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Review by bobvick 
Posted: 1.5 years ago
member for 1.6 years, 20 visits, last login: 154 days ago
 Brilliant,Marion,AL
 $39 per month (12 month contract)
 CenturyTel
 "Great service so far... Excellent local technicians!"
 "I had HughesNet so, I cant think of any right now"
 "Even though I can only get 1.5, it is GREAT for the sticks..."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
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Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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After 2 years worth of letters to corporate, the Alabama operations headquarters, and calls to local managers, CenturyTel finally got DSL out to where I live. I was the first person in the neighborhood put on, so the local techs even came inside and made sure that I was working. They came faster than they said that they would. Excellent local service. The service in Louisiana is sometimes good and sometimes not, but at least they are American, and in the USA. With Hughes S L O W speeds and virtually non existant tech support, CenturyTel deserves and A+.
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 Review by chd176
UPDATED: 1.5 years ago
member for 6.8 years, 1788 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Winfield,Marion,AL
$30 per month (12 month contract)
 about 3 days
CenturyTel
"DSL in the sticks, GREAT local techs"
"only game in town, slow on upgrades"
"CenturyTel is great here"
| Pre Sales information:
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Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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I just got CenturyTel DSL installed at my location today and after being on dialup for 4 years then satellite for a year I was ready for real broadband...The local field techs told me I should be able to get DSL in October or November. Sure enough on Tuesday (10-5-04) I placed the order for DSL...the CS agent said I more than likely couldn't get DSL because I was 12 miles from my CO but the RO only 1.3 miles away was being upgraded with a DSLAM and she said I could only get it from the CO even though I knew otherwise...I asked for a Tracking number but I was told it isn't available to the public then I called back the next day and I was told to call back friday to get the tracking number...I called back today and while she was looking up my information UPS ran and I had my modem...something happened with my line and the Local field techs were there before I could call em and asked if I had a problem with my phone and if I ordered DSL I was thinking to myself "WOW that is some fast service" They then asked where I wanted to use the modem then they wired that jack for DSL only so I wouldn't have to use the filters...great job on their part I was thinking of doing that myself but kudos to the local field techs for taking that extra step...when I got the modem hooked up I noticed I couldn't log on I called in and was told that tuesday was the date for the line to go live...I called back asking if there was anything that could be done then a tech rep got my account active and I was able to log on....and wow speeds are great I ordered the 1.5/256 package and it is great I get speeds of 1.3/186 pings are ok between 65 and 90 ms setting up the modem to play nice was a little tricky and required an additonal call with tech support but they got me up and running in about 10 mins...btw I am using the westell 6100...I've heard that a new speed teir 3000/512 is being tested and I see on a few speed test here of those speeds I plan on getting that package as soon as it is offered and if it is for Residental I have the full 1536/256 sync on my modem and great line quality...so far CenturyTel has been a great taste of real broadband I have downloaded several linux ISOs something I couldn't even think of doing on dialup or satellite
******************************update 11/6/2004*****************************
Well it has almost been a month on Monday so I thought I would update my review. So far the service has been very stable with no disconnects. I did however run into a problem with my speed degrading over a period of about three days. I called tech support to see what may be causing that and due to a mess up I was sent an extra modem so I could do some additional troubleshooting of my own before I called in. I noticed that when it slowed down I could unplug the modem for about ten seconds then plug it in and instantly my speeds were back up. I thought this may be with the one modem so I tried the other I was sent. The same thing happened again so this time I called Tech support and I informed them of what I did so far and they went in and changed my MTU...that did NOT help actually it made my speeds lower and I had to re-tweak and change it back. The agent I was on the phone with was very rude and eager to get me off the phone and basically said that MTU will work try that for three days and call back. I was tired of dealing with support for awhile so I continued to do some troubleshooting and I realized I didn't try a different power supply I had used the same one with my orignal modem. I then swaped the power supply and my connection has been fine since. I am really enjoying the speeds realiabilty of DSL compared to satellite I was thrilled when I was still online when my DirecTV went out yet I was still able to surf. I am really looking forward to the 3000/512 package that is expected sometime in the first quarter of 2005 and I will order it as soon as I can. I would highly recommend CenturyTel DSL but since this is my first true broadband connection I can't really compare it to any other services.
