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Review by sredmore 
Posted: 5.7 years ago
member for 5.7 years, 0 visits, last login: 5.7 years ago
 Saratoga,Santa Clara,CA
 $129 per month (12 month contract)
 about 7 days
 "Super-good bandwidth, great low latency, "customer-first" support, availability in my area"
 "startup cost"
 "great service!"
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(ratings well above consensus)
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I live in the hills of Saratoga, CA where I can't get any other (non-satellite) broadband. For about a year, I resorted to a 2.5 mile 802.11 link down to a house in Silicon Valley. It sucked having to be my own ISP.
I found Etheric in a local newspaper, talked to them, and was up and running in about a week. I was one of the earlier adopters, and so had to deal with a bit of "shake-out" blues. Once the configurations stabilized (no more than 30 or 60 days), everything has been rock-solid. Even the problems during this time were minor, very understandable, and rarely had to do with underlying network infrastructure (more problems with things like slow DNS).
I am in the networking business (equipment side) myself, and so am both easier and harder as a customer than non-networking geeks. Etheric has been very patient with my questions, quick to respond, and excellent at pro-active notification of changes or problems.
Everything has been smooth sailing for quite some time now, I get regular download bandwidth that exceeds what my LAN 802.11b can pass, lets me move *really* big >400MB files to and from work, all while streaming audio at 128k with zero drops.
To go from having a tin-can and string net connection to basically all I can handle?
Sweet.
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Review by sardina
Posted: 5.7 years ago
member for 5.7 years, 9 visits, last login: 3.5 years ago
Menlo Park,San Mateo,CA
$129 per month
about 5 days
"Reliable High Speed Connection, SPEED SPEED!!!"
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Etheric Networks provides the highest speed symmetric connection I could find in Silicon Valley for this price. They installed quickly and meet all their deadlines. When the noise level exceeded their expectations, they came out the next day and put up a bigger antenna (24” vs. 18”)
Less than 5 days from order date to install. They came with everything we needed, and were able to have it up in less time than forecasted. They installed Trango Euipment on the roof, and gave me the requested 8 IP addresses.
The network performance exceeded the quoted speed before installation. I get sustained throughput of over 5 Mbits/second consistently, with bursts even higher.
I have had the network up 6 months now, they have impeccable reliability, and great customer support. I have recommended Etheric to several friends who have installed them, and have used them at a new company we started. We are impressed, and the speed for the $ CANNOT be beat.
RELIABLE…SPEED….SPEED.
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Review by ccccss
Posted: 5.7 years ago
member for 5.7 years, 1 visits, last login: 5.6 years ago
Redwood City,San Mateo,CA
$39 per month (12 month contract)
about 2 days
"speed and price"
"typical early adopter's experience"
"I'm a very happy customer"
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I was an AT&T customer before they got bought by Comcast. Comcast raised the rates so I started looking around and found Etheric. This is by far the best deal I've found for home internet access.
I know I'm an early adopter, and it's my home connection, so I can deal with the occaisional outage. I probably wouldn't want a business web server on this line, but I'm also not paying for that type of service.
Tech support is knowledgable and fast. My connection is fast. I'm happy.
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Review by guojin
Posted: 5.7 years ago
member for 5.7 years, 1 visits, last login: 5.7 years ago
Cupertino,Santa Clara,CA
$129 per month (12 month contract)
about 14 days
"uplink bandwidth"
"typical early adopters' experience"
"value for money"
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I had been with Pacbell home DSL for about 5 years until recent house moving. Basically PacBell home DSL is OK. It is definitely NOT carrier class but is enough for home use, except one thing -- the uplink speed.
I shopped around and narrowed down to three candidates: SpeakEasy DSL 1.5/768, landline T-1 and Etheric wireless Gold-T1. My first choice was actually SpeakEasy for its promotion price but it was/is not available to my new address. I know landline T-1 is realiable but is also expensive. So I decided to try Etheric. I signed up Etheric Gold T-1 for $129 a month.
