a year in advance with the monthly fees working out to $25, $31, or $46 a month. (There's also a Bronze level at $25 mo. when you are too far from the Telco Central Office to be able to guarantee 384 Kbps service.) We bought the Zoom 5515 ($65) modem from LAFN as we didn't want WiFi. We went with the Gold. It's been plenty fast and we're really thrilled with it after using it for almost three mos. I don't know how we managed without it. We did a lot of hair-tearing on dial-up - waiting, waiting, waiting. Argh! And so far, knock wood, no problems. Really. None. Pretty amazing.
We kept LAFN for mail and that's worked out well. We've had our LAFN email address for so long, we didn't want to give it up. Also, we like it.
As noted, it was 4 days from sign-up to connection. This all had to be co-ordinated by the lone employee through AT&T. As the 4th day dawned, we had no modem. We were freaking out. The lone employee assured us that a modem had never failed to arrive in time to complete an installation. Sure enough, shortly thereafter, we had our modem via UPS, I think it was. The installation proved to be pretty simple, as we'd been told, again by the lone employee.
The only tricky part of all this was the phone line. We had two phones: a business phone and a residential line. We'd had the residential line forever. It turned out we had what AT&T refers to as a "Legacy" number on the residential line (our first choice for the modem) which means AT&T wanted to charge us a hefty fee to convert the number to an AT&T number. Pretty obscure stuff but bottom line - big charge. We ended up dropping the residential line completely - just shut it down - and put the modem on our business line. We were a little worried about the additional AT&T conversion fee until we realized we'd no longer need two phone lines.
We have dynamic IP, I believe. We're connected 24/7. I wander to the computer at 3 am and we're online.
One further note: when we first considered getting DSL a few years ago, I read reviews on this site for our area. Decided to forget the whole thing. It sounded too problematic. When the Free-Net (LAFN) announced they would be providing DSL, I knew they'd do it right. They've been very reliable for us for the past 10 years.
So, low-tech review here. Basically, we don't have the time or expertise to fool around with this stuff. We just want to be online when we need to be, which is quite a lot. We just want things to work. This works and works very, very well. We're delighted!
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Review by Dooz
Posted: 3 years ago
member for 3 years, 0 visits, last login: 3 years ago
Pasadena,Los Angeles,CA
$25 per month (12 month contract)
about 7 days
SBC
"DSL support is EXCELLENT. Service is straightforward, works great."
"Not available everywhere."
"It has only been 2 weeks, but I'm thoroughly sold."
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The biggest problem with LAFN's DSL service is finding out it exists. But
then that's true of LAFN as a whole. LAFN was part of a now largely departed
concept of community-based, non-profit Internet service provision. They
don't boost themselves, but they have some real advantages.
First, you're not a subscriber, you're a member. Your "donations" go not
only to your own service but to provide dial-up to schools and even to
students for free (under certain conditions).
Second, tech support and service are provided by volunteers, members who
wish to give back to the community. (LAFN has one employee!)
Dial-up service is CHEAP! $50 per YEAR for basic, $84 for extended.
(Telling that to the broadband telemarketers ends their pitch!)
Unfortunately, they can't offer DSL for that kind of pricing because they
have to buy it. But still, $300/year (basic speed) isn't bad (and no
gimmicks, promotions, higher prices after the first year, etc.). And what
you get is a full-time connection, not some type of connect-on-demand
scheme, nor any authentication mumbo-jumbo. (Note that service is "transport
only". You have to get dial-up, email, and/or Web hosting elsewhere--LAFN is
$50 or $84/yr; Hotmail or Yahoo! is free.)
When it comes to tech support, I can't imagine better. I had a problem. I
was connected from 4 computers, but not my main one. Okay, I'm online, so
their obligation is done. Tough luck, right? Wrong. More like a mentor
(volunteer) came to my house and spent 3.5 hours helping me get things the
way I wanted them, NO CHARGE. (If I'm paying more than for some other
service, well I just made up the difference.)
I've had dial-up with LAFN for 6 years, and I couldn't be happier. I've
only had LAFN DSL for 2 weeks, but I'm thrilled.
Speed: "Silver" at 384-1.5 down, 128-384 up.
Connection: Dynamic IP, always on.
Modem: Zoom 5515 or X6, filters included in kit.
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