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Review by rhf 
Posted: 3 days ago
member for 5 years, 37 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Davis,Yolo,CA
 $27 per month (12 month contract)
 about 7 days
 AT&T
 "Fairly easy web site, chat support competent, DSL works as advertised"
 "The nominal $25/mo is higher with Fed fees; 7 day wait a bit long eh?"
 "Good value for price, but it's only been 1 day ;)"
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Foolishly left my local ISP (Omsoft) looking for a little better price/performance with ATT. ATT was a complete disaster and after a week I went to DSL Extreme, still looking for a better deal.
DSLX has a fairly straightforward and easy to use web site with their different packages. Further the website will determine your max speed given your address, so it makes an attempt at some honesty, far better than ATT. Though I managed to get the web site to give me two answers so finally I called to make sure. I was a little disappointed that I couldn't try it for just a month, but then the setup fee was $100, even though I had a DSL modem. Anyway later that day I signed up for the 12-month contract, nominal $25/month plus some FCC fee, 1500-3000 / 384-512 kbs.
ATT in their stupidness had not even shipped the cheap DSL modem they promised and that order was pending which screwed up DSLX for a couple of days until I could call ATT and get them tuned up. But DSLX notified me of the problem quickly by their web page and email. After 7 days total I'm now on DSLX, right in the middle of their speed range up and down, so job done.
DSLX's chat support folks are helpful and knowledgable. No outsourced folks reading scripts!
Wish they would have given me some kind of discount for having my own modem.
And can someone explain why two "local" ISPs can make DSL work on ATT equipment....but ATT cannot make it work??
Followup comments:  striker325
join:2009-08-11
Pacoima, CA | support Is the tech support better than att dsl ? | |
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Review by SJ95111
UPDATED: 4 days ago
Fair warning: reviewer joined this month
San Jose,Santa Clara,CA
$49 per month (12 month contract)
about 5 days
AT&T
"Quick, Good costumer services. 5 days to complete installed"
"Will continue update dsl Extreme connection"
"Best DSL service"
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I ordered package 6mb/down &786kb up 8 static ips package. Service ups running after 5 bussines day. Dsl Extreme has very good costumer services.
Tested @ speedtest.net, speakeasy.net the speed I had 5.1mb down and 500kb up. It's not really good for 5.000 feet away from CO. My SONIC.NET was give me more than that (almost hit max).
The reason I cancel SONIC after 8 years with them because their did not take good care of senior costumer.
I had 2 connections, Comcast & Sonic (now Dsl extreme) run dual wan router. So far dsl extreme was good. I should give them a A+
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Review by suvid76
UPDATED: 4 days ago
member for 3.7 years, 13 visits, last login: 4 days ago
San Francisco,San Francisco,CA
$66 per month (12 month contract)
AT&T
"Quick, knowledge, overall great service."
"None yet. Any connection problems I've had have been due to AT&T related issues."
"Best DSL service I've had to date."
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It would take a much better deal to have me switch to another DSL provider. Though what I pay may seem a lot to some people, I believe I get more that my money's worth on my connection and service. There are cheaper service plans but I am quite happy with my plan and the customer service. I had thought about going with highspeed through cable but after a few comparisons and surfing the neighbors comcast highspeed, my DSL plan was at minimum equal to, but more often than not, faster than cable.
Cost breakdown:
Current: 49.95 + Supplier Surcharge Recovery Fee 2.88 = 52.83
My current package:
Static IP with 8 IP addresses
3000-6000 Kbps download (3-6Mbps)
512-768 Kbps upload
Installation Type:
Self Install. I had no issues. They say setup takes about 5-10 business days. It took about 5 days for me.
Equipment provided:
D-Link DSL-2320B
Experiences with techincal support:
I'm a IT person and when I have a techincal issue, I run through all the basic checks to try an resolve the issue before I call support. With my past providers, when I call, they would still waste my time with level 1 support even after I explained that I have gone through all the basic checks in detail. Often I my self check is more thorough than what they ask me to do and still, they would still have my go through it again and waste 10-20 minutes of my time. With DSLextreme techincal support, I would tell them what I did and they would quick make sure that I had checked everything, run a few quick tests and send the problem to level 2 or above. They don't waste my time and they are also very friendly through out the process.
