how-to block ads
|
»next review in page
Review by crosstree 
Posted: 8.8 years ago
member for 8.8 years, 5 visits, last login: 8.8 years ago
 Houston,Harris,TX
 $69 per month (24 month contract)
 Southwestern Bell
CLEC party:
 "Quick response on sales and tech support"
 "Didn't deliver as promised -"
 "Don't buy anything other than their"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
Motive:
I had DSL from SWBell for over a year and was generally satisfied. But I needed more upload speed than the 80K I was getting (download was fine at 900K.)
Internet America offered a "faster" 768/384 service. The salesman promised that my SWBell line would not be a factor since they used Covad hardware (DSLAMs, I assume.) He even promised my old connection w/ SWBell would remain active until the switch.
Install:
Salesman was wrong. SWBell DSL line quickly disconnected and no word from IA.
3 weeks with dialup and finally IA's partner, IP Communication, installed the line inside (what a mess as they relocated my service to another phone jack and I later had to go into the attic and re-wire back to my former jack next to my router.)
Speed Success?
Anxious to try my new upload speed, I tested the speed here and found... no change at all from SWBell. Still at 80K upload (around 900K download.)
Tech support?
Generally friendly but not helpful in solving the problem. Finally a tech support manager admitted that the problem was that SWBell had my line capped at 128K. He suggested I buy SWBell's faster line service for an addional $140/month. They've admitted that they can't supply the speed I've ordered.
Cost?
They still want to bill me for the installation and 1 year (over $500). They're not going to get that but I hope they see clear to write it off and change their advertised service in Houston.
Conclusion?
Probably going to switch to Sprint ION. I'd rather stay with IA but I need upload speed of at least 250K.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Internet America |
 | »next review in page (previous review)
Review by altairwolf
Posted: 9.1 years ago
member for 9.1 years, 4 visits, last login: 5.9 years ago
Lewisville,Denton,TX
$19 per month (month by month)
 about 40 days
Verizon (ex GTE)
CLEC party: Verizon (ex GTE)
"Tech Support Always good."
"GTE caused delays in the instal."
"Things are not always what they seem in these reviews."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
I have been with IA as a dialup customer sence late 1996, and almost always was able to get connected with them with no problem. Minus a couple of times in the early days, (like when Fort Worth number was over loaded). But the DSL connection is solid.
This informaion it given base on the part that I am technical and do know what the heck I'm talking about. My connection rates are not great, avg 250kbps or as your browser puts it 25k. This is due to the fact that I am at 15,000 feet from the CO, that is GTE/Verizons cutoff point for DSL. This and that it took GTE a month and 2 weeks to get it installed...(actually to get someone to my house to do the wiring needed outside the house), I have the information from IA within a week of talking to them. The Costs that it gives you on the cost page is if you use their Telco Partner Covad. And you have to pay for their modem, but you do get a mail-in rebate for it. So that comes out about even on those charges.
If you looking for a fast connection, check and see how close you are to the CO, before you start yelling at the ISP for speed issues..they can't help you is you 20k feet from the CO.
I did get a Static IP /w a net block. I didn't want the NAT accounts that they give because of the limitations that are involded with them. NAT does have good points. Read up on this also. They do give examples of what programs will not work with this, and that NAT does act like a firewall.
All in All, it was/is a great experience.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Internet America |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by dredbig
Posted: 9.3 years ago
member for 9.3 years, 219 visits, last login: 1 days ago
Dallas,Collin,TX
$27 per month (12 month contract)
"Short Waits with phone support, Web Mail"
"Connectivity Problems, News Server Down time"
"Over all Fair service, BUT NOT worth the money for what you pay for!"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
I have had Dial-up ISDN for two years. First one with the ISP that was taken over by Internet America (A very Good Year!). My next yearly contract nearly doubled. Oh, with out any increase in services. If you are looking to download during off peak hours for increase bandwidth, NOT. Internet America throttles your connection speed. Now as my contract come to an end again I am being coerced into DSL at a rate even higher.
And if I decide to stay with ISDN the costs will increase to prices beon the cost of DSL.
And with a finial note. DSL is NOT available on my line. My CO is not with in limits.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Internet America |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by Ammomagnet
Posted: 9.8 years ago
member for 8.9 years, 22 visits, last login: 8.1 years ago
Plano,Collin,TX
$30 per month
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
I have been an Internet America dial-up customer for 4 years. The first
three were trouble-free and great. In the last year, however, my dialup
service degraded rapidly (probably due to their large influx of new
customers via acquisitions). I switched to DSL to ease my disconnect woes.
I admit I was caught in the "new DSL user awe" on the speed for about the
first 24hrs. Then the speed testing came, and I realized (with some
Net.Medic and Windows Net Monitor help) that for large file transfers you
ONLY get the minimum rate. Internet America has in place a system to limit
your bandwidth to your paid rate's minimum. Again, you only see this on
large bandwidth transfers ... files >400K or so will take the hit. This was
disappointing, since this was a feature of DSL I was counting on. Funny how
their customer support repeatedly stated "that's the nature of DSL". They
even blamed GTE as being the problem. Well, I changed ISPs ... no problem
now.
I give this company a VERY bad rating because of how they advertise rates
and what they told me through customer support borders on deliberate
customer-deception IMHO.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Internet America |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by khacken
Posted: 10 years ago
(review was emailed from domain directlink.net)
Sachse,Dallas,TX
Contract price not specified.
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
I had been using Internet America for two years for dial-up access, and will be using them for a little while longer for dial-up. For dial-up service, they are great. DSL, however, is another story. Pre sales information is not much more than what you hear on the advertisments. The sales consultants know very little, if any, about DSL. And this is when you can find someone that is actually willing to take you DSL order. I had some coordination problems that could be traced to GTE, but I feel that it is the ISP's responsibility to follow through instead of pointing fingers.
The connection was fairly solid, but I had three outages that lasted under 10 minutes each.
Tech support is not very friendly, but got the job done. (I had to deal with them to get the proper network settings).
Mail is also an issue. I got an unbelievable amount of spam. Around 20 emails a day.
Also, games had trouble working as Internet America has you connected over a proxy server, so no one can even ping you, much less let you run a game server.
The connection speed was horrible. The advertise price points based on minimum speed and the sales reps will tell you that these are minimums and the you should do better. This was not the case at all. You get the advertised speed and nothing more. They tried to tell me this was GTE's fault, but switching to another ISP has proved this to be a false statement (I get double the speed, and half the ping time or better with my new ISP).
Overall, they do what they say they will do for you, but nothing more. There is too much competition out there to justify going with these guys.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Internet America |
|
|
Internet America
