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Closed to new reviews.1588 reviews
928 good · 332 bad

Review by citizenecho See Profile

  • Location: Saint Louis, Saint Louis, MO, USA
  • Cost: $29 per month (12 month contract)
  • Install: about 7 days
  • Telco party Southwestern Bell
  • CLEC party: Southwestern Bell
It's basically a well run service... upstream pings are kind of slow ...downstream pings are great
Frequently disconnects on internet gaming servers, 1st line tech service is usually clueless but 2nd line back up is fantastic
I can't complain... Disconnects and upstream pings are annoying but I can live with them.
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

t's basically a well run service... upstream pings are kind of slow ...downstream pings are great. Frequently disconnects on internet gaming servers, 1st line tech service is usually clueless but 2nd line back up is fantastic. I can't complain... Disconnects and upstream pings are annoying but I can live with them.

member for 19.1 years, 73 visits, last login: 11.2 years ago
lodged 19.1 years ago







Review by wifitexas See Profile

  • Location: Austin, Travis, TX, USA
  • Cost: $30 per month (12 month contract)
  • Install: about 7 days
  • Telco party Southwestern Bell
  • CLEC party: Southwestern Bell
works once it's up - then its solid
dealing with separate line techs and dsl techs
if you're close enough it works great. Patience helps
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
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Value for money:

Once you actually can place an order, and get them to review the noise margins, deal with the line techs who can't touch DSL and DSL techs that can't touch the lines - you actually can get a darn good connection.

member for 21.4 years, 298 visits, last login: 16.5 years ago
lodged 19.1 years ago







Review by pcindian See Profile

  • Location: Ponca City, Kay, OK, USA
  • Cost: $29 per month (12 month contract)
  • Install: about 7 days
  • Telco party Southwestern Bell
  • CLEC party: Southwestern Bell
Speed is right on the money
Yahoo bundled software is horrible
You dont have to use the yahoo software and that is what i recommend.Dont use it.
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
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Value for money:

All in all this is a really good service. The money is great and the speed is wonderful. I ordered 1536down and 256 up and i am running at 1260\212 on the average. The worst speed i have been tested at was 1250\171 so that is really good. It only took 7 days from order to up and running. Thats where it gets a little touchy. The package came bundled with Yahoo, need i say more. Now i know a lot of people like yahoo and that is probably because they make it so easy for beginners. Well its not worth it trust me. I installed it cause the girlfriend likes it and it does have some good features but man they take over everything. Long story short, girlfriend now has her own computer we are networked together. She uses hers and i use the good old fashion Internet Explorer and Outlook express for mail. My suggestion is to not use the software and go old fashion. Its not that hard to set up your connections. The only thing the setup software does is hijack all your browsers so you have to put up with there Spam nightmare.

9/09/2004

Speed gettin a little better and everything is great. Im tellin ya for this area you cant beat this service.

02/08/05

Upgraded to Pro Speed from Express took a week longer than i was told. Finally called them to ask what was wrong. Oh they didnt set it up right just a second bam upload goes from 312 kbps to 426 kbps yea. Then the download went from 1526 kbps to 32 kbps what just went wrong. They say looks good on are end something there cant get a tech there for 3 days and i am biting my tounge ok i say. Then i find out from 5 friends of mine they are also having problems. So i call them back to tell them it is not isolated to just me others in this area are having problems and the guy tell me have to call back tomorrow to talk with line techs. Needless to say if this is the service i can count on i think i will take a small cut in speed and swith to Cable One here in Ponca City, Ok who i here all over town has wonderful tech support. Loved the speed but the tech support is absolutely terrible.

Dropped to 24 kbps just in the time it took to type this. Great gonna crash and cant even get anyone to do anything about it.

member for 19.7 years, 28 visits, last login: 13.6 years ago
updated 19.1 years ago


Jeff Chappell
@okcyok.swbell.ne

Jeff Chappell

Anon

SBC download speed degradation

I am an SBC Yahoo subscriber in Oklahoma City, and for the past 2 days I have been experiencing the exact same problem you describe. I am getting download speeds in the range of 2 - 8 kbps. Historically, I have been getting 1100 - 1200 kbps down reliably. I have called tech support several times, and finally got one technician to admit that at least two other people in my area have reported problems. But they are unwilling to treat it as more than an individual problem until at least 5 people report it.

