Hot or Not? Winfire DSL

[gogeeta13]

Recently i came across winfire.com. They offer free dsl(144k) for free with a banner. you have to get your own modem or buy theirs(199). Their is a 13 month contract with a $200 cancelation fee. You can upgrade your plans via a $10(no banner) $20(no banner, 384k, $100 off their modem) or $35(no banner full speed and free modem. I can pick up a linksys usb modem for 99 so it seems pretty cool. Does anyone know any other catches with this deal? Is anyone using it, and is it working fine?
Winfire

Pricing Plans

 

[gogeeta13]

Just found that there is a $25 fee if you use your own modem with the fee or plus plans.

 

[freebiesforme]

For everyone's info the speedstream modem isn't the only modem you can use. Winfire themselves sent me the Alcatel Speedtouch Home. Now to clear up any sterotypes people have had:

It'll be a long wait before anything will start happening if you sign up right now.

Winfire 144 basic service for free is not slow at all. Before on my 56k I could only download at 5 kb. With Winfire I can download Three mp3s at the same time each going 20kb. Remember you get 4 channels with them which means you get 144kbps times 4 if you use it right. Before you start dissing Winfire please get your fact straights... sure there has been disconnects and sometimes dsl spikes .. but that happens with almost any provider .. remember if you don't have anything nice to say , don't say anything

Oh and about removing the ad banner - You can but come on people their giving you free dsl!!! isn't that enough for you to click some ads now and than .. ? :Q

 

[khstudios]

I'm currently using winfire... u should've signed up when they were offering free modems... I pay $19.95/month for 144K (same as AOL i think?) BUT their service is soooo damn slow! I signed up on August of 2000 and still have not been able to connect to their service. It took 3 months to confirm that my line was DSL ready, then it took another 2 months to ship the modem, and now they say that they haven't installed my account... they say that'll take 2 more weeks... so i'm still waiting.........

 

[xzifnab]

winfire.com is just freedsl.com. They had a lot of hype when they were starting up but poor service and delays sorta killed it off. At 35/month they aren't much cheaper than other companies so I would pay the little extra for better service. If you want to go for slightly faster transfer speed for free though the 144k deal is ok as long as you can get a cheap dsl modem.

 

[Carnivore99]

Where can you get cheap dsl modems that work with this service?

 

[dcdomain]

In the For Sale/Trade forum, I got a modem for around $85 new. You have to do mad research to make sure you get a modem that is supported and is the right standard. Anyway, I'd love to get the service, but after I signed up and they told me they were installing the line, I went out and got the modem, a month later, they told me it wasn't available in the area. B.S. anyway, probably more Verizon's fault than theirs.

 

[Perplexer]

Check e-Bay. Winfire only supports the Alcatel SpeedStream 3060 (PCI) and 4060 (USB) modems. You'll be able to pick one up for under $100.

I signed my girlfriend up for the service three months ago, and bought a modem off of e-Bay. There was a one-time charge of $25 for Winfire's "Install kit," which was some ADSL line filters and their software.

Winfire pays your phone company to set up the line (if I recall, their cost is about $200). The line was set up about three weeks after we signed up.

It's only 144Kbit/sec (about 3 times faster than 56K dial-up) but it's fine for her needs, and doesn't tie up the phone line. She's never had a problem with the service and she doesn't worry about a monthly fee.

One word of caution: You will never be able to plug the ADSL modem into a router and share it because of Winfire's proprietary software, and because it doesn't include an ethernet jack. For a single PC, though, it's fine.

 

[jleon]

Yep, Perplexor is right. If you go to their site, one of the big turn-offs to this package is the inability to share internet connection with another pc (listed in the FAQ section).

 

[858diver]

Despite the bad press, I am very pleased with my PacBell DSL service - $39.95 per month, free modem - with one dynamic IP shared across 4 computers.

It took a while for them to figure out if I could get service, but were very helpful getting me started (sent out a tech to fix my phone lines right away, at night - even though I was a free, self-install customer).

Why screw around with things like FreeDSL / Winfire? You don't end up saving very much, and have to make a big commitment.

 

[SinMen]

Can you use a NAT program to share it from the PC that's connected to the DSL modem?

 

[Kraeji]

I it possible to share the internet connection between multiple PC's using winfire.. I have done it. But this service SUCKS.. it goes down often, the banners are QUITE ANNOYING.. they even have video ads that pop up and you arent able to close them. I'd say pay a few more dollars and get real dsl. I only signed up my parents with this and it suites them fine because they dont use it often.

 

[Raju420]

it's been over a year and a half, still waiting for my connection, i got the free dsl with free dsl modem, casue i had enough referrals, but still waiting.

