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Review by Rhino32 See Profile

  • Location: Diamond Springs, El Dorado, CA, USA
  • Cost: $58 per month
  • Install: about 1 days
5 star all the way around!!!!
Nothing, but very rarely a drop of speed that a phone call will fix.
Excelent service
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

I've been with the service for about 2 years. Over all, every facet of the company delivers 5 star service and quality. On-site or over the phone, personnel are extremely polite & well informed if questions are asked. I highly recommend this I.S.P. to anyone I talk to.

RLJ

member for 11.2 years, 1 visits, last login: 10.6 years ago
lodged 10.6 years ago







Review by vacax See Profile

  • Location: Davis, Yolo, CA, USA
  • Cost: $40 per month (12 month contract)
  • Install: about 4 days
Better than 56k
Slow access, terrible service plans, incompetent tech support
Only get it if you have no other choice.
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

The reason I have Cal.net Internet Services is because they have a monopoly in my apartment complex. It is the only viable broadband service. I have what they call MDL (multi-tenant data link) which uses HomePNA technology. It's similar to DSL in that it uses the phone lines and you can still use voice access.

When you first sign up from Cal.net you will notice is it considerably slower than DSL. All DSL services I've had have been 3-4 times faster. The worst part about Cal.net MDL is that they charge for bandwidth. Use more than your alotted bandwidth and they will charge you $5 per gigabyte. The only way they can get away with this is they provide this service to apartment complexes where DSL is unavailable. Through a contract with the apartment complex they have a broadband monopoly, and accordingly you have no other choice but to pay their outrageous fees.

Aside from being slow and having poor plans, Cal.net has terrible tech support. If you call them you always have to leave a message (no talking to real people) except on a very rare occasion. This means they can ignore your calls. When they installed my service on a Monday they were half an hour late. That's not the problem though.

The first problem is that they managed to lose the dial tone so we had no phone service. I called them later in the day when they said it would be fixed first thing Tuesday morning. Tuesday I call them again to remind them and I also called billing to complain about how it hadn't been fixed (I think they ignored me altogether as nothing happened that day or the next). They ignored me Tuesday and I called tech support again Wednesday. They ignored me Wednesday and on Thursday they finally called to say they would come over in a four hour window. They came over and fixed the phone, or so they thought. Only one of the outlets was fixed. Friday we call again, and amazingly they came out and fixed it. The tech support warned me that they would charge me $75/hour this day "if they determined it wasn't their fault" the phone line didn't work. That was insulting and ridiculous, as they obviously had failed on TWO attempts to do this properly and were threatening to charge me to fix the phone lines they messed up. It took the entire week to get my phone lines up and running again.

The second problem is that I had my own modem to use for the service, which is allowed. When the technicians came to install the service they tried my modem and discovered "it was broken" so they gave me a new one at the cost of $45. They were kind enough to knock $10 off the price since I had my own cables and power supply. Yet today I tested the equipment I had and found it to be working perfectly. They charged me for a modem I did NOT need.

I have been annoyed by Cal.net all week, but I'm afraid it's not over. On Monday I have to attempt to return the extra modem they foisted on me for a refund.

member for 20.5 years, 7 visits, last login: 20 years ago
lodged 20.5 years ago

jahiel
join:2003-08-01
Davis, CA

jahiel

Member

What apartment complex?

What apartment complex is that? I need to know so I never move there. (I live in Davis.)

-Graham
vacax
join:2003-09-12
Davis, CA

vacax

Member

Re: What apartment complex?

I'm at Saratoga West, its the same for Glacier Point. Also they have it at Allegre so I'm guessing its the same story there. It's probably at some other places too but their website is a little outdated.

Review by rahlquist See Profile

  • Location: Rancho Cordova, Sacramento, CA, USA
  • Cost: $59 per month (6 month contract)
  • Install: about 9 days
  • Telco party SBC
  • CLEC party: SBC
If you provide proof of the problems they will listen well.
Tech support is still developing.
They have made changes as I mention below. Hopefully the good service will continue.
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

************Update 5-6-02***************
Connection has become much more reliable in the past few months. I have become fairly well satisfied with the service.

************Update 3-11-02**************
Over the past two months I have been in contact with Cal.net on a regular basis. The CEO has been handling my complaints. They have provided credits for my poor service months and after they replaced their core router and added a couple of feeds everything has improved substantially. I would say they have made a marked attempt at imporvment and have achieved that goal.

