Review of CableOneAll reviews of |
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Original review (most of which is still true): CableOne.net is a cable television provider that also provides broadband Internet. Unfortunately, CableOne still thinks like a cable company, not an ISP. They provide no home page, very minimal account management (no statement download), have more outages than they should, and their tier 1 tech support is still marginal. They have also isolated their second tier of tech support from subscribers, so when I have an issue that the first tier cannot handle (as I have had again this week), their first tier support people leave me on hold while they go talk to the level 2 support staff. Then they return to relay what the level 2 people said to me and try to do more diagnostics. This can go on two or three times, which wastes everyone's time, but I still can't talk to the level two support staff unless they call me, which they did today. This is an improvement, but they still have not resolved our current issue - we are paying for a 10MB download speed, but our speed dropped to about 5MB in early November 2009. They can't figure out the problem. Their competitors, Qwest, now offer almost comparable connection speeds, and if CableOne cannot resolve our current connection speed issues, they may lose us as customers. Also, if you want real VOIP phone service, go elsewhere. If there were as good an option through another provider, I would take it, but in my neighborhood this is still as good as it gets. Followup comments:
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"I had BellSouth DSL for years. Began experiencing constant connection problems and poor speed which BellSouth (AT&T) was unable to correct." If AT&T could have corrected my static problem, I probably would still be with them. Instead, I switched to CableOne. Since that time I have continued using CableOne (5MB). I remain satisfied with the service. I am provided with a consistent and reliable connection (something AT&T was unable to provide). No problems with ordering or installation. My only complaint is the bandwidth throttling. Followup comments:
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Their tech support likes to blame everything on my router (even though this was not the problem). Edit: 8/7/09 I have lowered the rating on reliability. For the past few nights, web pages are taking an extremely long time to load. I am also getting poor download QOS. Other people in this area have been having similar problems lately as well. I have to say that I am extremely disappointed since they have been reliable for the past several years. Edit: I have just upgraded to the 10Mb tier for $53. I still get very close to their promised speeds. However, I just found out that for new service they charge a $90 install fee!!! This seems extremely high to me. /Edit I have had the service for 5 years and I can't remember the last time the internet went down. Speed seems very consistent. They monitor your bandwidth usage between the hours of 12 pm - 12 am. If you exceed their limit (this depends on the tier you pay for) your bandwidth is cut in half until 12:00 am. If you exceed this limit for more than half of the days in the month, they will terminate your service without notice. »www.cableone.net/Pages/internetaup.aspx I seem to constantly exceed their low daily limits (3GB for the 5 Mb tier) when I am legally watching several hours of online video. It is fairly obvious that cableone makes these low limits so customers do not cancel their cabletv service. They do not require a contract. There is a charge of $6/month for a modem rental, which seems too high. Fortunately, there is a list of supported modems on their website. I bought mine for around $50. I do have Qwest as an "alternative" here, but they only offer a 3 Mb connection, are more expensive, and make me sign a 2 yr contract. There is a wireless carrier here too, and I may be switching to them if CableOne continues with these low caps. Followup comments:
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I could rant on for another page or so, but it wouldn't matter. If another internet provider that was worth anything would move into the area, CableOne would be done, plain and simple. They are a worthless Internet provider and if Qwest had a higher speed I would be with them. Right now I am doing the 5MB package, which I might as well be doing the 1.5mb, because apparently that's about all I can seem to get. And no, I am not downloading torrents. I think the possible worst thing I would be downloading would be from Technet. But watchout, one ISO from M$ will throw you in the "throttle bandwagon". Followup comments:
