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Review by mooboynyc 
UPDATED: 78 days ago
member for 4.9 years, 41 visits, last login: 40 days ago
 Media,Delaware,PA
 $85 per month (12 month contract)
 about 7 days
 Verizon
 "Helpful and knowledgable phone tech support"
 "Business connection went down for FOUR days"
 "A former long-time Cyberonic customer now decidedly dissatisfied."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
Data: Two accounts, home and business
Speed: 6.0/768 -- home connection degraded to 3.0/512
Price: Home line-shared DSL: $70/month + 5 IPs at $15/month; Busness dry copper line: $110/month (includes 5 IPs and taxes)
Equipment: Netopia 3347W (4 ethernet ports + wireless)
Connection: PPPoE (still can get additional static IPs)
Install Process:
Installation was rocky, but not Cyberonic's fault. They did their best to push the ILEC and CLEC to correct initial issues.
Significant notes:
Phone tech support is knowledgable and helpful. Emails to tech support usually went unanswered.
Having used Cyberonic for several years while living in NYC (on the MCI backbone then), and the network was incredibly stable. I chose them for both my home and business connections when I moved, a testament to their service at the time.
Things have changed.
DSL gives you some of the slowest of the "high speed" access around, and dealing with Cyberonic reselling Covad who is reselling Verizon copper means price mark-ups and repair delays. FiOS and cable give you much better speeds at lower prices.
The impetus for my recent change in service provider: my business line was down for FOUR days.
FOUR DAYS.
Though this was due to something that Verizon did to the line, Cyberonic was not proactive in getting the issue resolved. I'm paying business rates (i.e., arbitrarily inflated) for a dry copper line, and they do not have anyone monitoring my issue. Everything stalled until I called to ask for a status update and get someone to take action on resolving the problem. This may be acceptable for a residential connection, but not for a business.
To add insult to injury, they require 30 days notice for termination, so even though they get credit from Covad for period the line is unused, they pocket the difference.
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 Review by rwhubert
UPDATED: 302 days ago
member for 7.3 years, 2438 visits, last login: 28 days ago
Atlanta,Fulton,GA
$90 per month
about 30 days
Covad
"Reasonably reliable connection, Covad dryline"
"Abominably slow email servers, pricey rates"
"If you do not need 6 mbps, look elsewhere"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
I ordered Cyberonic 6 Mbps DSL over a Covad dryline about 3 years ago. It is $90 a month for 6 Mbps downstream. The dry line was installed by a Covad technician. They supplied a Brightport modem-router. The router reports 6016 sync.
Cyberonic's email servers are abominable. Remember 2400 bps modems? That's what it's like to wait on them. Often it never connects. SMTP, POP, webmail all glacial. Coincidentally I'm sure, after I downgraded my review of Cyberonic, my sync speed mysteriously dropped from 6016 + to 2016 ... safe mode.
I reported the low sync to Cyberonic tech support and they reset the connection. It then immediately returned to the normal 6016 that I'm paying for. Therefore, I'm upgrading this review slightly, but Cyberonic's email services remain the worst in the business.
Robert Hubert, Atlanta
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Review by jason02176
UPDATED: 2.6 years ago
member for 6.7 years, 45 visits, last login: 2.1 years ago
Melrose,Middlesex,MA
$49 per month (month by month)
about 41 days
Verizon
CLEC party: Covad
"Fast and Cheap. (For static IP)"
"Worthless customer service."
"Bare-bones broadband"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
|
UPDATE March 2007: After four years with Cyberonic I switched to FiOS. When I called to cancel Cyberonic they informed me that they had switched my month-to-month plan to an annual contract and that I was responsible for a $250 early termination fee. I don't recall ever seeing a notice to this effect, but whatever....
I can't complain about the four years of decent DSL service, but I feel a bit cheated on the termination fee. Luckily I only needed to pay for an extra month and a half to get to the end of my contract, but it's still $75 for essentially nothing.
Based on this and the fact that I had to find my own email, DNS and news servers (Cyberonic's are useless,) I'm lowering my "value" rank to 2. $49 a month for DSL (even with a static IP) just isn't as good of a deal as it was four years ago. (Oh, and since I'm at the max distance from my clec my 6.0/768 DSL was more like 1.5/384. I know that's not Cyberonic's fault, but it's still pretty slow for $49.)
