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 Review by WiseOldNerd 
UPDATED: a few hours ago
member for 6.7 years, 1089 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Phoenix,Maricopa,AZ
 $45 per month
 about 7 days
 Qwest
 "Solid connection, no blocked ports"
 "Can't get faster due to distance & old copper-cheap ass company"
 "Reliable, cost effective for those running servers BUT poor choice for those needing speed"
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Update: September 5, 2008
I dumped Qwest in Oregon since they are too cheap to upgrade their copper and thus keep one at a slow speed. Will probably dump them in Phoenix for same reason. I am becoming less and less a Qwest supporter except for those needing IP addresses and server connections. They are wasting too much money on law suits and marketing and not upgrading existing infrastructure.
Update: April 7, 2008
Qwest continues to be my ISP of choice. However there is a bit of tarnish now. I recently communicated with corporate about possibilities of remote terminals at both the Phoenix site and my Newport, OR site. In both cases no plans to do so. I am becoming more certain that Qwest is now cherry picking the areas in which they upgrade their old copper and/or add RTs to facilitate faster connections. Now that I am no longer running servers, I have dumped the static IPs, moved to a plain old DSL on the voice line with the Qwest/MSN package. Of course no use of the MSN garbage.
I am starting to give some consideration to returning to cable. Bottom line will be highest speeds at lowest cost.
Update: September 11, 2006
I continue to be very pleased with Qwest. I still wish they would upgrade the copper in central Phoenix to enable faster connections. At the moment I actually have two DSL lines. One on standard POTS line and the other a "dry" line. On these lines I run 4 servers with multiple static IPs, web sites, and email. I use a Cisco 877W router-modem-switch on one line and have been very happy with that choice. I also use a Cisco on the dry line. I have used 2wire and found it very good as well, just not equal to Cisco in functionality and manageability.
I have found that the Qwest.net website has some problems, but after reaching some folks higher in the food chain, I have gotten problems resolved or they have explained why the problem persists and continue to work on it. I now have email addresses for people who can get things done.
...........................................................
I have tried DSL several times over the past years. When US West was the Telco, it was a disaster. Since Qwest got serious about good service, it has been a whole new game. Basically, I have now had Qwest DSL with Qwest.net basic for the past 18+ months. When I had some connection issues, Qwest has been responsive and prompt in dealing with them.
Early on, I found that I had some internal wiring problems. Qwest dispatched a very competent DSL tech who found and fixed those problems and generally cleaned up our internal outlets. We designated one for DSL and put filter in the demarc for the others. A few months ago, after switching to the Premier service, I was experiencing significant speed fluctuations and the noise margin was hovering around 6-9db. Qwest checked the CO for problems, found none and dispatched a wire tech who found problems with the underground cable leading to my town home. He repaired the cable, and the connection has been rock solid since. I have 3072K down and 640K up. My noise margins are about 15-18db down and slightly less up. (The wiring in my part of Phoenix is pretty old, and I am about 13,000 feet from CO.)
All contacts with Qwest support staff have been very good to excellent. This includes their DNS admin staff who have been excellent in dealing with DNS issues. Since I run mail and web servers, this is important.
I started with the Actiontec 701. Later switched to a 2Wire 1800HG, and now use a Cisco 877W. I have the block of 8 static IPs with five useable, and the Qwest.net basic service is perfect for ISP. Qwest uses PPOA for the connection. I wished they didn't, but can live with it. Based on my earlier experiences, I do believe that using Qwest for both the copper and DSL is best approach. When I had the problems mentioned earlier, there was no pointing of fingers to a third party. They new they owned the problem and they fixed it.
As a part-time computer and network consultant/techie, I have engineered the establishment of Qwest DSL services for several businesses and private individuals. In all cases, it has been a good experience for the user. Qwest may not be the best broadband provider, but they seem to be very serious about providing good service and resolving problems.
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 Review by Aria73
Posted: 3 days ago
member for 7.1 years, 3206 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Loveland,Larimer,CO
Contract price not specified.
