I'd like to throw out this one, normally I wouldn't, but they've been a 
great company with excellent service.  I first signed up with them 
11-2002.  They were the only company I could find with a dsl service 
(iDSL) that would reach me.  The install wasn't the greatest, but that 
was mostly due to them using the local phone company (Qwest) to do most 
of the install.  Words cannot describe how bad Qwest screwed up.  They 
were constantly late in reporting back to Speakeasy, they hooked up the 
loopback box to the ceiling with tape (it fell down on my wifes head 
that same night), they were a total nightmare.  Speakeasy made up for it 
though, they chewed Qwest out and had another tech out the very next day.

Service wise, they were excellent.  If they were doing work on their 
hardware that would affect the service in my area, they would send an 
email with the date, time, and estimated length of the outage two days 
ahead to let you know.  I've never even even heard of an ISP doing that 
before.  I mentioned that I was going to connect with Mandrake Linux to 
their service, and they said it was ok, and even offered support for 
setting up the static ip, kmail, evolution, and my browsers for 
accessing the web.  They allowed services through, though they blocked 
POP and SMTP.

Their rates seemed a little high, but most iDSLs are.  If I was in 
range, they offer a 1.5/256 for $50, and others up to a 3.0/768 for 
$140.  Each level of dsl service comes in 3 packages, the Classic pack 
for people who just want it to work, the Gamers pack has fewer hops to 
major gaming servers and priority routing, and a Sysadmin package that 
has a RPMFind mirror, and shell account.  My iDSL was set with the 
Sysadmin pack.  They are also coming out with a service that allows you 
to resell your connection to your neighbors with WiFi, and they will 
handle the billing for you.

Overall, their service is great.  Due to the high cost of the iDSL, I'm 
canceling and moving to Comcast cable.  If anything ever changes so that 
they offer a comparable service to my area again, I would switch in a 
heartbeat.  I wouldn't recommend them for the average Joe, but they are 
a great fit for the net-savvy Linux user, or someone looking to do some 
webhosting/connection sharing with some friends.

Chris Frederick



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