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Review by bluedragon 
UPDATED: 60 days ago
member for 9.5 years, 804 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Hutchinson,Reno,KS
 $25 per month (12 month contract)
 about 5 days
 AT&T
 "Very fast, good reliability, excellent tech support"
 "Link seems to go down during bad weather"
 "Excellent provider at a resonable cost."
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Since my first review, I have moved to a different location in the same town (Cancelled SBC after contract expired). I am still using SBC phone lines, but I now have Carroll's Web as my ISP (DSL since November). Installation with very smoothly with no problems. I am getting 1.2 mbps which is slightly better than before. Reliability is no longer an issue except during bad weather. The connection seems to drop out whenever there is a thunderstorm in the area. Otherwise, Carroll's Web provide excellent service. I would recommend them to anyone.
Advertised speed: up to 1.5 mbps with dynamic IP
Carroll's web is now KITUSA
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 Review by JayDub
UPDATED: 72 days ago
member for 73 days, 4 visits, last login: 52 days ago
Austin,Travis,TX
$53 per month
"Large corporation with reliable worldwide network. Heavily regulated."
"Large corporation with institutional, stubborn resistance to admit faults with network when problems occur."
"Good choice overall. Be firm and patient, if possible, when dealing with problems."
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First signed up 2002 when DSL was made available to my neighborhood. No problems with self-install other than the learning process. Initially had 1536/384 speeds. Due to chronic problems with sync rates over the years, had to lower speed to 768/384. The last of many techs who came calling, who first tried to blame my 7-year old house wiring (standard script?), located a load coil on the copper facilities. DSL was not meant to work through a load coil but it seems to be a very adaptive technology. With the load removed, the numbers on my 1701HG 2-Wire Gateway tell me I should get a max stable download of 3 meg on a 12000 ft loop.
AT&T is currently consolidating service centers and you may get exceedingly frustrated while dealing with tech support.
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Review by pmshop
UPDATED: 73 days ago
member for 7.3 years, 125 visits, last login: 38 days ago
Houston,Harris,TX
$34 per month (12 month contract)
about 7 days
"waiting for the good points"
"They let the lines rot"
"Forced into upgrading to Uverse"
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again, more intermittent troubles. Confirmed I am close enough to the RT for the Elete package. But now, they have come up with a different story.
The lines can't handle a 6Mbs package anymore.
This is for us AND the neighbor across the way n a different cable.
All this trouble after Uverse becomes available in our OLD neighborhood.
Starting to get hacked off about the whole deal and about to demand that AT&T replace the defective copper line.
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 Review by bkoeni1
UPDATED: 82 days ago
member for 8.9 years, 4186 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Fort Worth,Tarrant,TX
$25 per month (12 month contract)
about 47 days
AT&T
"Once they get you working ... it really works !!!"
"I'm capped at 384k due to my distance from the CO"
"Expect start-up problems, keep your cool, don't get mad, don't point fingers"
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Update 9/17/2009 - My speeds have increased! This happened back in July, 2009. My speed tests began showing 1000+/384 and have been running 800+/384 for the last two months. I didn't make any changes on my end. I did notice that there were several problems with the modem losing sync above 1000. Good work AT&T.
Update 3/27/2009 - I've been paying $25.00 per month for the last four months on the Express plan. I was offered a lower rate when I changed some of my options on my land line. My connection has been excellent for the past year as I've had no outages at all. I'm still capped at 384/384 but recently, my speeds have been running 353/322 (Speakeasy Dallas speedtest). I've not had the need to contact customer support recently. All of the telephone cables have been recently updated (replaced on the poles) in my neighborhood which has increased the stability of my connection.
Update 3/16/2008 - I've been paying $34.95 per month for over a year now for the Express plan and still capped at 384k. I have a second landline here at my home that I use for monitoring my alarm and voice and the AT&T online application that you use to see if DSL service is available in my area tells me that it is not available for the second line; so I realize that I am really far from my CO (line distance).