Qwest
"Fast"
"Occasional outages, nothing serious though."
"Does what it's supposed to do."
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It was set up when it was supposed to be, the speeds are good; every once in a while it will go down but a modem reset always solves the problem. Can't really complain too much.
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Review by watmore
UPDATED: 4 days ago
member for 1.1 years, 11 visits, last login: 4 days ago
Minneapolis,Hennepin,MN
$26 per month (24 month contract)
about 4 days
"Reliable, Cheaper than alternatives"
"Doesn't offer as high a speed as Comcast"
"Better than Comcast by far"
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I have had both Comcast and Qwest. Comcast (actually Time Warner at the time) was horrible. Very slow speeds, tech support called at least six times, several visits by tech support without resolution and frequently they made things worse. Finally made the correct move and got DSL.from Qwest.
Never had a service outage with Qwest. Never. Much cheaper too.
September 1, 2008 still happy with Qwest DSL. Upgraded to 3mbs. Will be excited when they offer VDSL2 in my area.
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 Review by doubleddz
Posted: 6 days ago
Fair warning: reviewer joined this week
North Platte,Lincoln,NE
$35 per month (24 month contract)
about 7 days
Qwest
"Speeds are what they said they would be"
"Connection hangs up but not sure if it is modem or connection"
"I like it much better than the Charter Cable I had in this same area."
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I have had Qwest DSL since I moved in here 3 years ago. I had their standard wireless actiontec modem until recently upgrading to their 2701hg-d modem. After upgrading to that modem, some websites are slow. I will stay with qwest but am looking for another modem that is better. I tried the charter cables' 10mb service in this area, but it was down just as much as it was up especially in the afternoon when school got out.
I ordered and installed the new modem myself using the web interface and not the install cd.
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 Review by qazwsx2
UPDATED: 7 days ago
member for 2.6 years, 997 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Tempe,Maricopa,AZ
$50 per month (24 month contract)
about 7 days
Qwest
"decent speed from 8am to 3pm"
"slower than diaup after 3pm (168 kbps!!)"
"wish I had more choices"
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Review by iansltx
UPDATED: 13 days ago
member for 1.5 years, 172 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Golden,Jefferson,CO
$47 per month
about 14 days
Qwest
"Cheaper option than cable, self-install pretty easy"
"Modem practically locks with large transfers taking place, speeds much lower than advertised, network congestion in my area, ite"
"This might be your only option in your area, but it isn't in mine...Comcast wins vs. Qwest"
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UPDATE: Service cancelled. Good riddance. Let's see what kind of fees they want to gig me with.
OTHER OPTIONS
See my Comcast review...Qwest is lower-priced per month than Comcast, but it's also slower. Endgame: Comcast wins when the option is presented, at least in my area.
PACKAGE
The highestend package available here is "Up to" 5 Mbps down, 896k up. The modem is provisioned at 5120/896, no overprovisioning so that you actually get advertised speeds. The price per month is $47 + junk fees. Modem is free if you want wired, $40 if you want wireless. There's no higher tier here (no fiber fed DSLAM waaah) so no "fre wireless modem" option.
ORDER\INSTALL
Ordering process was pretty easy. Just walked up to a Qwest kiosk in Colorado Mills Mall (they have kiosks and such, unlike Comcast, who relies on BestBuy\CircuitCity\etc. to sell their stuff, or going online). They set things up, though I had to push modem shipment and service activation back six days because I wasn't able to be on location when the modem arrived. Still, you'd think they could have the modems in stock, right there for you rather than having to ship the darned thing.
When I got the modem, setup wasn't too bad. Just hooked it up, went through a seven-or-so-step (rather cunky but usable) install CD and I was online. Though again things could've been easier; as much as I hate walled gardens why not force users to put in the Qwest order info, then have them set up an e-mail address and password, then have those as the PPPoE username\password settings? As it is, Qwest has a montage of order codes and usename\password stuf that makes things more dificult in the long run I think.