********************************update 2-5-05**********************************
well it's been almost 3 months since I had CenturyTel DSL installed. After getting over the first few billing issues it has been great for the most part. I did have some trouble with my pings going sky high for about 3 weeks but after several calls to tech support and emailing a "traceroute team" the issue was finally resolved. I even had a person come out to check my line. I was told that I had almost no noise on my line and it can support speeds up to 8 MB which is nice but that also raises another point. CenturyTel has now rolled out a new speed tier 3.0/512 but it is only available in MO still. This tier has been out for a little over a month now so I think they are quite slow in getting this new tier out to all CenturyTel service areas and I am still on 1.5/256 although I get really good speeds I normally get 1308 down and 212 up not bad. My pings have also improved from an average of 85 ms to an average of 60 ms now. I look forward to when I can upgrade my speed tier and get even better speeds and pings. I have had NO downtime (at least that I have noticed) in the 3 months that I've had DSL. It is very stable and my speeds never fluctate. Tech support is generally helpful I'm not sure if I got a few good people but they knew what they were talking about so it made the process smoother. The only thing I would change is the price and speed. It's 2005 and I am paying $45 for 1.5/256 while some other ISP's are only charging $30 for 3.0/768 I know that this is a larger company and out here CenturyTel is the only game in town so they can charge a higher price. I recently replaced my RJ-11 line with Cat5 and noticed a slight improvment in pings but no improvement in speed so I assume that was one of the factors. I just hope that the new speed tier gets rolled out quickly but overall I am still satisfied with CenturyTel.
********************************update 4-19-05**********************************
well four months later everything is finally starting to look up for DSL here. Starting yesterday I have been getting speeds 2 MB and up, keep in mind I am still on the 1500/256 plan because we don't have the upgrade available yet. I downloaded a Microsoft update for office yesterday that was 16 MB and I had a 243 KB/sec download. I am also really impressed about the routing issues they have fixed. When I first signed up I had pings in the 90ms range which for DSL is pretty bad, I now have pings that average about 41ms MUCH better than before but it could still be better. I have heard through the woodwork (CenturyTel chat techs) that my area is undergoing "testing" for the new speed tier that is why I am seeing such good speeds. I haven't went through the trouble of disconnecting my modem and checking the sync rate on the modem but I am just VERY happy with these speeds and ping times. I just hope CenturyTel offically releases the 3000/512 tier here very soon. I have only had two short term (a few mins) outages in the four months since I have last updated this. I am glad CenturyTel is finally moving in the right direction. The only thing left to do now is for them to lower the prices because compared to other DSL providers it's pretty pricy (then again I do live in the middle of nowhere and I should be thankful JUST to have DSL).
********************************update 10-6-05*************************************
It's been over a year now since I got DSL with CenturyTel and I am now no long in a contract and could disconnect with them anytime I like but I choose to stay with CenturyTel, the main reason is because there is no one else around to provide high speed. The second factor is my connection has been pretty much rock solid except for 4 disconnects (that I know of) in the last year. Most of them last only a few mins but one lasted for 5 hours. As far as speed and pricing goes I either wish the speed would increase or the price would go down. I am paying twice as much as my friends with Bellsouth, but I don't really have a choice for another provider in my area. I would still recommend CenturyTel to anyone interested. I still think I am very lucky to live in such a rural area and have access to DSL. CenturyTel did a great job by installing a DSLAM in our local RO to provide DSL to everyone. I haven't had to call tech support in about 5 months now so the reliability has been great. I've learned that if there is a problem just wait it out. Hopefully CenturyTel replaced their PPPoE servers because that was the issue each time my DSL went out. If you can't get cable CenturyTel is the way to go.
