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Review by bruxx 
UPDATED: 1.5 years ago
member for 5.3 years, 21 visits, last login: 166 days ago
 Yakima,Yakima,WA
 $65 per month
 about 5 days
 Qwest
 "Quality, Connectivity, Support"
 "Qwest as carrier, need faster speeds."
 "Excellent DSL provider, highly recommended."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
I have had few successes out trying numerous ISP's in my area. I had been using Charter and was at a point of extreme frustration, high latency, inconsistent speeds, random drops of service with no explanation, virtually no support and staff who out right lied about technology I work with daily. I had tried other DSL providers with disappointing results.
I ran across Blarg (Now Aavanta) and upon contacting them I was pleasantly surprised, I called for information on their services and found I was speaking to a tech who knew what they were talking about, and they were not arrogant or condescending about it! They were helpful and pleasant to talk with, once I signed up the kit with modem arrived within three days, and the carrier had the circuit lit up I was on-line in a matter of minutes.
I've been with Aavanta for almost a year now, the service is excellent. Speeds are stable and with low latency, I have their fastest service available in my area at 7Mbs/896Kbs for $26.95 per month, plus QWEST circuit rates at $38.00 per month.
The only negative points I will make against Aavanta is I hope to see higher speeds offered in my area and perhaps a carrier other than QWEST.
Lastly, during the wind storms in the Puget Sound region on 12/14/06 Aavanta went dark for about 3 and a half days, although I was not directly affected by the storms the lack of Internet service was inconvenient. I understand that Aavanta has implemented an emergency NOC in a different geographic region to avoid that problem in the future.
I highly recommend Aavanta if you can get them in your area.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Avvanta Communications Corp |
 | »next review in page (previous review)
Review by bruxx
Posted: 1.5 years ago
member for 5.3 years, 21 visits, last login: 166 days ago
Yakima,Yakima,WA
$65 per month
about 5 days
Qwest
"Excellent service, Consistant connection, Low latency"
"QWEST as carrier, Need more speed options"
"Good DSL provider, Highly recommend them."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
I've had many experiences with DSL and cable providers and most have left me disappointed and frustrated. When I discovered Blarg (Now Avvanta) it was a nice surprise. When I called asking for information I expected a sales person or phone tree but the phone was answered by a technician who not only answered my all of my questions but was pleasant to talk to and didn't try to baffle me with BS. He helped me through the specials that were being offered by QWEST and Avvanta, and he didn't' try to over sell me on services. I received the modem kit within 4 days, and after an initial problem with QWEST which Avvanta helped me work with them to resolve it, I was up and running after only 5 days.
Since using Avvanta for over a year now, I've had at least 8 down times. Three were due to problems with Avvanta, the rest were on QWEST's end. Most only lasted 5 - 45 minutes, but there several that lasted more than a day or two due to a fire and then faulty equipment all at QWEST's end. Each time this occurred when I contacted Avvanta they quickly identified if the problem was on their end or QWEST's and ether resolved it within a short time or assisted as best they could. The exception to this was during the outage on 12/14/06 when much of the Bellevue area was without power for almost 6 days, Avvanta was dark for 3 1/2 days before resuming service.
Great DSL provider, you will do a lot worse going with someone else.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of Avvanta Communications Corp |
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Review by Spyder550
Posted: 1.5 years ago
member for 1.5 years, 2 visits, last login: 1.5 years ago
Seattle,King,WA
Contract price not specified.
about 14 days
"Untill 12/14/2006 -- Great Uptime!"
"non-existent disaster recovery plans and communication"
"There are certainly worse providers out there"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
Pre-Sales:
Been so long (4.5 years), I forgot. But they had want I wanted, DSL/SPEED/Static IPs. So they get a 5 for having what I needed at the time I signed up and the benefit of the doubt.
Install Co-ordination:
This was average. It was about 2 weeks.
Connection Reliability:
Before 12/14/2006 they would have gotten a 5 star rating. But, considering they didn't bother to get online to let folks know how long they'd be down, they get a 4* rating.
Tech Support:
They have addressed my issues until 12/14/2006, but they were often kinda of snooty about it. So, they get an average rating for solving problems, but never beyond that.
Services:
Average for the cost.
Value for Money:
Currently, I am thinking about more cost effective options. Qwest, for example, has been great about notifying me of service upgrades that are free with my subscription. However, Blarg/Avvanta haven't never notified me about service changes at my current subscription rate. And after the 12/14-17/2006 down time with no communication, I am looking at my other options.
Followup comments:  
longtimeblargger
@avvanta.com
| Blarg reputation is damaged I think this review pretty much nails it. I have used Blarg/Avvanta for six years now, mostly because I thought of them as exceptionally competent and reliable.
The storm here in the Seattle/Bellevue area was exceptionally bad (a once-in-ten-years event), but I am still surprised to discover that Blarg went down so hard (no connectivity, no e-mail, their web site down, unreachable by phone, and no communication on public forums) and so long (four days) because of the storm.
