Review of Cavalier TelephoneAll reviews of |
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5-8 MB downloads and 800K upload. Followup comments:
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Cavalier added some new fees, so my total bill is now $72, but the service has been rock-solid since my last review. »www.speedtest.net/result/616267140.png UPDATE 03/08/09 Speeds seem to have returned to normal. I ran another line test, and it looks like I've been re-routed through their Washington, DC servers. »/linequality/nil/2497804 »www.speedtest.net/result/424541519.png While latency is a little on the high side, I am getting great throughput, and I think I'm going to stick with them for now. If the network goes haywire again, I have direct contact numbers for both an engineer and a provisioning tech. Their phone tech support is hit or miss... sometimes you get a good tech, but most times you don't. When I called about my slow speeds, their only "fix" is to lower my modem sync speed, for "stability". When that doesn't work, they blame overall internet congestion, the problems between Sprint and Cogent, and everything else under the sun (except their network). If they do send a tech out, don't expect him/her to do anything but verify that your ready light is on, and call the office to "lower your speed for stabilty" (even if it's working perfectly while he is there.) All in all, though, I get phone service (unlimited local and long distance + all features), and DSL that gives me almost 9Mbps download speeds. And my bill for all of this is $70, taxes included. I don't know of any other company that would give you this much for that price. (For comparison, Verizon wants to give me similar service, but with less calling features and only 5MB DSL, for $80 BEFORE taxes. They also say that my line doesn't qualify for 7.1 DSL.) UPDATE 03/05/09 I recieved a call from a Cavtel engineer yesterday. Apparently, one of my many complaints made its way up to him. He informed me that they had been having a problem with one of their Baltimore area routers. They had to replace a bad card during the time I first started having problems, which only fixed the problem for a couple of months. Now they have replaced the whole router, and he was calling me personally to see if my issue was fixed on my end. I explained to him that my connection has been stable, but that the phone techs had lowered my speed to try and fix the problem, and that none of them knew how to put me back to the speeds I had originally. He asked for my email address, so that he could cc me on an email he was sending to the provisioning dept. I never received an email, but did receive a conference call from the engineer and the provisioning tech later that day. I explained again what had happened, and he tweaked the DSLAM while he was one the phone with me. His first attempt lowered my speed to around 1800kbps, so he put me on hold. When he came back, he asked me to run another speed test, and I was back to 8867kbps down and 864kbps up (using Speakeasy's speed test.) He then gave me his phone number, and said that I could call him directly anytime if I have problems. After I got off the phone with them, I logged into the modem interface, and my modem is again syncing at 10137 down and 1021 up, using fastpath, with no errors. It looks like I may be cancelling my Verizon order.... UPDATE 02/23/09 I experienced slow night-time connections again last week, and used the online chat service to try and resolve the issue (my connection to Cavalier's servers was fine). The tech I talked to said that my line looks fine, and that I should be getting 6MB down all the time. I explained to him that I can connect at that speed only to Cavalier's servers and that my line tests (run from this site) is showing packet loss. His only response was to "lower my speed for stability", which I declined. The problem seemed to resolve itself after a couple of days, but now I'm only getting 5832 down and 732 up. Line stats are: sync: 7107 / 883 margin: 11 / 14 line attenuation: 33 / 22 transfer mode: Fastpath I have an order in for Verizon to install voice/DSL on the 2nd jack on my NID, so I can evaluate their service and compare it to my current one. They say that I qualify for their 5M/7.1M service, and with the line stats I'm showing, I'm hoping it ends up at 7.1M. UPDATE 11/15/08 Still doing strong, with speed tests showing 6,450K down and 800K up, 24x7. UPDATE 11/12/08 I called and talked to a tech, and asked him to put me back on a "default" profile, as the field tech called it. He said that he did so, and that my modem should be resetting. My modem never reset, and my speeds never changed. I think he was probably logged into the wrong port. I thanked him for his time, and ended the call. After I got off the phone with him, I initiated a chat from support.cavtel.com, and got a different tech. She was able to put me back on the "default" profile and reset my modem. I am now on Fastpath again and the modem is synching at 7365 down and 855 up with no errors. This is a far cry from the 10M down and 1M up I was getting