Review of DSL EXTREMEAll reviews of | ![]() about |
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Here is an update of what's been happening so far. I completed my order with DSL Extreme for the 1 year subscription at $19.99/mo. I am switching from AT&T DSL 1500 Kbps / 384 Kbps over to DSL Extreme's 3000 Kbps / 512 Kbps Plan. Overall, I am very pleased with the transition. I did have to call DSL Extreme Tech Support once to configure my DSL Modem to sync. That went very well; the tech was very helpful and was able to fix the problem in about 10-15 minutes. Comparing the speeds: AT&T: 1260 Kbps / 300 Kbps DSL Extreme : 2479 Kbps / 427 Kbps However, I think at first my down speed was at 2560 Kbps and then stabilized to around 2479 Kbps. :/ I am very happy with the switch-over to DSL Extreme. I hope that DSL Extreme continue to provide excellent service in the year to come. Thank you very much Update: 10/7/09 Not a major problem, but a minor annoyance. It appears that my down speed has deteriorated to a 2250 Kbps; my up speed is still the same (~415 Kbps). I hope this does not continue to be a problem in the future. Followup comments:
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| »next review in page (previous review) Lately, latency has becoming a problem for certain servers. DSL Extreme is receptive to my complaints, and is trying to resolve the issue. ========== Previous Review November 2002 ========== I ordered the service on 10/20/2002 for the 1.5mbps/256kbps plan. The modem (Arescom) arrived three days later on 10/23/2002. Plugged it in, no sync. No big deal since activation was 10/28/2002. Two days later 10/25/2002, got good sync but speed is pathetic at 50kbps down, 250kbps up. Called them up and was told to wait until activation date. On activation date, the speed is still 50/250. Called them up and was told to call back the next day because they can't open a trouble ticket with PacBell until *AFTER* the activation date. Called back the next day to open the trouble ticket. They scheduled a truck roll with PacBell to check my line. PacBell technician came to my house on the same day and said my in-house wiring "could" be the problem. The next day I ran a dedicated CAT-5 telephone wire from the phone box outside my house to the DSL modem. Speed was unchanged, thus my in-house wiring isn't the problem. Called up DSL Extreme and they agreed to send me another modem. New modem (BroadMax) arrived next day on 11/1/2002. Plugged it in, good sync. Speed test showed 800kbps/150kbps. Download speed improved, but upload is now 40% slower. It seemed the modem is also sending out "Span-Tree" packets (identified by a free packet-sniffing software). This added extra 50-100ms to packets at random. My guess is that the modem is misconfigured in the PPPoE mode instead of bridge mode. No matter, at this point, I've read a lot of recommendations for SpeedStream 5360 DSL modems. So I went to eBay and bought one for $60. It works great; speed test showed 1.1mbps/250kbps. Better and cheaper than the $99 DSL Extreme modems. Packet ping is now consistent and reliable. DSL Extreme is replacing the BroadMax with a SpeedStream 5260, which I will use as backup. Conclusion: good ISP, but buy your own modem elsewhere. Followup comments:
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After dropping DSL server with Earthlink in February 2006 (had them for 3 years), and upset with their connection reliability and riduculously priced service I decided to switch to DSL Extreme because of its high ratings shown here on BBR. Initially SBC (now AT&T yahoo) have been convincing me to go with them since they are already providing home phone service but reading reviews about their outsourced tech supports made me nervous because Earthlink also had offshore tech supports. What SPEED/package did you order, at what monthly price? From 2006-2007, I was on 1500/384k plan for $25/month and then my needs for speed went up so I upgraded to the 6000/768k plan which I'm now paying $35/month ($41 w/ dial-up which I carelessly forgot to remove out of my plan). Speed tests consistently show I'm at 5.2Mbps/755k which is acceptable for me since I'm approximately 21,000 feet from the CO. How was the order & install process? I ordered the service online and the installation process was very easy and self explanatory (I guess since I'm technically inclined) but I then used another modem which is a Netscreen 5GT ADSL which also works beautifully with DSL Extreme without any flaws. What brand/model was the supplied equipment? I don't quite remember the brand of the modem supplied, maybe westell? I still have it boxed up in the same package that