Zeev's Turnips Patch-No Politics (ZEEV)

[augieboo]

OT Why I Hate PacBell, by augieboo

I was asked by pm what my beef is with PacBell DSL. Here, just in case anybody else is shopping broadband providers, is my answer:

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I'm no techie, so I can't provide much detail but I'll try to describe the problems as I see them.

The service will work great for a while -- sometimes a week or two at a time, sometimes only a day or so -- with speeds almost equal a cable connection. Then, without warning, or any reason I can think of, it just goes to heck.

During these periods one of several things can happen:

1. The connection runs, but everything is slow -- slower than dial-up;

2. I get a constant stream of error messages saying my computer can't find the DNS server;

3. The throughput is very fast, but there is a huge delay first -- I click a link and nothing happens for 20, 30, 40, 50 seconds, then suddenly it connects and goes through a lightning speed.

4. All of the above happens at once and I wind up having to reboot my computer, modem, and router over and over and over again.

My computer is a DELL, less than 6 months old, with a factory installed network card. I have ruled out a problem with the router, which is a NETGEAR, and I'm pretty sure there's nothing wrong with the modem, which is a Westell Wirespeed.

I run Norton Utilities automatically at 2:00 a.m. every single night, so the hard drive and system are kept pristine. I have optimized my MTU, TCP Receive Window, TTL, etc., etc., etc., specifically for the sites I use most often, i.e., StockCharts, IHUB, SI, and my brokers.

When I call PacHell about it, they say the problem must be my computer, since their equipment is perfect, so they want me to go through a couple hours of fruitless online troubleshooting. (This is after waiting on hold for at least an hour.) Then, invariably, they say they can't do anything at all, because my router blocks their access to my computer!

To make everything just that much worse, I signed one of those contracts promising my first born child if I give up the service in less than a year. This was about six months ago.

I'm not even sure anything else would be better because there is no cable option in my area, and all the competing DSL providers have to use PAC-Bell's lines, etc.

AAAAAUUUGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!