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Review by rockdude 
Posted: 2.7 years ago
member for 2.7 years, 0 visits, last login: 2.7 years ago
 Canyon,Contra Costa,CA
 $45 per month (12 month contract)
 SBC
 "great service and reliability, static ip, low ping, short hops"
 "none (see post)"
 "the only way to go"
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having used this site for reference for years, i only just read the reviews of my own isp and felt i needed to put in my 2 cents worth.
i have been with raw bandwidth (tsoft) since nov 97 (dialup) when mike (mr tsoft himself) had around 300 customers.
i was with earthlink before that and they were in the painful process of taking over every isp under the sun. earthlink's ping times were getting horrible, and i was getting shunned off kali (online gaming server), so i looked around for isp's with free trials. tsoft offered 2 weeks free and i jumped at it. i have never regretted it since!
i was lucky enough to get dsl in late summer of 99... after several months of hassle with pac-hell... mike was extremely helpful in dealing with the mega giant monopoly.
if you need to call for support (i have 3 or 4 times over the last 10 years) mike answers himself and helps you out. yes, he is soft spoken and yes, you can annoy him if you are calling/emailing with silly questions (subject to interpretation by mike himself)
the person who called in the middle of the night to ask about services, clearly listed on the web site, would have annoyed me as well. (previous review) this person obviously didn't appreciate that the price one pays for a mom and pop operation, is the guy who owns the company is the tech support guy too and, although is there for the company 24/7, also needs to sleep occasionally. i'm completely sure that if a customer had called at 2 am with a legitimate problem, mike would have lept up and dealt with it. i have emailed him many times late at night and been surprised to get a prompt response.
to me, having dealt far too often with the mega monopolies (i'm the it/phone/"everything else" guy for a small company), the small company is the only way to go.
totally recommended.
keep up the good work mike!
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Review by edweirdo
Posted: 3.5 years ago
member for 3.5 years, 0 visits, last login: 3.5 years ago
San Francisco,San Francisco,CA
$38 per month
 about 6 days
Southwestern Bell
"Fast setup, reliable connection, responsive and technically savvy customer support"
"Highly recommend"
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We signed up with Raw Bandwidth (RB) in August 2005, but I've waited til now (9 months later) before submitting a review, as I wanted to have enough experience to provide a credible review.
The 4 criteria we (wife and I) had for selecting a DSL provider:
1. fast, no-hassle setup
2. reliable Internet connection
3. responsive and technically savvy customer support
4. good value for the money
There was a 5th, minor criteria:
5. a static IP address for a reasonble charge
Having access to the Internet is an important part of our personal and professional lives, so we wanted a service provider that delivers great all-around service. We asked around, and I spent a lot of time reading the reviews on this web site.
We selected RB, as it was the best fit per our criteria.
Our experience:
- RB was very helpful in answering the questions about the service, discounts, and setup process, prior to our ordering
- we were up and running 6 days after ordering the service online. I was thrilled about this, esp after hearing countless horror stories about how long it takes to get DSL service from other providers, and what a hassle it is. RB managed the local phone company (SBC) so we didn't have to deal with them
- through the setup process, RB showed it has the tools and know-how to test and troubleshoot the line status of our line
- our bandwidth and uptime over the past 9 months has been superb. I can't remember any kind of outage that impacted us
- RB has responded to our emails with quick turnaround, usually within an hour or two. This is particularly important to me, as I value my time, and the last thing I want to do is call in to customer service, get transferred 3 times, and re-explain my technical problems to a person who doesn't really understand what I'm telling them, and then have to call back later to check on the status
I don't usually write reviews like this, because it takes so much time. But we've been VERY happy with our DSL service and wanted to pass along a positive referral.
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Review by johnwbyrd
Posted: 3.7 years ago
member for 8.9 years, 39 visits, last login: 235 days ago
San Bruno,San Mateo,CA
$55 per month (12 month contract)
about 5 days
"Awesome service, personal, geek oriented, just works"
"A little pricey for the local market"
"An excellent, stable service at the correct price for said service"
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The bad points first: you can probably get cheaper DSL with higher bandwidth elsewhere.