Now I have been with Etheric for 5 months. Overall I am satisfied. The sales and technical people are all very friendly and responsive. The network speed is good.
Wireless broadband is a new technology and Etheric is a small start-up. I understand what that means. Many things, such as power outrage at the Black Mountain tower, are really out of their control. I am an early adopter and I strongly believe in the bright future of wireless technologies. I hope Etheric can get better funding to improve technology and grow their business.
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 Review by TrueAudio
UPDATED: 5.7 years ago
member for 7.7 years, 1176 visits, last login: 87 days ago
Mountain View,Santa Clara,CA
$129 per month (12 month contract)
about 5 days
"Low Latency & High Bandwidth"
"The cost of the Equipment to get started"
"The Most bandwidth for your money in the Bay Area"
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My story:
So I was wondering around DSL Reports one day in the "Find Service" tab, and stumbled upon Etheric. Why was i in the "Find Service" section you ask? I was unhappy with my current ISP (Speakeasy), because my upload & download speeds did not even come close to what i was advertised. I am extremely picky about my Internet Service so i require a lot more then that average user.
I began to read through the 4 Reviews that were posted about Etheric in amazement. I sent a instant message to one of the reviewers "prag".
He was kind enough to provide me with speed tests, and full monthly Ping Plotter graphs. I decided to order based on what i saw, and the price, and the fact that they service my area. They responded with my "Request for Service" the following morning, and a tech out there a few hours later to check if i had "LOS" (Line of Site)
Package:
I order the CR1.5 Gold Package for $129 a month. The equipment cost was $699, and the Installation charge was $100. Alex (President) asked me how many Static IP's i would like, and i ask for 3. I received 3 Static IP's on a brand new subnet. Yay!!
Installation:
The Installation took about 3 1/2 Hours. I think that was partly my Fault cause i was asking the dude alot of questions while he was installing. I told him that i was not trying to monitor his work, but that i was very interested in how it worked and wanted to watch. He didn't seem to Mind. I am Tech as well, and it cant be very distracting to have some watch you, but i usually don't mind if they ask me to watch. I offered him drinks, help, whatever he needed.  He was Really nice Guy. We even shared a few programs. Very cool
Equipment:
The equipment Is a Dish Similar to a Direct TV dish. Relatively small. Attached is a Trango Wireless Transmission Receiver. Power over Ethernet. A Ethernet cord runs straight from there to your Router/Computer. Of course the Ethernet wire must run from your dish to where ever your Office is.
Overall:
Overall, I was about 90% Happy with my total experience from the order from my "Request for service" to Installation. The only reason they do not get 100%is because they rescheduled my first appointment at the time it was to be installed.
It was raining pretty hard and i can understand somewhat, but i feel it might have been a little late for that. In any case the install went smoothly, and Im glad that i switched over to this IMPRESSIVE ISP!! I recommend this to any user in the bay area looking for a ISP thats gives you your moneys worth and then some. Etheric All the way!!!!
Speed test:
2004-01-02 23:14:59 EST: 5132 / 4132
Your download speed : 5132719 bps, or 5132 kbps.
A 626.5 KB/sec transfer rate.
Your upload speed : 4132231 bps, or 4132 kbps.
Seems like broadband .. above the 1mbit barrier!
Trace Route:
Tracing route to www.yahoo.akadns.net [66.218.71.86]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 2 ms 2 ms 2 ms 1-10-3-209.etheric.net [209.3.10.1]
2 4 ms 6 ms 4 ms 17-11-3-209.etheric.net [209.3.11.17]
3 8 ms 3 ms 3 ms 63.146.113.82
4 3 ms 2 ms 3 ms cntr-02.jsv.qwest.net [66.77.106.169]
5 2 ms 3 ms 3 ms svl-core-03.inet.qwest.net [205.171.14.5]
6 8 ms 3 ms 3 ms svl-core-02.inet.qwest.net [205.171.14.125]
7 4 ms 4 ms 5 ms 205.171.14.78
8 3 ms 3 ms 3 ms sjp-brdr-01.inet.qwest.net [205.171.214.134]
9 6 ms 5 ms 5 ms so-2-0-0.edge1.SanJose1.Level3.net [209.245.146.
