Review by qworster 
UPDATED: 104 days ago
member for 7.9 years, 2915 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Los Angeles,Los Angeles,CA
 $35 per month (12 month contract)
 about 11 days
 AT&T
 "It seems to work just fine."
 "Read below"
 "Great value for the $$ and they really try to help!"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
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Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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UPDATE:8/9/2009.
I moved from Hollywood to Mid Wilshire this month. One of the first things I did was order phone service. The next thing I did was order DSL from DSL Extreme.
Why? Because in 19 months their service never went down. Ever.
Though I only moved about 1.6 miles, the move resulted in my being in a new phone office (Vermont Ave). It also meant that I could get 6000/768 DSL service from DSLX. Since I wanted seamless Internet, DSLX agreed to overlap my DSLs, and I took a Speedstream DSL modem I bought on ebay, configured it as a bridge and hooked it up at my new house.
My DSL due date was Tuesday-yet I found the DSL operational the Sunday evening before. Initial speed teats showed download speeds of over 5000 and uploads of 670 kbps.
After I moved, I installed the D Link DSL modem provided by DSLX at my old house over here. The next few days were spent moving, cleaning and unpacking.
Then I did another speed test-and found my download speed had dropped to 3400-not good. I posted in the DSLX forum here and then realized that the 'good' speeds were when I was using the Speedstream modem. I put it back in and back they came  .
6000/768 DSL with 5 dynamic IP addresses and full newsgroups for 35 bucks a month is a very good deal.
I recently moved to Hollywood and decided to get DSL Extreme DSL. I live exactly one mile from the AT&T phone office on Gower Street and based upon that assumed that I would qualify for the 6000/768 DSL package. I ordered online and then ran smack dab into DSL's biggest problem-inconsistency! There are two lines at my house (the old tenant had two phone lines). Apparently, one line's wires will support the 6000 speed DSL, while the other will only support the slower 3000/512 speeds.
Guess which line AT&T put my telephone on?
Now remember, BOTH lines go from point A (the phone office) to point B (my house), yet one line measures TWICE AS LONG as the other one!
THIS is the inconsistency I speak of...where you live has NOTHING to do with whether you can get the DSL speeds you want. It's a complete crap shoot!
What happens is that some phone lines have what is called "bridge tap".
This is unused wire that is connected across your line. For example, I live off of Sunset Blvd. My phone wire likely runs down Sunset far past my block, and my street is tapped across it. The extra wire that runs down Sunset is connected to nothing on its other end, and it serves to make my line electrically longer then it is physically.
Thus, the line they used measures at 10,000 feet in length, while the other line (which must be a direct run) measures exactly one mile (5300 feet). One is electrically twice as long as the other, yet they both go to the same place!
The bridge tap could be removed by cutting away the excess wire on Sunset where it passes my block, but only if the phone company (AT&T) was motivated to do so. In this case they aren't-so I'm screwed!
In fairness to DSL Extreme, this is an AT&T issue, not a DSL Extreme one....and they (DSL Extreme) did try and work things out. In fact, I believe they were as upset about how things turned out as I was.
Once I decided to go with the 3000/512 service, things went considerably smoother. The self install kit came three days later and the setup was a breeze! The self install kit with a DSL modem and filters arrived and I was online five minutes later!
I'm keeping the DSL Extreme 3000/512 line (which has decent speeds of 2680/460 on average) and 5 dynamic IP addresses. Unfortunately, I need more upload speed then 460 (I work for a streaming audio company at home), so I had considered getting dry line 6000/768 DSL from AT&T (DSL Extreme can not offer it yet).
Then Time Warner cable sent me a letter offering 10,000/1000 cable Internet for 39.95 a month-a dollar more then the DSL would have cost. I went down to the Time Warner office two miles away, picked up a cable modem and self install kit, brought it home and was online 15 minutes later. Speeds are running 9700/960.
This experience gave me the chance to do a side by side comparison of DSL and cable Internet. Both have advantages and disadvantages.
In my particular experience, cable was also a breeze. I decided that I wanted cable Internet at 2 PM and had it working before 3 PM. Of course, I had cable in my apartment already. If I hadn't, I'd have to have waited a few days. I'm getting the speeds that I wanted and they advertised, though again this is my experience-I know that others aren't as good.
DSL took a bit longer-it took a few days for them to test the line (and turn down the 6000/768 speed). Once I decided to take the 3000/512 one, it took a few days more to get the modem. I had to pay for the modem's shipping (getting the cable modem only cost me a bit of gas and time). I probably could have shaved a couple days time off the DSL by using my own DSL modem, but decided against that.
Once the DSL modem came, self installation was a breeze-and I was online literally five minutes later. I'm getting the speeds I expect (DSL typically runs 75-80% of what the advertised speeds are, due to overhead).
Both seem to have similar ping times-about 25 ms. Both work well with my Vonage VOIP. DSL Extreme offers 5 dynamic IP addresses, while cable only has one-but with a cable/DSL router this doesn't matter as much as it used to.
Which one is better? In my opinion, neither-or both! Both work as advertised. Both set up fairly easy. One is less of a crap shoot (cable), but that's a telco issue, NOT a DSL Extreme one.
I guess time will tell if one is more reliable then the other....but right now I could be happy with either one (just a bit happier with the faster DSL though).
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