An ISP Rant

**Johanna** · 18th September 2008

Tuesday night my Internet connection started acting funny- it would fine, then drop out, work fine, then be gone. Yesterday morning it was all gone, and Vista said to call the ISP because it couldn't make a DNS connection with MS. (I'm paraphrasing)

So I called our local ISP, and they checked on their end and said all was well, but they would come out to the house. The "technician" (using the word loosely) determined that plugging my cable into the surge box before the modem was causing the problem, so he disconnected it from the box and made a straight connection. He used some kind of meter, and could tell no difference with it plugged in either way. He told me that there was no need to have the cable running through the surge box, that it would only slow my computer down by acting as a splitter, and if lightning happened, everything would be trashed anyway. After he left I called his supervisor who sent another tech out with a truck, and they checked the lines from the pole to my house.

Apparently they are wiring the new homes with a cable they call "11". Older cables they call "6" are getting replaced. My house, which is within sight of the ISP and was probably one of the first ones in town that got wired, has a "5" cable that runs into a splitter in the basement. Oh, and they agreed the older cable is probably why the lower channels on the TV come in fuzzy. The ISP said they wouldn't charge me for the newer cable running from the pole- oh thank you!

I told the general manager about the tech who disconnected my cable from the surge box. This house has had quite a few lightning strikes, and it seems silly not to use the box, which I purchased after I fried an expensive motherboard during a storm years ago. The mgr said that lightning cannot travel through the cable, which I know isn't true.

Don't believe everything "experts" tell you, and don't hesitate to ask questions. The ISP didn't want to replace the outdoor cable, but I insisted, and they agreed to do it. I think I'll ask for a job there someday. Apparently you don't have to know much to be a tech for them, and at least I understand the difference between "online" and "offline".
Johanna

**Whiskeyman** · 18th September 2008

I can feel your pain. I dealt with my local cable franchise for 5 years. Every time a tech came out I would explain what the previous techs had done and what they thought the problem was. Everything from the pole throughout the house was replaced. The only item not checked was the amplifier a couple of poles down. It took them the 5 years before they decided to check out the amplifier and discovered it was bad.

As for my DSL service, let's just say the outfit that bought my Tel-co should not have moved broadband support to India. After suffering for a couple of weeks to get my service functional and stable once again, I told the script readers to connect me with someone who would listen. Once I got a hold of someone knowledgeable and told them the problem wasn't at my end they fixed the issue at the CO.

**Geri** · 19th September 2008

I had a problem with my DSL also, slowed down to a crawl it was like I was on dial up again, they sent their tech out also, they said that as long as the tech did not have to come into the house there would be no charge to me.
I was waiting when he showed up, so after a few minutes I met him outside he checked all the connections and listened for noise on the line, he said everything was fine then wanted to come in and check the settings on my DSL. Told him I didn't want to pay for no visit, he said there wouldn't be a charge. He found nothing.

So then I called tech support, got some flunky that was reading everything from a book I'm sure, his answer...
Clean temp files
Dropped the security in IE down to nothing..allow all cookies allow all activeX allow...allow...
Nothing he did worked, said i had a virus, informed him on what I do and that I did not have a virus.
His solution...reformat

I asked way that was like one of the first things they tell people to do?
Told him I wanted to talk to a supervisor.

After talking to a supervisor for less then 5 minutes he did something there, don't know what, he would not say, but my DSL was back to normal.

It kills me, the first thing they want to do is reformat.
Wonder how many people have lost all their stuff stored on their computer because they have flunkies answering their phones.

**Miz** · 19th September 2008

I read and hear the ISP horror stories but there are ISPs in existence who do care about their customers.

I live ina rural county (900 square miles, 2400 people) that is served by a small, independent telco. It's the only provider in town...land line, cell phone, dialup and DSL are all provided by this one smallish company. It's a co-op; meaning it's essentially non-profit so it can sink its revenue back into the business and their customers elect the board of directors.

In the 10 or so years we've had broadband (DSL), it's been offline about five times. The longest was about 6 hours...three days after they got the service online a fuse blew in a critical substation and it took them a while to find it.

A couple of examples of their customer service:

Back in the dialup days I was getting miserable connections speeds so I called to ask about the chances of replacing the half-mile of old cable from our house across the pasture to the main line on the highway. He said they didn't have any crews available. I asked if they could put in the cable if we dug the ditch. He said okay. A couple of hours later he called back and told me a crew would be there in two days to dig the ditch and lay the cable...and they were.

I called them once for a customer who had, as it turned out, a bad DSL modem. Their head network guy drove 50 miles to bring the customer a new modem and install it. He said he was going to his kid's ball game anyway and it was only 30 or 40 miles out of his way.

So, yes, there really are some good telcos still around. They just aren't in the urban areas, I guess.