UPDATE - It's been about 5 months, and everything has been very solid. Cyberonic's billing is kind of weird (they don't seem to bill on any particular schedule.) I haven't had to call customer service since my connection was live. Overall, Cyberonic is a very good deal for the money.
I canceled Speakeasy and switched to Cyberonic on January 15th. I wanted the faster upload speed (Speakeasy was 128kbps max, which translated to about 90kbps of useful bandwidth,) so that I could host some hobby related websites from home. I was also a bit annoyed that Speakeasy started charging extra for news groups. (The most expensive DSL around and newsgroups are extra????)
Most of the problems were due to the fact that Verizon (my telco) would not release my line. Cyberonic initially canceled my order (without telling me) for this reason. It took about 10 calls to Cyberonic to get them to put some pressure on Verizon to get my line released. I found that out of everyone I talked to, only Matt and Shiela were able to help. I think they hired the rest of the team from the McDonald's down the street. If you are having problems with Cyberonic, send an email to DSL@cyberonic.com and put "ATTN: Shiela or Matt" in the subject line. They both seem to work mornings, so try to call early. (If you call after 4:00pm, you will be on hold for hours and the "tech" will be useless.)
Once my line was clear my new DSL was activated very quickly. My Efficient 5861 router came via UPS ground about 5 days later. (Cyberonic was never able to supply me with a tracking number.) I'm happy now. I managed to get them to put my router in bridge mode and give me a static IP address (after about 1 1/2 hours on hold.) I used different DNS then they gave me (UUnet's Boston DNS as primary and NY as secondary.)
Speed is great now. Reliability seems great. I have over 600 kbps of upstream bandwidth, so webservers and shoutcast are no problem. I'm running my own email server, so I can't comment on Cyberonic's mail reliability. (Other posters say it's bad.)
If you just want a fast connection to the internet and don't care about email, DNS, news, or tech support, go with Cyberonic. Don't expect fast email and great tech support for $50 per month. If you need that stuff, try Speakeasy.
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Review by oberhaus
Posted: 2.9 years ago
member for 2.9 years, 29 visits, last login: 109 days ago
Palo Alto,Santa Clara,CA
$50 per month
SBC
"Worked great until Feb 2006"
"Total crap after Feb 2006, does not answer phone or reply to email"
"Don't do it."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings well below consensus)
|
When I signed up in 2003, it was a great deal: I got 1.5mb down, 768k up, static IP for $50. Self install was perfect. I also had an option to pre-pay for 18 months for $40 a month. I chose to pay $50 a month because I wanted the option to get out whenever I could--I've had plenty of bad ISP experience.
Cyberonic's good service ran out in Feb 2006 when they switched whatever it was they switched. Instead of first sending me the new modem that was required, they switched something over, and then sent the modem, which arrived more than a week later. So my service is completely down. Calls to tech support 3 times a day for a week were not answered or returned. Constant email ignored. Modem arrives with zero information. Finally I get one email from someone at Cyberonic that gave just enough info to get the new modem working.
So, my mistake was to not look a gift-horse in the mouth, and keep using the service. No one ever called me or asked if it was working... I was that close to cancelling it (it was down anyways), but once it started working again I just let it go.
About a month ago my service starts to get quite horrific. Ping times to Cyberonic's systems are around 1 second, not 20ms. To elsewhere in the world, similar or worse. Now I take action. I do not call Cyberonic to ask them to fix it. They are fired. I get a cable modem.
Here's the kicker--their "new and improved" service in Feb 2006 came with an automatic sign-up for a 1 one year contract! Does anyone know a lawyer that can tell us if that was even legal at all? Isn't that a unilateral contract modification that can't be binding? On top of that, I've STILL been paying the $50 a month I agreed to pay for the month-to-month.
When I call them and cancel the service, they "inform" me of the $99 cancellation fee. I tell them my story, and they ask "why aren't there any service tickets?" How can there be service tickets when no one answers the phone!
I'll just have to see if my credit card can refuse their charge.
