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Review by dan1rulz 
UPDATED: 343 days ago
member for 7.6 years, 2403 visits, last login: 4 days ago
 Crystal Lake,Mchenry,IL
 $65 per month
 about 30 days
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I really wish dslreports would stop asking me to update this review. I canceled almost 6 years ago.
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 Review by mbarys
Posted: 1.6 years ago
member for 7.3 years, 2298 visits, last login: 1 days ago
Bolingbrook,Will,IL
 Business customer
$650 per month (12 month contract)
about 14 days
"Very good speed and latency for a business T1 (bonded)"
"None"
"If you are looking for a reliable T1 solution for your business and great tech support. These are the guys to go with."
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We are currently running two T1's bonded for 3mbits/sec at my company with an ISDN backup. I've been here over four years and the service has been excellent. They even gave me a dedicated 800 number to call in for support if needed.
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 Review by n0mad
UPDATED: 2.8 years ago
member for 6.9 years, 2045 visits, last login: 159 days ago
Pearl,Rankin,MS
$45 per month (12 month contract)
about 10 days
"Fast, Stable, Reliable Speeds-Good Support in my Experiance"
"Restrictive AUP, No Static IP for Residentual customers"
"Good Service, I got what I wanted and what they advertised"
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What speed did I order- 1500k/256k
What speed I am attaining-1275k/218 
What Price- $45.00/month
Install-Self-installed-Went great Really easy
Home Equiptment-Went with the USB Alcatel Stingray, which in my experiance was a mistake. May not have been equiptment's fault though. Tech services had me reinstalling the drivers (that seemed to be all they knew what to do), they did line checks which showed line was ok. Later proved to be a radio filter installed at NI about 5 years before to fix bleed through problem at that time. I had to buy a Speed Touch Home Ethernet modem from Bellsouth, only complaint was that I was not offered oppertunity to return the USB modem and no break on the Price of the Ethernet Modem. I also had to pay for a homerun which increased my speed. I got speeds of 375k/200k for almost a year with numerous synch problems. Now I have 1275k/218k, and it is Rock Steady.
IP-Dynamic only for residential, I hope this will change
Overal rating is- Would recommend FastAccess to anyone .
Update- 01/02/2007- I have discontinued my DSL service with Bellsouth or ATT if you prefer. Their Ultra Service (1.5meg down/256k /up) was rock solid. Only problem I had was with the Copper phone line service. Took too many trouble calls to fix the problem that took my phone offline and DSL everytime it rained. The Techs they sent out twice just wanted to say it was inside wiring, even charged me when they came in to verify that I only had one jack active. The Final Tech. they sent out found the problem right off the bat. Junction Box (sack in line at pole where connections are made was leaking at two spots). I told them that it sure was strange that DSL and Telephone Pots service went down everytime it rained. Have switched over to Comcast Cable.
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Review by Mydnyte2
UPDATED: 3.8 years ago
member for 4.9 years, 3 visits, last login: 3.8 years ago
Lake In The Hills,Mchenry,IL
$55 per month
"Excellent staff, excellent service, excellent bandwidth"
"Since it's broadband, it's shared"
"Best-of-breed in this area."
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Updated 2006.01.23:
Just recently, DLS lowered their wireless broadband rates to get closer to the ever-changing competition from the local phone provider (SBC, now the "new" AT&T) and local cable (Comcast). They've also added VOIP, which I am going to start the signup process on in just a few days. As an FYI, I use the DLS "fixed" line-of-sight broadband connection - and I will admit that I'm less than one linear mile to their nearest wireless antenna. The number of wireless antennas on rooftops in my subdivision has almost doubled, so they continue to grow. My performance has improved, and I continue to be impressed with DLS. And to make a comment about something seen in another review, ANY internet provider has the complete right to monitor your activities, just like any place of business has a right to read any and all e-mails sent by you through the company e-mail system. It doesn't concern me in the least, because I'm not doing anything that would fail what I would call the "headline" test.
