Review by donlaur Location: Carbondale, Jackson, IL, USA Cost: $63 per month (12 month contract) Install: about 21 days Verizon (ex GTE) Support responds to you. Sends email if upgrade. Nice people. Overpriced for performance, Promised upgrades but so far no visible improvement. Way too slow. Many 404 errors. Some people doing line tests had good reports, mine is not what I was promised when I signed up.

Pre Sales information: Install Co-ordination: Connection reliability: Tech Support: Services: Value for money:

Well,
Where do I start. Cecc.net has good people who respond in a timely manner. Before I signed up I made sure to ask every question and research for six months DSL and their service. Talked to them at a local expo and then later exchanged a few emails with the owner. I expected at least 90% of what I was promised but get only 150kbps or even less on the 768kbps I was told I would get. Not sure yet if blame is to be laid on Verizon or cecc.net. I even talked to someone at cecc.net shortly after it was turned on {and didn't work for the first two days that it was supposed to} to make sure it was a bronse plus and not other package. Their assured me that it was bronse plus.

I know of one other very unsatisfied cecc.net DSL customer.

Verizon is checking my line and will get back to me. I just rated as 30kbps download but earlier was I getting around 135kbps download. I have tweaked all my registry settings and did all that I could to improve it on my end. I have sent a complaint {my fourth time mentioning the poor performance} to cecc.net and I will update to the web and DSL if anything improves.
Basically you can get two phone lines and connect the bandwidth of two 56k modems and get faster speeds than the DSL line.

I have been out of service for 24 hours and this is what caused this report. Verizon was very helpful and even directed me to do a test here on dslreports.com, even though I have been here quite often it was good to hear someone who knew what they was talking about... and at 4am mind you.
She actually sounded like she did all she could by checking the programming and trying out several things until it worked. I am back up {suspect a bad network cable so not cecc.net fault} but it is still as slow as ever. Verizon submitted a trouble ticket and I sent an email to cecc.net so I think that they will do the same to see if they can improve on it. In the past all I heard was that it is Verizon's fault or that an upgrade on cecc.net end was coming up soon. The dates went by with no improvements.

DSL is a good thing but if you are in the Carbondale, IL area I suggest that it might be better to wait for a few years when maybe cable is here or wait until Verizon Online is offered in this area.
But it might never be offered so if you need a provider now I would still say cecc.net as I have hope that they will fix this these problems that have plagued me ever since I started with them including slow and sluggish internet and constant 404 errors. 10% of the webpages need to be reloaded and they get 404 errors. This is too often to be the servers the pages are hosted on and at school I do not get these errors so I am assuming it is the cecc.net network causing these errors in transferring the files.

This month the billing is to change and now I have to pay one bill to Verizon and another to cecc.net. I am not very happy about this.
Overall it saves maybe five bucks but is not very convient as when it used to be one bill to cecc.net.
When verizon online is offered I assume it will be $39 payable online via credit card or bank transfer as that is how I now pay my Verizon phone bill.

I would be happier if cecc.net price was only $50 or if I had better performance for my $63. Right now I am saving a few bucks with a student discount so I believe it to be $70 for non-students but the price scheme might have changed with this split bill thing.

I will update this later and follow through on if Verizon or cecc.net helped me get the speed faster.
I know that many local Southern Illinois people are looking for a solution and in the past I have always offered cecc.net as a great provider to switch to and feel comfortable with.

Hopefully they will come through in my situation and fix the problems of poor performance.

Like I said they are great guys and I hope they will do everything they can to fix the problems.
In the end it might just come down to poor Verizon performance.

Current line speed test with nothing else open but IE to do the test.
Download speeds vary but the upload is ok.

