Review by tmjam2002 
UPDATED: 1.9 years ago
member for 4.1 years, 61 visits, last login: 122 days ago
 Brooklyn,Kings,NY
 $29 per month
 about 60 days
 "Great speeds if you are allowed to use the upload at max."
 "Customer Service lacks information. Upload capping, QoS Dept pretty harrassing"
 "Only for surfers who Download. Upload Forget it!!."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
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Now that OOL is giving 15MBps down and 2MBps up i decided to check it out again.I didn't cancel my good ol Verizon. I signed up for OOL. Now the plan is $29.99. I had it for the past 2 months. Everything was going fine until about two weeks ago I had an outage. It was aaround 3am in the morning. I called ool and asked what happened. He told there was an outage in Brooklyn. I didn't believe him. Anyways later on in the morning everything was back to normal except when I tested my upload I was getting 149kbps. Usually I get around 1700kbps. I called ool. They told me something might have been wrong during the outage. I told them it seems like I have been capped. They said they don't even have anything like that. They told me to do a speed test on their server. I did the upload came out 1605kbps. But everytime I try to upload even a small 7kb file it would take almost a min. I tested the speed on different servers and the results were the same 142kbps or 149kbps. Except optimum's server it was different. I called them back. This time another rep told me. I have been capped for uploading. I told her the most I do is a lot of online gaming. And I don't even host that it's usually join others. She told me someone from "Quality Of Service" departmen would call me in about a couple of days.
I would like to add that they take a while to call. They are supposed to call within 4 to 5 business days. They called me today almost 2 weeks later. The rep said that we are not allowed to host games or servers or keep uploads of any kind for longer periods of time. This slows down other optimum online users. I told him well I paid for 2Mbits why shouldn't I use them. He said I need to read the "Terms and Conditions" and agree with them which state that I can't upload for longer periods. He asked me If I agree to those terms and conditions I agreed. He also warned me stating that If this happens a couple of times more. It will result in termination of my service. Finally he reset my modem and restored my upload bandwidth.
I can't beleive what they do there. It's like the mafia running OOL. One rep says we don't have anything like capping. Another says I have been capped. I have decided to keep my good ol Verizon back and will never go to go to OOL back. Even though 15Mbps down and 2Mbps up sounds great. What's the point if you can't use them. I am sure later on they might even say " You can't download for longer periods". Verizon is 3Mbps down 768kbps up but at least it's mine. Ool is only for people who can't get Verizon and who don't do nothing but just check e-mails.
UPDATE 10MINUTES LATER:
Ok I know this is weird but I was checking on dsl reports some user said that if you upgrade to OOL Boost service they won't cap you anymore. So I called to confirm this with Ool Internet department. They rep told me that if you upgrade to Boost we will open port 80 and another port I think 25. Means you can upload as much as you like and there won't be any capping limit. I told him to confirm this and he said he has had Boost for the past 3 years and has upload gigs of data. So what else can I say now. They offered me boost for $9.99 for the first 3 months. So I guess I will give it a try. I did upgrade last time. But really get a significant difference in my speed. My download jumped from 13Mbps to 14.5Mpbs, that's not even half of 30Mbps. My upload jumped from 1.7Mbps to 2.2Mbps. Same not even half of the 5Mbps they claim. I personally believe that what they are saying is that if you upgrade to boost you won't be capped. I didn't know that till I asked them. I had a technician come over and install a new cable all the way. Compared to my old cable it was better since they had a lot of plugs installed in the middle which didn't make much difference in my bandwidth but the signal was not as good as now. So I will check it out. I will also run speed tests. Will upload at max for days (If they let it go for days). And then I will post an updated review of what happened. If I find it working. Then my ratings will go up for OOL.
UPDATE DECEMBER 25, 2006:
Called OOL today to confirm about capping. I was transferred to a OOL support specialist. I told him that I was told from another rep that once i upgrade to BOOST I won't be capped anymore. He replied that even though OOL is a bit lenient with BOOST users, that does not mean they won't get capped. He asked me what I usually upload and I told him I host a gaming server. He said there is a possibility of cap If i keep the server running all the time. Another thing I noticed from this is that Ool wants most of it's users to upgrade to boost so that they can spend more money for the same service they use without much of an upgrade. It's pretty much a rip off. Just because they get a little relaxed in capping Boost doesn't mean they wont. Sad
So I thought about it. If I am getting capped with or without BOOST then it's a waste of my $14.95 to be spent on Boost since my speed isn't upgraded that much. I have other things to be worried about rather then thinking I would be capped now or then and then I have to call them. I will be leaving the country for 3 months in February till then I will tolerate OOL. Good thing they don't have a contract so I will cancel before I leave. When I return I am definitely going back to good ol Verizon and will wait for their Fios.