Original Review:
I've been a very, very longtime customer of DLS Internet Services, dating back to dialup days in the mid 90s. I was very pleased with the response time and bandwidth when I had DLS' dialup service, and their customer service was exemplary.
Ever since then, I was an early adopter for DLS' 1.5mbps fixed wireless service when they started offering it, and have since upgraded to the full 10mbps service.
My most recent bandwidth test produced the following:
2004-12-05 12:59:00 EST: 7015 / 5599
Your download speed : 7184154 bps, or 7015 kbps.
A 876.9 KB/sec transfer rate.
Your upload speed : 5733397 bps, or 5599 kbps.
I'm not going to complain that these bandwidth rates aren't closer to the full 10mbps capacity since broadband, by definition, is a shared connection and it's highly unlikely that I'd ever achieve a full 10/10 unless I was the only person connected to my tower and conditions were optimal. This is MORE than enough for everyone in my home and actually much faster than my internet connection at the office.
Their installers, both at 1.5 install and 10 install, were prompt, courteous and helpful. I added an 802.11 connection to the house later and was easily able to configure it to share the connection with other computers in the home.
Anytime I've had the occasion to contact DLS' technical support (and I've contacted them a few times over the years) they've been prompt and helpful. There was even one time where I was hospitalized in critical condition and DLS actually went the extra mile for me, saving my emails until I returned home after several weeks. These people show that they care - would Comcast or SBC have done this? I sincerely doubt it.
Speaking of Comcast and SBC, my area wasn't served by SBC (and may still not be) due to technical restrictions, and after the experience of other family members with SBC and DSL, I wouldn't go anywhere near it. Some of my family have Comcast and are happy with it for their needs, but I'm not terribly pleased with any cable companies' history of raising rates over the years and really don't want to invite them to take even more of my money. Sure, they offer an attractive teaser rate for several months, but it's just that - a teaser rate. 3mbps max for $45 vs 10mbps for $65? Wasn't even a choice.
On the technical side, my wireless connection has NEVER been affected by any sort of weather conditions, whether they be heavy rain, fog, snow or otherwise. I have always used a dynamic PPPoE connection and have not had any problems with it.
I can't recommend DLS enough to anyone in their service area considering any sort of broadband connection - after watching their growth over the past years, they have to be doing something right. Companies don't grow the way DLS has without continuing to offer exemplary products and service. I've been steadily watching their rooftop antennas propagate in my neighborhood almost as fast as the small satellite dishes have.
Keep it up, DLS! I can't wait to see what they're going to come up with next.
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Review by jldet52005
Posted: 4.1 years ago
member for 4.4 years, 3 visits, last login: 4.1 years ago
Algonquin,Mchenry,IL
$55 per month
"Very fast, low latency, Recommend!"
"none"
"Excellent ISP"
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I've had DLS for a number of months now and have always had fast service with only 1 30 minute interruption. Initially I had the 10Mbps however that is a burst speed I was told and rarely saw much over 5 Mbps. So I went down to the 3 Mbps and really could not tell that much of a difference between the two. Changing to the 3 Mbps caused an initial problem on their end however they were very quick to fix the problem.
I am now in the process of porting / converting to their VOIP service. Initial ATA adapter unit was bad but as usual they were very quick to fix and replace the unit.
After my nightmares with Ameritch and SBC DSL this is welcome relief.
Highly Recommend.
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Review by psubill78
UPDATED: 4.6 years ago
member for 6.8 years, 388 visits, last login: 2.7 years ago
Round Lake,Lake,IL
$65 per month
"Speeds are good - as long as the stars are in alignment..."
"Outside interference out of everyone's control, and the USER suffers"
"Great.... while it lasts.... but be careful investing $$ on installs..."
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[General Comments]
The speeds are great. Very fast - I see over 7000kbps down at time - which is great at this price point...
Mildly disappointed w/ billing systems, no credits for downtime. In addition - email service has had inssues. Multiple outages. The most recent lasting 12 hours. No break in cost for signing up for year (no contracts available, gives the subscriber maximum flexability - but also gets DLS out of committment to solve problems).