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Review by murray9000
Posted: 3.3 years ago
member for 3.3 years, 3 visits, last login: 1.7 years ago
Oakland,Alameda,CA
$55 per month
SBC
CLEC party: Covad
"they used to be great under mci/worldcom"
"they suck now"
"AVOID CYBERONIC."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings well below consensus)
|
after 3+ years i've also jumped ship. uptime was just phenomenal while cyberonic was using mci/worldcom and i didn't have any probs initially after the switch to covad but after a few months of 6mb/768k service with the new briteport router i ran into problems. oddly enough i could ping google.com and common public dns servers, resolve hostnames and even telnet to smtp servers on port 25 and successfuly send mail via smtp but i couldn't surf at all, couldn't ssh anywhere and 'curl google.com' crawled at 200 bytes/sec. the first tech i spoke to [after the typical 30-60 mins of frank sinatra] repeatedly asked me to tell her what error message my browser was reporting. that was pretty disappointing but i suppose not uncommon for front-line phone support. she told me my problem would be escalated so i called back the next day [saturday], listened to more sinatra for about an hour and then spoke with a tech who was much more helpful. he had covad restict my line speed to 3mb and then 1.5mb to see if it would make a difference and also had me reconfigure my old efficient networks router. noise margins went up to 18-19db [healthy] and CRC errors stopped but the exact same problem persisted. i was then told that a covad tech would be dispatched to the CO the next business day. sounded fair to me, so i played along. i called again on sunday to check on the status of the trouble ticket and listened to more sinatra and was told that a covad technician was scheduled to head out to the CO on FRIDAY, not monday. very disappointing but the cyberonic tech agreed that this was unacceptable and told me that my ticket would be escalated again for quicker action by covad. well these so-called escalations had gotten me nowhere so far so i called again on monday to check the status of the ticket again and was told again [after another 20-30 mins of sinatra] that a covad tech would be checking the dslam at the CO on FRIDAY. i promptly cancelled my account. i don't expect any isp to fix problems immediately, some things just take time and that's a crappy fact of life but being lied to multiple times is unacceptable. they shouldn't have told me that a covad tech would be dispatched to the CO on monday if they did not have the means to make that happen.
i used to praise their service and recommend cyberonic to friends/coworkers looking for broadband but now i cannot stress more that cyberonic should be avoided and will treat you like a jerk if you get caught up in their bermuda triangle techsupport. this might be the right isp for you though if you're a big frank sinatra fan.
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Review by netguru23
Posted: 3.4 years ago
member for 3.4 years, 0 visits, last login: 3.4 years ago
Chicago,Cook,IL
$49 per month (month by month)
about 21 days
"Reliable service."
"Not cheap."
"Not worth the extra $$$. Go with AT&T or cable."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
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I got torched by Cyberonics when I recently moved. 2.5 yrs ago, I signed up for monthly contract at $49 which is $10 more a month over the annual contract ($39/mo for yr).
I called to say I no longer need service and I get informed they moved me to an annual contract. They stated notification came in a postcard thru USPS (uhh how reliable is that?) I never received this postcard. Regardless, how could they change the type of contract (from month-to-month to year) without acknowledgement from client?
So, cancelling my month-to-month service now costs $250!!! I spoke with their support/sales/billing dept and got an explanation that a postcard is sufficient for changing contract type.
Over the years, I have recommended Cyberonics to multiple friends/coworkers. Now, no way. It's not worth the extra cost plus when you cancel, bend over and prepared for some crazy logic they will use to charge you.
Use AT&T or cable. Same uptime but much cheaper!!! Using RCN now, no problems so far and cost combined with Cable/Phone/Internet (~$100/mo) is much cheaper than all services individually.
Followup comments:  jason02176
Premium
join:2003-02-27
Melrose, MA
| Same thing happened to me. I had a month-to-month with Cyberonic for around 3 years, but when FiOS became available in my area I jumped all over it. I called Cyberonic to cancel and they gave me that line about the "we sent you a postcard" crap. I only ended up paying for one extra month, but it's still pretty lame. (And I haven't actually seen the final bill yet, so it's possible that the guy in billing just told me that to get me off of the phone.)
