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OneAfter909 Review by OneAfter909
UPDATED: 8 days ago
member for 5.3 years, 34 visits, last login: 1 days ago
 Canon City,Fremont,CO
 Contract price not specified.
 "Local office has convenient street parking"
 "Subpar Internet Service Provider"
 "Gaming? Streaming? If these things are important to you - look elsewhere"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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I've had Bresnan for 5 years now and can honestly say they do not offer the same level of internet performance that can be found elsewhere. I have the speed plus service, mainly for gaming, and do get anything close to what they claim in their last advertisement as "insanely fast speed" most evenings. In fact, the only thing insane is their claim. Customer service while friendly is either in the dark or trying to keep me in the dark about the realities of their network problems at this time.
I'm in Colorado but based on the reviews and forum threads here it seems to be a common problem for Bresnan's subscribers in other areas. I'm currently considering going with another provider.
Followup comments: Forums »
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edesignway Review by edesignway
UPDATED: 14 days ago
member for 6.5 years, 123 visits, last login: 3 days ago
Cheyenne,Laramie,WY
$36 per month
 about 14 days
"I'll get back to you on that."
"Service is hit or miss, speeds are not close to advertised."
"Cross your fingers."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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I just purchased a new house and now living at my fifth service address I have had with Bresnan. Service still continues to suck. My lego TV is worse and I am lucky to see internet speeds above 2.5Mbps at any time of the day.
On my speed tests (using Bresnan’s servers) I can max out the connection to their Cheyenne and Casper, WY test servers. Their other three speed test servers I average 2.32Mbs on the test, which is about the same speed I see on the open internet. I have contacted Bresnan Technical Support several times and I usually receive one of three canned responses:
--
Bresnan: Their might be something wrong with your wiring.
Me: My wiring in the house is completely new and terminated by your technicians.
Bresnan: We don’t see anything wrong.
Me: Then why do these network tests you had me run contradict what you are stating.
Bresnan: There is an issue in our network and we are working on it.
Me: When will this be corrected?
Bresnan: We are working on it and no ETA.
--
I have a couple cabinets in colocation in the Downtown Qwest building. When on Bresnan’s network I see insanely high response times and packet loss connecting to my equipment. I receive this same complaint from many of my clients across the state. I do not receive these complaints from users using other ISPs in the state.
I have had enough. The only way to have this corrected is to start contacting your state’s Attorney General. Let them know you are sick and tired of poor service and lame excuses.
Followup comments:  
wmjohn3
@iauq.com | No phone needed You don't need phone service with Qwest to get DSL, they sell DSL on a stand alone basis. | |
|
steve_in_jackson
@bresnan.net
| Exact same thing is happening to me! I signed up for the 8mbps package (around $60), and have never had more than 1.2mbps. The tech came out and tried to convince me I was getting around 7mbps to Casper. I convinced him otherwise, even showed him my test results from 4 independent bandwidth testers, but there was nothing he could do.
Then I get a call from Bresnan a week later asking me to rate my service. I told them in a friendly way that their internet service sucked and I was getting nowhere near what they advertise and that their new internet phone service is the reason why the bandwidth is so low. She quickly got me off the phone.
Then I get another "service call" message on my cell phone asking how my speed issues are. Pa-lease! They still suck, and they know they still suck.
I'm going to look into Qwest DSL and see how bad they are. At least it's only 39.99 for 7mbps, instead of 59.99 for 1mbps. | |
|
CIDR
@bresnan.net
| Speed Tests Once you get off Bresnan's network your packets are at the will of the other networks. Running a speed test to a speed test server not on Bresnan's network is pointless.
bresnan.com/speedtest are the only authorized speed test servers on Bresnan's network. | |
|  | | | | 
cablegeek01
join:2003-05-13
Canon City, CO
| Re: Speed Tests They have to be on the Bresnan network. Bresnan can't guaranty speeds on an upstream providers network (ie MCI/L3/ATT). Speed tests from your ISP only guarantee your network speed to the edge of their network (charter and comcast etc do the same thing). Speakeasy.net is a good place to test from for an actual internet speed test.
