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Review by chadejones 
UPDATED: 8.3 years ago
member for 9.9 years, 2 visits, last login: 8.3 years ago
 Studio City,Los Angeles,CA
 $49 per month (12 month contract)
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Below is my review from when I first had the service installed. I have since cancelled the service because I moved to a non-DSL area and got a cable modem instead.
You should note that many of the reviews in this section refer to Pacific Bell, not Pacificnet. They are two separate companies.
Be warned that the parent company of Pacificnet, ESAT Inc, is in bad financial shape and reports in filings with the SEC that they may run out of cash very soon. Their ticker symbol is ASAT and you can look up this information at »finance.yahoo.com/q?s=ASAT.OB
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I called around to DSL ISPs in the LA area trying to find one which would
allow me to have two IP addresses (I have two computers) and Pacificnet was
just about the only one, charging an extra $5/month for the second IP
address.
The setup was rather painless from the Pacificnet end, though
Pacific Bell's installer showed up at almost 6 pm (he was supposed to be
here between 1 and 5). There was a minor glitch with the assignment of one
of my IP addresses (it was already in use by someone else) but I got the
right address the next day and everything has been working great since then.
I have the 384/128 ADSL service but my speeds are regularly in the 550-600K
range despite, according to the Pacific Bell technicians who converted the
line to DSL, being towards the end of the distance limit from the CO.
"The Mikes" in Pacificnet support were both very helpful, as was Melvin, the
resident DSL guy. They are also Mac-friendly (I have a Mac and a PC).
One word of warning with Pacific Bell, though: if you have a problem with
your line, be prepared to spend about a half hour on hold with repair
service before being able to talk to a human. And you have to talk to the
DSL service people even if the problem is with your voice line.
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Review by lewster
Posted: 8.4 years ago
member for 8.4 years, 13 visits, last login: 6.5 years ago
Union City,Alameda,CA
$49 per month (12 month contract)
 about 30 days
 SBC
CLEC party: SBC
 "1200/130 down/up a week after my self install."
 "dealing with filters (getting a tech install). customer service? what's that?"
 "everything is fine... as long as you get through the red tape"
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I live in a new development. Naturally, my first of cable modem was not available (too bad). So first, I can't get a phone line pull to my house for 2 weeks. It took 3 hours of being bounce back and forth between 4 departments before someone finally decided to allow me to talk to a field tech about the availability of dsl to my home (and all I wanted to know was whether my central office was close enough for me to get dsl, they didn't know where my central office was.) Customer service didn't know s*** about the difference self install and tech install (my mistake of not bothering to read the information on the website first, it was more helpful than the people I spoke to.) Was promised dsl would be turned on in a week, then the install people call a day before the initial go-live date, left a message on my voicemail that I won't be connected for another 2 weeks. Worst yet, the lady that called gave her manager's phone number and said to call him if I have any questions (so I guess they get complaints one time too often.)
When I finally figured out (on my own) that I needed a tech install because I'm also putting in an alarm, I called them back, one customer service told that the only thing a tech would do was to install the filters for me... (what the hell? I know how to screw in a lightbulb. probably better than they can.) I told them that I need a splitter at the box, but this person told me that this option wasn't available to me. I hung up, called back, and another operation knew what I was talking about, and scheduled me. GREAT! and they would do it the coming weekend. AWSOME! only one problem... the operation never put in the order. So I spent an entire Saturday waiting for a tech that never came. Called them back. Spent another 30 minutes explaining my situation. Now I have to take a Monday off just so I can wait for someone that might never come...
On the plus side, if you ever make it out of the red tape alive, the connection actually isn't too bad... nothing like my cable modem though (I missed having that). I'm getting 1200/138 overall. that's not too bad. so the moral of the story? If might take 20 pacbell employees to do a job of one decent engineer, but they ususally would get it right after you've blown a couple of fuses and pulled enough hair out of your head to patch that bald spot on your lawn.
God help us all, and God speed cable modem. I want it back, after my year with pacbell is up.