yesterday, but if it's stable I can live with it. Besides, I can't get faster DSL from anyone else, at least not for $14.95. Keeping my fingers crossed.... UPDATE 11/11/08 Cavalier sent a tech out today to test my line. Of course, since tech was coming out, my internet was working better than it ever has (9Mb down and 900k up). He said that the modem was synched up at 10Mb down and 1Mb up with no errors. Someone must have fixed something somewhere. I was getting 300k downloads last night. Since I had been having problems that he couldn't duplicate onsite, he called his office and asked them to give a different profile for "stability". The result is that my modem now synchs at 6MB down and 384k up, in interleaved mode (used to be fastpath.) The tech said that I could call to have my profile put back, if my speeds stayed stable. I asked him if they had fixed a network problem and he didn't know. I may call them in a day or so to see if I can at least get my upload speeds back to what they used to be. ------------------- We bought our house in 2006, and had Cavalier setup our home phone and DSL service. When the service was activated, I was blown away by the speed I was getting. I would get a consistent 8Mb down and 800k up, 24x7. This could be confirmed using any speed test on the web. Within the last few months, though, the speed has dropped considerably. It still runs at 8Mb from 12AM - 6 AM, but then slows down to around 1.5Mb around 11AM to as slow as 500k around 5pm. I like to watch Sesame Street videos with my son on YouTube after work, and the connection is so slow the videos take up to 10 min to start. I have tried calling Cavalier support, but they don't seem to know how to fix the problem. They want to send out a tech to check my jack, even though I told them that plugging the modem directly into the NID doesn't fix the issue. I confirmed, via the modem's web interface, that it is synching at 9Mb down and 1Mb up with no errors, but Cavalier's network just can't seem to deliver. Followup comments:
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Anyway, speed has never been good, price is cheap enough but Comcast's $13 a mon deal for 12mb (43 after 6 months) is starting to look like a real good deal. I'm paying $25 now and not even getting 1mb. Funny though since I was down I did sponge my neighbor's open wireless to check my mail and noticed it was faster than I was used to and did a speed test. I hit 2m 3 times and was over 1m several times. This was over wireless from roughly 100-125ft from their house across the road. Why can't CavTel get me over 1m? UPDATE**** finally got switched over on Friday, and finally did some speed tests to see what's going on. WOW-- surprise surprise. 8m, 5m, 7m, 3m. Nothing under 1.5m (only one test point, so could have been issue there). Downloaded Openoffice to my new computer and it took about 1-2 min (wasn't paying close attention). Finally DSL that works. This is AWESOME! I am back to recommending CavTel to those in area who can't get Fios. I'm still in line for that. Followup comments:
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Presales service was good. Questions were answered, though I was not told about the $13.14 fees for End User Access and End User Common Line. Modem arrived within 5 days of order. DSL was switched from DCA Net to Cavalier at 8 days. Switch was painless. I continued to use my DCA Net supplied modem (Speedstream 5100) which is set in "bridge mode". All I had to do was alter my Netgear router (FR114P) DNS setting to Automatic and that was it. After two months of service there have been no interruptions. DSL Download speed is typically from 3.5 to 4.0 Mbps. Slowest has been 2.3, fastest time was 4.3. Speed is the same if I measure at the phone company NID/demarcation box. Upload time is a fairly constant 600 to 700 Kbps. I do not know how far I am from the Central Office, though Cavalier runs on Verizon phone lines (I think). The IP number is listed by Cavalier as dynamic, but has not changed in 2 months (nice). I have had no trouble with VOIP (Skype & iChat AV). Verizon charges $50 for similar phone + DSL service but with a speed of only up to 1 Mbps. For phone + 3 Mbps DSL Verizon charges $70/mo. Overall Cavalier service as been trouble free. Recommended. Followup comments:
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I signed up for the Unlimited Local/Long Distance and Hotwire DSL package at $74.95/month. They advertise speeds from 4Mbps/1Mbps, but so far my speeds are more like 650kbps/550kbps. I'm going to call them to have them check my loop because when we had Verizon, we reached speeds of 1400kbps/200kbps. But so far I can't complain, mainly because I finally have internet service after 3 months! Overall: B- for lack of communication and a long long wait, but a very good product for the money. Update: I ordererd in mid-June and at the time, the DSL service speed was offered at 768/768. Since then they've upgraded to 960/960, but unless you've ordered just recently, older service might not have been upgraded. I made a quick call to tech support who confirmed