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Review by dbcalo 
Posted: 1 year ago
member for 7.5 years, 176 visits, last login: 9 days ago
 Chico,Butte,CA
 $25 per month
 AT&T
 "As long as you don't have a problem they're great."
 "If you have a problem other than the standard ones, they suck."
 "If you don't live in the bay area then don't bother with them."
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(ratings well below consensus)
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For two weeks I've had a bad connection in which I have massive packet loss and can barely load a website. They claim my line is great but I say other wise. I've given them two weeks to solve the problem and with no success I'm going to switch providers.
I've never been able to get more than the 1.5Mbit/.384Mbit connection even though people feet away can. Comcast can offer me 6Mbit/1Mbit and I'm jumping on it.
Followup comments:  Kavan
join:2003-01-19
Santa Rosa, CA
| Packet loss issues Hello,
It sounds like things did not go as we would like in this situation. If you could pm me your Sonic.net account name I would like to look into this to figure out where things went wrong. If you have not already migrated to Comcast, and are willing to give us another shot at fixing this that would be great too. | |
| 
bobrk
You kids get offa my lawn
Premium
join:2000-02-02
San Jose, CA
 ·SONIC.NET
| Not in Bay Area? I don't get why this is relevant. Sonic is in Santa Rosa and I'm in San Jose, 100 miles away, and they've been able to give me stellar service, including solving several packet loss issues over the years. Get on the phone with them, and work through the trouble shooting. If they need to roll AT&T, they will do it.
--
Iraq Military Deaths | bobrk | |
| | | |
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 Review by guhuna
UPDATED: 1 year ago
member for 8.6 years, 4427 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Discovery Bay,Contra Costa,CA
$72 per month (month by month)
 about 6 days
SBC
"Its a DSL line."
"DMCA letters."
"There are other providers, check them out first!"
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I had SBC's 6000/608 service for about a year and a half and well the price went up to $150 a month and thats a bit to much for my pocket. So I started to search around for other providers and the first one I checked was Sonic.net and when I saw that they had a special for the 6000/608 package I had to do it. So I ordered the service and they said about a week, I talked to a (inside tech for SBC) and he said that they provisioned the line 1 day ahead of what they told me. So sure enough 1 day ahead schedule I came home from work and my old SBC IP's were dead so I went ahead and plugged in their IP's and it worked. I was surprised and the speed was the same as with SBC. The only thing is pings are a little higher then SBC's but I dont care because I dont usually play online games anymore.
So the bottom line is they are a great service provider, plus they are very local I can call up and actually talk to a non-outsourced tech which is a big plus in my book.
::1.21.06::
Well its been over a year now with Sonic.net and things have changed since then. First off the routing has gone to shit. I'm closer to the east cost then I am to the west which DOES NOT make any sense. Uptime has been great other then the fact of ASI screwing shit up. Overall speed is good, It was great in the beginning but a couple weeks ago that changed. Phone service went out with DSL because of some ""cut cable"" well ASI/SBC got things back up and running somewhat. Now my upload is cut in half and Sonic.net says ASI will say its within spec. Hmm strange because before the outage I was getting 608 on the upload side and now my profile reads 384. They say the RT is giving me 608 which is bullshit because 3! Modems say other wise.
::1.16.07::
Well its almost been a year now and things have gotten a lot better with the service. I have since switched over to a different telephone line and the sync rates went up plus the sync loss and other things stopped. It also helped that when this happened I put a DSL splitter outside of the house to eliminate any internal wiring issues that could arise.
Uploads are now 768 which is cool, then again the price is kinda expensive but its well worth it in my opinion. Tech support is still A+++, they answered any of my questions within a timely manner.
I hope that within 6-8 months they'd come out with a faster tiered service. But of course they have there hands tied behind their backs because of ASI.
:::1.7.08:::
review has been taken down. will update at a later time.
:::11/08:::
As of the 4th, I'm searching for a new internet provider. Sonic.net WAS nice but a recent post has made me think otherwise of this company. They are nice in the fact that when there is a problem you are speaking with someone in Santa Rosa which is the only plus in my book. Other than that they are like any other provider out there. Especially with all this usage based crap that's going to hit the fan in a couple of months I want out of att's crappy lines altogether.
"Obama on the other hand has addressed the issue head on, and has a stated goal of open access. This includes honoring the principals of network neutrality, and hopefully, vibrant competition again instead of simply giving the Internet as a whole to the monopoly Cable and Telco."
Sorry Dane, But ain't gonna happen in the 4 years he'll be in office. Like I said don't hold your breath.
