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Review by ssavoy 
UPDATED: a few hours ago
member for 1.8 years, 36 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Shavertown,Luzerne,PA
 $44 per month (12 month contract)
 "Reliable"
 "Expensive, Modems are junk, Slow, Worthless 5GB cap"
 "Should be your last resort"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
We had Epix internet services until Frontier bought them out a few years ago. The speeds basically stayed the same while rates went up. Last October our old modem stopped working (it was nearly 8 years old). A Frontier tech came and gave us a new Siemens. First off, it's a junk modem to begin with. You can't bridge it to your existing router, so you're stuck having to deal with another router on your network. Port 80 on it is open by default on the Siemens modem, which is extremely insecure considering anyone scanning on Frontier's IP Range can get in to your network if they know the default username/password for the modem...which isn't hard to guess (I think it's admin/admin or something similar).
I already have a Linksys router set up, and you can't really use the port forwarding option on it since it's connected to the Siemens. However, a trick I found is to
-Log into the Siemens gateway
-Set the DMZ to your router's IP.
-That way your router is facing the internet just like a typical setup.
On the reliability end I have to give them an A+ though. It's never gone out since Frontier took over, even during snow and ice storms. Only when our modem broke it went out, not their fault (or maybe they just wanted us to get the new modem). I use OpenDNS so I can't account for their DNS reliability.
A few years ago when I didn't really know what DNS was, our router reset after a storm and I needed the DNS addresses again. I called their tech support and simply asked what those numbers were. They were completely clueless and I was on the phone for over an hour and a half, transferred to three different departments until someone from Frontier was able to tell me their DNS numbers. Most of the techs over-the-phone are clueless, some denied the fact I needed DNS and instead had me use Command Prompt to attempt to bring the connection up (it was not ipconfig anything).
I realized their AUP states a 5GB monthly cap. We're paying $44.95/month for DSL alone. Comcast is in this area, provides speeds 12x faster for $3 less, and has a 250GB cap. I don't know who Frontier thinks they are but they're pretty much running themselves into the ground.
Their Twitter support is nice to have, but unfortunately unless Frontier- 1) Changes to an all fiber infrastructure, and 2) Lowers rates, there's no future hope for this company. Since they're frequently the only provider in some areas, they think they can get away with their pathetic infrastructure. I don't know how they're going to support the newly divested Verizon FiOS markets.
Attachments:
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 Review by guypd
UPDATED: 8 days ago
member for 1.1 years, 581 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Silver Springs,Wyoming,NY
$34 per month (24 month contract)
 about 7 days
"First year is free"
"We lose our connection every time it rains"
"Switched back to RR"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
|
(update)Switched back to Road Runner after less than six months with Frontiernet. It was a mistake to ever switch to Frontiernet.
Switched from Time Warner's Road Runner to Frontiernet's 10M DSL with a new plan that the first year is free and the second year is only $30/month and a promise that the 10M was available to our house. This turned out to be a mistake
After having the service for almost a month, we had several problems and tech support was a 45 minute wait on the phone. Technicians came out the next day and found a problem between us and the CO. Our speeds, 3568/374, are better than they were yesterday, 503/260, but not as good as they had been, 4417/376. This definitely is not what they promised us, though.
Apparently, when it rains our connection is unstable. This is terrible. I guess I have to hope for a drought, so I can have a good connection. Because of the bad connections in the wet weather, Frontier keeps throttling back our speed, instead of fixing the actual problem. The latency has really tanked, too. We were getting a latency around 35 ms, but now we are over 80 ms.
Every time it rains, we can look forward to speeds around 500/200 and a latency over 100 ms. It is terrible.
»/linequality/nil/2450089
Frontier has released their announcement on their caps, and our speed is down to 95/78 with a latency of 695 ms. Go figure.
After lying to us about the availability of 10M being available in our area and their position on net neutrality, I am not holding our breath about their honesty, that people in their price protection agreement, won't be capped, also.
Attachments:
Followup comments:  | | | | | 
spewak
Kiss It, Kiss It Real Good
Premium
join:2001-08-07
Elk Grove, CA | Re: Oh Yeah?? Easy Hoss, Easy! Don't get all Bi-coastal on me! You dig? 
--
The weekend is here, grab a can of beer! | |
| | | phantom77
join:2004-11-04
Rochester, NY
| I live in West Irondequoit and my speeds are just over a meg. The frontier guys have been here 4 or 5 times this year because right down the road about 3 miles speeds are 6 megs. I hate frontier and am just waiting til the end of july for my contract to be up and it's Roadrunner all the way. | |
| | | |
spewak
Kiss It, Kiss It Real Good
Premium
join:2001-08-07
Elk Grove, CA | Re: Oh Yeah?? That in a nutshell was my situation. I grew weary of slow speeds. 
