how-to block ads
|
»next review in page
Review by Barnacules 
UPDATED: 329 days ago
member for 330 days, 7 visits, last login: 65 days ago
 Duvall,King,WA
 $54 per month
 "15Mbit down/2MBit up"
 "Massive Packet Loss"
 "If you play games or stream video stay away"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
UPDATE: Tom as told me that the root problem is actually one of there DOCSIS ports and it should only effect 20% of Duvall, WA customers. So if you are having problems chances are your circumstances are different from mine so please contact BroadStripe directly and let them know what is happening so they can help you. Also note that they have claimed
UPDATE: I just received mail back from Tom at BroadStripe and he has assured me that they are aware of the problem in Duvall, WA right now and that there servers are overloaded and they are in the process of moving people off to other hardware. He said this can take a few weeks to complete and they just figured this out Yesterday (Probably prompted by my original mail). So hang tight and hopefully this packet loss will clear itself up and I can update my review with a better one. I have also attached a picture to illustrate the packet loss problem.
I have been with MDM and now BroadStripe for over 5 years, there service used to be good but has really started going in to the drink after BroadStripe took over. I have a 15MBit connection and it really does download at that speed most of the time (speedtest.net) but the dropped packet rate is almost 10% on average. This means that for every minute or two of video you stream atleast 10 seconds are going with no data transfer. And if you play games this means your friends see your character freak out or freeze up for a few seconds every minute or two. Because of this I cannot really use my internet connection for anything other then downloading stuff before I play it.
I sent mail to BroadStripe requesting assistance and also supplied them with all of the technical data that supports the packet loss problem. I have yet to get a reply back from 3 mails I have sent. I finally included Tom (a broadstripe employee down lower that replied to a comment) and I hope that he gets back to me. At this point I am considering finding another solution like DSL, I would rather have slower download speed and more stable packet transfer since packet loss leads to problems like these (comment if you experience any of these right now).
+ MSN messenger disconnects and reconnects all the time
+ You play Counter Strike and WoW and notice characters freezing for a few seconds every minute or making odd movements and pulling back to place.
+ Streaming video pauses for a few seconds each minute.
+ VPN and Terminal Server connections freeze, lockup and timeout/reconnect continuously
+ Some web pages will not load and you have to press refresh then they load.
These are all symptoms of the same problem with this service. The way to confirm this behavior is to ping your gateway and see how many packets "Time Out". Below is a tutorial on how to do this. You can also use the tools on this site to do a line test and it will also show you the lost/dropped packets.
Ping Test:
1) Obtain your gateway, go to your router and find the DHCP settings and find the Default Gateway
-or-
1) If you don't have a router and you plug right in to the modem type "IPCONFIG /ALL" from the command line and find your default gateway
2) From a command prompt type "PING -T"
3) Watch the ping packets and times and look for "Request timed out"
Each time you see a "Request timed out" that means your packet didn't transfer and you are also suffering from this problem. Please comment if you see this problem so that we can get BroadStripe to take this seriously.
Attachments:
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of BroadStripe |
 | »next review in page (previous review)
Review by SWSDuvall
UPDATED: 361 days ago
member for 4 years, 7 visits, last login: 282 days ago
Duvall,King,WA
$54 per month (13 month contract)
 about 7 days
"Newly upgraded system, fiber loop installed in Duvall, Wa"
"None yet (only 2 weeks with them)"
"Awesome value now: $54/mo for 15Meg d/l and 2 Meg u/l"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
Broadstripe has relayed their infrastructure in Duvall, Wa. They now have very high speed and reliable service in Duvall.
They installed $500k of hardware to upgrade Duvall to "modern" standards per the sales rep. Fiber loop, new low loss trunk lines, etc. They said Duvall is their first upgrade city/site thus the fast install service to generate a customer base.
I used to be on Verizon ATM at 1.5 Meg d/l and 128k (yes, K) upload. Broadstripe took a BIG hit at the city council last year for LOUSY service. They "invested" big $$ in Duvall. The sales people are going door to door to tell people about the upgraded service. Got me to switch. I was paying $45/mo for 1.5M/128k. Now for $30/mo for 1st 6 months and $55 after I get 15Meg/2Meg. And it works! Via Speedtest.com to Los Angels, I peak at 17 meg d/l and 1.9 meg u/l. Downloading a 1.5 GIG update to Americas Army via peer to peer, I was seeing 15 meg consistently!
I say give them a chance in Duvall. BUT, if you order from them, be sure to mention that Duvall has been upgraded, otherwise you'll be provisioned at 6meg/384k
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of BroadStripe |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by MDMisnowBS
Posted: 1 year ago
member for 2 years, 3 visits, last login: 1 year ago
Redmond,King,WA
$60 per month
about 1 days
"Maintenance Techs that used to work at MDM were the best."