The lack of adequate disaster planning is a serious concern. Blarg appears to be putting new policies in place after this failure, but I have to wonder why these policies were not in place before. It appears Blarg's reputation for exceptional competence may be undeserved.
I am afraid I can no longer say that I would recommend Blarg/Avvanta over QWest or other ISPs in the Seattle area. It is disappointing. | |
| | bruxx
join:2003-03-12
Yakima, WA
 ·Avvanta Communicat..
·Avvanta Communicat..
| Re: Blarg reputation is damaged I disagree with the assessment of these reviews, I believe the biggest problem is that these reviewers suffer from unrealistic expectations.
I have no affiliation with Avvanta other than a being a pleased customer. I have been in the IT industry since 1984 and have used the Internet for work and play for almost as long, I used to live in the Puget Sound region trying several ISP's while there. I have since moved to an area where quality ISP services and support are pretty much non-existent.
For "years" I have looked for and tried for my own use and my customers, to find quality dependable ISP's with very few successes. I've been with Avvanta for almost a year now and I can comfortably say they are the finest example of an ISP I've yet to encounter. Their service is very dependable meeting the speeds offered and with low latency. They are extremely knowledgeable and pleasant to deal with, any time I have needed support they were helpful and something else that's rare today, they have been personable and not arrogant or condescending. I highly recommend Avvanta for anyone who's looking for a quality DSL provider, you will do a lot worse going elsewhere.
Lets put the events that caused Avvanta's down time into perspective; the damage caused by the weather conditions that occurred on 12/14/06 I believe have only been exceeded by the 1962 Columbus day storm that hit the Pacific Northwest which I believe is recorded as the strongest non-hurricane wind storm ever to strike the continental US.
During the 12/14/06 event wind gusts were clocked up to 100 mph at various locations taking down thousands of trees and power mains across the region, and resulting in at least 16 people losing their lives. This event resulted in the Governor declaring a state of emergency for most of the western part of Washington state, that is no small matter. Power and communications outages from the storms left over 1 million people without power or telephones bringing routine activities to a stand still, this not only effected people in Washington, but also in Oregon, Idaho as well as British Columbia. The outages left some tens of thousands of people without power or telephone service for over two weeks. My point is this was a catastrophic event that disrupted the lives of over a million people in the Pacific Northwest, and Avvanta was right in the middle of it and was off-line for less than 4 days.
I say bravo Avvanta, good job guys.
I believe the biggest problem Avvanta might have is they have grown too fast. My last conversation with them indicated they had been in the process of implementing an emergency NOC (network operations center) in a different geographic location when the storm hit catching them off-guard. It's my understanding that it ether is operational or soon will be which should alleviate this type of problem in the future.
If your looking for an excellent DSL provider, go with Avvanta, no one else can touch them.
GD | |
| | |
longtimeblargger
@avvanta.com
| Re: Blarg reputation is damaged Your argument would be more compelling if other Seattle area ISPs were also offline for 4 days. They were not.
It appears Avvanta did not have sufficient disaster recovery in place and took an extended outage. Other Seattle area ISPs were more prepared and did not have the same issue. | |
| | | | bruxx
join:2003-03-12
Yakima, WA
·Avvanta Communicat..
·Avvanta Communicat..
| Re: Blarg reputation is damaged Then we agree to disagree. Based on the information I have read on record and from friends and family who lived through this, a significant area of Bellevue was dark up to Sunday night. This effected not only Avvanta but businesses, medical clinics, and some emergency and support facilities in the area. I'm told by those who experienced it first hand that Verizon, QWEST and other service providers suffered outages in and around the Puget Sound region that effected hundreds possibly thousands of home, business and government customers alike for Internet and voice services even though their out of state NOC's were not effected.
I admit it would have been prudent of them to have an emergency NOC, but since they do not have the resources of QWEST or other National providers as they are a local provider and taking into account the extent of the problems that occurred, it's disingenuous to fault them to the point of not being worth recommending to others.
If you require the level of uninterrupted service you deem so important that you can disregard any other attributes they have demonstrated, then obviously you need go with a provider that can offer that. I will keep them as my ISP and continue to recommend them to others as an excellent choice.
Best regards. | |
| jdmt
Premium
join:2002-05-06
Seattle, WA
| Avvanta is a Quality ISP I agree with bruxx that Blarg can't be beat. I suffered through the outage like everyone else and certainly it was painful, but my experiences with Blarg (Avvanta) have been too good over the last 7 years to consider changing for this one incident.
For a quality, local ISP, go with Avvanta. | |
| | | |
| Forums » comments on review of Avvanta Communications Corp |
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Review by K7AAY
Posted: 1.6 years ago
member for 1.6 years, 0 visits, last login: 1.6 years ago
Portland,Clackamas,OR
Contract price not specified.
Qwest
CLEC party: Qwest
"When they're open, tech support is good"
"Down, hard, since 12-14 with no explanation: No phone service even!"
