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Review by chucko58 
member for 290 days, 7 visits, last login: 149 days ago
lodged 290 days ago
 Sunnyvale,Santa Clara,CA
 $58 per month- (3 month contract)
 about 30 days AT&T "Run by a geek, for geeks. Great tech support, no BS, no BW caps. VERY reliable - 99.9+% uptime." "We were stuck on ADSL1 tech. Web server quotas eaten up by anti-spam logs." "It was great when we started, but there are better choices today."
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We switched to Raw Bandwidth ADSL in 2000 after a nightmarish experience with @Home (remember them? I wish I could forget!). Mike Durkin apparently runs the whole show himself. It was a relief after hours on hold with @Home "idiot deflectors" to talk directly to the guy running the network. In our first months with the service, we even got a response from Mike on Thanksgiving day!
We are ~12000' from the CO, so we never had more than 1.5M down/128K up. But that was nearly rock-solid. Most connection outages were due to a known issue with our modem, the Westell Wirespeed. Power-cycling the modem usually fixed them. I can think of 3 occurrences in 10 years where the network problem was on Raw Bandwidth's end - and these were fixed promptly.
I have large photo galleries on my web site, and I started bumping up against the storage quotas. Mike switched me to their new server with twice the quota - 500 MB. This was fine for a while but then I started hitting the quota again. Came to find out that I had 100+ MB of spam filter logs in a hidden directory! I was never told about the new filtering tech, so that came as a shock.
I was willing to pay the premium over consumer-grade ADSL for quite a while. But between the spam logs that need constant cleanup, the low storage quotas, and the advent of Sonic.net's inexpensive Fusion service, I decided it is time to move on.
Comments:
 mdurkin
join:1999-08-11
San Bruno, CA | spam filtering at Raw Bandwidth is with full disclosure The spam filtering you're referring to is spamassassin. On our system, it defaults to off and is only turned on when a customer goes to the control panel and turns it on. It was a very conscious decision of ours not to apply RBLs, blacklists, and other filtering to customer's incoming email without their full knowledge and consent. We do some greylisting system wide, only when keyed off some RBLs that suggest machines that shouldn't be sending email direct to us; greylisting has an extremely low risk of false positives, generally only delays some email.
The filtered mail folder for spamassassin isn't in a hidden file, it's described on the control panel page and is in the same directory under users' home directories that other IMAP folders live in. The control panel also provides the option to have email tagged and delivered to the inbox (which is not subject to disk quota) so you can download and filter based on the tag on the desktop client, rather than put it into the folder on the server. So you may not have remembered about the filtered mail folder, but it would have been disclosed to you when you enabled the filters. | |
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Review by mrsleep
member for 10.8 years, 34 visits, last login: 1.3 years ago
updated 1.3 years ago
- Pacifica,San Mateo,CA
- $65 per month
- about 5 days
- SBC
- "Good service, upfront discussion of costs, quick connection"
- "None"
- "Costs a little more but WELL worth it, order to live in 5 days"
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What can I say, I ordered a simple monthly residence account, $25, plus the $39 Pac-Bell charge, option to buy used bridge at discounted rate, static IP
Ordering was simple, filled out on-line form, next day Mike calls me, lays it out real simple, informed me of all charges I would incur, had a due date for me the next day, ships bridge, which arrived in 3 days, plugged it in, turned it on, it worked great 4 days BEFORE my due date, use of NAT does not bother them.
The extra money is worth the lack of headaches and run around with the install.
Update:
After one year, I still cant complain, getting my mail and web server online was no problem, mike was quick to make changes i needed, and didnt make mistakes.
There has been no significant downtime, I think one day in the past year.
I highly recommend this ISP to anyone with some technical experience.
Update 10/20/10:
After 10-12 years? Can't even remember, this is still the best ISP I have found. I would love to have cable service, since it has such screaming speeds. But for the service and the static IP's, I am more than happy to sick with Mike. If you are one of those people who needs hand holding and diaper changes, and every little whim attended to IMMEDIATELY, then this probably isn't the ISP for you. Just know that Mike KNOWS his stuff and will fix it as soon as he can, and you won't have to deal with any of the headaches of dealing with Tier 1 techs, AT&T, or SBC, or whoever owns the phone company around here at any given moment.