Overall, if you are looking to get DSL, get DSLextreme.
** Any DSL issues I've had have been either area outages or AT&T issue.
** I'm about 12k feet from my CO.
Update 11-24-2009
Today my Internet went down. I ran through the basic checks as always before chatting with Tech Support. We quickly figured out it was a Modem issue and a replacement is being sent. I have a spare modem with is an older broadmax modem it worked fine so a new modem is being sent to me. As always the tech support guys are very friendly. It's been quite a while since I had to use tech support.
I also update my rate plans too and modem used. For people looking to get dslextreme, my pricing is more expensive because I have static IP. Normally the same speed with dynamic IP would cost $32.95.
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Review by Drag0nz
Posted: 10 days ago
member for 44 days, 8 visits, last login: 7 days ago
San Francisco,San Francisco,CA
$22 per month
about 6 days
AT&T
"Customer service reachable in about 3 minutes and can answer questions quickly."
"-->None<--"
"You get what you pay for!"
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So after being ripped off by AT&T for waaaay to long I took the advice of their customer service representative and went ahead and found a better ISP. I was not willing to pay the prices of comcast's IPS fees, even though it's really really fast, I found DSL Extreme's prices for the download speeds offered to my service area acceptable. Long story short AT&T corporate shortened the loop wire in my service area because people were getting spotty connection rates vs. what they were paying for in contrast to still having to pay 3000kbps prices and receiving between 1500-1750kbps for 2+ years and then all of a sudden drop to a range of 560-890kbps for 4 months then dropping to 200-560kbps for 2 months. The most recent phone conversation with AT&T they explained that they could not offer me the 1500kbps that I was battling to keep at the onset of issues but only 768kbps, receiving only about 1/2-2/3's the speed, because the corporate office's computer software won't allow them to process the order even though I was just transferred from a DSL line tech saying that my line could handle 4100kbps and the week before I had a AT&T field tech testing and verifying that my line to the box and from the box to my modem CAN handle 1500kbps. She had gotten to the point of frustration for my demand to know why for several years I was overcharged and under served and when i made a stink about wanting to lower my costs they can no longer supply the 1500kbps stream that I had just even a few months earlier and to "do what you got to do" to find an ISP that can deliver what I want. DSL Extreme wasn't able to offer anything above the 1500kbps level for my service area, right now, but paying a fair price and GETTING the 1500kbps stream from the ISP is GREAT! Good job DSL Extreme 2 thumbs up!
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Review by rodr
UPDATED: 12 days ago
member for 7 years, 80 visits, last login: 12 days ago
Fairfield,Solano,CA
$60 per month (month by month)
about 6 days
SBC
"Good service, reasonable prices, static IP"
"Customer Service needs help"
"A good value but with occasional connection issues"
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*** Update 11-16-2009 ***
This is to note that I dropped DSLX at the end of September 2009, having switched to Comcast Business Class which turns out to have faster speeds and more reliability here. See my Comcast review about that. In spite of the initial success reported in my previous update, occasional severe packet loss continued to be a recurring problem. I expect that was due to AT&T, but still DSLX was the company I was dealing with.
*** Update 11-25-2007 ***
Just wanted to mention that I've been a satisfied DSLX user now for 5 years! During this time I've had occasional trouble with lost sync or packet loss, but last week AT&T finally came out and dug up the sidewalk to fix some weather-damaged wires. Too early to tell if that will make a difference, but indications are very good so far.
*** Update 3-5-2004 ***
Well I can no longer complain about expensive additional static IPs. It seems that DSLX will soon be offering 2 extra ones for free via a web interface. Way to go guys!
Now how about fixing your web site so it works properly with Mozilla? 
