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Review by
Posted: 10.3 years ago
(review was emailed in)
 undisclosed location
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So far, so-so in Minneapolis... After receiving all sorts of bogus info from usworst marketing, I did my own research and gained enough confidence to actually order. Upon ordering, I was presented with a message that informed me that DSL delivery was backlogged in my area (downtown!) and that it might be several weeks. We'll see.
In the meantime, my question is this: Once DSL is up and running, will UsWorst allow you to disconnect your phone service? (I'm going digital)...
tracker74@hotmail.com
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Review by cdougla 
Posted: 10.3 years ago
member for 10.3 years, 0 visits, last login: 10.3 years ago
Hopkins,Hennepin,MN
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I have had excellent service since switching to DSL at USWEST!
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Review by HumBug3
Posted: 10.3 years ago
member for 10.3 years, 1 visits, last login: 9.1 years ago
Saint Paul,Ramsey,MN
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I initially ordered through the megaspeed web site but I guess they needed voice confirmation. since I only had one phone line and used it for internet 98% of time (my cat has a more active social life. say did I mention I don't have a cat.) they never got through. then the gods smiled on me and a US West DSL sales person got through. naturally I ordered 256k dsl. my initial hookup date was 2 weeks later. this date slid another 2 weeks.
my modem arrived the 3rd week after ordering. I payed the extra $50 for the the external cicso 675. this modem will allow you hook other computers onto the dsl line with proxy software. the modem on a card will only work with one computer but its free.
the package contained everything you need plus a lot more. don't let the 67 8x10 glossy pictures with a paragraph and a half on the back scare you. the only booklet you need to read is the one titled "MegaBit Services" and a few questions to your ISP.
my date of hookup was a friday. I expected the line to get noisy as an indication that everything was working. hey, why do they send filters then. on friday no noise, none sat or sun. on monday called tech support. they said everything looked good from there end. Duh! I say, guess I should hook the modem up then. tech guy said to call him back when I was ready and he'd insure I was getting a signal to him. So I did then we checked the software (easy). it was at this point I discover I needed to give my ISP the address from my ethernet card also known as the MAC address. when I ordered DSL from US west I specified a 3rd party ISP. that ISP was on the approved list. so I expected everything to get setup at once. Wrong! after confirming I had a good US West connection I called the ISP and got my account setup. I had called at about 6pm so they couldnt enter the MAC addy till next day. Noon next day still not working. Called ISP. they said everything looked good. ISP tech talked me through the software, same as I did yesterday. it looked good. did reinstalls anyway. still no connection. All day tues I was back & forth with ISP & US West. nothing, nobody knew what was broke.
as part of the troubleshooting I was told to uninstall the commander cd that came with the cisco. tech thought this might be the problem. it wasnt. as of this writing I've not reinstalled it yet but I suspect it wont hurt. in any case my advise is to NOT INSTALL ANY of the software in the package they send you. everything you need is already on the win95/98/98se/nt cd.
another item tech had me check was the proper way the filters are pluged in. I didnt have them installed yet so no problem for me.
When I went to bed I had left all the software installed in a what was to be correct. Getting up Wed I tried to access again before another round of phone calls. Low and behold it all worked. I didnt change a thing from the previous night. since neither tech support knew why I wasn't getting access I can only guess that 1) I was being snowed and they fixed it over night (not likely) or 2) more likely, it took a night time process to make the the MAC address propagate through the system properly. this appears to me to be an ISP problem and not US West.
basicly all you need to install DSL is the software to make your network card work. all other pieces get added automaticly. having said that I plan to play with the commander software cause it has some cool statistics. if you want to have your own VPN install the "file and print sharing" option. DO NOT do this without a firewall! you should have one anyway.