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Review by rockdude
member for 4.9 years, 0 visits, last login: 4.9 years ago
lodged 4.9 years ago
- Canyon,Contra Costa,CA
- $45 per month
- (12 month contract)
- SBC
- "great service and reliability, static ip, low ping, short hops"
- "none (see post)"
- "the only way to go"
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having used this site for reference for years, i only just read the reviews of my own isp and felt i needed to put in my 2 cents worth.
i have been with raw bandwidth (tsoft) since nov 97 (dialup) when mike (mr tsoft himself) had around 300 customers.
i was with earthlink before that and they were in the painful process of taking over every isp under the sun. earthlink's ping times were getting horrible, and i was getting shunned off kali (online gaming server), so i looked around for isp's with free trials. tsoft offered 2 weeks free and i jumped at it. i have never regretted it since!
i was lucky enough to get dsl in late summer of 99... after several months of hassle with pac-hell... mike was extremely helpful in dealing with the mega giant monopoly.
if you need to call for support (i have 3 or 4 times over the last 10 years) mike answers himself and helps you out. yes, he is soft spoken and yes, you can annoy him if you are calling/emailing with silly questions (subject to interpretation by mike himself)
the person who called in the middle of the night to ask about services, clearly listed on the web site, would have annoyed me as well. (previous review) this person obviously didn't appreciate that the price one pays for a mom and pop operation, is the guy who owns the company is the tech support guy too and, although is there for the company 24/7, also needs to sleep occasionally. i'm completely sure that if a customer had called at 2 am with a legitimate problem, mike would have lept up and dealt with it. i have emailed him many times late at night and been surprised to get a prompt response.
to me, having dealt far too often with the mega monopolies (i'm the it/phone/"everything else" guy for a small company), the small company is the only way to go.
totally recommended.
keep up the good work mike!
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Review by edweirdo
member for 5.7 years, 0 visits, last login: 5.7 years ago
lodged 5.7 years ago
- San Francisco,San Francisco,CA
- $38 per month
- about 6 days
- Southwestern Bell
- "Fast setup, reliable connection, responsive and technically savvy customer support"
- "Highly recommend"
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We signed up with Raw Bandwidth (RB) in August 2005, but I've waited til now (9 months later) before submitting a review, as I wanted to have enough experience to provide a credible review.
The 4 criteria we (wife and I) had for selecting a DSL provider:
1. fast, no-hassle setup
2. reliable Internet connection
3. responsive and technically savvy customer support
4. good value for the money
There was a 5th, minor criteria:
5. a static IP address for a reasonble charge
Having access to the Internet is an important part of our personal and professional lives, so we wanted a service provider that delivers great all-around service. We asked around, and I spent a lot of time reading the reviews on this web site.
We selected RB, as it was the best fit per our criteria.
Our experience:
- RB was very helpful in answering the questions about the service, discounts, and setup process, prior to our ordering
- we were up and running 6 days after ordering the service online. I was thrilled about this, esp after hearing countless horror stories about how long it takes to get DSL service from other providers, and what a hassle it is. RB managed the local phone company (SBC) so we didn't have to deal with them
- through the setup process, RB showed it has the tools and know-how to test and troubleshoot the line status of our line
- our bandwidth and uptime over the past 9 months has been superb. I can't remember any kind of outage that impacted us
- RB has responded to our emails with quick turnaround, usually within an hour or two. This is particularly important to me, as I value my time, and the last thing I want to do is call in to customer service, get transferred 3 times, and re-explain my technical problems to a person who doesn't really understand what I'm telling them, and then have to call back later to check on the status
I don't usually write reviews like this, because it takes so much time. But we've been VERY happy with our DSL service and wanted to pass along a positive referral.
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Review by johnwbyrd
member for 11.1 years, 43 visits, last login: 289 days ago
lodged 5.9 years ago
- San Bruno,San Mateo,CA
- $55 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 5 days
- "Awesome service, personal, geek oriented, just works"
- "A little pricey for the local market"
- "An excellent, stable service at the correct price for said service"
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The bad points first: you can probably get cheaper DSL with higher bandwidth elsewhere.
That said, I am very happy with this service, and I am not easy to please. This organization is a one-man shop with Mike Durkin responding to all your tech questions. He's quick, friendly and very knowledgeable. As a result, once I got my connection stable, it's been an absolute rock -- near 100% uptime, with very predictable speeds as advertised -- rarely exceeding them, but never dropping below the promised speeds.
There was a problem with my line dropping packets over several months, with bad connections. Mike patiently helped me debug from his side -- turning on error correction at the CO fixed the problem at the expense of slightly higher ping times.
If you know what UDP and DHCP are, know how to set up your own routers, are willing to pay a few bucks extra for a stable connection, Mike is your man. I've been with him for almost three years now, after giving San Bruno Cable the boot to the head. Pay the extra $10-$20 per month to this local dude and tell San Bruno Cable to screw off.
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Review by clay94109
member for 6.6 years, 0 visits, last login: 6.6 years ago
lodged 6.6 years ago
- San Francisco,San Francisco,CA
- $49 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 4 days
- SBC
- "Always avaible to answer questions"
- "No residential T1's"
- "Great service"
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I have been with Raw Bandwidth from when they were called T-Soft. I love the service.
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Review by cunnie
member for 6.7 years, 7 visits, last login: 2.8 years ago
lodged 6.7 years ago
- Mountain View,Santa Clara,CA
- $105 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 14 days
- SBC
- CLEC party: SBC
- "Mike rocks my world"
- "If you're technical, this is the way to go"
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I got Rawbandwidth three years ago, and I've never regretted the decision. Mike sold me a /28 subnet (which has never been re-IP'ed, unlike my Speakeasy connection), and set me up with reverse classless delegation for my IP addresses (something which when I ask for from other ISPs I hear a long silence on the other end of the line).
