Stephen R Laniel wrote: > > No, they don't change often. And you should never have to > call them. As you may have discovered, talking with an ISP > is a special form of torture, so it's good to do it > infrequently. > If you view speaking to your ISP as torture, let me humbly suggest that you switch to Speakeasy (if they are available in your area). Their tech support (from the few times I have had to use it) is awesome and their tech support staff is very knowledgable. For example, when I had BellSouth and I had a problem and would call tech support, my conversation would go somehting like this: me: "Hi, there appears to be some sort of network problem. I can ping the router immediately upstream from my DSL router, but nothing after that. The traceroute is showing 100% packet loss after IP www.xxx.yyy.zzz." TS: "What version Windows are you running?" me: "The problem is not with Windows, it is with your upstream router." TS: "Please right-click on the My Computer icon." me: "Can I please speak to someone in Tier-2 support?" TS: "Please power off your DSL modem and turn it back on after 10 seconds." me: ?????? My experience with Speakeasy was more like this: me: "Hi, my download speeds are really slow and I am not sure why. I don't lose any packets on a traceroute and I can ping the upstream router just fine." TS: "OK. It sounds like there might noise on the line, please hold while I run a test." me: "OK." TS: "Hmm, the line appears to be noisy, we'll have a tech out tomorrow to inspect the line outside. If that doesn't clear up the problem, it may be your inside wiring. If that is the case, you can either repair it yourself, hire someone to do it, or we can send a technician" (quotes rates for technician to fix inside wiring). Another Speakeasy experience (this was at my church): me: "Hi, it appears that my DSL modem is not getting a signal. I can see that the lights are on for Power and Ethernet, but that's it." TS: "OK, your modem might be bad. Please unplug it and plug it back in after 10 seconds." me: "OK, only the two lights came on." TS: "OK, let me see if I can see your modem. Nope, let me test the line to be sure." me: "OK." TS: "Hmm, the line tests OK. It looks like you have a bad modem. I am sending one out know overnight. It should be there tomorrow. Please use the package the new modem comes in and the return shipping label provided to send the defective one back." me: "Thanks." TS: "Call back if you need help configuring the new modem." ------ I'm not affiliated with Speakeasy, just a *very* happy customer. The way I look at it, they can't compete with the ILECs when it comes to bottom of the barrel services (anything under $50/month). However, what you get from Speakeasy for $50/month is much better than what you can get from Sprint, BellSouth or SBC (I refuse to call them AT&T). -Roberto -- Roberto C. Sanchez http://familiasanchez.net/~roberto
Attachment:
signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature