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Review by cconrow 
Posted: 8.2 years ago
member for 8.5 years, 10 visits, last login: 1.1 years ago
 Everett,Snohomish,WA
 $52 per month (month by month)
 about 8 days
 Verizon (ex GTE)
CLEC party: Verizon (ex GTE)
 "Quick Install, Knowledgable support staff at Blarg!"
 "Support only during business hours, still have to deal with Verizon/GTE..."
 "Blarg! is great... Verizon, on the other hand..."
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Blarg! was knowledgeable, quick, and my service has been pretty reliable in the month or so that I've been hooked up...
Static IP address cost an extra $25 to set up, but then you've got it forever... Works perfectly with my Barricade Wireless Internet Router as well...
I was impressed to see the service turn on in only 8 days after Verizon On-Line took 6 months to not really complete the installation of service at my house...
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Review by rbyoung
Posted: 8.2 years ago
member for 8.6 years, 273 visits, last login: 203 days ago
Everett,Snohomish,WA
$30 per month
about 1 days
Verizon (ex GTE)
CLEC party: Verizon (ex GTE)
"Fast, smart, I get almost allocation at all times of day"
"Tech support only open from 9 to 5"
"Not the cheapest, but you certainly get what you pay for, EXCELLENT SERVICE"
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I was a current Verizon ONLINE customer on a FRAME RELAY circuit. BLARG changed me to an ATM relay with Verizon, matter of fact, (Blarg) had to fight with them (Verizon) to make them support it. Service was up immediatley, did have to wait for 2.5 weeks for Verizon to make change from FRAME RELAY to ATM, and then they set it up as FRAME on the ATM, so another 2.5 weeks went by.... but finally got it. Blarg was an excellent driving force to get things done the whole way. Also, for the $30.00 a month, it is the Small Office, Home Office package... it includes priority packets... went from an average of about 12% packet loss to zero.
Good job BLARG !!!!
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 Review by metrodust
Posted: 8.4 years ago
member for 9.9 years, 2832 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Seattle,King,WA
$168 per month
about 10 days
Verizon
"FAST! Reliable!"
"Not the cheapest ISP, but worth the extra bit."
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I've had DSL through Verizon since Nov'99, was able to switch to the 768/768 plan, service wasn't too bad. Every few days the service would just disappear and I'd end up having to reboot my firewall. Seemed like it was losing DHCP and I noticed that routing was a bit odd. I didn't really like that my second hop was in San Jose and that anyone in the Seattle area had to go through there to get to my servers.
Called Blarg in Mar'01 just to get some info about their offerings and networks. Spoke to Marc who was very polite and answered all of my questions. I placed my order the following week. Verizon switched my 10 days after my order and destroyed my upload speeds. Blarg techs were more than willing to help me battle Verizon and get me running again. Since then, there hasn't been any downtime and the service is just plain FAST! I pay a little more, but for the service, its worth it.
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Review by Dan Daranciang
Posted: 8.4 years ago
member for 8.6 years, 22 visits, last login: 8 years ago
Mountlake Terrace,Snohomish,WA
$53 per month (12 month contract)
about 20 days
Verizon (ex GTE)
CLEC party: Verizon (ex GTE)
"Faster than expected installation, smart tech support"
"Price is slightly above average"
"A great value which won't disappoint you"
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I ordered 768/128 DSL. The price of $52.50/month breaks down like this: Blarg charges $20.00/month for being an ISP, and Verizon charges $32.50/month for use of their network.Even if I went with Verizon for my ISP, the total would be $49.95/month, so it's not that big of a tradeoff.
Whenever I call Blarg to order services, the first thing they say is "Do you have any questions?" This shows that they're dedicated to giving the customer the best service possible. As a prior Blarg customer for dialup, they only made a few changes to my account to make it DSL ready; I assume that setting up an account for the first time is equally easy. They even called Verizon for me to place the order; I made one 15 minute call and I was done.
Verizon sent me a DSL self-install kit, consisting of a Westell modem and some line filters. Following the instructions for Macintosh installation was quick and easy. I have a dynamic IP, but you can pay Blarg $25 for a static IP if you really want one.
I'm convinced that Blarg is the best ISP in Washington State. Even if you're only on a dialup connection, you should switch to them today!
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Review by marean1
Posted: 8.6 years ago
member for 8.7 years, 63 visits, last login: 8.4 years ago
Mukilteo,Snohomish,WA
$20 per month
Verizon (ex GTE)
"Tech Support guy (Mark) stayed after hours to help me get going"
"none noted to date"
"Always on-line, great service!"
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e-mail me direct for my point of view. dcslog@email.com
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Review by KKN4
Posted: 8.6 years ago
member for 8.6 years, 5 visits, last login: 8.6 years ago
Kirkland,King,WA
Contract price not specified.
about 46 days
Verizon (ex GTE)
CLEC party: Verizon (ex GTE)
"Good customer service-on the phone"
"Poor website, haven't answered emails"
"Great service-able to provide DSL when no one else could."