--
The weekend is here, grab a can of beer! | |
| | | | | phantom77
join:2004-11-04
Rochester, NY
2 edits | Re: Oh Yeah?? Oh yeah true, But I was trying to contradict Mazakman because lives about 5 to 8 miles from me in western Ny and frontier is way slower than RR. Thats why the have the couple hundred dollar penalty for breaking you're contract. They'de be up the creek w/out that fine print. RR has no contracts. They dont need it. When you're selling Corvette's for the same price you're competion can only get and sell Chevette's for you dont need trickery. | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | phantom77
join:2004-11-04
Rochester, NY
| Re: Oh Yeah?? See what I mean. The highest i get is about 1500. I avg. about 1200. The techs did everything they could. It used to be half that, then they bumped it up, but then I would keep getting dropped because the equipment outside is old and cant handle it. I.E. no central office points. They aren't up in West Irondequoit w/ no plans in the near future to upgrade them either. I was told by them. I.m a block west of the House of Guitars, and the techs told me that since I'm right near the river gorge and relatively close to the lake I.m stuck in a corner that isn't of great importance. Tha''ts why you're flyin' there. Webster and Penfield etc... are growing, Irondequoit is full. And 60% senior citizens so it basically comes down do the demographics.. One good thing is though the customer service is awesome. When we first had it installed, a month later we got a second computer, they came out to hook up the wireless network, the guy pulls out a wireless card, I said "man I'm gonna run up to the bank." He says "why"? I say "because those things are like 40$". He goes" the ones in my van aren't". Then a year later they came out and put all new lines from the pole to the house and inside too. Then after that the speed was like 2 meg, but we were getting dropped all the time, so they had to do a repair near Hudson and Norton on the pole to stable us out at these pathetic speeds.
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spewak
Kiss It, Kiss It Real Good
Premium
join:2001-08-07
Elk Grove, CA | 
--
The weekend is here, grab a can of beer! | |
| | | | | 
Mazakman
join:2001-06-24
Webster, NY
1 edit | Re: Oh Yeah?? Wow, thats cool. But no way would I pay $120 a month for that. I can wait a minute longer to download any of the large fles that I get...which aren't too many. $120 a month for internet ? You can have it. | |
| | | |
spewak
Kiss It, Kiss It Real Good
Premium
join:2001-08-07
Elk Grove, CA
 ·SureWest Internet
·FrontierNet Intern..
| Re: Oh Yeah?? said by Mazakman :Wow, thats cool. But no way would I pay $120 a month for that. I can wait a minute longer to download any of the large fles that I get...which aren't too many. $120 a month for internet ? You can have it. You misunderstand. (I only pay $51 a month for the internet portion. Jealous much?  )
First, I HAD the same problem as phantom77. Exactly the same problem. We live on the edge of their territory and they aren't interested in upgrading and installing RT's.
Second, I am paying $120 for the triple play bundle of: 20/20 internet, Digital tv, and digital phone (cali plan).
To be perfectly clear, I would have stayed with Frontier had it not been for them stalling on their service commitments from nearly two years ago to this area.
Good luck to you,
I have alot of speedy downloading to get to!
--
The weekend is here, grab a can of beer! | |
| | | | | | | | | | iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Fredericksburg, TX
 ·Comcast
·Qwest.net
 ·magicjack.com
 ·BeeCreek Communica..
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
| Umm, what point are you trying to make, spewak? You live in an area serviced by FiOS. Awesome. Most of us don't, and it sounds like in some cases Frontier does a decent job with their service where you can't get FiOS. Roadrunner does a better job in some areas, worse in others. It's downright silly to say you have "one up" on someone else because you live where there is FiOS, and thus have it, and they don't.
I'd pay for the 2020 FiOS tier if it was around here. Maybe even more. But the fastest internet in this neck of the woods is 15/2 RR business or 12/1 WS business. Or for residential tiers, 8/768 RR or 12/768 WS. No wait, I'm outside of town so 2/512 would be $100 a month for me.
As I said, I'd get FiOS if I could, but it'll be ~2015 before that happens. | |
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guypd
join:2008-05-08
Silver Springs, NY | Very happy I am very happy with the service that we are getting. We aren't getting the full speed, because of the distance from the office, but overall, it is quite satisfactory.