Time (US east) Test Results..
2001-03-21 14:40:51 Speed test 15/117 kbps
2001-03-21 14:15:49 Speed test 46/119 kbps
2001-03-21 12:44:06 Speed test 135/110 kbps
2001-03-21 08:30:28 Speed test 33/122 kbps
2001-03-21 08:20:36 Speed test 96/117 kbps
2001-03-21 07:51:41 Speed test 175/122 kbps
2001-03-21 07:43:07 Speed test 322/118 kbps
2001-03-21 07:41:14 Speed test 254/62 kbps
2001-03-21 07:36:41 Speed test 161/117 kbps
2001-03-21 06:19:26 Speed test 53/114 kbps
2001-03-21 06:16:35 Speed test 30/126 kbps

Update:
Now it is even slower.
I guess I shouldn't have even complained as now it is slower than it was. I think that verizon tried to make it faster and it is now slower. It is about 30kbps download, slower than a dialup.
I have talked to cecc.net and they said to give it a week.
So far no improvement. It must be the routers performance on their end or something.
They are still awaiting the upgrades from October I think.
they explained a little, they are changing some company and trying to make the service better and it is a process with I believe they said four other companies and all are dragging their feet on the scheduling of this upgrade.

your comment..

Review by mossad7 Location: Carbondale, Jackson, IL, USA Cost: $29 per month (12 month contract) Install: about 27 days Verizon (ex GTE) There are no good points, everything about this company is horrid They don't return your phone calls, and when they do all you get are excuses If your in the carbondale area, look to another ISP, because Cecc is not the one for you

Pre Sales information: Install Co-ordination: Connection reliability: Tech Support: Services: Value for money:

I hope the this will help someone in making their decision, for being my first dsl exprience, it was a horrid one. I'm now in the process of going to another ISP, hopefully I will be satisfied. The only problem is that now I have to fork over more cash, to see the results of the elustrious DSL service. Bottom line is to stick with your dial-up connection. The Verizon aspect is the only decent member in this sad sad story. Verizon has some of the most qualified people talking to you, that sincerely want to help, but sometimes can't. Good Job Verizon. And to CECC you suck, and I hope that you go out of business, because all of your customers leave.

pocky9 join:2000-08-09 Kirkland, WA pocky9 Member 2001-Feb-20 3:09 am Care to elaborate??? What did they do? Why exactly do you have to shell out more cash to get service? 2001-Feb-20 3:09 am: · hey mods ·
Bobo$ Silvio Dante join:2000-08-30 Holland, MI Bobo$ 2001-Feb-20 9:03 am If you have a story, then tell it This review requires more substantive detail to be helpful to anyone. I'm not saying this is some empty attempt to cut down the ISP (hey, maybe you do have a story). But as it stands you don't describe any problems, don't explain any of your sweeping criticisms, and leave out the best parts. Personally, I hope you do have an actual story behind this declaration of "horror" because it always makes for good reading . But honestly, you're coming in with credibility questions before you even finished typing "good job Verizon" - I mean, even if you don't explain what you meant by trashing the ISP, please please explain how you concluded what you did about Verizon. I can't wait to hear this! 2001-Feb-20 9:03 am: · hey mods ·
	Bobo$ Bobo$ 2001-Feb-20 9:05 am Re: If you have a story, then tell it Oh, and WTF? The only possible criticism of DSL for $29.95 has got to be that you can't get it!!!! what's the story? 2001-Feb-20 9:05 am: · hey mods ·
		donlaur join:2000-08-28 Carbondale, IL donlaur Member 2001-Mar-21 7:19 am Re: If you have a story, then tell it No, it is 29 bucks plus the 32.50 that Verizon gets. That equals $61.50 so this persons math is fuzzy but basically for the BP deal you pay $63 as a student per month total. That was one bill but now split to two bills, one to verizon and one to cecc.net. Don't like that but it saves maybe five bucks. Anyway, back to the comment. For non-students I think it is $70. For $70 if you are one of the people getting slow service it is annoying. Not sure of this persons problem though. Hope that helped. 2001-Mar-21 7:19 am: · hey mods ·
System Anon 2001-Sep-14 1:59 am Hey are you sill with CEC I been with them for 3 week now and they Suck My ping for gameing are 2000 to 5000 ms my 56k was 20 times better then that and cec will not call me back What ISP did you go to and are you happy with them Thanks your friend Mike 2001-Sep-14 1:59 am: · hey mods ·
	metwo @208.133.x.x metwo Anon 2001-Oct-8 12:06 am Re: Hey are you sill with CEC I've been with them for about two and a half months now, and at first their pings were horrid. Then they got better, but recently everythings ben horrible. Most of my downloads go at less than 1K/s... no bother even trying to game. I've been patient, but I think it's time to start complaining, and I think you should do the same. And if ou know any other CEC customers, get them to do so also. 2001-Oct-8 12:06 am: · hey mods ·
	Killercec @208.133.x.x Killercec to Anon Anon 2001-Oct-8 4:39 pm to Anon Horrid is Right and my are sill Bad recently everythings been good. Most of my downloads go at less than 8K/s... no bother even trying to game Pings or OVER 1 Sec (1000)ms Iv been complaining for 2 mouths now and now. Sill Suck they say that there doing something to fix it that was 3 weeks ago. They told me that in 2 weeks that it would be good It sill Sucks. I know 3 CEC customers and its suck at there house to So what do we do i called today 2 times No one there they must be FIXING IT HA HA i wish So do we Swich and pay the Verizon $30.00 for Swiching or Do we hope that its relly going to get better They Must Do Something you think But i no Some one who had it for 1.5yrs and they sad its been like this forever. Win i call them they sound like they were going Tri to fix it But it sill Suck 2001-Oct-8 4:39 pm: · hey mods ·
GammaGrey join:2002-02-28 Carbondale, IL GammaGrey Member 2002-Feb-28 4:27 am Great... I ordered their standard package almost a month ago and I still haven't recieved my modem yet. I actually had to call them to "remind" them that I had placed an order with them. From what it looks like here, I guess I should have went with another ISP until cable is available. 2002-Feb-28 4:27 am: · hey mods ·
your comment..

