Review by xm4yh3mx 
UPDATED: 1.4 years ago
member for 4.8 years, 164 visits, last login: 127 days ago
 Princeton,Mercer,NJ
 $39 per month (12 month contract)
 Covad
 "Good speeds"
 "none?"
 "Good speeds, customer service good and efficient."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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Speed test
New York City speakeasy.net speed test on 6/20/08
Last Result:
Download Speed: 5159 kbps (644.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 650 kbps (81.3 KB/sec transfer rate)
Update 6/20/08
My previous phone line couldn't be upgraded to the new 6mb/768 speeds so i had to switch it over to another phone line in the house. I called in and asked to setup the new service on the other line at the new speeds and had the previous older service removed. Within about a week the new line had dsl service. I myself had to do a little work with the inhouse wiring, i just had to make sure that the outlet i wanted to use for the model inside the house had access to the new number so i just swapped a few wires in the NID. If you don't want to bother with that i think Earthlink would probably tell you to call up your telco i.e. verizon, or perhaps covad, to do it. Btw my phone company is verizon but the dsl is provided by COVAD; verizon doesnt provide 6/768 dsl.
Price is good 39.95/month
customer service used to suck but seems to have changed for the better. I used to have such trouble getting customer service to help me with what i needed (usually upgrades for new speeds). Now it was really efficient and quick and the customer service employee knew what he was doing. I later called in to make sure that i wouldn't be billed twice for the same month b/c i had two lines active in the same month (during the switch over) and the customer service employee ensured that I wouldn't be charged twice.
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Note**
My distance from the TELCO - about 1520 feet
My noise margin - 21
I'm a subscriber since 12/16/01. At first the service offer was 1.5mbps/384kbps for 49.95 us $. The order and setup went fine and everything occured on time. They sent me a speedstream 5260 modem, which actually has 5660 capabilities if you hack its firmware. It started off really well, i got speeds of 1.2mbps/320kbps. Then for some reason i got connection problems. The connection would be lost, the modem would then try to reconnect and get a signal but the dsl led would not become steady green. Instead the led would blink green. I tested at the NID to see if the problem was the inhouse wiring but the same problem occured. After several weeks, if i recall properly, of talking (and more talking...) with cust. reps. they finally fixed the problem. Unfortunately they capped me at 928kbps. Upload stayed the same. I was satisfied enough because the connection was extremely reliable. I ended up getting a router to share the connection w/ 3 other computers in the house, i also got the router so that i would automatically be connected upon boot up. The router (BEFSR41 linksys) automatically dials up. No need to manually dial up because the router does it for you but your ip still changes after disconnects. The service used to stay up for 2 days max, then you would reconnect. I dont know if it still does.
Transmit Port Speed (bps)- 384000
Receive Port Speed (bps) - 928000
3 years later
Earthlink just offered a promotion for speed and price. The price is now 39.95 instead of 49.95, that is if you agree to another 12 months contract. The speed upgrade is available if your TELCO is covad. The new speed max is 3000kbps/384kbps. I am currently trying to get that speed upgrade w/ the help of one of the elnk techs in the earthlink forum (very nice people who are willing to go out of their way to help, much more reliable then help through earthlink customer support online or on the phone) The tech and i checked the line to see if it is capable of supporting the new downstream speed of 3.0mbps and it seems that it can. I'll post a follow-up in a few days to inform readers if the upgrade was successfull.
update 1/15/05
A covad technician in the covad direct forum here was kind enough to change my downstream to 1536kbps. Unfortunately he couldn't get it at 3008kbps for some reason. Hopefully earthlink will fix that for me. I now test at 1270kbps.
Transmit Port Speed (bps)- 384000
Receive Port Speed (bps) - 1536000
update 1/27/05
A tech in the earthlink forum successfully upgraded my line speed to 3008 kbps down.
Transmit Port Speed (bps)- 384000
Receive Port Speed (bps) - 3008000
-West coast (lax.speakeasy.net) test
2005-01-27 20:00:41 EST: 2483 / 316
Your download speed : 2542954 bps, or 2483 kbps.
A 310.4 KB/sec transfer rate.
Your upload speed : 324991 bps, or 317 kbps.
-East Coast (nyc.speakeasy.net)
2005-01-27 20:05:40 EST: 2460 / 318
Your download speed : 2519688 bps, or 2460 kbps.
A 307.5 KB/sec transfer rate.
Your upload speed : 325785 bps, or 318 kbps.
-MidWest (cle.speakeasy.net)
2005-01-27 20:06:36 EST: 2494 / 317
Your download speed : 2554603 bps, or 2494 kbps.
A 311.8 KB/sec transfer rate.
Your upload speed : 324728 bps, or 317 kbps.
--reliable speed testing server below
**http://speedtest.umnet.umich.edu/
running 10s outbound test (client to server) . . . . . 330.10Kb/s
running 10s inbound test (server to client) . . . . . . 2.55Mb/s
Update 2/17/05
Service as consistent as before. No problems what so ever. Speed up to 2.5 mb/s down and up to 330kbps up.
update 3/19/05
2005-03-19 19:15:27 EST: 2503 / 319
Your download speed : 2563116 bps, or 2503 kbps.
A 312.8 KB/sec transfer rate.
Your upload speed : 327359 bps, or 319 kbps.
update 09/23/06
earthlink wont upgrade to 6.0 even though covad tested the line and proved it is serviceable for 6.0. earthlink says their data is not synchronized with covad's. earthlink get ure sh*t together.
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