Thread: Anyone use Earthlink as their ISP ? Opinions please.

Bellsouth/ATT has done some sort of merger with Yahoo and they have made changes to their email server that I don't care for. I am thinking of changing ISPs and Earthlink seems to be the only option in my area.

Anyone have them as their ISP ? If so are you satisfied with the service, tech support etcetera ? I don't want to jump out of the frying pan into the fire.

Jimmy, I used Earthlink when living in a former location. Granted, this was a few years ago and have since gone to cable but the service was on par with many other providers. I did experience some of the usual difficulties that come with ISP, i.e. slow connection during peak hours, unexplained "time outs", etc...

I do however believe they are better than some, AOL for example, that seem to be a junk mail haven. Honestly, the best service I've had outside of Cable is through a local phone company when I was living in Cincinnati, I suppose it was due to the smaller scale.

Hope this helps.

Joe

I used Earthlink for many years without ISP problems, what I had problems with was Verizon DSL service. Then I switched to Cable and different ISP.
Just be aware that, like other services, their support is overseas, with the associated potential problems.

I've had earthlink DSL for many years now. I used to have issues but I think those were local phone problems and they have been resolved. My main complaint is their homepage goes down often as does their web mail service and from time to time my E mail program Outlook Express can't access their server and that usually lasts many hours to a day or so. Also their homepage and web mail page can be very slow.

One important question that nobody seems to be asking; how will you be connecting to the internet?

Everybody seems to be under the assumption that they will be the ISP that your DSL points at. However, earthlink still offers dial-up service.

Until recently, my parents used earthlink for dial-up, and they were very pleased with the service.

I've got the DSL. I guess I am going to surrender and keep what I've got. It would be more trouble than it is worth. Thanks for the replies though.

If your going to go with DSL go with your local phone co if possible. When I had issues and I called earthlink I'd be talking to someone in India who would tell me the network is fine. They will not send someone to New Mexico to find the problem which is a local issue. At least the local phone company is in a position to tech it out and repair it.

I worked there a while back. You prolly made the right choice, they were going downhill on a steep slope when I left. I cant say I'm suprised they outsourced all their support to india. When I started-- right after the merger with Mindspring-- there was an emphasis on always getting things right for the customer, at least where I worked, which was the old mindspring office in Atlanta. This this slowly changed to always getting things right for the bottom line.

They are a reseller, they use phone lines bought/leased from local telcos for their services, which adds another layer of bureaucracy. In the good days this meant you had an advocate trying to get things done for you, later it just meant there was more of a mess. I can't imagine what it means now that the support is in India.