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 Review by mitchell 
UPDATED: 4 days ago
member for 5.9 years, 1502 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Darlington,Darlington,SC
 $32 per month
 about 60 days
 BellSouth
 "Install was without trouble"
 "Mail/newsserver issues are bad."
 "Great bang for my buck!!!"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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I have been checking Fastaccess.com for over a year to see if I qualified for xDSL. I finally was!. I was so excited until the install date was in November 2002. I had a long face for a few days. BS called one day and said my due date was changed to October 2002, I felt better and started reading BroadbandReports.com.
In August 2002, I saw the DSL installer at my local (1/2 mile away) DSLAM and stopped and asked him what the hold up may be. He asked me where did I live and I told him (pointing) right there. He said call back and ask for a Supervisor and see if the due date could be moved up. Well lo and behold.... less than one week August 14th a box arrived with my new WESTELL modem and install kit.
Install was flawless, and even my daughter understood what the instructions were saying. I am smokin' at 1427/240 and I am happy.
The new Westell modem does not require PPPoE on the computer as it assumes signon to the ISP in the modem and passes a private IP to the computer.
Am I happy? YES !!!
UPDATE: I have not dropped connection or has any problems since the initial install. I consider this to be great service!
UPDATE: Nov. 2002: Added Linksys Router! Easy install after following the posts from the BS group here on BBR.
UPDATE: Jan 2003 - I held the same IP address for over 3 months. WOW the only reason I think it changed was I bumped my modem and it dropped off line for some reason. Wierd - huh? I thought so too... My speeds are consistent but I've noticed a drop from 1427 at first to now 1150 avg. I still cant run trace since my modem (Westell) will not pass pings.
UPDATE JULY 03: I just dropped my IP address that was held since Jan 03!! No down times that were BSFA's fault. (mine yes, BSFA naw IP still same and on line) I hate the cost BUT I can t live with Dial-up sluggishness.
Speeds are hanging around 1250/210 which is great for me. Oh yeah I can now run traces I had a setting wrong in the Router I'm using so now I can check incoming and outgoing ping times.
Status: HAPPY HAPPY
UPDATE: Sept. 2004: I recently had problems browsing. I noitced that the IP was changing about every 15 minutes and I was dropping the ability to surf. I ended up getting a new modem to replace the 2100 westell. I now have a westell 6100 and am now having no problems. Now the interesting part it the DSL Tech at the help desk that knew what my problem was and shipped me a new modem asap. After 5 calls to tech support, I was ready to pull the plug until finally a REAL tech know how to "fix" my problems.
Status: still HAPPY with the service, wish the price was better
September 2006 Status: Still a Customer and Happy
I am now on 3.0 service. Wow what a difference from 1.5. I am soooo glad I'm not on RoadRunner in this area. Lots of failures and downtime. with TimeWarner. I am surfing along fine business.
July 2007 Status: Still happy but with bumps in service
About November 2006, noticed ping times increasing, pages slow to load, So I signed up for a line monitoring via DSLreports.com. Pings were 45ms average, now here in July 100ms.!!! I dont get it. Nothing has changed on my end. and dont know why.
Also started having problems with BS DNS servers, so I changed to OpenDNS and I'm happy again. BS mail is useless, (slow, drops email etc) so I dont use it at all. Yahoo and Gmail is much better even tho; they are not perfect either.
Speed? Averaging 2250 down, 200 up.
UPDATE May 2008: Status So used to DSL being there its a main source of Entertainment, News and keeping in touch with Friends and Family. We finally have a XP machine in the house (the others were Win98se) and now we're VOIP'ing, and even have a camera all with no hitches, glitches or problems of any kind. I have been subscribed to Line Monitoring and it shows any 'down time' on my connection and there have been not many. Last week the system (POTS and DSL) died for over 6 hours and I found out today that a "computer" failed in a remote terminal and att had trouble finding one to replace it. I was told that that RT will be upgraded when higher speeds are available in my area (8 miles from CO) Happy? Yep! and I recomment att DSL over TimeWarner RR anyday.
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Review by GDATL
UPDATED: 5 days ago
member for 6.2 years, 1141 visits, last login: 2 days ago
Atlanta,Fulton,GA
$42 per month
about 3 days
AT&T
"Consistent Speed and Performance"
"None"
"6+ years of solid connection!"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
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(ratings above consensus)
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05/12/2007 Update
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Still running fine. Did have a brief disruption a few months back, but service was restored fairly quickly.
11/06/2007 Update
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No news is good news. No problems, no disruptions. Solid service, good speed. No need to call technical support. Well, there is the name change ( Bellsouth to AT&T) but as long as I don't have to change my bellsouth.net email addresses, I'm OK with that.