229]
10 4 ms 4 ms 4 ms so-5-0-0.gar2.SanJose1.Level3.net [209.244.3.141
]
11 5 ms 4 ms 4 ms ge-10-0.ipcolo3.SanJose1.Level3.net [64.159.2.41
]
12 5 ms 4 ms 7 ms unknown.Level3.net [64.152.69.30]
13 4 ms 4 ms 5 ms w7.scd.yahoo.com [66.218.71.86]
Trace complete.
Thanks Etheric. Thumbs Up!!
UPDATE: Still running sweet over here in Mountain View. I have no complaints what so ever. This service is truly amazing. You da Man Alex!
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Review by chubbi
Posted: 6 years ago
member for 6 years, 4 visits, last login: 5.9 years ago
San Jose,Santa Clara,CA
$139 per month (12 month contract)
about 5 days
"Incredible speed & reliability! excellent solution for demanding need"
"Higher equipment cost, higher monthly payment"
"Awesome value! professional grade for residential use in bay area"
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Etheric.net...Blows away the competitors!
I had okay experience with Pacbell DSL for a year in my previous residence with intermittent modem reboots. Then as I move to a new place in the bay area I had to endure 2 years of torture by Direcway with $59 a month equivalent to dial-up quality since no dsl was available. I was going through from anywhere of 25%-50% packet loss to outright signal loss. I could not even send email of 400kb+ out. I'm telling you it was a real horror story EVENthough I have total clear line of sight from the foothill. Just when I was gonna take a baseball bat and beat the hell out of my Direcway dish and donate it for scrap, my brother told me to check out the Etheric.net website.
After talking to the Etheric sales consultant several times, I felt a lot better that it may be the bang for the buck solution I need. I decided give Etheric contract a try over the low cost coming Comcast dsl and direcwav crap. The response is great from this local company that someone always pick up the phone and the field techs gets to your home quickly. I have to say this is a great company and product for the bay area folks. If you are in the area you really should give the contract to this company...cause they really deserve it. No way I'm turning back ...hey once you're high you're high...I'd rather get a second job than give up this awesome speed. Definitely a techie's dream
The highlights are:
- radically fast & professional quality product for high speed residential use
- superquick & painless installation (5 days for me from the time I call)
- $109-$139/month ( pricey but well worth it)
- I'm averaging 4-6Mbps to up & down stream(this blows away even big company speed)
- low to no packet loss (Etheric is aiming for 1 packet loss per 5000 that 0%)
- extremely low latency
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 Review by prag
Posted: 6 years ago
member for 8.9 years, 1712 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Santa Clara,Santa Clara,CA
$129 per month (12 month contract)
about 14 days
"Super FAST!! Low Low latency, and great support."
"High startup costs"
"If you hate CLECS as much as me, then this it the way to go."
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It's about time they get their site listed on BBR so I can write my review.
Long, but interesting install story...
The first time I called Etheric was sometime back in August 2003. The guy that answered the phone was the owner of the company. We talked for quite a while about what services they offer and he explained the network to me, what services they offer, and what his plans were for the future. Given that this company is a startup with under a handful of employees at the time, it was quite easy and a pleasure to dial them up and speak to the owner. The price originally quoted to me was $99.00/month for the SOHO plan with a $800 install price for the install and the cost of the Trango equipment. I called a fellow employee at work who has the service and he said that they are fast and reliable.