The slow speeds are due to a capacity issue. Bresnan ordered additional trunks from Qwest, but they are still being installed.
If anyone in the Riverton/Lander area is experiencing speed issues, this is most likely the cause.
We hope to have the new trunks up and running in the next few weeks.
Feel free to email me (in profile), and I can respond to you from my official Bresnan email address with status updates.
I'm sorry tech support wasn't able to correctly understand/explain the issue, but sometimes they don't get the correct info.
Cheers,
Ryan
-Bresnan Engineer | |
| | | | | | | | |
cablegeek01
join:2003-05-13
Canon City, CO | Re: Speed Tests Sounds good. Shoot me an email, and I'll try and upgrade you to our 15Mb x 1Mb package for some testing once we get the circuits upgraded. | |
| | | 
edesignway
Premium
join:2003-05-03
Cheyenne, WY
clubs:  | Re: Bresnan = true bi-polar ISP They tried... I have receipts and used a modem that they don't offer customers. However it took over four phone calls to have them cancel my internet service. | |
| | 
yuutomo
The Wonder Kitter
Premium
join:2001-08-27
Missoula, MT
 ·Bresnan Online
1 edit | you got lucky, I got mine at yard sales, so I have no receipts. I asked them to show a physical inventory list showing my modems, and all they did was send a screen capture of a program where someone had input them into their database, I've tried everything, and they stonewall, bullshit, and lie, to the point that noone can do anything. | |
| mt_deb
join:2008-03-26
Great Falls, MT
| I have had it with Bresnan I KNEW my internet had gotten slower ( now I know thanks to you all and this topic) I called this morning and the tech said it looked fine to him ( yah right ) We have every blasted channel known to man on our cable so you would think we would be considered good customers and that they would try to help a little bit with the internet part. Nope, they don't care. I'm calling Qwest tomorrow simply because it's the point of it. I guess I am just a little tired of these companies with monopolies holding us by the ( yah, you know ) That's one reason I don't even use Windows anymore. I'm a Linux geek. But I digress. I am only getting DSL speeds now and barely that so I may as well pay Qwest instead and see how they are. | |
| |
edesignway
Premium
join:2003-05-03
Cheyenne, WY
clubs: | Re: I have had it with Bresnan Ryan, how are these so called updates going... haven't seen any improvement! | |
| | | |
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Barbarus A Review by Barbarus A
UPDATED: 16 days ago
member for 34 days, 2 visits, last login: 16 days ago
Missoula,Missoula,MT
$60 per month
"They have a nice looking website"
"Their service performance is hideously, freakishly unreliable."
"Bresnen Communications does not appear to be operating in good faith. I actually miss Comcast."
| Pre Sales information:
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Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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**update** The below issue appears to be resolved, but I'll leave this as record of our disgust as paying customers. Also, actual through speeds are still pathetic; I just ran a speedtest [not theirs lol] Spokane: 0.78 Mbps, San Jose, CA: 0.61 Mbps, Helena: 0.71 Mbps. So this may be outside their network, but it's outside in every direction lol. This is at 9:47 am on a Saturday morning. Also, I can't say this as fact, but behavior gives me the feeling that something somewhere is actually capped at below 1 Mbps at the moment. Please see below for some details on how this company performs its services.
I have a $60 a month Bresnan broadband link which worked fine for a while; speeds were the best in the area and ping was usually low and stable. Welcome to October 2009; network instability is ridiculous - tonight my average ping to Seattle / Idaho / any server I can find is around 422 ms. Not too long ago, I was getting nearly 100% packet loss for almost an hour. This seems to happen during evenings and weekends, i.e. due to user load. This has been ongoing for weeks now, probably a lot longer depending on your area. So, this is fabulously wonderful for my gaming community connections / hobbies.
