how-to block ads
|
»next review in page
Review by scottz 
Posted: 9.1 years ago
member for 9.1 years, 1 visits, last login: 9.1 years ago
 Minneapolis,Anoka,MN
 $45 per month
 about 5 days
 Qwest
 "Great Speed and reliability"
 "poor order process"
 "Great Value!"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
Network performance far exceeds any other ISP used.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of U S WEST |
 | »next review in page (previous review)
Review by custard92
Posted: 9.1 years ago
member for 9.1 years, 128 visits, last login: 8.3 years ago
Tempe,Maricopa,AZ
$48 per month (month by month)
about 24 days
Qwest
CLEC party: Qwest
"Simple installation, fast, reliable connection, lower gaming pings :)"
"modem arrival delayed"
"very happy with the service and speed."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
I wasn't sure about choosing Qwest/USwest due to some bad reviews they had and thought about speakeasy/covad instead. Since they hadn't had any reviews from Arizona, I chose Qwest - there were some good reviews for my area.
09/20/00
Ordered online the Megabit 256 kbps deluxe DSL (always on) with internet access from US West.net. Went for the month to month contract of $30 for DSL and $18 for USwest. Installation should take 2 weeks, with the hardware (modem and 3 line filters) and docs to arrive in the mail before that time. Received an email from USwest that was a copy of the final order sheet with activation on 10/5/00. Qwest has now increased all 256 kbps to a max of 640 kbps at no extra charge.
09/26/00
Received a letter confirming the DSL order and listed the equipment I should receive. The shipping address did not contain my apt no. Called Qwest to discover if they had the apt no. on their order - first got routed to the DSL section and on selection of the necessary connection was told that for residential business I needed to dial 1-800-244-1111 (this is the first number I called which had rerouted me) - makes sense huh? Anyhow, 2nd time got through and the apt no. should be added to the order. Total time 5 min.
Date 10/07/00
I had received the USwest CD and docs but no modem. It was 2 days after my activation date so I called Qwest to see if it had been sent. The number to call for a missing modem was a fax line. Very helpful  . Found the correct number on the Megaspeed website and then found out it was closed, and will have to call back on Monday.
All the people I spoke to were friendly and gave out the correct numbers to call, as well as other numbers in case of future trouble. Total time 5 min.
Date 10/09/00
Called the new number. I was on hold for 10 mins, and got through to the sales rep. The modem had not been sent so he spoke to customer support to expedite the matter, and told me it should be sent by UPS to arrive on 10/10 or 10/11. If not by 10/11 to call back. Total time 20 min
Date 10/11/00
Still no modem received. Called Qwest to see if it had been sent by UPS and if I could have the tracking number.
Was given the internal tracking number for my modem and transferred to Tech Support to see if it has been sent to UPS. Was told to make a note of the number of days without the modem and then phone back to receive a credit for those days - this was offered and not asked for. Spoke to one rep (sorry I forgot your name) plus David in another center, and it turned out that my modem had not been sent and was just sat in Colorado. Both were very helpful and gave me the case number and David's tech number in case it did not turn up within a week. Hopefully it will arrive soon. Total time 30 min.
Date 10/13/00
Received the modem and line filters. Began the installation process and one hour later I was up and running. Fitting the internal modem was very easy as was configuring the software as outlined in the excellent installation guide. The only snag was guessing whether I was PPP or bridged ethernet. As the PPP worked okay I left it at that.
On the 2wire test at »www.2wire.com/services/bandwidth.asp it said I was between 330-390 Kbps at 8pm PST.
At 9pm PST it was 403-410 Kbps
At 0043 PST it was 401 Kbps.
From the DSLreports speed test, I was 302 up / 191 down (west coast) and 140 up / 227 down (east coast).
The check in the tools section suggested my RcWIN was much too low at 4288. After increasing this to 62240, my speed is now 500 up / 220 down for either server. I am also only 6000 ft from the CO.
I am on the dynamic IP address and this is the case. I have not had the same IP address twice.
I also play a lot of Half-life/tfc, and a typical ping on 56K dial-up was 300. with the DSL I am now down to 80-120.
Overall, very pleased and well worth the money. Was disappointed that it took an extra week to get the modem sent out to me, but that is a small problem. I know I have only had it 4 days and so I will provide a follow up if any trouble arises at a later date.
Sorry if this all seems a bit longwinded but I didn't want to leave anything out.
It's now 4/29/01 and the service is excellent. Since I ordered the service until today I have had one day of sub-56K speed, and two days of a blackout. No other problems whatsoever so I can say it's well worth it.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of U S WEST |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by ReKoN3
Posted: 9.1 years ago
member for 9.1 years, 24 visits, last login: 1.2 years ago
Federal Way,King,WA
$30 per month
about 14 days
Qwest
CLEC party: Qwest
"If it works like it is suppose, I would put something here."