Overall - things have been good - Tech support has occasional long hold times - but the support folks are generally pretty good - though just appear to work of cookie-cutter scripts (like any support area).
********* [Update 1/20/05] (still in progress)
I've had DLS since April 2003, while I had the normal pains of any internet ISP (outages related to email, etc, etc) they were pretty good. Speed tests and actual downloads showed approximately 5000kbps to 8000kbps downstream, and about the same upstream. Bandwidth was a-plenty
Starting late in the week of January 10th, I starting seeing extremely slow download speeds. My downstream was now in the 50kbps to 300kbps range (a decrease of over 90% to what was experienced over the past year+.) I called DLS tech support on Thursday 1/13, and their techs indicated a "small decrease in signal" - and dispatched a tech to my home on Monday 1/17 to realign my antenna. During this service call the technician decided to add another mast to my roof (penetrating the roof again) and put the antenna about 3' higher than it previously was. Tested, then left. For the record, no consent was given on my end to re-penetrate the roof with another mast.
I tested the connection and found the speeds were no better, so I called support again. Another tech came out same day (impressive on DLS part) and tinkered on the roof some more. No improvement. I told the tech he wasn't leaving until it was back to normal. The onsite tech called DLS support rep "Sid" and "Sid" told him that there were "tower issues" between towers serving my area. The onsite tech indicated I would receive a call back with status.
I called the next day (after never receiving status) - and they looked into my account again. I was told in the evening of the 18th that "my connection has degraded so much that DLS can't provide me satisfactory wireless service anymore." Also - there was apparently no "tower issue" - and I also got many conflicting stories as to if my radio was replaced to test that scenario. Naturally, I question this - and escalated within DLS. One common issue throughout this experience is that they never updated me. I was always the one doing the calling, even when I was told I'd get a call back.
The very next day I receive an email from a higher level tech that my connection "is working within DLS guarantees" (which is 256kbps). I am told that I am still seeing packet loss - which is why my speeds are slow.
I do this type of stuff for a living, so I question their analysis further. There are other DLS subscribers in my neighborhood. I asked them to look into that... to see if there are problems there too. I mean, how is it possible that it's only my house receiving this "interference" considering another 10 meg wireless DLS user has worse line of sight, and many roof tops between their home and the DLS tower (not to mention further!)
I asked DLS management that if this is unable to be restored back to the level of service DLS has provided since April 2003, and if I have to cancel because of poor quality service - were we able to work out a compromise for my $399 investment for the installation. I feel this is a legitimate question since I did not cause the degradation of service and that if I do cancel, DLS will simply reuse the equipment on my roof for another subscriber. I wasn't asking for a full refund, but merely a compromise. It was denied - saying that install fees are non-refundable. I feel this isn't appropriate. Even worse, my guess is that if I was a new subscriber, they would be doing more to research the problem - or not even install me. In that case, saving the person the install fee.
This whole scenario is still in progress.... more to come for sure...
********* [Update 1/21/05]
DLS is making a legitimate attempt at resolving the issue... send a tech out today, still believe it's an RF issue, although the tech did point to an issue with the radio itself. Time will tell... More to come...
********* [Update 1/26/05]
Technicians came out to install another radio and slightly larger dish. Speeds appear better. Will monitor over next few days to see if there is improvement.
********* [Update 2/2/05]
Speeds have been back to normal since the replacement radio. Why this wasn't done in the first place is beyond me, but we are back to working. Thanks DLS.
********* [Update 3/30/05]
Well, after messing with poor connections for a few weeks, I finally submitted my request to DLS to uninstall. I've moved to Comcast HSI, their 6000/768 package at 39.99 a month (non-cable subscriber). I'm mildly disappointed with DLS and their inability to really find the root of the problems. Hopefully they can figure out where this mystical interference is coming from.