EQUIPMENT
The modem supplied was an ActionTec M1000. Standard-fare ADSL/2+ modem (ADSL only here). The UI was nice however start a download that uses up the full pipe and latency goes to one-plus seconds. OTOH this happened on the 2Wire wireless modem that the apartment complex I live in has for internet (I thought a dedicated, or rather semi-dedi, line wold get me more speed) so it may be a DSLAM issue. In any case, download + VoIP = epic fail.
The modem has a top panel that, when removed, shows two USB ports...that can only be used for one of a few addin cards for the little guy. Looks like $20 gets you a WiFi card, $20 less than what it'd cost to upgrade to a 2Wire router\modem combo. However with the $40 upgrade you'd get four Ethernet ports instead of one. But I'd use neither; I got a Linksys WRT54G for wireless\router duty.
MISC\CONCLUSION
I'll be calling Qwest to suspend serrvice. Wait, I said that wrong. I'll be calling them to CANCEL service. Why?
1. Modem (or DSLAM, not sure which) cracs under load.
2. Download and upload speeds are not overprovisioned, and as such suck. The service max's out at 85% of rated speeds (4.25 Mbit) on downloads and even less (705 max but usually more like 650kbps) on uploads. In short, you don't get what you pay for; $47 per month is expensive for a landline connecion that *might* break 4 Mbps on downloads. But probably won't; downloads seemed to vary between one and three megabits per second in testing, maybe three and a half. Four was uncommon, more than four was seen only on Qwest's speedtest. Sorry, but I want at least a megabit of internet connectivity for every $10 I pay to an ISP, specially a wireline one.
3. Speeds seemed to get slower during prime time. Not 100% sure on this but it loked to me as though things taanked when lots of people might be accessing the internet. Don't give me crap about DSL not being a shared resource. Qwest *might* have a T3 running into their DSLAM here (not fiber fed remember?) and as such when everyone gets on, speed tests go below 1 Mbps down and 300 kbps up. C'mon guys, it's not that hard; SNR and Attenuation are fine on the line but looks like the backbone connection ain't.
4. Latency, due t interleaving, is lousy. 80, 90 or 100 ms to anywhere is common, much more if I'm donwloading something. VPN to school adds on about 80ms to anything, though Qwest is part of the blended bandwidth they get. Fist hop? 45ms average. Cable, r FastPath DSL, can get to an even semilocal server in that time!
Yep, I'm returning Qwest back to those folks. They advertise decent speeds and don't deliver, which I sot of expected. Nowlet's hope the cancellation process works. Comcast wins in the match between broadband prociders here; too bad it's the usual cable-telco duopoly (cable is high-end, DSL is low-end) with a competitive wireless company offering services that aren't quite good enough with a price that's not too nice...gotta love the US's broadband system.
Followup comments:  marktwo
join:2008-08-19
Salt Lake City, UT
| Qwest I was getting 1.2m for years. Then it went to 359k.I called and the tech came out and said that I was to far on the wire. He said that he could put me back to 256k instead of the 1.5 (Silver) that I had. I asked if there were any other options and he said that he could possibly use a Remote Terminal. He did it and now I can get 1089k download.
thank you Randy. | |
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 Review by TimsterMon
UPDATED: 14 days ago
member for 5.2 years, 137 visits, last login: 3 days ago
Medford,Jackson,OR
$70 per month (2 month contract)
about 4 days
Qwest
"Easy Install, everything worked on 1st try, got the sppeds"
"very last minute for install & equip (5pm for svc, 6pm for eqip)"
"Totally Satisfied!"
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This was SO much better than CABLE (Charter)! I don't know why it took them so long to upgrade (when originally checked many years ago, only very low speed DSL avail - 256K). So for $70/month I get the DSL, phone with pkg that includes Unlimited long distance. Excellent!
update 1 year later... (Aug 2008)
Still relatively happy, as base price for "Platinum" Speed is $36+tax for a 2-7M speed. Slightly troubled by a more recent slowing trend (last month, or so), as I used to get 7M speeds range consistently and now average 3.5M range. As there is no faster option available to me, I will have to accept my fate and be happy with the low price of the DSL.