my DSL service was at 768/768, and I made another quick call to customer support who sent out a service order to upgrade it to 960/960. And if you're lucky enough, you'll qualify for their new RADSL service, which has speeds up to 4mbps if you're within 4000 feet of the CO and 2mbps for within 8000 feet. I've had a line monitor on my DSL line for a week, and the pings and packet loss are excellent. I think their service is top notch for the price. Update: I switched to Phonom/Cavtel VoIP. Switchover was easy, since Cavalier supplies the DSL, and Phonom operates under Cavalier. The problem relates to customer service, and what appropriate DSL service I should be receiving. I was told many things, and after days and days of trying to get some resolution/truth, I may finally be getting the appropriate ADSL service. Basically, I was lied to on several occasions by customer support, it seems that all they want you to do is hang up, but they don't understand that we have real problems that need to be fixed. Service/Price is great, but their support is really making their image terrible. Update 12/12/07: It's been a while since I updated this, but for about 24 I've had pretty reliable service and never had to contact Customer Support. 2 weeks ago, my VoIP service went out, I put in the dreaded Customer Support call, and for the last 2 weeks I've gotten no where. Called last night to Tech Support instead of Customer Support, and of course......Cavtel had switched me over to PoTS, instead of VoIP.. Now there's a ticket to switch my service back to VoIP. Why they switched my service to PoTS is unknown. I estimate it will take at least 2 more weeks to get it fixed. Update 7/30/08: Well after 3 years of having pretty good service, my DSL line grinded to a halt (40-60% packet loss) and Cavalier wasn't able to repair the line. I gave them 7 business days (10 overall), and even troubleshot the line for them. My packet loss was between my IP and the Gateway IP. I ran a new homerun line, and changed the cat5e cable from the DSL modem. I tested it with 4 machines to make sure it wasn't my desktop NIC...same result for all 4 machines. It had to be outside from my NID to the CO or wherever the Gateway IP hardware was located. It may have even been my DSL router, which they refused to send me a new one even after we had exhausted days of trying new things and trouble shooting. I cancelled today and ordered Verizon DSL. 8/7/08 - See my Verizon review - »Review of Verizon Online DSL by hsindogg Cancelled with them as well as their support/installation was horrible. Followup comments:
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When you finally get through to tech support they are very informative but everyone else (Sales, Customer Service, etc.) have no idea what a port is and/or will claim they "do not block ports" until you mention that you've already talked to tech support. Someone in Business Care said they 'might' be able to allow those ports if I ordered a T1 line. I wanted to use them because their package is a great deal. Followup comments:
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Installation coordination was horrendous. Service was switched back on Monday morning without prior notice. DSL modem did not ship until Monday night and did not arrive until 3 days after old services was disconnected. Called customer service on Monday morning and was told modem shipped out and would be there same day (turned out to be a lie). On a second call that evening I was told the modem just shipped and will be there by Wednesday. Customer service not available after hours (they work 9-5). Tech support was very professional (long wait though "due to inclement weather"). Provided me with answers as well as dial-up service information while I waited for modem. Modem arrived on Wednesday and now all is well. Bottom line: Glad I switched. Could do without the aggravation. Followup comments:
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--- Update: CavTel download speed claim scaled down to "up to 8 megs" on their web, but didn't change my speeds any. Guess too many people couldn't get up that high ... Still glad I have it, though. Followup comments:
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Cavalier Telephone
(12)
Philadelphia,Philadelphia,PA
$69 per month
Cavalier
"fast, reliable, good price"
"took away my static IP with not letting me know"
"been a customer for over a year and very happy with service"
about 15 days
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Zoom ADSL x6 Modem Connectivity Stats - SpeedTest 9megs down
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Because Cavalier is involved in this deal with Google!
Caviler c2
Understand others may have issues but I have not run into any (... yet?) and CS has been responsive to my chats and calls when I needed something. BTW, when I take the system down for something or another, router connects and is ready to go within a minute to two. (Takes me longer to go online with my AT&T G3 system while on the road and generally running up to 3.6megs on G3 GSM but costs $60/month.)