*** Update 2-24-2004 ***
Just wanted to mention that I upgraded to the 6000/608 plan when it was initially offered. DSLX did it smoothly and with no hassles. My last speed test indicates 5045 Kbps downstream and 517 upstream. Strangely, Sonic.net (from whom I had a backup account) was unable to do the same thing, claiming that SBC would not let them enter the order because I'm too far (9,684 feet) from the RT. Both lines report the same distance.
So, reluctantly I canceled Sonic and and am trying to find other options for redundancy. I'd go with another DSLExtreme account in a heartbeat except it would be too much duplication (i.e. if they mess something up, chances are both lines will be down).
*** Original review follows ***
Having just moved to northern Fairfield, I did a lot of checking around and chose DSL Extreme because they had reasonable reviews here and could offer service through the PacBell RT in my neighborhood.
On taking possession of the new house with two brand-new working phone lines, i called to order service. Remarkably, they would not take my order, saying I had to do it on the web site. What a way to run a business! Did nobody there think that if someone already has a working Internet connection, maybe they would not NEED their service? Duh. So, back to the old house, where fortunately I still had the computers hooked up, to enter my order.
I chose their 768/256 month-to-month plan with a self-install and my own modem from previous ADSL service (note that other reviewers here have warned of poor quality modems supplied by this ISP).
That was on Friday, 11/15. I had heard nothing from DSL Extreme but the following Thursday, the DSL line rings. It's a PacBell technician saying he just finished hooking up DSL. Sure enough, my SpeedStream 5260 modem syncs up. However I have no idea what my IP address and such are.
Calling DSLE Customer Service, I explain the situation and am told that PacBell could not possibly have enabled service yet, and the technician was probably just "testing the line". I said NO THAT'S NOT RIGHT I HAVE MODEM SYNC. The rep puts me on hold for a couple of minutes, and then says "well we can charge your credit card for the first month and give you your setup instructions, and maybe it will work". OK, whatever. They emailed me the instructions and informed me that my "turn on date" is 11/26, still 5 days away.
So I configure the (Linux) machine, but the gateway is not reachable. Calling Customer Service back to see if they can do their setup early, I am told flatly "sir thats the earliest possible turn on date we can get for you".
That makes no sense. I call DSL Extreme Tech Support. The guy says "no problem" and 5 minutes later everything works. Speed tests show about 900K downloads and 245K uploads.
It's too early to pronounce judgment on service quality/reliability, but right now I'm a happy camper. Aside from the clueless CS rep and sales policies, the only bad point is that additional IPs are $8 each. In retrospect I think Sonic.net (also highly rated) might have been a better deal for me, because while they are $5/month more expensive for the same basic service, you can get up to 8 additional IPs at no extra charge.
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 Review by g0nepostal
UPDATED: 22 days ago
member for 8.6 years, 2038 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Concord,Contra Costa,CA
$23 per month (12 month contract)
about 8 days
AT&T
"Sickeningly easy to get provisioned, connection is smooth and reliable; tech support is top notch"
"None so far"
"GET IT!"
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Placed my online order for 6 Mbps / 768Kbps down/up service on August 25th, for the promotional 1-year contract price of $29.95/month (plus fees). I then received a notification that the highest speed my line could be provisioned for is 3Mbps / 512Kbps, at the 1-year contract rate of $19.95/month (plus fees). I went ahead with the second option, since I want to ditch my cable modem (see my review of Astound Broadband).
Order is set to go live on 09/01/2009, using my own modem. I run a telephone cable from the outside ATT/SBC demarc box to my bedroom and connect the modem, and note that I can't get on. After calling DSLX tech support and getting some rather awesome help from tech rep Rolando (this is a shot out to you, bud - you get double points for calling me back when we got disconnected) I manage to get online at 832Kbps down / 512Kbps up.
Rolando did note that the downstream speed was quite low - especially since the line had already been provisioned at 100% of the 3Mbps by ATT. However, since I was very happy that I was online I thanked Rolando for helping me get my modem set up and ended the call.
I then decided to try moving the modem to another phone jack, using a splitter/filter combo (your basic home DSL set up). After doing that I am now getting my full menu of 3Mbps down / 512Kbps up, so the slower speed I had before was due to my bad wiring job (I ended up removing the line I ran to my bedroom and will have ATT install a line instead).
