Review of Bright.netAll reviews of |
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At the time, DSl was the only available service, and I wanted a small company for the ISP for the resulting service. The local cable company, Armstrong, now has internet, but it's 512 max down (very slow for cable and slower than what I have) from what I've read of their advertising copy. Brighnet has been extremely stable in my area. If I remember correctly only 3 or 4 outages in almost 4 years. Tech support works, short wait times either via tech chat on the website or via phonecall. For example I'd notice the newsfeed had virtually stopped on their newserver, I'd get on the chat setup, leave a note and within ten minutes get in a "conversation" with someone who could talk directly with person running the newserver and get it fixed. It's a relatively small company, for which I'm willing to pay extra. The uptime and the (rarely needed) problem responsiveness make it well worth it. --------update 11-13-04. Service is still consistent. The price dropped to about $45 a few months ago which was nice. --------update 6-18-05 Recently upgraded from from 768kbs down / 128 kbs up to 1500kbs down /128-384 kbs up. 3 days from order to change, no issues. Price dropped another 5 dollars ($10 if I'd stayed at 768/128). ---------udate 5-27-06 Still no issues. Not the fastest, but it works. ---------update 10-27-06 Modem quit working. Bright.Net wanted ~$99 for new modem. I had not been on a contract for 5 years +. Asked if I could get a free modem with a new contract? Was told that I could not. So I cancelled Brightnet and switched to Armstrong cable with 2X the up and down for the same price, including the modem. Followup comments:
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Premier, dedicated, non-shared, symmetrical service with static IP address. I live in Doylestown, OH where bright.net was founded and my service is through the local Doylestown Telephone and Cable company. We have had the DSL since it almost first came out in 1998-99. The price for the service is 35/month, but since we get telelphone and cable through Doylestown Cable, its 10 bucks less a month. So, for 25/month, we get a fantastic 1.15Mbps sDSL service. I really love the speed here and even though many services are faster now downloading, we have always had the same very fast speed up/down. I get 132KB/s as my maximun upload and download speed. Sometimes, rarely, I will get boosts to around 200KB/s, but it doesn't last long. The speed is ALWAYS constant, I have never had a slowdown. I move at least 50-60GB a month and have never had a problem with it slowing down at all. We have gone through 3 routers, but the DSL modem that came with the service is still awesome. I never knew there was any type of difference from aDSL than mine, because we do not have the different jacks on our walls, no splitters or filters. The DSL comes in on its own digital line and goes directly to the modem. There is also absolutely no software that runs on the computers. I guess lots of other people have the log on?? Once you turn the modem on, and it takes about 3 mins to connect, you never have to touch it again. Downtime. For the first 3-4 years, we never had one moment of downtime. Perfect service. This last year, we have had a few instances as they were upgrading and replacing parts that broke, the outage never lasting more than a few hours and was always fixed again soon. Customer Support. Um, I usually never have to call except the very few times it was down, but the customer service line is open from morning to 9-pm, monday through friday only, so if you have a problem over the weekend, no one will get to it until monday. They have a callback service, you call, tell them your problem and then they call back in about 30mins to help you. Most of the time, its 25-30 mins before they call. But, they have always answered my questions and fixed small little problems. Speed. 1.15Mbps sDSL line, nets 132KB/s up AND down. If both are active, i can usually get about 100KB/s down and 80-90KB/s up and the same time. If you research on bright.net's site, you will find that the same speed sDSL that we get for 30/month, would cost a business 499 or 599/month to get. Amazing!! I guess we have the sDSL and not the aDSL because we don't have our lines through ameritech and we don't call bright.net for support, we call to doylestown telephone and they get our bill. Its sweeet to live in doylestown, we get special very fast service!! Extra things. We got a static IP address which has changed once as they redid their network, no problem changing it. The only home equipment we have is the little Tut Systems black DSL modem. Dedicated phone line plugs in, red propriatary crossover cable plugs into my router (when we first got it, we only had one pc and therefore no router, but we bought a router). I guess thats all, i love bright.net. I love our Symmetrical DSL. So easy, no software, no weird phone jacks or filters on allof the phone lines. Good customer support, and almost 100% uptime over 6 or 7 yrs! Followup comments:
