I had LMI's PHLO service for a year and loved the speed and fact that i didn't need to have an active account with AT&T. The staff is helpful, responsive, and friendly. If I hadn't moved I'd still be a customer today. read more

Super slow download and upload speeds. I live in Berkeley and I've had LMI for about a week. Already considering other options. read more

LMi Net - Slow speeds: Download speeds: 280 kbps Upload speeds: 910 kbps Location: Elmwood, Berkeley - IT Services & Computer Repair Near Me - Berkeley, California

An update on these guys. I've moved twice to somewhat tucked away places now and called lmi both times to see if the new spots were in their service area. Unfortunately, they were not but they (as usual) were very helpful in recommending local internet service providers that did cover both places. read more

I've been a customer since 1999, and have always been pleased with how LMi.net provides real customer service, with a human being who is on-site in the same building with the actual equipment that hosts my website. Best part of the service: when I've had service problems that were a result of failures on the part of AT&T (who of course own the actual phone lines along which my DSL is delivered), I could count on LMi techs to help get AT&T to take responsibility and do the necessary work. This greatly cuts back on how much time I have to spend on hold with AT&T service drones. And don't make the mistake of thinking you can only get LMi.net service in Berkeley -- I've used them in the South Bay, as well, in Palo Alto, East Palo Alto, and Mountain View. read more

I am having the most perfect stream for internet and land line so far! I just moved to Oakland, tried LMi with trust on Yelp's review. And now I have my own trust on them based on my personal experience. *After 1 day calling and made the order : received LMi email to confirm time window for AT&T to install the circuit. *3 days later: LMi emailed that they were informed (by AT&T) that the circuit installed. Called, then 3 hours later, a LMi technician came to finish the installation. But it turned out that AT&T haven't did their job. *1 day later: AT&T came (8 hours late, out of appointment time window). That AT&T guy is very nice, polite and hardworking though. He did come in and out to made it done properly. Checked the phone box in the building, and the main box on the street. ***1 hour later, LMi called and instructed the installation through phone. Joe, the technician is such a mate. This is my first time, setting up modem and router by myself. He was so patient and knowledgable to instruct a doll like me step by step, over and over. Although it is not his job to help me out with wifi connection and network security. He was with me on the phone for 25 mins and Every connection has been doing great. With such an experiencing pleasure with LMi, minor wait from AT&T became nothing. Highly recommended! Great service with great price. read more

Me and a friend moved to Oakland and were trying to get internet, we see LMi is the third ranked provider, they were the "cheapest" - post taxes. We have had nothing but trouble getting internet hooked up from LMi, not to say this is standard (judging by the other review). However, this fact is what really made me write a review. Another thing that really made me upset dealing with LMi is the general disrespect that I felt with some of the employees - not ALL, but some. When I informed them that I was not impressed with their services and the time delay of three weeks that it took to have internet; they initially quoted 5 business days. The employee that I was dealing with: A) Stated it was out of their control and not their fault - I should be more patient. B) Did not apologize for the tardiness of instillation. These two facts made me feel belittled by him. I would have gave three stars if I felt like they were more "genuine" and respectful. Tr;Dl Took 3 weeks to have internet hooked (quoted 5 business days), and somewhat disrespectful employees. EDIT: In progress.... Was contacted by the owner, and he offered a very apologetic apology, AND waved the first month of internet. THIS is what I believe customer service is about and would have given a full 5 stars but dealing with this has taken my time, I would like to think my time has some non-monetary value. New: Tr;Dl I would recommend the company, I think my experience was an anomaly. The owner did all he could to fix the situation. read more

Great local, independent business. Very personable, very real, not driven by shareholders or corporate boards. Customer support is here in Berkeley. Reliable and I was finally able to get dsl without paying for a landline. read more

I was with this provider for roughly 6 months, I needed service techs 4 times in 6 months and all I ever heard was "San Francisco is soooo far for our technicians to drive". My last call to them for service help got me nothing but attitude and NO ACTION! Now, my modem has burned out and they hung up on me when I called to cancel my service. NO GOOD FOR SAN FRANCISCO RESIDENTS! NOT RECOMMENDED! TERRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE! As stated in other reviews, the technicians are awesome people- the company is garbage, and overpriced. Use at your own risk! read more