************End of Update****************

I contacted Cal.net (affiliated with websoftdev.com) after a long unsucessful search for DSL providers in Rancho Cordova on Oct 31st. On Nov 1st I had an answer that yes they could provide service (I had already talked to pacbell and they said the line qualified).

I placed my order (faxed their paperwork back) on Nov 3rd. They then told me that the equipment would be shipped and that pacbell had given them a date of Nov 13th. After I got my equipment I was supposed to call them to get my 5 static IP's and the other IP info (DNS etc).

Equipment arrived on Nov 8th while I was away on business. When I returned the 10th I hooked up the hardware to find all green status lights (I didnt think the line would be active yet).

Contacted Cal.net on Nov 12th and they provided all the setup info over the phone, which I then relayed to my wife who setup her machine(away on business again).

Everything is working however the speed seems to be capped at 384 (we are under 1000ft from a RT box). I will run further testing when I return from my business trip. Anything is better than the lousy 26,400 modem connection we had before!

UPDATE: Further speed testing shows transfer rats up to 600kb+ so it looks like my concern over a 384k cap is unwarranted.

UPDATE 2: The IP's they gave me were incorrect for the subnet mask they wanted me to use, a phone call and all was straightened out. Waiting to hear if my line is capped at 768K. ISP states there is no cap.

UPDATE 3: The DSL line failed a little less than a week ago (after being functional for 9 days). It seems to be a routing problem, they are blaming PacBell and doing little else. I call them daily and I am getting nowhere fast. The seem hardly apologetic, I notice their credit card payment system obviously works though.

UPDATE 4: the problem was supposedly something PacBell changed caused the problem with the routing. Problem solved just short of 7 days.

UPDATE 5: DNS flaky tonight, connection not working well. Called the office and the woman answering the phone said they were working on a problem and my service would be restored in either 10 mins or an hour. It did get better, after i got a ne DNS server from a friend.

UPDATE 6: Getting tired of updating this. Line is down tonight since around 10:30 (Friday 12/7). Since their support keeps normal office hours I will be stuck till monday most likely.

UPDATE 7: Spoke to tech support this morning, he stated I can call Pac Bell when I have a problem. I shouldnt have to, I dont pay Pac Bell to be my ISP. When I called later in the afternoon to see if anything had been done about my problem the tech stated it hadnt. That 'the dsl people dont work on the weekend'.

So if we were to chart this it would look like this.
12-Nov-01 Incorrect IP's provided, a few work ; Line is Down
13-Nov-01 Incorrect IP's provided, a few work ; Line is Down
14-Nov-01 Incorrect IP's provided, a few work ; Line is Down
15-Nov-01 Incorrect IP's provided, a few work ; Line is Down
16-Nov-01 New IP it works! ; Line is Working
17-Nov-01 New IP it works! ; Line is Working
18-Nov-01 New IP it works! ; Line is Working
19-Nov-01 New IP it works! ; Line is Working
20-Nov-01 New IP it works! ; Line is Working
21-Nov-01 DSL Dies ; Line is Down
22-Nov-01 DSL Dies ; Line is Down
23-Nov-01 DSL Dies ; Line is Down
24-Nov-01 DSL Dies ; Line is Down
25-Nov-01 DSL Dies ; Line is Down
26-Nov-01 DSL Dies ; Line is Down
27-Nov-01 DSL Almost Fixed ; Line is Working
28-Nov-01 Circular Routing Problem found ; Line is Working
29-Nov-01 DSL Fixed! ; Line is Working
30-Nov-01 DSL Fixed! ; Line is Working
1-Dec-01 DSL Fixed! ; Line is Working
2-Dec-01 DSL Fixed! ; Line is Working
3-Dec-01 DSL Fixed! ; Line is Working
4-Dec-01 DSL Fixed! ; Line is Working
5-Dec-01 DSL Fixed! ; Line is Working
6-Dec-01 DNS Fails! ; Line is Down
7-Dec-01 DSL Fails!! ; Line is Down
8-Dec-01 DSL Fails!! ; Line is Down
9-Dec-01 DSL Fails!! ; Line is Down

50% down time so far..

Update 8: They promised me a rebate for all my down time. It didnt go through this month as they said it would. They are looking into it. They recently setup reverse dns for me and that went failry smooth. Other than a few minor down times things seem ok now, although my speed is only averaging 500-600k.

Update 9: They have provided me with a $13.28 refund for the down time..... Other users here believe as I do that my line is capped at a low speed.