Previously they had been sticking with the deflector script of "it's outside our network". It is their network that is the problem; there are tracerts that confirm in these very reviews and I can run... actually I'll do that now:
Tracing route to www.yahoo.com [209.131.36.158]
over a maximum of 5 hops:
1 9 ms 8 ms 10 ms host-10-24-128-1.msl-mt.client.bresnan.net [10.2
4.128.1]
2 8 ms 8 ms 8 ms host-72-175-110-32.bln-mt.client.bresnan.net [72
.175.110.32]
3 32 ms 10 ms 9 ms host-72-175-110-5.bln-mt.client.bresnan.net [72.
175.110.5]
4 406 ms 417 ms 428 ms host-72-175-110-10.bln-mt.client.bresnan.net [72
.175.110.10]
5 431 ms 426 ms 414 ms 66.62.136.49
Trace complete
Behold the power of cable. Also, if you use their "speedtest" tool it invariably returns near advertised speeds for your connection. Any other speedtest returns an order of magnitude lower [see below]; this has to be some kind of litigation-worthy practice.
I remember when I moved here to Missoula, MT, I was glad there was such a reputable and well run cable broadband provider in the area. Now, I'd like to see the government build FIOS directly into this city and thereby annihilate even the memory of Bresnan Communications. If you are actually considering paying these people cable internet price points, you might want to explore any other option available. DSL, while hideously maligned, is cheaper for one and cannot possibly be less stable or more poorly accounted for than this company's current service. At the least, ask them specifically about their service issues during your initial conversation. See how they reply...
Seattle:
»www.pingtest.net report: »www.pingtest.net/result/1365315.png
»www.speedtest.net report: »www.speedtest.net/result/597202704.png
Spokane:
»www.speedtest.net report: »www.speedtest.net/result/597191737.png
Denver:
»www.pingtest.net report: »www.pingtest.net/result/1366492.png
»www.speedtest.net report: »www.speedtest.net/result/597198681.png
P.S. Keep in mind that Bresnan's speedtest tool is indicating 8349 kbps to Grand Junction, CO during these independent tests. [»www.bresnan.com/support/data/speedtest/]. I think its obvious what this says about their corporate ethics.
P.S.S. Also, if your interested in technical aspects of their evil; »Massive Slowdowns? Certainly this could be construed as unfair business practices. For those who would rather not read through everything, the graph about halfway down is pretty damning. It basically shows how this users latency massively dropped off when he tricked his modem into thinking he was a business customer with a "preferred" ip address. The point at which this happens is marked "lol", lol.
Followup comments: Cowmancents
join:2009-10-23
| Bresnan Internet quality is declining badly, I agree I agree in most part to all the recent comments posted in this forum. I have been a bresnan residential cable modem customer for several years, and have seen a significant decrease in quality of service in 2009. Latency, available bandwidth, and even Internet access itself has been up and down regularly, almost becoming a daily discovery as to what I can and cannot do on the Internet that day. If you can believe this, of the number of times I have called in for help to correct problem internet connectivity, one time a tech actually told me that a coax cable connector inside my house was responsible for taking down the service of several hundred of its customers! How's that for trying to pass the buck eh? Of course, the next day the problem resumed, even after he supplied me with a "magical" new coax connector...
I also whole-heartedly agree that the lack of availability of competition in some of Bresnan's service areas most likely contributes significantly to the quality issues. I think it unlikely that until a viable competitor becomes available that they will have much motivation to do anything about this. Qwest? Not likely...in my location inside the city of Grand Junction city limits I only qualify for 768Kbps DSL...and if you've ever lived with a Qwest contract you know that isn't a very attractive choice either.