That said, I am very happy with this service, and I am not easy to please. This organization is a one-man shop with Mike Durkin responding to all your tech questions. He's quick, friendly and very knowledgeable. As a result, once I got my connection stable, it's been an absolute rock -- near 100% uptime, with very predictable speeds as advertised -- rarely exceeding them, but never dropping below the promised speeds.
There was a problem with my line dropping packets over several months, with bad connections. Mike patiently helped me debug from his side -- turning on error correction at the CO fixed the problem at the expense of slightly higher ping times.
If you know what UDP and DHCP are, know how to set up your own routers, are willing to pay a few bucks extra for a stable connection, Mike is your man. I've been with him for almost three years now, after giving San Bruno Cable the boot to the head. Pay the extra $10-$20 per month to this local dude and tell San Bruno Cable to screw off.
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Review by clay94109
Posted: 4.4 years ago
member for 4.4 years, 0 visits, last login: 4.4 years ago
San Francisco,San Francisco,CA
$49 per month (12 month contract)
about 4 days
SBC
"Always avaible to answer questions"
"No residential T1's"
"Great service"
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I have been with Raw Bandwidth from when they were called T-Soft. I love the service.
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Review by cunnie
Posted: 4.5 years ago
member for 4.5 years, 7 visits, last login: 220 days ago
Mountain View,Santa Clara,CA
$105 per month (12 month contract)
about 14 days
SBC
CLEC party: SBC
"Mike rocks my world"
"If you're technical, this is the way to go"
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I got Rawbandwidth three years ago, and I've never regretted the decision. Mike sold me a /28 subnet (which has never been re-IP'ed, unlike my Speakeasy connection), and set me up with reverse classless delegation for my IP addresses (something which when I ask for from other ISPs I hear a long silence on the other end of the line).
Two weeks ago I received an email which described in technical detail a four-hour outage that happened the previous day. This was notable for two reasons: outages are so rare that this is the only time I remember one happening, and also it's the mark of a top-notch ISP to candidly disclose any outages and the reasons thereof.
Last time I checked I had 1630/408 download/upload (kbps). Not bad considering my distance from the CO. And the install was as smooth as silk.
Mike rocks.
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Review by ejengstrom
Posted: 4.5 years ago
member for 4.5 years, 2 visits, last login: 4.4 years ago
Richmond,Contra Costa,CA
$125 per month (12 month contract)
SBC
"Blazing fast, consistent no-BS service, term contract pricing, not having to deal with 3 layers of customer support"
"None attributable to Raw Bandwidth/TSOFT"
"Superior uninterrupted service, 6mbit DSL for residential, all needs exceeded without pain or suffering - THANKS MIKE!"
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I've been a customer for several years and recently went on a contract pricing for my 6mbit service. We've never had an issue with service from Raw Bandwidth, but have been impacted by Pacbell/SBC several times. I live in the Richmond, CA area and had few choices until I found Raw Bandwidth.
In every case of serious outage, I've been able to relax and rely on Mike Durkin to handle the matter and he promptly communicates with us about problems, possible problems and the reasons why we experience outage when Pacbell falls down.
The last time we had a lengthy outage, I called the Raw Bandwidth number and Mike picked up without delay and explained the situation to enough detail that I knew the scale of the problem and had confidence he was working with the party responsible (Pacbell) to resolve.
I understand that most people shop for the rock-bottom prices for a monthly service. But I urge you to use this service if you've ever been burned by Yahoo, Pacbell/SBC, etc. The small premium of a few dollars more for most speed/service levels over the competition will pay for itself by less hassle, protected bandwidth and helpful, no-BS service from Mike.
With Raw Bandwidth you have one contact that cares about running the best business possible and that goes a very long way in my book and adds tremendous value to my experience as a customer.
If you care about where you do business, or if you simply want to experience the feeling of money well spent, do business with Raw Bandwidth. You will not be let down.
