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I've had it for 2 days now. I ordered 2 weeks ago, and they turned it on in my new place on friday, before I even arrived. I knew ahead of the time the old buffalo router would not cut it. It worked fine with my crappy comcast connection, but that was only 50/10. This new one is 1gb/1gb. Per the advice of the EPB website, I found that the best modem by far was the negear nighthawk 1700, so I ordered it to have in hand when I arrived. When I arrived at my new place, the install was complete, there was an ethernet jack in the wall with a 10' cable. I setup all my computer gear first thing, plugged in the new modem, powered everything up, and 2 minutes later I was on the internet. Flawless. Absolute first thing I did was a speed test. I tried DSL reports speed test, it reported 950/900. I tried the EPB speed test from there website, and got 980/960. Naturally, I tried torrenting. It was AMAZING watch the download slowly climb from 10Kb per sec, flew past the 6.5Mb/sec comcast always stopped at, and climbed all the way up to 50Mb/sec before it completed. Next thing I did was turn on the Amazon Cloud Sync with my synology. I have over 36TB of data on this one array, and wanted to see if how well the Amazon Sync worked. It was a piece of cake to setup, I logged in with my account, told it which folders to upload, and away it went. I was FLOORED. It was uploading at 900mb/sec, SOLID. I finally put a limit of 500mb/sec. Here it is, appx 30 hours later, and I have over 6TB uploaded to the amazon cloud. I guess it is truly unlimited. It will take a bit over a week to get the entire 36TB uploaded, then I have other NAS devices to sync (unfortunately they are netgear, not as big (12TB/18TB/and 22TB), and I don't want to use the crappy amazon software to manually upload all the files. I tried mounting the other NAS devices on the synology (it works), but you can't use the cloud sync to back them up. I'm not giving up, I found on the web a way to mount a remote system on synology using the command line, which makes it look like it's not remote. I'm hoping that works, so I can backup all 70TB of data to the amazon cloud easily. Going to have to wait a week for the first sync to finish. $59.99 a year for 70TB of online backup. That's a damn hard deal to beat. Update : 01/11/2016 My speeds kept getting SLOWER and SLOWER (averaging only 500mb/sec). Finally realized I had updated the firmware on my Netgear Nighthawk R7000, and that was the cause. Replaced the crappy netgear bios with Asuswrt-Merlin & Xwrt-vertex, and WOW, it's back up to a solid 950/950 (ipv6) and 930/870 (ipv4). . I tried ww-drt and tomato and both of them were WORSE that the stock netgear. Apparently the Asus firmware uses the CPE acceleration with NAT (drt/tomato do not), and with just a dual core 1gb CPU, the router just could not keep up with the translations. member for 17.5 years, 4351 visits, last login: 3.2 years ago updated 7.8 years ago
I moved into a house with a friend that had EPB fiber already installed, however he told me his experience with the install was great. The only downside to the install is you have to wait a few days as they are booked constantly with people switching from Comcast and AT&T. We have the 50/50 package and usually always get a pretty solid 50-52Mbps transfer. Update 3-8-2011 I haven't had any problems with disconnects in the last month or so. Everything seems to be rather peachy now. Update 6-16-11 So, I've discovered that EPB will change your IP address on a daily basis if you do massive uploading (such as 50GB or more a day). I can only presume this is to prevent you from running a server. Update 4-4-2012 Still doing well. In the time since the last update (6-16-2011) I think the internet service has gone down a total of about 3 times, never for more than an hour or so. Have uploaded and downloaded a ton, between myself and my roommate, well over 2TB a month at times and no word from EPB. Update 2-25-2013 In July of 2012 I moved into another residence still with EPB. I have phone and internet service (no video) with them. I have the 100/100 package which is $70/month. Phone costs basically $10 if it included with the internet package. So far, in 8 months, my service has not been down for a single minute. Did find out my poor Linksys router couldn't handle the speed though, so I had to change that. My average speed is around 115/100. Here is a link from speedtest: »speedtest.net/result/253 ··· 4092.png Update 4-5-2015 Some time back, EPB upgraded the 100/100 package to 1000/1000. I had to get a new router to handle the speeds, but now anywhere east of the rocky mountains usually gives me >500Mbps down and up. Really takes a nose dive at the continental divide however, but that isn't EPB's fault. Otherwise, everything is peachy. I don't think I've had any downtime in years, which is crazy. member for 21.8 years, 6106 visits, last login: 28 days ago updated 9 years ago