As far as service is concerned, I've had a very stable connection and stable (slow) speeds up and down for well over a year now. I've not had to contact AT&T support at all. I changed out my ADSL modem from an older Westell Wirespeed to a Speedstream 5100 after the Westell failed and have had no problems at all.
Update - I agreed to another 12 month commitment at the $14.95 a month rate and am being billed for $28.58 per month. On 9/11/2005, my minimum latency (as measured by BBR test) jumped from 55.2ms to 124ms. I also went from 14ms to 24ms to my first hop! Web pages were not rendered completely as some frames never loaded on non-cached pages. I received more error messages trying to render a web page than I can remember. Nothing has changed on my end. I used the SBC Direct support forum on BBR and was finally downgraded from interleaved 384/384 to fast path 192/128. Now it's slower than ever! I continued to check my latency using the BBR test and on Oct 5, my latency dropped to 67.3ms (from 122ms the day before). I just ran another latency test and it's back to 124ms.
I'm nearing my 3rd anniversary with SBC ADSL (Jan 1, 2001). My service has been very good during the last year with very few outages and few problems. My only desire is for higher upload and download speed. I'm still capped at 384 kbps due to my 14,000 ft (wire) distance from my CO. I live in an older neighborhood in Fort Worth and there is no Remote Terminal. We have older copper lines in my area. Within the last few months, my upload speed has gone from 108 kbps to 94 kbps with my download pretty steady at 324 kbps.
Everything is pretty normal with my ADSL service from SBC/Yahoo. I've had ADSL service for over two years now and have very few outages, usually whenever my pots service goes out, my ADSL service goes with it. This has happened twice in the past twelve months. Each time the problem has been external from my premises and has been fixed within 24 hours.
I've run a home-run from my NID directly to my Westell ADSL modem and installed a Siecor splitter at my NID. I continue to be capped at 384 down and am continuously experiencing about 318 down and 107 up. I have been told that I am 14,000 wire feet from my local CO. Other than the two outages mentioned above, I have had no reason to contact SBC about my DSL service.
It has been over a year now since I first got Southwestern Bell DSL (Jan 1, 2001). They raised my monthly rate from $39.95 to $49.95 after my first year of service. The first several months of service were hit and miss and SWB seemed to have problems providing me with quality service. I continually lost sync on my modem. I reported so many problems to ASI that SWB actually tried to cancel my DSL service two different times. I was determined to keep it as I really thought it should work. For the past 6 months, I have had very few problems with my DSL service. I leave my PC connected all the time and I always seem to have sync. My download speeds vary between 306 - 319 kbps (I'm capped at 384kbps because of my distance being so far from the CO). I had ASI uncap me and I immediately lost sync, so I guess I'm stuck at this speed. I live in an older neighborhood and have older telephone lines.
As far as service goes, ASI and SWB seem to have their act together at this point. The last time I called ASI and reported a problem, it was handled promptly and I really got the impression everyone involved was knowledgeable of what the other person was doing. At this point, I'm satisfied with my DSL service from SWB. I always wish for faster download speeds and I think the monthly rate is a bit high for the speeds I'm getting; but it beats the problems associated with cable.
I have left my original review in-tact below for those who are interested.
I put in my original request for ADSL via SWBELL's web page. I received an e-mail back in three days with an acknowledgement, but no install date. Received my self-install kit within two weeks. I heard nothing until an ASI tech showed up at my front door on Monday, Dec 11, 2000 to check for a DSL signal. He indicated I had a strong DSL signal and told me to go ahead with the install. I did the self-install without any problems, but I didn't have sync at the DSL modem. I called ASI and was told my turn-on date wasn't until Monday, Dec 18, 2000. I waited all day Monday thinking it would somehow sync but it never did. Called ASI back on Tuesday and they scheduled a tech to come out to check DSL signal strength again. Tech showed up on Dec 22, 2000 and tested DSL signal strength. He reported that it was too weak and he would turn in a trouble ticket with SWBELL.