About four months ago I signed up with LMi as my internet provider and also got a land line with it. I could get rid of AT & T which made me very happy and I am still saving money. Recently I took a crashed laptop in to recover what had been on the hard drive and Chris worked with me patiently, keeping me constantly updated on the progress. He also restored the computer to the way my old one was and that was well worth the $50.00 it cost me. I highly recommend them. read more

LMI worked with us to get our internet speeds to a respectable rate! They were very attentive to our requests and worked very quickly to resolve the issues we had at ActivSpace. Thank you for helping us LMI, I take back my bad review and harsh words. Its good to know people still care about small businesses out there in the world. read more

This is my second 5 star posting of LMi.Net. Despite not being a customer because LMi.Net doesn't provide service where I live, the personnel who I met was kind enough to spend time with me explaining the nature of my DSL problem. I would definitely consider LMi.Net if it provided DSL service where I live. read more

Appreciate their customer service. Haven't much needed it, but they are responsive, fast, and efficient. Special thanks to Mike for a job well done fixing the internet connection my old worn down house. Their hold music is amusing and I am happy to support this local business! read more

We had cable internet when we lived in the midwest. I tried to get Comcast but quickly ran into problems just trying to place the order. Even though they were more money initially, we decided to give Lanminds a try with their PHLO service. My wife will be doing graduate research and reliable internet is important. The people on the phone and in person were friendly and helpful. The connection is absolutely rock solid. We hadn't realized how poor our former cable internet service was until we saw how clean and stable our connection is now. Our bill from Lanminds is always on time and always accurate. read more

Do not use LMI if you live in SF. Our download speeds were 3 mb/sec, and intermittent. We couldn't stream videos. Our security system wouldn't work. We have spent months trying to work out with lmi what they could provide and they always told us they could provide the contracted speeds, having to send technicians out twice to address the problem. We switched to Comcast (very reluctantly) and are getting speeds greater than 100mb/sec. Wish we had done it much sooner. LMI will tell you they can service you even if they can't. Stay away! Update: To be very specific, we live in an area that is sandwiched between Inner Sunset, Inner Parkside, Forest Hill, West Portal and Twin Peaks. It also took a while to schedule our service and tried to bill us for the corrective calls. Just get good internet to start with. Don't waste your time with a company that guesses about the service you'll be able to get or that doesn't understand that internet service in the Bay Area is not optional. (Do NOT use this company if you expect to work from home ever.) read more

The people at LMi might be surprised that I am giving them five stars - because we had a number of mysterious and not so mysterious screw ups getting our system up and running. In reality, it was AT&T who did most of the screwing. However, LMI stuck with us until we finally got everything working properly, and because we could not be without internet for even one hour - (we work from home) - they made sure we were not paying for the old and new services at the same time. I highly recommend this company, the employees and customer service! An added bonus ... our money goes to real people instead of mega-corporations that would never have taken the time to get our install right! spending local - it's the way to the real world! read more

Was having miserable time downloading sites after getting Sonic from LMI. Wasn't sure if it was my internet connection or my pc. Took my laptop into shop and one of the tech guys cleaned up some "stuff" on my hard drive and it's working and it's working beautifully now. read more

Typing this from my phone, since I don't yet have internet installed. This review is for the start up process only. It hasn't been quick or easy to get my service set up, but I understand the constraints a small company like LMI has. They have tried to work with me running on a slower service sooner than they can get Phiber installed, and I definitely appreciate those efforts. Vos has been particularly helpful. The price is right in line with other big players. I'll update my review after I have more experience with their service, but I'm optimistic based on the other reviews. read more

All you newbies to Berkeley, your friends in NY think it's so cool that you live in socially liberal Berkeley but if you want to walk your talk then please - support the local economy. I've been using them LMI for years - at different addresses - business and home - and I cannot understand why anyone in this area would mess around with AT&T whose customer service has been astoundingly awful for decades. How could you NOT sign up with LMI ? Their service is impeccable, real live human beings answer the phone and patiently answer questions. AND it's a local company. Thank you for hanging in there LMI. You deserve your fans! read more

Great service, great speed, no interruptions, affordable, and very nice and knowledgeable staff. I love my local, organic, sustainable, independent ISP. read more