They sent someone out to do a site survey the following week. They guy said "Sure, it will work" and the install was scheduled for the following week. When the installer came out he was unable to get LOS to their AP as well as pointed out to me that I was out of range of the intended AP. There were two AP at the time and the other one, there were too many trees in the way for LOS, or so we thought. I thought I was not going to be able to get it at this point.
Sometime in late September, a sales/marketing guy from Etheric called me and told me he was following up to see if I was still interested in service. I said "of course!" He said that since I had NLOS that I should contact my neigbors to see if they can see the AP and then I can just get signal from them. I thought "yeah, sure... " and proceeded to tell the sales guy that I was going to do my own site survey and get back to him. He also said that the pricing structure had changed (increased) and that the monthly service was $129 for residential service plus they didn't do leasing anymore of the Trango radio and I would have to buy it.
So I rigged up this 22' pole (made with 2"x2"x8' pieces of lumber) and stuck a webcam on the top. I ran the webcam to my laptop and one clear morning, my roommate and I climbed on the roof and began looking for the top of the mountain where the AP was supposed to be. BINGO! I got some good shots of where it was supposed to be and sent them off to Etheric. They called me back in a couple of days and said it "should work" and scheduled another install appt to come out and install.
The first install date was postponed since they overbooked the date for scheduling. I can't blame them too much, because I informed them earlier that I needed a 20' pole on my house to get above the treeline and they told me that the install would take most of the day. So we rescheduled it for the following week.
So the installer showed up and with a little help from me we managed to get that pole installed on the roof in a few hours and the antenna mounted and cable ran into the house. The installer was suprised to see such good signal when they powered up the radio. Speeds were inconsistent at first when we got it up and running, but it turned out it was just my router problem. Running PC to Antenna to AP to Linux box on the other side, we saw transfer speeds over 800KBs. I don't recall the exact number, but it was impressive, to say the least.
It's been a little over 3 weeks since I have had the service and I must say I am impressed with the speeds and low latency. The average speeds I get when running the bandwidth tests are 5-6 Mb/sec both up and down. I must say though that these bandwidth tests are mostly inaccurate. They even say that they only are good up to 5Mbits. Even then, I still see low results but I start an FTP transfer to a major site and it's rockin'!
»/archive/etheric.net
There were some initial problems with the radio cutting out and losing it's association with the AP, but those were fixed with a Trango firmware upgrade. I was also seeing some packet loss 5-20% at times, but that was cleared up when the uplink was moved to a higher density port. Still seeing some packet loss at times (less than 3-4%) but it's not noticeable - just my ping program picks it up. I was seeing about the same on ComCrap's network. The install was still $99 even though they did some extra work, but I agreed to pay the extra cost of the telescoping mast which runs about $150.00. They got a funky bill pay system that I'm not quite sure how it works yet. I know that I was overcharged $30 the first month, but they said it would be refunded on the next billing cycle. So there have been some problems during the first couple weeks (which were expected) but they were not major and since then it's been pretty stable and rock solid.
So you might ask why would someone pay so much for a broadband connection ? Quite simply the reason is choice. I choose to. $129 isn't too bad. I was paying $119.00 for Qwest SDSL a couple years ago. I have been with several BB providers (flashcom, megapath, rythms, qwest, matrixwebs, excite@home, ATT, and now-cancelled ComCrap.) Bandwidth cap from Comcast? WTF? No Servers ? Seeya! Man, I'm so glad to ditch those fookers. I'd rather pay twice as much to the smaller, faster, more personalized ISP. I call them up, they answer...no machines. I send them an e-mail, I get a reply or a phone call back within minutes. My latency to game servers is incredible...6ms ping to 2 servers (MUHAHAH) and sub 20ms ping to about 200 more. Comcrap says "you can't run servers" ... I say "later dudes." I can run servers here. Tell me where you're going to get 4 X T1 speeds Up/Down for under $150 (besides OOL and other wireless providers popping up) ? They also have the most user-friendly SLA you could imagine. It fits on less than two pages.