Cyberonic is good for cheap DSL if need a static IP, but be aware of shady business practices. | |
| | | |
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Review by marcoesc
UPDATED: 3.5 years ago
member for 9.3 years, 55 visits, last login: 92 days ago
Scotts Valley,Santa Cruz,CA
$49 per month
about 18 days
SBC
CLEC party: WorldCom
"NONE in 2006, prior it was FLAWLESS hotswap from DefuncTV; amazing speeds"
"UNCHANGED: phones are always busy, they don't return calls or answer e-mails, empty promises, BOTCHED SERVICE DOWNGRADE"
"The king is dead. Poor service at a premium price. Look elsewhere."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings well below consensus)
|
UPDATE (5/2006): After several years of high quality service, I just cancelled my Cyberonic DSL. I've long been a Cyberonic supporter, and wholeheartedly recommended them to friends. (Never mind the fact that they never came through and gave a referral credit...just another empty Cyberonic promise!)
For me the end came around their recent change in service providers. I received a VIP postcard describing the upcoming change and registered online, received a confirmation e-mail, and then NOTHING. A week or so later, my line went dead.
Just as with many people on this site, I spent hour after hour trying to reach technical support. Left the messages, but we all know what happens with those. (I don't think Cyberonic *ever* returned a phone call or answered an e-mail in my years as a customer.) When I finally got a support rep on the line, he patiently spent over 90 minutes walking me through manually reconfiguring my modem (since they did not send me any instructions prior to the switch.) After extensive hands-on, I was again up and running.
For me, the last straw was their inability to deliver the promised faster speeds. I chose to upgrade to their 6.0/768 plan, but the faster speeds never arrived. This lead to even more time wasted on hold, trying to get a support rep. Followed by FOUR different promised dates for the speed upgrade, each one of them false. Finally I spoke to a sales rep, who thought that 6MB may not be available to me (after many promises it was coming)...the rep promised to get a definitive answer and call me back...yet another unreturned call from Cyberonic.
So despite many hours wasted with Cyberonic tech support, and high levels of frustration trying to get my promised service, Cyberonic never came through. Lies, broken promises, only to deliver a severely degraded service. (After the change my speeds were slower, Web latency much higher, some sites were unavailable, and they TOOK AWAY USENET ACCESS.)
Finally I called Comcast to see what they could provide. They sent an installer *the next morning* who hooked up our cable internet. I now get consistent downloads of up to 16Mbps...over ten times faster than Cyberonic...plus tech support that answers the phones.
I was really loyal to Cyberonic, hyped them up whenever possible, and encouraged friends to use their services. In response, they never followed through on their referral program, degraded my level of service, and totally left us hanging when our DSL unexpectedly went dark.
BUH-BYE Cyberonic. It was nice while it worked. At least with the old Cyberonic, I knew I was getting great bandwidth at a good price, in exchange for diminished support services. Now that they've cut the bandwidth and reduced the quality of service, why is it that we're supposed to support this "little guy"?
CYBERONIC is a ZERO. LOOK ELSEWHERE for quality broadband.
---
UPDATE (2/5): It's been over two weeks since I was switched to bridged mode, and the tech support guy (Ken) promised to set up my three e-mail accounts the SAME DAY if I e-mailed the request directly to him. I did so, and sent THREE followups, and still no e-mail accounts. Cyberonic makes promises to get you off the phone (we'll have someone call you back; send it by e-mail, etc.) with no intention of keeping the promise.
Today I called to try and get in touch with the sales department. When I signed up, they were offering an affiliate program. Since I produce an Internet-distributed TV show, I can influence a lot of people looking for broadband with fast uploads. So I'm interested in the program. (Though with this customer service, I'm having second thoughts...)
The program info was never sent along with my contract, as was promised. A second phone call to the sales guy asking for the info, and it never arrived. Two unanswered e-mails. So today I called the toll free number, and was dropped immediately into Frank Sinatra Hell (hold). Almost an hour later the phone is answered, I request the affiliate information, and I'm told "you must speak with sales; this is technical support." CRAP!
I'm given another direct line to sales: 888-359-4545, which is continually busy.