I was a previous Comcast customer (still use them for TV) and was consistently disappointed with their service. EPB's reliability is just as good as the electricity they provide (never goes down). member for 23.6 years, 1011 visits, last login: 3 years ago lodged 9.9 years ago
I recently moved out of Chattanooga and EPB fiber is probably the thing I miss most. It may seem weird to miss the internet service most from a city that I really liked, but EPB was THAT good. When we first moved to the area we had Comcast hooked up (EPB fiber was not yet available in our area) and I'm pretty sure I spent more time on the phone with support than I did actually using their internet service. Speeds were OK when it was working, but there were ALWAYS problems. When EPB became available in the area we switched immediately. In 3 years of using the service we had one minor blip where the internet went out for maybe 10 seconds. In 3 years, that's it. Incredible. There's no modem to get bogged down that needs resetting, I actually got the speeds that were promised, and it was basically the same price as Comcast's unreliable junk. It was also great that the blazing speeds came alongside no data caps, so I was free to use cloud storage/backups to my heart's content, something that I badly miss now in the days of services like Bitcasa that are rendered unusable by my new, data capping ISP. I remember living in the area and seeing Comcast run ads about people switching from EPB to Comcast. I have no doubt those were paid actors because there is no way any sane individual would make that switch. EPB is by far the best ISP I've ever used and is one of the few good guys in a business full of corruption and bad services protected by heinous government regulation. member for 15.8 years, 5 visits, last login: 10 years ago lodged 10 years ago
I've had EPB Fiber service since 2010. Over the years, EPB has constantly improved their services at a rapid pace, yet with minimal price increases. Ordering was done over the phone and was a breeze. Initial installation was a bit complicated since my home has buried utilities, requiring multiple truck rolls to get everything done. This increased installation time, but they never ran into any problems that required my intervention. A week after installation was completed, the ONT power supply failed, requiring a service call. EPB came out that day and had it fixed quickly- simply amazing service from a cable company. I ordered the "Triple Play" package with (now) 100Mbps internet, HD TV, and basic phone. The discounts for bundling are very good. The internet service is the star of the show here. When EPB advertises 100Mbps, they really do deliver those speeds, any time of day, period. Connection reliability is top notch, other than a few drop outs when the service was fairly new. EPB uses no apparent traffic shaping or throttling, so performance is great for any service such as torrents. Most ports are left open, with the exception of Port 25. Best of all, there are no apparent usage caps or limits, something that seems to be dropping out of favor with the big ISPs. It's hard to ask for anything better internet wise, EPB is simply the best. TV Service is great as well, with a few caveats. EPB uses the Microsoft Mediaroom IPTV platform with Cisco/Scientific Atlanta set top boxes. Since the system is IP based, a total of 6 HD channels can be watched/recorded across every box. The guide UI looks great on a HDTV, and offers some additional features, such as a picture-in-picture type app called SmartView. Unfortunately the guide can be a bit sluggish sometimes, especially when opening applications. A multi-room DVR feature is included that works very well. The main box does all the recording, while the other boxes set or watch recordings and can control live TV as well. The HDD in the DVR appears to be 160GB, which is a little small, and as usual, the external USB ports can't be used to expand it. Picture quality is overall quite good, with less macroblocking on HD channels than cable thanks to the more efficient MPEG4 compression. However, SD picture is a little too soft in comparison. Once very nice advantage of EPB's TV is that the "basic cable" tier is unscrambled analog, so you can connect multiple TVs without more set top boxes. Phone service is exactly what you would expect. All the various calling features and voicemail are included, and voice quality is clear. The ONT has a backup battery that can power the system for a few hours during a power outage, however, once the battery goes out, there is no other way to power it up since everything is hardwired into the smart meter (of course). Overall, EPB delivers an outstanding product that has only minor faults. Service of this quality is hard to come by in the US, especially with the outstanding local tech support. If you are lucky to live in EPB's service area, it's hard to go with anything else. member for 11.7 years, 67 visits, last login: 8 years ago lodged 10.2 years ago