********************************update 6-4-06*************************************
I was going to wait until I upgraded my speed package (which should be available sometime this month) until I updated my review, however during an issue tonight I thought I would go ahead and do the update. I just through chatting with "tech support" and I had to call "tech support" to get a trouble ticket setup. I use that phrase lightly at best. I have been running into an issue for the past month or so where my speeds will greatly diminish, much of the time over half of my normal speeds. I didn't bother speaking with a "tech" before because it was a known issue when I called the support line, only after being told to do so by the online support, it's really great that they communicate well! Anywho tonight I had a problem again and I isolated it to CenturyTel by bypassing the router and trying three different computers. Here is a transcript of the online chat (I edited the techs name)
Connecting to server. Please wait...
Connected to netagent.centurytel.net Tech I has joined this session!
Tech says, Welcome to CenturyTel's Internet Tech Support Chat. Just a moment please while I read over your message.
Tech says, Have you run any speed tests?
You say, yes and they are about 512 - 582 and I'm on the 1.5 package
You say, these were the centurytel speed test also
Tech says, Do you have a DSL filter on all other devices that use the same phone line/number? (phones, satellites, security systems, fax, DirectTV, etc.)
You say, got a dedicated line run (ie: home run) the filter is installed at the NID
Tech says, I am not showing any trouble reported in the area. I suggest you call in at 1-800-809-1410 to have a repair ticket opened to have this checked out.
as you can see the online support is pretty pathetic but the phone support is just as bad because I was asked the same questions by the phone agent as well. I even told her that my S/N ratio was a lot lower than it normally was and it normally stays around 25.2 but tonight it was 16.3 and I'm not kidding she said "what is that?" I was spechless...and she didn't know what DHCP was either because I told her that I had connected PPPoE on my other computers and she said the Westell 6100 didn't support that if that was really the modem I was using. When I asked her if CenturyTel switched to DHCP she said "I don't know what that is I just know we use a user name and password to connect". I get a ticket put in so who knows what will happen now. When I first got CenturyTel the techs were great and the service was really stable. I don't know what happened but things REALLY went downhill, I do have to admit that the local techs are still as good as ever! I also have to report at least one good thing. I contact a Corp office at CenturyTel and told them about how I was paying for a service that I never recieved fully for an entire month and I did get a month of DSL for free, so I can't complain there. I hope that my issues are just caused by CenturyTel getting ready to roll out the two new tiers here and after that happens things will go back to the way they were. I have high hopes for CenturyTel, perhaps it's just because that's all I can get here, but right now they are slipping.
********************************update 3-5-08*************************************
Well after some up and downs with CenturyTel I am quite content right now with them. I had some issues with a hop on CenturyTel's network that a lot of other people in my area were having problems with and it was slowing mine (and everyone elses) speeds way down during peak times. This has since been corrected and I haven't had any problems since. My pings average about 25 to 40ms and speed test are about 1520/270, quite exceptable since I have the 1.5/256 package. Which brings me to another problem since I've had DSL in late 2004 I have yet to qualify for a higher speed package when the CO about 8 miles from my location has went from 1.5 to 3.0 to 6.0 and now has 10 MB speeds so I would like to get a higher throughput but as I said I can't really complain since I live so far out.
********************************update 5-7-08*************************************
Well I finally got a speed boost! It wasn't quite what I was expecting but I will take it with NO compalints. I was having some issues dropping my landline to go with dry DSL online (CenturyTel calls it "Pure Broadband") that was quite a hassle. I had spent about 2 hours total over 4 or 5 days trying to get it switched. I finally got that resolved thanks to dsldude08!
It was switched over in a matter of minutes (maybe an hour I don't remember lol) also since he was so great in finally getting my dry DSL I asked like I normally do every few months about a faster speed (at this point I was just asking for some more upload) and what do you know turns out 10 MB was available, needless to say I jumped all over that! I then realized I had a older Westell (6100 b90) and it wasn't capable of handleing the speed. No problems though dsldude08 hooked me up again and the very next day (today) a tech was to come out, switch ports to the new ADSL2 equipment and bring my new Westell.
When the tech got here at around 9:30 AM he asked if I wanted just the 6100 or the 327w. Since I already had a linksys router that was working just fine for my wireless connections I opted for the 6100. I connected it and I was still at 1.5 MB. I was a bit disappointed and was thinking that I may not be able to get 10 MB out here after all. Well after a brief call to the CO from the tech my modem lost sync and when it synced up again I was syncing at 12474/894. I was estatic! I started to test it out right away and I noticed at first I was only getting around 3.8/720 I thought it was no problem I just had to do some tweaking. Well I ran cablenut and rebooted then my speed was around 5.1/740 better but still the DL was only half of what it should be.