was shipped to me since I don't want to lose it because it's a leased (free) modem. What good or bad experiences most struck you? No bad experiences ever, maybe just 1-2 times in a whole entire year that DSL connection was offline for a moment due to "planned" maintenances but they were done during late night. DSL Extreme is the best DSL provider I have ever used and will keep using this service and highly recommend to others. Update 9/30/2009 ~ 12:30am: I have been noticing my DSL connection dropping and re-connecting every 2-3 minutes. Network Status page on DSLX website only reports customers in Orange County are experiencing problems related to AT&T's network. Will contact a DSLX tech tomorrow. Followup comments:
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- The network had its ups and downs in the beginning, but has been relatively stable in the past 5 years - When there are network problems, they are reported promptly on the network status page and have always been resolved quickly - Customer service was one of DSL Extreme's best selling points when I signed on but my recent experiences have shown me phone customer service and support is not as good as it used to be - While they are dirt cheap I wish that higher speeds were available in my area, looks like that will never happen Bottom line, if you want a cheap reliable connection and are not that interested in speed, DSL Extreme is the company for you. Followup comments:
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I did 5 speed tests : 2 through my direct connected at PC and 3 speed tests through my router. They are all at 2.6Mb/650Kb. It is within lower range of my expectation but heck, it is damn better than Charter consistently at 1.6Mb while selling to me at 3Mb. Since I don't work for CBS so my statement is not fake and it is also accurate. Update 09/09/2009: I'm still a DSL Extreme customer. The review above remains unchanged. Followup comments:
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| »next review in page (previous review) So far the only downside i can think of is the unstable pings to my own server, but that is a backbone issue with my server, hopefully it will be resolved soon, im getting 5300/540 speeds and 8ms ping to gateway, 9ms ping to some socal servers so it is working great, I will comment on reliabillity as soon as i have the service longer but for now ill leave it not selected, great service! Update 5/18/04: No longer getting bad pings to my own server, dslextreme went out of my way to help me with that even though it was the fault of my server's provider, the connection has been great, added a 5 star for connection reliability sense its only gone out about 3 times for a couple hours, all faults of SBC not dslextreme, and when dslextreme has really short outages late at night they tell u about them on their network status page. Update 6/10.04: So far service has been exelent just a couple short outages, speed as always has been great, soon im going to switch to a 5660 speedstream modem so i can find out my stats and do some monitoring on them. all in all dslextreme has been a great company to work with. Update 3/02/05: Service has countinued to be awesome with aweomse technical support, cant wait until ADSL2+ comes out and i get a 1 or 2 megabit upload =) Update 9/21/05: Service countinues to be good. again maybe 1 or 2 short outages (sbc's fault) in the last 6 months. Still waiting for ADSL2+ or fiber. Update 05/12/2007: Well it has been a while so I figured I would update my review. I still have DSL extreme and love them as much as ever. They now even give you full access to your reverse DNS (which is handy). I also have charter so i can do multi-wan and the charter is 10meg/1meg but speeds go down to 2 megabits during the peak hours (shows how much charter sucks). Also speeds are generally faster on DSL when downloading from the same server (when its not going over what is capable on the DSL) which shows superior routing. Eepecially since the charter first hop latency is lower yes latency is much higher on charter and much less stable. Anyway DSLExtreme has been great and I doubt I will ever cancel them unless I moved and they were unavailable or FIOS moved in. Update 07/23/2007: Well I ordered two additional DSL lines and now can get just over 16 megabits with multi-threaded downloads. DSL Extreme was *Extremely* helpful in making sure my connections were on different subnets for my multi-wan. I work for a webhosting company and your great customer/tech support reminds me of our own =) Thanks DSL Extreme! Update 09/09/2009: Finally canceled DSL Extreme. The line had severely deteriorated along with 3 other DSL lines to the point I was no longer even getting sync. Because U-verse was supposed to be offering 24 meg soon I decided it was finally time for me to switch. The line issue was definitely on ATT's end too. I have a new phone line order that was for today but got bumped to the 16th which I hope I can order DSL Extreme again with the U-verse so I can have my low latency back for gaming. Followup comments:
