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Review by spectrum1190 
member for 7.7 years, 11 visits, last login: 3.6 years ago
updated 3.8 years ago
 Glen Mills,Delaware,PA
 $71 per month about 14 days Verizon "reliability, price, service" "fios speed not available" "great choice for reliability and value"
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$65.95 per month
Tech Plus OneLink ADSL 1.5/384 Pro-Install (C)
*Tax Reimbursement (g): Special Tax - State
*Regulatory Compliance Fee
*not included in monthly fee
Had Speakeasy DSL for two years before moving from an apartment to a house. House was in new development and service through speakeasy (covad) was not available when moving in. Had service through Comcast CABLE for four years, but would have problems with connectivity 1-2x per month. As of 2005 found that Speakeasy was available and have had service with them since.
Had considered DSL though Verizon (2001 and 2005), however, they said that we were too far away from CO for service (DISTANCE FROM C.O. 14,724 ft).
Now considering FIOS for greater speed, but will regret leaving speakeasy. They were efficient, friendly, and knowledgeable.
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Review by abenamer
member for 11.4 years, 54 visits, last login: 4.3 years ago
updated 4.3 years ago
- Brooklyn,Kings,NY
- $90 per month
- (12 month contract)
- Verizon
- "Dry line DSL installation, courteous service"
- "Quick and efficient installation"
- "Pretty fast connection speed"
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I'm more than 11000 ft from the CO but I managed to get 2.5 mbps down and .6 mbps up. They're replacing my old Acedsl connect.
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Review by mrrabbit
member for 5.3 years, 20 visits, last login: 300 days ago
updated 4.5 years ago
- San Jose,Santa Clara,CA
- $65 per month
- AT&T
- "Been customer since 1999. Survived Flashcom transition, and recently had rate reduced for old circuit under new sales tier."
- "Read members ticket submissions guys - you keep turning off SAFE MODE. =8-)"
- "Not much has changed since Best Buy aquisition - though they seem to have more data link control nowadays."
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Been a customer since 1999, so this is more of an update review.
About 8-12 months back I noticed that I was still paying 92.00 / month for a 1500/384 service locked in SAFE MODE at 790/329.
I requested that I at least get the same rate for someone paying today's 1500/384 service at 65.00 / month.
They obliged. That's a good indicator of a business that sees a reasonable request when it is made.
My line is in SAFE MODE because my neighboorhood wiring though in ground alongside buried electrical is considered to the modern way of doing things - it is apparrently aerial rated cable that has been direct buried without any built in moisture protection.
Plus Comcast sliced the 400 pair running up the street a few years back...and the splice in the sidewalk across the corner had to be redone. Anytime that splice is exposed and the splice moisture seal removed - all noise in the neighborhood suddenly disappears.
I think you get the picture....
So recently, AT&T created a new digital equipment distribution cabinet behind the block from which they are re-feeding the two neighborhood green huts as well as providing 10-12 Mbps service up to the last mile. I guess when they were cleaning up blocks and transferring pairs and the like they were also resetting circuits / loops at the CO in tandem.
Circuit went down - and apparrently was brought back up unlocked. Well...that was good for a day or so - but as before - BAM! - hard down.
SAFE MODE brought it back up - but Speakeasy went ahead and sent AT&T out to attempt to fix a loop ground issue. This has been tried before - and the result has always been the same. Despite what the test results say - hard down within 1-2 days unless SAFE MODE is turned back on.
I guess Speakeasy REALLY WANTING THE BEST FOR ME tried unlocking one more time - same result.
It's okay guys...really...call your wife and buy her roses or something - don't waste your time trying to give me something I know for a fact won't work.
Okay? =8-)
On a scale of 5 on this day, November 22, 2008, I give Speakeasy a rating of 4.5.
=8-)
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Review by vincebusam
member for 4.5 years, 153 visits, last login: 2.4 years ago
lodged 4.5 years ago
- Los Angeles,Los Angeles,CA
- $85 per month
- (12 month contract)
- Verizon (ex GTE)
- "Good service, little downtime"
- "Could be better coordinated with my telco"
- "Great choice for static ip"
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I've been on Speakeasy almost 4 years. I don't recall the exact details of the competitors I looked at, but for my package (Static IP, no ports blocked, 1.5/768 they were all within $10/mo). Speakeasy came highly recommended.