Oh, did I forget to mention that they didn't bother to send me the dial in software? I had to borrow the disc from a friend who had pacbell... and yeah, pacbell was the only serivce available to me outside to wireless.
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Review by suetoo
Posted: 8.6 years ago
member for 9 years, 39 visits, last login: 7.8 years ago
Riverside,Riverside,CA
$39 per month (12 month contract)
about 7 days
SBC
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I got my Pacbell DSL line over a year ago. They provided free Westell modem & Kingston Nic, w/filters, as well as free install. Tech came out and installed on a Saturday. They were on time then. PPPoE.
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Review by HNGOVER
Posted: 8.7 years ago
(review was emailed from domain mediaone.net)
Los Angeles,Los Angeles,CA
$39 per month (12 month contract)
Southwestern Bell
CLEC party: Southwestern Bell
"It did work for 3 WEEKS"
"Welcome Package? HAH! Take your money and forget you.."
"Don't get Pacific Net.."
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I signed up with them in November, 2000, they sent me a modem, a
Westell, and the ethernet card, with instructions on how to install the
ethernet card. THAT WAS IT, no welcome package, no instructions on what
to do after that, how to log in, etc. I called the customer service
number, and they asked me for my USER NAME, which I never created, or
was given. After they tracked down my phone number, had me make
adjustments to my ethernet card settings, rebooting, etc, still no
response. He asked me what type of modem I had, I told him a Westell,
and he said "OH, we've been having problems with that type of modem"
(Then why the hell send it to me?)..he said they were going to have to
make an adjustment to my phone line. So he'd put in a 'work order', (a
term I would hear again and again in the coming months). After a few
weeks, PacBell made an adjustment to my line, and my service was finally
going....FOR 3 WEEKS..then for some reason, my connection was dropped,
(flashing modem light)....REPEATED phone calls to customer service could
NOT get my connection back up again..the reps were stumped, they said
maybe it was my modem, and after uninstalling, reinstalling, rebooting,
it always ended up with a 'WORK ORDER' being place. After a few times,
I had come to gather that WORK ORDER was a method they use to blow me
off because the rep had other lines to cover and didn't want to spend
the time with me because he couldn't figure it out...after a month, in
January, I called to cancel. They cancelled my account, (the girl in
accounting asked me why I "didnt pay my 10 dollar start up fee)...no one
told me about that either, if you get (deleted) as a salesman, watch out,
he signs you up and forgets about you....so my account is cancelled, but
I still have these $39 dollar charges from SBC on my phone line to
contend with, I called Pacific Net, they transfer me to (deleted again). He says
'he'll make a call', hangs up, and I still get the charges next month.
I call Pacific Net back, and (deleted)says "You know, its not US thats
charging you", I tell him I KNOW THAT, but THEY'RE the ones to have to
call SBC to TELL them that my account is cancelled. (Believe me, I went
through Pacific Bell, who won't deal with you unless you have Pacific
Bell DSL, I called SBC, but they won't shut down my DSL untill they hear
from Pacific Net, so I have to deal with these Pacific Net
dimwits...this is a continuing nightmare, and its already March, I'm
ready to change my phone number. Pacific Net DSL was the worst decision
I've ever made in my life other than signing up for the Air Force years
ago...DON'T MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE...
(P.S., if anyone knows how to get SBC to shut down my service, I'd
really appreciate it)
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Review by sanddollar
UPDATED: 8.7 years ago
member for 9.6 years, 12 visits, last login: 3.7 years ago
Corona,Riverside,CA
$49 per month (12 month contract)
SBC
"Better than Pac Bell"
"Customer service no longer returns calls"
"Based on experience we had, good last year, but not this year."
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Update in 2001 .. service diminished, outages increased, customer service seems to no longer return calls, mail problems, etc. They may now be on the fade. They were good a year ago, but not so now. Guess that is why info has become stale.