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Review by MacTeagle
UPDATED: 19 days ago
member for 19 days, 5 visits, last login: 14 days ago
Portland,Multnomah,OR
$45 per month (24 month contract)
about 7 days
Qwest
"Speed as advertised, reliable, superb signal/noise ratio, good on-site service"
"Upload bandwidth sad, but that's true everywhere; Interlaced despite superb S/N and attenuation figures; PPPOE only"
"Finally something like modern speed from Qwest, at a reasonable price. Stable."
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Have had 12mbps/896kbps for about a month now. Despite the fact that I chose self-install, the technician dropped by the morning of activation and was very courteous and helpful. The pre-sale phone support was a bit less impressive.
Best speed tests give 10300down 750up after overhead. Modem trains at 12122/894 every time. Fiber to the neighborhood, and the fact that I tapped the phone line to put the modem upstream of all the phones means that my S/N and attenuation numbers are fantastic.
Was shipped the Motorola/Netopia modem, which was a somewhat pleasant surprise as I was expecting a 2WIRE which I haven't heard good things about. Arrived later in the day of activation (was able to use old Actiontec GT701-wg temporarily until then). Running it in Static NAT mode (essentially the same as DMZ) to a WRT54GL running DD-WRT; used that instead of IP passthrough or bridging mainly for simplicity of configuration and the fact that DD-WRT's own PPPOE support isn't all that hot.
On that subject, the fact that it's now PPPOE instead of PPPOA means a little more bandwidth is now lost to overhead (8 bytes per frame), and for top performance you should reduce your MTU from 1500 to 1492 to reduce fragmenting.
Given that it's fiber to the neighborhood and my S/N ratio and attenuation figures are superb, it'd be nice if they offered a non-interlaced connection, which would cut at least 40ms off my first hop.
One thing that annoys me about Qwest is that I originally had 1536/1024, and over the years they've sneaked that 1024 up down to 896: a loss of 128kbps or about three old modems' worth.
I don't know or care whether I have Windows Live. Probably not since I told them I use a Mac, and that's even sort of true. I threw the installation CD away and set up my connection via the web interface.
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Review by Cleotralix
Posted: 21 days ago
member for 21 days, 0 visits, last login: 21 days ago
Siletz,Lincoln,OR
Contract price not specified. (24 month contract)
about 35 days
Qwest
"Gives you excuse to destroy Qwests headquarters?"
"Everything"
"Simply horrendous"
| Pre Sales information:
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7.1Mbs up 896Kbs down equals
2.3Mbs up 346Kbs down WTF!!!
421ms Average ping
The connection is simply lousy with constant lost packets and multiple disconects every hour, P2P Traffic has been filtered since comcast started doing it. I'm not allowed to have servers run on my connection and plus my ping never drops below 379ms not to mention the bandwidth cap recently enplaced which comes with outragous surcharges for over the limit use. I told qwest that I have a wireless router of my own and they told me that I have to use their equipement or my DSL wont work. That was a load and my D-link Modem does 379ms Ping vs 543ms qwests hardware. They have the worst service record when looking at it from a monopoly stand point and the $50 7.1Mbs turns into $80 after 3 months and thats with bundling. Also the qwest represenative hade a inpolite tone in his voice after I told him I was native american.
Followup comments: domie193
join:2008-04-27
Nampa, ID
 ·Heritage Wireless
| ouch is it fine during the early morning? it could be a usage/congestion thing. but if you still lag, im leaning towards bad wiring between you and qwest, or even inside your house. do you have a phone line? if so you should have the filters on. those are just some things to start with | |
| Alia Q
join:2007-02-16
Blackfoot, ID | bundling you said the 7mg goes up to 80.00 after 3 months with bundling. what bundle do you have? | |
| Alia Q
join:2007-02-16
Blackfoot, ID | if you have the qwest choice home package with 3 features on your home phone and you have qwest.net then the package would be 25.99 and the dsl would be 47.99 and it never goes to 70.00 or 80.00 after 3 months because you have the 2 yr commitment. | |
| 
jinjimbob
Troy Mcclure
join:2001-11-13
Enumclaw, WA | Why did you tell him you were native American? Seems strange.