US West tech support beat my ISP tech by a country mile. all three US West guys I talked with were very knowledgeable. I used the 800 tech number for sales and support. (my background: I am a techy. I've been taking pc's apart and putting them together in new ways since 1985.)
my connection is US.West. My ISP is Innovative Software Designs. my DSL setup uses bridge mode. I get my IP from my ISP DHCP. I get the same IP everytime. since service started (3 weeks) I've not been down once. had to reset modem once. Speed is way beyond expectations. I got my firewall running in 2 days and my VPN using win98 sharing in 15 minutes. My ISP has a Supernews contract and it blazes. Microsoft in their normal sly underhanded methods changed the winsock in 98se which broke a few personal type firewalls so check your versions.
I should say that I can see the phone company central office out my back door. I got full 52k connects when I dialed before dsl install. like barry white sayz "i cant get enough" of that bandwidth.
I was using an unpatched retail win98. this has a Bad winsock memory leak. using dsl it only takes me about 2 hrs to run out of memory. another measure is that after about 4000 connections I have to reboot. when you consider an average web page has 10 connections to it things add fast. fortunatly you can close an application answer the error message then do a graceful restart. I limit my swap file to about 125 megs so your mileage may vary.
I gave my real email so PLEASE rememeber I'm NOT tech support or sales. research »www.megaspeed.com. as experienced I am and this being my first dsl I did find
a few knowledge areas wanting. but they were more of the type "what should I expect" not the how do I type.
if you qualify for dsl get it and drop all other extra options. the extra $10 a month compared to a 2nd line or call answering is well worth it.
Good Luck
HumBug
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Review by silky99x
Posted: 10.3 years ago
member for 10.3 years, 0 visits, last login: 10.2 years ago
Colorado Springs,El Paso,CO
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USWORSTLESS.NET ABILITY TO KEEP MY DSL WORKING FOR ONE WEEKEND HAVE BEEN A NIGHTMARE. FOR MY FRIST THREE WEEKENDS I ONLY HAD SERVICE FOR 3 DAYS. IT TAKES ME OVER 3O MINUTES TO GET THROUGH TO TECHSUPPORT. SOMETIMES I NEVER GET THROUGH. WHEN I DID GET THROUGH, THEY DID KNOW WHAT THE PROBLEM. DID USWORTHLESS.NET FIX MY PROBLEMS QUICKLY, NOT.... ONLY ONCE THEY FIXED THE PROBLEM AFTER ABOUT 4 HOURS OF BEING DOWN. DSL IS GREAT WHEN IT'S NOT STORMING IN COLORADO AND WHENUSWORTHLESS HAS A CLUE HOW TO FIX THE PROBLEM.
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Review by
Posted: 10.3 years ago
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I ordered 256K in early October, received by late November, which was a normal wait for what was to come. I was actually surprised because I thought a technician would come by and tell me it was hooked up, but after the cutoff date, I tried it and it worked anyway. Been absolutely great ever since. A few outages for mail here and there, but who actually uses their pop accounts anyway? The Web has been flawless, with 64.9 K/bytes/sec download speeds pretty routine.
I've never talked to a tech rep about anything, so I don't know about their support, but the USWEST newsgroups have a lot of gripers about them. ALso, they just started moving everyone over to PPP mode, which many people are having trouble playing certain games, but I have yet to notice yet...
Highly recommended. I would get rid of my voice-line if I could!
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Review by
Posted: 10.3 years ago
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undisclosed location
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Review by djenner
Posted: 10.3 years ago
member for 10.3 years, 260 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Seattle,King,WA
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I got USWest DSL at 256Kbits/sec in Sept., 1998.
The installation was botched by USWest when they
thought my line wasn't working, but it really was.
I was briefly disconnected and then reconnected
when I pointed out it was all working fine.
I regularly get downloads at up to the maximum
training rate of 640Kbits/sec.
I have a static IP with an ISP other than USWest.
So, I have had little contact with USWest, since
I have had almost no problems for six months.
(Well, things may go bump in the night, but I
don't know about it.)
My initial Cisco 675 worked fine. It was upgraded
by USWest after about three months.
It is well worth the cost. I could drop a second
phone line I previously used, and the total
incremental cost is only $10/month now. My ISP cost
could actually be less by about that amount if I
chose not to retain my dial-in shell account. So I
am getting 5-6 times the speed for almost no extra
cost.
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