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Review by ndmain
Posted: 1.1 years ago
member for 7.9 years, 8 visits, last login: 1.1 years ago
Castro Valley,Alameda,CA
$70 per month (month by month)
about 8 days
AT&T
"Reliable service, online status reports, excellent quality and value."
"As with any DSL provider, only as fast and good as the phone company's lines can provide."
"All my friends recommend Sonic.net, and I recommend it to everyone I meet."
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I originally ordered the fastest (3mbs) service, but due to my distance from the phone company's CO, the best they could provide was the next step down (1.5mbs). Price is $59/mo, and I pay another $10/mo for them to host my domain. Outages have been very rare: I recall only three in the past four years, the longest was only a few hours, the shortest a few minutes. Equipment was delivered within a few days of placing the order. Line was provisioned exactly on schedule and without incident. Instructions were easy to follow.
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Review by .
Posted: 1.2 years ago
(review was emailed in)
San Jose,Santa Clara,CA
$69 per month (12 month contract)
about 7 days
AT&T
"I can talk to a clueful person without fighting phone trees. Price is very good. Have my static IPs."
"I don't think tech support is 24hrs/day, but hasn't so far been an issue."
"I don't know of a comparable service that provides what I need for the price."
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We have the fastest (Elite; 3-6Mbps down; 768k up) package; the variant with 8 static IP addresses.
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Review by kmcmurtrie
Posted: 1.2 years ago
member for 3.6 years, 94 visits, last login: 5 days ago
Sunnyvale,Santa Clara,CA
$69 per month (month by month)
AT&T
"Service and support"
"AT&T DSL"
"Good local ISP"
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This is a top quality local ISP offering a wide variety of features for both everyday and power users. Online support has been lightning fast and knowledgeable. It's a refreshing change to arrive at Sonic.
The biggest blemish is that I must use AT&T DSL for the last mile. Having a phone line supporting only 3008/512 Kbps in the heart of Silicon Valley is embarrassing. Connectivity is momentarily down within AT&T's systems frequently.
My second gripe is that the static IP address plans still have DHCP services. This is a nightmare if you're mixing public home servers (Web, files, peer-to-peer) and private home appliances (radios, backup drives, WiFi, laptops, etc.) on one network. The solutions are complex and expensive.
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Review by mallow005
UPDATED: 1.2 years ago
member for 2.6 years, 28 visits, last login: 18 days ago
San Diego,San Diego,CA
$49 per month
about 4 days
AT&T
"Usually reliable, fast tech support"
"Dropped connections at the worst times, outages that were never explained, overpriced"
"A good company, but the disconnects and price are driving me to another ISP"
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I've been a Sonic.net customer for a little over a year now and I am moving on. After I move, I will be signing up with AT&T DSL, which somehow can offer me up to 6mbps as opposed to Sonic.net's 1.5mbs for $30 + $11 phone line, and I am only moving 450ft away. I have spoken to the previous tenants and they were happy with AT&T DSL, so I do not anticipate any problems.
When I first started with Sonic.net, it soon became apparent that something was wrong. I would get disconnected randomly and I wouldn't be able to recover a connection for days at a time. After contacting tech support and trying to get stuff resolved, they couldn't figure out what was wrong. An AT&T tech came out to check the line and everything was fine. Sonic.net checked the line on their and and everything was fine, yet my connection was still getting dropped. I do not have any landline phones. Mysteriously, it started working about 5 days later.
Another time, bandwidth was erratic. I would get bursts of speed up to 600kbps, then packet loss for a few seconds, repeat. I contacted tech support and they didn't see anything wrong. Later, I received an email saying they fixed something that should resolve my problem.
And now, after calling to notify them that I will be canceling my account at the end of the month, I am getting dropped connections AGAIN. Sometimes, when I reset my modem to get it to reconnect, my max speed is only 600kbps. I have to reset my modem until I can get a connection at 1.5mbps. It seems a bit coincidental that these problems are popping up once again after I decide to cancel.
I was also charged for a full month when my account will only be active for another 15 days. This may or may not be standard practice, but it certainly isn't fair.
It wasn't all bad. For the majority of the time my connection was stable and tech support was quick to respond. However, in 10 years of using different ISPs (dialup, DSL, cable), Sonic.net was certainly the most frustrating and most expensive for what I got by far. Sonic.net may get high marks for tech support, but they'll need it considering the problems I ran into as a customer.
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 Review by veloslave
UPDATED: 1.3 years ago
member for 6.4 years, 1770 visits, last login: 2 days ago
Pleasant Hill,Contra Costa,CA
$54 per month (12 month contract)
about 3 days
"Best customer service of ANY industry, attentive, caring, professional English speaking staff that like their jobs & customers!"