They have tested my line and say everything up to my modem looks fine. I think they have a routing problem in their network, as some destinations are much worse than others. Meanwhile, there is supposed to be a technician coming out to my house tomorrow to test things out. But if they don't find anything, they're going to charge me $60 for the call.

I am currently researching alternative providers. I notice your problem was posted on 2/8/05. Did you ever get it resolved?

scott024
@okcyok.swbell.ne

scott024

Anon

Re: SBC download speed degradation

I am in Norman, OK and have the exact same problem. Just got off phone with tech support, not much help. Typical read down a list tech support. Line department is suppose to call me within 24 hr. Glad to know that it probably isn't on my end.

Review by lengel See Profile

  • Location: Troy, Oakland, MI, USA
  • Business customer Business customer
  • Cost Contract price not specified. (12 month contract)
  • Install: about 14 days
  • Telco party Ameritech
  • CLEC party: Ameritech
Lost our IP address
Worst upgrade ever
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

Our business has had DSL from Ameritech for about 2 years. We received a call two weeks ago that we could change our service to twice as fast download (3.0 instead of 1.5) and lower monthly cost. We went ahead and signed up for this. For two weeks we check the speed meters and find no change and when they are called they keep pushing it out. Finally it is set for Jan.31 and again nothing. We call on Feb. 1 and the salesperson claims the order is shown as complete and we should see a difference. I decide to reboot the DSL modem to see if this makes a difference and what a shock. WE COMPLETELY LOSE CONTACT TO THE OUTSIDE WORLD!!!! I start digging in the modem configuration and notice a suspicious IP address. After messing around for close to an hour thinking the problem was on my end I call "tech support". I ask what our IP address is shown to be and she tells me the 5 static we have been assigned. HELLOOOOO?????? These are not our IP addresses we have had since signing up. How stupid can a company be? We paid for static IP addresses for a reason back when we signed up two years ago. Now we get this upgrade and they don't think there will be consequences if they change our static IP addresses? I start grilling the person about this and she keeps claiming she has no way to know what our old IP addresses were so she cannot confirm that our static addresses were changed.

Realizing this is getting me nowhere, I hang up and spend close to two hours totally reworking our internal LAN configuration to understand the new IP addresses and calling various network service suppliers on the phone so they can reconfigure their services to start communicating to our new IP addresses.

I am totally shellshocked at the stupidity of changing a customers static IP addresses with an upgrade and not thinking this would create complete chaos on our end. Now the kicker..... I still have exactly the same download speed as before the upgrade. I have not seen the slightest increase in speed. What a nightmare.

member for 19.8 years, 3 visits, last login: 19.1 years ago
lodged 19.1 years ago


icp1
Premium Member
join:2000-10-13
Saint Louis, MO

icp1

Premium Member

forum

Check out the SBC Direct forum here, they are usually great at helping with problems.

On the other note you say you have had them for 2 years, but rate connection stability as a 1/5. Why did you stay with them (and upgrade/1 more year contract) if it is that bad then?

Or are you really just basing all your ratings on your horrible upgrade experience?
lengel
join:2004-06-11
Macomb, MI

lengel

Member

Re: forum

I just graded them on their inexcusable upgrade they provided. In all fairness, for the previous two years we had only a handful of minor outages that I can think of. Up until then I would have graded them very reasonably.

TCW_
@sbc.com

TCW_

Anon

Re: forum

AS FAR AS THE LADY TELLING U THAT SHE DIDNT HAVE NO WAY OF LOOKING UP UR OLD IP ADDRESSES WAS PROBABLY A FIRST TIER AGENT. NEXT TIME U NEED TO REQUEST FOR SECOND TIER SUPPORT.

sbcglobal user
@tenebril.com

sbcglobal user to icp1

Anon

to icp1
ask for a level one tech...had the same problem until i spoke with the right tech....good luck
citizenecho
join:2005-02-13
Saint Louis, MO

citizenecho to icp1

Member

to icp1
The SWB sales office has a nasty tendency to oversell the premium package. I was continually disconnecting and running slow as molasses, following an upgrade to the premium bandwidth DSL package.