I've had very little downtime, and most of that has been due to telco problems. This is the only downside I seen with Speakeasy. Instead of helping me handle the situation, they just gave me the number to call at Verizon.
My move is one of the best examples of customer service I've ever had. I called ahead of time to give them my new number/address. On move day, I just unplugged all my equipment, drove to my new place, and plugged it in. It didn't work immediately, but I called support, and literally 30 seconds later, on a Sunday, it was up and running.
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Review by apeddada
member for 4.5 years, 4 visits, last login: 3.1 years ago
lodged 4.5 years ago
- Los Gatos,Santa Clara,CA
- $59 per month
- "Reliable, good tech support"
- "none"
- "would recommend"
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Service since 2004. No significant issues.
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Review by jsilve1
member for 11.5 years, 3 visits, last login: 4.6 years ago
updated 4.6 years ago
- Baltimore,Baltimore City,MD
- $65 per month
- "Reliability, service, technical expertise of staff"
- "More expensive than Verizon. Occasionally loooong waits for support staff to answer the phone."
- "Have had Speakeasy since 2001 and have NEVER lost our connection. Really."
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Have had Speakeasy since 2001. Their technicians and support staff are friendly and knowledgable. And the phones get answered by REAL PEOPLE -- no drilling down through a million phone menus. That's nice. *And* they actaully play good music on their hold line.
Admittedly, one does have to wait, on occasion, for a support person to come on line.
But the thing is, I've had to call them only one time in almost 8 years. And that was Verizon's fault. Two things happened, unrelated, but coincidentally in the same week: (1) we changed our Verizon phone services and Verizon deleted the DSL line share account (stupid!) and (2) The phone line from our house to the street had failed (it was ancient) and we needed it to be replaced. For both of those issues, the bottleneck on repair and recovery was Verizon.
Extremely satisfied customer.
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 Review by borborpa
member for 11.2 years, 2307 visits, last login: 1.7 years ago
updated 5 years ago
- New Cumberland,Cumberland,PA
- $133 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 42 days
- Verizon
- "Quick install, great pre-support, awesome speeds, runnign servers"
- "Cost, if you can't justify the quality"
- "They say you pay for what you get, and this is definately worth the money"
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After reviewing ISP's for a few months, I settled on Speakeasy due to all the great reviews on here. I've seen some horror stories, but definately more good ones about them. I was previously with Earthlink, and though I didn't have too many problems with them, I needed more than one IP address, and also wanted a bridged connection instead of PPPoE. I was moving down the street at the end of June, so I figured I'd just do my switchover then.
After numerous e-mails to Kat and a few phone calls with Speakeasy to verify a few things, I finally placed the line order on Monday, June 24. It took me probably 10 minutes to do the whole thing! They had me set up on the TAC so I could follow my install progress as well. That night I noticed they had an addres mistake, and was able to correct it online before they even had to contact me. On Tuesday they received confirmation the line would be live on Friday (4 days...quite impressed).
Friday rolled around and the line would train...but no connection. I called Speakeasy and the support guy said that Covad hadn't sent the confirmation over yet, and that they send it every 6 hours and it should be up soon. Well I spent Saturday moving, so the DSL wasn't a priority. Sunday I still wasn't up, so I again called Speakeasy (since there's no local dial-up for me) and was informed that Covad doesn't send the confirmation to them for 3 days, so as to test the line. The tech said he could try and bring it up...and with one click I was up and running.
The speeds are great, I'm getting 1300/202 with no tweaking yet...so I'm sure maybe I can push that up a little. Minus the high cost (which is very quickly being justified) everything is great!
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Update 5/9/03
Everything is still awesome with the SE line. I upraded to 1.5/768 last month for an extra $10, and I've very happy with the new, faster upload speeds. So far, since July of last year my line has only gone down once, which was when the POP was down for 2 hours. Otherwise it's been rock solid!!
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Update 8/27/03
Everything is still awesome with SE. I received an E-Mail yesterday letting me know they were reducing my DSL bill by $10/month, which is a welcome surprise. Not that it wasn't worth it at $99, but $89 is still nice... 