"Name Change only, no changes in company"
"Hire people that can manage the system better, upgrade your gear"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
Duvall, Carnation, Issaquah are ran out of there headend, located in the highlands in issaquah and only have a 100FX to 100TX converter. So looking at the CMTS, it constantly peeks, with 100's of users and only 100Mbits... Echo Lake, and Roseiger are ran off of T1 Lines from Verizon.
Just some information shared to me. If they upgraded their fiber connection, and offered more than 100Mbit, they would be at least a descent ISP, instead of only getting 100-300Kb during peak times.
Anything on the East side, ames lake, issaquah, duvall, carnation, sahalee, are all capped with the limitations of their gear.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of BroadStripe |
| »next review in page (previous review)
 Review by Bulgaro
Posted: 1 year ago
member for 8.5 years, 1942 visits, last login: 33 days ago
Glen Burnie,Anne Arundel,MD
$60 per month (12 month contract)
about 3 days
"Reliable"
"None"
"Good Alternative"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Services:
Value for money:
|
We considered Comcast and decided on Broadstripe Speed are as Advertised Modem could be better .
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of BroadStripe |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by Maxxodd
Posted: 1.1 years ago
member for 1.1 years, 0 visits, last login: 1.1 years ago
Seattle,King,WA
$60 per month
"None"
"Unimaginably poor service, apathetic customer support"
"Worst excuse for an ISP out there"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
Its hard to believe that a company with 11 negative reviews and 0 positive reviews (at the time of this review) could be over-rated. I think some of the other reviewers have been kind. The only reason they remain in business is because of lack of competition by paying for exclusivity contracts with cities such as Seattle so that there can be no other cable competition (Comcast/Verizon) can provide service. They are then free to charge whatever they want and provide as poor of service as they want. I personally just echo other's reviews and have had nothing but headaches from this company. I've had enough and I'll be switching to Qwest DSL who offers faster service (both up and down) at a cheaper price.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of BroadStripe |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by jamielady
UPDATED: 1.2 years ago
member for 1.2 years, 0 visits, last login: 1.2 years ago
Carnation,King,WA
$120 per month
"Nice service techs. and most Customer Service reps"
"All Services Offered"
"Needs to be put out of business"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
We have had service(LOL) with Broadstripe and Millenium since we moved here over 3 yrs ago. It has been nothing but a nightmare. I have had so many techs to my house we are on a first name basis and the same with many of the Customer Service Reps. Getting any kind of credit from them is impossible!! They charge for High speed Internet for low speed service. The DVR they offer only works half the time. When we had it instaled the service tech Mike had to come to our house 5 times in 2 weeks to replace the defunct machines!! And when I requested credit..NONE! I had to stay home five times from work and nothing?! The CS supervisors are so rude its unbeliveable! The CS reps are nice but they seem to have thier hands tied as to helping orgiving any kind of credit. The internt is so awful and the digital phone is even worse. I have had no service for up to five days at a time!! Here in Carnation we are stuck withthem if you want cable and so they have a monopoly, and we lose. The City of Duvall has even had town hall meetings with the CEO's of the comapny flying out here to try to rectify the probelms and still it actuallygets worse. I pray that Comcast buys them out!! $120.00 a month should get at the very least reasonable service. I feel like Im back to using Dial-up again!! Shame on them!!
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of BroadStripe |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by meeesterkob
UPDATED: 1.2 years ago
member for 1.2 years, 0 visits, last login: 1.2 years ago
Seattle,King,WA
$97 per month
"non-existent reliability, incompetent service"
"suckage"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
I bought a packaged deal with basic tv and their slower internet package, which might have been an alright deal when it started with their promotional pricing (around $60 for 6 months), except for the quality of service.
As other reviewers have indicated, reliability is abysmal. I have had my modem disconnect and attempt to reconnect dozens of times per day during the worst periods. When I called in for service, they were polite enough, but pretty unhelpful, always wanting to send out a technician. The technicians they sent have been polite enough, but every other one screwed up something or another that the next technician would find and fix. Unfortunately, reliability has not improved at all after any service visits, so I have given up on getting them to fix anything.
Speed on their light package has peaked pretty uniformly at around 60kB/s downstream, right around the advertised peak for the "Light" package.
Seattle residents: beware of moving to a residence serviced exclusively by Broadstripe!!
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of BroadStripe |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by maclean
Posted: 1.2 years ago
member for 2.6 years, 3 visits, last login: 1.2 years ago
Duvall,King,WA
Contract price not specified.
"Very few"
"Slow speed, very poor customer service, and prices that do not reflect the service provided."
"Call King County and demand they switch to Comcast."
| |
I pay for 6MB service, and receive 1.2.
My prices increase dramatically as service suffers.
Calls to customer service result in word games about packages and discontinued pricing schemes.
On demand service and stable speeds that Comcast provides daily are a pipe dream if you live in the area leased to Broadstripe by King County.