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Also, now they tell me that they are using AT&T line for DSL so I can not cancel that. I am now stuck for a year with old AT&T telephone line and DSLExtreme after 3 days into contract. So be aware. I will appreciate if some one can show me way out. Followup comments:
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| »next review in page (previous review) I moved from Hollywood to Mid Wilshire this month. One of the first things I did was order phone service. The next thing I did was order DSL from DSL Extreme. Why? Because in 19 months their service never went down. Ever. Though I only moved about 1.6 miles, the move resulted in my being in a new phone office (Vermont Ave). It also meant that I could get 6000/768 DSL service from DSLX. Since I wanted seamless Internet, DSLX agreed to overlap my DSLs, and I took a Speedstream DSL modem I bought on ebay, configured it as a bridge and hooked it up at my new house. My DSL due date was Tuesday-yet I found the DSL operational the Sunday evening before. Initial speed teats showed download speeds of over 5000 and uploads of 670 kbps. After I moved, I installed the D Link DSL modem provided by DSLX at my old house over here. The next few days were spent moving, cleaning and unpacking. Then I did another speed test-and found my download speed had dropped to 3400-not good. I posted in the DSLX forum here and then realized that the 'good' speeds were when I was using the Speedstream modem. I put it back in and back they came 6000/768 DSL with 5 dynamic IP addresses and full newsgroups for 35 bucks a month is a very good deal. I recently moved to Hollywood and decided to get DSL Extreme DSL. I live exactly one mile from the AT&T phone office on Gower Street and based upon that assumed that I would qualify for the 6000/768 DSL package. I ordered online and then ran smack dab into DSL's biggest problem-inconsistency! There are two lines at my house (the old tenant had two phone lines). Apparently, one line's wires will support the 6000 speed DSL, while the other will only support the slower 3000/512 speeds. Guess which line AT&T put my telephone on? Now remember, BOTH lines go from point A (the phone office) to point B (my house), yet one line measures TWICE AS LONG as the other one! THIS is the inconsistency I speak of...where you live has NOTHING to do with whether you can get the DSL speeds you want. It's a complete crap shoot! What happens is that some phone lines have what is called "bridge tap". This is unused wire that is connected across your line. For example, I live off of Sunset Blvd. My phone wire likely runs down Sunset far past my block, and my street is tapped across it. The extra wire that runs down Sunset is connected to nothing on its other end, and it serves to make my line electrically longer then it is physically. Thus, the line they used measures at 10,000 feet in length, while the other line (which must be a direct run) measures exactly one mile (5300 feet). One is electrically twice as long as the other, yet they both go to the same place! The bridge tap could be removed by cutting away the excess wire on Sunset where it passes my block, but only if the phone company (AT&T) was motivated to do so. In this case they aren't-so I'm screwed! In fairness to DSL Extreme, this is an AT&T issue, not a DSL Extreme one....and they (DSL Extreme) did try and work things out. In fact, I believe they were as upset about how things turned out as I was. Once I decided to go with the 3000/512 service, things went considerably smoother. The self install kit came three days later and the setup was a breeze! The self install kit with a DSL modem and filters arrived and I was online five minutes later! I'm keeping the DSL Extreme 3000/512 line (which has decent speeds of 2680/460 on average) and 5 dynamic IP addresses. Unfortunately, I need more upload speed then 460 (I work for a streaming audio company at home), so I had considered getting dry line 6000/768 DSL from AT&T (DSL Extreme can not offer it yet). Then Time Warner cable sent me a letter offering 10,000/1000 cable Internet for 39.95 a month-a dollar more then the DSL would have cost. I went down to the Time Warner office two miles away, picked