I asked for help online again and dsldude08 come through for me again. He spent several hours researching it for me and in the end it turns out that technically I'm only supposed to get 3 MB max from my RT because the limit any one customer can have out of my RT is 6 MB. This was a little disappointing but coming from 1.5/256 I'm estatic to have 5.1/740, I was told that 5 MB will be on the high side and may drop below that when other customers come online that are served out of my RT.
Overall I'm very happy because I got to keep my 10 MB package and I'm still synced at 12747/894 with NO problems at all. Also the best part is when the 10 MB finally is brought out here I won't have to do anything I will just noticed an increased download!
*************************update 5/14/08*************************************************
Well after being quite pleased with the upgrade in speed my hopes were dashed as CenturyTel decided that since my RT couldn't support 10 MB they would drop me back to 1.5 apparently that is the top speed available to me despite the fact that I am now connected to ADSL2 equipment and I'm still synced with ASDL2 heck even 3.0 is apparently not available. So now I am stuck at 1.5 again and now I'm stuck in a contract for 12 more months but at least the price dropped to only $29.99 since I switched to dry DSL so I am actually getting ready to switch to a WISP in my area that offers 15/5 for $89.99 a month so I will keep CenturyTel for another year while I'm in contract and in 12 months when I am able to cancel without and ETF I will weigh my options to stay with CenturyTel or the WISP if after a year the only thing CenturyTel can offer me is 1.5 still then I'm done. This is 2008 not 2000 we should have faster speeds than that. When a small locally owned ISP can out perform a national ISP you know that something is wrong with that picture.
Attachments:
Followup comments:  rlonghofer
join:2001-01-27
Lake Dallas, TX
| My experience with the 10 meg I got tired of the random disconnects and poor service from charter internet. Switched to the triple play from centurytel. At first we had a disconnect problem, but the local guy at the office said due to the length to my house it would not probably run all the time at 10 meg, (I was getting testing at almost 11 meg sometimes) but would get alot of resets. So he knocked it down to 7 meg. Since that, its been ROCK SOLID. So you might ask them to knock down the speed for testing if thats the problem.
The local tech said if the hardware in their office detects to many lost frames, it will automatically reset the modem on your end, that might be some of the problems you experience.
The rest is just either poor lines or something else.
The only gripe I have with centurytel is the ping, which to dallas on charter ran about 20 ms to 60 with centurytel, my gamer kids are bitching. But they say there are no lost packets at all in there games. | |
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 Review by iamth3b35t
UPDATED: 1.5 years ago
member for 1.5 years, 12 visits, last login: 1.2 years ago
Columbia,Boone,MO
$33 per month (12 month contract)
about 7 days
"Good download/upload speed, excellect customer support"
"Higher price"
"Overall quite good"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
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(ratings match consensus)
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i had two options when i decided to switch from modem to Hi-speed, mediacom cable or centurytel dsl, cause i have a land phone from CT already so i went for it. i ordered 1.5 Mbps and it costs me $29.99 plus $2.99/month for the modem, though i wasn't quite happy about the price but switching from 56kbps to this speed was thrilling enough to stop me thinking about the charge. so when i got the modem and plug in all the stuffs to see whether it's working or not, i found that internet light is always remains red, so i called tech support - he was really helpful - i heard that CT's customer support isn't up to the quality and i found that completely opposite, he tried his best, but connection stays down so he issued a repair ticket and next day one repairman came to check whether my connection is working or not and it was running perfectly, i am getting over 180 KBps down and over 30 KBps up and these are way over than what i am paying for. this weekend i had another problem - i am keep disconnecting from the internet after 4-5 min, so i contact tech support again and was issued a rep ticket and my problem is fixed today.. hope it will remain same. and also i don't feel/see any nightly slowdown that i read on the forums.