So, here we are...stuck on the west slope of Colorado with little options, a problematic at best ISP "monopoly", and no other providers appearing to want to step up to the plate and give them a run for their money. Here's to hoping that someone with a good investor comes along...because as it stands I have little hope that this situation will improve in the near future.  | |
|
MontanaMan
| We need so help here I agree with the 2 post about Bresnan. I wish they would just tell us that you are just getting dial up, But your paying for high speed internet.I'm also in the internet gaming community and my ping is very imported to me. Some of my other friends here in Montana are now looking other provider in are area, as well as myself. Like Bresnan say it personal | |
| |
StrryEys23
| Re: We need so help here I am so fed up with Bresnan's service. I call constantly to tell them that my ping is in the 600's, and every response that I get is "It is in our network". Well that has been about a month ago, and still not fixed. I am honestly thinking of taking my money elsewhere. I have talked to an agent, and talked with online tech support and get the same answer every time. "It is in our network, and there is not ETA on when it will be fixed". I just pray that they "fix" the problem before everyone realizes what is going on and leaves. | |
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Omega Review by Omega
UPDATED: 24 days ago
member for 7.3 years, 3758 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Cheyenne,Laramie,WY
$104 per month
about 21 days
"Customer Service is nice"
"Latency, slow speeds"
"They pretty much have a monopoly out here, it's too bad Qwest has slow speeds"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
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Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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When I came out here, I was looking forward to getting Bresnan. 8mbit in Cheyenne, WY which is in the middle of nowhere sounded too good to be true. Service was great from April 2009 to September 2009. Then Something happened, I don't know what.
Now (Oct 09) during peak hours my pings skyrocket. Gaming is nearly impossible as my ping goes from 350-600ms. My download speed is also slow. I don't know if my node is oversold or if it is the network itself, either way its annoying.
Installation was okay. The customer service people were very nice, but they were so overbooked/underemployed that I had to schedule 3 weeks out.
If these connection issues keep up, I will seriously consider moving to Qwest. Even though they only offer speeds of 3mbit, if they have a lower ping, it may be worth it.
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Rye Review by Rye
UPDATED: 27 days ago
member for 34 days, 7 visits, last login: 3 days ago
Missoula,Missoula,MT
$59 per month (month by month)
about 21 days
"Their print ads are very nice."
"Horrible latency, tech support that either lies or is just pig-ignorant."
"I would leave them in a second if they had competition in my area!"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
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Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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They've been going downhill FAST over the past year. Every single evening for about 6 hours (during peak time) their network latency is so high that it's difficult to use the net for much besides email. I am now seeing 400-600ms latency to anywhere outside their network during this time. Of course, tech support says it's my issue, but the traceroutes and pings don't lie. If they had competition in my area I would leave them in a second. Supposedly 7Mbps Qwest DSL is coming my way soon.
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jrlittlejr Review by jrlittlejr
Posted: 32 days ago
member for 8.9 years, 113 visits, last login: 2 days ago
Wilson,Teton,WY
$99 per month
about 4 days
"Telephone works."
"Speed and ping times SUCK during peak use"
"If I had another alternative, I would use it..."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
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Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
I've been a Bresnan Internet/Cable/Phone customer for about 6 months. Prior to that, I had Bresnan internet only for 6 months.
I'm paying for "speed plus" 15kbps down/1.5 kbps up, plus phone and cable.
During off-hours, my speeds are OK. But during 5pm-1am hours, speed is TERRIBLE. I routinely get ping times >400 ms, high packet loss, and max speeds of 1-2 kbps down during peak hours. Streaming video is unusable. Websites load slowly, if at all. During peak hours, the service is often unusable.
Bresnan insists that you only test speed to their servers, which is complete BS. I'm not paying for my connection to their servers, I'm paying for INTERNET service. I realize they have no control over the speeds of services on the net... but the problem is right at the point where Bresnan connects to the net. So they need to fix this, or work with their Tier 2 provider to fix it. But blaming it on the "net" doesn't cut it.
This problem has existed for at least the last 2 months. Bresnan keeps pointing fingers at 360.net (their Tier 2 provider)... but bottom line is it doesn't matter who is to blame, they are not delivering on their promised service. Bresnan needs to fix this.
I would change to another service... but sadly they are my only reasonable option. I'm too far out for decent DSL.
