REQ: ISP in Brighton
brig...@bound.com
I'll be relocating to Brighton from out of state, and would appreciate
some inputs on selecting an ISP. Looking for a home 56K model dialup
service that is speedy, has reliable email and good volume in the few
generic subscribed newsgroups. $20/month unlimited use. Good web hosting
will be nice, but not required.
Shore and Ultranet have been recommended in this newsgroup. How do they
compare to the national ISPs such as Mindspring, ATT, and heavens
forbid, AOL? By the way, I can't locate the pricing information or a 800
number in the Ultranet website. Please help if possible.
What is the quality of the telephone lines in Brighton?
Thanks.
Marc Dashevsky
> Hi,
>
> I'll be relocating to Brighton from out of state, and would appreciate
> some inputs on selecting an ISP. Looking for a home 56K model dialup
> service that is speedy, has reliable email and good volume in the few
> generic subscribed newsgroups. $20/month unlimited use. Good web hosting
> will be nice, but not required.
>
> Shore and Ultranet have been recommended in this newsgroup. How do they
> compare to the national ISPs such as Mindspring, ATT, and heavens
> forbid, AOL? By the way, I can't locate the pricing information or a 800
> number in the Ultranet website. Please help if possible.
The big three local ISPs are the two you have mentioned and World
<http://world.std.com>. Shore and World are in a class of their
own wrt reliability and customer support. I have been a customer
of World continuously for more than five years, even though I now
use MediaOne's cable service for Internet access, and I wouldn't
consider having an e-mail address at any ISP other than World or
Shore.
I have no first hand experience with the national ISPs, but I do
have a good friend who is very happy with ATT WorldNet.
--
Marc Dashevsky (remove "_" from address to reply by e-mail)
Charles Demas
Marc Dashevsky <m_...@world.std.com> wrote:
>In article <36ADE659...@bound.com>, brig...@bound.com says:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I'll be relocating to Brighton from out of state, and would appreciate
>> some inputs on selecting an ISP. Looking for a home 56K model dialup
>> service that is speedy, has reliable email and good volume in the few
>> generic subscribed newsgroups. $20/month unlimited use. Good web hosting
>> will be nice, but not required.
>>
>> Shore and Ultranet have been recommended in this newsgroup. How do they
>> compare to the national ISPs such as Mindspring, ATT, and heavens
>> forbid, AOL? By the way, I can't locate the pricing information or a 800
>> number in the Ultranet website. Please help if possible.
>
>The big three local ISPs are the two you have mentioned and World
><http://world.std.com>. Shore and World are in a class of their
>own wrt reliability and customer support. I have been a customer
>of World continuously for more than five years, even though I now
>use MediaOne's cable service for Internet access, and I wouldn't
>consider having an e-mail address at any ISP other than World or
>Shore.
Unfortunately, World and Shore do not offer unlimited dialup
accounts, they are metered. MediaOne offers unlimited service,
but it costs more than $20.
TIAC offers a shell account for $20./month, but I would recommend
against using TIAC. I am in process of leaving TIAC because I have
become so disappointed in the level of service.
Shore does offer an unlimited telnet shell account for $10/month.
I have one of those, and I'm very very happy with it.
Chuck Demas
Needham, Mass.
--
Eat Healthy | _ _ | Nothing would be done at all,
Stay Fit | @ @ | If a man waited to do it so well,
Die Anyway | v | That no one could find fault with it.
de...@tiac.net | \___/ | http://www.tiac.net/users/demas
Jonathon Alsop
>Unfortunately, World and Shore do not offer unlimited dialup
>accounts, they are metered.
Fortunately, World and Shore do not offer unlimited dialup accounts. That
way, you can get the service you need by paying for it. For instance, an
office full of people can all share one World Gold account for access, and
each person can have a private mail box. Most "unlimited" service will not
allow sharing, for obvious reasons.
Unlimited service puts the customer in the very bad position of not having
any leverage no matter how much they're willing to spend. Near where I grew
up in southern Ohio, there was an "all you can eat" restaurant with the
planet's worst food. Even if you went in there with a $100 bill, you
couldn't buy a good meal. This is the same way I feel about "unlimited."
Jonathon
--
Jonathon Alsop jal...@world.com
The World: Director of Web Services http://www.std.com/web
617-739-0202 (main) 617-739-4927 (direct)
AMH
http://www.rcn.com/internet/ I find that they offer unlimited access for $19.95/month, and also bundle in a few software packages,
and access to 30,000 news groups.
I should say that I have never used this service, but my friends do with no complaints. Given the recent shenanigans of a few of
the less-than-full service companies I suspect that I may find myself subscribing to them in the near future.
brig...@bound.com wrote in message <36ADE659...@bound.com>...
>Hi,
>
>I'll be relocating to Brighton from out of state, and would appreciate
>some inputs on selecting an ISP. Looking for a home 56K model dialup
>service that is speedy, has reliable email and good volume in the few
>generic subscribed newsgroups. $20/month unlimited use. Good web hosting
>will be nice, but not required.
>
>Shore and Ultranet have been recommended in this newsgroup. How do they
>compare to the national ISPs such as Mindspring, ATT, and heavens
>forbid, AOL? By the way, I can't locate the pricing information or a 800
>number in the Ultranet website. Please help if possible.
>
Lee
<brig...@bound.com> wrote in message
news:36ADE659...@bound.com...
>Shore and Ultranet have been recommended in this newsgroup. How do
they
>compare to the national ISPs such as Mindspring, ATT,
My fiance and I have both had bad experiences with AT&T Worldnet,
mostly because of busy signals. Bell Atlantic is always a couple of
years behind the curve on modems, and I'm not sure they've even got
v90 by now.