I've lowered my pre-sales, tech support, and value ratings because they are not delivering on pre-sales promises, tech support doesn't follow through, and while the bits are fast, this is getting more and more frustrating. Kind of like dealing with Telocity in the early days. Arrrrrrrrrgh.
UPDATE: Dealing with Cyberonic (especially Tech Support) requires extensive persistence and insistance. Persist in listening to the blasted Frank Sinatra CD loop. And insist that they put you in touch with a tech NOW, rather than leaving a message.
With my DSL working nicely, I wanted to establish the static IP address I was promised. On 1/17 I sent an e-mail to dsl@cyberonic.com requesting "Would you please send me my static IP address and configuration information? My service number is 831-XXX-XXXX, name MY NAME"
The morning of 1/18 I received my first e-mail reply, which said "You're currently on step 5. Step 5 is the Installation. If your router has already been delivered you may follow the instructions in the package and install your DSL router...If you would like to configure your router to utilize your Static IP address please contact Tech Support to configure your router."
Great...I had e-mailed them asking for tech support to set up my Static IP address, and they replied telling me to ask tech support to set up my Static IP address.
I sent right back another e-mail, to the DSL and SUPPORT e-mail addresses, saying "I am ready for you to configure my router to use my static IP address,
as referenced below. Please do so."
1/19 in the afternoon I got an e-mail back with my IP address, Gateway IP address, and DNS servers. But no instructions about switching my router, or what I was supposed to do with this info. (I know what to do with the numbers, but doesn't it require Cyberonic to switch over my router?) I've got numbers, but am not in bridged mode yet to use them.
So I sent another message back, asking "Thank you Sheila. What needs to be done on your end to switch my router from dynamic IP to the new settings? The last Tech Support email says: " If you would like to configure your router to utilize your Static IP address please contact Tech Support to configure your router." Here we are. How do I configure my router?"
I got another e-mail right back from Sheila saying "Sorry for the confusion. Sam is the one handling your Cisco router. He will be in on Tuesday. You will get answer when he comes in."
OK, fine. But on Monday my service stopped working. Guessing that perhaps tech support had switched me over to bridged mode early, I entered the IP info for my system. No luck. So around 3pm I called for tech support.
Several calls with busy signals, then finally someone answers saying "Cyberonic, please hold" and immediately put me on hold. I hung up and called right back, about ten busy signals, and then got through again, same woman answered, and before she could put me on hold I said "Tech Support please!". "Please hold" was the answer.
(Note that the following times are not exaggerated; I made notes of them)
A fifteen minute wait, and the call is answered by someone who asks for all my information. I explain the problem, and ask for tech support; they ask me to hold for tech support. Another thirty minutes later, another person answers the line. I asked "are you tech support?" and they answered "ummmmmmm..." and proceeded to again ask me for my information and problem. I again explained it, and he said "please give me your name and number and I'll have someone call you back." This pissed me off, and I let him know it. "I've been on hold for 45 minutes to leave a message? HELL NO. The first person should have done that. And besides, your support people don't return calls. Put me in the support queue." "Please hold" and I'm back to Frank Sinatra.
Another 15 minutes and a woman answers the call. Again I explain my situation and give my contact info; again she looks me up in the system. Asks which equipment I have (it's the Cisco 678) and says "please hold for a Cisco tech."
I then wait another ten minutes, for a total of 75 minutes into the process, before my call is answered by Ken in Tech Support. Explain the problem. He logs right into my router, says a few magic words, and says "there we go, you're up and running." Cool! While I have him on the line, I ask him to put me in bridged mode and set up my static IP address. Again no problem, a few magic words, and we're good to go. So he proceeds to read me my IP info, which is ENTIRELY DIFFERENT from what Sheila had sent me a few days earlier. Put in the correct info and I'm running fine and with my static IP address.
Since I had Ken on the line, and he is clearly competent. I asked him to e-mail me the correct IP info (for my records) and to set up three e-mail accounts for me. He was happy to do so, but he asked that I send the e-mail requests to ken@cyberonic.com and he would do it later that day. I sent off the e-mail and now it's a week later, but I've heard nothing back.