The next contact I had was on Tuesday morning, Dec 26, 2000 when another ASI tech showed up to check the DSL signal strength again. He reported a strong DSL signal but a 70db attenuation on the line at the network interface. He called another ASI tech and I talked to him. He gave me two options, box it all up and send it back or he could put in a request to SWBELL to condition my line. He indicated my line was adjacent to T1s & T3s and he reported a bridge tap present on my line. I opted for the line conditioning as I knew that I was only 8913 feet from my CO. Another week went by and on Jan 1, 2001 at 5pm, an ASI tech left me a voice mail message saying that I had a strong DSL signal at my network interface and that if I could not get sync now, I must have an inside wiring problem in my home. I turned on the DSL modem and I had sync !!! My speed tests indicate that I am getting 315 kbps down and 106 kbps up. I'm paying the $39.95 a month fee for 384/128. I received the Speedstream 5260 modem. I am on PPPoE and have a dynamic IP. I configured my new mail/news account to work with MS Outlook express and this works just fine. I use IE 5.5, not Netscape. This certainly beats 56k dial-up speeds. I have had no other problems since Monday, Jan 1, 2001.
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 Review by jpl931
UPDATED: 119 days ago
member for 8.7 years, 2403 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Herculaneum,Jefferson,MO
Contract price not specified.
about 7 days
AT&T
"Reliabilty, consistency overall performance"
"Speed due to my distance from the CO.....where is the fiber at!!!!"
"Well worth the money"
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From the beginning in December of 2000 everything has been as planned. Minor hiccups at the beginning due to trying to set my first SOHO but with the help of some SBC friends it was working smoothly in no time. Originally used a Linksys router and hub but later switched to a Linux based PC that did everything from router, webserver, mail server, and firewall (linux is really quite amazing). I originally used the slowest speed available due the distance but shortly thereafter my speed was upped to the highest level at which I could maintain synch(768d 120u). Dynamic IP with PPPoE and it has been rock solid so I couldn't complain if I wanted too!!!!
As of 4/2005 1.2d 350u, much, much better.
The speed is still consistent I am hoping to see the roll out of U-Verse in my neighborhood. I wish I wish......until the economy gets a little better and the labor contracts are all resolved then maybe by this time next year it will happen.
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 Review by rabgary
UPDATED: 125 days ago
member for 3.5 years, 1659 visits, last login: 1 days ago
Austin,Travis,TX
$35 per month (12 month contract)
about 10 days
Southwestern Bell
"Fast and reliable"
"Great"
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6016 down
768 up
Attachments:
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 Review by Albtross
UPDATED: 129 days ago
member for 8.6 years, 988 visits, last login: 8 days ago
Saint Louis,Saint Louis,MO
$35 per month
AT&T
"~ 5Mbps/626Kbps RT connection, dropped once in 10 years, upgrade to RT fast & free"
"Tier 1 Tech Support can drive you insane. Only Tier 3 informed me of RT & could talk the talk"
"AT&T is the best choice for reliable broadband in STL"
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Charter was a real joke. They have 40+ year old wiring in my part of the county & don't plan to upgrade. When I called to ask about broadband service, I couldn't even get a call-back.
Ten years ago this year I chose SWBT, now AT&T, DSL as my broadband of choice. I first used a different ISP because I was already using them when DSL became available in St. Louis County. When my ISP switched to commercial only, I switched to AT&T for ISP services along with the DSL they were already providing me.
Service has been a mixed bag. Phone tech-support is now less than impressive. OTOH, folks who have come into my condo are knowledgeable, helpful, & polite. They aren't put off that I can "talk the talk & walk the walk". One tech who came to my home listened to my request that my speed cap be removed, made the call right there, and got me on the road to better speed. I was disappointed that Tier1 phone tech-support could not tell me of the RT that I could have been on. It was an accident that I called for tech support. Tier1 didn't want to talk to a "know-it-all" customer, and transferred me to a Tier3 tech. He not only solved my problem, but asked why I hadn't asked to be swapped to a Remote Terminal near me. I said no one had told me, he replied that it cost $0 to swap, just a day or two of no connection. Elite speed has been great ever since.