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Review by Peter_Easton
Posted: 4.9 years ago
member for 4.9 years, 1 visits, last login: 4.9 years ago
San Jose,Santa Clara,CA
$49 per month (12 month contract)
about 10 days
SBC
CLEC party: SBC
"Reliable service, excellent support"
"None"
""Get and forget" reliable DSL line"
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I've had my DSL line through Raw Bandwidth for 2 years now. It has been extremely reliable over that time. I did have some initial problems with the power supply on my DSL modem not working. In each case Mike was very quick to answer the phone and send out a new power supply. My girlfriend has Earthlink DSL; the connection keeps dropping (and staying down until we reboot everything) and tech support is scripted and in India. It is times like this that I really appreciate Mike and Raw Bandwidth.
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Review by yawaraf
UPDATED: 4.9 years ago
member for 8.2 years, 107 visits, last login: 2.1 years ago
San Jose,Santa Clara,CA
$79 per month
about 7 days
SBC
"Excellent service. Excellent support."
"None."
"There is no one like Mike (RawBW employee)."
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Mike is the best you can find in support out there. If you are technical and can handle things on your own side, then Mike will help you out tremendously. He won't start off by reading lame questions that other ISPs 'tech' people ask... "Is your computer plugged in?" "Do you have a monitor?".. With Mike you can get right down to business. He responds to email immediately, my friends (who are also TSoft/RBW users) and I joke all the time that he sleeps by the phone, because you can call Mike and he'll be there at like 2 in the morning - seriously; he might be a little grumpy, so make sure its a problem on your end that you're having  . All my emails to Mike were replied to quickly, they answered all my questions, and he helped work with SBC on getting a problem I had fixed. The service he provides is superior to that of any other service I've ever had. It is highly stable. I've upgraded my service to 6MBit down/608KBit and i still have a 3-bit subnet. (I pay $115/mo) Thank you Mike!
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I had been a dialup customer with RawBW for 3 (?) years, and had enjoyed everything, Static IP, reverse dns auth over my IP, and very very helpful support from Mike. He get's everything done, quickly, and efficiently. Whatever level of computer user you are, he will speak to you so you understand what's offered. All prices are laid out neatly on RBWs page. I pay $64 (for PacBell + RBW bandwidth) + $15 for a 3-bit subnet. A pronto box was installed in my neighborhood and completed 12/31/01. I ordered the same day and was given a due date of 1/10/02. 1/07/02 came around, I received the modem, hooked it up, and asurfing I went! I got an Arescom(?) ADSL modem, speeds have been wonderful (I ordered 384/128 and I peak at 1.5MBps down.)
Get with RawBandwidth, especially if you're a novice or expert computer user.
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Review by eggehad
Posted: 5.1 years ago
member for 6.3 years, 64 visits, last login: 3.4 years ago
Santa Clara,Santa Clara,CA
$100 per month (12 month contract)
about 23 days
SBC
CLEC party: SBC
"Painless install & configuration, fast & reliable!"
"Worst customer support I've ever experienced!"
"Looking for DSL? Look here first, but think twice."
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History: I first met Mike almost 2 years ago now, when his company Raw Bandwidth swallowed an ISP I was using at that time. I was a Pacbell DSL customer then, and used the ISP for e-mail routing. I remember talking to Mike one day about the issues I was having (almost in passing), and he called me back a day or two later after talking to his ASI contact, who, believe it or not- was able to fix a problem I had been struggling with for nearly a year!! Considering he did this when I wasn't even using his services for my connection was amazing!! and left a very strong impression on me. The facile way he navigated the murky SBC/ASI waters was and to this day is truly extraordinary...
Flash forward: My network uptime with my microwave connection was getting pretty bad, and I (for free) host a number of domains, one of which is for my child's school. I was taking a lot of heat for the downtime (isn't it funny how giving things away for free doesn't stop them from complaining about it?), so I decided it was time to setup a backup connection using a wire. Well who would I call first, if not the man who saved the day a couple of years earlier?
I talked to Mike, and discovered that a remote terminal had been installed in my area, making my line length now only 3300 feet!! (instead of the 17,700 feet worth of headaches I endured for 7 years previously). This now qualified me for the 6M/600K service, so I went for it! I was a little nervous about doing it though- after the huge amount of trouble I had in the past with this line, but I was pretty excited too. Afterall, a 6M/600K DSL would be a nice backup for my 10M symmetric primary access link. He mentioned it would take a week to order some service from SBC, before he could order my service- no problem with me. I called him, apparently 1 day before the week was up to get a status and he bit my head off on the phone. Hey, we all have bad days, right? The guy knows what he is doing so I deal with it.