Very helpful, good smooth transition to PacificNet as ISP, from PacBell and
performance that beat Pac Bell Internet hands down. It was nice to be able to reach someone, and not have a 40 minute hold time. It was nice to have a DSL line that worked, and PacificNet as an ISP instead of Pac Bell was a step up. However, late 2000 started having mail problems (they said there were spammers and their IP was being blocked by a lot of servers and they were working on it) and periods of no connectivity started to increase, and worst of all, you could no longer get a person, massages that were left remained unanswered, and no return calls.
Problems continued into 2001, and customer service declined more, and needed to dump them as ISP to get results. Sorry that they went downhill, they were good for quite awhile. Hard to deal with people who won't return calls.
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Review by slavaluk
UPDATED: 8.7 years ago
member for 9.8 years, 2416 visits, last login: 2 days ago
Los Angeles,Los Angeles,CA
$49 per month (12 month contract)
about 25 days
SBC
"Connection was down once in 12 month period, Static IP"
"Bad tech support - they can only point fingers to Telco"
"BAD CHOICE"
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UPDATE: I dumped them today. Also, they no longer provision for Pacbell DSL. They started reselling Telocity DSL, which is horrible in CA, by the way. So, if you have Pacificnet's IP and routing, they will do everything to switch you over to Telocity. They sent out an email recently offering to lower monthly rate from $49.95 to $39.95. It later turned out that the way they were doing it was by switching you completely to Telocity (new IP, new routing, new everything). There was not a word about it in the original email with the offer...
They've never been able to fix my connection speed once it dropped from 1250 kbps to about 400 kbps. The only thing they told me was that since I was getting above guaranteeed 384 kbps, they (and TELCO) wouldn't do anything about it. And so far, they didn't... I'll dump them as soon as my cable connection is up and running.
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Review by redelman
Posted: 8.8 years ago
member for 8.9 years, 24 visits, last login: 6.3 years ago
Van Nuys,Los Angeles,CA
$49 per month (12 month contract)
SBC
CLEC party: Peoples Telephone Co. (OR)
"There aren't any good points any more"
"Lack of communication with customer - Blocks what they feel are spam sites"
"Can't wait for my new DSL provider."
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I have been a PacificNet customer almost since they started. They were always reliable - had good tech support - and provided good value for the money.
When I decided to go DSL in 1999 - I stayed with them - and every thing was fine.
Then came December 2000 - the month from ISP-Hell.
For most of the month, I would have 2-3 day stretches where service was down. (Most of it was PacBell problems.) The big problem was that I could get a straight asnwer from them what was going on. Around the 28th of December that problem cleared up.
Now - on to the reason I'm dumping them...
I use an Iname account as my email address, that forward my mail to any selected email address. In early December - Pacificet decided that ALL mail comming from an Iname server was spam, and the started rejecting all my incomming mail. For weeks they denied that they had done anything to my account - say that nothing was beinb blocked. It was only after I sent them 6 examples of mail sent to me and bounced back as spam to the sender did they admit that they were at fault.
How are they going to resolve it - they're not. Because, as they say, 'Since we get about 40 addresses from Iname that are know spammers - we're shutting down all mail from that domain."
The bottom line is that they are resposible for all my mail being bounced - but will do nothing about it.
STAY AWAY!!!!!!
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Review by GooFy422
Posted: 9 years ago
member for 9.1 years, 9 visits, last login: 7 years ago
San Francisco,San Francisco,CA
$59 per month (12 month contract)
about 25 days
SBC
CLEC party: SBC
"Fast and always on!"
"Goes down sometimes, but otherwise fast!"
"I know that they are having problems, but Great when they up and running!"
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I have the Enhanced DSL from Pacbell.
5 ip's, Fast 1.2mbps download almost all the time.
Fast browsing and downloads.
So far great with little problems!
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Review by (hidden by request)
Posted: 9.3 years ago
(review was emailed from domain mediaone.net)
Valencia,Los Angeles,CA
$49 per month (12 month contract)
"Were a good dial-up ISP"
"They like to bill you after you cancel, news server was terrible, cranky accountants"
"Might be good, but pay attention to your credit card bills!"
