posted on March 18, 2001 12:37:07 PM
I mean, #%*@.
Last month mine was moving office locations. OK, they announced they would be down 3-4 hours, a little longer if problems developed. Turned into a 4 day fiasco--them being down 4 days, us with auctions going on, auctions closing, no email, no nothing. Scrambling to the library and University computer room to use their 'puters--until I figured I had to buy one month (emergency) ISP service from another company (I had just paid my "regular" [haha] ISP $175 for 6 months of 18 hr a day service a couple of weeks before the 4 day crash).
Last weekend our web page crashed twice in one day (no photos, auctions ending).
This morning they crashed again and are still down, but our web page is up at least. I'm on line with the emergency ISP that I bought last month.
They are up most all the time, but go through periodic problems... Does anyone else have problems with their ISP like this?
Needless to say, this really bites and it's causing me a lot of frustration.
I would dump these clowns in a heartbeat if I had a good alternative. We are rural and have only two providers to choose from with local dial-up numbers. The other that I don't really want to use has slow connections.
We're screwed unless I start taking massive quanities of Thorazine to calm my fraying nerves, at which point I won't give a damn.
posted on March 18, 2001 12:50:41 PM
Why not Try Out bluelight as a free ISP back up alternative to ehat you are useing.
Since blue light use Yahoo for there email accounts if you Use the yahoo email as the address buyers should contact you in your EOA even if you IPS is crashed and down you will still have access to the Email witha the free ISP blue light has local dial up in nearly all areas.
as well the other free alternative is
netzero and juno
Free ISP as a back up beats paying for back up service.
Just wanted to add that since I switch from a local provider to Earhtlink I havent had much down time at all when they are out it is for 3 to 10 mins tops.
WHen I was with Global2000.net which became part of bizonline.com I had down time of 2 to 5 hour some times daily either email was down or there T1 internet connection was out once only had local BBS service for 10 days with them .
http://www.Dman-N-Company.com
[ edited by dman3 on Mar 18, 2001 12:54 PM ]
posted on March 18, 2001 12:54:51 PM
One way to minimize this kind of problem.
Use your ISP ONLY for getting to the web and posting auctions. Host your pictures eleswhere (pair.com has a good reputation) where the connections are not so rural.
Get a backup email account at hotmail or yahoo or someplace with good servers.
Check into a free ISP or resign yourself to having two local accounts ... use the slower of the two as a backup.
posted on March 18, 2001 01:02:47 PM
I can relate to this. Our ISP (cable) has been upgrading their service for about 3 weeks now. They didn't give us any notice so just kept crashing. Our e-mail was down for almost a day. Worse yet, when we called all we got was an answering machine.
I finally got through to the owner one day last week and he was just as frustrated as I was and we ended up having a long chat about it and a few laughs. I guess they have a lot of irate customers and things weren't going as he had planned. At least I know they are trying to do better.
Most of the time we have excellent service but I think they have a difficult time keeping up with all the new users.
We are rural. We live in a small town out in the country. AOL, Bluelight, any number of these types are not available to us with local dial up numbers. We'd have to pay long distance charges to use them.
Not a chance we'll be doing that. We have two compaines that do provide local numbers. Not a lot of choice though.
It's not like living in the 'burbs or the city where you have a lot of ISP options.
posted on March 19, 2001 05:23:28 AM
Have you considered going with a satellite internet service? I'm currently with Earthlink and like them, but get very slow connections because of my local phone company (they still use 2 cans and a string!) so I'm considering Earthlink's DirePC internet service when it comes available in a couple of months.
posted on March 19, 2001 05:51:33 AM
We use Time Warner's Road Runner cable service. We suffer slow downs at times, but actual crashes are rare. A couple of times the news server and email server have been down, but generally only for an hour or two at a time.
I have Juno free internet loaded on my portable for emergancies, but have only had to resort to that once or twice. I think both times were "user error" on our part with trouble with our router.
posted on March 19, 2001 07:17:39 AM
I guess I have just been lucky. I have had my ISP for 2 years and they probably have been down 2 times and that was in the night.
posted on March 19, 2001 07:23:45 AM
If my ISP has ever been down, I've never noticed it. In 10 years, I haven't had so much as a busy signal when dialing up. The only times I've been unable to get online is when the phone is out.
posted on March 19, 2001 04:33:56 PM
>I know AOL is not popular with a lot of people on AW, but that's who I have & have never had a problem.<
AOL is very popular and proves that advertising is more important than the quality of service provided.
My biggest problem is not with AOL but with a large percentage of their users wasting my time. AOL must be the internet playground for minors or adults who are not too bright.
I'm not saying all AOL'ers are dim wits, but they're not exactly on the top of my list when it comes to larger business transactions.
Basically, if I get similar offers from two parties, one with an AOL address and one with another ISP, I'll pass on the offer from the AOLer and go with the other party.
There are always exceptions, but after a few years of doing business online, I've found this is the best approach and sound advice.
posted on March 19, 2001 05:05:40 PM
Earthlink is fantastic in my area, Maryland.
Mindspring recently merged with Earthlink.
In the past three years, I can only remember
one down time and that was only an hour.