The deal that Frontier offered us, to switch, can't be beat, either. | |
| |
guypd
join:2008-05-08
Silver Springs, NY | No longer very happy After finding out that whenever we have wet weather, we are going to be struggling to keep our connection, I am no longer pleased with this service. | |
| 
GNM
@frontiernet.net
| Frontiernet in Elk Grove, California I have had Frontier-net in the Elk Grove, California area for approximately 5 years. I pay $29.99 per month plus all of the taxes for a DSL line that was originally rated at 1mb down and 128k up. I generally get around 3 mb download an 350k up. The system has been very stable for about the past 4 years. I did have some problems when I first got the service but it was cleared up by the company quickly. I'm in a rural area and no cable is available where I live. The only other choice AFAIK would be satellite and those are rather pricey.
Although I seldom call them, I've never have any problem reaching the technical support line. Sometimes you have to wait 5 minutes or so but I can't complain about that.
The only strange thing is that they keep wanting to raise the price to $39.99 a month until I call them and agree to take the service for another year. Then they leave the price at $29.99. Go figure. | |
|
Mazakman
join:2001-06-24
Webster, NY | Have I mentioned ? Have I mentioned that I am very happy to be back on Roadrunner ? | |
| |
guypd
join:2008-05-08
Silver Springs, NY | Re: Have I mentioned ? I think we are contemplating going back to Road Runner, also. | |
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Mazakman
join:2001-06-24
Webster, NY | Re: Have I mentioned ? Well times a wasting guypd. Get on with it. | |
| jonnn
join:2005-04-01
Sacramento, CA | elk grove where do you guys live in elk grove? i live near sheldon high school and the internet is really shitty around here (130 kb/s download, night lag 7-11pm) | |
| | HOLLYWOOD727
join:2007-10-06
Wilton, CA
| Re: elk grove map out how far you are from the CO. That may be one problem...
run multiple tests to the Bay Area ISPs and see what you get on numbers...
what kind of Latencies are you experiencing on your tests?
have you done a phone line quality test?
I'm sure you have a capable PC?
Frontier guarantees minimum up/down speeds... if you don't meet the minimums... they have to fix it. I think their minimum for DL is 768kbps - UL 128kbps
| |
| jonnn
join:2005-04-01
Sacramento, CA | im about 5 miles from the CO, im positive the problem is on frontiers end | |
| | 
Smith6612
Premium
join:2008-02-01
united state | Re: elk grove It most likely is. A lack of bandwidth at your remote terminal is most likely the problem. | |
| bbarry
join:2008-01-11
Chemung, NY
·FrontierNet Intern..
| said by HOLLYWOOD727 :
Frontier guarantees minimum up/down speeds... if you don't meet the minimums... they have to fix it. I think their minimum for DL is 768kbps - UL 128kbps
Frontier Residential High-Speed Internet Terms and Conditions
No Warranties
We make no representation or warranty regarding the actual speed of High Speed Internet or other Services provided by Frontier. Actual speed may vary and depend on several factors, including Customer location, equipment, and traffic on the Internet. Speed comparisons to dialup based on average download speeds of 28 Kbps and 56 Kbps modems. | |
| | | |
| Forums » comments on review of FrontierNet Internet Access |
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Review by Drone6076
UPDATED: 41 days ago
member for 41 days, 2 visits, last login: 40 days ago
Moab,Grand,UT
$120 per month (24 month contract)
about 7 days
 Florida Digital Network
"The only broadband game in town."
"Frontier plays the contract game and jack up prices incrementally."
"The devil is in the details!"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
I have a two year contract for digital phone service and high speed internet.
Pro: Rather idiot-proof interfaces and setup - great for non-tech people or the elderly.
Pro: Local techs and installers are top-notch and very professional.
Pro: Customer service is excellent and polite, but have to be cut-throat in these hard economic times.
Con: Frontier speeds fluctuate greatly. Some times of the day it seems congested and sluggish hovering around 400kbps and at other times it can reach close to 3mb. Upload in rural areas is always significantly worse, which is due to infrastructure issues and oversold bandwidth.
Con: Frontier redirects your DNS lookups to Yahoo search. In rural areas your DNS servers will be physically far away, which slows down every single webpage load.
Con: Frontier's homepage and webmail is is My Yahoo.
Con: Frontier charges you rent for a modem which you can never pay off. In one year of dishing out $3.99 a month you could have bought a-top-of-the-line router with all the bells & whistles rather than the siemens rebranded gateway forced on you by Frontier. The supplied modem is a SE567 which is extremely easy for war-drivers and freeloaders to break into and steal your signal or sniff your traffic. In rural parts of Utah, Frontier techs on the other side of the country can telnet right into your gateway bypassing all the security settings. You can bridge the modem to a third-party router but Frontier does not support this and offers no technical support or documentation.