I talked to a 2nd line tech in Houston who said that "the present DSL lines could not support the premium package and the "bandwidth overkill" was "blowing the circuits." (my paraphrase) He said he had spoken repeatedly to the sale office at SWB and asked them not to offer premium packages to customers who didn't have the line support. Even when they were just "the phone company", Bell has a long history of aggressive selling of premium services to their customers. Unfortunately in the world of DSL, the premium plan isn't always the best plan for each user and depending on the quality of your line, a premium plan may well have the paradoxical effect of actually slowing down your connection.

Needless to say I "downgraded" to the "basic plan" and things improved. SWB needs to educate it's sales reps on this issue. I discovered that upgrades can, in reality, be downgrades that you pay premium prices for.

Review by Rawhide See Profile

  • Location: Sherwood, Pulaski, AR, USA
  • Cost: $19 per month (12 month contract)
  • Install: about 15 days
  • Telco party Southwestern Bell
cheap reliable and nice size of online storage. if you chose that
little slower downstream than cable but faster upstream
better value
Pre Sales information:
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I switched from Comcast cable to sbc/yahoo dsl. So far the speeds are what i had previously before the jump in speed from Comcast. I do like the price for dsl. I was tired of paying 55.99 a month for internet when 1.5/384 is all I really need speed wise. Infact dsl has a faster upstream than cable. So far im happy. I will revise this later after I have had a full taste of current dsl.

Update: Since I have had dsl they have upgraded speeds. I now get 3/384 for 19.99 a month. I cant believe comcast is still in business.

member for 22.1 years, 373 visits, last login: 15.8 years ago
lodged 19.1 years ago


Review by xaander See Profile

  • Location: Dallas, Dallas, TX, USA
  • Cost: $29 per month (12 month contract)
  • Install: about 4 days
  • Telco party Southwestern Bell
  • CLEC party: Southwestern Bell
The people (techs & sales) provide fast, accurate service. Excellent hardware, Reliable, Fast downloads, Low cost
The Yahoo! effect can be a bit overwhelming
Real nice & helpful people! 99.99% reliability. Downloads near 1500 (as promised) and LOW cost
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

I received my equipment (2WIRE DSL Home Portal - plus phone and USB cables, filters, a new NIC card, CD (that was Yahoo less) wall mounts, adapters to outfit additional rooms, etc) earlier than scheduled, and was up and running as soon as I installed the card, made the connections, and ran a basic install from the CD. The router was "free" with rebate. I like SBC's idea of a rebate. They sent me a check for $99. I did not have to do anything. They also called and followed up on my service twice in the last 6 months. I ended up with the 1500/150 package and pay $29 per month (12 month contract).

I recently called because I bought a new Toshiba notebook with a wireless card inside. I wanted to know what I needed to purchase or upgrade to set up a wireless home network. Within 30 seconds SBC had a rep from 2WIRE on the line with us. I learned my home portal already has wireless built in (glad I called - I figured I'd have to buy one).

The Techs at SBC (swbell.net) are willing (encourage, allowed?) to spend more time with the customer to resolve the problem or answer the question during first contact. Assuming this is their game plan, it is a good one and it works. This type of service affects the tech's call stats (and increases the help desk's unit call work time). However, one-call problem resolution should decrease total calls, call wait time, and dropped calls (which result in even more calls). It sounds like SBC is looking at the big picture. Consistent low numbers in the bottom line of each metric column may look good on a slide, but I'll bet they disproportionately increase the number of rows of data (read: repeat and unnecessary calls) used to make the numbers. It is apparent SBC continues exploring and deploying innovative corporate strategies and allows their employees to be a part of the customer proposition.

Bundled services, promotions, joint ventures and alliances will come and come some more. Until we reach a time when machines, software, and power never fail, the key to success will be people. Every company’s annual report usually contains words to that effect. SBC seems to be one of the few companies that carry them out.

