Hate Cablevision, Love Optimum Online

STAR RATING:




I've been on the Internet a long time. Back when it was just bbs and a lot of college computers. No graphics to speak of, just green text scrolling on my monochrome monitor.

I've seen a lot come and go. I've also usually been dragged kicking and screaming into the latest innovations. Took me until 1996 to finally go over to Windows from DOS (and I'm still not a big fan).

But last year I had finally given up with the dial-up connections. Not only did downloads take forever, but I kept getting disconnected. I had seen Optimum Online at my PTA co-President's house, but I hate Cablevision, so I wasn't really interested.

Cablevision is the company that has supplied Cable-TV service to Long Island for more than two decades. I have had nothing but trouble with them. One time when they switched off my service after a check was lost in the mail (no, really) I told them to just forget it and cancel the account and I'd get a dish. It was only then that they somehow managed to get my service restored before the next day (*magic*)!

After my debacle with Verizon trying to get DSL for more than two months (see review Verizon Online DSL ) I got fed up one day and went over to my local Cablevision store. They have all the equipment to get online with the Optimum Online service.

In short order, I was given a free 3Com cable modem, a splitter switch, and a length of coaxial cable. Since there is also a Cablevision Customer Service Desk in the store, the order was put through there as well. Normally, the service is $39.95 per month. If you are a customer of the Cablevision Cable TV Service, you will get a $10 per month discount. In exchange, I am indentured to them for the next two years.

I was advised to put the splitter as the first one in the line rather than after one or more other splitters if we had more than one television hooked up. That meant a trip up to the attic. My husband took care of this later on, but when I got home, I merely hooked it up from the cable that went into my television. Since I already had installed a Network Card and had the wire from my unsuccessful attempt at DSL, I didn't have to do anything to my computer.

In just two short hours, the technician came out and removed a filter from the pole which enabled me to get online with Optimum Online.

There were also two software discs that installed the Instant Access software. Once done, I opened up my browsers and registered my email.

I am glad I got this before Napster was shut down. Trying to grab music files over a dial-up connection was way too slow. I get all my email and newsgroups updated in a flash. Web pages I do for people upload with speed I had never seen before in a dial-up connection. Even my software updates such as Internet Explorer and Netscape browsers download in a few minutes rather than two hours or more.

I love being able to watch video on my computer and the connection is great for that. Some people complain that a problem with Optimum Online, and cable modems in general, is that when many users are on they slow down. That may be true, but so far I have not seen it.

One thing that you need with Optimum Online is a good firewall since your computer is connected to the Internet as soon as you turn it on - even if you do not have a browser window opened. I use BlackIce Defender and haven't had any problems with hacking.

When there's no problems Optimum Online is great. Their customer service is still Cablevision's, so it stinks. At one point I was getting a lot of error messages, especially on my emails. It turned out they were going through a server upgrade, but instead of just telling me that, I had to spend more than an hour going through shutdowns and a whole host of other things over the telephone before I found out about the servers. To be fair, I don't know if the technician on the phone initially had this information to give me, but you'd think they would know since there would probably be quite a few calls about this.

One night all of Long Island was down for about 3 hours and all I would get is "the technicians are working on it". I know the routine when I call them and always unplug my modem and re-boot the computer before I call them since that's the first thing they always ask me to do.

When our Cable-TV goes out, I know my Internet will be out as well. So there's nothing to do!!! That's when I have to hit my bookcase again.

Unlike many dial-up ISP's, Optimum Online does not give you free web-site hosting. I had to move everything over to Geocities and Homestead.

When my two year contract is over, I will re-evaluate then and decide what I m going to do. In the meantime, I am very satisfied with Optimum Online.


Originally posted at Epinions.com

Verizon Online DSL: It Never Worked and I Still Don't Know Why

STAR RATING:




The time had come. I had been online in one form or another for about 15 years. My 56k modem - which seemed fast when I first got it - now wasn't good enough.

Since I have had problems with our local cable company, I decided to go the Verizon DSL route. On October 3rd I placed my order and was told I would get a free Ethernet card, a free DSL modem and the wiring needed to get me up and running. I was also given a date of October 24th as the day I would be online. Three weeks? Okay, a little long but I could wait. I'd waited this long already.

On October 21st I received a call that I would not be up and running on the 24th, but now on November 10th. I was not happy, but decided to wait it out. On November 8th, I called up to verify what time I would be ready to go. The customer service representative said that I was now showing a date of November 24th and she didn't know where I got the date of November 10th from.

So we were not off to a good start, but I was still hopeful that if I could wait out the installation nightmare, I would be happy. I had talked to people who had said they were also having these problems but once it was installed it was wonderful.

On November 21st, I received a message on my answering machine stating that the work had been done and I could get online. Great! I installed the ethernet card and hooked everything up. No signal. I called Verizon and the representative stated that the phone call had to be a mistake, they were not showing that the work was done yet.

Okay fine. Three more days, I kept whispering to myself through gritted teeth. All ready to go, I was disappointed on the morning of November 24th when there was still no signal. Another phone call. The representative stated that on the start-up days they were usually given a time of 6 PM so I shouldn't worry until after then.

6 PM came and went and guess what? No signal! I was on the phone with Verizon customer service for more than an hour while my family ate dinner. The final decision was to put in "a service ticket" and they would test the line over the weekend.

Monday afternoon (still no signal) I called back. After waiting for a half hour on hold, I finally got a human being. The answer was "It's Thanksgiving weekend and we're really behind on service." I called back every day that week. On Friday, December 1st, I was just about to cancel the account when the representative I talked to was real nice and said she'd push a high priority on my ticket. She told me that they knew there was a problem with the line on their end.

I called again on Monday, December 4th to check and all I was told was that their computers were down. I was not satisfied and they transferred me to a customer service supervisor who sounded like she couldn't care less about my account. She told me that the computers were down and there was nothing she could do now, but she'd call me back as soon as they were up. Since I was going to Florida on December 7th for 4 days, I decided to wait until after then to do anything. That gave them one more week.

When I came home, guess what? No signal! So on Monday, December 11th, I called up and told them either get me running by tomorrow or I was canceling the account.

On Tuesday, December 12th, there was still no signal. I went to our local cable company and signed up with them. I took 3 days to call Verizon back and tell them to cancel the account. Their return department is so backed up (wonder why???), they said I won't receive a return label for the equipment until after Christmas sometime. They're not getting the ethernet card back.


Originally posted at Epinions.com