"Bridge taps, Techs cutting corners, Very poor service, No resolves."
"Good luck getting anything that you pay for."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
I used Uswest/Qwest ISP and DSL. At the start, I was getting 30 line quality with severe fluctuations. This resulted in very poor internet connection with degrading performance there after. 2 months and 7 phone calls later, a technician came out and found a bridge tap. (DSL will work with certain sized bridge taps). Once removed, my line quality reached 45db. Perfect!! My latency was fabulous from 40ms, West coast to 150ms East coast. Download speeds were optimal.
Then on July 21st, I upgraded to Always on Service. Once back online, after 5 hours, the service was miserably latent. I am unable to use 90% of East coast servers, and 50% of the West coast servers. FTP or download connections are hit and miss with disconnections. I called my dsl provider and requested the problem be fixed. Over a dozen phone calls, 2 no shows, and one disgruntled tech, I was told it HAS to be my ISP, Uswest.net. So, I changed ISPs.
I have less hops now. However, the problems remain. After reseating several network cards in their Central Office, the disconnections have gotten worse. I have recently discovered that my line has grown from 9000 to 15000 feet. My line was originally approved up to 6mb DSL. I can no longer upgrade. The reasons stem from too much line and "unmentionables".
There isn't one manager that can answer, or is willing to step up and be responsible for getting this corrected. At this point, I now understand why some people choose cable. When one of my customers asks me who should they go with for dsl, you can bet on who it is NOT going to be. Good luck.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of U S WEST |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by scottjay
Posted: 9.1 years ago
member for 9.1 years, 1 visits, last login: 9.1 years ago
Seattle,King,WA
$29 per month
about 45 days
"when it worked, it was great"
"it would not work before 5 pm every day"
"part time DSL, full time excuses from US West"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
|
Everything thru installation went fairly smooth. But for some reason, my DSL connection would not connect until around 5 pm--7 days a week. US West came out, check the wires and gave me a bunch of excuses ranging from someone using a T-1 line in the neighboorhood to my furnace being to close to my phone lines. I ended up canceling after a month of frustration. IMHO, the technology is just not there, at least enought to be consistantly reliable for most users. Tried ATT At Home cable, which worked great, except they would not let me point my domain name (for my home business) to their Web space. So now I'm back where I started: dial up.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of U S WEST |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by edsat
Posted: 9.1 years ago
(review was emailed from domain uswest.net)
Salem,Marion,OR
$30 per month (12 month contract)
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
|
Due for activation on October 5. No manual or cdrom. Had to call for
information.
On October 5, found out I had a DB-12 line quality. Then I had to wait
till October 6 to file for a service tech. As US Worst could have been
working on my line. October 6, 8:30 called and got a R# for tech. 5:30
no tech and no DSL. 6:45, four phone transfers or redials to another
1-800. Tech check lines in 10 minutes said that my line to street looked
good. It was had the CO. CO's Tech go home at 5:00. So I will have to
wait till Oct 7. I don't if and when I will ever get up.
Personally I would recommend Cable Modem. US Worst
sucks in the worst way.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of U S WEST |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by cots
Posted: 9.1 years ago
member for 9.1 years, 5 visits, last login: 110 days ago
Seattle,King,WA
$32 per month
about 16 days
Qwest
CLEC party: Qwest
"So far, so good"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Tech Support:
|
I did a little homework and found that cable is not yet available in my neighborhood but that my house is within the acceptable distance from the local US West switching office. I looked around a little to compare the prices and services provided by several local DSL providers such as Eskimo North and Speakeasy. I found that prices don't vary much but there is a significant difference (between providers) in the equipment and services I would get for my money. Regardless of the DSL provider I chose, however, I would have to get my DSL signal through US West's line into my house. I had heard horror stories about US West (here at dslreports.com) but I reasoned that if I chose US West as my provider rather than obliging them to make their line available so some third party provider could make a profit, perhaps their service would be better. This gamble seems to have paid off.
On September 18 I telephoned US West and ordered Megabit Deluxe DSL service, which is always on, as opposed to their cheaper "Select"service which can only be used in 2 hour increments. For $32 per month I get 640K upload and 256K download rates. For another $18 per month I get internet access through their ISP, uswest.net. There was no set-up fee. They have technicians available to come to my home and install the necessary hardware and software but the man who took my order encouraged me to try to do it myself and save the extra expense. He told me that a kit of parts would be arrive at my home in about a week. It would include filters for the phone lines, an internal modem and a network adapter card. All free. I opted to pay $150 extra for an external modem. The US West salesman also told me that DSL service would be activated on October 2nd.