Followup comments:  
aasdfsdfas
@optonline.net
| No problems with OOL speeds. I get great speeds with OOL. I consistently get between 8-10Mbps on my cable modem to my co-located server. But, I've tweaked the TCP settings on both my end, and my server end.
If you're getting horrible settings, try changing your TCP stack settings (MSS, window sizes, window scaling, etc). If you continue to get slow speeds, perhaps the site you're going to ... how shall I say this ... sucks?
Now, their customer service on the other hand... that's another story. | |
|  | tmjam2002
join:2004-10-15
Brooklyn, NY | Re: No problems with OOL speeds. Hi
Don't be reading the details above the UPDATED Title. They are from 2004. Read the updates I just wrote on December 2006. Now I do get 13000 | |
| | |
wishihadool
@rr.com
| Re: No problems with OOL speeds. I am sorry to say, but you are an id10t. When I lived in Brooklyn and OOL was 10, I was getting 8-9 consistently. I also uploaded/ downloaded nonstop and guess what , I was never capped. Now I live on SI and I only wish OOL was here. OOL will compete with VZ unlike roadrunner which is happy to offer 10 mb only now. I have a friend who has boost and his speeds are 22-27 and VZ with their cherry picking attitude comes nowhere close with DSL. Fios may be, but down the line customers will pay the cost of VZ doing upgrades now. | |
| | | | tmjam2002
join:2004-10-15
Brooklyn, NY
 ·Verizon Online DSL
 ·Optimum Online
edit:
December 25th, @11:42AM
| Re: No problems with OOL speeds. Hey
It's not my fault their crappy network in Brooklyn doesn't even close to 22 23 with boost. The max I got at 2am at night was 17 and up was 2.7
I would like to add. with VZ 3 down 768 up I used to upload consistently without a problem and never had problem for years. I switched to OOL when VZ had problems with my account | |
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StreetSpirit
Good Luck, President Elect Obama
Premium
join:2002-08-13
Roslyn Heights, NY
·Optimum Online
·Verizon Online DSL
| Re: No problems with OOL speeds. said by tmjam2002 :Hey It's not my fault their crappy network in Brooklyn doesn't even close to 22 23 with boost. The max I got at 2am at night was 17 and up was 2.7 ....snip... Please, stop generalizing.
I'm in 11224. I have Boost, and routinely get the advertised speeds. Tech support, capping, those are policy issues. Network wise, they can handle it and then some. At this moment I'm downloading at 1.8MB/s from an FTP in Utrecht - That's from the one across the pond 
Stateside, I get ~2MB+/s from the hosting OOL uses for BOOST, Tampa Florida based Neucom Inc, which incidentally filed for Chapter 11 last year
I reach saturation around 25mbits per second from large, load balanced public ftp mirrors. Two of these are ftp.aol.com and ftp.ea.com.
I have zero problems with speeds, and so do most of the people using OOL.
As to capping and their stellar (ha!) tech support, I agree with that 100% and was kicked off the network for a week a year ago when I reached 4 caps. I'm still bitter, but let's face it. Verizon isn't in a rush to wire areas like Coney Island, and while ADSL is great (and I have Verizon ADSL, had it since the Bell Atlantic days), it doesn't always meet my needs.
I don't know what the problem is , it could be a technical glitch that's being worked on.
And I'm no Cablevision fanboy...
Happy Holidays,
Dave | |
| | | | | | tmjam2002
join:2004-10-15
Brooklyn, NY | Re: No problems with OOL speeds. Well hey after paying for boost If I can still expect a CAP then I rather not stick with the company. | |
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StreetSpirit
Good Luck, President Elect Obama
Premium
join:2002-08-13
Roslyn Heights, NY | Re: No problems with OOL speeds. The consensus is that Boost isn't capped. In the five or so months I've had it, I was not afraid to use my upstream, and so far, so good.
Regards | |
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