He sends me a note about 2 days later letting me know he was able to successfully order my service, with the tech info. I setup my router, etc. and am ready to go... I'm now getting excited, but still nervous, so I send off an e-mail asking some questions about the service I didn't see on the website: is there an SLA? How is downtime measured? Is it credited? Stuff like that. His reply blew me away: (and I quote...) "BACK OFF!!! ... I reserve the right to cancel service with 30 days notice, blah. blah.." I read and re-read that e-mail, and sent it to at least 3 other people. Everybody was scratching their heads over this one... hey, maybe it was a bad week? So now I'm walking on eggshells..
I'm up and running on the 9/13. The connection is super clean! It goes down 2 days later, for 3 days, finally I breakdown and call again. Same kind of response: "It isn't worth wasting my time on your connection until I can "see" it... BACK OFF!" Whoa man, take a vacation!! Now I'm starting to get a little agitated over this serious chip he is carrying around. He e-mails me late the following Monday, to let me know he can "see" the connection now- and there is no sync. His SBC tech says my TA isn't attached... He calls the tech, but asks me to be sure it isn't my wiring- so I'm outside after work debugging my setup. Apparently my patch cord has a broken wire, hummmnnn.... Good thing I checked! I fixed it right up, and whammo, I'm back up with just about the best ADSL line you can have.
Pretty painless process if you ask me, and the line and network quality was as good as it gets. I'm a happy camper. Since I'm a totally self sufficient user (I provide all my own network services), I don't need anything else from Mike outside of my static IPs. A day or so later I send off an e-mail asking him if there are any usage or BW limits or other things to worry about, and he says nope...
So that's that!!! Another happy, satisfied Raw Bandwidth Customer! I mean Mike clearly needs some time off, and his customer communication skills are about as bad as they get. But what do you care if the line is happy, right?
*****
Flash forward to today, about 1 1/2 weeks later. Yesterday I get home from a couple of days away to find a certified letter in my mailbox from Raw Bandwidth. Hummmmn, I'm wondering what on earth this could be about.... "I'm writing to formally advise you that Raw Bandwidth Communications has decided not to provide DSL service to you any longer..." WHAT???!!!! No explanation, no warnings, NO COMMUNICATION!!!
I dig into my seriously overloaded e-mail box to find a cryptic message from him about excessive usage... and sure enough, traffic from one of my 20M test links (I've got 2x 20M links, 1x 10M primary link, and the DSL backup link) had been blasting through my RawBW backup link. Ooops. click, it's fixed... Well that is, IF I KNOW THERE IS A PROBLEM I CAN FIX IT. See, this is where the ability to communicate comes in. I would have thought that as soon as Mike saw a problem, he would let me know so I could fix it. At the very least, respond to it!!! But apparently not. I should have seen the writing on the wall weeks ago though, after that first e-mail we all scratched our heads over. Mind you I didn't break any rules, or even do anything wrong, not that that seems to matter ...
So I guess I don't need to worry about walking on eggshells any more, and I can dispense with the kid gloves now since I'm out. Raw Bandwidth does not have an SLA, apparently, at least for residential customers- but there ARE rules despite what he says. I don't know what they are, and I suspect they depend entirely on Mikes' mood at any given time, which in my experience is not generally good... So if you are Joe Sixpack User, with one connection to the internet, and not much thirst for BW, you'll probably never find them. But in my case, I manage a comprehensive home network that rivals many corporate networks, and I play with lots of high speed connections as a hobby, which apparently centered his cross-hairs on me from the start.
So at the very least let my exercise in futility help you. I've worked with him off and on for a couple of years now and I've picked up on a few tips that I can offer to any new or prospective Raw Bandwidth user to help YOU avoid some well known communication traps with Mike:
***************
1. Above all remember this is a one man show: with over 650 customers. Don't expect much, and you won't be disapointed. Mike better than anybody I've ever met can navigate through the murky SBC/ASI waters and potentially make it a pleasant experience. This is the key reason he is in business, and why Raw Bandwidth exists today. He doesn't make much money reselling other companies services, so he isn't usually very flexible with pricing. But he can handle the SBC juggernaut, and that can be worth his markup bigtime!