I didn't answer for DSLRs section on News, email and DNS services since I provide my own. Did I mention that they let you run servers ?? The day from order to live would be after I provided the site survey pictures, so about two weeks.
7 more days until my 30 day risk-free period ends. Am I gonna cancel ? Umm... I don't think so. I know of other WISPs popping up in my neigborhood, but I plan on sticking with these guys for a year and see what happens after that. Who knows, maybe Santa Clara will have FTTH by then ?
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Review by eggehad
Posted: 6 years ago
member for 6.3 years, 64 visits, last login: 3.4 years ago
Santa Clara,Santa Clara,CA
$199 per month (12 month contract)
about 2 days
"Fast, Reliable, very knowledgeable folks, did I mention FAST?"
"Expensive"
"Well worth the money!"
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If you haven't read my other reviews sprinkled all over DSL reports about etheric.net you might want to look around for them. Don't know what etheric is?
They are a broadband microwave ISP that uses point-to-multipoint 5Ghz high-gain dish antennas, with Trango Broadband link hardware. The microwave link itself has up to 10 Mbps useable aggregate bandwidth (depending on your location and distance YMMV), and upstream & downstream traffic adjusts automatically to suit demand. Etheric offers a fully symmetric service, (at least the one I got) so
you get full bandwidth both UP and DOWN. These days I generally see speeds that peak around 8 - 8.5 Mbps during non-busy times. This translates to roughly 800 KB/sec with overhead. Link latency is quite low, usually less than 5 mS. However, overall network latency generally hovers around 70 - 80 mS for me, still a pretty good number to be sure...
During busy times, I have seen speeds dip as low as 310 KB/sec, but they generally hover in the 450 - 550 KB/sec range. Upload speeds I have never seen drop below 750 KB/sec. I have seen some confusion over the connection speed though. One fellow was simultaneously uploading AND downloading and noticed that his speed dropped dramatically on the upload. That 10Mbps is the sum total that the link supports UP+DOWN. So downloading and uploading simultaneously will generally hover at 450 - 500 KB/sec respectively.
Depending on your installation, you may or may not end up buying your antenna and transponder. This can be pricey, so be sure to protect your investment, and coat all the SMA connectors on your antenna COAX with silicon or other waterproof seal, as the Trango manual mentions. My installer failed to mention this to me, so I ended up doing it after the fact.
The overall installation experience was amazingly painless for me, perhaps because I had pre-prepared the installation location onto a pre-existing antenna tower, and had already run the cabling. The fellow that came out did a fantastic job, and was well versed in what he was doing. I think I had my site surveyed on a Saturday, and they came out and did the install the next day, on a Sunday. The best service I've ever gotten from any ISP, period.
I've been a customer now for 5 or 6 months, (an early adopter for sure!) to date, I've NEVER waited more than 24 hours for a reply to an email, and phone calls always find a human in short order. One thing I should comment on: don't expect Etheric to hand-hold you through your network configuration and setup. This ISP assumes you know what you are doing, and they don't offer much in the way of services. You pay for and get a radically fast internet connection, and thats about it. You provide the rest. Don't expect POP email, or NNTP servers, or HTTP space on their server. With this kind of network connection, you can roll your own in short order with bandwidth to spare. So if you feel a little uneasy about setting up your own email server, or website, or local DNS, or ... I'd suggest you either ally yourself with an expert, or you find a more user friendly service to pursue.
But if you are like me, and you've got the NEED FOR SPEED, and know your way around a command prompt. This is the place to be baby. It just doesn't get any better than this. I just love these guys, they ROCK!!! Words just can't communicate how awesome it is to have the equivalent of 5 T1s in my home.
If you want to look at it another way, my connection is in the top 0.5% of ALL DSL REPORTS customers for connection speed. Now is that cool, or what? The only real competition for this kind of connection speed is fiber, without having to live where there IS fiber.
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Etheric Networks