Service is rock-solid reliable and the speed remains constant; I will update this review after I have been online for a while and can better discuss how DSLX does long-term. For now however I am quite happy with the service.
DSLX rocks!
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Update: I am having some loss of sync issues - you can read about these in the DSLX forum. They look like the telco's problem though - and George from DSLX has been quite responsive in reading about my issue in the forum and trying to help me out. My original review stands. 
Update (09/07/2009): DSLX scheduled a truck roll with ATT and the technician came out today. He removed the MTU on the telephone circuit and now I am running smoothly. Not bad at all.
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Update (09/16/2009): Last weekend we here in the Bay Area had some rather interesting weather in the form of heavy thunderstorms with light rain. For whatever reason - I am presuming that it was electromagnetic interference from the lightning - my downstream sync rate dropped from 3008 kbps to 1888 kbps. I easily fixed this by resetting my modem.
Other than that the connection has been smooth.
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Update (11/06/2009): It has been a little over two months now and after a few setup hiccups (bad line filters, an MTU that needed to be removed from the phone circuit by ATT) my connection has been smooth and speedy. I'm very satisfied.
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 Review by jdmurray
UPDATED: 27 days ago
member for 8.7 years, 848 visits, last login: 27 days ago
Huntington Beach,Orange,CA
$60 per month (12 month contract)
about 23 days
"It's sure a lot faster than frame relay DSL over copper"
"It took a very long time and a lot of effort to get it running properly"
"The jury is still out..."
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• What other options did you consider for broadband?
I've had Verizon's copper DSL for nearly ten years with Flashcom, SurfCity, and HyperSurf as my ISPs. Verizon installed FiOS in my neighborhood in 2007, but I didn't like the packages and prices, so I never subscribed. In late 2009, I discovered that I could have FiOS installed and DSL Extreme (DSLX) as my ISP, so I jumped on it.
• What SPEED/package did you order, at what monthly price?
Ultra 20M/20M residential fiber service for only $60/mo from DSLX. This is a much better bargain over my old 1.5M/512K copper DSL service for $33/mo.
• How was the order & install process?
The installation and installers were great. The subcontractor that ran the fiber from the junction in the street to my house was very proud of the drill they used. No trenches needed to be dug in my yard, and the fiber was run to my side yard without me needing to be home. The patches in the street are very clean, and they removed all their spray paint from my walkways and driveway. A very professional job.
The Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) installation of the ONT and router did require my presence to let the Verizon installer into my garage. The whole process took about 2.5 hours. A very clean installation, but I wish the coax inside my garage was a little longer. The 2' run out of my wall doesn't leave me with many options for positioning the router.
The installation of the fiber and CPE cost me nothing.
• What brand/model was the supplied equipment?
The original router installed was a Westell 9100EM. Due to troubleshooting (explained below), an Actiontec MI424WR was what I ended up with.
• What good or bad experiences most struck you?
Getting actual, full-speed connectivity over the Verizon network was a nightmare. I have friends who had DSLX/FiOS installed in their residences and they had full service immediately. I still had no service 18 hours after the installation, and only a yellow Internet light on my router. I called DSLX tech support and they said that, "Technically, Verizon has 24 hours to turn on their service." With still no service after 24 hours, I called DSLX back and, after eventually talking with a Verizon guy, they blamed it on some sort of "72-hour outage" occurring in the Verizon network, and that was causing my connectivity problem. This didn't give me a good feeling about the reliability of FiOS, but residential customers don't have an SLA, so I waited.
72 hours later, I called back DSLX/Verizon and reported that the Internet light on my router was now green, my router now had a DCHP address from the WAN, and could ping its gateway, but I had no connection to the DNS servers, and I could not ping any hosts on the Internet by their IP address. It took Verizon several more days to fix why I couldn't get out on to the Internet, and I have no idea what the problem was. Anyway, I was now able to ping the likes of yahoo.com. However, I now had a new problem: the fiber connection speed was worse than dial-up!