Cyberonic offers good service, and they have talented people there. But their contact process is a clusterfark. Contact via e-mail is either not answered, or they provide incorrect information. We've all commented on the tedious telephone process with Cyberonic, but I can't help but wonder why THREE people had to ask for my full information before transferring me to the fourth, who was able to help. How many of their people there are spinning around in circles, clueless, passing along the customer?
I'm happy with the DSL I'm getting, and know that I can get support from Cyberonic. But I won't trust them to return a call, nor will I depend on e-mail support. My advise to everyone else if you have tech problems is to get ready for time on hold, INSIST upon speaking to a tech, and then again INSIST upon speaking to a tech. Waiting 75 min for tech support during crunch time is not unreasonable. But waiting almost an hour to be asked to leave a message is incompetent.
I have downgraded some of my reviews, as Install Coordination is pretty poor (too many phone calls, incorrect info on their Web site) and Mail/DNS/News (still don't have mail working, DNS seems sometimes shaky, and they have incorrect news server info on their support site), and Tech Support (competent, but only after you fight your way to a real tech.)
-----
Original review:
I'm a Telocity/DirecTV refugee who learned of Cyberonic through the forums here at DSLReports. I produce live music TV programming, and push a lot of bits around the Internet. So I've long been interested in service with decent upload speeds at a reasonable price. DirecTV was only giving 128 up, which meant uploads of no faster than 11KBps.
Cyberonic was kind enough to waive the setup fee for a big group of us from the boards here, and negotiated "HotSwap" transfers. This meant, in theory, we could be switched with a downtime of only a few hours, compared to several weeks via the normal process. I received my self install kit about a week ago, and waited for my DirecTV service to die.
This morning when I fired up the computer around 9am, the Internet connection was not working. Hot swap in process. I ran some errands and returned at 11am to try out the new service.
I unplugged my old Telocity "brick" and plugged in the new Cisco 678 DSL router sent by Cyberonic. I just used the existing phone and ethernet cables. And things didn't work.
Looking for a manual to the router, I found Cisco only includes CDs for documentation. And you can't browse them without installing several pieces of software. Pretty annoying, but I eventually got into the manual and saw the instruction saying "Connect the Ethernet CROSSOVER cable between your PC and the router". D'oh! This needs a special Ethernet cable, provided. Swapped the cable and I was live, with blazing speed.
Logged on to an FTP server and uploaded a show of mine...solid 70KBps up! WOO HOO! DSLReports speed tests show a solid 1300 down, 650 up.
This is great! I hope they can keep it up, and stay in business!
Marco
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 Review by FUBARinSFO
UPDATED: 3.6 years ago
member for 3.6 years, 33 visits, last login: 119 days ago
Oakland,Alameda,CA
$50 per month (month by month)
SBC
CLEC party: MCI
"Speeds used to be good for money T1 down/ 1/2 T1 up"
"Outbound email blocked by Spamhaus.org for last three months"
"Do not subscribe until they fix the spam blocking problem"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
|
To update this post, the spamhaus.org problem was eventually fixed sometime late last year. My last email complaint to them was in the middle of November 2005. Either the problem got fixed then, or I simply stopped sending them notices.
In any case, I've terminated my service with Cyberonic.com. As a result of the switchover to Covad backbone from MCI/uunet, my transfer speeds have been cut in half, at least. I will handle this in another post, but from the looks of others on BBR the subject of the botched and mangled changeover to Covad seems to have already been pretty well documented.
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Review by juancho
UPDATED: 3.7 years ago
member for 9.1 years, 91 visits, last login: 2.3 years ago
San Francisco,San Francisco,CA
$45 per month
SBC
CLEC party: Covad
"OK Speed - Sometimes.. Good price if the service were better."
"No Follow-through, Bad DNS Servers. Useless mail, no news."
"No-frills unreliable speed w. no mail or news & spotty DNS connectvity - not for end-users."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings well below consensus)
|
Update #6 - 3/2006
OK - So the US gets civilized nation speeds finally.... Not so fast, pardner. One little line upgrade, ostensibly to 6Mbps - mishandled and gone wrng in every way possible:
First, Cyberonic sends out the new modem (for the line upgrade, apparently) without notifying, even by email, that theree will be an outage.
Then, when the line has been down for a day, the modem arrives - cost? Countless lost emails and at least an hour sending out emails & calling tewch support trying to get through.
