 Review by jmorlan 
UPDATED: 235 days ago
member for 7.6 years, 2952 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Pacifica,San Mateo,CA
 $39 per month (12 month contract)
 about 45 days
 AT&T
 "Fairly reliable, good value."
 "Billing screwups never fixed, long waits on hold to support"
 "Good when it works."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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When I moved into a new house, I ported my old phone number and ordered DSL at the same time. This was in December 2000 and the start date was supposed to be February 1st. The deal was $39.95 /month with a $100 modem charge that would be rebated with a self-install.
The modem and software arrived separately. Install seemed to go well until I tried to register at the registration site. The site was down that weekend. Many calls to support and hours on hold found that nobody could manually register me although some people tried. None of these attempts worked. Finally a week later the registration site worked and I was actually online.
The next horror story was when the bill came. I had been charged for two accounts and two modems. One of the accounts was a bogus one that a support person had created to try to get me online while their authorized registration website wasn't functioning.
A call to billing got the charges reversed, but on the next billing the reversed charge for the modem was added again. This continued for several more months. Eventually I was charged for five modems and credited for only three. I was still out $100 for a modem I never received. As of now this issue is STILL UNRESOLVED. They claim it takes two or three billing cycles for the credit to show up on my bill. This is insane. It only takes one billing cycle for charges to show up.
My next issue was the speed I was getting. I was capped at 386. I finally got them to lift the cap to 768, but my modem wouldn't sync. So I had to have it lowered to 386 again where it was reliable. Recently I installed a Seicor Splitter that I bought cheap on eBay on the outside and did a homerun wire directly to my modem. After that my line quality improved so that I was able to get the cap lifted to 768. They claim I'm over 18,000 ft from CO so I'm lucky to get that speed. My modem will now sync anywhere between 544 and 640.
Another separate issue was that my modem died 3 months after installation. A tech came out and confirmed the modem was bad. He told me to return it in the box it came it. The modem came with a return USPS mailing label which I used. I then learned that I had sent the modem to the wrong place. PacBell doesn't warrant modems after three months. The modem needed to be sent back to Efficient Networks in Texas who told me that it needed an 8 point ROM upgrade which takes at least six weeks because they have to send it to Mexico to get it done!
I was not optimistic about ever getting my modem back, so I bought a cheap internal modem on eBay and was back online in two weeks. Eventually I got the modem repaired and returned and it seems to be working well now, but I'm still out the $20 for the internal modem and have not yet been credited with the two weeks I was offline, although billing promised I would be. I'm still waiting for the "two or three billing cycles" for the credit to show up. Sigh.
If I had to do it over again, I would have told them I had no USB port or ISA slots and insisted on an ethernet modem. I now know they are faster and more reliable than the cheap USB modems they give you.
Another problem is usenet service. When I first joined, we had access to a wonderful fast feed offered by flash.net. Unfortunately SBC decided to shut it down and we are now limited to several other slower and poorer servers and it's getting worse. The loss of flash.net means that if you want fast, reliable nntp service with complete binaries, you will probably have to pay for a premium news service provider. As yet, I haven't done that, but instead pieced together a multiplex solution with multiple news servers. The loss of news.flash.net added insult to injury. It was a shining light in an otherwise rather abysmal enterprise.
Another issue is that PacBell DNS servers are crappy. That can slow down surfing considerably regardless of your connection speed. Here in Pacifica, PacBell is about the only game in town, but if cable becomes available, I will seriously consider it.
In general I would rate my experience with PacBell DSL as unsatisfactory.
UPDATE 26 September 2004
I'm still with them and things have improved. I added a "home-run" line with an external Seicor Splitter which stabilized my line. Eventually I dumped the old 4060 USB modem and bought a used 5100b on eBay. The results were dramatic. My sync rate went from about 550 kB to 1500 kB/sec; close to triple my former download speed. Then I added a LynkSys wireless router and speeds increased a little bit more.
It's nice to be getting the full speed out of this connection finally. Also my upload speed is now 384 which is quite nice. Furthermore the price has dropped since I signed up. I'm now paying $26.95 /month with a one year contract.
The email services under Yahoo are a little better, but the usenet services continue to deteriorate. It's still an excellent deal for pure bandwidth, but ISP services are below par.
Edit June 28, 2007
Not much has changed since my last update. The service is solid and reliable. The name has changed to AT&T; prices have dropped and gone up slightly. I'm now on a one-year contract at $19.99 with a one-month free deal.
Billing screw ups are now fixed promptly. There were a lot of billing problems early on, but not any more. Service is better now I think
Edit February 20, 2008
Service has been solid. I am still on the $19.99 per month deal for 1.5/385, but I had to call them to get the promised free month. The Usenet offerings are still very weak. I had hoped the merger with BellSouth would have strengthened Usenet but that has not happened. I bought a spare modem, a 4100b on eBay for $15 which I am now using. It's a little more stable than my old 5100b which I'm keeping for a backup.
They seem to have no interest in opening up the nearby RT to my address. I am currently at the limit they offer DSL. In fact my neighbor on one side is not eligible for DSL at all. If I give up this service, I would probably not qualify for new service at this location. I think I'll keep this service for as long as I can. It's a good deal for the bandwidth.
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