03/30/07 Update
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Moved to 6MB service in January when it was first available at my location. I'm at the end of the line for the nearest DLSAM, so I know that I am not gonna get the highest speeds first. Results have been good speed, solid connection. Replaced Alcatel STH (ISP-provided) and my own Linksys router with new Westell 6000 DSL modem/router (ISP provided) and added my new Linksys 16 port switch. Upgrade was within a day or 2 of the request and went smoothly with no service interruption. Kept my static IP address and added networking support.
07/08/06 Update
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No complaints, solid service continued, no need to call tech support, monthly price has been reduced. Wish 6MB were available to me, but it isn't.
09/15/05 Update
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Absolutely no complaints. Service has been rock solid (even in my neighborhood with overhead copper wires for distribution). I have had no reason to call for technical support, so can't evaluate tech support. Billing has been accurate. Will upgrade to new 6MB service as soon as it is available.
11/01/04 Update
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Solid connection and continued reliable service with BellSouth Extreme DSL. Only problem I had was when a June 2004 thunderstorm took out a tree in my front yard and along with it took out all my utilities (electrical, phone, cable TV) .
This thunderstorm caused a lot of damage in the Atlanta area and so all the utility work crews were very busy. However, GA Power had electricity restored within 20 hours (was a major job - required me to hire an electrician to do a lot of work on the house itself, then get a new meter installed, new entrance line into house and new line from pole to house plus a county electrical inspection - was a miracle it all got done in 20 hours! ).
BellSouth restored phone service and DSL within 30 hours (required new underground line from pole to house).
Comcast Cable TV service required 6 days to even show up, although they did restore service with only one visit. Wonder if they would have been any faster if I had broadband cable???
Thanks GA Power and BellSouth - great service!
04/15/04 Upgrade Fast Access to DSL Extreme - no problems:
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When I learned on 4/11 that BSFA now offered 3MB service (found out here at BBR, not from any marketing effort by BSFA), I immediately went to the fastaccess.com web site and placed my order. The confirmation came back that the service would be up on 4/14. On the morning of 4/14, I worked for a while before I noticed that the response was a bit faster than usual and then I remembered that the upgrade was scheduled today. I did a speed test and the results came back that I was getting 2400/300 speed No equipment change or reconfiguration was needed to upgrade the speed, still continue to use my Alcatel STH and Linksys BEFSR41. In addition, I use 3-D-Link 614+ wireless routers, to support computer work areas for other family members and to provide wireless internet access on all levels at home.
I have not needed to use BSFA tech support so I can't effectively rate it. I get what I need from BBR.
11/30/03 BellSouth Fast Access ISP Rating Update:
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Continued Good Service and Reliable Connection. Consistent speed (1200+ up/ 200+ down). Did have a brief period (days) where connection speed slowed consistently, but it was restored. Never able to identify for certain what the cause was, but suspect a BellSouth fault.
Have not used BSFA Customer Support, so cannot effectively rate current support.
Expanded my home/home office network to now include 2 wireless routers (operating as access points) connected to Linksys 4 port wired router.
Contractual obligation to BellSouth is long past, but because of the good service, have no reason to entertain those ads and low-priced initial months with any other ISP, although I do hope that BellSouth raises speed limits above 1.5M/256k soon.
Have not subscribed to home networking/support, still use same 2 year old DSL modem (Alcatel Speed Touch Home/Ethernet) which uses PPPOE, and do not have a static IP address.
03/03/03 BellSouth FastAccess ISP Rating Update:
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I wouldn't change any of my previous comments. Smooth installation 1 year ago. Reliable service with consistent speed (1200+ up/ 200+ down). Only 1 reason to call customer support and response was adequate.
Total downtime that I experienced in last year was about 3 hours and that was late in the day about a month ago - general outage in this area.
Expanded home network to add D-Link wireless router in addition to Linksys - and all works fine.
Would still make same recommendations as previous - use BBR to help select and plan installation. Pay attention to overall ratings and recommendations of current users before you make decision re:ISP. Read FAQ's here too - most of your problems have ALREADY been solved.
4/8/02 update - 60 days after install - and recommendations:
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60 days after initial installation. Excellent reliability so far; no downtime. Speed still generally approximately 1200/200. Have had a few occasions where it falls below that, but those times have been infrequent and have not caused any continuing problems. Have had no reason to call BellSouth Tech Support since initial installation. Have resolved my questions/problems by searching here at DSLReports first. Recommendations to prospective DSL users:
- Use ethernet DSL modem
- Read DSLReports 1st - before you decide on ISP and hardware
- Install per BellSouth recommendations to make sure line tests OK
- Re-read DSLReports - particularly "More Links" in BellSouth Forum
- If problems, try BS Tech Supp 1st, then ck answers here at DSLR
- Don't flame BS Tech Support, the best Tech Support guys can help here!