up a cable modem and self install kit, brought it home and was online 15 minutes later. Speeds are running 9700/960. This experience gave me the chance to do a side by side comparison of DSL and cable Internet. Both have advantages and disadvantages. In my particular experience, cable was also a breeze. I decided that I wanted cable Internet at 2 PM and had it working before 3 PM. Of course, I had cable in my apartment already. If I hadn't, I'd have to have waited a few days. I'm getting the speeds that I wanted and they advertised, though again this is my experience-I know that others aren't as good. DSL took a bit longer-it took a few days for them to test the line (and turn down the 6000/768 speed). Once I decided to take the 3000/512 one, it took a few days more to get the modem. I had to pay for the modem's shipping (getting the cable modem only cost me a bit of gas and time). I probably could have shaved a couple days time off the DSL by using my own DSL modem, but decided against that. Once the DSL modem came, self installation was a breeze-and I was online literally five minutes later. I'm getting the speeds I expect (DSL typically runs 75-80% of what the advertised speeds are, due to overhead). Both seem to have similar ping times-about 25 ms. Both work well with my Vonage VOIP. DSL Extreme offers 5 dynamic IP addresses, while cable only has one-but with a cable/DSL router this doesn't matter as much as it used to. Which one is better? In my opinion, neither-or both! Both work as advertised. Both set up fairly easy. One is less of a crap shoot (cable), but that's a telco issue, NOT a DSL Extreme one. I guess time will tell if one is more reliable then the other....but right now I could be happy with either one (just a bit happier with the faster DSL though). Followup comments:
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The price was only $2.00 extra ($59.95 plus the Federal Universal Service Fund charge) for 4 times the speed! The thing that convinced me to change was the "Lifetime Price Freeze". Sonic and SBC has a price leader for one year then reverts to a higher price. I want the price to remain the same! I ordered on Jan. 15 and was seamlessly transferred with an ISP Change Order on Jan. 31 with no downtime! I just put in my new static ip and was surfing the net. The only problem was getting upgraded to the 6000 k/s service (was transferred at my original 1500 k/s). It took a couple of calls and emails to get it going. I figured since this was a promotion period it was pretty hectic for DSL Extreme. I might have fallen through the cracks. It took me three weeks to finally be upgraded. The phone support varied from 15 - 45 minutes based on what time of day I called. I learned about DSL Extreme having their own forum on BBR. I learned how to use DSLX's forum to "instant message" (IM) support. The forum is all I use now for support! The support on DSLX's forum is excellent! I did get upgraded to the 6000 k/s service a day earlier than what was on the Order Status Page. I "IM"ed George, the GM of DSLX, to change my router profile from 1500 k/s to 6000k/s. He changed it in less than 30 minutes! Since I was at the 1500 k/s for three weeks I asked George if I could be prorated at the price of the 1500 k/s service. He said no problem and was done in a matter of hours! My speed is constant too!! At Sonic my speed was all over the place (90 to 120 K/s) Sonic thought the problem was at my end. I just have one desktop computer, a SpeedStream 5360 DSL Bridge, and no router: nice and simple. I did not know what the problem was until I came to DSLX. I am on a Remote Terminal. Toaster2K, a SBC tech, said when I transfer to a new ISP I get reprofiled and rerouted. I found out that both the backbone provider, SBC and the ISP, DSLX, both have to profile me on their respective routers especially if I am on an RT. Apparently, at the time, Sonic did not know to do this on their routers. That is why my speed was all over the place. Sonic has since corrected this. DSLX already knew what to do. My speed is rock solid at 5+ mbs down and ~520 k/s up! I wanted to wait a few weeks to see if my speed would stay consistent before writing a review. It has with no problems! I would highly recommend DSLX to anyone and have done so myself! Great job DSLX and thanks for solving my erratic speed problem! det427 12-04-05 I downgraded my service to 1500/384 kbs dynamic connection a few months ago to save some money since I do not do a lot of downloading anymore. It was a little slow for my taste. I upgraded to 3000/512 kbs dynamic connection shortly after. This throughput is just right for my habits. DSLX had a problem