Two weeks ago I received an email which described in technical detail a four-hour outage that happened the previous day. This was notable for two reasons: outages are so rare that this is the only time I remember one happening, and also it's the mark of a top-notch ISP to candidly disclose any outages and the reasons thereof.
Last time I checked I had 1630/408 download/upload (kbps). Not bad considering my distance from the CO. And the install was as smooth as silk.
Mike rocks.
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Review by ejengstrom
member for 6.7 years, 2 visits, last login: 6.6 years ago
lodged 6.7 years ago
- Richmond,Contra Costa,CA
- $125 per month
- (12 month contract)
- SBC
- "Blazing fast, consistent no-BS service, term contract pricing, not having to deal with 3 layers of customer support"
- "None attributable to Raw Bandwidth/TSOFT"
- "Superior uninterrupted service, 6mbit DSL for residential, all needs exceeded without pain or suffering - THANKS MIKE!"
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I've been a customer for several years and recently went on a contract pricing for my 6mbit service. We've never had an issue with service from Raw Bandwidth, but have been impacted by Pacbell/SBC several times. I live in the Richmond, CA area and had few choices until I found Raw Bandwidth.
In every case of serious outage, I've been able to relax and rely on Mike Durkin to handle the matter and he promptly communicates with us about problems, possible problems and the reasons why we experience outage when Pacbell falls down.
The last time we had a lengthy outage, I called the Raw Bandwidth number and Mike picked up without delay and explained the situation to enough detail that I knew the scale of the problem and had confidence he was working with the party responsible (Pacbell) to resolve.
I understand that most people shop for the rock-bottom prices for a monthly service. But I urge you to use this service if you've ever been burned by Yahoo, Pacbell/SBC, etc. The small premium of a few dollars more for most speed/service levels over the competition will pay for itself by less hassle, protected bandwidth and helpful, no-BS service from Mike.
With Raw Bandwidth you have one contact that cares about running the best business possible and that goes a very long way in my book and adds tremendous value to my experience as a customer.
If you care about where you do business, or if you simply want to experience the feeling of money well spent, do business with Raw Bandwidth. You will not be let down.
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Review by Peter_Easton
member for 7.1 years, 1 visits, last login: 7.1 years ago
lodged 7.1 years ago
- San Jose,Santa Clara,CA
- $49 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 10 days
- SBC
- CLEC party: SBC
- "Reliable service, excellent support"
- "None"
- ""Get and forget" reliable DSL line"
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I've had my DSL line through Raw Bandwidth for 2 years now. It has been extremely reliable over that time. I did have some initial problems with the power supply on my DSL modem not working. In each case Mike was very quick to answer the phone and send out a new power supply. My girlfriend has Earthlink DSL; the connection keeps dropping (and staying down until we reboot everything) and tech support is scripted and in India. It is times like this that I really appreciate Mike and Raw Bandwidth.
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Review by yawaraf
member for 10.4 years, 107 visits, last login: 4.3 years ago
updated 7.2 years ago
- San Jose,Santa Clara,CA
- $79 per month
- about 7 days
- SBC
- "Excellent service. Excellent support."
- "None."
- "There is no one like Mike (RawBW employee)."
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Mike is the best you can find in support out there. If you are technical and can handle things on your own side, then Mike will help you out tremendously. He won't start off by reading lame questions that other ISPs 'tech' people ask... "Is your computer plugged in?" "Do you have a monitor?".. With Mike you can get right down to business. He responds to email immediately, my friends (who are also TSoft/RBW users) and I joke all the time that he sleeps by the phone, because you can call Mike and he'll be there at like 2 in the morning - seriously; he might be a little grumpy, so make sure its a problem on your end that you're having  . All my emails to Mike were replied to quickly, they answered all my questions, and he helped work with SBC on getting a problem I had fixed. The service he provides is superior to that of any other service I've ever had. It is highly stable. I've upgraded my service to 6MBit down/608KBit and i still have a 3-bit subnet. (I pay $115/mo) Thank you Mike!
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I had been a dialup customer with RawBW for 3 (?) years, and had enjoyed everything, Static IP, reverse dns auth over my IP, and very very helpful support from Mike. He get's everything done, quickly, and efficiently. Whatever level of computer user you are, he will speak to you so you understand what's offered. All prices are laid out neatly on RBWs page. I pay $64 (for PacBell + RBW bandwidth) + $15 for a 3-bit subnet. A pronto box was installed in my neighborhood and completed 12/31/01. I ordered the same day and was given a due date of 1/10/02. 1/07/02 came around, I received the modem, hooked it up, and asurfing I went! I got an Arescom(?) ADSL modem, speeds have been wonderful (I ordered 384/128 and I peak at 1.5MBps down.)
Get with RawBandwidth, especially if you're a novice or expert computer user.
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