 Review by jhacker 
UPDATED: 1.2 years ago
member for 6.9 years, 1186 visits, last login: 1 days ago
 Peoria,Peoria,IL
 $27 per month
 about 8 days
 Ameritech
 "Solid connection"
 "No longer receive promotional price, have to keep unnecessary POTS service, upload speed becoming inadequate for needs"
 "Lowest priced broadband connection available, but not by much."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
8-29-2007
I have now had DSL for five whole years. For the most part it's been trouble-free. Our subscription is for the 3000/512 package at $25/month plus fees. The speed is almost always steady and recently I haven't noticed any connection issues. However, at one time we were experiencing lots of problems which caused me to nearly cancel ALL AT&T services (POTS, Dish, DSL). I thought the problem was in our inside wiring since we completed a basement remodel in December 2006. However, that was just a coincidence. It turned out that the problem with our DSL connection and POTS line was caused by faulty connectors in our NID. To find this it took three different AT&T line technicians about 3 or 4 months to fix. Then, AT&T tried to charge me $60 for the work on the final visit, after they told me that there would be no charge. I have trust issues with AT&T, realizing that they will lie to you and hope that you'll blindly pay the bogus charges.
I am still strongly considering dropping all of AT&T's services in favor of Insight (soon to be Comcast). For one, having cable as the ISP gets me 3x the speed for only $5 more per month. In addition, we don't have to keep POTS. Vonage would be a better choice for our family. Also, AT&T seems to always be adding additional charges on our bundled bill so I'm constantly having to call and question the charges and drop services to keep the bill at the dollar amount we need it to be.
5-29-2004
I decided to update my review after nearly two years of mostly trouble-free service. I can't say much other than my SBC-Ameritech service has been nearly trouble-free. There have only been a few times where I've experienced connection issues. The first few times I realized my router (D-Link DI-704) was going flaky. Router was replaced, and only once have I experienced a connection issue since then. This problem was corrected by power cycling the modem. The only negative point I can make is that I resent having to renew a contract to receive promotional pricing of $26.95 a month. I am currently receiving 1500/256 service, with throughput of 1300/218 on average. Nobody in this area can beat it for $26.95 a month.
8-10-2002
After several calls to tech support the speed cap was finally increased. This was after being told to keep my modem powered on and connected for 10 days so that the speed would be adjusted. Somehow I didn't think this would happen without any interaction on my part. The highlight of my calls to tech support happened yesterday when I immediately asked to speak to a tier 2 tech because that's where I left off on my previous trouble ticket. The tech said something like, "OK, if that's what you wish. I still need to get some information from you before I can do that." Tier 1 performed a line test, placed me on hold several times, then tried to intimidate me by saying the tier 2 tech wasn't happy that I asked to be transferred to them immediately (too bad). Finally, tier 2 tech told me he would forward the trouble ticket to ASI (evidently a contractor for Ameritech-SBC DSL service). Amazingly, a rep from ASI in St. Louis called me back within two hours. She told me they couldn't connect to the DSLAM for some reason but the next day I should see a speed increase.
Now I am much happier knowing I am getting the speed I'm supposed to be getting. Speed tests yield around 620-630 kbps download and 132 upload. So far this Ameritech DSL service has been mostly trouble-free. The only disconnects I've experienced have come from my router. When it disconnects, the only way I can get my connection back is to power-off the router for a few seconds. Even getting into the web interface for the router and clicking "connect" doesn't do the trick. This is odd!! Suggestions anyone?
8-1-2002
I ordered Ameritech 768/128 DSL on July 22 only because of the $30/month special for the first year and free equipment. Having been a subscriber of Insightbb.com cable Internet (formerly @Home)for over 2-1/2 years and receiving blazing speeds, I was hesitant to do this. When I ordered I told the CSR if they send me a USB modem it will get sent right back to them. Of course they tried to also sell me their home networking package for $250. I told the CSR that I can handle this myself as I already have a D-Link DI-704 router in place for my cable service, and I asked if this would be a problem. She said that this would not be a problem. Finally I received the kit with the Efficient 5360 ethernet modem, telephone line, ethernet cable, several line filters, and software on July 30th. My service completion date was not until July 31, but I installed all the equipment anyway. To say the least, I was pleasantly surprised when the modem gained sync within one minute. After all, I had heard all the horror stories about other DSL customers not having their connections live until weeks or months after their first completion date. Unfortunately, the software installation didn't go as smoothly. When I reached the registration page and submitted my account phone number the software kept returning me to that same page. However, I found this problem was easily solved by copying the URL and using a regular browser window for the registration. All went smoothly after that. I made a PPPoE connectoid on my desktop (Windows XP) and was online!!
Now that I've had the chance to use the connection for three days, I must say I'm disappointed with the speed. Currently I only receive 315 kbps down and 50-100 up. I have called tech support about the slow speeds twice. The first time I spent an hour on the phone doing traceroutes, pings, being advised to clear the cache which I do on a regular basis anyway, etc. None of the advice did anything to improve the speed. Finally I reached tier 2 tech support. I was advised that even though I signed up for 768/128 service, they start new customers out at about 384 and slowly crank up the speed to make sure the line can handle it. He said that if my speed doesn't improve after 10 days to call back. If the speed doesn't reach the 600-700 range before the 30-day trial period is up, I will cancel DSL and continue using cable.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of AT&T Midwest |
|
AT&T Midwest
(45)
(68)
·
·