Review by mtc5 Location: Marion, Williamson, IL, USA Business customer Cost: $400 per month (12 month contract) Customer Service Oriented. Hard to contact them. They're okay.

Pre Sales information: Install Co-ordination: Connection reliability: Tech Support: Services: Value for money:

Ordered Platinum +, 1500 down and 768 up, for about 400 monthly. Included is 5 static i.p. addresses. The installation went fine. GTE provided the equipment and it arrived on-time. The speed isn't satisfactory and there is a high amount of latency on the line. It's hard to play on-line games on it because of the ping-time response time. The technical support isn't bad when you can get them on the phone. When you do finally reach them they are very customer service oriented. Having problems between GTE and the ISP trying to figure out what is wrong with the speed and latency issues.

System Anon 2000-Aug-13 12:32 pm Not ISP's Fault The ISP isn't really at fault in this case. GTE, now Horizons, has serious line problems in the Marion IL area. There is interference in the binary group from some T1's going through the area, and 26 guage cable running all over the place. 2000-Aug-13 12:32 pm: · hey mods ·

Anon 2001-Jan-29 5:01 pm I think we are out of luck... I ordered service from CEC last December. It tooks 3 weeks for GTE (then) to finally install it. It was very fast for the first few months...then, it started to really slow down. Now, it is horrible!!!!!! My dial-up is faster! They suposedly improved service a few weeks ago. It was faster for about 3 days. Now, it sucks again. I had to change my phone number last year. What a hassle. Verizon dragged their feet. CEC WOULDN'T call me back, after promising to do so. I am incredubly displeased. I am actively searching for a new provider. It is difficult for our area. Bottom line: keep your dial-up. 2001-Jan-29 5:01 pm: · hey mods ·

Avernus @4.17.x.x Avernus Anon 2001-Feb-19 5:15 pm the horror story never order from them....dial up is quicker 2001-Feb-19 5:15 pm: · hey mods ·

your comment..