I first signed up with Lmi.net when I started Cal in January 97... I had a great dial up line and I would go pay my bills in person because they all seemed so "hip." Well, these days I make a living through the inter-web-O-inter-matic, etc... And I use them as much as possible. IT IS SO nice being able to call a HUMAN in Berkeley to address an issue. They usually help me in minutes, not the hours it can take when I call India!!! GOOD bye comcast, later Earthlink, Hello LMi.net. Thanks again guys for making what I do all seem a little more personable and "BEAR-able"... read more

LMi had been so much better than cable. And now that I have phiber it's great. read more

Gary and the LMI crew are the best! These folks are friendly, courteous, and provide amazing service. We have high speed internet from LMI, and it runs really fast and reliable. On top of that, they gave me a little bit of free web space which I used to share some photos with my family. Most importantly, LMI is friendly. They aren't like those big corporate companies at AT&T and Comcast who make you wait on hold for an hour before transferring your call to a tech person unfamiliar with teh technology. These guys answer the phone when I call, explaining everything in an easy to understand way. They're a honest, local company, and I'll be a customer for life. read more

Please see previous review dated 4/1/2019 for background of this review. LMI did finally call me. I was first offered a free dvd device that I could connect to my computer in order to burn disks. I declined because I was sold a computer that was supposed to do that in the first place. LMI finally decided to fix the computer so it would both read and write disks. I had to bring it into them, The whole process including driving time took about an hour and twenty minutes. The computer works fine now. Just took a lot of time and energy to get them to do the right thing. read more

An ISP & webhost with a *storefront.* An ISP where humans *answer the phone.* If the electricity went out at my house and my car broke down, I could walk over there and resume whatever quasi-important thing I was doing online in 7.35 minutes. How many ISPs could ya say that about? Perhaps the service plans *are *little more expensive than others, but I don't have time to learn and remember all the technical stuff I need to keep my site & net service humming... LMI tech support takes the time to figure out where I am skill-wise and tailors their support to be exactly what I need. Highly recommended for mid-level technically-inclined peeps like me. read more

I like LMi in general. We've been using them for a while now, since they're close to us. I like supporting local businesses. I also like the fact that they protect my data/usage, and I don't have to hassle with Comcast or AT&A. However, it sucks that they're only open till 5PM. I have a 9-5 job, so I'm home when they're closed. At the time I'm writing this review around 6:30pm, we have slower-than-usual internet connection, but I cannot call anyone :( I just don't understand how an ISP can be open only 9-5. Internet is like electricity, something you need 24/7. And in the case of people who have a job, you usually need it anytime except between 9-5 during the week. I'm sure they have a good reason, they're a small business, but it just sucks. I just did a speed test, I have 2.28 Mbps download, 1.88 Mbps upload. We're paying over $600/yr. (LMi will soon start offering Phiber, but it's not available in all streets in Berkeley, including ours.) I'm just tired of keep waiting for Youtube videos to load. read more

I can't tell why others are so happy with these guys. When I've had problems with their internet connection or equipment, it has taken days for them to get back to me. The service was horrible for at least two months (which they finally admitted), but for the first three weeks they claimed the problem was my fault and that they wouldn't do anything to fix it. When it finally got fixed, I asked them for a discount for the more than two months that the service was so terrible. They ignored my request. Now it turns out that the modem/router they rented to me is defective. And they want me to pay to have them ship me a new one, and for me to ship this one back to them. Between their first problem and the issue with the modem, this has been the least reliable ISP I have ever used - and I've been on the internet since 1995. And their customer service has been far less than what I would consider adequate. read more

LMI has provided internet to me at two homes and also my business. they have consistently been responsive to my needs, giving great customer service. They are truly local, and a great company to work with. Their service runs on the same lines as giant companies, so there is no real difference in the bandwidth. I would, and have recommended to friends. read more

I have only very positive things to say about LMI, even though I ultimately needed to cancel service after a month. On my first call with them, LMI warned me straightaway that my specific location in Oakland might pose a serious challenge for bandwidth. But I wanted to work with a local company, and they were willing to try and make it work. While I ultimately couldn't function with the low bandwidth, LMI worked hard to increase it to its potential max. I appreciated that a great deal. The challenges we encountered were expected and ultimately not something that they could overcome with the service they provided. I felt they were completely honest, up-front, and exceptionally responsive. If I were in a better location I'd absolutely stay with them. Bonus marks for the Robyn Hitchcock hold music. read more

Same price and equivalent Internet speeds as other options like Sonic, AT&T, etc. but with the advantage of an office you can walk into and a phone line that's answered by actual humans. read more