If it were not the only choice here for broadband, I'd be washed of them.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of BroadStripe |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by phatoneusa
UPDATED: 1.3 years ago
member for 6 years, 162 visits, last login: 1.3 years ago
Seattle,King,WA
$120 per month (3 month contract)
"Works decent"
"Throttle Upload (I think), slow internet, connection drops, 6MB?"
"DSL is better than Cable, Broadstripe you need to add more bandwidth to Seattle"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
In the apartment I moved to in downtown Seattle they had a contract with Broadstripe. Tell me WHY IS THE INTERNET SO SLOW IN DOWNTOWN SEATTLE!!! It's the 21st century, why is the upload only 384k and 6MB down it's the 21st Century. I should have a comparable speed to Comcast with Broadstripe and I don't, the Extreme service should be 12mb + down and 1-2mb upload. Anything else is a shame and Seattle should have Fiber Optic to everyone and ditch Cable IMO, also citywide fast Wifi like the UK has with 10/10 wouldn't be bad either. Anyways this service is overpriced and the only good thing about Broadstripe is it isn't as big of a rip-off as other DSL /TV providers are sometimes.
Overall BROADSTRIPE sucks and them not being a major corporation is a very bad excuse for all the Broadstripe fanboys. Fix the connection problems, if you have broadstripe try to broadcast video on ustream.tv and see how it freezes, what a joke, EVDO or cell phone internet works more consistantly uploading. It feels a lot like Clearwire and their throttling when you broadcast video.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of BroadStripe |
| »next page (previous review)
Review by Klosterheim
Posted: 1.3 years ago
member for 2 years, 4 visits, last login: 1.3 years ago
Carnation,King,WA
Contract price not specified.
"Cable TV works most of the time, most tech support people are nice"
"Internet and Phone service is horrible, chronic outages"
"Someone needs to put these guys out of business."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
We have been using Broadstripe services for about 9 months, and we have had techs out to the house about 5 or 6 times.
One time, we had a tech out because our HDTV wasn't working. The rest of the times, we have had a tech out because of problems with the internet and (therefore) phone service.
We have had two kinds of problems with them: chronic and intermittent.
The chronic problem is that Broadstripe's cable speed is bad. They claim they offer up to 6 Mbit, but we have never had speed that fast. I know they only say "up to 6 Mbit" and don't guarantee it, but by this logic, they can just say "up to twelve hundred billion million trillion Mbit" and be technically correct, but still suck. Bottom line: If you are looking to use Broadstripe because they are advertising "up to 6 Mbit", please understand that, based on my experience, you will not get anywhere near that speed, even if you buy the highest package. You might want to get the cheapest package possible, because no matter how much you pay, your internet speed is going to suck.
Intermittently, we have also had problems with service dropping in and out, leaving us with no internet or phone. They have tried many different things to fix the problem: they have run new cable from the street, they have replaced cable splitters, they have replaced the modem, etc., but they have never done anything that has permanently fixed the problem. Now, I am no expert, but I do login to the modem's diagnostic panel, and it sure seems to me that the problem is that the modem is trying to connect upstream and it is regularly failing. Sometimes it connects and holds for a while, but mostly the modem just sits there knocking on the door trying to find something to connect to. For sure, maybe the modem is sending some corrupt packets or something, but it sure seems to me that the problem is not with my hardware. I could be wrong, but they have basically replaced everything but the kitchen sink and we still have these problems, so I am guessing the problem is not in our house but in theirs ...
Finally, here is a story that has happened twice, and is fairly representative of my experience with Broadstripe, a conjoining of the tragic and comic. One of the basic problems with the service is that when the internet is down, so is the phone. But when Broadstripe decides to roll a truck out, they need to have a phone number in order to make sure they are there before they come. Here is what has happened to us ... twice.
1. We schedule a tech service.
2. We tell the tech people that the phone does not work and not to call it.
3. The truck rolls out.
4. The truck tries to call the phone that does not work, indeed, the very phone they are supposed to roll out to fix.
5. The truck decides that we aren't home and never shows up.
This has happened ... twice. Twice! They send someone out to fix the phone, but they call the phone they are supposed to fix, don't reach it, and so never show up.
Is this for real? Is this one of the saddest, most idiotic things you have ever heard? How are these guys not bankrupt?
In a real world, where consumers can expect to trade money for workable service, Broadstripe would be out of business and / or in court. In our world, however, Broadstripe can continue to take money from us, even though they can't keep their service up.
Avoid Broadstripe at all costs. If you are thinking about moving to the Seattle area, first make sure you can get another cable company. If you can't, think about moving to a part of Seattle where you can. DO NOT use Broadstripe if you telecommute or expect to have internet connectivity as part of your job.
Again, this is all based just on my experience, and maybe everyone else is happy and we have rotten cable wires or something, but Broadstripe is easily one of the worst companies I have ever had a relationship with, and I have used Comcast and Adelphia both. Comcast and Adelphia are shining beacons on a hill compared to these guys.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of BroadStripe |
|
|
BroadStripe
·
·