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 Review by StreetStock
Posted: 1.5 years ago
member for 8.1 years, 150 visits, last login: 28 days ago
Randolph,Dodge,WI
$66 per month (12 month contract)
about 59 days
CenturyTel
"NONE"
"Tech Support"
"Don't have much choice when they play the monopoly game"
| Pre Sales information:
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Tech Support:
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(ratings below consensus)
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Don't have much choice when they play the monopoly game
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Review by pschreiner
UPDATED: 1.6 years ago
member for 4.1 years, 31 visits, last login: 1 year ago
Avon Lake,Lorain,OH
Contract price not specified.
CenturyTel
"Speed is awesome. Consistently good bandwidth and latency"
"Frequent unexplained service outages, very poor phone support. Poor communication"
"If it works, great! If not, you are S.O.L."
| |
After my contract with CenturyTel expires, I will be moving over to cable. DSL through CenturyTel is just too big of a hassle. Two weeks ago a server died at our local CenturyTel hub, and we were without service for 3 days. Every time we called for an update, we had to go through the same scripted nonsense to 'troubleshoot' our connection. Some customer support people were aware of the outage, some were not. Either way, no explanation was given and no time frame for repair was offered.
The local field repair staff is excellent, but unfortunately are not our first available line of contact for support.
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Review by green bean
Posted: 1.6 years ago
member for 1.6 years, 1 visits, last login: 1.4 years ago
Lake Dallas,Denton,TX
$40 per month (18 month contract)
CenturyTel
"Up most of the time"
"Tech support hard to reach"
"Decent service but the cost seems to be higher than others"
| Pre Sales information:
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(ratings match consensus)
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Century Tel is the only phone company I can get so I changed from Charter Cable broadband service to Century Tel for a bundled discount. Service is pretty good and I am up most of the time but when I do have problems tech support can be hard to reach and sometimes very little help. The cost seems to be rather high now that the market is VERY competitive now. I would really like an alternative phone company for all my phone and broadband services but I do not want to go with VOIP for phone service right now so Charter Cable is out. Until some other company installs fiber in the area I will be stuck with Century Tel.
Followup comments: BigVe
join:2005-07-15
Gulliver, MI
 ·CenturyLink
1 edit | Your Review Can agree that they are up most of the time and that cost is way higher then other ISP.Of course where i live there is no competition besides dial-up and satellite and i don't call that competition.Nearby town that have Cable have cheaper DSL($10) What it goes for Tech support i never have had any problems to reach them and they have always been helpful.Good and/or bad I am stuck with Centurytel and even though i have fiber less than 50' from my house(that belongs to AT&T) the only fiber i will see in house is fibers in what i eat. | |
| zed260
join:2007-09-30
Cleveland, TN | charter charter phone is not technically voip its more stable then your normal voip and does not require internet you can even use your normal phones in your house no need for new outlets | |
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Review by jwko
UPDATED: 1.6 years ago
member for 2.6 years, 72 visits, last login: 14 days ago
Cecil,Franklin,AR
$29 per month (12 month contract)
about 3 days
CenturyTel
"I get the advertised speeds"
"Nightly Slowdown from about 6p - 10p"
"Overall I'm Happy except for the nightly slowdows."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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We live in a small community with aprox 60 - 75 people, Centurytel came through on May 1, 07 with DSL. Before that we could only get dial-up or Direcway/Hughes/Wild Blue. I had Direcway/Hughes for 3 years and at $69 a month which was good in the beginning but they changed the FAP so it was pretty much useless if you do anything other than general surfing!
Centurytel had promised for 2 to 3 years that they would have DSL here and just when all hope was gone I got a phone call informing me it was here.
I was so happy I listed my Hughes Satellite system on the Bay & had that thing sold within a day thanks to a buy it now, LOL.
I placed my order late on a Wednesday, had my modem and phone filters late Thursday and service was up and running at 5pm Fri as promised. I bought the 1.5 down and get on average 1.8 with 258 up.
I can now watch a video, webcam chat, voice chat, upload a video to youtube all without worry of violating the dreaded FAP that I had to worry about in the past, not to mention losing my internet every time it rain's or snows.