I've been an LMi customer for over four years now and I'm beyond satisfied. In four years I've only had two outages, both of which were promptly seen to by their tech support department. I had AT&T internet at my previous address and it is no exaggeration to say I was calling in an outage every other week, speaking to a representative in who knows where, and getting completely contradictory information from various techs (when they bothered to show up, which they didn't always do). Since making the switch to LMi, it's been nothing but smooth sailing. I love knowing that the people who are providing my service are also members of my community, and that my money goes directly back into the local economy. They may not be able to match the bigger ISPs in terms of pricing or speeds, but honestly the human touch and the prompt, intelligent service more than makes up for it. They have definitely earned my loyalty. read more

I've been using LMI for my DSL ISP since I switched from Earthlink (let's not go there) in 2004. I have never regretted my decision to go with this local company. We almost never have problems with our connection. When we do have problems it is most often due to our own wireless routers and not because of LMI, which always has a steady & strong DSL signal. Whenever I need to call them for support, I get to talk to a real person (always nice). The support team is knowledgeable and can be depended to call me back to follow up if needed. In addition, billing is easy (never a hassle) and the rate has stayed reasonable and low all these years. Thanks LMI! read more

I've been a client at LMI since 1992, back when they were still mainly known as Lanminds and came highly recommended by BMUG, the Berkeley Mac Users Group. They have always been terrific: local, available, friendly, accommodating, reasonable, and willing to go out of their way to be helpful. For over 25 years I have found them to be utterly reliable in every way. You just can't go wrong with them. read more

Nice people, good service and you get a warm happy feeling knowing you are supporting a small, local company and not the evil cable giants. That said, I've been with LMI for three years now and the upload speeds have been painfully slow (.5-2.5MB) for most of that time despite that I live only 2200 ft from the local node. Maybe it's the wiring in my house, but it just doesn't make sense and when I call they make it faster for a week and then it's slow again, which only worries me more. Are they regulating my speed? Anyway, nice people, but to stay competitive at $60/month they need to work out the speed problems. read more

What is a good ISP? The one you forget about because it just works! Ever since I switched from COMCAST to LMi.Net, I don't have to think about my internet. It is there, it is fast, it works. I don't have to dive under my futon to reset my modem, I don't have to run speed tests to confirm a slow downs, I don't have to call support and complain - I just don't think about my internet. The fact that for same $50 I now get 27Mbps instead of COMCAST's 3.5Mbps (Gosh, what a joke) with a land line to boot is just an icing on this cake! read more

Wow! Apparently I made up the fact that nobody answered, I never left a message AND I obsess about all kinds of little things! I appreciate that the LMI guy took the time to read some of my other reviews. However, that time would probably be better spent answering calls. Had someone answered the phone or called me back, I would not have bothered to write any review. Granted, they may not have the ability to extend their range of service, but as my original review makes clear, I find the lack of availability of internet service in Berkeley IN GENERAL to be odd, not merely that of LMi. I was compelled to write because 1) nobody answered the phone on my first call; 2) I left a message and nobody returned the call; and 3) I found the "we're busy and 5 people are off" to be indicative of a lack of accountability. After the reply from the guy below, I now have 4) Making stuff up! Really, I had nothing against this business prior to calling them. To the contrary, I was optimistic and looking forward to the service (customer and internet) I read about on Yelp. After reading all the positive reviews, I felt like I should put an honest assessment of my experience. Perhaps it was an anomaly. But based on the defensive (and dishonest!) response by the company, I'd be wary of using LMi. read more