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Update 10/23/03
Still going great. There have been some problems with latency and packet loss in some of the other SE POP's, but everything's going great here! Still extremely happy with the level of service I am getting
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Update 1/15/04
SE has eliminated the PHL POP, and converted it into a NAP. This has added a couple ms on my pings, but nothing bad at all. I'm still getting great speeds (1307/647). I'll be upgrading to 3000/768 here soon when I move at the end of Febuary, so we'll see how all that goes.
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Update 7/30/04
I have moved, and the service in my new place is great. I had the 6.0/768 package installed, but after a few weeks I started to lose sync horribly. SE ran an MLT, and we found out I was 15,500' away....not 7,500' as originally thought!! That makes quite a difference. Fortunately my noise margins are clean enough that I can maintain 3.0/768 quite well.
I'm still 100% satisfied with their service. I understand DSL enough to not bitch that I'm paying for 6.0/768 while only getting 3.0. I only wish some other people did...
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Update 11/9/04
Well, I finally switched to OneLink, and I must say I love it!! Due to my distance I'm in safe mode, but my speed tests for 4000/768 are 3236/635. Not too shabby!!
The install took over a month, but OneLink normally takes longer, plus there was a busy pair with Verizon that took weeks to sort out. The biggest problem I had was when SE told me I had to be home for the Verizon install, because Verizon East is my telco. I argued this with them twice, but they insisted, so I took a vacation day and of course Verizon never showed up, because they didn't even need to come to my house. SE was very apologetic for the mis-communication to their people, and credited the $99 install fee to help compensate for that. They even tried to get Covad here on a Saturday, but they don't work on Saturdays here in PA.
Covad showed up yesterday, and the tech was great. Since I had a NID splitter installed, and CAT-5 running straight up to the third floor, he swapped it onto the dry pair, and we were up and running. It took about 20 minutes on the phone with SE to get all the IP information switched over, but they did a great job. I think all in all I was down for an hour.
I'm still very satisfied with SE, and very happy to pay the premium price for a premium service.
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Update April, 2008
Well, it was a wonderful time with Speakeasy, but when Verizon finally came out with a reasonable FIOS Business plan, I had to switch. 15/2 with 5 static IPs for $119.99 a month - I just couldn't pass that up!
SE was great while I was with them. I had rock-solid speeds and uptime, and the tech support was amazingly helpful whenever I called. In the end, it came down to the money and speed...and with ADSL+ not an option at 15,500'.
Thanks for the great ride SE!
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Review by ashethar
member for 10.2 years, 6 visits, last login: 5.2 years ago
lodged 5.2 years ago
- Emeryville,Alameda,CA
- $60 per month
- AT&T
- "incredibly, fantastically brilliant customer service"
- "expensive"
- "if you are far from a CO or having trouble, they WILL get you connected- no regrets"
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I had earthlink for a short while- it never worked, and the wait time for customer service was never less than 40 minutes. Speakeasy has been the direct opposite- no wait time, fantastic tech support fast set up, great service. I depend on DSL for work and speakeasy has NEVER let me down- and it's been six years.
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Review by dsavlin
member for 12.3 years, 238 visits, last login: 5.3 years ago
updated 5.3 years ago
- Chicago,Cook,IL
- $119 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 15 days
- AT&T
- "Good tech support; top notch networking, never slow; lots of services; ToS allows servers"
- "Pricey"
- "It's expensive but it runs nice!"
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Update 1/30/08: back in December 2006 I upgraded to 3.0/768. Rarely I will need to reboot the modem if service stops working (say ~6 to 8 months). Aside from that, service has been excellent, with no complaints at all.
Update 7/4/06: Thought I'd pop in and say that I'm still having flawless service. My bill is up around $100 give or take, based on taxes, for 1.5/768 service that performs well within reason. Some time ago, I forget how long, I'd gotten an email from SE saying that my 384Mb/s upload speed was being doubled to 768 for free. Since I run my own server, I was happy to hear that
I'd called a few months ago to request a 3rd static IP. The person I spoke to was quick to get it done and gave it to me for half price for being a subscriber for some time now. Cool. I used the 3rd IP to rework my personal Zyxel router to dedicate one IP just to my server, using NAT but no PAT (which was killing teamspeak performance).
The only complaint I have, which I have not bothered SE with, is that my Zyxel TA loses sync when I start my dryer, which is unfortunately on the same circuit. Sync is regained on the first try, so it's less than 40 seconds to get back online. I chalk this up to bad electrical in my place, hence the big UPS.