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I monitor my bandwidth records every day to make sure no one in my house hold has gone crazy downloading stuff; it's only happened once or twice, but I still like to check now and then since I'm typically a heavy downloader. The AUP says if you download greater than 3 gb for more than half of your billing cycle your service may be terminated or suspended without warning. Does this mean the 3 gb daily cap applies to a 24-hour period or between the hours of 12 pm-12 am? It makes no sense! They call it a daily threshold cap. I brought up this issue because their bandwidth management records for my account are very much messed up. Ex., my bandwidth usage for yesterday was around 1,700 mb or so. Well within 3 gb, right? Well, I check it again 3-4 hours later and it zoomed up to 3,729 mb. Can ANYONE out there explain this phenomenon? The CableOne forums are a nearly dead source of information since the ISP is so small and I'm pretty sure tech. support won't provide an explanation for it.. then again, I'd rather not give them idea of terminating my account anyway. One anonymous user claimed that the 3 gb daily cap only applies during the monitoring threshold cap period, which would be between 12 pm - 12 am; he also claimed that monitoring has been lifted for weekends, but another user proved otherwise. It makes no sense... Long story short: Speeds are still great; up time is excellent; but the caps have me confused and worried that my connection may be terminated. 08/06/09 I signed up with CableOne once again recently, but this time I chose their triple play package (VoIP, cable tv, internet) My speeds are ABOVE their rated speeds (5 mbit) when being tested on Speakeasy.net (5300 kbps; 555 kbps upstream). CableOne once again brings the service I came looking for. As for those periodic outages a few months back.. they were simply "periodic", that's it. The cable installers were baffled at the setup outside of my home (Which I did NOT do) and had to install an access box and replace the 30 year old drop going to my home, even though it worked perfectly fine last time I used cableone. The installers seemed kind of lazy about the installation, but it wasn't anything too bad. The older guy knew what he was doing.. the younger guy.. not so much. The modem is an Arris Touchstone Telephony Modem. I'm using a DI-604 D-link router with a Netgear WAP connected to it. The modem stats? Even BETTER than what I had last time! Downstream Freq/Power: 549.000 MHz 9 dBmV Signal to Noise Ratio: 41 dB Modulation: QAM256 Upstream Freq/Power: 29.000 MHz 39 dBmV Channel Type: DOCSIS 1.x (TDMA) Symbol Rate: 2560 kSym/sec Modulation: QAM16 That upstream is pretty low.. but as long as it's working, I'm not complaining at all. In fact, doesn't a lower upstream mean a good thing? Aside from the cost, threshold caps, etc., thumbs up to CableOne. 06/05/09 ------------ What happened, CableOne? I know summer is supposed to the climax for bandwidth usage, but the problem I (or in my neighborhood, everyone, according to their modem stats) am experiencing is a complete, temporary disconnection. I was expecting less than stellar speeds as soon as school was out, but not loss of modem sync. This isn't supposed to be DSL! The modem loses sync anywhere from 5 minutes-5 hours. This happens around 10 pm-6 am. I'm speculating that a cable amp may be dieing out nearby, but if it's affecting everyone in my vicinity, could something else be going on? I also acknowledge that cable amps need to be adjusted during the summer, but for 3 days in a row? The time where I use the internet the most, and it disconnects on me. Typically, I'd temporary use my neighbor's wireless router if my connection was down, but like I said in the beginning of this update: This affects everyone in my local vicinity. (except for DSL customers) Like I've said in the past; no lag, very consistent speeds, but now I'm just losing sync entirely during the later hours (and so are my neighbors). This has been going on for 3 days.. and I hope it ends already. 3 days may not be so bad, but if this goes on for another week or so, I don't know what I'll do. DSL was just as bad in my area, if not a little worse. WISP? Forget it. I'll move out of Gautier, MS, before I pay $70 per month for 1 mbit wireless access. Old update: ========== I ordered CableOne's Residential Plus 3 mbit package 2 days ago and acquired internet service today. The tech was great. He seemed to be VERY experienced with his job and on top of that, we were able to carry on a hilarious conversation. He had to go through a few Motorola Surfboard modems to find one that would work but in the end all was well. The modem is a Motorola Surfboard SB5101. It is connected to a Zyxel 802.11g 4-port router/switch. As for line stats, everything looks great: Downstream Value Frequency 549000000 Hz Signal To Noise Ratio: 40.8 dB Power Level 6.5 dBmV Upstream Value Channel ID 2 Frequency 32000000 Hz Power 41.0 dBmV Both upstream and downstream speeds are perfect. Speakeasy tests download around 3270 kbits downstream and 305 kbits upstream. Compared to the previous AT&T DSL service that I had, this is a godsend. I would recommend CableOne to ANYONE who is struggling with a poor, attenuated DSL line in their localized area. My only real complaint is the bandwidth caps which halve your speed between 12 pm - 12 am if you download more than 1.3 GB on my speed package. I have no problem with this.. at least until I need more speed. =p In short, I am very pleased so far. 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I constantly lose connection on a daily basis..I called and they replaced my modem with they say a much better one. Funny the problem still exist?? Cable One is the worse ISP provider I have ever had. They should be ashamed of themselves for pricing too high and jacking the customers. I am presently looking into Quest has my next provider. They offered me a better deal at a lower cost and much faster speed. Followup comments:
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Update: I just upgraded to the premium package and it is consistently faster that those advertised speeds as well. I am very impressed with this ISP! Followup comments:
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Cableone has problems. Don't all providers have problems? At least with these "rolling DNS blackouts" of March 6th and 7th Cableone tried to give users some notice that something was happening. I wish Cableone would actually admit to what the problems was. One thing that is really starting to concern me about Cable One tech support is the apparent attitude that "It's not our problem." After several days of dropped connections with confirmation from neigbours who also have Cable One are having this problem and getting the same response from tech support... Cableone mail appears to have become a spam magnet. /////// The frequent disconnects are not as frequent anymore. Latency is still a bit... Postino Spam blockage service appears to have issues stopping some spam. Web service outages (no email, no online support, etc.) at the end of June were not explained. Followup comments:
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They've also introduced an excessive use policy. For those with 5Mb service, if you use more than 3gb daily for more than half your billing period, you're subject to termination. And as a sidenote, they throttle nntp traffic when you've exceeded threshold limits and are in the standard speeds (half of your advertised speed). It's throttled to exactly half your standard speeds. So say you have the 5Mb plan, go beyond threshold limits and are down to 2.5Mb, your usenet bandwidth will be limited to half that arbitrarily. You can of course bypass this by having encrypted usenet access. I've spent more than an hour on the phone now, and no one at cableone can tell me that they do this. Cableone seems to be growing increasingly weary of people who actually use their service for more than checking their email. If I had a better choice I would not be with cableone. Old Review: I've had cable one for a few years now, my experience has been fairly positive. The first good thing I noticed was a 24/7 support line, and to my surprise the technicians were actually fairly knowledgeable with the inner workings of networking and such. At least the one's I've spoken to. My issues have generally been resolved quickly, and the downtime of my network is very low. Since I've started using Cableone, my speeds have been updated 3 times for the same price of $40.00 a month (+$5 for modem lease, I need to buy my own soon), years ago it was 512/128 (a bit of a ripoff I know, but it's somewhat justifiable for the year) to 1500/200 and the current 3000/300. The only issue is they have always been too conservative with the upload speed caps. More and more people are sharing files on services like google video, youtube, sending videos, photos and other media to family and friends over messengers. And this definitely is beginning to suit the general public less and less. Thoroughput generally is generally right at the rated speeds, accounting for network overhead of course. CableOne also advertises unlimited usage but when you read their acceptable use policy, you'll see that there are limits on how much can be uploaded/downloaded in an hours time, before speeds are cut in half for the next 2 hours. I understand almost all ISP's advertise unlimited usage but their networks can't necessarily deliver, but this is a different case. The limits restrict me from filling my upload or download bandwidth for even an hour. Why is it unacceptable to utilize my connection fully for an hour CableOne? Also at one time my splitters which were outdated lower frequency models needed replacing as it was causing my modem to drop the connection constantly due to a dirty signal. CableOne came out the day after my call, and replaced all my splitters with 1ghz frequency splitters at no cost to me. To wrap things up, I use a Motorola Surfboard 4100 (old I know) provided by cableone, and a modified Linksys WRT54G rev3 wireless router as of recently. Setup was easy, I've countered very little DHCP issues, and if I have a call to support corrected the issues. Overall, CableOne is an excellent isp, with excellent support. I'd just hope we can see an increase in capped speeds (especially upload) without an increase in price in the near future. But the lackluster competition in the area may prevent that from happening. Followup comments:
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CableOne
(12)
(11)
Boise,Ada,ID
$53 per month
"They provide service & improved their connection speed."
"After four weeks, they cannot fix their connections speed issue - we're leaving."
"No longer better than Qwest, and their compromised connection speed has made them useless to us."
about 1 days
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