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Review by (hidden by request)
Posted: 10 years ago
(review was emailed from domain oef.com)
 Villanova,Delaware,PA
 Contract price not specified.
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
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I signed up with CAIS's 192/192 SDSL service for my home office after Bell Atlantic told me that they couldn't run their own 640/90 ADSL service to my house. I'll freely confess that my main incentive for choosing CAIS was their pricing - their $99/month 192K SDSL service with no setup or equipment charges (with a 2-year contract) was the lowest alternative of any of the SDSL COVAD suppliers that I checked.
The CAIS salesperson told me that it would take 30-45 days to install my service. In fact, it took eight weeks, primarily because it took Bell Atlantic seven weeks to perform their part of the installation. Six days after the Bell Atlantic installer did his portion of the install a COVAD installer did his portion. Both installers were courteous and professional.
The COVAD installer brought a Flowpoint 2200 router with him and left with it plugged into the network and running. All I had to do was plug each of my PCs into one of its four RJ45 sockets (or, in my case, connect my existing hub to one of the router's sockets).
I had one of my computers running off of the DSL line within five minutes after the COVAD installer finished, and had the others running shortly thereafter. Perhaps I should mention that I've set up a fair number of networks and the computers in my house were already networked together and accessing the Internet via TCP/IP (the new SDSL service was replacing a 56K dialup ISDN router), so modifying my computers for the SDSL router was pretty trivial for me. Other folks might have needed some help here.
The service has been running fine ever since (three weeks now). I've run a few simple download/upload tests at various times, and seem to be getting between 75% and 90% of my theoretical throughput.
I asked for eight static IP addresses (I could have asked for up to 32, and apparently can ask for a free upgrade to 32 at any time), and got them. Note, however, that three of your IP addresses are reserved for other uses (the network, the router, and a broadcast address), so in my case I have only five distinct IP addresses to use with my PCs. As it happens, I have five PCs at the moment so this isn't a problem.
I'm told that I can upgrade to 384k SDSL service at any time (for another $199 per month) and all that's involved is someone flipping a switch at my local CO. It's nice to have that option, but I don't plan to upgrade anytime soon.
I can also apply for a domain name through CAIS for just the INTERNIC fee. I haven't done so yet, mostly because my wife and I haven't agreed on one.
One minor problem I ran into was that CAIS *still* hasn't sent me my welcome packet, and I've been up and running for three weeks now. This despite the fact that they were supposedly going to send it to me on four separate occasions. That could have been a disaster, as your welcome packet contains some very important information - in particular, it tells you what your IP addresses are. In my case, I was saved by an emergency email from Melanie of their support/instalation group that contained my IP addresses and other relevant information.
I can't really comment on technical aupport, as I haven't had any problems yet. Melanie was very helpful in terms of getting me those needed IP addresses, though.
Bert Tyler
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Review by PhoneLine 
Posted: 10 years ago
member for 10.2 years, 60 visits, last login: 1.6 years ago
Brooklyn,Kings,NY
Contract price not specified.
| Pre Sales information:
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I ordered SDSL service through Cais and have been extremely pleased with it. The install process took some time, but it was on average with all others. The sales person I dealt with was great and plan on setting up some more accounts through him. Their tech support is wonderful at all times. Even was able to get help with an emai, problem at 2am on Thanksgiving....now thats tech support!
Hardware side, I got a flowpoint router with a built in 4 port hub. The speed has been great, and constant. Both the Covad and the BA tech's were great also.
All in all I highly reccomend cais. As I said Im using the SDSL, but Im sure their other DSL services are of the same quality.
James
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Review by craffi
Posted: 10 years ago
member for 10 years, 12 visits, last login: 6.9 years ago
Somerville,Middlesex,MA
Contract price not specified.
| Pre Sales information:
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I'm located in Somerville, MA and had been running a small
home network via DOV 56k ISDN with shore.net, an excellent
local area ISP. I run a bunch of servers in a non-firewalled DMZ
type setup and need a bunch of static IP addresses.
The cost and unreliability of the ISDN setup had me looking at
xDSL offerings for a while before I signed up with CAIS Internet
and their HyperLan business grade sDSL plan.
For $99/month I get 192k/192k sDSL service along with a
block of 32 static IP addresses. I signed a 12 month contract.
Unfortunatly it does not look like CAIS is still offering this
deal to new customers.