Con: Frontier plays the contract game many cellphone providers have been sued over in recent years. If you sign up for a $70 a month contract, be prepared for close to $20 in taxes and the modem rental fee knocking it up around $95. Frontier will not tell you how much you will be paying in taxes as per their policy. When your contract expires, rather than offering you a promotional contract to get you signed back up, they jack up the rates.
If you end up having to go with Frontier, ask the techs to put the phone line and the ADSL lines on separate runs - this will greatly improve your latency and upload speed, and might save you the hassle of having to use line filters. Also, make sure that if you are using wireless phones that they are not on the 2.4GHz spectrum because it will degrade your wifi signal.
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Review by mellowfellow
UPDATED: 44 days ago
member for 108 days, 6 visits, last login: 41 days ago
Etters,York,PA
Contract price not specified. (24 month contract)
"Friendly and knowedgable phone techs"
"Clueless on site support. Service is extremely unreliable. Worthless during rain"
"Better than 56.k Dial-up"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
I have had other broadband providers in different areas. I never had any issues with them. Then I got Frontier. I ordered the 3mbps service. They were supposed to show up in the afternoon when I am home. The showed up in the morning and dropped the modem on the door step(this would become the pattern). No problem. I set it up and every thing was working fine. The weather stayed good for awhile. and while it was kinda slow at night, it was mostly acceptable. Then it started raining. I could barely get a web page to load. Pings would time out. I tried working with Frontier to get this issue fixed. I should have just stopped the service in the first 30 days. Now I am a few months in to a two year commitment with a service that can be slower than my cell modem.
No wait it's worse that the cell modem because I get less packet loss on the cell during bad weather. Franlkly when it's bad outside is when I am most likely to want to use it. I would recommend trying Cell data service or Sat service before Frontier if cable is not an option.
At this point I am almost willing to pay the ETF just to have reliable service. If I had the disposable income, I would have already.
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Review by Mazakman
UPDATED: 49 days ago
member for 8 years, 3253 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Webster,Monroe,NY
$29 per month (12 month contract)
about 3 days
"Reliable, recent speed increase, excellent pre-install help"
"Nothing yet this time around."
"I am quite satisfied so far with Frontier DSL this time around."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings above consensus)
|
Well I must say that after exactly three months of Frontier DSL, I have switched back to Roadrunner. Anyone who is an average customer who is not interested in latency and speed testing would be very happy with Frontier. I had issues that cropped up in the last several weeks that were a bit annoying, but I never lost connection here at my home. It is just that the speed would fluctuate a great deal and in doing some tracerts, the first and second hops would often times be up around and over the 200 ms mark. At any rate, all of the folks that I have talked to at Frontier have been great. They are a good bunch of people. It is just that their infrastructure isn't quite up to par with Time Warner's in this area.
Ah ha !
My most recent experience. Here is the update...had DSL installed again on May 14th, 2009....
All of this recent talk by Time Warner about placing caps on our internet service has turned me off... big time. So I decided to once again explore my options with the only other somewhat viable broadband provider here in town.. Frontier.
Frontier now offers what some people call "naked DSL". You no longer need to have phone service with them in order to get DSL service. That to me is a selling point because we use the MagicJack phone here at home and we also have cell phones.
So on Thursday Frontier was here to install DSL Max. I live around the corner from one of their remote units...think that they are called DSLAM's ? And early last year we had Frontier here for a while and even though the speed was very good, there was a considerable amount of latency that we were experiencing and Frontier let me out of my contract. So the install this time went well and I started running some tracerts and ping test and was pleasantly surprised at the results. Obviously some work has been done on the system because we have low latency now.
The other thing that I noticed was that the download and upload speed was lower. After talking to their support department yesterday a ticket was put into their provisioning department and late yesterday afternoon the net went down for a bit... and when it came back I discovered that they had substantially increased our upload speed. The download is still the same at about 6.4 mb/sec. But the upload is over 800 kb/sec and that blows the regular speed Roadrunner away ... they are maxed out at 384 kb/sec in Rochester. I am not sure if they are done tweaking my line in or not, but I can live with this current download speed for what we do on the net and as long as the connection stays stable as it is right now with low latency, then we shall be happy campers here.
I turned in my Roadrunner modem last night and service was discontinued. The man at the local Time Warner store seemed genuinely disinterested in why I was canceling service and I can't help but think that this exemplifies the whole corporate attitude at Time Warner. They could really care less about what the customers think. Someone correct me if I am wrong here.
