Review by OriginalDrM 
UPDATED: 1.2 years ago
member for 5.5 years, 22 visits, last login: 37 days ago
 Pompano Beach,Broward,FL
 $39 per month (12 month contract)
 about 7 days
 BellSouth
 "Reliable service, few problems"
 "The price may change (and your bandwidth)... but what you pay won't. Outsourced support that blows: HARD."
 "Love to stay, but I must go... or not... or maybe now(?)"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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UPDATED THRICE, READ THE BOTTOM AT LEAST...
I joined Earthlink a year and a half ago. After first signing up they billed me for service before I even received the startup kit in the mail, huh?!
By way of apology they gave us an additional free month (over and above the sign up deal).
In fact whenever there was a billing dispute, there was lots of discounts and free months thrown in. After calling recently about a possible discount, they agreed I could get it, and instead added to the price of our bill instead of subtracting it.
The billing department seems unable to do math, which could explain the interminable wait times on hold to talk to them.
Tech support? Also long hold times, and don't expect anything above your run of the mill "Did you try turning the power off on your modem and rebooting your computer?"
Outages were few and far between, mail has been fairly reliable.
Earthlink's Pop-up blocker is very nice but difficult to get your hands on unless you install their full software package. Anyone with minor skills should avoid the software package for any ISP, and that goes double for Earthlink.
Spaminator is merely a Brightmail spam filter with a user interface (webmail based) for sorting your spam for false positives. It is only 50% successful with my father's email account for some reason. Huge volumes of spam come to him every day (yes it is turned on).
News downloads are kind of slow.
Line speed tests come in around 85% of advertised rates. About 1200 kbps downstream. And the upstream, well...
NOW THE REALLY BAD BIT:
Sometime along the way Earthlink capped my bandwidth without notification.
My 1500/256 line became 1500/128. Go check, that's what they're selling now.
No apologies, no discounts to established customers, nothing.
After talking with tech support who said "Huh?"
And accounts, who blamed "Bellsouth, maybe?"
I have gotten no good explaination.
Every other ISP in south Florida using Bellsouth lines provides 1500/256 for $50/mo. EXCEPT Earthlink.
They've been reliable, but I refuse to put up with a company with an uninformed support staff, and is will to make SERIOUS changes to your account on the sly.
STAY AWAY. BELLSOUTH.NET PROVIDES FASTER SPEEDS, AT THE SAME PRICE WITH NEARLY THE SAME DSLREPORTS RATING.
Additional info: The sign up package was great with everything free including the first month or so. The modem is an Efficient Networks 5260 and I have it hooked in to a Linksys DSL Router providing PPPoE. Did a self install and built the network at the same time, no hitches.
Update: I guess too many people complained: 1500/256 was quietly restored without comment (benched at 1157/196 that's 78% for the math disabled) . I'm not sure when. Sigh. Earthlink USE to be a good company.
Also Usenet servers were upgraded. You can get about full speed access to them now, though there is a monthly limit of 5gb/30 days (not calendar months, but over the last 30 days), then they throttle your connection. Usenet not your entire connection.
UPDATE 5/1/04: Earthlink has gone to a 2 tier dsl service. The $50/month I've been spending is now suppose to provide 3000/128kbps (Bellsouth.net is also offering this for a few dollars more ($55) and calling it 3000/384 with a static IP!) 1500/128kbps is now only $40 (upload speeds may be higher as they are for the 1500/129kbps). Anyway, Earthlink has CHOSEN NOT TO MENTION THIS to existing customers (making it only available to NEW customers). In fact I was rerouted a dozen times in over an hour around India trying to express my outrage, and desire to receive the service I am in fact paying for. My contract finished up 2 years ago, and they tell me the service isn't available to existing customers (but may be later this year).
FINALLY, I got transferred back to the U.S. and talked to an AMERICAN, WOO-HOO. He resolved my problem in all of 1 minute by sending an Email to Covad requesting an upgrade to my service (for my same monthly fee). He CLAIMS 24-48hrs until that happens. We shall see. I did take the opportunity to yell about the crappy support they now have.
India tech support sucks. Earthlink use to be known for outstanding customer service. Those days are gone. Go to BellSouth.net, I'm told they still have U.S. reps, and have a better price+features/performance. $5 more to get more, and if you use TotalChoice, it is cheaper than Earthlink.
IF YOU ARE AN EXISTING CUSTOMER, CALL AND YELL AT EARTHLINK UNTIL THEY EITHER REDUCE YOUR RATE OR UPGRADE YOUR SERVICE!!!!!!!
5/4/04 Update: Well no 3Mbps for me. Turns out Bellsouth is starting out small and close to the CO and then spreading out and upgrading as it goes. So... not yet for me, but they are going to cut my rate to $40/mo. for my 1.5mbps. I can't hate that anyway.
9/11/07
Has it really been almost 7 years now? Well, it's finally time to jump ship.
Earthlink is dead. Ok not dead, but someone should shoot it and put it out of it's misery.
Their tech support is a bunch inept script monkeys that will tie you up for an hour or more rewiring routers and changing OS settings before they will tell you 'there is a known outage in your area'.
Their price is excessive, their line speed is 'meh'.
They want another year contract to upgrade my speed to the 3.0mbps service (like the change costs them anything.)
I'm uncomfortable with AT&T's decisions to outsource tech support and rumblings that they may monitor customer activities (for the NSA, RIAA, etc.) but the fact still remains:
they are cheaper, faster, and better. ($3 less a month ($38) will double my bandwidth. For $43 I can get 6.0mbps now. No contract, no new modem needed, not costs up front.)
Don't even think about Earthlink as a provider anymore, their best is behind them.
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EarthLink
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No new modem or contract involved either (but if you wanted it, it is actually cheaper at $19.95 for 3 to 6 months under a new contract and that comes with a free modem unlike BS that charges and then rebates the price of the "Refurbished" DSL Modem at 6 months later) and no B-S recovery fees of $3.00 per month like BS used to (and still may charge). Plus no servers in BS areas as it is against the TOS which makes Earthlink look way superior since EL allows servers on their residential DSL.