With its 100% fiber optic network supporting speeds of up to 1 gig/second and an enterprise-wide commitment to support and advance the Chattanooga metro area it serves, EPB Fiber Optic is far and away the best ISP, period. I think they can be a model for other communities and the development of viable alternatives to big name providers such as Comcast and UVERSE. member for 10.5 years, driveby review (so far) lodged 10.5 years ago
Fourth edit, 9/17/2013: they changed everything today. There are now two tiers of service: 100Mbit bidirectional for $58/mo, and gigabit bidirectional for $70/mo, plus $5 in junk fees. Yes, that's right, they are now delivering **gigabit to my house** for $75/mo. To my house! My first modem was 2400 baud: this is, near as I can figure, 416,000 times faster. I now have more bandwidth to my house than probably the entire city had, where I grew up. I've attached my new Speedtest result, and you can see the original file here: »www.speedtest.net/result ··· 0055.png Third edit, still 10/1/2012: It occurs to me that I should also link the Speedtest result, because folks might think the shot I uploaded is faked. It's on their servers here: »www.speedtest.net/result ··· 1934.png Second update, shortly after the one just below: Hey, I can attach pictures now! Here's a shot of the Speedtest results. Note that Speedtest doesn't seem to measure upload properly; a closer server gave me about the same result for download, but only 75Mbit upload. I'm nearly certain that the low upload number in that shot is because of Speedtest, not EPB. Update, 10/1/2012: The service was upgraded in the last couple of weeks. The old 30/30, 50/50, and 100/100 tiers are now 50/50, 100/100, and 250/250, so I now have 250 megabits. Into my house. As I mention below, once they switched the port to gigabit, that fixed an ongoing problem I had for ages. But now that the the midgrade plan is 100/100, this may be more of an issue for more people. I'd suggest making sure you use a Gigabit Ethernet device to plug into the wall port. If you plug in with regular Fast Ethernet, 100/100 speed, you might potentially have the same problem I did, with daily disconnects and, about every 2-3 months, a near-total crash of the connection, requiring a call into the service center for them to reboot the box. They may have fixed this already, but if you use a gigabit Ethernet device, you shouldn't run into it at all. Note that 250 megabits is scary, scary fast, and there are very few consumer routers that can handle it. Check smallnetbuilder for reviews. What I did, for myself, was to use a rackmount 1.6Ghz Atom box, with a 4-port Intel NIC, running Linux. This works fabulously well, but it was really expensive, several hundred dollars, and I have to be my own sysadmin, keeping up on my Linux patches, and I had to build my own rule set, which is not for the faint of heart. If you aren't already expert with Linux networking, this is probably not a good solution. But, if you are, I can report that a 1.6GHz Atom has no problem pushing 250 megabits with a few dozen connections, using a fairly complex rules set, including two separate internal networks. (DMZ and trusted). Original review starts here: This is, very simply, an incredible service. The bandwidth is first-rate, and it's symmetric, meaning you have as much upload speed as download. You can upload videos to Youtube as fast as you can receive them, and you can easily host local servers, assuming you can get along okay on a single DHCP address. EPB mostly doesn't care what you do with their bandwidth, as long as it's not spam or illegal. The only blocked port is outbound 25. I have 100 megabit service, and I really do get 100 megabits, both ways, at the same time. It is absolutely unreal, better than anything you can buy anywhere in the country that runs to your house. You can get better bandwidth at colocation facilities, but it's far more expensive there. I had issues for the first few months where, about once a day, the fiber box would essentially freeze up and drop all my connections -- it would be frozen for about a minute, so everyone using any service I was running would be kicked off. And about once every three months, the whole connection would freeze up almost completely and require a reboot of the box, which took a phone call into the service center. I'm running a streaming audio server locally, and this was VERY frustrating. But about six weeks ago, they finally seem to have fixed the problem; they changed the port from 100 megabit to gigabit, and set a speed throttle instead of a port throttle, and that cleared the problem right up. I assume the box has a bug where running 100Mb service