I called back DSLX/Verizon and the Verizon tech now decided that because no one else in my area was complaining about poor connectivity, either my brand new, fresh-out-of-the-box router, or ONT, was bad. The router was the easiest to replace, so they shipped me out one; it arrived four days later. I replaced my Westell 9100EM with an Actiontec MI424WR, but it could not get a DCHP address from the WAN. The Verizon tech didn't realize that the ONT is keyed to the MAC address of the router, and that the ONT needed to be reprogrammed for the MAC address of the new router. I could have fixed this by cloning the old router's MAC to the new router, but the ONT is apparently easy to re-provision from the network side. My new router's Internet light finally went green, but my connectivity was no better.
I again called back DSLX/Verizon and another Verizon tech perform very lengthy tests and concluded that my CPE was likely not the problem (as far as he could tell). He put in a trouble ticket to "The Juniper guys" and I waited for several days. During that time, I received numerous "try your connection now" voice mails and emails from DSLX, but the problem was never corrected.
Finally, exactly two weeks after my CPE was installed, Verizon fixed the problem and dslreports.com now displayed blazingly fast in FireFox. I ran a Java-based speed test from a direct-wired PC and got approximately 19000/15000Mbps, where before the dslreports speedtest Web page would never come up. What most DSLX/FiOS customers experience immediately from their new fiber connections only took me two weeks from the installation--or 23 days from when I placed my order--and many late night/early morning hours on with telephone tech support to achieve.
Here are a few technical things to note for people thinking of the DSLX/FiOS combo:
• Verizon owns the FiOS network and totally controls OSI layers 1 through 4. DSLX is only a bit of fluff on top that handles layer 7 stuff, like passwords and email addresses. DSLX techs can do very little for real network problems and must enlist the aide of Verizon techs for this.
• You cannot get tech support by calling Verizon directly. If you do, you will be told that a DSLX representative must always be on the line because you are a DSLX customer, not a Verizon customer. You must call DSLX tech support and suffer through the questions and on-hold time to be connected to the Verizon peiople that can actually troubleshoot and solve your connectivity issues. (I can still hear DSLX's Windham Hill on-hold music in my brain.)
• You cannot get meaningful reports via email of your trouble ticket status from DSLX--even though they say they will give you such. They want to talk with you on the phone; through email you will only receive form letters. In my experience, DSLX tech support does not respond personally through email at all.
• All of the DSLX phone tech support people that I dealt with (at least eight) were courteous and knowledgeable. The Verizon techs were very good too, but varied considerably in their understanding of how Verizon CPE works (e.g., router capabilities, MAC authentication between router and ONT, how DHCP works).
And my story does not end there...
My Actiontec router on its 2-foot coax leash does me little good in my garage, so I bought a Linksys WRT610N to blast 802.11g/n throughout my house using WPA/WPA2-PSK/AES. I had read that the Actiontec MI424WR can be put into bridge mode, allowing the Linksys to DHCP with the Verizon network directly. However, Verizon does not support this configuration, so their techs will not help you in this regard. The thread on this subject at dslrepots.com (»How-to: make ActionTec MI424-WR a network bridge) was of great help, but there are a few things I needed to discover on my own to get it working:
• Clone the MAC address of the Linksys to be the MAC address of the Actiontec so the ONT will talk directly to it.
• Change the MAC address of the Actiontec so there will not be two devices with the same MAC address on the network to jumble the APR tables. (I simply incremented the last octet of the MAC.)
• Cable the Internet (WAN) port of the Linksys to the switchport of the Actiontec.
• You do not need to setup the Actiontec to be a DHCP relay.
• I'm not sure why, but over my home wireless connection, the dslreports Java speedtest will report the upload speed is twice that of the download speed (e.g., 7500/15000).
More updates to follow as I test this DSLX/FiOS combo over the next three months before shedding my slow, Verizon Frame Relay DSL for good.
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Review by billpeck
UPDATED: 27 days ago
member for 1.1 years, 9 visits, last login: 6 days ago
Poway,San Diego,CA
$18 per month (month by month)
about 5 days
AT&T
"Very low price, high reliability, easy install, Thanks Leo!"