"Looking for a new ISP"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
Been using Avvanta since they were Blarg.
On 12-14, their service went down, and have not come back up.
Not even an explanatory web page, which could easily be hosted elsewhere.
Their phones don't work, either.
I expect an ISP to be able to tell its customers when it's down for an extended time, and why. Redundancy and multi-homed connections is such a basic precept of the Internet that's it's a shock when an ISP fails to provide even basic service to its customers so dramatically.
Followup comments: karenrif
join:2006-12-17
Bellevue, WA
|  Desperately trying to make contact
| |
| | karenrif
join:2006-12-17
Bellevue, WA
| Broadwing Phone # I'm totally in support of swamping Broadwing with complaints. Avvanta is their customer, and they should be willing to give Avvanta's customers some status, since Avvanta is unreachable.
Broadwing's Phone #: 888-362-2522
You can reach a person 24/7. You may need to try various number combinations when your phone called is answered by the automatic routing system. Worked for me. | |
| | |
roqfsh
@omcastbusiness.net
| Re: Broadwing Phone # Thanks for this. Blarg/Avvanta has never been down for me in 5 years. That said, their customer service people are about as nice as stale bread. Nevertheless, their up-time has kept me happy.
I'm absolutely appalled by the fact that they're unable to offer any communication to their customers. I've seen nothing in the Seattle P.I. or Times, and I've searched Google News and PR Newswire for an announcement. NADA.
That's very poor. | |
| | |
Spyder550
@clearwire-dns.net
| Here are all the numbers I have for Avvanta/Blarg itself (they keep changing to'n'from "The Line is Busy" and "The number is no longer in service":
1-888-662-6274 (The 1-888-66BLARG number)
1-425-818-6500 (the main number)
1-888-662-5274
1-425-401-9741
1-425-401-9821
| |
| aack
join:2002-12-29
Seattle, WA
| Blarg!/Avvanta I have been a customer for 6 years, and like Karen am rather dismayed at this recent down. The connection went down on the 15th and not a word. No redirect. No temp hosting. No telephone (all circuits are busy). I understand that the weater has been history making, but that hasn't shut down their neighbors for three days. A simple redirect with notification via the web would be nice. Can't get a simple webmail. blaaaarrrrggggghhhh! I'll close by saying I am shocked, as they have been a top notch outfit up to now. In the 6 years, I've lost connection maybe a couple times for only a couple hours. I'm not looking for a new ISP yet, but this is the first time I've considered it. | |
| |
Spyder550
@clearwire-dns.net
| Re: Blarg!/Avvanta I have been a customer of Blarg/Avvanta since 2002. My connection has been down since 11pm Dec 14th, 2006 in Seattle. I am very disappointed at the lack of communication (as suggested above -- at least a web page hosted somewhere) letting us know what is going on. I am surprised at the lack of redundancy. If customers outside of Seatle are down just because the Corporate office went down , that is bad. I too have only gotten "the line is busy" since December 15th when I first tried to call. Can some publish Broadwings number? That is further than I got with Qwest. I got Clearwire, but it won't work long term so its going back Monday or Tuesday.
Thanks. | |
|
Shefa
@comcast.net
| Can't believe lack of communication I've been a Blarg/Avvanta customer since 2000 and it's been absolutely top notch service. I don't blame them for this outage but certainly think they need to get word out to their customers. I'm sure all of us would agree we understand troubles that arise but giving us any kind of info (whether good or bad) is necessary.
I'm fortunate not to be running a business from my connection but do run a server with numerous sites for myself, family and friends and I'm sure we all would like to have our sites back.
Avvanta: Please chime in here or over on alt.internet.providers.usa.dsl as soon as you can! All we want is whatever info you can give us. | |
| scantrontb
join:2002-04-18
Federal Way, WA
| duh! the weather might have something to do with this! come on guys and gals do you really think that just because this is the "internet" and that its "supposed to work all the time" and that the computers that actually "do" the work may be in an area that still does not have electricity from the windstorm may just possibly (hint hint) that this is the reason that there is no internet access via Blarg.net (or its new name avvanta.) just because YOU have power doesn't mean THEY have power.... no power = no servers and no servers means no internet for you... the reason their Phone has been busy is kinda obvious too... too many people whining about the lack of internet and them telling the masses that until they get power, there won't BE any service... sorry, but if my roommate works at a HOSPITAL that was without power for a while... i could care less about whiners that can't play W.O.W. for a few days... | |
| |
Spyrder550
@clearwire-dns.net | Re: duh! the weather might have something to do with this! I pay 100% access 100% of the time. And if there isn't 100% access 100% of the time, I expect timely information as to when the situation will be corrected. So come on, set your expectations to what they should be. | |
| | aack
join:2002-12-29
Seattle, WA
| scan,
What is your problem? Way to dumb down the post. Do you seriously believe we are unaware of the power issues surrounding OUR communities? The issue at hand is the complete lack of notice. It is not a matter of whether they are back up today, tomorrow, or what have you. There is no excuse for lack of notification. Perhaps they could post on any one of the other Seattle/Bellevue Area ISP's that are running. A simple redirect from any service would be easy, inexpensive, and calming. Go visit your friend (hint hint) and lay off the WOW. | |
| | K7AAY
join:2006-12-16
Portland, OR
·Avvanta Communicat..
