Jason’s postings and stuff

Never in my life have I been so thoroughly ecstatic with a telecom provider. (Of course the honeymoon is over. Embarq is highly unreliable for DSL. Worse service I have ever had thus far.) Last Wednesday I ordered service completely online using the Embarq Web site. It was straightforward and easy. It was possible to order a bare phone line with no services of any kind except high speed internet (ADSL). I didn’t have to fight the Web site to exclude stupid bundles — or in the case of Verizon or Bellsouth simply give up; none were forced upon me.

The total cost out the door for monthly service for bare ADSL is only around $50, notably cheaper than my Verizon ADSL or my Bellsouth FastAccess DSL from years ago. The upload speed is also the fastest, at 576 kbits/sec as reported by my modem.

Further, although scheduled for Tuesday, Embarq arrived a day early to install service. The installation fee is $50, but is rebated online in a simple fashion. There’s apparently a $10 gift cheque as well for signing up. Of course there’s the usual one-time connect fee, but it was as reasonable as such a charge can be.

It’s extremely rare I have such high praise for any company; especially a utility. If Embarq is an option in your area, I’d check it out. The upload speed is very good, if you’re into that, and the price is quite low. If you don’t need the quota’d, high download speed of Brighthouse then Embarq ought to be just fine. (And they’re offering 25GB of online storage for backups — No clue what that is but it sounds interesting if it’s legit.)

Update, August 1st. It’s useful to note that with Embarq so cheap, it is seriously oversubscribed. I am encountering between 50-90% packet loss on some routes when playing BF2, which makes gaming on Embarq mostly worthless. In fact, Embarq is the worst DSL provider for gaming online I have ever had. Previously, I had Verizon and before that, Bellsouth. I also had RoadRunner/Brighthouse at one point, and it was hands down the best for gaming over any DSL provider I’ve ever had.

I’ve also been unable to signup to Embarq’s Web site for a month now. It fails with a HTTP 100 Continue response, which is really weird. I’ve tried with both Firefox and Opera to no avail. I find that disappointing, since Embarq is a broadband company!

If you want to game online, don’t get Embarq!

Update, August 20th. Embarq is unreliable for connectivity, too. I’ve lost connection twice today, requiring hard power cycles of the modem and continuously trying to get a new DHCP lease. It’s also failed twice like this in the past week besides today. It’s really awful service. Embarq seems to sell Always Off Service ™.

Update, November 12th, 2008. Eventually the connectivity issues were resolved when Embarq replaced some equipment in my area. It took forever. Afterwards, service was fine until I moved. I have Embarq at the office, too, and it’s generally fine. I have experienced some brief periods of extremely high latency lately, but it’s been pretty rare. Embarq still seems to suck for gaming versus BHN, though.