Bottom Line: Still pleased with the selection of BellSouth DSL here in Dunwoody. Thanks to all the BellSouth Tech Support guys that hang out here. I have often used the info you provide here.
2/25 update:
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Still satisfied. Speed generally approx 1200/200. No down time.
2/11/2002 update:
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After performance tweaks, speed now up to 1220/210!
2/9/2002 update:
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Easy install today through Linksys router. One note for Linksys router users: On the router setup screen, I had to enter my complete login username ("username@bellsouth.com" for example, rather than just "username"). Otherwise, I got an error message stating that PPPoE connect failed. This was actually a suggestion from the BellSouth Support technician on 2/8 when he corrected the line problem. Speed was only 700/200 after router installed with single PC connected, so I may have to apply a tweak or two.
2/9/2002 Installation Review:
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Ordered FastAccess w/Ethernet DSL modem 1/24. Order confirmed same day via email from BellSouth. Line provisioned 1/28 (technician even called me to let me know line changes were made). Self-install kit delivered 1/30. M first opportunity to install was on 2/7. I Installed my PC to the BellSouth Ethernet DSL modem (Alcatel SpeedTouch Home) through a Linksys router and configured the PC and router - but was unable to connect.
On 2/8, I connected the PC directly to the DSL modem (no router this time) using the BellSouth-supplied installation CD -- and was still unable to connect. At least now I could call BellSouth Support since this was a "supported" configuration. Very helpful tech rep from BellSouth quickly figured out a line problem on their end and was able to correct it within 10 to 12 minutes -- with me on the line during the process. Before I hung up the phone, I connected at 1200kbps/220kbps!
Only 2 weeks from order to high speed access -- it would have been only 1 week except for my delay in doing the installation!
So far, my experience with BellSouth has been: 1) Prompt/accurate order fulfillment; 2) Knowedgable/helpful technical support - tech rep even offered his suggestions on home networking, and was very clear about what they do and don't support; and 3) Easy installation on supported configuration with the BellSouth-provided install CD; 4) Fast line speed; 5) Quick problem resolution. BellSouth gets a very solid "A"
I'll install my home network this weekend using the ethernet modem and Linksys 4-port router to provide high speed access to my 3 desktop PCs and a wireless access point to connect to 2 notebooks.
Note 1: Thanks mykel8, for your helpful writeup on networking BellSouth FastAccess with the Linksys router...and for your reply to my questions!
Note 2: I placed an order with SpeedFactory first, based upon good reviews. They never responded to my first online order but responded the same day to a second order I sent a week later. Sales rep indicated that if I was going to install a router for a home network, I would have to pay $99/mo for Business DSL rather than $49 for Home DSL. When I complained via email, they reconsidered, but too late -- I had already ordered FastAccess from BellSouth.
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Review by barker1964
Posted: 5 days ago
Fair warning: reviewer joined this week
Fort Lauderdale,Broward,FL
$65 per month
about 3 days
BellSouth
"$22.00 a month fro dsl 6.0"
"none"
"Great value for the money"
| Pre Sales information:
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My dsl portion of the bill is 22.00 for a total with taxes of around 65.00
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Review by FastAttack
UPDATED: 13 days ago
member for 7.8 years, 1279 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Fort Lauderdale,Broward,FL
$45 per month (month by month)
BellSouth
"Fast Connection , Fast Delivery , reliable"
"None"
"if you have a choice between my cable modem ISP and DSL I choose DSL"
| Pre Sales information:
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6 years of using Bellsouth and all I can say amazing.. only 3 downtimes ever since I got it.. Tech Support... well like I always put it.. they seem to be reading out of a script and its a hardship to get a straight answer.. Yet if they can seem to figure out the problem they always get somebody that knows..
anyhow all good and get these guys if you can..
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Review by SuperSync
UPDATED: 13 days ago
member for 6.3 years, 2352 visits, last login: 1 days ago
undisclosed location
$45 per month (12 month contract)
about 7 days
BellSouth
"Speed, reliability, and consistancy with great tech support."
"Activation fees steep, sending in a rebate for modem to be free."
"For consistant and reliable broadband, choose AT&T SE."
| Pre Sales information:
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(ratings match consensus)
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After 7 years, still loving my FastAccess DSL.
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Review by px94940
UPDATED: 17 days ago
member for 1.7 years, 32 visits, last login: 1 days ago
Orlando,Orange,FL
$32 per month
about 3 days
"Quick service-self install, VERY reliable in this area. Package deal with BellSouth gives me $10/mo discount off listed price."
