 Review by en102 
UPDATED: 1.7 years ago
member for 7.9 years, 1705 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Valencia,Los Angeles,CA
 $26 per month (12 month contract)
 about 2 days
 SBC
CLEC party: SBC
 "Possibly the best pricing / service you can get. Based out of the Valley"
 "at&t won't install VRAD/RT in my area."
 "Best value for the money - stable, recommended by Jeff Levy"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
Prior to DSL Extreme, I've used Cogeco (Canada), TimeWarner (S.F. Valley) and PacBell (Valencia). - DslExtreme is the only one that you can call and get through to.
Cogeco had good service (once running)
TimeWarner was decent (had bad splitter in the Condo - ugh!)
SBC/PacBell - Well, it came with all its bloatware - yuck
DSL Extreme - switched my SBC line, increased my speed, and lowered the cost.
I've only had a couple of minor issues with DSL Extreme - once was upgrading from 1500/384 to 3000/512. Spent a lot of time with a tech who tried to troubleshoot my connection rather than check to see if my order had been turned up - grr.
One other time was an issue of PPPoE not keeping its connection... network tear down, all the way to static IP, then rebuilt as DHCP and we were good to go - it took a bit of time, but I wouldn't want to think of how long it would be with either SBC, TimeWarner or Cogeco support (when I had them) - I would have still been on hold before it was fixed
Cable is the alernative out here, and I personally dislike Comcast (would cost me $100 for analog cable + lowest level of Internet, not including setup fees, rental fees, or franchise fees). Friends of mine had them and speeds were up and down.
I use my connection on VPN, running sever X-Motif sessions, and the connection has been solid and stable.
The only way it would be better for me on DSL Extreme (requires SBC to play nice!)
1. 6000/608 package (I work from home / VPN)
2. Dry DSL
Update 12/26/2005 - contract renewal for 1 year at $29.95 + fees, down from previous year of $36.95 for the same 1500-3000/384-512 kbps, which is a great price.
I have had some line sync issues over the past couple of months - typically during the day (Speedstreem 5100 will drop out and fire back up). I've reset all my physical connections. For the most part, it just a slight annoyance, as my SSH connections will stay up. I typically lose X-11 though. Similar to prior wish list:
1. 6000/608 package
2, Dry DSL
3. Few $$ less for the static on the 3000/512 package - I'd have it if I could get the 6000/608 package.
4/6/2006
Early 2006, SBC has degraded my service... During the first couple of months, my modem has lost sync many times. I put in a ticket with DSL-X, in which I immediately was shipped a replacement modem, and had an SBC/AT&T tech check my line. My house checked out clean, as did the loop. Sync drops continue (not consistantly though). Using an old Zyxel 642R, I could see the CRC errors. When the rate of errors were too high, I'd lose sync. DSL-X saw the errors, and shipped a 2nd modem, and still errors = another SBC tech trip. I was able to show the SBC tech the CRC errors, and he agreed that it must be on the 'far' end, and scheduled a line cut over (f1?).
Instead of a cutover, the tech's capped my line at 1984/512 down from 3008/512.
Recently, DSL-X has been aquired, and now, it appears that DSL-X has followed Verisign's path in creating a 'smart' DNS. As much as this may help DSL-X call centers tech support (I'm extremely skeptical on that), many other applications other than browsers will not function properly with a DNS that returns a positive answer for all domains.
Eg.
F:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>nslookup asdfaslfj
Server: dns1.dslextreme.com
Address: 66.51.205.100
Non-authoritative answer:
Name: asdfaslfj
Address: 64.158.56.40
Vs.
F:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>nslookup asdfaslfj
Server: netblock-66-51-205-200.dslextreme.com
Address: 66.51.205.200
*** netblock-66-51-205-200.dslextreme.com can't find asdfaslfj: Non-existent domain
I am glad to see that DSL-X was able to provide a properly functioning DNS server as a work around. I think that this can cause many more calls to DSL-X call center than it removes, as many apps may break (i.e. legit email filtering programs). The last time I had a redirect for a typo'd domain, it was due to adware running on my machine, forcing all I.E. lookups to go through someones site.
If DSL-Extreme wishes to use a redirect Ad page, this should be something that can be opted out, not just at the browser level, but within a user's profile.
Update 2006/04/19
DSL-Extreme has removed the redirect DNS which caused some grief, as it affected more than just browsers - not all applications use IE. Its unfortunate that this wasn't done as a through profiles/DHCP settings for customers and planned, rather than a 'cookie' disabling method w/o notification. I think my main problem was the method / lack of notification. I am pleased that DSL Ex did the right thing and backed out the changes.
2006/08/28 - 2006/09/30
SCE 16KV line burned up all the copper SBC lines in my neighborhood (underground short). I was down for ~1 week, then had 2 weeks after of weak service (outages during the eveving - assumed to be caused as the street lights went on) as I was on house wiring between the house and curb until SBC/AT&T replaced it.
Now I have 6 pair of 22 AWG. Tested going back to 3008/512 afterwards
December 2006
After a few months of service, line stability proved to be an issue again, and requested DSL-Ex to resync at 1982/512 (was stable before). Tests have shown that I'm ~12k feet and not ~9k feet. Line has been _extremely_ stable on 1982/512 (+300 hours uptime), and I have signed up for another year of DSL-Ex. Testing 2496/512 to see how well it holds.
As long as the price is decent, service remains the same (excellent customer service, expecially compared to the comepetiion), there's no reason to look anywhere else.
April 2007
Lost IP address - unable to obtain a new address for a few hours. Tech support stated there's a problem with my line (still had sync, even after I rebooted, and profile rebuilt, just no IP address), and dispatched at&t. 2 hours before at&t's on-site, I regained IP , and cancelled dispatch. The downside was that my modem was now set to resync at 3008/512 kbps vs. 2496/512. Tech support would not resync without an at&t dispatch. 2 drops next morning, and at&t was on site, and had issues with their 'f2', but stated I was too far for 3008/512, as I was at 12,300'. at&t reset my profile to 1984/512 kbps.
Next afternoon, DSL-X reset my profile back to 2496/512.
Minor issues resolved... still much more reliable/consistant and fairly quick to fix compared to cable (also much cheaper).
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of DSL EXTREME |
|
DSL EXTREME
(36)
(39)
(58)
·
