My @home connection
Written: Oct 05 '00 (Updated Dec 03 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: CHEAP-FAST-ALWAYS ON
Cons: easier for hackers to get in
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| dragon1's Full Review: AT&T@home |
WHAT I HAVE SEEN AND USED
Since I have been into computers since the early 1980's. I can remember connecting with Compuserve at a blazing speed of 1400baud rate. Just looked at my modem,that I used for compuserve, it was 300 baud. So I have seen the connection rate go from 300 bit to 53.333 kbps. The last time I connected by the telephone.
ATT@HOME
When ATT had first come here with @Home. They did not connect in my side of town yet . Since as a MS Beta Tester I regularly download 120+meg files. I had to go to my son's apartment to use his connection.
Instead of taking anywhere from 12 to 18 hours to download these files by dialup connection. With @HOME, it took only about 2 hours.
AT MY HOME WITH ATT@HOME
About 3 to 4 month's ago they started to install in my area. I set up an appointment. one week later, the technicians showed up. By the way they showed up about 10minutes early.
Since I already had a ethernet card installed on my computer , they did not have to install one in mine. One technician went out and did the installation necessary on the outside of the house while one installed the Cable Modem and connected to my computer. After the one tech ran the wire from the box to where my computer was and connected, I was on line.
AM I SATISFIED WITH @HOME
I can say without any doubt "OH YEA. At first the connection was about the same as at my son's location, but since then I have gone from about 512kbps to as high as 2000kbps. The average right now,even during peak hours is about 1200kbps.
I will say that there have been a few times I lost connection to the e-mail servers but usually no longer than a few hours. One time there was a loss of internet connection for about 6 hours but I know what had happened. They updated some servers and one had a bad install ,took a while to find out which one.
Just this week I downloaded a 650 meg file in about 2 hours and 10 minutes. So yes I'm very happy with their service. I even downloaded another 650meg file in 20 minutes one time.
SERVICE
There are 3 ways to get technical help
1 by e-mail slow
2 by phone The tech's that answer the phone are courtious-helpfull
only one complaint. They treat all contacts as if they were a newbies.
3 by a chat service same as number 2.
COST
Using a dial up it cost about $20 for a 2nd phone line and anywhere from $20 to $30 dollars a month so at a total of $42 for @home it costs me less for att than dialup.
ADVICE
Get a firewall, with a always on connection makes it harder for a hacker to get into your computer and doing something you don't want.
ON RE-INSTALLING WHEN RE-INSTALLING THE OPERATING SYSTEM/BETA TESTING
Forgot this but when I had to reinstall the new builds of Windows Me(for about 2 months,the last 5-10 weeks, was doing it every week) this was a clean install. I would have to take about a half-hour to enter all the information needed to get Internet access.
When they installed in my home, they had a new modem. All that is needed to get access is the computer name assigned to the person by att@home.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
dragon1
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 in Computer Hardware, Software |
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Member: Michael L Hereid Sr
Location: Clinton, Iowa
Reviews written: 72
Trusted by: 70 members
About Me:
MS Beta Tester since 1997-building my own PC's since 1986/7
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