| duh! the weather might have something to do with this!
come on guys and gals do you really think that just because this is the "internet" and that its "supposed to work all the time" and that the computers that actually "do" the work may be in an area that still does not have electricity from the windstorm may just possibly (hint hint) that this is the reason that there is no internet access via Blarg.net (or its new name avvanta.) Some ISPs take things seriously. Look at the blog of DirecNIC »www.isp-planet.com/news/2006/kat···ory.html »en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interdicto···ogger%29 as an example of a facility who took seriously their responsibility to serve. Some ISPs do, some ISPs don't.
just because YOU have power doesn't mean THEY have power.... no power = no servers and no servers means no internet for you... Nor for the disaster clients who counted on my having access to validate their debit cards and provide disaster casework clearance. The Internet is no longer a plaything; people depend on it.
the reason their Phone has been busy is kinda obvious too... too many people whining about the lack of internet and them telling the masses that until they get power, there won't BE any service... That wasn't the case. The phone provider selected by Avvanta also was inadequately redundant. I see a pattern here.
sorry, but if my roommate works at a HOSPITAL that was without power for a while... i could care less about whiners that can't play W.O.W. for a few days... What does this non sequitur have to do with anything discussed herein? | |
|
Shefa
@comcast.net
| Not complaining just want info Way to bump things down to un-civil, Mr. Scan. No this isn't a "life saving" service but if you read before some people have businesses that rely on websites and services being up.
No one here is being all that demanding but instead just want info. Obviously if some of us can get access to communicate the Avvanta people can do the same. | |
| |
Spyder550
@clearwire-dns.net | Re: Not complaining just want info I echo that... They should have had a plan for communicating with customers. And they don't have that. | |
| revonrat
Premium
join:2006-03-13
Seattle, WA
| Back up. But... I'm posting this from my Avvanta DSL service. So, it's back up. The question is whether I'll be dropping the service or not.
Since there was *NO* communication from Avvanta during the outage, I have made alternate arrangements for connectivity. Since the alternate is not DSL, I can run the two in parallel while I wait for an explanation/plan from Avvanta.
I've always thought blarg was very good but a little arrogant but the goodness has outweighed the arrogance. I'll give them a chance to explain but if it "Hey, we lost power”; I'm going to drop them. | |
|
Spyder550
@clearwire-dns.net
| There Phone Offers apology but no reason.... There Phone Offers apology but no reason....
The message is at 5:51pm and apologies for the down time. They claim all servers are being brought back online over the next few hours. I really hope they have a good reason for not communicating there problems through via a redirected page. Otherwise, I too will be looking for a new DSL service. | |
| 
blarg7
join:2000-09-08
Bellevue, WA
| Network update Having a venue to address these concerns is good, I'd like to thank BroadbandReports and everyone posting in this thread.
We do have contingency plans and they have been more than sufficient in the past. These fail safes were insufficient, to put it mildly, for a state of emergency. Now that we have all faced this level of pure destruction in our hometowns and communities our approach to the 'what if's' will be much more encompassing.
The office where our network is housed suffered heavily with downed trees and pieces of equipment housed on the roof were brought offline by flying debris.
It's impossible to plan for every potential calamity that may befall a singular piece of equipment, as the recent crane falling in downtown Bellevue can illustrate.
One of the future improvements to our network is a second NOC at a geographically different location for additional redundancy. This plan was put into effect months ago. Due to how long it takes for decent pipes to be installed installation was delayed until Friday the 15th.
Additionally, our VOIP phone system, will be supplimented with a regular land line that will be available to all customers wishing a status report.
Open communication has always been at the heart of our philosophy as a business and as individuals. As we recover from this destruction and unroll the new services we've been preparing updates will be made to the main web site. If you have concerns please contact us via email (support@avvanta.com) or call (425.818.6500). Call volume will be heavy for the first 24 to 48 hours.
Marc Lewis
President
Avvanta Communications | |
| | karenrif
join:2006-12-17
Bellevue, WA | Re: Network update Announcement from Avvanta now accessible on »www.avvanta.com homepage... | |
| |
newISPwanted
@avvanta.com
| Mr. Lewis:
First, no one is holding you and Avvanta to blame for a natural disaster. However, the lack of any kind of disaster plan is inexcusable and very obviously missing in your business and day-to-day operations plan. We are in Earth Quake Country in the Pacific Northwest and the measures for earth quake recovery would have carried over to other natural disasters even without a second NOC. Clearly, no plans were implemented at all for disaster recovery. This makes the announcement of the additional NOC just an insult to injury.