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Thanks to Blarg, I finally have DSL service! I initially tried to get DSL through the phone company because it was cheap and I didn't know any better. But after my install date passed without receiving anything from them (and after discovering DSL Reports and reading the poor reviews), I was finally able to cancel my Verizon order and receive a refund. I tried three other providers, but all cancelled my orders. COVAD said I was too far away and Northpoint said it tried three times but couldn't find room on the loop (which I consider a blessing now).
So I discovered Blarg and though I didn't like the idea of going through Verizon again, it was pretty much my last hope. I called Blarg and was impressed that the phone was answered right away. I asked a lot of questions that I learned to ask from my previous experiences (such as, "Will I be charged before my service is up and running?" Answer: No). Unlike all the other companies I tried, I was told that I wouldn't need a static IP address or DSL router in order to run two computers at the same time - as long as the computers were already networked via a hub. (I was a bit doubtful, but Blarg was right - I didn't have to pay for a static IP or router that the other companies tried to sell me!)
After placing my order, Blarg called me back about 15 minutes later and told me Verizon said my service would be up in 22 days. I emailed Blarg on day 27 to check on the order status, and they asked me if all the modem lights were on. My response was, "What modem?" It turned out that Verizon had messed up my order (although the woman at Verizon was very pleasant and helpful) but I had to wait another two weeks before my service could be activated. At least I received my modem in the meantime.
I had a bit of trouble initially because I couldn't get all the modem lights to come on. Blarg had to refer me to Verizon, and I was pleasantly surprised with the tech support at Verizon. I only had to wait about 5-10 min for a tech (9 PM PST), and it turned out he had to do something at his end to get the modem going. Then he helped me get the service up and running.
I am thrilled to finally have DSL. I only qualified with Verizon for the slowest bronze service, and at times it doesn't seem any faster than my 56K modem. But I haven't had any problems with my connection although it's only been a month. I still have AOL, primarily because I have about two years worth of service saved up, but I use it with the DSL and it runs faster (although it still kicks me off). (I discovered one benefit of using the phone company is that they didn't have to send technicians out to do any wiring - I just had to hook up the modem itself).
Initially I was concerned because Blarg doesn't have 24 hour tech support, but so far I haven't needed it (and then they'd have to charge more). Bottom line - I'm very happy with Blarg so far. I think their pricing is good, especially considering what it includes.
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Review by Ancalagon4
UPDATED: 8.9 years ago
member for 9.1 years, 72 visits, last login: 4.9 years ago
Mountlake Terrace,Snohomish,WA
$95 per month
about 7 days
Verizon (ex GTE)
CLEC party: Verizon (ex GTE)
"Up and running quickly, unlimited transfers."
"Thier web site is very sparse as far as info is concerned"
"So far so good...I'll keep this updated"
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I originally ordered 768/128 ADSL, which was up and running pretty fast.
Install was painless, as I was switching from another ISP that had a quota on transfers.
One of the main reasons I want a DSL line is for gaming, gaming, and MORE gaming. Did I mention I like online gaming? Ok, on to the review.
768/128 was a joke. Seriously. Now I know that Verizon has issues, and that's what people tell me the problem was, so ok. I can't really do Blarg justice by talking bad about them during the period that I had 768/128 since it was beyond their control. I'll just let it be. Also, I had the bright idea that it would be fun to run a server, since I had an extra machine lying around. I put the game server up, and whataya know, more than 5 people joined and my ping to the gateway went >2000 or request timed-out. I thought that the equipment was to blame, and purchased $1000 more worth of computer junk to make a worthy server. No such luck, same thing. At this point, I thought it was Blarg's fault, so I called them and explained my plight. They informed me that they don't allow game servers on their lines. Uhm, hello, I am paying for the bandwidth, and I feel that if I want to use it to run a server then that is my right. Anyways, I decided to up the line to 384/384 to see if that would improve things.
384/384 was a lot better for single player gaming. Actually, it was downright awesome for the most part. I was getting latency factors of around 110 in the first-person shooter I play. Of course, the server still could only handle 5 players. After doing some investigation, I find out that the software company who wrote the game recommends 64 kbs for each player. UGH.
768/768 will hopefully be the answer. So far so good, and if things remain this way, then I will be upping my score on Blarg considerably.
Blarg says that they will be adding in new packages and extra lines to cater to idiots like me who don't care about shelling out over a hundred dollars a month so other people can soak up my bandwidth to play a game. Until then, I'll continue to run my server, and if they choose to disconnect me, then so be it. I already found another ISP who doesn't mind, and if Blarg pulls the plug, I'll have to go ahead and post a review of a new ISP, and recommend that everyone use them instead if they want to run game servers.
01/01/01 (Now that is a nifty date!)
