 Review by djrobx 
UPDATED: 1.6 years ago
member for 8.6 years, 4148 visits, last login: a few minutes ago
 Valencia,Los Angeles,CA
 $62 per month
 about 6 days
 SBC
 "Great support here on DSLReports"
 "They are losing their edge."
 "A great ISP, but aims to just match the competition rathen than best it."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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I singed up for DSLExtreme back in 2003. At the time, the free static IP included with each account was advertised as an advantage DSLExtreme had over their competition. Around this time $49.95 internet service was standard pricing. Sharp price cuts by the telcos followed over the years. DSLExtreme introduced their own dynamic IP service. The static IP pricing remained high while dynamic IP service fell to match the competition.
Here I am at the end of my contract. DSLExtreme wants $59.95/month for 6000/768/Static. The equivalent dynamic connection is only $32.95/month. They want to charge me just about DOUBLE just so I can have a fixed IP and want me to commit to another full year of it.
Last year we clamored and got that knocked down to $49 but they, once again, seem to have forgotten how to keep their loyal customer's best interest in mind.
Screw all that. That's price gouging. A fixed IP does not cost DSLExtreme that much money per month to operate, so I won't pay that much for it. And, If I'm going to be on a dynamic connection, I'll get cable. And that I did. My first speed test: 9838/982, almost double what I got from my DSLExtreme connection, for just $5 more than DSLX's best dynamic connection.
See ya, DSLExtreme. Your reliability and support was terrific. But don't forget you still are the little guy, and you need to do MUCH BETTER than your competition if you want people to take the risk and go with the underdog!
Update (5/17/2006): After lots of vocal clamoring over on the forum, DSLX has conceeded and reduced the price of static IP service to $49.99/month. I must admit I was not expecting them to actually implement my pricing suggestion. Back to DSLX I go!
Update (5/15/2006): Smooth move, you've just lost a very vocal supporter of your services. SBC released a new $27.99 Elite DSL package. 6000/768. This is a huge price cut from their former $49.99 package. So it would stand to reason that DSLX customers should also be able to also partake in the good fortune from SBC as they get discounted pricing from them. Right?
DSLX wants to charge static IP customers the SAME PRICE (read: they hoard more money). They also are forcing existing customers to disconnect and re-sign for the deal (SBC/ATT allowed ALL their qualified customers to get on at the new price).
But the biggest, fattest slap in the face is DSLX giving San Antonio area customers "free" static IPs, after we had been clamoring for good static pricing. Talk about rubbng your nose in the fact that they can charge whatever they feel like for statics.
Your "value" just went from best to worst. I'm off to Comcast for now and probably SBC from there.
Update(4/7/2006): It seems DSLX is still listening to their clients. The DNS poisoning has been removed, so I have "removed" the services penalty from their score. Thanks for listening and putting this to bed quickly, DSLExtreme.
Update(4/5/2006): The DSLX crew assured us IKANO didn't want to mess up a winning formula. But it seems awfully coincidental that just a few days after the announcement, we end up with a real TURD of a new feature.
Mistype a URL, and DSLX hands your browser off to to an ad-laden, non-dslextreme-hosted page with helpful "suggestions". It seems Verisign tried this a while back and got a bunch of flack for it, so guess what DSLExtreme, so will you. You're getting a fat zero for services, and no more referrals from me until you re-think this disaster of an idea.
Update (11/18/2005): Sheesh, MORE static IPS! Up to eight on the 6000/608 package! DSLExtreme now offers an awesome ISP-side configurable firewall service as well. This just keeps getting better. My connectivity has been utterly flawless over the last year It just always works, and always goes full speed ahead. At this point I can get more speed for a similar price from Comcast, but I won't give up this absolutely stellar reliability and static IPs for just a bit more speed.
Update (3/28/2005): Everything's still great, good service improvements
Although it does not affect my static IP service, I am happy to see DSLX moving away from PPPoE and towards a DHCP based dynamic IP system. It's less headaches and more reliability for their customers. Once it's out of beta, it's another great reason to go with DSLX instead of the local phone company.
I've taken advantage of their referral program a few times now, and they've always credited my account very promptly. This benefit to being a DSLX customer is often overlooked; the savings really add up, especially if you're a technical go-to guy.
I've been taking more advantage of their included newsgroup service too. While 64KB/sec downloads are not particularly fast, the fact that it's unlimited service means you can really download quite a large amount of data over the course of a month. Far more than the 2GB of service included with Comcast.
