[ale] BellSouth/ATT DSL

[Thompson Freeman]

On 06/24/2007 03:40:12 PM, Michael B. Trausch wrote:
> On Sun, 2007-06-24 at 14:55 -0400, aaron wrote:
> 
> > Despite the repeated incompetent and innexcusable insistence
> of
> > B$hATT that you must use Mafia$oft broken windows and
> intersnot
> > exploiter to set up your DSL, everything they are saying is a
> totally
> > fraudulent lie and you need nothing of the sort. All you need
> is the
> > account ID and password.
> 
> 
> It seems that IAPs say that Windows is "required" because they
> won't
> support anything else.  Strangely, if I call up Comcast and
> tell them
> that I have Ubuntu when they ask me what version of Windows I
> am running
> they are very quick to blame my software (even if 40 minutes of
> pre-call
> testing---or the cable modem itself---shows that the fault lies
> with
> Comcast's network).  They've even blamed my Internet access
> woes on
> Ubuntu when their network was in an utter state of outage,
> which is a
> bit outrageous to me.
> 
> Of course, since Ubuntu validates as Genuine Windows, I suppose
> it isn't
> technically lying to say that I am using Windows XP... in any
> event, if
> I call them up and tell them that I am running Windows, they'll
> actually
> talk to me.  Sometimes I get lucky and get someone who actually
> knows a
> thing or two about computers and operating systems, and
> possibly even
> networking, and I can tell them exactly what I have done, what
> hasn't
> changed, and then have them do tests to try to figure things
> out.
> 
> Thankfully, I don't have trouble with my Comcast service
> often.
> Unfortunately, when I do, my friend that works for Comcast is
> usually
> off work and cannot be of assistance; hence my issues dealing
> with the
> remainder of technical support.

I just had some thunder showers in the area knock me off of  
Speakeasy's connection. I started with a statement that I had  
power cycled the dls modem & that the connection lights were  
flickering in the pattern indicating no connection, the tech  
started comming down the line from their end. It took a longer  
power cycle, and a reprovisioning cycle on his end, but the  
whole process took five minutes. And this may have been the  
weakest tech I've delt with so far with them.

Last year lightning took out a tree in front of the house.  
Granted the tech was on the tail end of a double shift, but the  
error message he got attempting to find my equipement from his  
end left him with the giggles. By then the whole experience was  
getting pretty surreal anyhow and laughing with him was better  
than crying over fried equipment (of which there was plenty).  
YMMV.

I happen to like the people at Speakeasy that I've delt with.  
They generally seem to know what they are doing, and are quite  
up front about what is going on.