2. Don't call Mike unless the world is on fire!!! Send e-mail! He will answer the phone any time day or night, and about 95% of the time he doesn't want to answer it but will anyway. During that 95% of the time he will immediately let you know your call wasn't worthy of the interruption. Just don't do it.
3. If you must call, do it between 10AM and 6PM only. He seems much less agitated over non network threatening questions during these hours.
4. Pay no attention to Mikes' tone, or inflection. If you do, he will piss you off. He pisses EVERYBODY off at one time or another. Just listen to the subject content and ignore the emotional portion and you'll do fine 
5. If you've got any non crisis problem, e-mail him. NEVER EVER question him, or repeat an e-mail if you don't get an immediate reply. That upsets him, and he will accuse you of being pushy. Wait patiently, he will get around to it and fix it- then let you know by e-mail once it is done. Neither I, nor any of the other Raw Bandwidth customers I know have ever heard of a case where he never replied. It can take a few days to get a response though- BE PATIENT.
6. He NEVER forgets anything. He remembered an arcane issue that came up years ago with a competitors ISP he eventually purchased, suprised the heck out of me. Same with his attitude: once you piss him off, that's that. You will forever more be at a disadvantage when communicating with him.
7. Don't believe that there are no download limits, or other caps. You will find out about them very quickly if you've exceeded them, even if they are un-published. If you want to do something out of the ordinary ping him first via e-mail. That will induce him to check, and decide if he thinks it's ok. Then he will let you know. If he finds out of his own accord, as in my case, it's a tossup: 50% chance he will either tell you about it, or dump your sorry butt off his service. And that depends on......
8. Although I don't know for sure, based on comments he has made to me, I calculate his average aggregate customer bandwidth to be around 35 Mbit/sec, which averages 54 kb/sec per customer monthly. This leads me to believe he uses an typical customer overbook ratio of about 50:1. This unpublished number is closely guarded, and could be wrong, but the numbers make sense- based on what I've seen and heard. The bottom line is if you've got a 5M connection and you pound on it, you have increased his aggregate BW by 15%-18% and he will notice..
9. Finally, Good Luck!!! Sometimes things just happen outside of your control, and that's that. With some good luck, maybe they won't
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 Review by quientus
UPDATED: 5.8 years ago
member for 9.2 years, 2929 visits, last login: 179 days ago
San Jose,Santa Clara,CA
Contract price not specified. (12 month contract)
about 3 days
SBC
CLEC party: SBC
"Fast Service, Great Customer Service, FAST NEWS SERVER!!"
"A little bit expensive, but worth it."
"Best ISP... ever."
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[Initial Review]
I ordered on 12/27, I got an IP address by 12/28. I am now waiting on my splitter which is special order and a modem I bought in the DSLR's forum.
[1/3/02]
Received splitter today, fast delivery, and it was an easy install. The splitter also came with directions.
[1/5/02]
DSL is UP AND RUNNING!
P.S. I just discovered that out of the three news servers they give you one is capped and one isn’t!
[3/26/02]
Everything perfect and I haven’t experienced any downtime!
[8/26/02]
Serviced is okay. It was spotty for awhile but its fine now. The news server is capped now, which makes me unhappy. I feel that this is simply become expensive DSL, and I might consider switching. But the tech support is perfect, and that’s what is keeping me with this ISP.
- UPDATE-
Found out that it was my fault that the news server was “slow”. I mucked up a setting in my news reader.
[2/2/2004]
I was about to switch to DSLextreme for their incredible 6mps/608kbps plan, but unfortunately they said I was too far (yhea, right!)
Mike offered me their 6mps plan and I accepted. Order was placed right away.
[2/5/2004]
The 6mps/608kbps is up! I’m currently getting 5000/500. Wowzers, this is fast!
[12/1/2004]
Everything is fine, but I noticed a few outages. Nothing too long.
[3/31/06]
Everything is still peachy, just noticed that I've been with these guys for a long time!
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Raw Bandwidth Communications