on a 100Mb port causes some kind of buffer accumulation and eventual crash, as the data is showing up from the larger network much faster than a mere 100 megabits. Running the port in gigabit mode, I assume, lets the throttling engine do its thing, instead of the code that tries to queue packets onto the physical port. That code appears to have problems, where the throttling code works properly. If you want 100Mb service from this company, make certain that you're using an external device that supports gigabit, and you should be deliriously happy. If your external device only supports 100, you may have the same issue I did, rendering the connection unsuitable for use to run servers. If you want to host services for others, and your firewall/router is only 100 megabit, you will probably be happier on 50 megabit service than 100. The tech support department is very nice, very easy to deal with, and the installers were pretty good. The first installer I had didn't do a very good job, but when I complained, they sent someone out who really knew what he was doing, and he got the wall port installed flush. If you live in Chattanooga and you don't have this service, consider yourself whacked with a rolled-up newspaper. If you're using Comcast, you are being very silly. (and, yes, I am new to DSL reports, although I've been reading here off and on for many years, but this is not a shill review. My only association with EPB is that I pay them, and they give me bandwidth.) Attachments:   member for 12.5 years, 26 visits, last login: 9.7 years ago updated 10.5 years ago
*Update* 9-12-12 Service is still 100% rock solid. I did a speed test today and found out my 30/30 package has apparently been increased to the 50/50 package at no additional cost. It's odd to actually have an isp that surprises you with something you actually want rather than another price hike.They still offer the 30/30 package on their site but I'm unable to check their pricing since that part of their site is down at the moment. They might have lowered the price of their 30/30 package and just moved all of their current customers to the higher package. Either way, I'm more and more impressed with every passing year with what EPB offers. *Update 9-30-11* It's been almost a year and a half and the service is still rock-solid. It feels so nice to have a service that you can completely rely on with no worries of bandwidth caps. I do 0 torrenting but still use plenty of bandwidth with legal activities. So far the service has been rock-solid and made me a firm believer that FTTH should be available to all asap. »speedtest.net/result/150 ··· 6410.png I've had the service for about a week and I'm very impressed so far. I ordered their 15/15 service with FiPhone basic for $68.83 a month. That price includes a free install and doesn't require a contract. They did say that if I cancel before 1 year I would have to pay $75.00 for the install fee. When I called to order it took literally about 5 minutes and that includes having my existing phone number transferred to my EPB account. I had to wait a week for the final step of the install (actually installing it inside your home) but I was fine with that since it was free. The day after I ordered they ran the fiber from the pole and attached it to my house. About 2 days later, they came and installed the ONT and backup battery beside the power meter on my house. It was a nice and clean install with everything level and all wires neatly tucked away. I was given an appointment between 8-9 AM on a Friday for the final step of the install. It was about 8:45 when he arrived, so they were right on the mark and respectful of others people's time. The installer was nice and answered every question I had for him. I'm a tech head and was glad he was willing and able to talk about the technology and products in such an informal way. I asked about replacing the backup battery if it were to go dead, and he told me that it has a sensor on it that alerts them in the event of a failure. They will come out to your house and replace it for free. I told him how I wanted my CAT5 cable ran to my router and he was happy to do it just how I wanted. As we were talking while he installed, he told me that EPB was the first company he had worked for that actually had briefings when he was hired detailing the level of workmanship they expect out of their installers. He said they're very strict and I would get a visit by an EPB representative in the coming days checking out the install and asking question about how satisfied I was and how courteous he was. We did a speed test and got about 19.5 down and 14.5 up. That's pretty good for a 15/15 connection.  He cleaned up his mess and had me sign off on the job. *EDIT* I just wanted to add that even though it's called FiPhone Basic, it's not basic phone service at all. It has Call Waiting, Caller ID, Call Waiting Caller ID, 3-Way Calling, Call Blocking, Voice Mail....a lot more than you would expect for only $10.84 more a month bundled with internet access. I get more features with this phone service than I did paying almost $40.00 a month to AT&T. *EDIT* (7-30-10) EPB just doubled my speed from 15/15 to 30/30 at no additional cost. EPB impresses me more and more as time goes by. »www.speedtest.net/result ··· 0947.png member for 22.2 years, 1081 visits, last login: 7.5 years ago updated 11.5 years ago
