considering switching from AT&T, so checking my situation

[guest - Chuck]

I have finished my 1-yr commitment to AT&T for $14.95/mo 768 kbps DSL service. Going into this, I was under the impression that AT&T provided some file/website space, but apparently they had discontinued that not long before I started my commitment. Largely on account of that filespace issue, I felt that after my one year was up, I would switch to Sonic. I have also worked with a website customer of mine who is on Sonic, and who also has his home DSL service with Sonic, and things have been pretty happy all around. Since I am done with the 1-yr intro, AT&T is now charging me $19.95/mo.

I also have AT&T measured-rate (as opposed to flat-rate) phone service.

So my current DSL + phone service is costing me about $38-39/mo. And I get pissed that AT&T about every six months seems to jack up the phone rates even more.

Sonic's Fusion one-line service looks like a great deal for about the same price. Keep the same phone #, but additionally get long-distance service at no additional cost. My communications speed to/from the computer will also likely go up, maybe to 6-8 Mbps (at least for download). I am in an apt. complex in Larkspur (just south of San Rafael), and Sonic's webpage says I am about 7,070 feet from the local serving office (which I suspect is the AT&T building that I recall seeing many years ago down a side street in downtown Larkspur).

So I want to check the particulars of my situation to see what potential there is for headaches when I move my service to Sonic.

The DSL modem that came with the AT&T package about a year ago is the Westell F90-610025-06 ProLine Single Port Ethernet Modem. I have the Technician Readout in case there are any ?s there. Somewhere I saw that maybe I won't even have to reprogram the modem to point at sonic when the lines are switched from AT&T to Sonic. Just how likely is this to be the case, and if not, how hard is it to reprogram the modem? There are some strings in the readout that have att.net and sbcglobal.net, so...

I am seriously concerned about losing the emails that are going into the AT&T email account during the switchover. I am wondering if I should get my sonic account set up (at least as far as emails go) before initiating the switchover from AT&T service.

I notice a blurb on the Fusion page about the prohibition of using dial-up service to access the internet. Is there really going to be a problem with using dialup for five minutes / week to access the NIST time sync (+ the antivirus DAT file update that invariably jumps into the scene). It's just easier to dial out for that short time rather than dealing with the DSL modem. The only other time I would be using dialup would be if I lost DSL service, as I did for a few hours a few months ago with AT&T.

W2K SP4 - I don't think that will be an issue.

That's all I can think of for now...

[kgc]

I am seriously concerned about losing the emails that are going into the AT&T email account during the switchover. I am wondering if I should get my sonic account set up (at least as far as emails go) before initiating the switchover from AT&T service.

I've heard that AT&T lets customers maintain their AT&T address after cancelling their services. If that is the case, switching over to us shouldn't affect your email service at all. You could configure you client to check both and migrate away from the AT&T address in an orderly fashion.

I notice a blurb on the Fusion page about the prohibition of using dial-up service to access the internet. Is there really going to be a problem with using dialup for five minutes / week to access the NIST time sync (+ the antivirus DAT file update that invariably jumps into the scene). It's just easier to dial out for that short time rather than dealing with the DSL modem. The only other time I would be using dialup would be if I lost DSL service, as I did for a few hours a few months ago with AT&T.

Why use dialup to access an NIST time server when you could sync to our stratum one timeservers directly over your fusion service? (Or any other internet services, including AT&T DSL.) https://wiki.sonic.net/wiki/Network_TIm ... _%28NTP%29

[chris]

You might get 3.5 Mbps given your distance from the local loop. I'm personally very disappointed in the service. $40 is a bargain for 20Mbps service + phone, but not for 3.5Mbps. You could probably do better with someone else.

[dane]

Chuck says he's only at 7,070 feet, so he will likely see 6-12Mbps at that distance. It's a much better deal than the alternatives.

-Dane

[chuck]

Is the modem I have capable of 6-12Mbps? I would expect it to be at least good for 6Mbps, since that was about the top service that AT&T was offering at the time, I recall. Could it do 12Mbps?

Also any thoughts on those modem strings that say att.net and sbcglobal.net in terms of reprogramming the modem, or will it all magically start pointing to sonic? I suppose I could post the technician's readout if that would help.

Thanks,
Chuck

[Chris]

Chuck says he's only at 7,070 feet, so he will likely see 6-12Mbps at that distance. It's a much better deal than the alternatives.

I'm at 7,000 feet and I get the speeds I reference above (3.5 Mbps)

[dane]

Seems real low. I am at 7800ft and get about 7.5Mbps, so this seems low. Contact support for assistance.

[zbarr]

Chuck says he's only at 7,070 feet, so he will likely see 6-12Mbps at that distance. It's a much better deal than the alternatives.

I'm at 7,000 feet and I get the speeds I reference above (3.5 Mbps)

im at 7k too. single line fusion = 6Mbs dwn / 1Mbs up.

call sonic for sure!

[jleake]

Is the modem I have capable of 6-12Mbps? I would expect it to be at least good for 6Mbps, since that was about the top service that AT&T was offering at the time, I recall. Could it do 12Mbps?

This depends on the modem. If the modem supports ADSL2+ (try looking on the label on the bottom or doing a search for the model number and "ADSL2+" and it can be reconfigured into bridge mode or DHCP, it should be possible to use it with our service. A modem that's ADSL only will top out at 8 Mbps max.

[Guest]

I got signed up for the Fusion service, and was switched today (Mon). Have great phone service, but my
DSL service doesn't work. All the modem lights come on green, with the exception of the Internet light, which is either off or red. So I didn't get lucky here and have things work out like one user did. I worked with customer support, a rep named Julianna, who was quite helpful in trying to remotely diagnose this problem. My modem had been set up with PPPoE, and we eventually got it switched to bridged mode. My understanding is that I now have to provide addresses on the computer, and the modem is not really involved with the addressing anymore. Is that more or less the correct idea? That's as far as I got on it before I had to knock off and deal with other stuff.

'Am currently typing this in via my netbook over wifi. It is my desktop that I'm trying to get set up with the DSL.