Review by ranchwhere4 
UPDATED: 51 days ago
member for 5.3 years, 5 visits, last login: 51 days ago
 Columbus,Franklin,OH
 Contract price not specified.
 "3 IP's, allow Mail/Web/FTP/PBX servers to run"
 "Repair Appts. take too long, new modem not as good as the really old worn out one"
 "For us, the freedom is essential."
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Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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Update 07-16-08:
Well after swapping modems a few times...and missing a service call, I got the QA tech out today. He came in place of the regular tech. because of the errors we were throwing in Wow's Network Center. Turns out they've changed the signal. My roommate had replaced a garbage splitter (on the outside) with a better one. One that had a high frequency range than the TWO it replaced. However, still not a high enough range for the current signal. The QA guy said our upload was all messed up. So far, the dig. STB that had a horrible picture and could do no On-Demand, is working like a champ. I guess we'll say, that if I'm not back in a day or 2, the internet connection is staying up, and all of the hassle was our own fault! lolol
As far as their new modems, they're the "shrunken" Scientific Atlanta Webstar...these modems still run too hot (as they have for 12-15 years now to shrink!!). There's a model that's between the old reliable that up and died and this new one that they said they'd put me on per my request.
When they do have an outage, I must be the first in my area to call (always). My neighborhood (Clintonville) is almost 100 years old, so the utilities can be touch and go.
Everything is run on poles in the alley, copper POTS from MaBell (oh wait, Grand Daughter Bell), then Wow fiber, then Warner fiber, then way up top the power. It's kinda scary to look at. Most phone lines have been replaced, water/sewer constantly being "renewed". On Road Runner, there were intermittent issues that usually had to do with components up the line from us, that were worn-out. The Warner lines were the first 2 way cable in the country:
»www.media-visions.com/itv-qube.html
»en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QUBE
So, the techs would have to schedule a cherry picker truck to come out and replace parts every once in a while, that got old.
Here in Columbus, most are on Time Warner, some on ATT DSL, some on RR thru Insight. I've had experience with all. And would choose WOW hands down. Insight is the worst cust. serv. ATT, well, "for the last 100 years all they've changed is their prices", Warner, sent a nasty letter to a co-worker who worked remotely at a friend's house, using friend's RR for a VOIP client phone and using our SSL website. Time Warner's nastygram stated that the connection was used for biz purposes blah blah. 1 day, SIX hours, on a secure website w/ a voip phone. The real problem must have been that Warner wasn't making money on the phone. We have an asterisk PBX, an employer that has bulk trunk deals and has ported our phone to that trunk, run the "hardened" Asterisk on its OWN IP addy...ney a word from WOW. Neither have FTP/Web/Email servers ever been a problem. Only once has a nastygram come from WOW in about 4-5 years of total service (have played them and Warner against each other a couple of times for pricing deals...and not worth doing that now)....was a letter about some "alleged" software (4 years old at the time) who's author had recently been acquired by the Evilest of all Evil, the Sony Corp. The letter was a VERY LIGHT slap on the wrist about some "alleged" torrenting. Not the "alleged" torrenting itself, but rather that Sony snivels like no other (to the ISPs)...and basically stay away from them. Roger that ISP, don't want you to "alleged" get sniviled at either 
Am curious what the "new" speeds they are boosting to will be this summer. Here's the summary of our speeds with speedtest.net for 2008. There was 1 of the 18 tests where the speed was below 2m (urrgh) throw that one out and they're keeping the speed we pay for.
Last Test Date: 6/24/2008
Total Tests Taken: 18
Fastest Download: 7722 kb/s
Fastest Upload: 1101 kb/s
Average Download: 5576 kb/s
Average Upload: 991 kb/s
Lastly, we've got a VOIP to analog converter tapped into the old Dmark, so all the analog phones still work. I've tried some dialup thru the PBX, getting about 52-53k as opposed to ATT (Bell Jr's) copper getting 46-48k. Nice. And faxing anywhere for free, DISA callback for a "free line" to my cell. With websites like hulu.com we're so close to telling Wow, drop the TV and give that bandwidth to mah InnerWeb!
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