"No availablity for speed over 6 mb"
"Good value for price, but I want U-Verse!!"
| Pre Sales information:
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Very reliable. Only down once or twice for a day at most for 7+ years. With all the local complaints about reliability and speed of RoadRunner Cable modems in this area, I gloat all the time about how well this service works. I want U-Verse, though....................................
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Review by Ron_Hermione
UPDATED: 18 days ago
member for 2 years, 18 visits, last login: 2 days ago
Pioneer,Campbell,TN
$37 per month
BellSouth
"Rock Solid And Reliable ISP"
"NONE"
"Fantastic"
| Install Co-ordination:
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I did tech support for almost 3 years and order support for FastAccess for an additional year and a half, so I understand better than many what is required for a reliable DSL connection. Since I have better than average knowledge I am much less likely to have a problem that I cannot get resolved. BellSouth is not a perfect company but I can't complain about the service that they offer. As a former insider of sorts, I have to be fair and say that BellSouth is not the evil company that many would have us believe.
I dared to dream that one day I would finally get DSL and it has finally happened. I am in a rural area but not out in the sticks. As the crow flies, I am about 2 miles from interstate I-75, have city water and am about a mile off the main secondary road, and do not have to travel over gravel roads. But, I am about 65,000 feet from the C.O. in Jellico TN. I am about a mile from the remote terminal that I am connected to. Service was first available in Jellico about 3 years ago, and about a year or so ago, 3 remote terminals were installed in my area, so I knew that it was just a matter of time. I found out on Sunday, April 23 (at Sunday School, from my pastor, of all places and people to first find out about it finally being available.) DSL Lite and DSL Ultra are the current offerings and probably the only offerings that will be available for at least the forseeable future due to my distance from the C.O. So, first thing when I got home, I ordered 1.5 ultra online so that I did not have to deal with sales and also to get all possible rebates and incentives. I was given a due date of June 2.
5/16/2006 @ about 3:00PM
By pure chance, I passed by the remote terminal as the technician was provisioning my order and a few other orders. I talked with and watched the technician for the better part of an hour as he did his job. He was very friendly, polite, and professional, and was much more open with me than I expected. I was pleasantly surprised since I expected him to basically acknowledge me and stop what he was doing until I gave up and left, but that didn't happen. He didn't snub me and he didn't tell me any of BellSouth's deepest, darkest, most proprietary trade secrets: a good compromise IMO. (BellSouth management, if you read this: his last name was Kennedy, based in Lafollette I think, employed since 03/00, a pleasant young man that is an asset to the company). Anyway, I stood by as he provisioned my line, and when finished, I saw the footprint on his meter: full sync rate of 1.472 Mbps, noise margin of about 29dB, and bandwidth usage of about 39%, a 'plumb purty' footprint by any reasonable standard. (About 2 1/2 years ago, lightning knocked out my phone for a couple of days, and after the repair and replacing a fried 56K modem, I have since consistently hooked up at 44-48K, and previously had hooked up at around 28-33K. This tells me that I was put on a new pair)
5/16/2006 about 8:00pm:
I was made aware of a pots problem when I went to a friends house. I had called out after the DSL was provisioned, but my friend was unable to call me--ring but no answer. So I tried, same result. I get the repair service number at the website and call to report the problem about 10:00pm, and the tech confirmed trouble on the line. A repair order was processed, with completion by 6:00pm this evening.
5/17/2006, about 9:00am
Checked the caller ID , nothing on the caller ID for yesterday evening, further confirming a problem. About 9:15, a technician came out to repair. I do not know what the problem was but apparently it is fixed: his test equipment indicated this and when I dialed my own number I got a busy signal. So, as far as I know, all is well.
So, currently my due date is Friday, 2 weeks before the original due date. No wimpy, problematic USB installation of my modem, so I've just installed my network card, I'M READY. It's been a long wait, I repeat, I'M READY for DSL.
I do have a few jitters. I am somewhat concerned that a mismatched pair, bridge tap, or some other as yet undiscovered and unresolvable problem will disqualify me from service, which would be an unimaginably huge letdown and disappointment. I have had BellSouth dialup for a long time now, and it has always been rock solid, super reliable, and screaming fast (for dialup) 44-48K hookups, allowing me to download at the rate of about 5 megabytes per hour. I sooooo long to be able to do things on the net that simply aren't possible with a dialup connection. But DSL is a different animal and right now there are some unknowns, so that's why my bottom line is "Time Will Tell". I will update this review as necessary, hopefully with good news to share, although I will also post fairly on any problems that are encountered. Everyone, please cross your fingers and wish me luck!!