I've heard good things about Ultranet and Shore.
Avoid TIAC unless you are into paying extra to satisfy your
masochism.
Lee
Brian Bay
>
> Hi,
>
> I'll be relocating to Brighton from out of state, and would appreciate
> some inputs on selecting an ISP. Looking for a home 56K model dialup
> service that is speedy, has reliable email and good volume in the few
> generic subscribed newsgroups. $20/month unlimited use. Good web hosting
> will be nice, but not required.
Welcome!
I honestly doubt you'll find a good service (reliable anyway) for $20 a month
unless you go with Erols.
> Shore and Ultranet have been recommended in this newsgroup. How do they
> compare to the national ISPs such as Mindspring, ATT, and heavens
> forbid, AOL? By the way, I can't locate the pricing information or a 800
> number in the Ultranet website. Please help if possible.
There is also world.std.com in Brookline which is a stones through from
Brighton. Having used them, I'm proud to recommend them to my friends. Their
human number is (617) 739-0202 to set up an account you call (617) 739-WRLD.
check out http://world.std.com .
> What is the quality of the telephone lines in Brighton?
Probably no worse than anywhere else.
> Thanks.
--Cheers,
Brian
--
Brian Bay <owner-m...@blu.org> http://www.blu.org/macwoburn
MacWoburn Mirror Site http://people.ne.mediaone.net/babay/macwoburn
<ba...@mediaone.net> <bria...@bostonbbs.org> ICQ#7325144
Betsy Schwartz
Shore.Net and this is As Good as It Gets.
It's not cheap, but I have unlimited access to a high-quality service, and
that's the best of both worlds. Plus, as a bonus, I never have to switch
ISP's!
A hidden cost of going with a cheap ISP is that you *do* have to move so
frequently. None of these $10 or $20 all-you-can-eat places manage to stick
around for very long. I think it's a pyramid scheme - they keep signing up
new customers to fund the existing service but they can't possibly afford
to expand and maintain any sort of quality.
Price, customer support, quality service - pick two out of three.
--
bet...@shore.net http://www.shore.net/~betsys
bet...@cs.umb.edu http://www.cs.umb.edu/~betsys
If this looks funny the baby is trying to help me type!
Craig Shrimpton
Betsy Schwartz wrote in message ...
>A hidden cost of going with a cheap ISP is that you *do* have to move so
>frequently. None of these $10 or $20 all-you-can-eat places manage to stick
>around for very long. I think it's a pyramid scheme - they keep signing up
Most of the low cost ISPs do it either for cash flow to fund something else
or to make themselves "buy-out bait" for bigger ISPs. This is a common
business model in many businesses. In the ISP business it's particularly
prevalent.
-Craig
Betsy Schwartz
connection (it's $49/mo if you don't have MediaOne cable tv) so it really
was a no-brainer.
Brian Bay
>
> Same here. We replaced a $43/month phone line with a $39/mo cable modem
> connection (it's $49/mo if you don't have MediaOne cable tv) so it really
> was a no-brainer.
I don't think that M1X (Mediaone Express) serves Brighton. I believe that's
serviced by Cablevision of Boston which I'm not sure if they have Cable modem
service but I highly recommend M1X if you can get it. Its very nice.
Speaking for myself. I've found mail and news to be reliable on M1X but
appearently, this isn't the case with others.
Brian Charles Kohn
> The access comes through the cable company over the cable
> wires (it can be 40 something or 50 something a month depending on
> what level of cable service you already have, if any). Shore is just
> used as a telnet only account, news server, possibly mail, etc.
> Basically, you use mediaone for the pipe, and shore for everything
> else (at least that's the way most people do it).
Does that mean that you don't get email and a news server with MediaOne?
Also, how do you send mail and receive news using the configuration you
outlined. My understanding is that smtp and nntp must come from within
Shore.net's network.
--
Brian Charles Kohn
"Hope, not fear, is the greatest advocate of action."
Josh Brandt
In article <36AF7A11...@nospam.no>,
Brian Charles Kohn <bic...@nospam.no> wrote:
>Does that mean that you don't get email and a news server with MediaOne?
Yes, but they aren't the most amazing things in the world. MediaOne is good
at supplying a nice zippy connection, and less good at supplying services.
>Also, how do you send mail and receive news using the configuration you
>outlined. My understanding is that smtp and nntp must come from within
>Shore.net's network.
You may have to check your mail before using smtp. You also could do what I
do, and just set your outgoing mail to smtp.ne.mediaone.net and use that as
an outgoing server, and just receive mail at shore.net.
I think the original poster, though, was describing a shell account at
shore.net. This may not be ideal for everyone. If you're into unix, it's a
good way to go (you get the best of both worlds-- a fast connection for
toys, and a shell account for useful things 8), but if you're not, it's
probably not for you...
Josh
--
...said it was heaven just to breathe your air Severed Heads
J. Brandt - mu...@sidehack.gweep.net
Marc Dashevsky
> Betsy Schwartz wrote:
> >
> > Same here. We replaced a $43/month phone line with a $39/mo cable modem
> > connection (it's $49/mo if you don't have MediaOne cable tv) so it really
> > was a no-brainer.
>
> I don't think that M1X (Mediaone Express) serves Brighton. I believe that's
> serviced by Cablevision of Boston which I'm not sure if they have Cable modem
> service but I highly recommend M1X if you can get it. Its very nice.
>
> Speaking for myself. I've found mail and news to be reliable on M1X but
> appearently, this isn't the case with others.
M1X mail and news have improved to an astonishing degree over the past
year (mail) and three months (news), but it will take a long time for me
to overcome my memories of the horrendous experiences of people posting
in the M1X newsgroups who were relying solely on M1X for mail back then.