how-to block ads
|
»next review in page
Review by jasmina 
Posted: 16 days ago
member for 16 days, 0 visits, last login: 16 days ago
 Watsonville,Santa Cruz,CA
 $180 per month (6 month contract)
 about 14 days
 "Bad reliability, worse tech support, worst value for the money"
 "Don't use Etheric if you have any other choice"
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
Unfortunately, this is the only choice available in our area, and we were among the founding members. Now we are moving, and poor Internet service is a big reason. We never get the bandwidth we paid for, and quite often there is no service at all. For example, last 12 days the service has been so slow that it has been unusable. Repeated calls to tech support got no answer or call back. We will be so happy to be rid of Etheric!
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Etheric Networks |
 | »next review in page (previous review)
Review by (hidden by request)
Posted: 73 days ago
(review was emailed from domain att.net)
Los Altos,Santa Clara,CA
Contract price not specified.
 "fast, realiable, good tech and sales support"
"pricy, no cell phone support (need to add femtocell)"
"good experience"
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings above consensus)
|
Early user of Etheric. I have direct line of sight to Santa Clara HQ.
Performance is great, minimal tech issues (10 months). Very good people and
helpful. Much better performance than Verizon wireless. Absolutely much
better than Hughes net.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Etheric Networks |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by (hidden by request)
Posted: 134 days ago
(review was emailed from domain goldenlight.com)
Watsonville,Santa Cruz,CA
 Business customer
$99 per month
about 5 days
"great service for 7 years 24/7. great upload and download performance"
"none"
"enables me to work from home (in a remote area) with the same throughput as working ove the hill in a large wired office"
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings well above consensus)
|
Etheric has provided incredible service that has been running continously 24/7 for over 7 years through storms, fires, etc.The few instances of downtime, which have been less than five during this period, they responded immediately to fix the problem, including one house visit to discover a rat virus ( a rat gnawed into a Ethernet cable.) And I wasn't even charged for the service call.
My service has been running for over 7 years, non-stop at incredible speed. Etheric's technology has enable me to work remotely without any compromiseEvery little problem has been addressed immediately, professionally, and kindly. Their staff takes great pains to keep customers informed of any scheduled maintenance with advance notice, so I can plan for it. My bill is half of what I used to pay AT&&T and the service throughput is 40 times faster. I have run as many as 9 computers simultaneously with zero degredation. The customer service is every bit as good as their technical service. They are a great group of people who build great technology.
Regards
S Swami Nathan
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Etheric Networks |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by tcraig
Posted: 155 days ago
member for 246 days, 15 visits, last login: 58 days ago
Los Gatos,Santa Cruz,CA
Business customer
$139 per month
"They sure talk a good game"
"Had service for 4 years, clost to 5 and it has NEVER been stable..."
"Do not go with this company... Customer Service is terrible, techs have limited knowledge"
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
|
Worst ISP ever... Do not listen to these positive comments. Almost had the service 5 years and it is terrible 80% of the time.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Etheric Networks |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by moropeza
UPDATED: 250 days ago
member for 4.4 years, 40 visits, last login: 31 days ago
Scotts Valley,Santa Cruz,CA
$139 per month
about 60 days
"Only ISP available to me. Will work through issues on phone during business hours"
"Not reliable enough, slower than it used to be."
"I like the Etheric team, but don't enjoy the regular downtime."
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
When I first signed onto Etheric many years ago, I was able to achieve 7500/7500 kbps (when it was working). The connection would go down frequently due to what they claimed was "unlicensed interference from competing vendors." They would connect to my radio and change my frequency or polarity, and then things would work for a few days.
Then they suggested I replace my radio with one that had more error correction, and would automatically change frequency and polarity when interference was detected. Now, we don't have downtime as frequently, but when it does go down, the downtime lasts longer. Also, I no longer get anything close to the burst speeds I had before, with recent throughput coming in at about 2000/2000 kbps (when it's working).
