I signed up for Earthlink DSL in 1999. Covad installed the line, and that was before dsl shared a line with you phone company. That explains why Covad disconnected my telephone service, connected their lines and left before the dsl was working. It was Earthlink's job to get it working. $150 later, my phone line was re-installed, but dsl never worked. February, 2005 was my second signup for Earthlink DSL. It took 38 days to provision the line, and it was turned on March 10th. 3 hours with tech support got it working. March 11th another hour to tech support. March 12th 90 minutes with tech support. Today, 4th day of service, 4th day of dropping service, 150 minutes to tech support and I cancelled service. It took 70 minutes to turn it off. I've been a customer of Earthlink dailup since 1993. I infrequently call in for help, and got help right away. Long wait times for DSL support means I must not be the only customer with connection trouble. Earthlink uses a PPPoE which is a kind of VPN. No PPPoE and you have no service (thank Covad for the hardware, Earthlink subs out service routing to Covad). To get to the tech rep that can fix it, you have to go through the first rep that makes sure you computer is on and your monitor is plugged in. When you get to the right department, the fix takes less than a minute. But gettting there will takes a lot of time. A side issue is the Earthlink Usenet which is limited to 5 Gig per month. I asked 5 different sales reps before purchase about the download limit, and all said there is no limit on ADSL. That is not the case. In 4 days of service, I capped my downloads, and only have to wait 26 days to use it again. Everyone appologized that I was mis-informed. I don't believe any ISP can effectively handle the troubles of DSL if the system is unreliable.

Recommended: No

Amount Paid (US$): 49.99