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As of today this has officially become a horror story. Here's my
"Pacificnet Diary"
Sometime in 1997:
I singed up with them for dial-up service. They had lousy newsgroups, but
it was fairly reliable and offered shell account access. I was happy.
December of 1998:
I move to Valencia, CA. PacificNet's local dialup for the area was
atrocious, so I had to use my earthlink account. I decided to keep them as
a backup since they also had a shell account so I could get my mail
remotely. A couple months later, they up and removed their shell account
access while I was travelling. I ended up cancelling the service. They gave
me a cancellation number. Unlike me, I actually wrote this number down and managed to keep it.
Sometime in 1999:
I get an e-mail from their billing department, saying they can't charge my
card (lost and replaced) for the last 6 months of access. I respond with my
cancellation number and they apologize. No big deal I thought.
March 2, 2000:
After a series of unreturned phone calls from Pac Bell, I decide to try PacificNet
for DSL service. I figure at minimum they should be able to at least
communicate with me as to what is going wrong. I get the contract and sign
it. I keep getting promised a due date, but not hearing back from them.
March 24, 2000:
I get the glorious news that they finally got a Due Date from pacbell, and
that it would be installed on March 31 in the evening. I asked if this
means we're good to go, they say yes, the line is qualified.
A few hours later, I get another email, saying that PacBell screwed up and
that they were unable to provide DSL to me at this time. Great way to get
my hopes up and shoot them down.
July 27, 2000:
I thought this chapter was way behind me. I guess not. I got a bill on my
credit card for $10 (their monthly charge ontop of the $39.00 that pacbell
would be billing me if I had DSL service). I call them and spoke with a
woman in Billing. I explain to her that I was charged for DSL service that
I don't have. She gets snide with me and says "well, sir, it looks like YOU
spoke with a Michael Boyer on March 4". I said "Correct, but I didn't
qualify for DSL". Well sir, it looks to me like you have DSL. I said
"Ma'am, I didn't qualify, I have an embedded digital loop carier that
prevents me from getting DSL". "We'll you'll have to speak with Michael
Boyer. Do you want me to transfer you?".. "Oh wait, he's in a meeting.
I'll remove this charge and discuss it with him.".
This wouldn't bother me so much except it's the SECOND time they've charged
me for services that they aren't providing, and the person in billing could
have been more cordial.
I know people here have had far worse experiences, but I'm still irked nonetheless.
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Review by ethant
Posted: 9.4 years ago
member for 9.4 years, 27 visits, last login: 5.4 years ago
Sherman Oaks,Los Angeles,CA
$49 per month (12 month contract)
"Price, static IPs, small ISP"
"Small ISP, not enough DSL knowledge, news server unreliable"
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I started with PacBell but got tired of using PPPoE so I called Pacificnet up. The sales guys had the info I needed and since I already had DSL it would only take a couple of days to switch over. The switch was supposed to happen on a Tuesday but didn't happen until that Friday, no big deal because I was still using PPPoE with PacBell until they moved my line.
I ordered 2 ips and everything was working well for a few weeks except for their news server being down 3 times during business hours over the past 3 weeks. I do network support and find a lot of help in usenet so it hurts when my news access is down.
But the real problem started on a Tuesday 2 weeks ago. I was at work and SSHed to my home server when I was disconnected. When I got home that night my system was up but I couldn't ping anything. I had only been using one of my IPs so for the hell of it I tried my other IP and the connection was fine. The next day I called Pacifnet to ask them to get my other IP going again. A week ago Monday I was again logged into my home computer from work when I was disconnected. When I got back to my desk I had a message from Pacificnet letting me know that both my IPs were up. YEAH RIGHT, whatever they did to their router killed both my IPs!
Now here it is a week and a day later and they still don't know what the problem is. I really doubt it's the PacBell connection since it went down when they were playing with their router. I'm thinking about going back to PacBell and their Enhanced plan but I don't need 5 ips for $80/month.
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