In the meantime I went online with my poor old 56K dial-up modem and downloaded the Zonealarm firewall for free from zonelabs.com. The last download I will ever do at 4 kbytes per second, I hope. I installed it.
On September 26 the parts arrived, right on time. An Intel PRO/100+ Adapter, a Cisco 675 modem, several little phone line filters and all the cables I could eat. And an excellent set of instructions which made it all quite easy. Two days later a letter arrived from uswest.net with all my ISP information (username, mail servers, etc.)
The weekend before my DSL was to be activated I installed the hardware and the Cisco Commander software from the CD that came with the router. It's used to search for, connect to, and monitor the quality of the DSL signal. October 2nd arrived. I double-clicked the Commander icon on the desktop to open its Search-for-Devices box. Here I met my first challenge. No device was listed. I supposed my service hadn't been activated yet. I figured I'd wait for a day or two.
I tried again on October 4th. Still no device listed. I phoned US West Tech Support, waited on hold about 10 minutes (this was 5:15 PM) and a polite young man told me that he was sorry but my service had not been activated yet. Would I like to talk to the people who do the activations? Yes please. After another short wait I was connected to a polite young lady who told me that my service HAD been activated. Sympathetic at having to send me back to Tech Support, she put me on hold, called a support guy and put him on the line with me. This young man very helpfully solved my problem. Turns out my firewall was causing the Commander software to malfunction. The support guy told me to momentarily turn the firewall off so the Commander could find the signal. I had enabled the Commander software to communicate through the firewall (a simple point and click) but that wasn't enough. The firewall had to be all the way off. Once I had the signal, I could then turn the firewall back on again. My DSL service has been working fine ever since. This letter sounds so much like an advertisement for US West that I should probably mention that I am not connected in any way to the US West company.
DSL is wonderfully fast. Graphics that used to take a whole minute to download appear in about 2 seconds now.
It was quite easy. I am NOT a power user. Any average user should be able to do it. And it all happened approximately on time, as scheduled by the US West salesman. I was hooked up two weeks after I ordered service. I am amazed and delighted. Your mileage may vary.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of U S WEST |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by EldonGatlin
Posted: 9.1 years ago
member for 9.1 years, 7 visits, last login: 8.7 years ago
Tucson,Pima,AZ
$60 per month (month by month)
about 14 days
Qwest
CLEC party: Qwest
"Tech Support is Good."
"If the line goes down hard slow to fix."
"Value is Good. Support is Adequate. Qwest adds a New Wrinkle."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
I ordered the basic always on DSL 256 down and up. It includes the Cisco 675. It is around $30.00 for the DSL but USWest/Qwest ISP is $14.00 with voice mail and some other charges you can call it $60.00 on top of your regular phone charges of $40.00 or so without long distance.
I ordered online and they could not decide if I qualified or not then they said I did. The install went well (I did it myself). Then the weather warmed up and the thing started going up and down like a yo-yo. They said they shouldn't have installed it. About 6 months later I tried it again because one of the USWest technicians said during the first experience that they were upgrading the equipment in 3 to 4 months (he was beta testing at home in Phoenix, "Hang in there", he said) and it has been working fine for about a year since the second time I installed it. Both times the Cisco 675 was free. I have 4-5 machines on it using NATD. I am using a 8 port 10BaseT hub connected to the Cisco Router/DSL Modem.
It is PPP and the IP has not changed but technically it could because of the DHCP nature of the connections. The DNS servers change frequently.
I would say the technicians have been good more than 75% of the time and effective 1 September 2000 (it took until about the 20th for me to see it) we got 640 down stream for the same price as the 256.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of U S WEST |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by Zanshin5
Posted: 9.1 years ago
member for 9.1 years, 1 visits, last login: 9.1 years ago
Eugene,Lane,OR
$150 per month
about 9 days
Qwest
"Good speed, good connection"
"Tech support can be iffy, reverse DNS not on all IPs"
"It's good and not too spendy"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
I have 512k SDSL from QWest (formerly USWest) with (for now) a dynamic IP, using PPPoE through a Cisco 675 router. The order/install process was fairly smooth and the tech. support people were pretty helpful (more on that below). It's fairly spendy at around $150 per month, but it is SDSL (512k up and down) so it's actually a very reasonable price for the service.
I have only had a few problems with it though it has been highly reliable. The biggest problem is that the tech. support doesn't seem to be all that great. Essentially the entirety of level 1 tech. support is telling you how to configure your equipment correctly. I'm sure that this is often where the problem is since not everyone is tech savvy (let alone with DSL equip). However, they seem to be really hesistant to even think that it may be a problem on their end. Usually it takes a good 3 or more calls over the course of several hours to get to a level 2 tech. and get a problem on their end fixed.