"None about Sonic but it is too bad for them they have to deal with ATT"
"SONIC rocks... Been with them for years and plan to keep it that way!"
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Update 8-16-08
Sad news for me... I recently had to move and as mush as I wanted and tried to find a new place in Sonics coverage area... I was too far out. I have moved back to the coaxial scum I swore I would never use again... sheesh, what a predicament. Fortunately for me being in IT I get to help people pick ISP's a lot so I will still get to be a Sonic customer vicariously through my clients. I will move again in a few years and I sure as heck hope it is back to what I consider the best darn ISP in the business.
Update 2-17-08
Another 6 Months down the road and Sonic is still #1 in my book. The price is right and the service is even better. Sonic has over 700 reviews here at DSLR and only 30 something are negative... and if you read those... they are the ones by DSLR members a few days old and that turn out to be unable to read... terms of agreements to be specific. With the other 600 something reviews you will find a recurring theme... SERVICE & PERFORMANCE. As a consumer and someone in sales... I know price is long forgotten months later but the service is never forgotten. SOME THINGS ARE WORTH PAYING FOR and Sonic is the prime example of this. So what if they are a couple of dollars more than ATT or Comcrap. I have dealt with both of those companies and just the headaches they cause in an average few moths of service make them not worth their a few pennies worth of savings.
It is simple...
If you are a consumer that believes the following...
The customer should be treated with respect
You get what you pay for
Quality service is worth paying for
Then you will (or already are) be VERY happy with Sonic
Oh... BTW... I guess I should mention that my speeds KICK BUTT!
Update 8-09-2007
Another year goes by and Sonic is not only the best ISP I have dealt with out of around 9 over very many years BUT they are one of the best companies I have EVER dealt with in any industry/business. Changes are the new Hotspot hosting which is exciting and other than that... just an always on, low ping, fast IP connection with the friendliest people in the business supporting it. Life should be as simple, predictable and dependable as dealing with my ISP.
Update of 8-28-06
Another great year with Sonic. They have up'd my upstream and lowered my price and the dependability is even better than ever (if that is possible.) I run a server and small network and have ZERO problems from my connection and anytime I have a question about stuff... they are there as usual to help in anyway. Sonics level one support is about the same as ATT's level three and you don't have to wait all day to talk with them... it is immediate!! THEY ACTUALLY HAVE A HUMAN ANSWER THE PHONE!!! REALLY!!
Bottom line: Once you have gone to Sonic you will never want or need another ISP... I wish there were more companies like them in the market place. (yes this is a rave review, no, I have no affiliation with the company other than paying them each month, yes it probably helps that I used Comcrap and Pachell before them)
1st EDIT:
A year later has shown that these guys are the real thing... nothing but perfect service and a great product. Too bad they have to work with SBC... I feel sorry for Sonic having to deal with the scum of the telco game. I had DSL with SBC before and it was a nighmare.... it you want it done right with the best service in the game, go Sonic. [/1st edit]
I am very new... just hooked it up today (quite a few days early!) and it was as smooth as silk. First speed checks for my "enhanced service" (6000/608) are 4790/503 and I am slightly beyond the distance for being off an RT but I got it/they said they could order it anyway. After I ordered I got my stuff the next day which is as fast as I could ever want. The docs that came with it seemed simple enough but I don't think I really paid much attention considering I have been there and done this before with Pac Bell. Install was so smooth I was pretty amazed... I am in a new home from the last place I dealt with Pac Bell so I ran a new line of cat 5e and a Point of entry filter (THANKS STEVE!!!) plugged it in and it was good to go. No software, no settings, no config, just screaming along.
I am pretty darn experienced in broadband over the years and this is by far the best company I have dealt with. I have made a couple of calls to the support dept just for settings info and sales help (after hours) and it is like you are talking to someone while having a cup of coffee with them. I feel like calling to just say hello!
I pretty much hate Pac Bell and their bloated, inflexible, rude "we own you" approach but, as long as this does not ever get into line issues, Sonic takes away that issue nicely. I am all about speed and will go to who ever has the best speed and would even go back to SBC (cringe) if it were the only alternative; so I am hoping that Sonic always has the fastest product and I'll be happy forever AS LONG AS Sonic does not get a big head and let this type of success or flattery change them.
Go with these guys, they're winners for sure.
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Review by CAWatch
UPDATED: 1.3 years ago
member for 1.3 years, 7 visits, last login: 1.2 years ago
San Jose,Santa Clara,CA
$30 per month
AT&T
"Rec'd. equipment quickly. Good response from tech support."
