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Review by NedLudd See Profile

  • Location: 94117-4164
  • Cost: $35 per month
?
cheap fast fun
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I share a 300Mbps+ connexion with two neighbours

We had to pay a bit upfront (maybe $150US each?) for the hardware but otherwise the cost is the same $35/mo each as for their standard speed offering. There were a few missteps in the setup process but Monkey made good on all promises and is pleasant to deal with. My feeling is that any errors are more in the way of good-natured bumbling than the calculated evil intent of a Comcast or similar. I have had Sonic for many years (I still have one Sonic "Fusion" DSL line for failover and telephone) so far I find Monkeybrains more responsive, and certainly faster and cheaper.

member for 22 years, 397 visits, last login: 1.3 years ago
lodged 4 years ago


Review by Paul in WA See Profile

  • Location: San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
  • Cost: $35 per month
  • Install: about 14 days
Awesome Value
Not available everywhere
Get it!
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Monkeybrains is a "WISP" or Wireless Internet Service Provider. They use small antennas mounted at each subscriber's residence to send and receive wireless signals through the air. When I first signed up my speeds were running on average 40 Mbps down and 30 up. Recently MB made some changes to the node that feeds my neighborhood and my speeds are now averaging about 65 Mbps both down and up. This is SO MUCH better than I was able to get with my previous DSL provider, which because of the limitations of that technology tops out at about 20 Mbps down and 1 Mbps up.

Rather than have higher monthly prices that include an equipment charge Monkeybrains requires each customer to pay for the receiver and dish upfront, which makes the install price a rather steep $250 but that includes the first month's service. After that though the service is only $35 a month. Period. This came as a pleasant surprise as my last provider's price of $39.95 ended up being $60 after all the taxes and fees got added. That doesn't happen with Monkeybrains. It's just $35 a month. Nice!

Somewhere on this site I came across a question from someone wanting to know if MB provides any "extras" like their current DSL provider whose customers, in addition to Internet access also receive a free (well except for those taxes & fees I talked about above) POTS line, call waiting and forwarding and the like. NO. After the installer is done all you will have is a little "power injector" about the size of a laptop power brick with an AC cord to provide power to the little rooftop dish and the Internet at the end of an ethernet cable that you can either plug into a computer or into a router. Monkeybrains is not going to set up your router for you, they are not going to troubleshoot your interior wiring, or anything else. They do have a few troubleshooting tips on their website. They pretty much can be summed up as "plug the ethernet cable from the power injector directly into a computer - unplug the power injector from the AC for a minute and plug it back in. If you still have the problem then get in touch with us, otherwise the problem is in your home network". Oh, they also point out that a very slow connection might be the result of going over their 500 GB monthly cap. For what it is worth it only took me a couple of minutes to change my home network from my existing DSL to the Monkeybrains connection.

In the 8 months that I have been a customer I have had to call for service only one time. When they were changing the neighborhood node to give us that big speed increase there was a misconfiguration and I lost service for a few minutes. They had me back up and running shortly after I called. EDIT: Ha, wouldn't you know. Within minutes of my posting this review my service went down. I rebooted the power injector by unplugging its power cord and then plugging it back in and the service came back online. Me, shaking my fist at the sky in my best Jon Stewart imitation "Damn you Murphy's law!"

I get my telephone service over my Monkeybrains connection by using an Obitalk VOIP adaptor in conjunction with Google Voice which, after the initial cost of the adaptor costs me only a very small amount a month to pay for 9-1-1 access. I highly recommend the Obitalk-Google Voice setup. I had tried using a MagicJack device prior to that, but the voice quality on the MagicJack was pretty bad. My friends all noticed the improvement when I switched to Obitalk.

I give Monkeybrains 5 stars. They provide me with kick ass speeds for $35 a month, have friendly and knowledgeable folks answering the phones and very importantly provide an alternative to the consumer hell that AT&T and Comcast can be. They come across as a little bit "counterculture", but hey, I like that about San Francisco.

member for 13.5 years, 1280 visits, last login: 249 days ago
updated 9.3 years ago


Review by jakrob See Profile

  • Location: San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
  • Cost: $35 per month
  • Install: about 60 days
fast internet, reasonable monthly price
expensive to install $250.00
so much better than AT&T!
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very fast connection, and I was so happy to say goodbye to AT&T. Nice to be supporting a local company......

member for 22.2 years, 284 visits, last login: 293 days ago
lodged 11.2 years ago