From about November to December, the bandwidth that I had was stifled to the point where I had to shut down the server, as it was pointless to keep it running. I ran some tests and found that during peak hours, and with a 768/768 connection I was getting on average 220/120. I called up Blarg, and they were very honest about the situation. They didn't get their projections correct when estimating their growth rate, and as a result, they ran out of bandwidth. Now, one can argue that they shouldn't have oversold, but I can somewhat understand their plight. It's either over-sell, or turn away business that more than likely won't come back. Hard decision to make, but in order to expand, things are going to get tight for a bit. And the thing I REALLY appreciated is they didn't try to blow smoke and tell me it was someone else's fault.
Around mid-December, they finished the move to larger pipelines, and I am VERY happy to report that bandwidth is no longer an issue whatsoever. People on my server who have high-speed connections get anywhere from sub-50 to 90 pings. Awesome, to say the least! Keep up the good work, Blarg, you're doing a great job.
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Review by durilium
Posted: 8.9 years ago
member for 9 years, 154 visits, last login: 7 years ago
Kent,King,WA
$34 per month
about 9 days
Qwest
CLEC party: Qwest
"Great customer support, fast response, honest answers about problems."
"? I can't think of any I tried but there are none."
"Great price for 640k dial up dsl is great. Blarg is very helpful."
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Ok here is the short version. I ordered 640k dialup dsl from Qwest online, the web said it would be 2 weeks. I called Blarg (a real person) and signed up with them as my ISP. They gave me a free dial up account to use until my DSL was activated they didn't bill me until after my dsl was activated. I heard that Qwest might be done sooner than 2 weeks so at 8 days on a guess  I installed the modem and software. Passed the modem test..passed the DSL line test... failed the connection test.:( Oh wait that's right it was supposed to fail the first time:) so then I tried again and it worked great!! So I called Blarg told them what I had done, they said that was great and helped me configure my mail and news. I had a problem Connecting about a week later called Blarg they said every thing seemed fine on there side to call Qwest. OK I called Qwest got ahold of some one right away and they said that it could be some one at the SO "bumped" the line I was on and deactivated it. Yea right they had some problem they fixed right away, they said that my modem drivers had lost part of there file and were corrupted. Yea right after 1 week. Any how it works fine now and Blarg told me they would get a hold of Qwest if it happens again.
So I got a free internal modem, online in 8 days and a fast 640k connection for less than 35 dollars a month. I'm pleased.
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Review by jkinum
Posted: 9 years ago
member for 10.1 years, 4 visits, last login: 9 years ago
Everett,Snohomish,WA
 Business customer
$30 per month
about 7 days
Verizon (ex GTE)
"Friendly and Prompt with status updates about why verizon couldn't make it work"
"They are connected via Verizon (GTE)."
"Having mucho issues with the FRAD that feeds Blarg."
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Lets see It started out as a simple switch from my old, very expensive, ISP (NW Link) to a new one (Blarg). I had ordered the 768/128 SOHO package which allowed for a static IP to run a couple of Daemons. The service was scheduled to be switched on a Monday and by Wednesday Verizon had gotten as far as switching me to a DHCP DSL. Booo! According to Blarg the circuit that I had been switched to was "saturated" (HA! understatement of the year. I was considering breaking out the ol' modem again. No Joke). Something to do with the frame relay circuit from verizon Washington to verizon Texas. They couldn't get it to work with Blarg so I got a temporary DHCP line.
After a few encounters with the Verizon DSL reps (on one encounter I managed to get as far as a Verizon DSL 'tech' who blithely informed me that if the lights on the modem blinked I was connected, so what was I complaining about! and on another occasion I contacted a rep who got as far as "yada, yada, my job ... is to connect..." at which point the phone disconnected with a dial tone. I never heard from that person again)
On Saturday Blarg called, in the afternoon, and said that my static IP was ready. I set it up. Ran a couple of speed tests via DSLreports and the service ran ok the first couple of days (much better after 11:00 pm) but, during the day it's crape'. Ping seems OK. I get a respectable traceroute result but throughput ain't there. very inconsistent lots of 'bounce'. suck.
not a happy camper, yet. I do like the allure of a flat fee so I'll stick it out with blarg for a month or two and see what happens. It doesn't matter anyway. the only service that i can get is verizon. monopolies suck.
-WA.
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Review by Solstice60
Posted: 9.1 years ago
member for 9.1 years, 2 visits, last login: 9.1 years ago
Kent,King,WA
$35 per month (12 month contract)
about 12 days
Qwest
CLEC party: Qwest
"Easy setup"
"Router always fails on first connect at service startup"
"Easy"
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I ordered 256k/256k select service from USWest/Quest and Blarg total price was $35/mo. One simple phone call to start it all, then another after the phone line was provisioned. The DSL modem was an Intel DSL/Pro 2100 but was free along with having the setup costs by USWest waived, cost me nothing to set this up. Sitting with Dynamic IP using PPPoA. Works well, but a little annoying is the service level does not guarantee always on service. So once in a while i have to re-connect.
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