Pre-sales and installation was flawless and took about 35 days. I
had my landlord run a dedicated phone cable out to the telco
interface box on the side of my building. Bell Atlantic came out
and did the wiring from telephone pole to the new premise wiring
we had run. Two days later Covad showed up with the
flowpoint 2200 router in hand. The sDSL install and linkup to
CAIS went smoothly although they only initially gave me an
8 block of IP addressess which was pretty annoying.
The "welcome" packet from CAIS came a week after the
installation. I still have not recieved any information about
shell login/usernames or POP accounts but this is not a big
deal as I run my own servers.
The CAIS claim of 24-hour support is technically true but
the engineering staff apparently leave around 7pm and I'm
not sure how skilled the evening shift people are.
The one major headache I had with CAIS was caused when
I requested to have my 8-block of IP addresses upgraded to
a 32 IP block. The person who made the subnet and IP changes
in my flowpoint router neglected to contact me or make any
reference to the work in the CAIS computer system...the
end result was that the router "stopped working" (because my servers
were using the original settings CAIS had provided) -- my systems
were off the net for more than 24 hours and I wasted about 4
hours on the phone with CAIS support who had no idea what was
going on. The problem was finally solved only after I weaseled the
router password out of the Covad tech and discovered the "new"
config settings that CAIS had applied and then institutionally
forgotten about.
I do have some questions about the overall bandwith I'm getting. After
spending most of a weekend doing repeated FTP installs of OpenBSD
and Linux-ppc it became clear that my bandwith was maxing out
at an even 152kps. This is only ~79% of the rated service that I am paying for and apparently falls short of the 80% that Covad and CAIS are contractually obligated to supply. I'm going to keep checking
out the stats and will follow up with CAIS if I seem to be stuck
at 152kps. I know for a fact that my copper pairs and telco CO are rated for
the highest levels of xDSL service. If CAIS seems to be interested in supplying the bare minimum throughput they can legally get away with (instead of an honest attempt at 192k) I will not be a happy person.
All in all I am very happy, the problems I've had are to be expected when
an ISP rolls out a new service in a new area and were resolved quickly. The
bang for the buck ($99 for 129k sDSL + 32 IP addresses) is excellent.
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Review by mstein
Posted: 10.1 years ago
member for 10.1 years, 1 visits, last login: 7.8 years ago
Arlington,Arlington,VA
Contract price not specified.
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We got 384Kbps SDSL home service a bit over six months ago as part of a limited test program. Unfortunately it appears that CAIS has decided to make SDSL available only as a business product, so some of what we have may not be applicable to the ADSL they offer for home use - check their website. We got one static IP as part of the deal; additional machines get IP addresses in private space by pointing the browser to 10.0.0.1 and logging in - communication is run through a proxy server.
The line was run by COVAD - Bell Atlantic claimed they could not give us DSL service due to a switch problem, despite the fact that we live only half a mile from the CO! Installation was smoother than a frame relay install I went through, and service has been generally reliable, slightly better than the ordinary dialup ISP I last used and far better than the one before that. Speed is almost always as advertised, as shown by periodic FTP downloads using an FTP client that displays transfer rate.
Three people are sharing the line - we simply had to pay an extra $10/month for each additional user ID, but even so when split three ways the cost per person is not that much more than ordinary 56K dialup. We ran our own interior cable and supplied our own four-port Netgear hub which we plugged into the DSL modem. We have not had much need to call tech support - we are pretty savvy and the two or three times we have called with a problem the answer has been along the lines of "It's at our end, we know about it, we expect to have it resolved in about X time."
All in all, a very good experience.
- Michael Stein
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Review by
Posted: 10.2 years ago
(review was emailed in)
undisclosed location
Contract price not specified.
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Tech Support:
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What initially attracted me to them was their DSL @ 192K for $99, incl. install & equip -- but with a significant growth in my business, I decided on the 384K @ $199, incl. install & equip for 1 year.. the quality of service and the 20 POP email accounts, 32 static IPs and extras that come along with the service make it even more of a bargain. The installation took approximately 35 days -- which was the timeframe given by the Sales Engineer. Surprisingly enough, they seem to be offering DSL as a quality service, not as a cheap commodity. Ive been up for 3 months now, and have no complaints, which is excellent, considering the experiences Ive heard.
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ARDENT COMMUNICATIONS -- formally known as CAIS