"recent mail change: poor instructions"
"Great service & value, I won't be switching any time soon"
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I have been a DSLX customer for 22 months now. Bought low-end plan, the one you hear advertised. Previously I had dial-up, this is 15X faster for just a very few dollars/mo more. The rated speed is 384k-768k down, 128k-384k up. I am about 16,000 ft from the CO and routinely get 640k down and 320k up. (Plenty enough for my normal needs.)
The initial contract is 12 months. I knew the price would increase after that. Then I read several people complaining they jacked it up 3X and put them on month to month at the end of the 12 months. Being somewhat concerned I checked the contract and lo and behold! it says they do that UNLESS you contact them in advance for another 12 month contract. So shortly before my year was up they sent me an e-mail saying they were putting me on month to month but at the 12 month price ($3 more). Can't beat that, I was expecting that price for a 12 month contract.
The order and install was no problem, in fact it was up the day before the promised date.
During the first year I had maybe 3 occasions where the speed would slow waaaaaaaay down for a few hours. Never figured out if it was them or me. The 3rd time I e-mailed Customer Service. After a while they responded that all was well on their end. My speed came back up so no problem. But then the shocker, later that day a tech called ME to see if everything was OK. After all the things I read about Level 1, Level 2 and hours on hold I thought that was pretty great.
So after a year I started learning about modems, hardware firewalls, whole house dsl filters and CAT5 cable. I have old inside phone wire so I installed a whole house filter-splitter, ran CAT5 cable to the computer, upgraded the modem, got rid of the plug-in filters, tweaked etc. So now I have had no dsl problems for months. I did get static on the phone line. Had this problem with my other phone line a few years ago and after several rounds with SBC (now AT&T) got a smart tech who figured out there was water in the lines underground in the J-box across the street (they NEVER believe it's not my fault). He switched to a different wire pair and no more problem. So I waited until I saw the AT&T truck in the neighborhood, explained the problem and he took care of it before leaving. (Is that direct to Level 5?)
The modem they supplied was a Westell 2110 (with individual plug-in filters), a basic stripped down model. It's easy to find modems with built-in firewalls on ebay so that's how I upgraded later. For about the same (delivered) price as their "self-install" kit you can do better on ebay.
I don't use the dslextreme e-mail system. It comes with one default address which I maintain. Recently they outsourced the e-mail to gmail. Their helpful instructions for making necessary changes to various settings wasn't done very well but I think I did it right (time will tell). I use my own e-mail system through my webhosting service. First thing you discover is you can't send any e-mail because it has to go through DSLX and they have port 25 blocked. So once you get that taken care of then the e-mail goes both directions. It's one of those little details they somehow missed in the FAQ and voluminous set-up instructions.
Bottom line you have to be willing to do a little work in exchange for the cheap rate. I give them 4.8 stars overall.
Final thought: I want to thank all the people who have written reviews in the past. It was because of many of those I was able to go into this with eyes at least half open. I have avoided many unnecessary surprises. Thanks again!
Update: 11/1/09
I have been a DSLExtreme customer for about 3 years now. Since I upgraded my phone line, installed the whole house filter and upgraded the modem (see above comments) I have had NO outages, NO slowdowns, NO problems!! SO I guess the problems I had before were all at my end. I remain a very happy DSLX customer. It is well worth the time to do what you can at your end.
I don't think I mentioned before that they add $2.88 "Supplier Surcharge Recovery Fee" to the basic $14.95/mo charge (and that is month to month). Is that AT&T charging them to use the phone line? The ads never mention that. BUT it is still a great deal!
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Review by jeffc42
UPDATED: 29 days ago
member for 3 years, 13 visits, last login: 14 days ago
Santa Clara,Santa Clara,CA
$50 per month (12 month contract)
about 16 days
| Pre Sales information:
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It was time to renew my contract for another year. I considered switching to Comcast, due to the much higher speeds, but ultimately decided to stick with dslextreme. Only hours after renewing for another year, I started losing service intermittently. Tech support initially claimed there was nothing wrong with the line they can see, even as I had 100% packet loss. The next day I called to cancel the contract renewal, but they refused to waive the $250 cancellation fee. They now claim the loss of service is due to "congestion", and they will look into it ASAP. Obviously, if this had happened only hours sooner, I would have switched to Comcast, and I probably will do so anyway. If they cannot fix the problem but still insist on the cancellation fee, I will challenge the charge to my credit card.