Second, Neither I nor others can fathom why a simple redirect wasn't setup in lieu of no land-line, etc. In fact, why wasn't a note placed here *before* today as well as other sites. You had to have know on Friday 12/15/2006 your service was in trouble.
In fact, I was able to get a Clearwire.com setup and working in the time it took me to go to Best Buy, purchase service, come home and plug it in. Why weren't you able to do this? Let me guess -- your company was too proud to utilize a competitors service to communicate with your customer base.
So, the above really doesn't address what is clearly wrong with Avvanta/Blarg. And I don't want another recover fiasco to interfere with my internet needs that I pay hard earn money for. It is too bad, because you guys had been great until now.
Regards,
New ISP wanted | |
| K7AAY
join:2006-12-16
Portland, OR
·Avvanta Communicat..
| Avvanta deigns to reply, at last. > Having a venue to address these concerns is good, I'd like to thank
> BroadbandReports and everyone posting in this thread.
Standard public-relations-speak.
> We do have contingency plans and they have been more than sufficient in
> the past. These fail safes were insufficient, to put it mildly, for a
> state of emergency. Now that we have all faced this level of pure
> destruction in our hometowns and communities our approach to the 'what
> if's' will be much more encompassing.
> The office where our network is housed suffered heavily with downed
> trees and pieces of equipment housed on the roof were brought offline
> by flying debris.
> It's impossible to plan for every potential calamity that may befall a
> singular piece of equipment, as the recent crane falling in downtown
> Bellevue can illustrate.
But, windstorms happen, several times in recent memory. Five weeks
after the Skagit River floods, there's a clear lapse in redundancy
shown once more.
> One of the future improvements to our network is a second NOC at a
> geographically different location for additional redundancy. This plan
> was put into effect months ago. Due to how long it takes for decent
> pipes to be installed installation was delayed until Friday the 15th.
Will those pipes reply on Qwest-provided infrastructure at all?
> Additionally, our VOIP phone system, will be supplemented with a
> regular land line that will be available to all customers wishing a
> status report.
Will that landline be at your primary location, or will it be
geographically separate for the sake of redundancy? | |
| |
NewISPwated
@avvanta.com
| Re: Avvanta deigns to reply, at last. >> Additionally, our VOIP phone system, will be supplemented with a
>> regular land line that will be available to all customers wishing a
>> status report.
> Will that landline be at your primary location, or will it be
> geographically separate for the sake of redundancy?
Well, since the trees damaged the office, I am not clear what good that would do.... Besides, every company with backup phones has a plane with the telco to forward such lines to a geographically different location...
So, I am confused as to what a landline in addition to VoIP means too. | |
| | | K7AAY
join:2006-12-16
Portland, OR
·Avvanta Communicat..
| Re: Avvanta deigns to reply, at last. Well, since the trees damaged the office, I am not clear what good that would do.... Having that landline in a separate location allows customers to get information if the primary location is uninhabitable.
Besides, every company with backup phones has a plane (sic)with the telco to forward such lines to a geographically different location... You don't understand. A landline is POTS, not VOIP.
Besides, Avvanta had a plan, and it was about as good as Mayor Nagin's plan to evacuate everyone in New Orleans who didn't have a car. | |
| | | |
Spyder550
@clearwire-dns.net
| Re: Avvanta deigns to reply, at last. K7AAV:
I know what POTS is =) I was really putting that out for Blarg. If the building is damaged, a POTS line isn't going to do much good either unless the telco re-routes the VoIP or POTS. So, what I was really not clear on is how Mr. Lewis thought this would resolve the communication failure. Thanks for helping to clarify this K7AAV. | |
|
norespectrazzel
@blarg.net
| 8 people died in the last 4 days due to the recent weather Power was out for most of the Pacific North West, from Portland, OR. all the way to the Canadian border.
Downtown Bellevue had 3 (Count 'em THREE) blocks with some kind of power on Friday night.
'History making weather' is a drastic understatement, when compared to the war-zone like atmosphere that stretches across our 2 fair states. The Governor of the friggin' State declared a 'state of emergency' for cryin' out loud.
Go hug your families, and be thankful that you can turn your XMas tree lights on, much less your precious Internet.
Oh, and as for Blarg, I'm disappointed that they did not have a disaster annoucement system ready for such a disaster, but at least the techs I spoke with were up front abount what happened. | |
| |
newISPwanted
@avvanta.com
| Re: 8 people died in the last 4 days due to the recent weather At least we could find out the Governer delcared a state of emergency. So, please, all we wanted to know was why Avvanta failed to communicate. The reason was because they were not prepared at all to deal with a natural disaster. And besides, what does 8 dead people in the state have to do with this? In the future, please don't flame. | |
| | |
norespectrazzle
@blarg.net
| Re: 8 [14] people died in the last 4 [6] days due to the weather *cough*troll*cough*
I'm not flaming, I'm defending a group I happen to have respect for, and BB snipers like you piss me off.