Then, when the modem arrives & Covad handles the install, everything is rosy - until I run a speed test & see that we're at the old speed. My mistake to bring this up because:
then they "upgrade" my line - at 4.Mbps down, I am impressed. But everything is funky - I can't even log on to hotmail or open table withoyt getting timed out... Huh? So I run a speed test. 4.5Mbps down, 8kbps up - 8kbps = about 1/7th the speed of dialup. So I call Covad again & they say they can't doa thing unless Cyberonic calls them. So I start leaving Cyberonic messages on their phone (they don't pick up tech suppport, remember?) and emailing. Three days later I get this brilliant answer back - send us the results of your speed test. Now, I ask you - How the heck am I supposed to do that if I can't use email? - And this all is just to get them to open a trouble-ticket with
Covad....
Finally today - NINE DAYS after I went down, I got ahold of a responsible sounding person at Cyberonic, by calling the Sales department. OK - so I am still down, but at least it will be interesting to see if they can get the problem fixed before a competent ISP installs a line I can use in my house.
Update #5 - After the final chapter.... 3/5/2003
Well, it seems things are improving at Cyberonic - I called support again today (they will never answer an email, I think...) and got through in real time, plus I got a guy who seemed a little green but very responsible and responsive. He heard me out and tried to find solutions to the problems. Their mail server is being used to relay viruses & they know it & are working on the problem accounts. - This is hardly a realistic solutioon from an infrastructure perspective (why the hell don't they have virus filters on their firewalls? They can buy a SonicWall Pro for what? $1500 & be done with the problem?) but the fact that they are actually doing somethign about the problem is brand new. And as for my new speed problem, I got an annoying tech support red tape shower (Q - do you have any 900MHz phones on this line? A - Yes, just like I have or 5 years and had when I was getting 4x the upload speed I am getting now, 2 weeks ago. Q - OK, diconnect them & call us tomorrow if the problem persists.)
OK - That's a bit foolish given the info, but at least I expect to call them tomorrow, repeat the info I gave them today on the phone and literally 15 times over again on email, and start getting somewhere with the speed issue... BIG improvement over 2 weeks ago.
I upgrade them from the worst ISP ever to "needs improvement"...
Update #4 - the final chapter - 2/28/2003
Believe it or not - 2 open issues for a month, 15 emails to support in the last 24 hours (useless to try to get through on the phon) and no reply. Fortunately, reading another bad review of this little disaster, I found DNSes that work. Needless to say, they don't belong to Cyberonic. Now everything looks much rosier, because I am using the line Cyberonic brokered, and their gateway, but running my own mail server and using a 3rd party's DNSs....
Update #3 - 2/27/2003
OK - Another workday lost... Reading another damnig review of Cybermoronic, I found a user who discovered he could use SBC's DNS servers - which actually work! - Thank God - I am sort of back online. Again - if it's not too late - run as far as you can from these people - they are as irresponsible as any ISP I have ever seen. No technical support, no follow-through no professionals, and no service - ugly embarassment, really.
Update #2 - 2/27/2003
Well, I ran some speed tests(took 3 tries with the failing connection) and not only is the connection garbage and their support non-existent, but the speed is down to under 1/3 the advertised now too (for upload), so the one argument for maybe getting them is slowly slipping away - I smell crash & burn...
Update 2/27/2003
Well, it's been 2 months since I signed the contract andover 1 since I got "connected"... I have only one e-mail account from them (though the contract says 5) which works maybe one time in 10, and have been waiting 15 days for a call-back on my connectivity problem - either the DNS servers or the gateway stop talking for a couple of minutes out of every 15 or so.
This is the worst ISP I have ever dealt with, and they seem in no rush to fix much of anything. "Fools rush in"...
//
Their 18-month $39 1500/768 Static IP ADSL deal was too good to pass up, so I took it. Their sales are clearly overwhelmed by the DirecTV windfall, because I had to initiate every contact myself, push on the contract, call and explicitly ask for IPS for me, the gateway, the DNS, etc. Though the contract includes 5 mail boxes, I called many times, holding for as long as 1:20 to get through each time, and every time my acounts were set up, they never worked, and had disappeared by the time I called again. i.e. Cyberonic is not honoring their contract, and they do not return e-mails or phone calls, though they often say they will. 1 month later, I set up my own e-mail server to work around their problem.