Followup comments: 
Simba7
join:2003-03-24
Billings, MT | Hmm.. kbps? I think you're meaning mbps.
Could you post a traceroute from your end to google? | |
| | jrlittlejr
join:2000-12-15
Wilson, WY
·Bresnan Online
| Re: Hmm.. I've posted some ping tracings in the Bresnan forum. Here is a sample traceroute:
traceroute to google.com (74.125.45.100), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets
1 10.0.1.1 (10.0.1.1) 0.653 ms 0.260 ms 0.222 ms
2 host-10-253-36-1.jcs-wy.client.bresnan.net (10.253.36.1) 18.858 ms 10.245 ms 8.521 ms
3 jcswy001hb6-ge-0-0-0-u209.int.bresnan.net (69.144.94.213) 17.162 ms 9.613 ms 14.504 ms
4 * blnmtfh1hb7-so-0-3-1-u0.int.bresnan.net (69.145.247.25) 64.005 ms 54.949 ms
5 host-72-175-110-54.bln-mt.client.bresnan.net (72.175.110.54) 39.321 ms 34.010 ms 38.879 ms
6 host-72-175-110-45.bln-mt.client.bresnan.net (72.175.110.45) 39.709 ms 50.704 ms 33.509 ms
7 66.62.160.25 (66.62.160.25) 271.034 ms 287.342 ms 263.873 ms
8 den1-core-02.360.net (66.62.6.66) 391.211 ms 364.632 ms 382.846 ms
9 lax1-core-01.360.net (66.62.3.41) 312.061 ms 305.602 ms 308.683 ms
10 66.62.6.195 (66.62.6.195) 320.498 ms 342.372 ms 324.528 ms
11 core1-0-1-0.lax.net.google.com (198.32.146.46) 104.777 ms 105.224 ms 98.081 ms
12 216.239.43.12 (216.239.43.12) 98.312 ms 127.080 ms *
13 216.239.43.125 (216.239.43.125) 156.108 ms 149.767 ms 152.215 ms
14 72.14.232.213 (72.14.232.213) 165.078 ms 142.250 ms 146.744 ms
15 209.85.253.133 (209.85.253.133) 143.708 ms
209.85.253.137 (209.85.253.137) 163.594 ms
209.85.253.141 (209.85.253.141) 156.063 ms
16 yx-in-f100.1e100.net (74.125.45.100) 149.432 ms 149.393 ms 169.166 ms
traceroute to cnn.com (157.166.224.25), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets
1 10.0.1.1 (10.0.1.1) 30.446 ms 2.517 ms 3.356 ms
2 host-10-253-36-1.jcs-wy.client.bresnan.net (10.253.36.1) 13.072 ms 12.872 ms 10.105 ms
3 jcswy001hb6-ge-0-0-0-u209.int.bresnan.net (69.144.94.213) 12.104 ms 12.513 ms 19.602 ms
4 blnmtfh1hb7-so-0-3-1-u0.int.bresnan.net (69.145.247.25) 48.590 ms 40.639 ms 66.462 ms
5 host-72-175-110-54.bln-mt.client.bresnan.net (72.175.110.54) 41.355 ms 62.328 ms 47.498 ms
6 host-72-175-110-45.bln-mt.client.bresnan.net (72.175.110.45) 36.945 ms 57.050 ms 41.491 ms
7 66.62.160.25 (66.62.160.25) 250.259 ms 265.605 ms 277.969 ms
8 ge-6-16.car2.denver1.level3.net (4.53.2.25) 255.002 ms 252.869 ms 249.782 ms
9 ae-32-56.ebr2.denver1.level3.net (4.68.107.190) 273.621 ms 262.094 ms 281.004 ms
10 ae-1-100.ebr1.denver1.level3.net (4.69.132.37) 271.004 ms 263.441 ms 271.137 ms
11 ae-2.ebr2.dallas1.level3.net (4.69.132.106) 285.746 ms 276.816 ms 300.716 ms
12 ae-83-88.ebr3.dallas1.level3.net (4.69.146.84) 274.066 ms 280.984 ms 309.857 ms
13 ae-7.ebr3.atlanta2.level3.net (4.69.134.22) 304.693 ms 315.988 ms 331.725 ms
14 ae-2-52.edge4.atlanta2.level3.net (4.68.103.46) 310.858 ms 299.645 ms 298.740 ms | |
| |
Simba7
join:2003-03-24
Billings, MT
| Looks like a 360 issue.
dragon ~ # whois 66.62.160.25
OrgName: 360Networks (USA) Inc.