I am patient and report my connection problems every time they happen. I want Etheric to succeed at providing me reliable internet service. But the last 1.5 weeks have been terrible with poor or no performance. Trouble tickets are closed by them at the first sign of improvement, only to be reopened by me the very next day. As far as I can tell, they are doing little to research or understand my current connection problems. Only a phone call will get them going again. Sigh.
Update: A staff member of Etheric saw my review and called me to direct me to a more local speed test where I was able to get closer to 4300/2700 throughput speeds.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Etheric Networks |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by tal
Posted: 259 days ago
member for 259 days, 1 visits, last login: 257 days ago
Palo Alto,Santa Clara,CA
$119 per month
about 45 days
"Quite reliable and fast with extremely low latency"
"It took some time and effort to get it installed and working well (not completely their fault)"
"I'm happy"
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
I got Etheric last summer to replace the Sprint fixed wireless broadband, which was shut down in July. I'm too far from the CO for DSL and didn't want Comcast.
It took some effort to convince them I was serious (I wonder if they've had bad experiences with looky-loo inquiries), but they eventually came out to check visibility, and warned me that the existing 20' mast (leftover from Sprint) might not be adequate to clear the nearby trees. I had them install on that anyway as it was quicker and cheaper, and while the speed was good the signal strength was low and the connection frequently dropped for a minute or two. After a month or two I decided to have them install a taller mast, which fixed the problem. Since then the speed is almost always well above the level I'm paying for ($119/mo for 1Mbps guaranteed/4Mbps burst), and it's usually extremely reliable. Tech support is sometimes slow to respond, but better than any large ISP.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Etheric Networks |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by Gm4n
Posted: 271 days ago
member for 271 days, 0 visits, last login: 271 days ago
Palo Alto,Santa Clara,CA
$99 per month (12 month contract)
about 14 days
"fast internet, flexible support, reliable connection, amazing upload speed"
"Slow sales team, installation fees, tech support isn't round-the-clock"
"Etheric is a good deal, and works way better than DSL. However, some patience will be required."
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings above consensus)
|
I switched to Etheric after being fed up with terrible DSL at my home. The transition was a tad rocky. It took a while (around two weeks?) to get a survey and installation. The installer didn't get things quite right, and our internet wasn't exactly stable for the first few weeks. And of course, the installation fee itself, as well as your purchase of the hardware. Needless to say, I didn't start out enthralled with etheric.
After a while, service improved. Etheric tuned my beam, climbed a tower, and did whatever else it was that needed doing.... they even sent out another tech to fix the install. And when I wanted to get my ip-to-name lookup changed, it was done within a few hours 
Nowadays I essentially always have my "burst" speeds, and the connection is rock solid. Pings to google are amazingly fast, and there's NO packet loss (I don't really know what else to measure). I was far from pleased at first, but it turned out to be more than worth it in the long run... and if I ever call up, the techs speak english and know what's going on. I haven't had anyone tell me to reboot my computer in quite some time.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Etheric Networks |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by rdkl
UPDATED: 277 days ago
member for 346 days, 2 visits, last login: 277 days ago
Los Gatos,Santa Clara,CA
$170 per month (12 month contract)
about 1 days
"SO far excellent service. Installed the day after we ordered. Excellent speed so far."
"extraordinarily poor technical support and unresponsive when issues"
"Great choice if you can't get a cable modem. Fast solid bandwidth and low latency."
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
Unfortunately we didn't have a lot of choice up here in the hills.
We have had Cooplabs for the last 4 years but they have really gone down hill over the last 2 and are basically unreachable.
Called Etheric on Monday and was up and running on Tuesday. Solid connection, low latency, and more bandwidth than advertised (always better than getting less!).
Sales was very reachable. I have not had to deal with support yet. Seems like a very professional company and the installer did a nice clean install.
My only real complaint is the pricing is higher than cable and dsl and there is a somewhat low monthly cap.