I appreciate the talented people at SBC, and thank them for their accuracy, courtesy, and commitment to their customers. Those people really do ROCK!

Update (January 21, 2005)

My 2WIRE router's broadband light spent 95% of the time blinking. When I did have access to the internet, it was sloooowwww. .I called, and the tech listened to my concerns, and what I had already done to try to fix the problem myself, and determined I probable had a line problem.

Within 1 hour I received a call from an SBC rep who informed me that they would be at my house ASAP. He is a frustrated country western song writer (forgot his name) and after I told him the CW song I would write ("I can't quit smoking because she left too many lighters,") he told me of his work on a song titled, "I gave her a ring, and she gave me the finger." (hope I got that close to what he said). Within 30 minutes, I had another rep call, we laughed and joked and he gave me some good advice should my router be at fault. He also set up an appointment for rep to be at my home the next morning. Come to find out, my DSL line is apparently a delicacy to the local squirrel population in Dallas. He had it fixed in no time and also made sure to verify all my other computers worked (including wireless) as well as all my phones.

This type of service is a rarity these days. Nice people, with experience, expertise, and a sense of humor. SBC continues to ROCK!



member for 21.3 years, 65 visits, last login: 18.6 years ago
updated 19.1 years ago


David
Premium Member
join:2002-05-30
Granite City, IL

David

Premium Member

Thanks for the review

on behalf of the SBC DSLreports.com online support team..

Also I invite you to stop by the forum and look at what is going on and participate if you wish. Link is above your review entitled "We maintain a busy forum on this ISP - join in!"

Thanks again
David

SBC DSLreports.com online support team

Review by DesertRats See Profile

  • Location: Santa Clarita, Los Angeles, CA, USA
  • Cost: $26 per month (12 month contract)
  • Install: about 4 days
  • Telco party SBC
  • CLEC party: SBC
Very smooth self-install, DSL became active ahead of schedule, super fast!
None
Speed, reliability!, try not to use the Yahoo software
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

1/22/05
Renewed same package online for one more year at same price.
Only have had some short outages in the past year.
Had a problem with billing as they were still charging me for the old dialup as well as DSL.. It took some time until I found the correct person and now billing is fixed.
I plan to stay with SBC unless things go very wrong.

11/25/03
Ordered online on a Monday and was told the service would be active the following Monday. The kit arrived on Thursday afternoon and it took less than an hour to install the filters and get online, so I was up and running four days earlier than the official date. After I had it running for awhile I installed a router and removed all the darn Yahoo junk. I now have 4 of 6 computers in the house up and running, one has some odd TCP/IP address problem but that isn't a problem with the DSL line or service.
Overall I am very happy, after waiting so long for PacBell to set up our local CO., it went active the week before I ordered.
I ordered the 384 to 1.5 down, 128 up package for one year.
Speed tests show that I am getting 1.26 to 1.3 down and 199 to 219 up.
If things stay this way I will be a happy old Desert Rat.
We are in the mountains near Palmdale, CA

member for 20.3 years, 212 visits, last login: 10.2 years ago
updated 19.1 years ago


Review by trstark0 See Profile

  • Location: Independence, Jackson, MO, USA
  • Business customer Business customer
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
  • Telco party Southwestern Bell
Good connection reliability.
Tech support clueless on modem setup.
I assumed incorrectly that tech support knew how to set up modems they sell
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

I recently had an older Cayman DSL modem die after about four years of use in our network at work. No problem. It was no longer under warranty and I didn't expect it to last forever.

When I called tech support, all I really wanted to know is whether this was a modem that we had were leasing or whether we had bought it. If we had bought it, all I needed to know was its warranty status. I had already diagnosed the problem, but tech support insisted on talking me through a number of steps before for I said "Forget it. I know the modem is faulty as it appears to be cycling and resetting because I intermittently can't even reach it's web setup page from the LAN side. Can you just tell me it's warranty status?" They finally did.