OrgID: 360NE-1
Address: 2401 4th Avenue
Address: 11th Floor
City: Seattle
StateProv: WA
PostalCode: 98121
Country: US
NetRange: 66.62.0.0 - 66.62.255.255
CIDR: 66.62.0.0/16
NetName: 360NETWORKS-BLK-1
NetHandle: NET-66-62-0-0-1
Parent: NET-66-0-0-0-0
NetType: Direct Allocation
NameServer: TAISP1.IN-TCH.COM
NameServer: TAISP2.IN-TCH.COM
Comment: ADDRESSES WITHIN THIS BLOCK ARE NON-PORTABLE
RegDate: 2001-01-03
Updated: 2004-08-05
OrgTechHandle: 360NE1-ARIN
OrgTechName: 360Networks Technical
OrgTechPhone: +1-877-993-4237
OrgTechEmail: network.operations@360.net
# ARIN WHOIS database, last updated 2009-10-22 20:00
# Enter ? for additional hints on searching ARIN's WHOIS database.
--
Bresnan 15M/1M|MyWS[P4HT@4.01GHz,2GB RAM,2x1TB HDDs,Win7]|WifeWS[P4@2.4GHz,1GB RAM,60GB HDD,Win7]|Router[2xP3@1GHz,640MB RAM,18GB HDD,Allied Telesyn AT-2560FX,Kingston KNE100TX,2xDigital DE504,Compaq NC3131,iPro/1000DP,Blitz BWI715,Gentoo Linux] | |
| | |
Jarsyl
@bresnan.net
| Re: Hmm.. Its funny how people always point to a middle man, and yes that does look like it is from 360. On the other hand I have had problems like this for the entire 4 months I have lived in Montana and had Bresnan. I was actually running quest DLS side by side with it, and it never once had these problems. If they are having problems with backbone providers that quest isn't, maybe they need to grow some balls and get the shit fixed? The ONLY reason I didn't drop bresnan and switch to quest is that the wiring in my house is subpar and shorts out when it is raining. While quest "could" choose to fix it to get a customer not wanting to redo telephone wires in a crappy house is acceptable. Saying that your internet access sucks, but it isn't your fault because the backbone companies are just mean and screwing over lil' ol defenseless bresnan is bullshit. If it was a problem with anyone outside of bresnan they would have started filing lawsuits within a month or two of the problem starting. | |
| | | |
WY CLEC
@CERENTO.COM
| Re: Hmm.. It's not a 360Networks problem; it's the Bresnan router to 360Networks. The ping results show this AND when really, really, really pushed...they will admit they are still having massive router problems in their core sites (Casper and Billings). Oh...they have 4 middle mile routes that are at 100% capacity too.  | |
| | | |
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Tino Review by Tino
UPDATED: 36 days ago
member for 36 days, 45 visits, last login: 1 days ago
Great Falls,Cascade,MT
Contract price not specified.
"...."
"Slow internet, support is far from helpful"
"They deny any issues because they can as they are the only cable provider"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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The cable internet through bresnan is SLOW.
In network of course you get advertised speeds, though that doesn't help you when 99.99999% of the web sites and servers you connect to are outside of their network. I personally know of more than 5 people who have called to complain about the same issues, though when you call they play the "dumb" game and pretend there is no issue.