UPDATE: The honeymoon is over. Intermittently bad connectivity and throughput. Last 14 hrs have been intermittently slower than a 2400 baud modem. opened a case last night at 8:30pm. Just talked to someone now (next day at 10:30am) and nobody had bothered to do anything. In the past similar lack of response to email/online filing. Its great when it works but right now it doesn't seem like they will fix much when it doesn't. Unfortunate that we have little other choice and have now entered into a contract. They are still far better than Cooplabs but you can not count on Etheric if you work from home. Still our best choice up in the hills but I can't say they are great anymore. (we've only had service for 2-3 months so it didn't stay great for long)
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Etheric Networks |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by hroch
UPDATED: 283 days ago
member for 283 days, 0 visits, last login: 283 days ago
San Jose,Santa Clara,CA
$79 per month
about 10 days
"Local, small, effective, fast, reliable, independent."
"Technology limitations: line of sight, power to towers during storms"
"Far better deal than national ISPs. Best service in Silicon Valley."
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings above consensus)
|
I have been a customer of Etheric Networks for over a year now and the connection, service, and support ROCKS, with "Bronze" Residential Internet Service at 750 kbps (burst 1 Mbps), 27.5 GB/month cap, for $80/month. Hardware and installation was approx. $500.
For DSL, I am apparently too long wound, as even dialup and faxes over the phone line fail frequently. I had Megapath ISDN for $100/month (144 kbps), now discontinued; they would offer me partial T1 for $400+/month, no, thanks. My neighbors run $200+/month "cable packages" from Comcast; since I want just the internet, "the service is not available in the area". Right.
So urban wireless it is. Etheric's installation was reasonable, although it took them over a week to work out all the tune-up. Since then, I have been practically permanently online (ruining web, ftp, mail servers); there were only a few down situations, either standard maintenance/upgrade/configuration, or a storm has passed through the area and knocked out power to the equipment on the hill I'm radioing with.
Only several hours down cummulative, over the course of a year, is an excellent service.
I don't buy FUD about wireless latency: I'm about 12 ms round-trip from a backbone in light traffic, and about 30 ms under heavy load. It was not better on the wire.
The real difference is in the company and the people. Personal, local, competent, and able to take advantage of me being an engineer. What a relief from an outsourced script drone!
How much chance do you have calling a national ISP and have them *understand* and *fix* a problem you define as "30% packet loss about 4 hops from me"? Without having to tell them what service pack you have on your MS Word? It took Etheric 3 minutes to resolve.
I wish I had known about Etheric Networks a few years earlier, and saved myself the hassle I had to endure with all the others. So, if you're in line of sight of any of the Etheric towers, I would certainly recommend them.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Etheric Networks |
| »next page (previous review)
Review by bryancox4
Posted: 354 days ago
member for 354 days, 4 visits, last login: 347 days ago
Saratoga,Santa Clara,CA
Contract price not specified.
"Sales"
"Poor tech support, no return calls 3 times in a row for same connect issue"
"Looks like it's time to try another provider"
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
|
While the salesperson did a nice job detailing the various service options, the organization behind him completely failed. Three times in row for the same issue, the tech support organization failed on promises to contact me and resolve my connection issue. Since my home already had the equipment installed when I moved in, you might expect that it would be an easy setup. The final straw came when the Support Manager was out to dinner during support hours and made me wait for 3 hours only to be told (after I called them) that they'd fix it another day. For a minute, I thought I was living a BOFH episode. Take my advice and pass on these guys until they figure out that paying customers keep them in business.
Followup comments:  aligzanduh
Premium
join:2003-02-04
Mountain View, CA
1 edit | Customer Issue This customer took over service allready installed for an existing customer that moved. He was emailed the configuration information. As I understand it he called Sunday night with difficulties implementing the configuration. Our records show his installation date was the same date he posted this review! I have never seen someone issue a complaint of this kind on the day of installation - especially considering normally we send a technician out - and in this case - the service allready being established at the residence - we attempted to simply email customer router config - so that the customer would save money. I am not even certain it should be accepted by DSL reports to support service rating on day of activation.
Of course I emailed the customer - and advised him I would discuss with the staff improving the "re-activation of existing installation" process, prior to my knowledge that he wished to go public with the experience.
Of course we want this customer to be happy! The previous resident of this address was happy! I have left him a message about this! | |
| | | |
| Forums » comments on review of Etheric Networks |
|
|
Etheric Networks
