Review by yazdzik 
UPDATED: 344 days ago
member for 9.2 years, 4216 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 New York,New York,NY
 $49 per month
 "unbelievable service"
 "none of which to speak easily"
 "for twc customers, the only way to go"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
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After realising that a thirty dollar verizon connexion was not my good old eighty dollar legacy speakeasy dry pair perfect install, I decided that, were I to spend a few hours per week talking to strangers about networking, I should prefer to have an affair with a beautiful engineer.
To prevent this from being a satanic litany of why verizon is as charming as a pet tarantula, suffice it to say, even my old-fashioned wife no longer uses their land lines.
As to NYCT, well, the calls were simple, direct, and no shit whatsoever.
"DHCP, or some sort of poet shit?
"DHCP, but bound to MAC addy, so use the router you're gonna use the first time, so we don't have to reset."
"Er, um, I usually run, er um , I hate to say, because, well, LInux."
"Me too. We only care what's behind the router."
"So if I order, when am I live?"
"About two days, officially
"Okay, I'll pick up your stuff at TWC on 23rd street to save a trip for you guys."
"No problem."
"Dial up numbers?"
"We're getting new partner., wait a few days, 'cuz right now it sucks. Call us, say, Thursday. You might want to just plug in the router when you get home."
I was amazed that there was no bullshit, the bloke new about networking, (obviously, the OS of a pc behind a gateway is irrelevant.) and, by the time I got back from TWC, about an hour(well, okay, I left the car in front of the store and sent a teen student with my driving licence to pick up the box  by train it takes an hour each way, and parking legally, about six weeks to find a space) I came home, and, mirabile dictu, was on nyct, needed to ring them to set up e-mail(cannot do this online - ditto a few days later for my wife)
Twenty-five foot cat cables, which are obviously necessary in a ny flat where the gateway may be in another room from the telly(for those lucky few who can afford more than one room in NY) were provided.
About once every fortnight, e-mail disappears for a few moments, and the" test settings" in outlook does not work, but otherwise, total reliability and legitimate speeds as advertised. The tech support is available for about thirty seconds in months with the lettre z in them, but is totally professional and nothing takes more than a minute or two. The 24/7 people from outsource are also polite and competent, but less direct - the one time I rang up about an issue, my fault, by the way, I forgot to power down the cable modem when I changed gateways, it took fives minutes instead of thirty seconds. For a new yorker, this is the time it takes to find god.
On the whole, roadrunner/earthlink network without the dumbing down - fast, snappy NYC style help.
Cheap? Not. Cheaper than speakeasy - well, what is not?
Reliability, ease of use? Typical RR/EL on TWC, everything works all the time, at advertised speeds.
Tech support, sales, service, &c? Beyond outstanding, particularly for the impatient like me who want to talk to someone NOW, get a real answer phrased in real terms, and get back to work.
Would I like a unix shell for e-mail, server capabilities, and twice the speed for half the price? Surely.
For New Yorkers considering cable, the only way to go.
UPDATE: My wife and her friend needed an twc cable connexion downstairs. All they were supposed to do was have nyct installed. Well, twc "thought" they needed roadrunner, and so forth, so I changed to order for them. Arriving at the twc place to pick up the modem, they were told by the [i]manager[/i] that twc does not provide new york connect. My wife rang me in yet another panic, I rang nyct and [i]they rang my wife on her cell phone to help. [/i]
This kind of service is like the old speakeasy, but for half the cost.
If anyone doubt why major carriers must be forced to open their infrastructure, a simple call to new york connect will convince him.
There are few things that are as well run, consumer friendly, and amazingly competent as the new york connect customer service.
The value for money went from three to five, because, in the end, knowing that one is dealing with a real professional is worth something.
Note on 4.10/04
After a problem with IMAP disconnecting in evolution, a linux mail client, as well as outlook, I asked them for a little information on their end about their bsd based imap server - they do not, of course, support linux officially, I connexted this morning, and all error messages were gone.
I rang up to see what had happened, as many of us thought there was a software bug, and one of the techs just said, " I asked them to upgreade the imap server." I decedied not to ask who "them" was, but this kind of nit picking detail to help what may be a very few customers deserves commendation.
We live in a world where nobobdy knows anybody else, and fewer people seem to care. Getting rid of a pesky error message is not curing cancer, but, it is an indication of the quality of service that can be achieved if individiuals care about customers.
WHY I still think NYCT is the best available service for TWC customers(7/3/05)
A few weeks ago there was a short outage, which, being used to no downtime caused me to fiddle with my own network for a good bit of time before I rang, to be told that something akin disaster had struck, but things would be normal,but no one knew when.
A few hours later, the following e-mail arrived:
> Dear NYCT User,
>
> We sincerely regret the major inconvenience caused this morning by an
> Internet outage due to a core router failure. This was the second occurence
> in the past several months. The first one was caused by memory chips that
> went bad. Today's event was caused by a processor failure inside the core
> router. Spare parts is the standard remedy for hardware repair and during
> both of these outages, we had the necessary parts ready and were able to
> repair the router. However, the turnaround time of 3+ hours is not acceptable
> by our own standards.
>
> To this end, we have today made a major commitment by ordering overnight a
> whole new core router. The new core router is expected to be in service to
> replace the current one this weekend. The current one will then be used as
> a hot stand-by once it is determined to be reliable again.
>
> We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this morning, and we are
> working on a remedy to proactively prevent more outages of this nature.
>
> Please email support@nyct.net with any questions or concerns.
>
> Thank you,
> NYCT Support Staff
Now, this is the kind of thing that separates professionals from amateurs, and deserves the kind of loyalty that almost all nyct customers have.
I think there ought to be some basic rules for ISPs in general, and the level of support and communication that Mr Coren and his exemplary staff show should be industry standard.
At any rate, honesty and professionalism are really good reasons to recommend them, in addittion to outstanding service.
Update - for the record, e-mail was down today(28/12) when I got home. Tier one picked up on the second ring! I asked if it was m e or them, and got the explanation within less than one minute.
Still the best ISP in the NY area for affordable residential service.
UPDATE:
RIght now, with no price increase, we are getting about 5k down, so the price differential has faded - still lacks a unix shell, of course.
In case I have not praised NYCT enough, today was the clincher - I stupidly deleted my imap inbox by hitting enter instead of tab.... my fault, stupid thing to do, and, yes, I felt like an idiot.
I e-mailed support immediately - today is memorial day, no expectations at all, just a cursory "is there any way?" note.
Within two hours, "We will try to restore the mailbox from backup, we will get back to you
with the results."
To get such a letter on a holiday, without so much as a "you made the error, we are not responsible" is, in this world of uncaring incompetence nigh on a miracle.
NYCT are the kind of company every company should be. No better way to go.
1.5 years later, the few days a week I spend in NY remind me of why NYCT is the very best available.
Speed to watch a live hockey game, e-mail efficiency, and at the whisper of a problem, tech support unequalled on the planet. Defective modem(after five years of living in a hot NYC flat) was diagnosed in two minutes or less, and replaced within a minute at the local TWC store.
Still the best ISP, best bargain in NYC,
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