Regardless, from what I was told, they did have a disaster plan, which was overwhelmed, just like the rest of WA and OR. Such was my point in the first place.
[sarcasm] But Noooo! I must be 'flaming' by pointing out the human losses in response to your whining about not being notified that Avvanta got fubar'd along with everyone else. [/sarcasm] | |
| | | |
longtimeblargger
@avvanta.com
| Re: 8 [14] people died in the last 4 [6] days due to the weather I do not think it is true that other ISPs in the Seattle area were overwhelmed. Did most other ISPs have extended downtimes after the storm?
While I agree that the damage to the Bellevue area was exceptional, it also appears that Blarg's disaster planning was inadequate. | |
| | | |
NewIPSwanted
@avvanta.com
| Yeah, your flamming. And I tire of sheeple who must believe authority. They had no disaster plan. That is a plan, simple obvious fact of Avvanta. A week later, the NOC Mr Lewis claimed was to go online on the 15th is no where to be seen. So, Mr Sheeple, please, remember your place. I am the wolf, I am the shepard, I am your master in all things on how the world should be. Blarg screwed up and deserve to loose every single customer that has left since this disaster.
And 8 dead people? Please, when I am dead, I won't care either. | |
| | | |
| Forums » comments on review of Avvanta Communications Corp |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by kevinhutchin
UPDATED: 2.1 years ago
member for 7.1 years, 28 visits, last login: 154 days ago
Bellingham,Whatcom,WA
$55 per month
about 14 days
Qwest
CLEC party: Qwest
"Most reliable ISP i've ever had"
"Not much storage space for basic residential e-mail accounts/personal webspace"
"Best value for the price of any broadband provider i've used in the past seven years"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
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One year ago i was so fed up with Comcast cable broadband (formerly AT&T Broadband here in Bellingham, WA) we decided to switch to DSL. The package sold to us by Blarg in combination with Qwest is about the same price as what we paid for cable. Comcast was supposed to give 3Mbps but their connection was totally unreliable, disconnecting repeatedly all day long. Blarg is a 1.5Mbps down/ 768kbps up DSL service, and they *always* give us our advertised speed, and they have almost never disconnected. We have only had a few hours of service outage during our entire first year as customers. They are definitely the most reliable of any broadband ISP i've used in the past seven years. I've previously had Verizon in the state of Vermont, Adelphia in the state of Vermont, AT&T in the state of Washington, and Comcast in the state of Washington... none of those compare to the reliability of Blarg (with Qwest). None of them are as inexpensive as our package from Blarg+Qwest.
The monthly pricing is actually $21.95 for Blarg, and about $28 for Qwest service plus $5 for Qwest DSL modem rental, plus taxes. This comes to $55 plus taxes, roughly $60 altogether. This is almost the same as our former rates with Comcast.
The cable companies were theoretically faster (3Mbps instead of 1.5Mbps) but in reality, they sucked. The speed is useless if the connection keeps dying every few minutes in the middle of a download or the middle of an online game. With our Blarg service, i have never been disconnected in the middle of any activity, and i only know of two times during the entire past year when they had some technical issues which resulted in service outage of an hour or two. That's something like 99.99% reliability, which is why i am happy to be a loyal customer.
I'm afraid that regulatory changes are soon going to allow the companies like Qwest to start squeezing smaller ISP's such as Blarg and put them out of business. This will be terrible, because i don't really want to be exclusively a Qwest customer, i want to remain a Blarg customer. It will really suck if the companies like Qwest or Verizon manage to monopolize the broadband over phone lines in this region. The FCC is really harming competition by allowing these deregulatory moves to go forward, because we will be left with nothing but Qwest and Verizon, and all the smaller ISP businesses will be unable to afford the monopolistic/oligopolistic access.
Addendum May 20th 2006: After being their happy customer for over a year, i am informed that Blarg has changed their name to Avvanta. We had a major outage today when Global Crossing had a fiber cut between Seattle and Portland, affecting Qwest and MCI customers (our Avvanta service is via Qwest).
I have no major complaint about Avvanta because this was Global Crossing's problem, and this is only the second outage i've experienced in the fifteen months since i subscribed. The previous incident was also a weekend event, when there was a major distributed denial-of-service attack against Blarg servers, causing a couple hours of outage and some hours until total restoration. These are the only two times i have ever lost connectivity during my heavy daily usage of Blarg/Avvanta. This is wonderful compared to my previous crappy experience with Comcast Cable (formerly AT&T Broadband), which had aggravations literally daily and sometimes repeatedly during the course of a few hours. What a world of difference.
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 Review by dg3274
UPDATED: 4.4 years ago
member for 8.7 years, 2052 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Lynnwood,Snohomish,WA
$20 per month
Verizon (ex GTE)
"Fast, reliable connection with 0% packet loss, good ping times and unmetered transfer."