Update 2/7/05: I had noticed my download speeds were a bit off, and submitted an online ticket. The tech was courteous and clear in his recommendation of testing the speeds (via the local POP speed test) without any of my own network gear hooked up or other phoneline devices. I did this and had the same results; about 900kb/s downlink instead of the usual 1200 to 1300 down. The next business day after I'd posted these results to the ticket, I had another message from the tech ("Joe M") apologizing that a "test mode" limiter had been put on my line from a ticket months ago and hadn't been taken off -- Joe said he was "embarassed" to have discovered that. He took the limiter off, and I'm back to the download speed I originally had. Kudos to Speakeasy for being honest about what had happened -- and on top of that, he arranged to issue me a full month's service credit as a way of apologizing. It's service and support like this that makes me a very happy Speakeasy customer!
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I'd previously had the local telco's DSL service, but was frustrated that they didn't support any changes to straight-up 768/128 and a huge step up in cost for 1.5/384. I called SBC's sales dept telling them I'm willing to pay for a pair of static IP's and all they could say was, then buy business class DSL. The burn on my wallet was too high there. I ordered a disconnect on my DSL service. Fearing, of course, that my phone service would suddenly go kaputz. That fear turned out groundless.
I called Speakeasy and ordered 1.5/384 service in Sept '02. Service went live in October, about 15 days in all. My modem (ZyXEL Prestige series, bridged mode) sync'd up two days before the initial install date and just like that, I was live. Two static IP's, 50mb webspace, shell acct, and fast, speedy service.
I live in the city and apparently not far from the CO. The service has gone out for brief periods during very stormy weather, but otherwise is fine. I have a big UPS on my gear and there have been times where my DSL and server are up during a total power failure. Outages are pretty rare.
Speakeasy upgraded my service, for free, without asking for it, to 1.5/768 thus doubling my outbound throughput. Since I run a game fansite's forums at home I welcomed that
It's expensive. But in my experience I am both lucky and getting what I'm paying for.
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 Review by KoolMoe
member for 12.2 years, 4929 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 5.3 years ago
- Annapolis,Anne Arundel,MD
- $100 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 14 days
- Verizon
- "Most installs well done, service reliable and speedy"
- "Billing was a PITA for a short time"
- "Solid service, great TOS, competent techs"
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We had three RTHM lines for work..well, two for work and one for my house. Was very pleased with the RTHM lines...
But with notice of bankruptcy, had to find alternatives. With three office locations, picked SpeakEasy's MultiOffice offering, mostly cause we pay to outsource our website/email, and with 384k SDSL Multioffice, webhosting was free.
Install for Location 1 was no problem: Signed up, Verizon made a loop qualification within two weeks (!!), install date given, tech showed up, line was installed, speeds are good.
Hassle: we wanted DHCP/NAT, but they couldn't get it working on the Netopia 7200. No idea why. IMO, they should have sent us a new router... So we just setup our own firewall anyway.
Location 2 was no problem either. This was at home, so pretty basic. Installer came, ran wire, service up and running at advertised speeds and no problems since.
Hassle: I needed a line run about 15 feet from MPOE. Installer said no problem. He was onsite for about 45 minutes. At end of install, was asked to sign his 'inside wiring invoice'. I assumed it was just so he could account for his time. However, few days later, an $88 wiring charge appears on my bill! When inquired, turns out installers are only allotted 15 minutes per house, and more is charged to the customer!
Neither SpeakEasy nor the Covad installer mentioned this extra charge to me. I had to bitch and withhold all payment for a month, but finally got the charge credited back. No way I was gonna pay this blindside bill, especially paying $155 a month! They resolved it to my satisfaction.
Location 3, a little more of a problem, though I think most blame lies with Ameritech. They continually missed their loop qualification dates, so Covad had to keep pushing back the install date. Was JUST installed, 6 weeks after contract was signed. Thank GOODNESS the RTHM line was still working!
SpeakEasy not to blame here, maybe Covad, likely Ameritech.
Still trying to get DHCP/NAT working there, but hopefully will be resolved. If it doesn't work, will need to do a firewall there too. If they can't get it to work, a little suspect of their Netopia capabilities (though they've been very friendly  .
Overall hassles:
Billing's 'voicemail box is full' happened too often. Get more message space or check and clear them more often. But overall, not a big thing. Just tried later. And some credit for problems related to WTC tragedy.