They are more than aware of the slow internet issue though because of their monopoly on the cable in this region they do not have to fix it. Their advertised 8 or 16 mbps speeds don't matter. You will get the same speed during peak hours no matter which plan you have. Which will be sitting around 1.5 mbps download AT MOST. Go with DSL and hope they do not share the same backbone as bresnan, as it is my conclusion that it is the connection between bresnan and 360networks that is the issue, and I have notified both companies of this and both defer responsibility.
The cheap 1.5mbps DSL connections WILL be faster than the advertised 8-16mbps connections thruogh bresnan. You will have higher pings and much less packetloss resulting in a more stable surfing or gaming experience Do your own speedtests and you will see this is the truth.
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little_mak Review by little_mak
UPDATED: 41 days ago
member for 41 days, 0 visits, last login: 41 days ago
Bozeman,Gallatin,MT
Contract price not specified.
"They have a 1800 number to call for free"
"high pings, constant interruptions in service, slow upload, download under what you pay for"
"Get DSL, Bresnan Online is terrible. I got rid of mine."
| Pre Sales information:
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(ratings match consensus)
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Pings from servers within the same town return values between 200-400 ms. I've seen as high as 600ms. Download speed they claim is 8 Mbps, falls well below that during normal hours. Constantly stalling out, then have to reset the modem (sometimes 5 or more times). If you want to have a reliable internet connection or gaming, don't get bresnan online.
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nate2073 Review by nate2073
UPDATED: 62 days ago
member for 2.2 years, 303 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Helena,Lewis And Clark,MT
$67 per month
about 7 days
"There is a connection somewhat Helena, MT."
"Very poor at informing about outages. DNS speed. Slow with high latency."
"Slow speed and high latency on both upload and download"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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EDIT: September 22, 2009
What the heck happened to you Bresnan? You used to be so good. In the last 2 months it has been one slowdown and outage after another. In the last week there has been a massive slowdown in speed and big increase in latency. In the last several months I have been running a web server and DNS server and the Transmission-Daemon client/server without problem. And then in the last week it went to hell. I emailed tech support tonight and they relied already with an accusatory tone by saying and I quote "From the trace you sent, and the fact that ping times to your modem are in excess of 500ms, it leads us to believe you're passing some heavy traffic from your connection. Please let us know if you have any peer-to-peer applications or servers running, as that can lead to high usage of bandwidth, which would slow the rest of your connection down significantly." I emailed them back by saying yes I run servers but what does that have to do with anything. I think this just means that Bresnan has screwed up their network or they reduced my upload or they oversold the local node excessively.
EDIT: August 18, 2009
This morning my Internet stopped working. I called Bresnan and they were out at my place in about 10 minutes. The guy did a real good job of fixing my service. Turns out the outside box had a loose fitting. I'm real impressed with how quick they got here and fixed it. This was my first service call due to misbehaving equipment and not due to ISP wide outage.
EDIT: August 14, 2009
Starting around the afternoon of August 13, 2009, Bresnan had a multi state internet outage that lasted at least through today August 14, 2009. Bresnan did a horrible job at informing their customers about the internet outage. This morning they only had a small banner at the bottom of their site at bresnan.com saying "we are experiencing a network outage" that's it, that all it said. No ETA, no notice of anything. Bresnan needs to do a much better job at communicating current network status to their customers. I would suggest to Bresnan to create a dedicated network status page and to setup multiple ways of communicating to customers, perhaps like Twitter or a continuously running banner across the bottom of the TV. I am marking down Bresnan quite a bit for their crappy customer service concerning the outage.
Edit:March 25, 2009: Bresnan DNS speed seems crappy. I don't know if I'm spoiled or not but when it comes to DNS speed I have very high expectations. I no longer use the Bresnan DNS servers. Instead I setup my own DNS server using Debian Lenny and Bind9. Now my DNS is great. My Bind9 setup bypasses the Bresnan servers entirely. Other than DNS, I am very satisfied with Bresnan upload/download. The only other issue is a minor annoyance with the lack of IPv6. Also the speed boost cost here in Helena, MT is around $65.