"Extreme amount of spam through Blarg, but their filters keep most of it away"
"Choose Blarg if you want a no-hassle, professional ISP."
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Blarg Online Services turned out to be my DSL refugee camp. I switched to them from another ISP who was giving me well below average service and refused to answer any emails regarding my disappointment.
When I called up Blarg they were ready to pull me out of the ditch and give me the kind of DSL service we all deserve. That's just what they did. I have the Bronze Plus package (768K/128k) from GTE and switching to Blarg was as easy as pie. They gave me a new circuit ID and DLCI and setup my email account instantly for use on their web mail site, www.blargmail.com. I then called GTE and gave them the new ID and DLCI. 2 business days later, my existing service was cut and I then called Blarg back and they turned up my new circuit within 5 minutes. The tech support guy seemed very knowledgeable and was right on the ball getting things up and working.
I've been using Blarg for almost a week now and the improvement from my previous ISP is incredible. I went from 10-12% packet loss on my line to 0%! Online gaming went from frustrating to fun. My speeds are now steady and strong with no bouncing around and I am definitely getting what I am paying for.
The only bad point I have is the $25 setup fee to get a static IP but it is well worth it in the end. I also had to pay a $35 fee to GTE for the ISP switch but that is no fault of Blarg's. They are also sticklers on user name and password restrictions but it is all in the name of security I guess. Blarg also only gives you one email address with the Bronze Plus package and it is $3 a month for each additional address. Wait... I take that back! I just called them and they said that was changed a few days ago. You now get 2 email addresses!
This ISP is definitely looking to make life better and as of right now I highly recommend them if you want a QUALITY ISP.
~David W. Gray
8/26/00
Blarg was down for about 24 hours from 8/24 to 8/25. I'm not positive whether it was them or GTE but for now I'll have to drop them one star for Connection Reliability. That's an unsatisfactory down-time for an always-on service.
8/27/00
Appears it was GTE. Other Blarg users were on at that time so I give Blarg back their one star!
10/03/00
Blarg just dropped their price from $24.95 to $20 a month. Now if they could just loose the $25 setup fee for a static IP!
11/06/02
I would just like to take the opportunity to say how pleased I am with Blarg as my ISP. I've been using their service now for over 2 years and they have been an outstanding service provider to date. The quality of service and support they offer are second to none! The only problem I see with Blarg at this time is their pricing structure. I would very much like to upgrade my service to a faster package but due to the way Blarg prices their services they have made that FAR from a reality. As time goes on and technology improves, the need for faster Internet access becomes a concern for a lot of us. When we look to our ISP and see that they have nothing left to offer (at a fair and reasonable price), it tends to make us loose hope and fear that there is nothing we can do. It’s certainly enough to make us start to look elsewhere for our broadband needs.
Blarg prides themselves on the level of service and support they offer and I don’t blame them one bit! But as time goes on I don’t think that is going to be enough to survive in the game of broadband. They most certainly need to keep that level where it is (I don’t think it gets much better!). However, I think that Blarg needs to become aware and realize that eventually quality is not going to cut if you can’t, in a competitive and consumer friendly nature, offer the quantity to go with it.
I can tell you one thing…. If Blarg’s quality of service and support were any less than it is today, I would’ve undoubtedly switched to another ISP by now.
02/23/04
Well, I up and left Blarg about 2 weeks ago. I decided to go with Speakeasy and their 3.0/768 package. A friend of mine has had Speakeasy for about 8 months and the quality of his service impressed me enough to make the switch. I was a little skeptical at first; going with a national ISP, but the change was well worth it in my opinion. I felt like I was trapped, with nowhere to go with Blarg. Their service offerings just could not compete with those at Speakeasy. To get any faster packages (than my 768/128) at Blarg would mean paying almost as much as I am now with Speakeasy, but only getting about half of the service and features I have now. Blarg has also been increasingly flooded with spam email lately and their filters (set on their maximum setting) were still letting more through then I felt like dealing with. Other than just wanting more than I was getting I have no other reasons for leaving Blarg. They are a fantastic ISP with excellent staff and near perfect quality of service. But like I said in a previous paragraph the year before last, "...Blarg needs to become aware and realize that eventually quality is not going to cut if you can't, in a competitive and consumer friendly nature, offer the quantity to go with it." However, I noticed that right after I made the switch that Blarg did some major reorganizing with their packages and pricing. Things look much more reasonable than they used to. I didn't notice this till after I had switched but I still have no regrets about switching because even the new pricing can't compete with what Speakeasy has to offer. So Blarg, I bid you farewell and thank you once again for the great service you provided me.
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Review by rhrob
Posted: 4.4 years ago
member for 4.4 years, 2 visits, last login: 4.3 years ago
Bellevue,King,WA
$48 per month (24 month contract)
Qwest
"Rock-solid ISP, No outages, Good/configurable spam filtering"
"None"
"Excellent, works well w/ QWEST"
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I've been a DSL customer for 2 years, and a Blarg customer for most of that. I have 640K (up) and 272K (down) speeds on a Cisco 678 modem, w/ 5 e-mail boxes and dynamic IP. QWEST now charges $28/mo, w/ Blarg DSL Standard for $20. I VPN to my employer w/out problems.