My dealings so far with Frontier have been all good. They were good to me last year and so far this past week they have treated me with respect and answered all of my questions and concerns . I am basically in a one year price guarantee contract with them ( which is another thing that they have changed... you have a choice of one or two years now ) and I am locked in at $29.99 a month. The other thing was that when I ordered the service last Monday I was told that there would be a $4.50 a month charge for the modem. I told the guy ( he was in Florida ) that I had my own DSL modem and he said that he had to include the $4.50 a month charge anyway. ( guess that this is the case when they initialize the order ) And the installer used my modem when he installed the service. Yesterday I called them back and the $4.50 a month modem charge has been removed from the monthly billing. They are also crediting my first bill for the install charge of $34.95.
So.. DSL may not be for everyone because of it's distance related limitations. But for people within reasonable range of a DSLAM or a CO, it is worth a try. I was given a one month grace period in which I can cancel service, but I do not anticipate doing so at this time. Sorry for making this so long, but I felt a need to let the locals here know about one of their other options as far as high speed service is concerned.
I still have cable TV with Time Warner, but the less money that I have to send their way , the better as far as I am concerned right now.
Also, Phil Dampier ( www.stopthecap.com ) tried DSL recently where he lives in Brighton and the speed was just not adequate enough for his needs . He has reported on this at his website. So this shows that DSL is not good for everyone in the county. All depends on where you live. We can only hope that eventually Frontier in Rochester sells out to a company that can start stringing fiber around town. Then Time Warner would have a much more legitimate competitor to worry about here.
First image was from this year......second is last year's...
Attachments:
Followup comments:
ruko
@frontiernet.net | Ridiculous Modem Rent Buy your own modem. Send theirs back. You still get service but if it turns out to be a modem problem....
ruko | |
| |
Mazakman
join:2001-06-24
Webster, NY | Re: Ridiculous Modem Rent I do not think that buying my modem would be an option. I am locked into a 2 year deal that guarantees me a certain price and that includes the $3.99 a month for the modem charge. | |
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spewak
Kiss It, Kiss It Real Good
Premium
join:2001-08-07
Elk Grove, CA | Leaving Frontier? You really left Frontier Maz? | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | jdre
join:2008-03-27
| Re: Leaving Frontier? That is kinda slow for some of us I may try Turbo later, it has 1 mbps upload. It really only matters to send larger files. At my work, there is a 5 meg upload and download, can't say it's better than my RR. | |
| gnm109
join:2003-03-15
Wilton, CA
| Frontier DSL in Rural Area. I've had Frontier DSL for about 5 years. They originally advertised it as 1000/128, When first installed I was getting 3000/300. Recently, I called to see if I could get more speed and greater wireless range for my upstairs computer. A rep came out with a different modem and connected us to a 6000/500 line. Most of the time, I get 4-5000 down and 4-500 up, I can't complain about that, especially since I'm in a rural area and the only other option would be satellite for much more a month.
No complaints here. | |
| hottboiinnc
ME
join:2003-10-15
Toledo, OH
·buckeye cable
| RR Caps Frontier was one of the first providers to announce caps so now you're going back to them? Talk about doing business with the devil.
Also if you didn't know BOTH companies decide against the caps. TWC even posted a letter to all customers on the TWC website. | |
| |
Mazakman
join:2001-06-24
Webster, NY
·FrontierNet Intern..
·RoadRunner Cable
·AT&T CallVantage
3 edits | Re: RR Caps Trust me, I have been following this very close. Frontier has no caps right now and neither does Roadrunner. Time Warner is a bigger devil than Frontier in my eyes and the less money that I can send their way the better. If Frontier decides that we use too much bandwidth and shuts me down, we shall go back to the other devil. Right now, for what we do on the net, I do not anticipate that happening. Also, having decent upload speed is something that I have been complaining about for years. The local RR is stuck in the stone age with 384 kb/sec and I am testing over 800 kb/sec with Frontier. The less money that I send Time Warner, the better. Just my little way of letting them know that I am indeed unhappy with them. And ... Frontier is saving me money. When you are on furlough weeks, this is an important thing.
Also, I am firmly convinced now that the issues that I experienced last year were as a result of them trying to pump too much speed my way. After talking to the fellow who stopped by yesterday he said pretty much the same thing.. that with the limitations that are in place with the older lines, etc, that if he tweaked my connection more to get me a bit more download speed that the instability and latency could and would possibly return. | |
| | | hottboiinnc
ME
join:2003-10-15
Toledo, OH
·buckeye cable
| Re: RR Caps No, trust me you're not following it very closely. You don't make sense when giving your review. You left RoadRunner due to they were explorering caps. And when to a company that was one of the first ones to even say anything about it.