"one tech support rep seemed like he was working on his homework, crossword puzzle or something other than what hewas being paid"
"Too early to tell yet. their"
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Today is my first day on Sonic.net.=A0 I just went in and read some of=A0th=
the introductory and "welcoming" emails sent to me from Sonic.=A0 Everything =
seemed fine until I got down to one area of an email regarding my order num=
ber and details of the service.=0A=A0=0AAll of it semed to be fairly generi=
c and the same as everyone else, until I got to issues relating to cancelli=
ng accounts, not paying one's bill, and other billing issues.=A0 Now, not b=
eing one who has ever made a late payment in 40 years, I usually don't conc=
ern myself with what happens for non-payment.=A0 However, what really surpi=
sed and extremely irritated me=A0was that I found it really ironic that in=
=A0one paragraph=A0Sonic describes itself as "friendly staff", "welcoming",=
"happy to have you as a customer", yada, yada, yada.=A0 Then, they proceed=
to an adversarial position of telling their customers that they will (at t=
he drop of a hat) send them to collections, wreak havoc upon their credit r=
eport, and=A0that one's account will not be fully cancelled until the balan=
ce equals $0.00.=0A=A0=0AJust an observation from a brand new customer (as =
in day one).=A0 Has anyone else experienced such a negative tone, notwithst=
anding the flip-flop from "nice and friendly" and "we love you Mr./Ms custo=
mer" to=A0Judge Draco?=A0 =0A=A0=0ANow, I'm probably too new to assess this=
whole thing at this point, but I can assure you, their request for me to r=
efer a family member to get their service has just received a healthy dose =
of skepticism.=A0 Well, except for maybe a previous mother-in-law (LOLOL).=
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Review by jaredd
UPDATED: 1.3 years ago
member for 2.5 years, 46 visits, last login: 1.2 years ago
San Francisco,San Francisco,CA
$34 per month (month by month)
about 4 days
AT&T
"call and talk to tech support in under 2 minutes"
"Some tech support people are smarter than others"
"Fast: fast service and fast support"
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When Sprint Broadband reported that they were shutting down, my worst fear had to be confronted: switching my isp. I had stayed with Sprint Broadband even though the speed was all over the board (400 - 5000!) and it went down for a brief period about once a month. Why? Well, I viewed it as the enemy that you know is better than the one you don't know.
I almost, no I did, sign up with AT&T because it was easy and I am not very smart. Then I remembered once talking to Sonic.net when I was thinking about leaving Sprint. I called Sonic and a person answered the phone. Let me repeat that, A PERSON ANSWERED THE PHONE! They had me right there as I fall instantly in love with any company that doesn't have an automated phone system. They checked my distance from a station, said i was far away, but pretty close to a repeater. I signed up. It was easy. Elite service (3-6mbps down, 512-768 up) The modem came in one or two days, I waited a couple more days to let them (at&t actually) complete the service request and BAM!, I had service. my tests have been consistently 4.5 down and 600up.
Oh, and after I signed up with Sonic, I called AT&T to cancel my order. I went through all the number prompts, got a live person who needed to transfer me and was promptly disconnected. I called back, went through the prompts again, was transferred three times and was finally able to cancel my order. When asked why I had decided against using AT&T, I replied that this phone call represented everything that I can't stand about AT&T.
The Service has been rock solid, I had a new computer and new service and so i had some questions ( See above about my lack of intelligence) and they worked right through each problem that I came up with. My iphone has some issues with my mail server ( not Sonic) and Sonic tech support has helped me with this even though it is clearly not their problem. I did get one guy who wasn't very helpful or knowledgeable, but only once.
I am happy.
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 Review by Almighty1
UPDATED: 1.3 years ago
member for 6.5 years, 847 visits, last login: 199 days ago
San Francisco,San Francisco,CA
$59 per month (12 month contract)
about 10 days
AT&T
"Unsurpassed Service and Support"
"Being guilty before proven innocent and bad policies"
"The Best ISP in California"
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I am posting this review 2.5 years late.
I want to note that I do own and run a ISP in Hawaii so I am more picky than others.
If you read my previous reviews, I had PacBell Internet ADSL when it was initially available in March 2001. So during April 13, 2001 - April 13, 2002 - I had PacBell ADSL via Pacific Bell Internet Services which is connected to the San Francisco Financial District CO that is 4364 feet away.
In March 2002, I got a letter from SBC Internet Services saying that my one year contract will be up soon and that to thank me as a valued customer, I will be paying the month to month rate of $49.95, basically a $10 increase or a 25% rate hike.