 

[dcdomain]

Actually, those modems aren't the only ones supported. You can check your actual provider and see what modems they support. For Verizon, they supported the Westell Wirespeed, so I got that, and you'll be able to share the connection the normal way, hub, switch, router or whatever.

Or if you want, you can make the pc with the modem a server and share your connection that way. No ads even...

 

[Akash]

hey i got winfire.. and i also got the modem from them.. it was easy to setup.. and i got about 17k for my downloads.. not too shabby for free service if u ask me.. its for my parents all they really do is browse the web and stream stock quotes.. but i mean they havent had problems.. so i guess its all good

 

[ccity]

Telocity has the first month free and no setup fees - plus they have no contract. I am not sure how they make money but it is worth trying even if you cancel after the first month you pay nothing except shipping on their modem contraption

 

[ajaju]

Yeah! one of my friend has telocity. he has never had much problems... and they even give you $50 towards amazon.

 

[SinMen]

Do they give you 50 every month? Or you have to pay them after the 1st?

 

[Sandor]

I signed up for Winfire back in March '00. October came around- got am e-mail saying my area was finally ready, and that I needed to choose one of their packages. While I was thinking it over, they e-mailed me 3-4 times a week until I finally decided to go with them. Three more weeks went by, and I hear nothing. Then end of November, I get a message saying I'm not in a qualified area, and I can't get the service. A few more weeks go by, and I get another e-mail saying now I am qualified, and that everything is set- the line just needs to be checked. A month later, I still did not have the service, so I cancelled before anything was activated (I said I was moving). I called AT&T@home a couple days ago- they'll be out next week to install a cable line. Winfire might be a good value, but it seems like they're not very reliable, and have too many rules to follow. I don't trust them and would go with someone else. Just my opinion.

 

[HJB417]

what other company offers 1.5mbs for $35/month? [don't answer]

is winfire right for you? depends.
where do you live?
how soon do you need it or a similar connection?
what will you be using it for?
will you be sharing the internet connection?
how much bandwidth do you need? and at what cost?
Is a 1year contract right for you? Will company X have a similar deal or better within that 1 year contract?
What other connections and companies are available and what cost?
Did you read Winfire's TOS and how does it compare to other TOS?

These answers vary from user to user so please don't directly answer these questions but you must think of this when sigining up for winfire?

Just so you know, I've been waiting for winfire since the last week of december 00. Though it's still not activated, cable modem service isn't available and they're about 2-3 months behind schedule and can't give me a completion date and the DSL prices of other companies are too high. You don't know where I live and you don't know the prices or the cable companies available so you can't comment on this paragraph

Anyways, good luck and have fun with whatever you do/choice you make.

 

[DDCSpeed]

This is been around for a while but it would remind people that winfire is actually in effect because I remember hearing about them as they were starting official business. The problem with winfire is that you would have to actually be in "the service area." I dont know how you would define it exactly but that is what they will tell u if you arent in their service area. Good headup for gogeeta13.

 

[ChurchOfSubgenius]

Please ignore the previous post by HJB417, if everyone were to read this and follow the suggestions made by him/her and apply them to all purchases, we would upset the "sucker born everyday" balance and then where would we be? what would happen to retail sales? AOL? how would Peter Norton survive with people making common sense decisions?
Count zero......interupt.

 

[beta2000]

I have used freedsl/winfire for almost a year.

Yes. In the early months, the connection was not very stable. Now, they are getting better.

I have not problem in ICS (Internet Connection Sharing). For a free services of 140Kbps, I can't say that is a bad deal. The only thing I dislike it doesn't support Win2K. Win 98 sucks!

 

[godsgift]

Been waiting to get hooked up for about 4 months every time i call they say 2 or 3 weeks,also they said since i didnt get my service when they said would they were going to waive my $200 fee for early term.of the agreement.Got her name an ext.

 

[ucdchan]

Since we're kinda in the subject of internet sharing and One guy said they were able to share internet connection from Pacbell with Dynamic IP. I need help configurating my system to share internet connect.

What we have:
Pacbell 384k Dynamic IP DSL.
Server running on Win2000
Hub with 8 ports

also avaliable to us: Win98SE, WinME, Win98, Redhat 6.1 Linux

Problem we're having:
Using Server w/ Win2000
*Client computer cannot access all avaliable websites. such as buy.com, gap.com, but works great for most like yahoo.com, hotmail.com, etc.


Using Server w/ Win98SE
*ICS seemed to detect PPPoE as a ethernet card.. tried many different settings, but we were not able to share connection at all. I was told it was a dynamic IP related problem. Server works though.




Okay, the main thing I'm trying to figure out is that how can we configure win2000 so all the client computers can access all the websites? maybe lowering some securty?

Any help would be appeciated. please email me at ucdchan@techieguy.com