Bottom line - beleaguered and under-trained support staff coupled with very marginal documentation on their systems means a very rough ride. The DNS serves choke for 1 to 2 minutes at a time everty 30 or so. But the speed is lovely.
If their offer sounds too good to be true, it is. But what you manage to get out of it is still good value for the money.
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Review by djxfight
UPDATED: 3.7 years ago
member for 7.4 years, 53 visits, last login: 3.7 years ago
San Francisco,San Francisco,CA
$39 per month (18 month contract)
about 31 days
SBC
"no downtime"
"poor communication"
"Not for the average consumer."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings well below consensus)
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Thinking of using Cyberonic? I just canceled them after trying to upgrade to their advertised 6.0 down speeds. Why you ask?
THE BAD:
1. after signing up for the upgrade, i did not recieve notice of the switch over date.
2. one evening my dsl went down, due to the planed upgrade but I was unaware of it.
3. multiple attempts to contact tech support after new modem arrived.
4. so-so tech support.
5. made a mistake configuing the router's subnet address and from there on, I could not access the config page anymore. Called tech support and they said they can try to reconfig, but the modem they sent me blocks those ports so the couldn't do squat! Told me a techician had to come on-site... wtf.
6. too costly for DSL, 46 bucks for 6 down.
THE GOOD:
1. After years with them, they were responsive to emails and phone support.
2. No downtime.
3. Static IP
Bottome line:
Go with someone else to get more bang for your buck. I switched to SBC Yahoo for 17.99/mo for 12 months. 3.0 down and 400 up.
PREVIOUS POST ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------
I've got dial-up speeds for the past month from cyberonic.
I'm in San Francisco and Cyberonic says MCI is doing some hardware upgrades. So when the heck will it be done! Who's to blame.. Cyberonic or MCI?
Is anyone else getting messed up speeds? I signed 18 month contract so I'm stuck. I was at least told by a Cyberonic support dude I would recieve some type of credit for during the upgrade period. I'll leave my ratings the same but I just want my sweet speed back!!!!!!! Here's the speed test from a few mins ago:
2003-05-06 02:59:08 EST: 140 / 78
Your download speed : 140439 bps, or 140 kbps.
A 17.1 KB/sec transfer rate.
Your upload speed : 78003 bps, or 78 kbps.
Compare that to my previous speeds and Yikes.
Please let me know if you are gettin messed up speeds and in SF so I know I'm not alone and we can create a larger complaint to Cyberonic if this goes on for TOO LONG.
OLD REVIEW BELOW----------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----
Ok lets keep it short and to the point:
Saw high stars on dslreports bout' cyberonic. Didn't want pac-hell & dynamic IP.
Poll showed most people were going with small comapny called cyberonic.
Cyberonics' Web site was ugly and not informative. Bud decided to go with the the low cost DSL.
01/01/03 Called to order, Faxed contract for 18months
01/12/03 Modem came
01/21/03 DTV got disconnected, cyberonic told me this would be the hotswap date but no link on CYB modem.
After that I called almost everyday for 1 HOUR holds and was told to call back to check.
So I just waited and waited till one morning 2/01/03, I woke up to see a link light on the modem.
2/02/03 Called to set my modem to Bridge mode. Hung up, bridge mode doesn't work. Tech dude probably did something wrong.
2/03/03 Called again said, I got no link light and bridge mode ain't working.
He rebooted and set to bridge mode and it worked.
So I'm a happy camper, it was worth the wait and you can't blame them for being overloaded with ex-DTV people. Hope they stick around cuz I paid 18 months of DSL.
Cyberonic Line Speed:
2003-02-04 00:33:51 Speed test (wc) 1051/658 kbps
2003-02-02 22:09:52 Speed test (wc) 1292/653 kbps
2003-02-01 14:09:03 Speed test (wc) 1293/653 kbps
2003-02-01 14:05:36 Speed test (wc) 1293/651 kbps
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CYBERONIC INTERNET COMMUNICATIONS INC
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90 a month???