This was when sonic.net looked attractive as many people on the ba.internet newsgroup highly recommend sonic.net including John Navas not to mention that sonic.net's CEO, Dane Jasper actually talks to customers personally and the company has up to 4 static IP addresses without needed PPPoE, 3 different news servers (one internal, two outsourced), support by both phone, email as well as their internal support newsgroups where users and their techs assist. Their phone support would always get someone who is actually knowledgeable answering within 2 minutes and will do all they can to resolve the issue to your satisfaction and they have servers that work not to mention that they are connected to 2 of the big three Internet backbones, WorldCom's UUnet and Savvis (previously known as Cable & Wireless USA), which along with SprintLink is responsible for a majority of the US Internet traffic. They also allow you to run servers. All this for $57.95 and I get to have Universal Lifeline again on my phone line so the $20 monthly phone bill with Flat Rate calling, WirePro repair, and 3 way calling just became $10 again. So it was a no brainer that I was switching to sonic.net which is only $8 more than PacBell Internet for the same DSL connection and I no longer had to pay $20 for binary newsgroups which would have made my bill at $69.95 total with Pacific Bell and my voice service would also be cheaper by $10.
So on April 13, 2002 - I called SBC Internet Services to cancel with a disconnect date of April 18, 2002. On April 18, 2002 - at 6am in the morning, I did lose sync and then at 10am, I no longer had a dialtone but I can call my phone number and it would ring but just never makes it to my phone. Calling 611 doesn't show any problems either that they were going to dispatch a repair tech the next day and then all of the sudden, in the afternoon on the same day, it mysteriously works again.
So on April 21, 2002 - I placed an order with sonic.net for their Basic 1.5Mbps/128kbps ADSL via PacBell ADSL which had a due date of
April 28, 2002. Things didn't go smoothly as I didn't get sync until May 8, 2002 after calling sonic.net and talking to Jasper C, not to be confused with the sonic.net CEO Dane Jasper. This was PacBell/ASI's fault as they were taking their time but when I had sync, everything was fast and sonic.net's support is excellent. Also, forgot to mention that this is the first time I got static IP's for my DSL connection.
In January 2003 - I did a upgrade to the Basic+ 1.5Mbps/256kbps ADSL for $69.95 a month which did give me more upstream speed and the 256kbps was later 384kbps when SBC upgraded the upstream speed on all DSL connections.
This package also included 8 static IP's.
Both of the above didn't require any contract term.
In January 2004 - sonic.net and their competitor, DSLExtreme announced 6Mbps/608kbps ADSL while SBC Internet Services only offered a 3Mbps/416kbps while the unofficial speeds SBCIS customers were getting were really 6Mbps/608kbps but this is still dynamic IP service. sonic.net offered the 6Mbps/608kbps with a 1 year term for $54.95 per month which included 8 static IP's. So it was a no brainer that I can get 4x the bandwidth for $15.00 less per month for the next year. So I placed my order on January 24, 2004 which didn't get processed until February 1, 2004 as SBC's order system did not allow the orders until then. SBC's due date of February 10, 2004 was missed and the upgrade didn't get completed until February 11, 2004. Everything since then has been very smooth and their tech support when I had to call them was outstanding. sonic.net is one of the few ISPs where if you have a problem, the CEO will personally resolve it to your satisfaction. So I would highly recommend sonic.net to others.
So bottom line, sonic.net is great for everything related to internet connectivity.
Updated on April 25, 2006:
Everything is still great except first hop latency has gone up from the 6-8ms to 12ms I guess due to sonic.net having more customers sharing the same bandwidth but speeds are still as great as it was originally. It's just the latency that's strange as having 1.5Mbps/128kbps is 20ms first hop, 1.5Mbps/256kbps is 10ms first hop and 6Mbps/608kbps is supposed to be under 8ms first hop since the uplink speed affects the first hop latency.
Update on July 30, 2008
Just a brief update. Before July 29, 2008, I believe SONIC.NET was the best ISP there is and have recommended SONIC.NET to others countless times over the years without taking credit but right now, even if it was free to all, I would probably have second thoughts about recommending them to others due to the way that when a customer is the victim of some kind of attack, they treat them like criminals not as in words but more in the actions in the whole ordeal instead of helping the customer resolve the problem. My motto as a ISP Owner and a Principle Network Architect for several ISP's has been to help the customer resolve the issue regardless of how much time it takes and even if I don't get paid for the time. See the following thread here for details:
»Poor handling by sonic.net support - DDoS attack
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