I would like to Thank Centurytel for all that they have done in my community over the past 9 years, they really are a good company!!
**edit** 12-5-2007
Things are still running good. Last Sunday morning around 1am my internet went out, after an hour or so I decided to call and report the issue but noticed my telephone was also out. Got on my cell phone and called and the man I was speaking with (which was very nice and helpful) told me that something was wrong with the line coming out of Ozark Arkansas and that myself and 63 other people in my area were affected. I was told that technicians were out working on the problem and it should be corrected my 4am. All was well by 3:30am and no problems since.
My speeds are very good and most of the time better than advertised. I have the 1.5/256 plan and I am aprox 6900' from the local telephone box. I heard somewhere that we might be getting 3.0 extreme service soon, I look forward to that.
:::.. Download Stats ..:::
Download Connection is:: 1925 Kbps about 1.9 Mbps (tested with 2992 kB)
Download Speed is:: 235 kB/s
Tested From:: »testmy.net/ (Main)
Test Time:: 2007/12/05 - 9:23pm
Bottom Line:: 34X faster than 56K 1MB Download in 4.36 sec
Tested from a 2992 kB file and took 12.729 seconds to complete
Download Diagnosis:: May need help : running at only 74.18 % of your hosts average (136.143)
D-Validation Link:: »testmy.net/stats/id-XLWAN98KU
User Agent:: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0; SLCC1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; Media Center PC 5.0; .NET CLR 3.0.04506) [!]
edit* 4/7/2008
Service has been crappy for a few months now between the hours of 6pm-10pm. It's a every night deal but I am living with it. Overall I'm still happy with CT even though the nightly slowdowns reminds me of the not so good old days with Hughes.
edit* 4/8/2008
It's 6:45p CST and this is what I am talking about. Now if I called centurytel they would swear it's on my end....
:::.. Download Stats ..:::
Download Connection is:: 471 Kbps about 0.5 Mbps (tested with 2992 kB)
Download Speed is:: 57 kB/s
Tested From:: »testmy.net/ (Main)
Test Time:: 2008/04/08 - 5:42pm
Bottom Line:: 8X faster than 56K 1MB Download in 17.96 sec
Tested from a 2992 kB file and took 51.985 seconds to complete
Download Diagnosis:: May need help : running at only 48.31 % of your hosts average (136.26)
D-Validation Link:: »testmy.net/stats/id-AFZEV13LI
User Agent:: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727) [!]
9:35pm CST
:::.. Download Stats ..:::
Download Connection is:: 211 Kbps about 0.2 Mbps (tested with 2992 kB)
Download Speed is:: 26 kB/s
Tested From:: »testmy.net/ (Main)
Test Time:: 2008/04/08 - 8:33pm
Bottom Line:: 4X faster than 56K 1MB Download in 39.38 sec
Tested from a 2992 kB file and took 115.891 seconds to complete
Download Diagnosis:: May need help : running at only 23.03 % of your hosts average (136.26)
D-Validation Link:: »testmy.net/stats/id-84BXGTYQO
User Agent:: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727) [!]
11:10 pm CST
:::.. Download Stats ..:::
Download Connection is:: 1455 Kbps about 1.5 Mbps (tested with 2992 kB)
Download Speed is:: 178 kB/s
Tested From:: »testmy.net/ (Main)
Test Time:: 2008/04/08 - 10:11pm
Bottom Line:: 25X faster than 56K 1MB Download in 5.75 sec
Tested from a 2992 kB file and took 16.844 seconds to complete
Download Diagnosis:: Awesome! 20% + : 52.04 % faster than the average for host (136.26)
D-Validation Link:: »testmy.net/stats/id-CUTKG0V6M
User Agent:: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727) [!]