Sounds like you want it both ways, and are trying to do to bait and switch for promos. And if you do/are they'll catch on. | |
| | | | | | | |
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Review by bitsmartcorp
Posted: 73 days ago
member for 95 days, 29 visits, last login: 18 days ago
Horseshoe Bend,Boise,ID
 Business customer
$170 per month (12 month contract)
about 10 days
"Speed is decent, reliability has been good so far."
"Business class users ARE NOT ALLOWED ACCESS TO MODEM CONFIG!?!?"
"If it's your only option, then go for it, otherwise go elsewhere."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
I actually have two 3mbps "business class" (doesn't really mean a whole lot) lines I am using for re-broadcasting as a WISP feed. The speeds are close to advertised, and the reliability has been 100% up time as far as I'm aware. That's about where the good ends.
When I ordered the two lines, the quoted costs were nowhere near what I'm now paying. I was also unaware that I would not have ANY access to the config utility of the two modems when I agreed to the contract. If I want to have any changes made in the modems I have to call tech support and have someone make them for me, which of course wastes my time, especially when there's a major issue on one of the lines, etc. In addition, I have talked to only ONE tech there so far who seems to have any knowledge whatsoever of networking.
The Speedstream 5930 is a good modem, but still does not have dual LAN interface capability so I cannot run private IP addressing over one interface, and public addressing over the other -- it's only one or the other and I am yet to find a solution for how to get around this.
All in all, they don't compare at all to Qwest as far as speed/price/configurability, which I am using for several other feeds for my WISP.
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 Review by S k i p p y
UPDATED: 87 days ago
member for 5.7 years, 2078 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Show Low,Navajo,AZ
$90 per month
"None at all."
"This company is a joke."
"Stay far far away."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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Update: So other than the typical B.S. that I put up with: slow speeds, high latency, and poor customer service, I now have a new story. One of those that if it didn't happen to me then I wouldn't have believed it. So I just thought I'd share it here with you all.
I am buying a new house. I already got rid of my old house and my new one isn't ready yet. So I have moved into a family members guest house for a couple of months until my house is done.
I was expecting the usual crap from Frontier so I called them almost 2 weeks in advance to schedule an appointment to have my phone/dsl moved to my temporary place. They set up an appointment for 4/7/09. They called on 4/6/09 to confirm and said they'd be here some time between 9am and 7pm. Well I took the day off work to be here and around 5pm the tech called and said he wasn't going to make it but he would come on 4/8/09. I said ok. I then called Frontier and told them I was a little upset because I took the day off of work and he never showed. They apologized and assured me he would be here between 8am and 10am on 4/8/09. I said that was fine I understand that things happen. I asked them if I should call the tech back and they told me no. They said they would let him know that he had to be here in that time frame.
So I'm sitting here around 2pm on 4/8 and the guy is still a no show. He calls me and asks me why I didn't call him back. I told him I called Frontier and they told me they'd call him. He says that he doesn't talk to them at all. Then he tells me that because I called Frontier instead of him that he doesn't have time now to come out on 4/8 and tells me that he doesn't know when he will come out. I tell him well do whatever then - he says fine and slams the phone down hanging up on me.
I call him back and he won't answer his phone. Instead I get his voicemail. I leave a message saying that his work ethic is crap and I will give him a chance to make it right or I am calling Frontier and reporting him for 2 missed appointments and being rude and unprofessional. He never calls me back.
So I figure what the hell, maybe he hooked up the line anyway while he was down the road and he was just trying to get me riled up. I plug my phone and modem in and they both work fine. So I'm starting to get over it when all of a sudden my phone and internet go down. No dial tone nothing. I hook up my Verizon wireless and get on Frontier's online help chat. I tell them whats going on and they tell me that he made a note to the account that the job was completed. I told them that may have been true but now its off again. They tell me that the only way I could have a dead line is if the tech came back out and unplugged my line.
So the online help person calls him and he claims to never have talked to me or gotten my voicemail. I counter with the call times and call durations from my cell phone. He then says that he never came out here (even though he noted the work order "completed") because I was rude to him. So the guy is lying in all directions. The head office then calls a supervisor and the supervisor says that his tech said I was rude and that they wouldn't send someone out until 4/9/09. The head office says they can't do anything to help me out and they will be here when they get here, its out of their hands. So now I will have 3 days into this waiting around for them to show up and I'm not even sure if they will.
So it makes me wonder what kind of business Frontier is running when they can't make their techs do anything. I asked the head office if they condone personal vendettas seeing as how the guy unhooked my line because I threatened to turn him in. To which their reply was "it would seem so". I pay my bill on time. I am still paying my bill on time and I have no service. They have only offered to credit me back for half of the install, an install which has yet to happen.
I have recorded everything including the voicemail I left the tech. I logged the calls to them and the tech. I also saved a copy of the chat transcript with the head office.