I have the 30/30 package and get a solid 30/12-- still more than I've ever needed. The only zinger was no static IPs for residential accts. Time to dig out DynDNS. EPB's weakness is the TV. I got their top notch, HD package with DVR and have been having problems since day one. Customer Service obviously knows they have problems in the Soddy-Daisy CO but they dont seem to be addressing it. Friends in other areas dont have these problems. I get channels dropping out (this is fiber), every HD channel freezes for a couple of secs about 30 seconds after changing to it, audio drops out for a word-or-two and music choice channels dont refresh their "wallpaper" about half the time. I have to cycle power to force a refresh. The worst part is now they're doing popup spam msgs every 2 hours annoucing the "new channels" channel with no way to turn it off or acknowledge it. Its been going on for 3 weeks now. Last week the spam was hitting every 15 mins for High School Football. That broke the camel's back. With the solid broadband, a roku media player should be viable now and most of its programs are free. Time to stream. member for 12.6 years, 1 visits, last login: 12.5 years ago updated 12.6 years ago
Im writing this review , mainly so other potential business clients or home users that want static IP and it doesn't work after EPB gives you your static IP settings and you cant connect, and you check everything 5 times, and then you call SUPPORT, and they say .. without doing any real testing that gee we can see your connected to your router ! .. try plugging in directly to a computer .. you have a bad router call router manufacturer !! Didn't matter that the router was working just fine with my other provider and a T1, just minutes before I changed the router config and my dns server with the new forwarding dns ip's .. I still have a bad router WTF!!! Ok so .. Im a lil pissed at this point .. but just to satisfy my self and prove them wrong .. which I already knew they where .. I used 3 different routers , and 2 different clean install computers.. after entering their Static IP info no surfing .. set to auto detect ip and dns and it works .. put in static and no worky worky So after all this I call them back couple hours later .. and give them this info .. the tech on the phone has to hand it off to a on-call network tech .. this is at 11pm .. and SHE will call me back .. at 2am I get a call from the original tech "JOSH" nice guy by the way .. and he says that SHE said that the VLANS on their side where MIS-CONFIGURED and that it was their fault .. YA THINK! So if you are a Business or Home user and need static IPs make sure you can connect with the static IPs before they leave.. in my case . I couldn't with existing equip , had to wait till after hours to configure. But If I had thought there would have been a problem with the static ips I would have hooked up a desktop to the EBP provided ethernet .. the EPB installer did check the connection on his laptop .. but that was just auto detect settings .. did plug in any of the static IP info .. cause at that time he didn't have it and they still hadn't sent that info to me .. so he couldn't have tested the static IP part .. I got the static IPs and dns settings emailied to me about an hour after the Installer left. But at my house I have it and love it .. they seem to be over whelmed .. and gee I wonder why .. cause your the fastest and rock solid connection .. comcast .. and guarantee you ATT dsl cant say that and not be lying ! Unless you get a T1 for 500 a month! oh then ATT is solid lol but thats a different review lol UPDATE .. The whole issue, was a STATIC IP VLAN mis-configuration on EPB's side , once I convinced them it was not a router issue, they started check other things.. and they found the problem .. now is fine.. if you have a buisness and need remote access from the outside make sure you request a /28 routed subnet not just static IPs other wise you will be pulling your hair out .. most users he will see this review prob dont even know what a static IP is or a routed /28 subnet is ... and wont have these issues at all member for 12.7 years, 1 visits, last login: 12.6 years ago updated 12.6 years ago
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i was wondering how good the overall latency was. i swear mines terrible.
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