Qwest allows servers and does not block any torrent traffic. | |
| MacTeagle
join:2008-08-17
 ·Qwest.net
edit:
August 18th, @12:30AM
| I've never heard of Qwest doing any of the things you describe, and most of them would be HUGE news to an awful lot of people involved with this site and the trade press in general if they were really happening.
* Qwest doesn't have a policy against servers, I've read all their terms of service and they even have help tips for people who are running services. I run SMTP, IMAP, ssh and several virtual web servers and have for quite a few years, no problem at all.
* There is no evidence of any package from Qwest where the price goes up after three months. Anything but. Comcast does this, but Qwest is pretty much the opposite: they offer you a guaranteed price for life if you commit to two years. According to the details you posted, you got the 24 month contract so your rate should be locked in. Can you point to a web page that shows the terms under which your rate is supposedly going up after 3 mos?
* Qwest does not interfere with P2P traffic.
* What is this 'recently enplaced bandwidth cap' with 'outrageous surcharges' you refer to? Since I was upgrading my service with Qwest recently I read all the terms of service carefully. There is NO explicit bandwidth cap. They reserve the right to limit you after some soft definition of excessive use but it sounds like you'd have to be continuously flooding or spamming to run into it. And if you're having all the connectivity problems you describe that seems incredibly unlikely.
I'm not a defender of Qwest or any other big incumbent telco and I've had a few criticisms of them myself, but this makes no sense at all and doesn't match the facts as known or any experience I've ever heard of. And the charge of racism you trail off with puts it way over the top. Can you substantiate any of this? | |
| questionable
join:2005-10-18
Phoenix, AZ
·Qwest.net
| Honestly I think this is a Employee of a rival company making these comments.
I have had Qwest as many of you know since it was US West. I have never ever had these issues he is speaking of. In fact i pay 98 Bucks a month for IPTV (top tier and Showtime movie pack) and DSL. My internet is only 31 a month. | |
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Review by bobba
UPDATED: 21 days ago
member for 21 days, 6 visits, last login: 9 days ago
Eagle,Ada,ID
$37 per month (24 month contract)
about 4 days
Qwest
"Reasonable price for service"
"It's Qwest"
"Price is better than cable."
| Pre Sales information:
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I have had Qwest DSL since at least 1998 (it was USWest then). I originally had Qwest as my isp but when they forced MSN on me, I kept Qwest dsl but dropped Qwest as an isp and went with another. My monthly cost was $28 for dsl (1.5 down, 640 up) and $12.95 for the isp. Recently, I decided to upgrade my dsl to Qwest's 7mb service. My current isp wanted more $'s to upgrade. I found that I could get Qwest's 7mb service for $36.99 (1st 3 month's free). This included Qwest as isp but also included MSN. The price is less than the total price for dsl and isp that I had been paying before and the speed was faster. I ignore the MSN (I use Firefox for my browser) and service is great. Service is sold as 7168 down and 896 up and usually reaches 4500 down and 600 up. On the date the service was supposed to be upgraded, the only problem I had was that I had to call Qwest and ask for the user and password information so I could change my modem. Once the user and password was changed in my modem, the service came up and worked without any problems.
Recently, I was having speed problems so I called Qwest support. Tech says everything tested ok and asked what modem I had. When I said I had a Cisco 678, he said that is an old modem (duh!) and that was the problem. I said I didn't think so but he disagreed. He made some additional tests and said they had made some adjustments. He said he was having an Actiontec GT701-WG modem (just what I needed) sent to me free of charge (I'll be watching my bill to make sure that there is no charge) and that it would arrive in 2 days. The modem arrived as expected and is still sitting in the box. My 678 is still working fine and speed is back where it had been. I don't have plans to use the Actiontec modem unless my 678 dies and then it will be used only until I find another 678.
The Qwest service has been very consistent other than the problems the other day. My old isp was up and down a lot and I was constantly having to reset the modem.
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