Update added 5/19
5/18/2006 @ about 1:15pm:
UPS delivers modem. I am out of town. No action taken.
5/19/2006 @ about 8:30:
I install filters and plug modem up to NID outside. Modem syncs in a couple of seconds. Good!! No problems yet.
Connect modem, boot up computer. Computer has a hiccup. Netstack is not seeing NIC. Uninstall/reinstall drivers, problem resolved.
Connect modem to computer, surf into modem, enter username and password. Did not install using Installation Wizard CD and don't plan to--I simply do not need it.
Surf around, seems a little sluggish. Downloaded and ran DrTCP, made suggested changes, rebooted. Speed tested at broadband reports. currently hooked up at 1194/203 [149.2 KB/sec. and 25.4 KB/sec., respectively.] Downstream-"That is 54.6% worse than an average user on bellsouth.net". Upstream--"That is 31.4% worse than an average user on bellsouth.net". Trust me, that speed suits me just fine! Do I want even faster speed? Of course!! Do I ever expect to get 3M or 6M down? No, not unless major major major phone line upgrades are made, which won't happen anytime soon, if ever. Then again if, ten years ago, someone had told me I would have city water I would likely have thought them to be off their rocker. So, never say never I suppose.
All is well, so far. Many of my fears are allayed. I will probably still need to make a few tweaks here and there. Good job Bellsouth for finally providing me with something that I had about given up on ever having.
Update added 06/02/06:
No serious problems to report. Connection is rock solid and fast with no loss of sync while being used, although it does OCCASIONALLY get sluggish, which is no problem and is not necessarily the fault of BellSouth. I have not yet had to contact tech support and won't have to unless I have no sync at NID or other no surf issues not due to problems with my computer or phone equi[pment. I am still in the process of rediscovering the internet and sites like IFILM and viral videos that just ain't happening on a dialup connection--I have been on the internet for almost 8 years and only now am I able to take full advantage of everything it offers.
Recent speeds:
5/24 1.168mbps/206kbps [146KB per sec/25.8KB per second]
5/25 1.201mbps/204kbps [150.1KB per sec/25.5KB per second]
6/2 1.175mbps/206kbps [146.9KB per sec/25.5KB per second]
So, with this in mind, I am changing the bottom line from "time will tell" to "so far, so good". I wish to keep going in a positive direction, so hopefully, I will have no major problems.
Updates added 6/19
Speed tests:
6/07 1181/203kbps
6/11 1175/191kbps
6/19 1186/206kbps
It would be nice to get 1500 down, but the speeds I have are consistent and I haven't had any major problems, aside from occasional high latency during peak network usage. Where I'm at, I'm happy to have what I'm getting. But brief periods of excessive latency are to be expected, so no biggie. Maybe at some point I will call tech support and see if anything can be done to tweak my speeds closer to advertised speeds, but that is not a priority right now. Service is still rock solid and stable, bottom line is still "so far, so good"
01/30/2007
It has been a while since I have updated my review, which in this case is a good thing. I did a speed test just a few minutes ago and speed was 1221/216kbps, which is consistent with results of speed tests not posted, as well as those posted.
What can I say? I live in a very rural area and have DSL. I am blessed indeed. I am in trouble if I should ever need to go back to a dial up connection. A few unfortunate friends have no options but dialup, and I absolutely cannot now tolerate it. If I had to use a dialup connection for my net access, I would literally, without a doubt, pull my hair out.
I am past my initial jitters now. That is, fear that DSL would not work out for me, despite being only about a mile from the remote terminal, and I would have to cancel service due to technical issues. Wireless internet through cell service is available, but too expensive, though so far as I know, fairly reliable. DirectPC or HughesNet, or whatever they have currently renamed themselves in an effort to avoid lawsuits and FCC sanctions due to being the overpriced ripoff and consumer unfriendly service that they are????????? ARRRGGGHH!!! NOT EVER, NEVER EVER NEVER EVER GONNA GO THERE, even if it would mean getting stuck with dialup. Anyway, thinking about the God awful reviews of satellite service and the poor people on this site and the people who have been conned and suckered by it is getting my blood pressure up and I digress.
Service has been rock solid since day 1 with NO OUTAGES AT ALL that I am aware of. No connection issues in either my XP or 98SE partition. But then my modem and computer is not on 24/7. And I do not have any of the BellSouth software loaded, software which is notorious for causing problems and conflicts. I set up the connection as ethernet, I surfed into the modem, set up my un and pw, and connected. No unnecessary software overhead slowing things down, no DUN connections to be bothered with, no USB conflicts with devices not playing nice together. Just what is needed, nothing more, nothing less.
