TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: ISP Hunting

Re: ISP Hunting

Choreboy (choreboyREMOVE@localnet.com)
Sun, 19 Jun 2005 12:06:58 -0400

DevilsPGD wrote:

> I'm going to be just outside of Chicago (Skokie, if you must know) for
> an unknown period of time and looking to find out what the cheapest
> way to get internet access would be.

> I have no need for anything other then basic connectivity, and the
> ability to establish HTTPS connections to a known IP and PPTP
> connections to another known IP (not even DNS is required) and I
> certainly will not need ISP provided email, webspace, or anything of
> the sort. I also absolutely refuse to install any crapware provided
> by an ISP.

> I'm eyeballing dialup access through ISP.COM which offers $8.95 - 56K
> Regular Dial-up -- any thoughts, good or bad? Can I do better?

> Any thoughts?

Don't you want news-server access? That's the most common
deal-breaker for me.

Budget ISPs often contract with dialup providers. The quality of
service can depend on this, and the ISP's representative may not be in
a position to know what's wrong.

At $9.95 I've been with localnet a couple of years, I guess. At times
I've looked for alternatives, but in the long run things have worked
out.

Last January I began experiencing incidents where I'd get an error
message when I tried to send email. I kept assuming it would quickly
be fixed. When it happened over a period of months I finally called.
Mine was the first report of trouble. From their end, their servers
checked out fine.

I discovered that it happened when I was assigned IPs from a certain
sequence, and it didn't matter what email application or what OS I
used. They agreed that it must have been affecting all their
customers in my area for months, so they were glad I'd reported it.

They called back to say they thought it was fixed. I had to complain a
couple more times before they solved the problem. Still, it was a
positive experience for me. Some ISP reps tend to insist that any
problem is at the customer's end. Others try to help but don't get
anywhere. Localnet reps didn't know what was going on at first, but
they listened to me and pursued the problem until they fixed it.

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