FINAL UPDATE: After much fighting with these people I am through. I will wait for my contract to expire and will move to someone else. The last round of exchanges centered on both this »Well here goes, another attempt at speeeed.

To which someone who comes to this site and identifies himself as the DSL manager said (yes thats a cut and paste I didnt alter it at all);

4d1h : From scoot6914 block, delete-all
we donot have a capped on are dsl lines ASI talk to every one there dsl custmers call that same number

Since I am not a PAC Bell DSL customer ASI should not be my point of contact. My ISP should be, however, they dont seem to know that.

and also a speed test that shows how bad the primetime weekend bottle neck can be with these guys as shown below.

2002-01-13 04:34:12 Speed test (ec) 45/123 kbps
2002-01-13 04:27:55 Speed test (la) 108/88 kbps
2002-01-13 04:23:08 Speed test (wc) 209/82 kbps
2002-01-13 03:17:52 Line quality 5% loss latency 194ms View..
2002-01-13 03:08:58 Speed test (ec) 122/121 kbps
2002-01-13 03:04:39 Speed test (wc) 147/83 kbps
2002-01-13 03:02:04 Speed test (la) 37/130 kbps
2002-01-09 01:44:11 Speed test (ec) 533/130 kbps
2002-01-09 01:42:54 Speed test (wc) 573/137 kbps
2002-01-09 01:41:17 Speed test (la) 485/82 kbps

Also there was another outage Wed. for several hours as indicated on »/monit ··· 5.65.131

My advice. FIND ANOTHER PROVIDER. Contact me if you have questions.

member for 22.4 years, 1965 visits, last login: 2 days ago
updated 21.3 years ago


SMCinAZ
Premium Member
join:2000-11-29
Glendale, AZ

SMCinAZ

Premium Member

Get Uncapped!

There ya go.

rahlquist
Redeye
join:2001-10-30
Villa Rica, GA

rahlquist

Member

How?

How would I go about it? Do I approach the ISP themselves?

Thanks!

AR

join:2000-09-21
Toronto, ON

AR

Re: How?

Hi!

Yes, since you are only 1000ft from the CO, ask Mother.com to do it for you. Actually, you could just call up ASI and they'll do it too.

I have Omsoft and I called up ASI and they uncapped me.

rahlquist
Redeye
join:2001-10-30
Villa Rica, GA

rahlquist

Member

Re: How?

Which ASI number should I use? They really dont have a problem with some joe-schmo calling?

Thanks!

AR

join:2000-09-21
Toronto, ON

AR

Re: How?

said by rahlquist:
Which ASI number should I use?
Honestly, I don't know.

ASI changed their number after I got this done. The best thing for you to do would be to ask in the Pac Bell forum.

And it helps not to tell ASI that you are a Mother.com customer. They'll think you are a PB customer (your DSL ph# should be in their records). If someone asks, don't lie but don't volunteer this info either. Try till you get a friendly tech .Try again and again till you get it done.

Just me
@mother.com

Just me to AR

Anon

to AR
You really should call your ISP. Being a DSL tech myself I know ASI does not regularly deal with the end user unless they are a direct customer of PBI.
imxconfused
join:2001-12-08
Fair Oaks, CA

imxconfused

Member

.:1-800-ASI-HELP:.

thats the only # youll need to contact pacbell/asi....
itll route you wherever you want to go....im a dsl tech..thats how i know...
dw
join:2001-06-21
Eagar, AZ

dw

Member

Re: .:1-800-ASI-HELP----- number has changed!!

That number has changed... call 1-866-ASI-HELP!

Although they keep telling me that they only have to give the 384 min.... frustrating! Especially since I have been running over 1200 for a year now and they just dropped my cap for no reason (second time this has happened)... Just make out a trouble ticket (or two or three after each does not meet your needs)and call a few dozen times till they get it right.

Same center for pacbell, sbc (sbcglobal).... all regions are handled through this center.... ASI support.

Have fun!
dw

dw

Member

Re: .:1-800-ASI-HELP----- number has changed!!

Well, after MANY calls they have raised my cap back again... My last test showed 1122/101, so the squeaky wheel gets the grease!
romdroid
join:2002-06-03
Rancho Cordova, CA

romdroid

Member

5 weeks and waiting

I signed up with cal.net 5+ weeks ago(4/26) and have yet to receive my equipment, so cannot say anything about dsl performance. Am ready to start shopping for a modem on my own, rahlquist could you forward the make and model?

romdroid