10 years with AT&T has been very good for me. YMMV, but I've only lost DSL once, not counting the day or two wait while I was switched to an RT. If you're in St. Louis County, and within range, AT&T is the way to go.
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 Review by jlhugh
UPDATED: 139 days ago
member for 8.2 years, 3639 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Wichita Falls,Wichita,TX
$34 per month
about 14 days
Southwestern Bell
"Rock Solid so Far"
"NONE"
"Would recommend it to anybody"
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i just had SBC DSL installed and so far it is great. I'm getting 1170/108 and that is perfect for me. the guys in the forum here are great and i learned that i didn't have to use the CD that came with the install kit to hook up. just went the registration website and and signed up. i am using Win Xp Pro so i have the built in PPPoE software. it's only been a couple of days so i hope i didn't just jinx it.
Jason
Update 1-13-03
I have added a router to the mix a month or so ago. It now appears as an always on connection. I still have not had any flaws that i can detect when i am at home. I had a little email trouble this morning, but it is fixed now. When i went to check my email it would time out. SBC is still rocking for me.
Update 4-30-03
It is still rock solid. Have not lost sync or my connection. This is an awesome service and i love it.
Update 6-2-03
I upgraded to the deluxe package on 5-31. It will be active by 6-7. i upgraded because my 29.99 promotional plan had expired and i could get the deluxe package at a cheaper price per month. the standard package was 49.99 and the deluxe package with a 1-year contract is 44.95 a month. this was a no brainer. I am still happy and have not had any problems to this day.
Update 9-11-03
I have gotten my deluxe package and so far it has rocked. I didn't expect anything less. I had a modem go out on me and I got another for free so no problem. Still nothing bad to say about them. The best DSL provider out there right now.
Update 2-27-04
This is still the best DSL provider there is out there. If you can't get SBC DSL then I am really sorry. They still rock and the tech support in the forum here is fast and the best you will find on this site.
Update 10-6-04
It's almost been 2 years now and I have not had a single problem with my DSL line. SBC is still the best provider for the money out there right now. If you need a new provider, you can't go wrong with SBC.
Update 4-11-05
I have upgrade to the Pro package and got a homeportal and the connection is till rock solid. Don't have a single complaint as of today. SBC still ROCKS!!!
Update 11-29-05
Still the best in the business when it comes to DSL. Not 1 outage since I have had this connection.
Update 6/5/06
I re-uped my year to get the 19.99 plan and save me 10 bucks a month. Still the best in town as far as I am concerned. I have never had a sync drop as I know it. If it happens in the middle of the night, then that is great. Keep it up AT&T.
Update 1/26/07
We have moved and got the elite package with a new homeportal. I have still not had any real problems. Before we moved we had a couple of days of rain and my phone got a lot of static. That caused me to keep losing sync every couple of minutes. Other than that. It's been rock solid.
Update 7/22/08
Still a great service. Works flawless. I wish the 2 wire router had a little more wireless power to get to the other side of the house stronger. Other than that still plugging along.
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 Review by rupst2
UPDATED: 141 days ago
member for 6.9 years, 549 visits, last login: 60 days ago
Montgomery City,Montgomery,MO
$36 per month (12 month contract)
about 4 days
Southwestern Bell
"Active 6 days before due date, low latencey, rock solid!"