So where do I go from here? Do I sue them? I have already sent a similar letter to the BBB for them to investigate but I don't feel like that will go anywhere. I am stuck in a internet monopoly hell. Cable, which I love, is right across the highway literally a 1/4 mile away but they won't service us. DSL with Frontier is my only option at this point. I'm just at a loss as to what other recourse I have.
I also posted this here »Welcome to my nightmare.
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Review by rochkatzman
Posted: 110 days ago
member for 111 days, 1 visits, last login: 110 days ago
Rochester,Monroe,NY
$99 per month (36 month contract)
about 5 days
"Rock-solid and consistent performance, Free Mini-laptop"
"Advertised peak speed isn't as high as cable."
"Latency is superior to cable. Better gaming experience."
| Pre Sales information:
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(ratings well above consensus)
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I has RoadRunner before and live in a apartment building. I was experiencing service interruptions, latency issues and performance slowdowns during evening hours. I play Halo 3 and GOW on XBOX live and the latency with RoadRunner was causing a problem.
I was concerned about speed as the advertised "peak" speed of DSL was less than Cable but can honestly say the real world speed is very good and the drop in latency makes a big difference in gaming.
The technician was very helpful and actually did a virus scan on my computer and optimized the broadband performance to ensure I was getting the highest speed - something the cable installer didn't do.
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Review by Smith6612
UPDATED: 157 days ago
member for 1.4 years, 755 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Sanborn,Niagara,NY
Contract price not specified.
about 7 days
"Fast, always on, good pings, great support"
"None as of yet"
"Is a good service for anyone escaping cable"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings well above consensus)
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Just like my Verizon review, I'm going to summarize this review.
We have had FrontierNet DSL for a couple years now. Was the first customer to get hooked up in the area, and began at 1Mbps/128kbps speed. A few weeks later, the line was boosted for free to 3Mbps/384kbps. The modem supplied was a SpeedStream 6520 which is still in use to this day. The modem itself is a wireless router. The router doesn't seem to be able to pick up the reception from the computers very well on the other end of the home, but it is certainly strong enough to get to the computer. However, not sure if this is due to config or not (most likely my config), the modem doesn't play very well with Steam's server list, and being the gamer I am, I tend to lock the SpeedStream up for a few minutes after running Steam's list.
In terms of the quality of service, the line has been rock solid since it's been installed. No dropouts, the SNR sits in the mid to lower 20s, sometimes peaking down to 6dB on a rare day but it never loses sync nor do the speeds or pings degrade in quality, and the service is 2 miles away from the CO in wire. The speeds hit a constant 3100kbps of download, and a constant 384kbps of upload, and the pings sit at roughly 12ms to the first gateway. I have to say though, even though Frontier's routing may not be as good as my other DSL line's routing, the pings I have gotten on Frontier's network are quite good. I've hit 200ms solid ping to Australia on several occasions.
I have had only one problem in the few years I've had service. This issue was when the service failed to get a PPPoA connection and I was without internet connectivity for a day. Calling up tech support, they were very helpful, and connected me with someone at the CO who told me of what may happen in order to get my line fixed. Though a truck roll was scheduled, no truck showed up but the line was fixed the next morning. There was also one time where the New Jersey portion of the network coming out of Rochester must've been down and Frontier had been loading their Chicago link down which did cause some degraded speeds and elevated pings for a day, but the issue was fixed within a day as well.
I have noticed that during the night times however, right after the holidays that the pings from an outside network to the DSL connection are starting to go up. This may be a wake up call, as though the speeds and pings remain the same on the Frontier connection's end, when pinging the same connection at my Verizon line, in the morning I'll be getting a good 53ms ping to it, where as at night, the ping will be from 60ms to 115ms ping. If it starts to get worse, I'll be sure to convince Frontier of a possible bandwidth issue and raise a yellow flag with them to see what is going on. Wouldn't want to see the service hit the fan after 3-4 years of great service now, would we? 
But Frontier has been great and I hope for anyone looking for service in Sanborn, to look for Frontier for your needs. I guess a lot of people already have them in Sanborn and every person I've asked about the service have been happy with it.
======UPDATE JAN 28, 2009======
I gave Frontier a call and it turns out the CO is running low on bandwidth. They are aware of the issue and are current in the works of installing more bandwidth, so things should be fixed up soon! See my topic on it called "Sanborn NY issues" in the forums for anyone wanting the full details.
Followup comments: | | | | |
guypd
join:2008-05-08
Silver Springs, NY | Re: I wish their service was more uniform I just sent an e-mail to Frontier, asking if they would waive their ETF, if we cancelled, since we have a bad connection here. We will see what they have to say.