with a Northern California router around a month ago. On the first boot of the day my dsl bridge would not grab an IP. I had to either reboot or do a command prompt to get a connection. DSLX, through this forum, found out the problem in a timely manner. I am thoroughly satisfied with the service and support. I have recommended many people and will continue to do so. Thanks, DSLX! 5-19-2006 I upgraded back to a static connection earlier this year. Sometimes the DHCP connection would take a while to connect. I guess I was spoiled to an instant connection! I was on the DHCP connection for less than a year. Since the price of a static connection was only a few dollars a part from the 3000 kbs to the 6000 kbs throughput I opted to go back to the 6000 kbs static connection I originally had. Just a few days ago, I upgraded my connection to the 6000/768 kbs static service. Thanks to a few outspoken DSLX forum members and DSLX's management listening to their customers the static price dropped $10.00 and the upload increased! Once again DSLX comes through again! Thanks DSLX! 6-23-2007 I was having trouble sending email through Outlook Express but could send it through web mail. I posted the problem on DSLX's Forum on a Sunday. I must have gotten "buried" under more important issues because I had to post a "what's up" a few days later. George, the GM, got involved and had it fixed it in a relatively short time. He stated it was probably the IP block wasn't properly configured in the mail server to relay mail. I appreciate the feedback. I also changed from a static ip to a dynamic ip via DHCP on a month to month basis with the same throughput (6016/768 kbs). I am trying to save a few dollars per month. So far, except for the recent Northern California outage, no problems. Thanks DSLX again! 1-04-2008 No problems, just chugging along! My only gripe is I wish AT&T would offer higher throughput to DSL Extreme. I found out I could get Uverse but with only a little higher upload it is not worth it since I get good customer support from DSLX! 5-02-2008 Still working great! AT&T Uverse has a 10 Mbps download now. I wish they would pass this along to DSLX! 8-04-2009 Everything smooth sailing! Just wish AT&T would share some Uverse bandwidth with DSLX! Followup comments:
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Don't be afraid of the self-install, folks, because it is smooth. Just plug the filters into your phone line and you are golden. The filters actually *improve* your telephone service, oddly enough. I wound up buying a 50' crossover cable because the modem's in the kitchen and the computers are all in the living room. Not much else to add...it seems sweet so far. Thumbs up! Bye bye Adelphia! *** updated 6/21/2002 **** Summertime (Solstice was 6am today) and the DSL's easy...what is striking about all the measurements I have taken so far is how consistent they are. Here's the current measurements: 2002-06-21 11:56:39 Speed test (wc) 733/134 kbps 2002-06-20 11:42:22 Speed test (wc) 735/134 kbps 2002-06-19 10:46:17 Speed test (wc) 735/137 kbps 2002-06-19 01:27:56 Speed test (wc) 735/135 kbps 2002-06-18 16:39:25 Speed test (wc) 727/134 kbps 2002-06-18 16:07:05 Speed test (wc) 730/133 kbps Every measurement is within a few bits of each other. Very cool. So far no outages. I am very happy now. This is how Broadband SHOULD be. *** Update 7/9/2002 *** Rock solid. No outages, and I'm at the 4 week mark. Almost a month of solid, always-on service. The range for downloads is between 727-735Kbps, the range for uploads is between 133-137Kbps. About a 5 bit deviation on both sides. It's very dramatic when you look at it on a graph...you have one line that almost never moves for uploads and another that almost never moves for downloads. This is fantastic. *** Update 3/13/2003 *** A couple of days ago I had my first modem reset. Took me out of commission for only about 10 minutes. Remember, I have had my DSLExtreme since June 2002. Considering that in the bad old days with Adelphia Powerlink I would have to manually powercycle the modem about 4-6 times a day to maintain my connection. For all you gamers...I have started playing Unreal Tournament on a regular basis on a friend's private server. Who has the best ping times? Me with my DSLExtreme, that's who! My gaming buddies are all either in the midst of changing over to DSLExtreme or are pondering it. I've not played on the DSLE public server as yet, but it's good to know that DSLExtreme is a gaming-friendly ISP. I feel for the people up North...I hope things get ironed out soon. I think that for those who are having problems, considering moving up to a static IP is a good