Update (8/5/2004): Even more static IPs, bigger email boxes
Up to 5 statics now. Pretty nice to see my bang for buck keep going up. SBC did have one RT outage that lasted about a day, but I can deal with one outage in over two years. It seems the 6000/608 deal that I'm on is back, I can't recommend it enough to people who want static IP service.
Update (3/17/2004): The deal gets better still?
They've added in two more static IPs for free. That would have cost $16/month more under the old pricing structure. They've even dropped the extra IP charge down to $2. There's now a rather nice web tool to manage adding and removing IPs from the account. This all means I can undo some of the ugly double-nat stuff I have going. This is a very nice touch, it's much appreciated!
Update (2/5/2004): What do you mean I can have my cake and eat it too?!?
So here I'm all ready to get frugal and go cable. The cancelation order was placed. And, I was sad to leave what I considered to be an ideal connection, but the price was just too high, and at the cheaper prices, the speeds too slow. Then the unthinkable deal: The top of the line speed, the static IP, for just $59/month - indefinitely. $70 less, for significantly more speed, all from the very same company. With no cable contract, it's back to DSL for me!
I'm getting speed tests of around 5100/517, simply awesome!
I have to give credit where it's due, thanks go to SBC for adding a significant boost in upload, then offering this astonishing deal on top teir circuits. And thanks in advance to DSLExtreme for the excellent quality connection and static IP service that I'm sure will continue to please.
Prior reviews...
11 month update:
This is a top notch ISP. I have had no problems to speak of over the last year. Connectivity was always perfect, even during the major viruses that slammed so many ISPs. I'm giving them a little more on the value, since SBC's recent changes to their tiers are giving DSLExtreme customers better bang for their buck. Their support is always around here and paying attention.
I would highly recommend DSLExtreme to anyone in the SoCal area!
Unfortunately due to financial concerns I had to scale back my beautiful 4000/384 circuit to 1500/128 a few months ago. And, I miss the speed.
Comcast is increasing their speeds to what's almost identical to my old DSLExtreme circuit on the downstream, at the price of only $19.95/month for 6 months. I can't resist to try and save some money at the same time.
When my financial situation resolves, and the Comcast promo is up (or poor connectivity sends me screaming back into DSLExtreme's arms, which is how I ended up here in the first place), I won't hesitate to consider switching back to DSLExtreme.
Prior review:
I had waffled for quite a while trying to decide what to do after the demise of DirecTV DSL. I really need GOOD connectivity since I use it for work. The AT&T Broadband cablemodem was not cutting it, we had four outages in 4 weeks, but I dearly loved those 1800/300 speeds I was getting.
I've spent more money on far more frivolous things. So, I posed a question to DSLExtreme's forum, and George called me within minutes. Nice guy, that kind of pro-active service won me over. I signed up on a Wednesday night for their 4000/384 package. I already know from another install on a Verizon 768/768 circuit how reliable the DSLExtreme network is. This way I get both the speed AND the reliability I need, it just hurts the wallet some.
My modem didn't arrive until Tuesday (they shipped it on Friday but UPS took their sweet time to move the package 20 miles). PacBell had already accomplished their task by that weekend, as could be seen by my old DirecTV DSL gateway synching at the marvelous 4000/412 synch rate. So things were really ready to go even faster than one week.
So I finally got my modem, but something was amiss. It looked like I'd have to see just how good their support really was. My speeds were choppy, varying wildly between 1700-2800kbps. I'll come clean: I knew this was a possibility. There's a long thread about RT speed issues over in the Pac Bell forum, and my DirecTV DSL exhibited all those symptoms. I had hoped the issue wouldn't follow me, but it did. JKC120 and Omsoft were unable to get his very similar issues resolved after tireless work with Omsoft, so I thought I was doomed.
Dslx_neteng was able to adjust their router and now I have beautiful speeds of 400KB/sec on downloads, with speed tests on this site hitting the 3300/340 mark . Downloads are now smooth and consistent. I'm finally going to enjoy DSL the way it's supposed to work.
The bottom line: DSLExtreme has been EXCEPTIONALLY responsive to my concerns and questions. Way above and beyond my expectations. They could very easily have brushed me off by saying that my speeds are within the advertised ranges, but they chose to work with me and ensure that I was getting what I was paying for. I highly, highly recommend them if you're in the SoCal area.
-- Rob
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