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Review by forkboy78
Posted: 4.8 years ago
member for 6.2 years, 4 visits, last login: 4.8 years ago
Woodstock,Mchenry,IL
$65 per month
about 10 days
" Super Fast, realiable"
"just a few bumps when satrting service."
"Great deal if you can't get anything else,( even if I could I would still use them)"
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I signed up for DLS in October, glad I did seeing they charge for installation again. I purchased the 10/10 with the Voice service, I will admit there was a few bumps in the road, but they were very quick to get them fixed and since then not a problem at. As far as price goes 95 bucks a month for high speed internet and phone is a pretty good deal considering I was paying 66 just for phone.
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Review by ModemJunki
UPDATED: 5.4 years ago
member for 7.6 years, 52 visits, last login: 5 years ago
Carpentersville,Kane,IL
$65 per month
about 30 days
"Excellent customer service, high speeds, reliable"
"None yet!"
"Wireless is worth it!"
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I've been a customer for quite a while now (Updated 10/13/04!).
After seeing several friends get DLS wireless 10/10 service, and becoming dissatisifed with my Earthlink/Covad aDSL service (not their fault, mind you, my line quality was poor as I live in an older neighborhood), I decided to make the change to DLS.
For a $250 setup fee and $65/month, they advertised 10 megabit up and down as the potential maximum. (Just like aDSL, the theoretical maximum is limited by technology factors, such as distance from the connection point).
You can also order lower bandwidth (3 megabit down/256k up, or 256k/256k) for prices that are very competitive with cable, aDSL, and dial up! (Note: DLS has reduced their installation fee since I purchased, to $150).
The initial installation and setup fee is fairly steep, but this is a specialized service and coming from a smaller ISP I did not think this was out of line.
My first pleasant surprise came when DLS sales called and asked if we could move up my installation date by two weeks.
The second surprise was the total installation time - under two hours in freezing weather. The installer configured my pre-owned Linkys router in a snap.
The speeds I am getting are exceptional - over 8 megabits in testing from DLS site, and over 5 megabits in real-world use. This makes gaming, VPN to work, downloading of software patches, newsgroup access, etc. all seem seamless, as if these remote items were on my local LAN.
Included is configurable spam filtering, webmail access, fax-to-Email, online access to your account stats, and the ability to set an "away message" for email when you go on vacation. You can order a static IP for $10.00/month, or blocks of IP addresses (though it seems likely that is more for business accounts).
Service has been non-stop except for twice when I had to power-cycle the wireless unit and my router.
Contacts to customer support with questions on setting up E-mail accounts, questions to sales for billing (they accidentally included occasional-use dial-up in my account, which they fixed in 5 minutes), all were responded to speedily.
I highly recommend this service to anyone needing high bandwidth and who can get this line-of-sight technology!
**Update: Still reliable. I now have VoIP telephony through DLS and am waiting for my landline to be switched over. VoIP gets you a discount on the wireless access, in my case down to $50/month + $45.85 (inc. tax) for VoIP. At those prices, I'm paying roughly the same as I was for all my telephone landline features and previous aDSL connection! Customer service has still been great when I call with questions. I'll be testing customer service again soon - I am having a new roof put on my house, so must have a truck roll to my home to remove/replace the antenna.
**Update: As above. New roof installed, truck rolled out, service reconnected, no hassles. I forgot to update, it just works, so no real thinking about it.
**Update: 6/14/04 Still working fine. VoIP has occasional echo (that only my side hears) but it cancels out quickly. Faxing works through the VoIP adapter. It's a treat to bring my neighbors computers over, connect them to the router, and update Windows patches in a snap instead of burning CD's for them.
**Update: 10/14/04 No problems to report. My overall download speed fluctuates more now - I must have mor company on the WAN. Still averages 6MB download, so no complaints!
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Review by gumbachoo
Posted: 5.4 years ago
member for 5.4 years, 1 visits, last login: 5.3 years ago
Lake In The Hills,Mchenry,IL
$65 per month
"Too many to list in this space."
"Zero. Zilch. Nada."