Reliability has been going down over the last year in general. I've been getting outages lasting a minute or so once a week on average, not enough to bother calling in and anyway they usually occur when I'm not around. But there have been prior serious outages. While I have no delusions about Comcast -- I do get TV service from them -- the one thing they will never ever do is say the fault lies with AT&T and all they can do is file a ticket with them.
UPDATE 1: tech support got back to me and they can't find anything wrong. So much for the "congestion" theory. They want me to callback during an outage. Never mind I already did that last night, and they couldn't find anything wrong then. Also note that the first time this happened, when I called tech support I was on hold for 30 minutes before I got through, and by then the problem went away. I was luckier the second time. The next time? We'll see.
UPDATE 2: it happened again, so I called tech support. Got put on hold for 20 minutes waiting for level 2, and by the time they answered the problem went away. Not that it would have mattered, as when they answered, all I heard was a bunch of faint voices in the background, and after a minute they hung up on me. And now I'm having serious problems sending e-mail through their servers (recently outsourced to Google, BTW). To avoid having to pay for December, I have to cancel by tomorrow.
UPDATE 3: I have requested cancellation.
Reviewing the reviews over the past year, I am shocked at how negative the reviews have gotten. If they were anything like this three years ago, I would have avoided DSL EXTREME. If you are thinking of signing up with them, make sure you read them first. And pay attention to their refusal to waive the cancellation fee, even when their failure to provide a working connection reaches absurd levels. The terms of service make it very clear that they will resort to a collection agency if necessary to get that fee. Too bad they're more interested in getting that $250 than in making it unnecessary to cancel.
Followup comments: 
dslx_gm
Premium,VIP
join:2002-12-26
Winnetka, CA
1 edit | Intermittent Connection Hi Jeff,
I took a look at your line and current line readings. I am showing that you are in sync at the full rate without any indication of line issues. You indicated in your post that you are dropping packets. Are you pinging your gateway to test the connection or where are you pinging to determine that you are dropping packets?
Do you have to do anything to restore the service or does it just come back by itself? Does a power cycle of your DSL modem, router help? If so next time it happens can you try to power cycle one device at a time to see if that resolve the issue. (ie power cycle router first and not the modem)
DN STREAM ERRORS During the last measurement period of 30 minutes the line ran error free in the downstream direction.
UP STREAM ERRORS During the last measurement period of 30 minutes the line ran error free in the upstream direction.
DN STREAM SPEED The line is running at the maximum bit rate of 6016 kbps.
UP STREAM SPEED The line is running at the maximum bit rate of 768 kbps.
DN STREAM S/N The line noise margin is 13.0dB, which is above the target noise margin of 6.0dB.
UP STREAM S/N The line noise margin is 9.5dB, which is above the target noise margin of 6.0dB.
DN STREAM POWER The line power is at the maximum of 16.0dBm.
UP STREAM POWER The line power is 12.0dBm, which is below the maximum of 13.0dBm.
Thanks
--
George
General Manager
DSL Extreme
Will work for reviews.  | |
| | jeffc42
join:2006-11-10
Santa Clara, CA
 ·DSL EXTREME
1 edit | Re: Intermittent Connection It is intermittent, occurring about 3 to 4 times a day, lasting from 5 to 30 minutes. I either have the full rated performance, or 100% packet loss and I cannot talk to anything on the Internet. It comes back all by itself, eventually. Power cycling the modem and/or router has no effect. I substituted another router and that had no effect. The lights on the modem flicker when I ping or try to initiate a connection; they just don't seem to get through.
