Earthlink DSL trouble anyone?
cosm...@spamcosmic.to
part it has been very good. But recently things have been very bad. It
seems like it all started in December. It used to be almost as fast as
a T1 connection at times, but lately it is slower than a 56K modem and
that's only when I can get it to work at all. My computer works
perfectly. I checked some Earthlink DSL newsgroups thinking there
might be some answers there. If you can believe what is posted,
Earthlink has really gone down the toilet. Apparently it is completely
screwed up in some areas, especially Chicago. I ran a trace and it
seems like I am connected through the same backbone that is so screwed
up in Chicago. There were also many posts about incompetent tech
support and even outright lies by Earthlink tech support. There have
been times when the DSL doesn't work, but it would usually come back
the next morning. But lately it has been terrible. Yesterday I called
tech support to see what was going on. "No, there are no problems at
all in Minneapolis." I was told. Instead he tried to blame cordless
phones, burglar alarms, phone lines, the neighbors and almost
everything except ghosts and Earthlink. I spent hours trying to unplug
things, rebooting the computer, etc., etc., and nothing really worked
and I gave up. This morning the DSL was working fine. I did a speed
test and it was very fast. It stayed online all day and started to
slow around 5 PM and was totally gone by 6 PM.
To add insult to injury, Earthlink only gives 20 hours of free dialup
service per month and then charge $1 per hour over 20 hours with a
maximum extra charge of $21.95. So this month my bill will be over $70
simply because the DSL doesn't work. I have to keep the telephone wire
unplugged because when the DSL fades away Netscape will try to connect
through the telephone. That how I ended up with 33 hours, it did it at
night.
My suspicions that Earthlink is broken were confirmed when I talked to
my mother today. Occasionally when someone emails a large attachment
her mail gets "stuck". I'm not sure what that's all about, but it has
happened before and she calls Earthlink tech support and they delete
the email from the server and everything's fine again. It happened
yesterday and she called Earthlink tech support today and they were
unable to get on the internet to delete the email for her! The rep had
no idea why he could not access the internet! Instated he explained to
her how she could do it herself by accessing her email through web
based email and deleting it there, which she did with no problem.
Does anyone know of a good, reliable, fast DSL provider in
Minneapolis? I will be taking a vacation next week and if it isn't
fixed by mid April I will be looking for another ISP.
***
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Jim Bolland
> Minneapolis? I will be taking a vacation next week and if it isn't
> fixed by mid April I will be looking for another ISP.
I have heard many good things about VISI (http://www.visi.com/). If I wasn't
basically happy with my cable modem and was actually close enough to qualify for
DSL, VISI is the first ISP I'd consider. (If my phone company decides it can
provide DSL service, I'm going to look into DSL anyway, specifically so I can
have a local ISP like VISI. Right now my e-mail, news, etc. are scattered all
over the country which is sometimes a problem.)
Jim
Richard Steiner
>I have heard many good things about VISI (http://www.visi.com/). If I
>wasn't basically happy with my cable modem and was actually close enough
>to qualify for DSL, VISI is the first ISP I'd consider.
I'm actually using a cable modem (I have Time Warner RoadRunner), but I
still use VISI for mail and news. They are *VERY* good.
--
-Rich Steiner >>>---> http://www.visi.com/~rsteiner >>>---> Eden Prairie, MN
OS/2 + BeOS + Linux + Solaris + Win95 + WinNT4 + FreeBSD + DOS + PC/GEOS
+ Fusion + vMac + Executor = PC Hobbyist Heaven! :-)
!rorrim a teG !kciuQ
Wayne Marsh
> Does anyone know of a good, reliable, fast DSL provider in
> Minneapolis?
I'm almost embarrassed to praise Qwest DSL, but I've used their 256K service
since November, and it's been essentially flawless for me. I use Golden Gate
as my ISP, and they're good too.
Wayne Marsh Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
wayne...@mac.com
Jim Bolland
>>wasn't basically happy with my cable modem and was actually close enough
>>to qualify for DSL, VISI is the first ISP I'd consider.
>
> I'm actually using a cable modem (I have Time Warner RoadRunner), but I
> still use VISI for mail and news. They are *VERY* good.
My cable modem connection is through Charter Pipeline. At first Charter itself
was the only option for an ISP. A while back they started letting people choose
AOL as an ISP instead (not for me, thanks!). Since they've at least allowed a
choice, I have hopes that VISI might be an option too someday.
Jim
Thomas T. Veldhouse
The problems you mention are common to Covad provided residential
(bridged) connections. The data has a way of taking longer and longer
paths through Covad's network. I don't recall how that was supposed
to work, but the solution was to ask them to reprovision the line, and
to please leave interleaving (aka Safe Mode) off (otherwise it gets
really slow). Sometimes a line has to have it, but usually they just
turn it on when they don't know what is wrong and it never gets shut
off again when the problem goes away.
Best solution is to ditch them quickly and go with a QWest DSL circuit
with a local ISP (my recommendation is VISI.com -- Best in town --
period).
Tom Veldhouse
- "Say No!" to YahooMail $19.95/year
glenn
me. Don't have anyway to compare what "fast" is though.
--
Glenn