Followup comments: mosslake
join:2007-05-27
Rapid River, MI
| DSL in rural areas I also think it's great that Centurytel came through with DSL in rural areas. This is just my vacation hideaway and the only options were dial up or satellite. Even the dial up options are limited here. There is only 1 ISP that I know of that has local access numbers. I was signing on through my AOL account and paying long distance charges every time I was online, so this DSL service is a real treat. THANKS Centurytel! | |
| jwko
join:2007-04-02
Cecil, AR | Update Everything is still great. Speeds still the same and uptime has been 100% | |
| | jwko
join:2007-04-02
Cecil, AR
·CenturyLink
·AT&T Yahoo
| Re: Update After my last post I ran a speed test, it has gone down some but still over 1.5
:::.. Download Stats ..:::
Download Connection is:: 1566 Kbps about 1.6 Mbps (tested with 2992 kB)
Download Speed is:: 191 kB/s
Tested From:: »testmy.net/ (Main)
Test Time:: 2007/08/11 - 2:52pm
Bottom Line:: 27X faster than 56K 1MB Download in 5.36 sec
Tested from a 2992 kB file and took 15.647 seconds to complete
Download Diagnosis:: May need help : running at only 73.59 % of your hosts average (centurytel.net)
D-Validation Link:: »testmy.net/stats/id-4PIU61FX0
User Agent:: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0; SLCC1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; Media Center PC 5.0; .NET CLR 3.0.04506) [!] | |
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Review by leckietech
Posted: 1.6 years ago
member for 1.9 years, 2 visits, last login: 1.6 years ago
Government Camp,Clackamas,OR
 Business customer
$40 per month (month by month)
about 3 days
"blazing fast, works"
"medium reliability, PPPOE"
"sometimes its nice to be right next door to the phone company building"
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great speeds... they actually offered us 10Mb down / 3.5Mb up speeds at our building. we are at 3 down and 768 up - and that works just fine. no lag, no bandwidth issues even at peak times of day. the local support crew for business is awesome. (if you find that "secret" support 800-number - hold on to it) its a real pain to deal with their outsourced southern states tier 1 support. and, whats with hanging on to the 1980's PPPOE technology?? anyways... fast, mostly reliable, great prices for business services. STATIC IP WAS INCLUDED! (unlike verizon)
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 Review by ShadowMastr
UPDATED: 1.6 years ago
member for 8.2 years, 1364 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Melbourne,Izard,AR
$29 per month (24 month contract)
about 5 days
CenturyTel
"I have access to the internet"
"they signed me up for dsl, sent modem, knowing dsl wasnt available in my area"
"have dialup with them, spotty service on that."
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Moved to Arkansas from California, expected a few differences in service. They sent modems to wrong addresses twice, told me I was hooked up to dsl, billed me for dsl, yet the 5 times I called to find out why my dsl wasnt working, was told it's because it's not available in my area. But they sent me a 'replacement' modem anyway. The dialup is not bad at usually 48k, but it goes out in thunderstorms.
UPDATE: 03/31/2008
FINALLY got DSL here after 4 years.... from moment it was activated, I only got 100k down, 105k up..... doh..... after a few calls and a week of the usual malarky, got it fixed, and is stable at close to the 1.5/256 it's supposed to be...
great to have back the speeds I had 5 years ago in L.A. (???)
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Review by weatherzap
Posted: 1.6 years ago
member for 8.6 years, 768 visits, last login: 1 days ago
Trussville,Jefferson,AL
$42 per month
about 7 days
CenturyTel
"Speed is as advertised, and has been stable for a year"
"Changes or new orders always take 2 or 3 days longer than promised"
"Good choice at least in my area. Charter seems to have a lot of speed issues in this neck of the woods"
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10 MBps down service constantly tests around the 9.1 MBps range regardless of the time of day (no peak time slow downs). Upstream speed is 768 KBps and constantly tests in the 740 KBps range. Overall very happy with service and reliability during the year I have had service. CT bundles my DSL and unlimited long distance service for $79.95 (not including the usual FCC stick it to you taxes). CT cost recovery fee is $2.95 per month. I can not comment on Tech Support because I have never spoken with them. In my five plus years dealing with CT, they seem to always promise delivery of services and/or changes two days before the local guys can actually get it done. The problem is not with the local CT technicians, but with CT deployment of resources. My biggest problem with CT is you can only talk with a CSR from 8 am to 5 pm CT Monday-Friday. Why can't the West coast CSRs take orders for the East coast after 5 pm Central? You can report problems after hours, and call the DSL helpdesk, but again I have not had to do that.
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