nawhead
join:2003-08-29
Duluth, GA
1 edit |  Atlantic Nexus: running review.
Ordered online late night Thursday. Got an email confirmation early Friday morning for a due date of Tuesday. UPS guy delivered the self-install kit on Monday morning while I was enjoying Columbus Day. Hooked it up, DSL light was green, and I was online (wow, these guys really are fast). 1500/256 package getting ~1275/220 on test sites.
I'll be posting further impressions on the DSL connection and related services (DNS, SMTP, POP, Webmail) with special attention to gaming needs for the next few weeks.
Could all this right elementary business be summed up in a few words a month from now? Probably. Am I bored at work? Most definitely yes. Will something like this in a forum initiate more discussion than a ISP review? Hopefully, yes. |
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nawhead
join:2003-08-29
Duluth, GA
4 edits | Gaming
Been gaming some in Counter-Strike:Source for the past week. Connections are solid with 50 ms average pings to servers that come up on top of refresh list (in-game and Gamespy). Haven't found a server where I have sub 30ms pings, however. Can anybody give me any good server reco's? |
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nawhead
join:2003-08-29
Duluth, GA
4 edits | reply to nawhead
Mail
SMTP server performs acceptably. Processes and sends off emails within minutes. Large attachments no problem.
Webmail is functional. One thing I noticed is that I can't change the FROM header; it just puts the naked email address in the FROM header on all outgoing. It's Microsoft Outlook Web Access, so if you use Microsoft Outlook, it should be familiar. [Previous comments about me not being able to login using the Opera browser and malformed web layout in IE6 is retracted. End-user problem.]
I'd like to point out that you need to have Flash installed to get the navigation buttons on the ATNEX web pages. This is just bad page design in my opinion.
The email storage space of 15MB per box should be adequate for most home users. I'm gonna opt to bypass the ATNEX email altogether though and continue to use a commercial forwarding address routed to a 2 gig mail dump. But I'll still use the ATNEX SMTP server for outgoing at home. |
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nawhead
join:2003-08-29
Duluth, GA
2 edits | reply to nawhead
Billing
First month's bill for 1.5/256 residential with self-install kit is a grand sum of $42.98 charged to my credit card. 
Best deal in town! |
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nawhead
join:2003-08-29
Duluth, GA
4 edits | reply to nawhead
DNS, Gateway
The current AtNex DNS servers of 208.65.88.1 and 208.65.88.2 both ping at 15 ms or better (might have ~1-2 ms overhead due to wireless with WPA-AES). The AtNex DNS resolution has been rock solid so far, and I haven't had a need to resort to alternatives.
The ping to the gateway 208.65.88.25 is also at 15 ms. Anybody seeing anything better? |
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nawhead
join:2003-08-29
Duluth, GA
| reply to nawhead
Re: Atlantic Nexus: running review.
2 weeks and nothing bad to report yet. Gaming, web surfing, email, streaming media, downloading, uploading, dozens and dozens of speed tests, and it's been green across the board. It... just... works. It's sad, but I do have to admit that I was hoping for a little drama, a little weakness I could work over for awhile, but my sinister hopes have been dashed by competence.
Well played Atlantic Nexus. Well played. |
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nawhead
join:2003-08-29
Duluth, GA
| reply to nawhead
First month was very good except for one 3 hour downtime due to Bellsouth maintenance late at night. But I've realized I need the 3.5 meg connection to make full use of the streaming media available on the Net today (and be able to share my connection with the family). I've been content for years on dial-up but one month of 1.5 megabits/sec has me itching for more speed. I'll update in the future on how the upgrade goes. |
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nawhead
join:2003-08-29
Duluth, GA
1 edit | [Update on speed increase]
The 1.5 meg connection had been rock solid for 2 months, so I decided to increase my speeds. Put in an upgrade order for the 3.5/384 package on a weeknight, and the line was already changed over when I got home the next night.
After resetting my router, I tested my speeds using Firefox on DSL Reports' java page and also Speakeasy's flash page (link). On average, I am now getting 2980 down, 325 up kilobits/sec. These number are within range of the 85% usable throughput for ADSL connections, so it's satisfactory.
Nothing else as far as latency and reliability has been affected. But I've gotten what I wanted with the speed increase. I no longer have to fight for bandwidth with another member of my family who insists on watching Internet TV every time I'm online.
One more thing, there wasn't any prorated charge for the few days that I was on a higher tier speed. My bill went up to $42.99 on the next month's charge, no hassle.
Thumbs up still on Atlantic Nexus!  |
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Its Me
| reply to nawhead
Well... you got me to bite. Total dsl newb but after reading some of the scariest BS dsl stories and scarier Earthlink I'm looking forward to dealing with them.
Order process was very smooth and gentleman was extremely helpful. Starting at 1.5 |
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nawhead
join:2003-08-29
Duluth, GA
| I'm glad to hear my review(s) was helpful to you. DSL is good stuff. I would die (or feel very depressed at least) if I had to go back to dial-up.
Oh, and you don't deal with Atlantic Nexus, you get served by them, like a real human being. Hope your stay with them is as pleasant as mine has been so far. Cheers! |
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Its Me
@atlanticnexus.net
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Well... it went fantastic. They solved every hiccup that I encountered. Ran the speed test. Seem to hit 1.2 pretty consistently. Still not used to this speed vs dial up!!!!
However on a download I'm only hitting 83.3 kb/sec. I think if I've read right I will waut two weeks or so and see if download speeds improve. I do realise some of this is greatly impacted by servers, etc.... but I sort of expected closer to 100 kb/sec.
Anyway I will not hijack your thread any longer and I will eventually post my review. They are truely some of the nicest and most helpful people I have ever dealt with.
Thanks for helping me jump and Happy Holidays. |
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