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768/128 $44.95 No contract Westell Modem Linksys Router What an ordeal. Not with Bright.Net, but with Verizon. 7/16 - Verizon website says DSL finally available. I thought it was too good to be true, but placed order anyway. 7/20 - Website says no order found. Call Verizon - they assure me turnup date is 8/9. 7/22 - Rcv Linksys router. (free after $99 mail in rebate) 7/26 - Verizon Online calls and says DSL is NOT avail, order cancelled, keep router, they'll send check for $99. 8/25 - Verizon Advanced Data Inc (VADI) calls and says DSL is available - you just have to use a local ISP instead of Verizon Online?!?!? She takes my order for the DSL and puts me in touch with Netlink for ISP portion. Due date is 9/16 - telco has to remove load coils. 8/30 - Rcv modem. Also get call from VADI "DSL is NOT available - CO not equipped, order cancelled." Not again - ARGHHH!!!! 9/02 - I call VADI to try one more time. Rep tells me "Bright.net has 10 DSL users in Litchfield - maybe you should try ordering it through them and see what happens"?!?!?!? 9/02 - Bright.net tells me line qualifies for 768/128, takes order, due 9/28. 9/15 - Bright.net calls and says "Verizon cancelled order - CO not equipped" Here we go again!!!!! Just for grins, I say try the other line in my house. Same address, same CO, different NXX. 9/30 - Bright.net says Verizon did not cancel this order. Due date is 10/8. I'll believe it when I see it. 10/06 - Verizon tech calls at 2:30 and says it's hooked up and ready to go. Yeah, right. Got home from work, connected modem, immediately got sync, connected router, put in my username and password, SURFS UP!!!!!! Never thought I'd see the day, but it finally happened and it's GREAT!!!! Told my neighbor and he already submitted his order. So, for all of you fighting the good fight, hang in there, there is always hope. Good luck....MM Followup comments:
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By the way... I ordered a static IP and a 768/128 connection and have come close to those speeds the entire time! UPDATE: After a move Verizon wanted to 10/month and 70 to move my line over to my new house. I have since left Verizon/Bringhtnet. It was nothing Brightnet did... If I didn't have to have Verizon as the CLEC I might have stayed... I have since moved over to Earthlink DSL. After a lenghty order process I am happy to say things are working great! Followup comments:
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& Bright.net, and the Verizon sign up part was painless. (contrary to my past dealings with Verizon which have been lousy). The Bright.net part was also painless, and I was promised service within 15 days. A few days before my target install date, I got 3 green lights on my Fujitsu DSL modem and decided to call Bright.net to see if I was set to go. By this time, I still have received ANY login information or configuration information (and still haven't to date...3 days after my target setup date). I left voicemail for Bright.net and received a callback 1 hour later from "Chris" with the evening support crew. I explained to Chris that I had downloaded the PPPoE software from their website, but had no password with which to sign in. Chris gave me my password, and we verifed a few other pieces of information, and I tried to connect. I received an "Authentication error" and Chris stated that my account was probably not complete yet. Then, when my target setup date arrived, I still had 3 green lights, but was still getting the error message. I called Bright.net's after hours support again and received a call back within an hour. It was Chris again. I told Chris what my error message was, and he stated that there was a problem on Verizon's end, and no estimated repair time yet. I neglected to get a ticket number for their issue with Verizon though. I tried again on the day after my install date, and got the same error. This time I poked around in the PPPoE documentation and noted that sometimes ISP's require the "@bright.net" after the username. Well I added that and was able to connect! I'm suprised that the Chris with Bright.net didn't tell me this, and even more suprised that I still have not received ANY information at all in the mail (snail OR email) from them. First thing I did was come here to www.dslreports.com and run a speed test. It came back HORRIBLY slow!! I ran it again to verify and got the same results (sub-200 download, about 119 upload). I then went to www.speedguide.net and downloaded the PPPoE tweak for Win'98 SE and installed it, rebooted, and was able to get high-600/low-700 download speeds. We'll see how the following weeks/months pan out in regards to quality of service from Bright.net and Verizon. Followup comments:
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Bright.net
Medina,Medina,OH
$39 per month (12 month contract)
about 56 days
Verizon (ex GTE)
"It's up 99%+ of the time, good quick tech support, get the speed I for which I pay"
"A little more expensive than alternatives."
"I don't want to switch."