Blarg has even helped me through QWEST processes as well. Blarg proactively sent out notification about the new 1500K/894K Service from QWEST today. QWEST took my order, but failed to tell me that I would need to switch from CAP to DMT on my Cisco. Blarg told me about that and also recommended I download (not install) the update now so when my service is switched, I won't get stuck without the software I need to upgrade to DMT.
Blarg has a configurable spam filter as well. I can put my kids on e-mail without having to worry about countless inappropriate messages.
Blarg runs a tight shop and they know what they're doing. Very reliable service.
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Review by bdwinters
Posted: 4.4 years ago
member for 4.4 years, 0 visits, last login: 4.4 years ago
Vancouver,Clark,WA
Contract price not specified.
Qwest
CLEC party: Qwest
"Never got that far."
"No grasp of basic WA geography."
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When Qwest finally made DSL service available in my area, I wanted to sign up with Blarg because their SOHO packages are amazing and they have received great reviews. Three weeks later, it has all gone horribly wrong. This is partly Qwest's fault and partly Blarg's.
At www.qwest.com, under DSL ISPs, state of Washington, Blarg's entry says they serve "All cities". Since Vancouver is a city in Washington, then it should follow that can get service from Blarg in Vancouver. It wasn't until at least my fourth conversation with Qwest that Qwest figured out that Blarg doesn't provide service in Vancouver. This is after Qwest had two different work orders in to connect me with Blarg. It turns out that Blarg doesn't offer service outsite the greater Seattle/Tacoma/Olympia area. That is a far cry from "All cities".
Even though Blarg has no control over Qwest's web site, I hold them partly responsible. One of the first things Blarg wanted to know when signing me up for DSL service was where I live, i.e. Vancouver. So right from the start Blarg had the info they needed to realize that they can't provide me with DSL. Vancouver is the only major city in Washington west of the Cascades and south of the Seattle/Tacoma/Olympia area. Now granted, the people in Seattle often act like the rest of Washington doesn't exist, but I never realized that they genuinely don't know the rest of Washington exists! If you live in Washington, I think you should have a general idea where at least five cities are: Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia, Spokane, and Vancouver. When I called to Blarg to cancel my service the guy on the phone initially couldn't even tell north from south. "No, if you serve Seattle then Bellingham can't be the southern end of your service area. It's north of Seattle. .... OK, Olympia, alright, that is south of Seattle. Vancouver is a good 80 miles south of Olympia." At that point I'd just spent an hour on the phone with Qwest cancelling the MSN service I wasn't supposed to have, so I don't even have the energy to cry.
Other than having no idea where Vancouver is, Blarg seemed to be great, but I never got far enough to really find out.
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Review by sbakker
Posted: 4.5 years ago
member for 5.5 years, 33 visits, last login: 18 days ago
Bremerton,Kitsap,WA
$58 per month
about 7 days
Qwest
"Tech support, value"
"None so far"
"For the $30 I pay to Blarg I get great service, and a 8 IP subnet."
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Blarg tech support is always willing to be conferenced in on a tech support call to the telco to assist in getting service back faster. I have only lost connectivity twice and both times it was a bad card in teh DSLAM and both times Blarg had to explain that fact tot he telco tech support people.
I get Up to 640K up and up to 256K down the ability to run servers thanks to my 8 statis IP's and unmetered transfer. There are also a lot of other features such as DNS for 2 zones that I am currently not using.
I used to work part time for an ISP and I can honestly say Blarg is awesome!
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Review by beewoolie
Posted: 4.6 years ago
member for 1 year, 0 visits, last login: 1 year ago
Seattle,King,WA
$60 per month
Qwest
CLEC party: Qwest
"Stellar uptime and reliability"
"Qwest encumberance"
"Excellent provider, wish they could us another local loop provider"
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Several years ago, I switched ISPs from Qwest (gag) to Blarg!. At the time, it was clear that Qwest couldn't handle basic network operations such as DNS zone management. In a nutshell, Qwest created a web site to manage DNS that was broken and unsuable except for the most pedestrian configurations. Blarg!, on the other hand, has professional staff who got it immediately. The only downtime I've seen in years was due to one of the Microsoft worms saturating Blarg!'s network. They took their network offline for a few hours while they reprogrammed the routers (I think).
The only complaint I have is that the Qwest local loop limits throughput. I'm running 640/256 right now. I'd like faster upload speeds for work. I can get them from Blarg!/Qwest, but the prices are *way* too high. The Qwest fee alone for 640/640 is higher than a competing provider's total cost for 1.5/768.
The bottom line is that Blarg! is so reliable that I'm loathe to switch ISPs to get more bandwidth if there is a chance that service won't be as good.
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