Switching to EarthLink

March 16, 2004 10:47 AM

ConsumerFilter:

I've just been given a rather attractive economic reason to switch from Roadrunner to Earthlink for cable modem access to the net.

Does anyone have good/bad experience(s) with Earthlink for high speed access?

Do they cap you for or restrict filesharing activities?
Is there USENET server good, bad/so-so?

Any other good/bad things to note about their services offered?
posted by BentPenguin to Computers & Internet (13 answers total)

I signed on with Earthlink High Speed about a month ago. No problems so far.

One thing, though -- Time Warner Cable installed it, and Earthlink seems to be a reseller of TWC's service, at least in my neighborhood (Astoria, Queens, NYC). Not sure how my service differs from Roadrunner...it may essentially be the same thing.
posted by Vidiot at 11:00 AM on March 16, 2004

dslreports.com is the usual place to find ISP reviews.
posted by stonerose at 11:04 AM on March 16, 2004

I've been pretty happy with Earthlink DSL. Their news server does throttle you after 10 gigs of transfer in a 30 day period. I rarely access Usenet, so I don't know about their binary retention status. I haven't had any problems running a Shoutcast stream or using Bittorrent and Directconnect clients.
posted by kickerofelves at 11:04 AM on March 16, 2004

Not a fan of Earthlink DSL. The connection goes down an average of 4 to 5 times a week, usually only for 10 minutes or so, but sometimes for up to an hour.
posted by smich at 11:17 AM on March 16, 2004

I had Earthlink Cable for about a year and a half and it was good. As Vidiot indicates, Earthlink uses TWCs network so if you suffer from the blinking cable light on your RoadRunner service, you'll get the same blinking light from Earthlink. In fact when I switched services I don't even think they changed out the cable modem. The guy wanted to install the E/L software which wasn't necessary. In reality, TWC just needed to point the modem's MAC address to its Earthlink stuff at the office. And of course set up the account/email on the client. There's no need have earthlink's software on your machine unless you want to use the spamblocker/popup blocker.

Regarding Usenet I noticed Earthlink was much slower than RoadRunner. This is probably due to the RR servers being just across the street from my place and so there was no lag the Internet. Earthlink's servers seemed to always have missing binaries, etc so if you do a lot of downloading, you'll need to get an external service.

I enjoyed using Earthlink (i had used mindspring for dialup since 95) and never had a problem with technical support issues, etc.

I switched to sbc dsl motivated purely by its rather attractive economic reasons (earthlink didn't budge to keep me as a customer -- but RR probably will when you call to cancel).
posted by birdherder at 11:28 AM on March 16, 2004

Though I have no experience with Earthlink's high-speed access, their technical support/customer service is abysmal, as documented here.
posted by Danelope at 12:29 PM on March 16, 2004

Earthlink cable = time warner cable, at least in most places.

You literally pay your bills and call Time Warner for support.
posted by rudyfink at 12:42 PM on March 16, 2004

I was about to link to the thread Danelope just pointed to.

Also, if you have any dreams of home networking, Earthlink will make it a living hell for you unless you're willing to pony up another $10 per month. They most definitely did keep an eye on my bandwidth.

Here in Louisville, KY they lease the DSL lines from Covad.
posted by Alylex at 12:56 PM on March 16, 2004

I've had no trouble with Earthlink Cable Internet, and the one support call I had to make was handled quicky and professionally. Also, I have a great home network (wireless, 5 computers) and didn't have to pay $10 extra. Not sure what that's about.
posted by y6y6y6 at 1:13 PM on March 16, 2004

Don't install the spam blocker/pop-up blocker!
It's bloatware and (I can't find the link) spyware. There are free tools out there that will block spam and pop-ups even better.
posted by Coffeemate at 1:55 PM on March 16, 2004

I was an Earthlink Cable customer via Time Warner when I was in NYC. I've had a dial-up account with them since 1995. Yes their support sucks, but every ISP's does. Usenet? Yes, Time Warner was faster, but Earthlink had more newsgroups.

In short: good service at a decent price.
posted by gen at 3:43 PM on March 16, 2004

Also, Earthlink has some strong ties to Scientology, if you care about that sort of thing. I do, and I don't reckon I'd ever use them.
posted by majcher at 4:59 PM on March 16, 2004

y6y6y6, I'm guessing what it's about is that you have Earthlink Cable while I had Earthlink DSL, and somehow it's easier for an isp to be Big Brother on DSL than on cable. Something about MAC addresses and WinPoet? We kept getting death screens with threatening messages about unauthorized use and denial of service.

But BentPenguin is asking about cable, not DSL, so I'll be quiet now.
posted by Alylex at 6:02 PM on March 16, 2004