In the short term, I just grabbed the spare router and Speedstream 5100 DSL modem I had at home from before I switched to Comcast. It worked fine with a few setup changes. The only difference from the two setups was was that home had a dynamic IP and required a username/password and work is static and doesn't require a username/password.

I'm now back to using that setup, but I tried two other things first. Seeing as how this was my personal equipment, I didn't just want to donate it to my employer. I went to CompUSA and bought a Zoom X5 modem. I tried using all of the same settings that the Cayman had but could never make it work.

So, I got to thinking that the only way I was going be able to get tech support was to buy a product that SBC sells, assuming they know how to set up their own equipment. Having made that decision, I ordered a Netopia 3346 - the model that was the most comparable to the Cayman I was replacing.

That modem came today and I went about setting it up. I had assumed, apparently incorrectly, that the Netopia setup would be almost exactly like that of the Cayman.

They were not quite the same and some of the setup fields I had expected (static IP, DNS Server, gateway) didn't not appear. So I called SBC tech support to see if they could tell me all the numbers to plug into all the menus. After about 20 minutes of getting nowhere, I just gave up and said I'd play with some more of the settings on my own off of the phone. I tried for another ten more minutes to get a connection and then gave up, called for an RMA number on the Netopia, and plugged back in the Speedstream modem I had brought from home.

The technician tried to get me to set it up without NAT and set my PC to one of the five static IP addresses SBC had assigned to us. I wasn't going to do that as it added one more layer of things to screw up setting-wise.

I might add the I was getting the DSL connection, as the technicians line test showed a connection and the modem's diagnostic showed the physical/electrical DSL connection was intact.

Besides this problem, the service from SBC has been excellent with zero down-time over the last threee or four years.

member for 19.1 years, driveby review (so far)
lodged 19.1 years ago


Review by andale See Profile

  • Location: Dallas, Dallas, TX, USA
  • Cost: $40 per month (12 month contract)
  • Install: about 6 days
  • Telco party Southwestern Bell
  • CLEC party: Southwestern Bell
Line was up 3 days before requested
none so far
been waiting 3 years for dsl to reach me -- bye bye direcway
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

SBC Yahoo! DSL Pro Package
Speed: 1.5Mbps-3.0Mbps downstream/384Kbps upstream
IP Address: 1 Dynamic
$36.95+tax a month on 12 month deal.
Got the wireless home network pack for $80 with the 2Wire home portal and a 2Wire notebook adapter......works great and is FAST!

Because of some kind of duplexer on the phone lines in the area, the dialup was half speed....28.8 so I had to go direcway for two years while waiting on SBC to get around the duplexer situation (which would then also allow DSL). Finally got it!!! Woo Hoo.

First speed test hit 2.3M down and 412 up -- not bad.

Install took 10 minutes max......no snags at all.

More later--- cross you fingers!!

member for 21.5 years, 15 visits, last login: 16.4 years ago
lodged 19.2 years ago


Review by (hidden by request)

  • Location: Lake Forest, Orange, CA, USA
  • Cost: $40 per month (12 month contract)
  • Telco party Southwestern Bell
  • CLEC party: Southwestern Bell
Its bad!!
SBC clueless
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

I have finally received confirmation from SBC that they do in fact have a
Major DSL and voice phone outage in Lake Forest, California.

DSL tech support and the entire DSL side of SBC are totally 100% clueless of
any outage.
The voice phone side of SBC and the DSL side of SBC do not talk to each
other and relay outage information.
There is no communication whatsoever.

I spent numerous hours on the phone trying to get any information from SBC
DSL tech support on January 5th, 6th, and 7th.
On the 7th at 6pm I finally got confirmation that there was a major outage,
but only after I made the DSL tech support contact the voice support area
and confirm what I already knew - that there was an outage.

A major cable in Lake Forest, California on El Toro Blvd was severed (street
widening).
The technician who came to my house estimates 7000+ people are without phone
and DSL service.

Aside from the current outage - I have had no problem with SBC.
Now of course I am rethinking my decision of having phone and DSL service
with such a poorly managed company.


(review was emailed from domain PacificLife.com)
lodged 19.2 years ago