idea. Much simpler setup, less to go wrong. PPPoE is a hideous kludge. A static IP is very nice, provided you take the proper precautions about security. I'm still getting roughly 730/128. It's lovely to be able to rely on my connection. Thank you DSLExtreme...you guys rock. *** Update 12/13/2003 *** Still rock solid, still 730/128. Helped a friend get the DSL Extreme hookup...she has a Mac running OS X.3 (Panther) and she opted for PPPoE through SBC. What do you know? It was cake to set her up, and the connection is rock solid. I think it's faster than mine...I tried getting 1.5Mbps but the interior and exterior wiring in this '50s-vintage apartment building is only reliable at a 768Kbps rating. She's about two blocks from her CO too...lucky grrl... *** Update Leap Year Day 2004 (2/29/2004) *** DSL Extreme STILL r0x0rz my b0x0rz. It's been over one and a half years of solid service and solid speed tests at 730/128. Only one significant outage in all that time. I just tweaked my category ratings to give them a solid 5 out of 5 across the board...they deserve it. So far my friend Kara is happy too...no complaints, and I would think she would have complained to me if there had been a problem. All my buds in Santa Barbara are DSLX customers now too except for the one who's too far from the CO to get service. With almost everyone on the same system, net gaming is really, really nice. I will stay with DSLX until they either wrench the DSL modem from my cold, dead hands, or if I move and find myself too far from the CO. DSLX forever!!! w00t!!! *** Update 5/25/2005 *** I just got speedbumped to 1.5Mbps...my real speed is 1.3Mbps. Considering the Jurassic wiring in this building, it might or might not be stable at that speed, but we're giving it a try. One thing that hasn't changed has been the superkewl DSLX service. I have had zero complaints, in all the time I've had DSL with them, with their people. I'll update this in a week or two with how I'm doing with the speedbump. Oh yeah, last year my upstream speed was increased to 384Kbps, which is great. ***Update 6/3/2005*** Speedbump still holding strong. Average tested speed is around 1.25Mbps. I am a happy camper. ***Update 11/23/2005*** Still very comfortably at 1.25Mbps down, 384 up. No burps lately. Last month I got yet another friend to come over to DSLX. He's happy. I'm happy. We're all happy. ***Update 1/14/2006*** My Broadmax modem sang its death song at roughly 9:45 pm last night, Friday the 13th. But DSLX didn't let me jones too long. I was able to pick up a replacement modem today and now I'm back online. Haven't tested the speed yet but it feels like normal. DSLX still rules. ***Update 7/18/2006*** It's been over 4 years and I'm still a happy camper. I'm going to be downgrading to 768/128 again because of cost-of-living issues and I'll update again when that goes live. It is so great to just turn on the old computer and the connection is right there and reliable. I had a few qualms when the sale went through, but DSLX is the "same as it ever was" to quote David Byrne. Long live DSLX!!! ***Update 7/24/2006*** OK, just an update for all you happy people. I did the downgrade and as NASA says, "all systems are nominal" It required a little bit of configuration on DSLX's end, and that was done in a couple of minutes. dslreports.com speed test result on 2006-07-24 11:55:14 EST: 631 / 132 Your download speed : 631 kbps or 78.9 KB/sec. That is 72.5% worse than an average user on dslextreme.com Your upload speed : 132 kbps or 16.6 KB/sec. That is 67.1% worse than an average user on dslextreme.com So yeah, this is what I'm supposed to have under this new plan. Kudos to everyone from dslx_gm on down for helping me through the downgrade. **** update 6/6/2008 **** Still as smooth as silk...I've reupped with them and did so happily. The change in ownership hasn't made DSLX jump the shark...they are still wisely avoiding such a stunt. Take my DSLX? From my cold dead hands!!! *** update 8/3/2009 *** As you recall, the maximum speed I can get on this old garbage wiring is 1.25Mbps. VZ last year bumped the tier I was on to 1000Kbps/384Kbps. This of course happened AFTER I had reupped, so I had to wait a while. My contract came up, and now I am on the new speed profile. It still seems like I'm ramping up so I'm not going to judge right now but my upload speeds are already close to 384Kbps, and my down speed is almost 900Kbps. 7 years of good luck. Who can ask for anything more? I know some people have been frustrated with DSLX but I have had nothing but smooth sailing. I'll be with them for life, I think. Followup comments:
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