 Review by swhx7 
UPDATED: 10 days ago
member for 2.1 years, 804 visits, last login: a few minutes ago
 Elbonia
 $47 per month (month by month)
 about 3 days
 "Reliable, fast downstream, no hassles"
 "Slow upstream"
 "Excellent, but I'm always looking for better"
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Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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Updating at 2008.08: Everything below still applies. I have not noticed any throttling of particular protocols or other ISP behavior of the kinds that have been controversial with other ISPs recently.
This is basic cable modem service from Roadrunner in Austin. It's either this or AT&T DSL, and this is faster, has a better reputation, and doesn't require a long lock-in contract.
It's 5+Mb down and 360Mb up (= about 700KB down and 45KB up). It includes 5MB web hosting (strictly FTP, no PHP or DB, very basic), 5 email addresses and DHCP (no fixed IP or server rights at this price).
It was only a few days from scheduling to installation. I opted for self-install. This still required a service person to come out, but he didn't try to mess with my computer, just connected the modem and made sure it worked. And it went perfectly: I had a good internet connection as soon as the ethernet was plugged from the modem to my router, booted and got an IP.
It's been about 5 years since installation (now updating this review at 2007.12), and service has been essentially problem-free. For a long time I was never aware of any outages at all, except occasionally in a thunderstorm. In 2006 there used to be outages of a few minutes each, late at night and only about one per day, but I have not noticed any in the past year or so.
I now think those glitches were the beginning of the modem going out. In January 2007 I started having worse outages, and called and was advised to swap the modem at a local TW/RR office. I did so and that solved the problem. I was pleased at how easy it was.
I've only ever had to contact tech support one other time. This was when the mail server was misbehaving. I expected a clueless "for dummies" routine, but was pleased to get a prompt reply to my email from someone who understood the problem. It was on their end and was fixed quickly.
The website is very ugly, with gimmicky navigation and oriented to "newbie" users. However, I have managed to find the things I've needed - basically DNS server IPs and mail server names.
The terms in the so-called "contract" are very onerous and one-sided, basically allowing Time Warner / Roadrunner to do whatever it wants with no assurance of anything for the customer. However, in actual practice I have not encountered any filtering, proxies, censorship, transfer limits, billing problems, or any other hassles.
Overall I am pleased with the service. I would switch if I found a provider offering a deal just as good as this but with better upstream.
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