My only other complaint would be that I do not have reverse DNS on my assigned IP address which is occasionally a problem.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of U S WEST |
| »next review in page (previous review)
 Review by mykie
Posted: 9.1 years ago
member for 9.2 years, 96 visits, last login: 217 days ago
Seattle,King,WA
$47 per month
about 9 days
Qwest
CLEC party: Qwest
"Holy moly, this mofo's FAST..."
"...but jeez, I can't get anywhere with it."
"If you want to do anything esoteric (IRC, Newsgroups, run a Telnet board) don't go with Qwest"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
okay, okay, so I actually payed $38.95, due to my employee discount  . I ordered my Qwest DSL from a coworker, who I knew didn't know anything, but hey, she got her comission. She could have gotten better commision had she placed the order with external Cisco 675, rather than the POS Intel 2100 modem. Anyways, I got my modem package 9 days after ordering, and instead of sending back the Intel modem, I opened it up and put it to work. To my shigrin, with the card installed 5 days before my due date, my DSL was up and running!
the problems however, started when I tried getting on IRC which as it turns out that there are so many EFnet servers that have USWEST.NET banned or k-lined that I could only get on one server that booted me and/or wouldn't let me on half the time. The other problems I was facing was trying to download from newsgroups, which had low message counts, or broken binaries. The "Dynamic" IP was about as Static as one could get, because in the months that I had Qwest, it didn't change once.
I purchased the Cisco 675 router, which is a burly piece of hardware. If you order through Qwest, get this router! The Cisco does all the work for you, by connecting, logging onto your ISP, and assigning IP adresses using NAT to each machine. Wicked!
I also switched my ISP (which cost me $30 to do) to Olynet, and things went even farther downhill. My connection dropped for 2 days, and Olynet just said "sorry". The newsgroups were worse, the IRC was impossible to use. I did like having the static IP, but since thier Reverse DNS was broken, I couldn't run a Telnet board.
Now my Qwest DSL is cancelled, and I have switched. If your intent is to get away from AOL and you're an average user who doesn't know what newsgroups or irc is, Qwest is the way to go. Otherwise, steer clear.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of U S WEST |
| »next page (previous review)
Review by LoboLouie
Posted: 9.1 years ago
member for 9.3 years, 45 visits, last login: 5.2 years ago
Albuquerque,Bernalillo,NM
Contract price not specified. (12 month contract)
Qwest
"constant 650 download"
"USW*ST billing and customer service"
"I *despise* uswest (qworst)"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
OK, where do I start?
BOTTOM LINE: The DSL itself is outstanding, but uswest's ability to solve billing, shipping, autopay and retract billing errors is atrocious!
I ordered the external Cisco modem, but usworst/qworst claims they sent the internal Intel modem. I never received it. I spoke to about 4 usworst/qworst employees to resolve this issue. If you call usworst/qworst to complain, take this advice, record your message on tape, because you're going to explain your case innumerable times to people in 4 different states.
When I ordered my DSL, a representative told me the $150 would be distributed over 12 months (no interest) if I ordered a year of service. Not a bad deal, no? I took the bait and expected my bill to be:
$25 (regular phone)
$29 (DSL deluxe)
$13 (1st modem payment)
$67 TOTAL
Naturally, usworst/qworst billed me $218 (the entire modem price ). When I called to resolve the billing, I talked to another 4 people and was reassured all issues were fixed. Disgusted with the entire episode, I cancelled autopay.
Two days before my usual autopay date, I called uswest to verify all was good, and the representative shocked me saying the $218 was still scheduled to be drafted and nothing could be done. Great. After talking to another 3 reps, the issue was "resolved".
Yeah right. I'd continue, but I really don't want to relive the 8 calls, 4 hours, +25 customer reps and 3 assurances that issues were resolved. Grr!
After talking to the 25th rep I asked for an address to lodge a complaint. Does this sound legit?
usworst/qworst
4041 North Central
Floor 2
Phoenix AZ 85012
Attn: DSL Dispute
The main problem is usworst/qworst ability to pass your issues from employee to employee. Last year when I called to order accesories from my cell phone company, **ONE REPRENSENTATIVE** helped me order an extra phone, explain a feature and comment on my bill. It was paradise.
I finally get a "team leader" to call and check on my entire billing episode. I'm not at home, but my caller ID registers: 1 (208) 552-3900. Guess what, the number doesn't connect! LOL
usworst/qworst sucks. Frankly I'd cancel usworst/qworst if it was possible to surf the 'net (at DSL speeds) via cellphone.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of U S WEST |
|
|
U S WEST