They MUST make installers tell you, or otherwise notify you, that more than 15 minutes of installer time will be billed TO YOU. I was stunned at the charge, and was pissed, though finally satisfied.
'MySpeak' (aka 'TAC') needs a little improvement. Our IP ranges, Gateway, subnet, etc have changed for 2 of 3 locations, but MySpeak page does not reflect those changes. Have been a couple hassles using wrong IP's, needing to call and get new ones. That's the only defficiency of that site- overall, their site is very helpful and well put-together!
**update** TAC is better, but the billing/payment section still needs improvement...
Overall opinion:
Very happy with SpeakEasy since they did the right thing and fixed the inside-wiring billing hassle. Tech support wait not unreasonably long, and helpfuly, friendly folks on the other end. A little pricey, but hey, I could get Residential service if cost was the biggest factor. Keep my lines running at good speeds and answer my questions in a timely manner, and I'll be a faithful customer for years!
So, when is VoIP coming?
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Update 11/12/2004
I continue to be very happy with SE. I've gone through a couple upgrades over the years (that last review was 2002, I think) and my costs have gone down or stayed the same.
I now have the 6.0/768 package which gives me about 4.5/640 fairly reliably (sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less - I've yet to break 5.1 down).
My house has apparently moved over the years. I'm now at 9700ft as opposed to the 6000ft when I first got DSL here. But for that distance, I'm pleased, though faster would be cooler (esp. upload - 1mb someday!).
The value, though, I think is the best part. As more and more ISPs crackdown on usage, SE remains solid in their committment to allow the ability to run servers and no caps. With the work I do (large multimedia files), this is crucial.
Very pleased with stability, very pleased (mostly) with tech support when I need it. Very pleased with the overall deal. Would love faster, would love cheaper, but it's worth what I pay so far.
Looking into OneLink and VOIP. Not yet - waiting for the whole thing to stabilize a bit - but someday, no doubt.
I continue to highly recommend SE to those who need the flexibility and service they provide. If you need a basic connection and don't mind it up and down, go with your ILEC or cable. You want a quality connection and company (and ain't too far out), go SpeakEasy!
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Update 07/01/2006
I switched to OneLink. If you do this, definitely get it installed and running before you cancel the current shared ADSL service. Once I was satisfied OneLink was solid, I cancelled. I spend about $5 more per month and got slightly better down speeds (pretty consistent 5.0/640).
I run SunRocket VOIP over that OneLink line as a secondary business phone and fax line.
I still have 1 line with Verizon for main house and 911 reliability.
My connection still drops when it rains a lot which kinda sucks, but I can live with it.
Still pleased with the service. I do hope they work out something to resell FIOS as it's coming very soon. Not sure how loyal I can be....
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Update 03/26/07
Speakeasy has been purchased by Best Buy. I'm pretty sure my contract is up, or is shortly. Will give them some time to work out a current speed issue and see where it goes.
Ever since the Feb. ice storm taking down my POTS line and VZ taking down my OneLink line when fixing the POTS line, then the FIOS installers rigging the DSL signal from the pole-to-house using the POTS line's 2nd pair (which, with Fios, doesn't/shouldn't have a dialtone runnning through the 1st pair any more)...about two weeks after all that, my line is only stable in Safe Mode.
So if that's resolved, I'll may just wait and see where the Best Buy purchase leads. If not resolved, I'll likely bag it for FIOS (or alternate [LB]DSL) sooner than later. Not gonna pay this premium for 3.0/768.
I am also reducing my rating with the change from 5 to 4 for 'Connection reliability' and 'Value for money'.
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Update 01/08/08
Goodbye Speakeasy.
With the same speed (slightly faster) available via FIOS for more than half the cost (doing triple play, so essentially $40/month), I just can't justify the premium anymore for unreliable service. The line did stabilize for the most part, but would still go out at the slightest hint of thunder. Then more recently, would have significant routing issues when trying to watch online shows (nbc.com, etc).
Was sure to ask the VZ installers to LEAVE my POTS copper up, just in case, and I do miss the ease of running servers at home via my SE static IPs... But as long as the VZ line is stable and up, no regrets so far, even if I am feeding the behemoth.
SE should have worked harder at reselling VZ's FIOS service.
-KoolMoe
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