"Best ISP I've ever had. Bar none."
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i've been a DLS wireless internet customer for about a year now. just wanted to post some quick positive thoughts...and no, i do not work for DLS. i am just a very satisfied customer is all.
I've had it all ...dialup, satellite, DSL, cable...if you live in an area where you can talk to a DLS tower, short of leasing your own T1 line you're not going to find any broadband service in the chicagoland area that's going to give you better results than this ISP. simple fact. for example, comcast internet. bah. abhorrently large corporation. techs work on contract, you never know who's coming to your door. service seemingly goes down quite frequently for maintenance not to mention that you're potentially sharing bandwidth with thousands of people depending on where you live. they even block certain TCP/IP ports so you can't do some types of gaming. which in my case, that extremely sucked. and SBC/Yahoo DSL? might as well get Netzero or Juno highspeed dialup IMHO, you'll likely get the same speed at a much lower price and without all the hassle. ameritech already has built one fortress of solitude in chicagoland; I don't know about you but I'm not willingly going to contribute to that evil empire any more than I have to. =) not to mention that as i found out a bit later, if their census workers or whomever they are determine that there's not enough demand in your area, and you've got FTTC (fiber to the curb) or whatever that is such that you don't have copper wire running from the central office to your home, SBC can deny you service because the modem in their central office can't talk to you. again, large corporation, where money is THE bottom line. AOL? come on, join the 21st century already. unless you enjoy daily spam in bulk and working inside a box within the constraints of an aged, proprietary interface. and slow, slow, slow, slow speeds. i will however say that local dialup service and some other smaller DSL services (which i believe DLS offers as well) could serve your needs just fine if that's all you need, but if it's that broadband-level speed that you want, DLS wireless wins hands down.
now to all of you who continue to complain about minor installation problems, etc. I urge you not to post massive negative whining reviews here 10 seconds after a problem occurs. like all things in life, things go wrong, so deal with it and be patient first. DLS is not out to rip you off. if you want to be ripped off, go sign up for AOL and then try to cancel it. whatever problem you're having with DLS will then seem silly in comparison. seriously, trust me, once any problems you may experience in the beginning with DLS get ironed out (and they *will* get ironed out), you'll never want to try anything else. bottom line, it's a local company that can give you consistent broadband speed that is leaps and bounds above what these larger mega-corporations can provide, yes at a slightly higher price, but considering the massive bandwidth i have access to and the size of the company as compared to SBC, Comcast and the like, i have no complaints about that whatsoever. in fact it's really quite reasonable once I think about what I'm getting - T1-like speeds for a fraction of the cost.
so, in short, i'm quite happy. and i think deep down all fellow DLS customers are too...=)
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Review by wdliii
Posted: 5.5 years ago
(review was emailed from domain billscomputer.com)
Lake In The Hills,Mchenry,IL
$50 per month
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Hello:
Last week during the storms there were some gaps in service, then it
"broke". Within 12 hours a technician was onsite and had the problem
fixed. That is excellent service service. It was especially important
because I had some contractual deadlines to meet. My customers do not
want to hear about my ISP issues and with DLS they never have had to.
Adam, Aurelio, and Brian were attentive and concerned. My son mentioned
afterward that "Scott, was pretty cool". He was the tech who was
dispatched to correct the problem.
During our last conversation on this matter Brian had called to follow
up I was informed that in the next couple of weeks they are upgrading
the equipment they have on my premises. This will increase capacity
three-fold. I currently have a non line of site wireless connection.
There is no charge to me for this upgrade. I have been a long time
customer and have spent an even longer time in the IT business. Mt
assessment is that overall for price, performance, and service DLS is
tops. That is not to say that they are perfect but they are the best I
have come across for this area.
Regards.
WDLIII.
William D. Lechner III
Bill's Computer Company, Inc.
307 Hiawatha Drive
Lake in the Hills, Illinois 60156-1454
eFax: 847 841 4206
Cell: 847 812 0374
Specialist in Software Configuration Management
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