Review by michaelglass See Profile

  • Location: San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
  • Cost: $35 per month
  • Install: about 30 days
once it works, it works well
had throughput issues for a month, setup is a little involved, cable internet is getting much faster
very inexpensive high speed internet
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When we first got it we had speeds of about 8mbit down / up which is on their threshold of "problematic". After a few weeks of talking to them, we now get much better throughput (35 down / 20 up)

»www.speedtest.net/result ··· 1000.png -- this is unusually fast

member for 16.1 years, 16 visits, last login: 4.8 years ago
lodged 11.2 years ago







Review by karlhorton See Profile

  • Location: San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
  • Cost: $35 per month
  • Install: about 21 days
Reliable, cheap, small company service
Line of sight to ISP required
Nice internet if you can get it
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If you are eligible for MonkeyBrains, an SF based ISP who have a sideline in residential internet, you should get it. To be eligible you need line of sight visibility to one of their access towers.

Setup fee is $250 and they install a small dish on a mast on your roof, and run it down to a POE (power over ethernet) brick anywhere inside your house that is close to a wall outlet (for power).

And that's it: you then have a 10 megabit symmetric ethernet port right there.

MonkeyBrains is pretty clear that their responsibility stops at this firehose; any problems and they'll ask you to unplug your home network, power cycle the POE brick, and connect a laptop direct to them to test.

In nearly a year (writing October 2012) I've had to power cycle the antenna a couple of times, but otherwise no noticeable downtime.

I usually see speeds of 25Mbps down and 15Mbps up, well in excess of the promised 10Mbps.

We often have multiple household members connected and simultaneously streaming netflix, and do not see issues.

»www.speedtest.net/result ··· 6587.png

If you do get in touch, it feels like an enthusiast group garage startup, for example "Rudy doesn't like webforms" so trouble tickets are handled by replying to an email thread.

member for 18.2 years, 33 visits, last login: 11.4 years ago
updated 11.4 years ago


Review by bartolo5 See Profile

  • Location: San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
  • Cost: $35 per month
  • Install: about 14 days
Fantastic speeds and pings. 4ms to google.com!
hefty startup install fee
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Having endured all sorts of DSL and cable through the years Monkeybrains is a breath of fresh air. Install is somewhat complicated and expensive $250 (includes first month of service) but after than it's $35/month for pretty good speeds. I'm getting 30/30 approximately, it really varies. Sometimes I see 20 down, sometimes 45 .. Upload is usually over 10mbit and it's very nice to push content out there so fast.

Here's a test I just did clocking in @40/18 »www.speedtest.net/result ··· 2207.png

Probably the best thing out there in SF if you can't get webpass and can get this.

member for 22.3 years, 1300 visits, last login: 2.5 years ago
updated 11.5 years ago


Review by marbat See Profile

  • Location: San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
  • Cost: $35 per month
  • Install: about 10 days
Blazing fast and reliable
$250 one-time install fee
Highly recommended
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Pre sales information:
Very simple service, nothing to see here.

Install process:
The installer was wonderful, and I they were flexible with allowing me to reschedule. However, they are so busy that taking an appointment takes over a week! Minus one star for this. Also, there is a $250 one-time install fee

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No issues so far.

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Won't be needing this.

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Fantastic. The broadband is guaranteed to be symmetrical 8 megabit download and 8 megabit upload. In actuality, I'm seeing 30 and 30: »www.speedtest.net/result ··· 7697.png

Value for money:

The service is $35/month with a one-time $250 setup fee for the Ubiquiti wireless equipment. Fantastic value, especially when my only other options are Comcast or AT&T.

member for 19.5 years, 1085 visits, last login: 4.1 years ago
updated 11.6 years ago


Review by chazb28 See Profile

  • Location: San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
  • Cost: $35 per month (12 month contract)
  • Install: about 24 days
Great service, speeds, value
Takes a while to get set up/limited coverage
No-brainer if you can get it
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$35/mo for 12Mb up and down?! Sign me up!

This is a locally-owned and operated boutique ISP that services a few select San Francisco neighborhoods. I had to chase them for a while; the first time I contacted Monkeybrains, my neighborhood was "saturated". A year later, I was able to secure a site survey. (They send an installer out to ensure line-of-sight is available to one of their access points; if so, they do the install right then and there.) The appointment was a little over three weeks from the initial contact.

Overall, I'm extremely impressed, and it started with the installation. A small, shoebox-sized antennae was installed on the roof, and a cable ran down to my unit. The installer did an extremely professional job, running the cable exactly as I had requested, following existing cable runs (I wish I could say the same about the DirecTV installer, but I digress.) And the bandwidth is by far the best value I could find for any ISP.

Two thumbs up.

member for 22.8 years, 131 visits, last login: 11.5 years ago
updated 11.6 years ago