Mayday Mayday, @home is going down!!
Written: Mar 11 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Can be faster than a DSL
Cons: Connection speed varies from 3kb-100kb
The Bottom Line: If you're looking for a good service provider I suggest Bell Sympatico which is a DSL provider.
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| Sharkie's Full Review: AT&T@home |
I've signed up with rogers @ home almost 5 years ago when it first came out. Back then it was known as Shaw Cable. The service then was phenomenal. Back then I was a very satisfied customer and had no complaints but now is a whole other story.
@home’s performance
In the past I was able to download files on average about 150kb/sec to a maximum of 500kb/sec if the site was good. However, their uploads wasn't nearly as good but was still a great deal faster than modem at a stealth pace of 50kb/sec. However now is entirely different. Many of you are familiar with the more people in your neighborhood the slower your connection. Well I live in a fairly big city and I find my connection at times almost as slow as a 14.4 modem. Before @home upgraded their system I was downloading and transferring files at a speed of a 14.4 or a 28.8 modem for approximately 5 months. About three weeks ago @home upgraded their provider for my area and I’m getting about 70kb/sec, but that meant I was paying for a 1.4 connection for about 5 months. To me that’s unacceptable but since I’ve been with them so long I’m giving them a chance.
Also, expect @home to go down about 2-5 times a month but they’re not that bad because they go down during the nights when a few users are on. However, just a few days ago then went down for 12 hours during peak time because someone stole some of their cables but that affect more than just @home.
Help line
To me I don’t know how these people got their jobs. They weren’t able to help me with my problem. My problem was that I have a network with my computers so each of them can share the cable, but when their company went down it altered my setting in my host computer. After they fixed their problem my cable wasn’t connecting to their server and they didn’t know how to correct this mistake.
Cost
When I signed up with @home it cost me $30 a month and they charged me two hundred dollars for installation but the gave the first two months free. They also gave us five e-mail addresses. Now they still charge 30 dollars but installation is free and you get three free e-mail addresses unless they changed that recently. They provide you with one modem either white or black the white is the older model and bigger it has the same performance though. If you want another IP address because having one IP address can be a hassle is an additional five dollars a month.
Final Thoughts
If Rogers continues to care about their customers I will be switching over to Bell Sympatico one of @home’s competitors. Theirs rates are the same except Bell will give you free installation plus two months connection for the price of a dialup so approximately 15 dollars a month for the first two then 30 dollars for the remainder. If I was to choose a provider right now I would suggest Bell because they can at least guarantee you a steady connection of about 40kb/sec for both uploading and downloading. Although @home maybe able to go 70kb/sec or even 100kb/sec they have been known to also go 5kb/sec or even 2kb/sec.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 30.00
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Epinions.com ID:
Sharkie
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Member: Paul S.
Reviews written: 80
Trusted by: 43 members
About Me:
HTTP://getpaid4trivia.tripod.com
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