Plus, if they start to enforce the 5GB cap, we would use that in less than a week. | |
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spewak
Kiss It, Kiss It Real Good
Premium
join:2001-08-07
Elk Grove, CA
·SureWest Internet
·FrontierNet Intern..
| Re: I wish their service was more uniform said by Smith6612 :I just hope Frontier doesn't implement the caps or at least keep them this low as they're proposing, as I'd hate to lower their ranking on this review just because of a cap. Smith,
What would you do if Frontier does lower the caps to the intended and publicized 5gig a month? I was reading that maybe the Term committed subs will be cap free.
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The weekend is here, grab a can of beer! | |
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Smith6612
Premium
join:2008-02-01
united state
·FrontierNet Intern..
·Verizon Online DSL
 ·Dish Network
3 edits | Re: I wish their service was more uniform Ultimately, I don't know really. I would call them up and ask them what is going on and how much they are charging per extra GB, and then ask them why they wanted caps in the first place. Really, Frontier's infrustructure and backbones are sound, no bottlenecks in there, but if anything, the slow downs are because of either your line losing sync, or because of a local bandwidth squeeze. Now, running trace routes from the Frontier connection, I'm pulling some very good pings and stable data streams over Frontier's network, even to the other side of the US in California.
Honestly, I'd just have to say that whoever wanted this cap is trying to get people angry, as caps aren't going to stop bandwidth crunches. When the caps are reset, you get more bandwidth crunching. Any person who knows a thing about offering internet speeds is to serve areas with at least an OC-3 (150Mbps symm), and that's what Frontier needs to do and stop using T1's and T3s to fuel areas unless it's THAT rural.
DSL was also not meant to be a capped service, nor was Cable for that matter. Basically, it's meant to have unlimited amount of usage in a sense, but have your speed capped via provisioning. Cable modems, sure you can hack them to get the max bandwidth for your area, but DSL, there's no way you can fiddle with the sync as that's done on the CO/RT side, and considering the way DSL works, if there was a way to mess with your sync rate to make it higher than you pay for like cable, there's no way you'd be able to max out an OC-3 or a T3 line for that matter unless you're on VDSL simply because many customers are just that far away, even on ADSL2+.
Frontier's chance at competing with cable, especially Time Warner and Comcast IS their UNCAPPED DSL product, while slower and maybe more unstable on crappy/long phone lines, having no caps will surely charge their DSL beyond cable when the cable companies cap their users. And as someone on this site stated before, you are paying to be provisioned/capped at a certain speed, not paying to have a certain speed AND data caps. The only reason Frontier should cap would be if they let everyone get the max line sync possible for their DSL line (which means uncapped speed, basically sync as high as it can go stabally) and say they can use as much speed as they can get. | |
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Review by jmundale
Posted: 183 days ago
member for 7 years, 12 visits, last login: 147 days ago
Needmore,Fulton,PA
$50 per month (24 month contract)
about 10 days
"reliable, consistent service level,"
"expensive, tech support"
"they have a monopoly for this rural market"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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they provide two levels of service for residential, Internet lite which is 768Kbps down 128Kpbs up for $30 / mo with surcharges and tech support it is closer to $50. I just put in an order to upgrade to 3Mbps service. which is $50 / mo base, and another $20 in surcharges. My monthly package for phone w caller ID and internet lite was ~90 /mo, now goes to 130 / mo. I wanted the extra bandwidth for Netflix downloads. I will post again after new service comes on line.
Followup comments: atigerman
join:2002-01-19
Tigerton, WI | Cost of dsl lite I have dsl lite from frontier, but i'm not paying that much. For me dsl lite is 19.99 a month from 49.99 which was the 3 meg service. But i was only getting 1 meg down with the 3 meg service, that's why i downgraded.... | |
| hottboiinnc
ME
join:2003-10-15
Toledo, OH
·buckeye cable
| You cant say that have a monopoly Just what the Subject says. You can't claim that. They only are the only provider due to nobody else wants to expand into your area. You are free of course to order a T1 or greater and then choose your ISP from a big boy.
Also you are free to start your own ISP or move to an area where you can get cable or another DSL ISP.
There are plenty of options and if you have neighbors why not ban together get a T1 and split the cost of it and share it by wireless?
Hmmmmmm... monopoly ???? I don't think so. Should be be grateful they even provide you with DSL YES. Because they don't have to. | |
| | jmundale
Premium
join:2002-06-06
Needmore, PA | monopoly defined = frontiernet in fulton county Merriam Webster definition of monopoly = a commodity controlled by one party.
If i wanted to get together with my neighbors and get a T1, guess who sells it -> frontier. | |
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