Today I've noticed a new pattern of symptons: existing connections are unaffected and pings work, but new connections cannot be established. Again, it corrects itself automatically after a few minutes. Again, power cycling modem/router has no effect (other than to break the established connections, of course). | |
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Review by BartmanLA
UPDATED: 32 days ago
member for 7.9 years, 41 visits, last login: 3 days ago
Los Angeles,Los Angeles,CA
$59 per month (12 month contract)
about 8 days
Southwestern Bell
"Great connection, no drops, speeds are as advertised"
"none so far, well one..."
"Best change I have made for DSL ever!"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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I started with Pacbell originally when they first offered their $49 ADSL package in my are, got set up, static IP and was happy, upgraded to 5 IP package to accomodate multiple users. 2 years with few problems, decided to downgrade to single IP, but was not allowed to keep static IP. Got angry, dumped them when ATT rode into town with local/long distance phone and DSL package cheaper than Pacbell. Switched to them only to get dumped when they abandoned the DSL service 10 months later, force to go back to SBC. Suffered constant disconnections, couldn't download anything and FTP'ing was impossible. Read reviews on DSL Reports and found DSL Extreme, I'm so happy with the change I can't express it. Had glitch in setup, the modem they shipped was bad, they replaced it overnight, was able to get service running in 5 min. I highly recommend them to anyone in their local service area. They dropped the $49 locked in rate after I signed up, called them to ask if I was eligle for the $36.95 rate, but found out it would go up to the month to month rate after the year sub, $13 is worth it if this is what kind of service I am going to get is!
2 Month Update
How can I express this... I LOVE THIS SERVICE!!! Tech support people are amazing, call backs when promised, follow ups on a ticket was 2 phone calls, 1 email and a survey to find out how they did! If only all utilities and companies would have this kind of customer support it would be heaven! Have not suffered a single minute of down time, and speeds are constant, ALWAYS! I recommend this to everyone I know of that needs or is looking for DSL. I pray this company continues on it's successful journey into becoming the highest rated, valued and praised ISP in California!
3 Month Update
After 3 months I can honestly say that I am very pleased with the quality of the service. The speeds are constant, the line quality is amazingly rock solid, and I haven't had a single minute of down time. I did run into a issue with email, I do a newsletter for a social club I belong to, and email out a "link" to the current month's edition to all members every month, but with nearly 200 members I can't email all of them at once because I get blocked by the servers for spamming. Called a couple of times and got told that they are very strict on their spam protection. So what once took me about 5 min to email my members now takes me hours because I have to wait 2 hours between each distribution list of less than 50 people I email. However, that being my only issue I still highly recommend DSLx to ANYONE that is in their service area that is seeking a broadband connection, you won't be sorry. I'm not! ! !
4 month update!
Repeat 3 previous month's reviews, add in a self imposed network optimization to give me BETTER service, add in timely email notifications of network maintainence, and mix well. Result, one WHOPPING good Internet provider that many other companies should emulate. Way to go DSL Extreme, George and crew, congrats on a fantastic 2004, and here's hoping 05 is better in spite of how "other things" turned out!!!
9 month update
Okay I couldn't resist it, I bit on the 6Mbs package in December before it expired, and actually doubled my speed for a mere $10 more per month! How can I say it, I LOVE the speed, its staggering, phenomenal, hideously decadent!!!!! Upgrade was seamless, did it online, upgrade of course got delayed 1 day by SBC who instead of upping the speed, disconnected me totally. One call to DSLx tech support and was back up same day. I've referred 3 other people to DSLx and recieved 3 months free service to boot. Obviously I'm a big fan, and will continue to be as long as they continue on the same path they are. Thanks DSL Extreme, you rock!!!!!
5 YEAR UPDATE!
What can you say about a company that provides a service that is so good that you forget that they are around?? DSLx has been solid, consistent and incredibly stable for all this time, I have ZERO complaints. Surprisingly even AT&T has been somewhat cooperative in keeping the connection maintained so I could enjoy the service I'm paying for. VoIP, E-Mail, streaming video, music and general surfing are a delight because I always know it's going to work, every single time! Keep up the great work you are doing guys, I will always be a customer!
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