There are a lot of reasons to like LMI for Web hosting: they're small and local, have a good story, and they provide live tech support from people who are physically there with the Web servers. It is absolutely worth more to me to be able to talk on the phone to tech support people who are in the room with the servers and also to support a local company. But how much more? I personally would be willing to pay 30% more on principle to a local shared hosting company with live tech support and maybe even more if the cost is low to begin with. When you do the math I believe that the actual premium you pay for LMI's in-person tech support and local presence is more like 700%!! And even then LMI may not be up to the standards of a good online host. Take the case of ICDSoft who I use (or BlueHost -- similar situation). For $10/mo here's how LMI (Bronze hosting) and ICDSoft (Business plan) stack up: Hosts: LMI | ICDSoft Setup: $50 | free Storage: 25MB | 10,000MB Bandwidth: 1GB | 200GB Features: LMI: I don't see anything apart from html hosting. ICDSoft: PHP, MySQL, CPanel, Stats, cgi-scripts, and everything else and that I want in a PHP host and some stuff I've never used. In order to (roughly) match ICDSoft's $10/mo plan it looks like you need to spend $79/mo for the Platinum Web package at LMI (plus a setup fee). Furthermore ICDSoft's hardware is excellent while LMI's is apparently substandard from what their support people have told me and what I've experienced. ICDSoft's uptime is fantastic(https://www2.suresupport.com/network.php) and LMI's poor in my experience with the one server that I have monitored. ICDSoft's tech support response time (over a Web form) averages 60 seconds! Half the time LMI has to call me back. When I email tech support about half of the time they take 24 hours or more to respond to an email or they just don't respond. In my experience both companies are able to go to impressive effort to make changes for you or customize your hosting account -- LMI has perhaps been able to do more of this. And LMI has some flexibility about things like reaching the maximum storage space and negotiating hosting cost if you spend a lot with them. It is nice to be able to talk to the boss at LMI (though he has been a better salesperson than problem-solver). There are some pretty good tech support people there, though no one who has consistently solved problems quickly that I couldn't. There's really nothing else positive that I can say about LMI's service. The most disturbing experience I've had with LMI (with a client's account -- I obviously don't use LMI myself) was the down time for the machine hosting my largest client's Web site. For a few months in 2007 their server averaged 8-12 hours down a month, mostly in the morning or middle of the day. They gave different reasons each time: another user on the machine abusing the bandwidth; conflicts in newly installed software; the machine had a bad hard drive. I can confirm that the last problem was legit. They kept using the hard drive that had bad sectors for a month until finally it crashed, downing the machine for a morning. Many hosting companies either have RAIDed systems so that a bad hard drive won't affect service or they have policies to replace a hard drive when it first shows bad sectors and they scan regularly -- not just when there's a problem. I've given LMI 2 stars for the few good tech support people, because they're a local business, and because they do offer, I guess you might call it, "functional" hosting. If I were advising LMI: Offer the option of resold hosting through a company like ICDSoft or BlueHost. As a reseller LMI could mark up ICDSoft's volume prices and still charge their customers less than ICDSoft's advertised prices. It would be easy to continue to offer phone tech support. I would give their clients the option of locally-hosted machines for accounts that don't need much space or bandwidth but charge a much more realistic premium for that (subsidized by the ICDSoft profits). I'd implement standards for speed in getting back to customers, a real ticketing system, procedures for dealing with hardware problems, standards for uptime and for replacing hardware. The only problem with standards is then you have an objective metric that may show poor value. I'd expand the business with a lot of related services like customized log file analysis, tech support for Office and Windows, Google Ad setup and purchasing, maybe even custom searches for clients at an hourly rate. In my opinion those are great ways to leverage the advantages of a tech support staff and local service. read more

These guys are great. I recently moved into a new home in SF, and having previously used LMI in the East Bay (they are based in Berkeley) decided to go with them again. As always, the staff at LMI answers the phone, answers any questions, schedules service (i.e. in-home installation etc.) at MY convenience, and is altogether professional and easy to deal with. Compare this to the horror stories you may hear about AT&T or Comcast. For ~$40 month I am getting their PHLO+ service, which utilizes the phone lines. And it's fast, I'm clocking 18.5 Mbps DL and 1.15 UL speeds. Month-to-month contract, easy peezy. I would definitely recommend LMI. read more

I've used (well, tolerated) Comcast and AT&T in the past, but Lmi beats everyone else out of the park when it comes to providing good quality internet service. It's been 10 months since I first signed up, and I have not had a single issue. But if there ever were a problem, it's so great to know that an *actual live human being* would pick up my call on the first ring. Please support local business and choose Lmi over those big telecom giants! read more

Dumped Comcast after weeks of internet service going down at around 6:30 pm. (Seriously. Two weeks, daily). Every call to tech support: have you rebooted the modem? Really? Nope. Never considered that. Thanks for the level 1support. read more

Local, Solar, Kind. Everything you want in an ISP! I've been using LMi.Net for about two years. The guys that set me up were very knowledgeable, and, when I had an issue with my speed they returned to help me troubleshoot. They made a few adjustments and I've been surfing and streaming freely ever since. I love these guys!! read more