Anyway, I have replaced one set of jitters with another. What with the recent BellSouth and A T & T Merger, I am concerned that my service will be messed up or quality and reliability will go into the toilet. Thinking of the Cingular and A T & T Wireless fiasco really makes me nervous. I beg you A T & T, please don't take me for granted ,or otherwise mess me over because I am in a rural area and corporate bigwigs may think the cost of maintaining reliable DSL service for me is not worth the effort. Am I jittery for nothing? I hope so, but we'll see.
12/20/2007
This is an update and no news is good news as they say. My connection is still rock solid, stable, and quick. Speeds are still in the range of 1220 to 1250 down and 210 to 220 up. My computer is not booted up 24/7 and will sometimes go for several days without being turned on. My modem is turned off when the computer is turned off, as I spliced a power switch out of a dead computer power supply into the power connector for my modem, so my modem is not constantly connected to the internet either. Anyway, the point that I am trying to make is that I am only aware of one brief outage since my last update. No problems with email, no problems with anything. What with my location, I feel very fortunate to have 1.5M down DSL and am satisfied with it, though 3 Meg service would be awfully nice. I would absolutely end up smashing my computer off the nearest wall if I should ever have to go back to dial-up any length of time, cause I am not a patient person and would lose it.
Kudos to Bellsouth/A T & T for providing DSL in my low income, rural area 12 miles from the CO.
I plan to post my next update on or around my 2 year anniversary.
04/29/2008, 1:15 a.m.
Well, here is my promised update. All I can think of to say right now is WOW, WOW, WOW, WOW. I was just made aware by a friend that 3 MByte down / 384 KByte up service was available in my area on 4/28 at about 9:00 p.m. About 10:00 p.m., I checked and sure enough both 3 and 6 MB service was available. I will likely order 6 MB down service at some future point. Anyway, for now, I ordered 3 MB service at the AT & T online order gateway as I did not want some ignorant sales Neanderthal monkeying around with by account and screwing something up and causing me to lose my service or submitting an order for something I did not authorize to maximize their commission. Sorry sales, but even though its been 3 1/2 years since I've done tech or order support for DSL, I still haven't forgot the headaches you often cause, so I will never call you for assistance if I can possibly avoid it. Anyway, I am really quite amazed and consider myself fortunate to have internet connection speed that is only a dream for many. Lord help me if I ever have to seriously consider going back to dial-up, cause I think I would pull my hair out. Yep, I guess I am officially spoiled by DSL. They say DSL was not invented for patient people and patience is certainly not one of my virtues. Anyway, about 3 hours later, the order is complete and I am surfing at an average speed of 2913/322. Again, WOW, is all I can think of to say. As I near the 2 year mark with DSL, there have been ZERO problems and only one minor outage that I am aware of. Even endemic copper theft committed by our local meth monkeys and other assorted druggies has not affected my service that I am aware of, so apparently most or all of my service loop is underground or otherwise inaccessible all the way to the c.o. Keep up the great work BellSouth, er, AT &T. The best only get better. The bang for the buck for this service can't be beat.
Followup comments:  
Hayward
K A R - 1 2 0 C
Premium
join:2000-07-13
Key West, FL
edit:
May 20th, @06:31AM
| Glad things have worke out relatively well If it is any consolation, still can't get 6mbs, and 3mbs gets a little flaky now and then, but still always well above 1.5.... maybe dropping to 2.0 on occasion, though upstream always seems to stay above 320.