I got the 6 months special for 39.95 then after it's 49.95 or 59.95, I can't remember. There are no caps that I'm aware of and it works great with Bittorrent.
I have been enjoying my service for quite some time now. Part way through my 6 month contract I upgraded to the speed plus plan and this boosted my speeds from 384Kb up to 1Mb up and 8Mb down to 15Mb down. The Bresnan network has been very reliable. The only thing I care about now is my insatiable need for upload speed because of bittorrent. I updated the monthly cost to reflect what I am now paying. I also decreased the radio button for "Value for money" by one to reflect the higher price, I would have left it up one if the price was say $55.
Followup comments:
Mike601
| Speeds in the evening annoyingly slow All I can say is that in the evening from say 6 pm to 11 pm speeds go way down - I did a speed test last night and it was under 1 meg on d/l and .3 on u/l MUCH less than it was even a month or two ago. The outages yeah ok but there have only been a few of them (but more in the past few months). But the annoying part is Bresnan won't give us a credit on our bills. I'm paying over 100 a month for the combo cable internet/tv extended basic...seems high!!!!
Also when I do the speed test the recommended server is in Wichita Kansas and I am in Montana...that's very far!!!! | |
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Internetjunk
| Re: Speeds in the evening annoyingly slow IP whois or speedtest.net is showing me in witchita kansas also eventhough I'm in kalispell. I also noticed tracerts don't connect to the kalispell datacenter anymore. The first hop is always,
1 * * * Request timed out.
and if I try to tracert to kalispell host-10-31-240-1.kls-mt.client.bresnan.net [10.31.240.1] it goes from,
a static ip in butte
host-69-144-26-161.static.bresnan.net
[69.144.26.161]
to missoula
mslmt002hb7-SO-1-2-2-U0.int.bresnan.net
[69.144.26.181]
to wyoming
chywy001hb7-GE-0-0-0-U435.int.bresnan.net
[69.144.26.52]
to 2 different junctions in colorado
durco001hb6-SO-0-2-0-U0.int.bresnan.net
[69.146.190.62]
gdjco001hb7-GE-1-0-0-U48.int.bresnan.net
[69.146.239.49]
back to Grand Junction Colorado
69.146.239.189
to Qwest in new york @ 208.46.186.237
This leads me to believe the networks have a deal to share backbones and have optimized some of Qwests routes at the expense of changing Bresnan customers routes. | |
| jasonwisherd
join:2004-03-21
Missoula, MT
·Bresnan Online
| simmilar issues Recently I too have noticed a slowdown in the evenings. A few weeks ago I fied a complaint, where it was insisted that there were no issues, and the slow connections i was experiencing were off their network, and not their problem. Only after me being persistent and calling back, did the tech check the local area to find there were some issues in the area, and they had been working on it.
This has happened to me twice in the past. | |
| |
jeks
| Re: simmilar issues I too have been noticing terrible latency during the evening hours, with disconnects intermittent as well. This is terrible, expecially with our phone going through them. We lose our phone service 2-3 times a night right now. I've called repeatedly, and the tech comes up during the day (when the connection is fine) and says nothing is wrong, 2-3 hours later (after 5-6pm) it goes to pot again. urgh. | |
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Forums »
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LazyDude Review by LazyDude
Posted: 228 days ago
member for 4.4 years, 4 visits, last login: 228 days ago
Great Falls,Cascade,MT
Contract price not specified.
"Reliable connection"
"They know they are the only real game in town and rates reflect that"
"We need more competition in Great Falls MT"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
As of my last re-up, they don't offer tiered pricing for connection speeds. Internet connection these days is almost a neccessity - and dialup is nearly useless with all the graphics and flashy web content that must be downloaded. So as a evil fact of life Bresnan operates as any monapoly - overpriced on nearly everything. What's a guy to do?
Followup comments: Forums »
|
Review of Bresnan Online
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Bresnan = true bi-polar ISP
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bresnan is worthless