"No 6mb anymore"
"Extremely cheap, fast, and reliable"
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I ordered SBC DSL the day it became available for my home town 6/26. Since it was a saturday and the next weekend was the 4th holiday, my due date was 7/6. I received my modem on 6/30 and hooked it up to test for sync. Bingo! I was linked, proceeded to create logon manually using sbcyahooreg@sbcglobal.net without a hitch. I ordered 3mb plan so I was synced at 1984 to start and got about 1.675 throughput. I am 5.391k ft from the CO so my signal and max obtainable rate are near therotically max 9.374mb down/ 1.124mb up. We had a week straight of lightning in our area, after a month of no rain, and had to disconnect modem several times during ramp up. This cause me to never ramp up on speed. I contacted ASI and had resolved in less than an hour with one call! I ordered a 2wire off of Ebay and contacted support to reset the password. Yes, I got India but they just asked some general stuff and said of I'll forward you on to Home Netowrking. They had me going in 10 mins with the new modem and I ended the call. I got a call back from India 5 min later making sure everything was fine and that I ended the call and wasn't disconnected. This is a very good kiss ass approach but sorry, jobs still need to come back to USA. I filled out a survey with Outstanding on every question on SBC and their support, but when asked one thing I could change, I stated bring the jobs back to US! I am very happy to get away from 400k down/ 60k up crap wireless service for 49.95/month that had tremendous packet loss and ping spikes! Thanks SBC!
Oh speed test is always 2.522mb down/ 360.3k up and I'm running the 2wire 1000sw with 2 wireless linked laptops and have a switch hooked to the Ethernet port to share with 2 desktops and XBOX. I like the 2wire stats, managment, and user friendly connection/firewall configuration/protection.
Update: had dry 6mb/768k for $35/mo no contract when I recently had to move. I don't think I had but one or two ATT outages in 5 years straight of DSL service. It will be sorely missed. CenturyTel, you're up next to bat with your 10mb service. We shall see in 2 weeks.
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 Review by btaylor1
UPDATED: 143 days ago
member for 7.1 years, 1493 visits, last login: 35 days ago
Dallas,Dallas,TX
$350 per month
about 30 days
AT&T
"reliable connectivity, pretty cood speed"
"since migrating to u-verse i rate service excellent"
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my wife and i were were early swbell.net legacy adsl customers in 1999. we watched swbell switch to prodigy and have been mostly satisfied with service, except email service has not been particularly reliable / timely. we are hopeful the yahoo change coming later this year or early next may remedy email isses.
i believe we are at the edge of dsl coverage over conventional phone lines. after tweaking out best download speeds were in the 600 to 700 kilobits range. recently swbell made a remote terminal available and our download speed increased to 1.2 meg to 1.3. with remote terminal came the option to purchase faster upstream (were at 128 kbps, now get about 240 kbps per sbc yahoo deluxe) (still have not migrated to yahoo, another story). our price is going to be $59.95 per month on the sbc yahoo deluxe, but per a promo we will first six months of the deluxe service for $39.95 per month
we have gotten pretty fair tech support when we need it. if swbell improved its email service, i would be very positive about them.
2003 UPDATE: a new higher speed service became available. for a 12 month contract term, we now get downstream speeds up to 6 mbps and upstream up to 384 kbps. the month to month price is supposed to be $139 but we took a one year contract for $99/month. the speed / zippiness is obviously expensive but it's really nice and we're enjoying
2008-09 UPDATE: we dumped directv and pots telephone service, added u-verse ip tv, u-verse voice, and u-verse max 18 internet. (holding breath for new 32/5 rumored u-11 service with vdsl2-something, but not sure when if ever that may become available.) all of our combined services (including cell phones for wife and me) are close to $350 per month but we have it all together on one bill. (exception, because of caution with u-verse voice and awful weather sometimes in dallas, we bought a separate measured pots line for backup telephone service and it comes on a separate small bill.) i am fortunate to have made the acquaintance of a terrific u-verse manager who gets me solid help when an occasional issue arises, but we are getting great services and feel like valued customers. once we got through our not-too-bad transition issues, the new services are solid and zippy. i have been pleased with at&t's responsiveness to ideas for not just their internet but their voice and television services also.
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