Then again because I haven't gotten to do rewiring yet... I am still operating off a 2nd stop extension cord from the NID since Wilma, if it hadn't been so bad for the rest of the house/insurance/possessions, probably would have fixed it by now... and almost season again 
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»haywardm.com (Hayward's Key West)
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| | Ron_Hermione
join:2006-05-11
Pioneer, TN
 ·AT&T Southeast
| Re: Glad things have worke dout relatively well 3 Meg service would be great, but what I have now is about 50 times faster than what I have been used to, so it's all good. After what folks in your neck of the woods have been through, well, hopefully it won't be bad this year so that you can get a breather. | |
| 
blahdeblah
@adelphia.net
| Glad t hear from another satisfied customer. As a bellsouth employee, I would like to thank you for choosing bellsouth. I won't mention My name or where I work but I am a ADSL Tech. Maybe some day I will have ADSL at my house, but right now I have a cable modem. The only difference that I can see is price (employee discount  ). My connection is 6m from what my cable company tells me but using various speed tests, the fastest
I have tested is about 2900k. Anyway, thats not why I am posting. Its seems that unions have a bad name these days. Not sure why. I know alot of companies blame all their problems on unions. BellSouth is guilty of this. They portray union members as lazy. I would venture to guess that the percentage of union members that could be considered lazy is about the same as those in management or non-union companies. The truth of the matter is that, in my case, If it were not for the union, workers would be Lucky to get paid more than minimum wage to do one of the most dangerous jobs in the country( check the statistics). You may be wondering what is so dangerous about installing ADSL. I can only speak for my area, which includes Jellico TN, but DSL installation is not the only thing I do on a daily basis. I work on and install regular phone lines to. That include climbing poles and hanging wire and clearing cable pairs all in very close proximity to high voltage power lines. Even though OSHA does do minimal policing of telephone companies, it is the union (employees) that keep the job safe. Who better to deem a rope bridge safe than the man about to walk across it. I know I am rambling, but I say all this to get to this point. The problem in bellsouth is not "lazy" union employees. From my vantage point, the problem is mainly in our engineering department (management). Basically we have a bunch of people with a certificate on the wall and no knowledge of how telephone lines work making the important decisions. They may know what a cable pair looks like on paper but that is about as far as their knowledge can take them. Bellsouth has adopted a policy of hiring management employs out of college. No longer are people with experience in the telecommunications industry promoted to positions within management. As long as one has a degree (does not matter what kind i.e. business management, home decorating, dog grooming) and is fresh out of college, they are a prime candidate for employment in bellsouth management. This leads to another minor problem that I see from my vantage point. Since ADSL was first deployed, remote sites have been placed according to where the money resides. Demand for DSL service has never been taken into account. Remote sites have most commonly been placed to feed high dollar sub-divisions. Typically, people who live in these areas are of retirement age and have no use for the service. The demand for ADSL is in the working class communities. These are mostly younger people who have grown up with or been around computers for some time. I have saw this happen more than you would like to know. And when the company does place a remote site in a lower class community by mistake, they cannot understand why the service sells so quickly that all ports are in use before another self can be added to the site. One of the state planner's (Over paid engineer) actually said to me, "How can these people afford ADSL? There is not a car there thats less than 5 years old?" Many times I have tried to explain this, and many times it has fallen on deaf ears.
I didn't realize I had this much to say. Please forgive me.One more thing, I miss the days of Client Logic, at least you guys could speak english. | |
| | Ron_Hermione
join:2006-05-11
Pioneer, TN
·AT&T Southeast
| Re: Glad t hear from another satisfied customer. You sure gave several points to ponder and I concede the point that perhaps I was overly harsh about some points. I think that one reason unions have a bad rap is because of union executives abusing the system and living "high on the hog" at the expense of dues paying members. Another reason, from personal experience: management too often controls the unions. A few years back I worked at Kroger and when management said jump, the union was ready to ask how high. I was the victim of "dirty pool" by a vindictive manager who had a vendetta against me for reasons that were unknown to me then and still are ten years later. As a result, I was demoted from cashier to courtesy clerk and the union did NOTHING to help me, so as a result of the bad taste that experience left in my mouth, I don't have much use for unions. The employees I was mainly referring to were billing, which were about the most useless bunch of idiots I have ever had the misfortune of having to work with. As far as employees being dedicated to their jobs and doing the best jobs they know how, you are right: the majority of you are, but a few bad apples spoil the whole barrel, unfortunately. What about all the installer appointments cancelled for no discernible reason? There were lots and lots of them, and almost all of them were correctly scheduled using published company policy, yet there were a lot of cancellations: I know because I worked the project for several months that tracked appointment cancellations and hopefully the installers improperly cancelling appointments were pinpointed and dealt with. Your right about most management types: they don't have a clue about the jobs that they are supposed to be managing, which is why a top-down management philosophy is bad for all concerned. The competent employees capable of management work their way up: the cream always rises to the top. You are certainly correct about the discriminatory nature of ADSL rollout, which is why I never held much hope that I would ever have it. As for Client Logic: I miss the people I worked with, but I'll never miss Client Logic. Client Logic seems to have fallen on hard times and I guess I really shouldn't say more. | |
| anthony9820
join:2001-02-15
Pensacola, FL | merger! remember belfore we start bad mouthing AT&T, it is not the same AT&T we are all used to. SBC has bought out AT&T and then took the AT&T name. So we are really talking about SBC not the old AT&T. | |
| | Ron_Hermione
join:2006-05-11
Pioneer, TN
·AT&T Southeast
| Re: merger! Good point, but which managers will be retained during the merger downsizing? And what is their business philosophy and attitude towards customers. These are key points that will determine quality of service in the coming months and years, and since DSL is an unregulated service, we are limited in the recourse that we have when there are problems. Smart executives know which side their bread is buttered on and will do whatever it takes within reason to take care of their customers, keep them happy, and grow their business. Word of mouth is the best advertising a company gets, and it is free advertising. When a company doesn't value it's customer's, unregulated service is a license for robbery. Another reason that I am jittery about the merger is that less competition means less incentive to care about quality of service. I don't mean to bad mouth A T & T for no reason, and hopefully I have no reason to be concerned. Some people are too quick to use the poison pen (cursor, in this instance) without doing all they can to resolve any problems. A lot of the problems prompting unfair reviews in this forum seem to be caused by correctable problems, such as a phone or other device on the line shorting out or improperly connected. I know from my years of technical support, that if there is a flaky or improperly connected analog device on the line, including (but not limited to) too many phones and filters, or an improperly isolated or configured alarm system, there will be no end to problems and DSL will not work reliability. And, to be fair, some customers would not be satisfied if an A T & T employee came to their house every morning and booted up their computers, made them coffee, served them breakfast in bed, and ran their bath. For that small minority, the grass is always greener elsewhere, and they live to cause trouble every chance they get. I guess one reason my service has been trouble free--I understand the nature of the DSL beast better than most and what is required to make it work as intended, and also how to troubleshoot problems that do arise. I am not hard to please. Just give me what I pay for and value for my money and I am satisfied. As I said in my previous post, we'll see. Anyway, I ramble a bit, but I made my point. I think... | |
| kcir60
Premium
join:2007-02-02
Fort Lauderdale, FL
|  AT&T's not so great service!!!
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| Forums » comments on review of AT&T Southeast |
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 Review by n2hisname
Posted: 18 days ago
member for 4.1 years, 103 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Lake Charles,Calcasieu,LA
$41 per month
about 2 days
BellSouth
"5.5mbps"
"Not all the time"
"It works then it doesn't....then it works again."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
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I just changed from Communicom Cable to Bellsouth ADSL. The best speeds i have gotten are 5.5mbps down and 500kbps up. But it is not consistent. I have a Belkin Wireless 54G router hooked to the Motorola DSL Modem. Everything is wireless. My laptop and my desktop are both wireless due to having bad lines in my home(alarm also). I had the technician run it directly from the box through a wall into my son's room. Then it runs straight into the Belkin Router. I have a Dell XPS M140(XP) that i get speeds up to 5.5mbps. I also have a brand new XPS 420 Dell(Vista) with wireless. I can only gets speeds about 500 to 600kbps......can't figure that one out. They are both wireless, but only my laptop gets the blazing speeds. ATT couldn't figure it out either. So i guess they don't troubleshoot 3rd party hardware. So i am mixed about their tech support department. It sounded like the technician was just not wanting to really help me fix my problem. She made me feel that i was the problem. So, If they can't fix the speed problem or direct me in the right direction, i will switch back to cable. I had no speed problems with cable on the desktop(3.0mbps to 4.5mbps). So if i could get the same speed on my desktop and if it doesn't just go out randomly..........i might stay with Bellsouth.
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Review by (hidden by request)
Posted: 21 days ago
(review was emailed from domain gmail.com)
Hampton,Hampton City,VA
Contract price not specified. (12 month contract)
AT&T
"connection"
"email, DNS, tecnical help"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
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ATT (former Bell South territory) offers a fairly solid DSL
product. It is reliable for the basic connection to the Internet.
Unfortunately, the drawbacks are sometimes extremely
frustrating. DNS servers are frequently inadequate. Email is inconsistent.
But the worst problem is customer service, which is either offensive
or unreliable.
It is obvious that calling customer service places the caller with a
call center in India, where the "technician" is merely reading from a script.
The "technician" appears to know nothing but that which is on the script.
If a question is asked that is not on the script, the "technician"
has to "research" the question (ask someone in a supervisory capacity
how to respond).
To request a supervisor is tantamount to asking for a pot of gold.
For someone who can take care of their own system, without any
assistance and knows how to use non-ATT email and DNS servers, it is
decent service. If one may need assistance, I would recommend
finding another provider.
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Review by (hidden by request)
Posted: 24 days ago
(review was emailed from domain bellsouth.net)
Winston Salem,Forsyth,NC
$89 per month
BellSouth
"The ATT Tech was very nice and attentive"
"The service randomly goes down which causes me to lose work"
"I would switch to cable in an instant if I could."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
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It is very bad. I get randomly dropped continually throughout the day.
I have called and called and they have been unable to resolve the issue.
I have had an ATT tech out here to look at it, and they cannot figure
it out. If I could go cable I would in an instant.
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