I'm on my son's computer with MSN, and he says I better make my posts quickly because it often just knocks you off line inadvertantly. Similar to what I had with AOL and why I caneled that. Since the fold of the Excite@Home server for AT&T I've had my serive knocked out 3 times with hour waits on their sevice phone lines to get back on. Besides, they are overpriced at $35/mo. + $10/mo. for the cable modem. Enough. Just canceled my account moments ago.

So, I'm off line as soon as this MSN server takes it's periodic hike (my son left for school, and of course wasn't about to leave me with his password to get back on ) - and until I can get a new service.

I would really appreciate recommendations, particularly for west side Portland metro area use. I haven't talked to Mark yet. He has been fairly satisfied with Earthlink. What other recommendations do you have for a value priced internet service that is reasonably reliable and has ease of use (if there is such a thing)?

Thanks much people.

Edit: P.S. - I also don't have any e-mail service in the interim.

RT

[ 12-07-2001: Message edited by: RT ]

If you can get it, Verizon DSL. I have not had one outage in over 6 months. I have also heard reports of bad customer service. Well, no problem there either. Download and upload speeds are almost what they advertise too. Very close. Their basic package is only $39.95 a month to.

Good luck.

Maybe try a search on google for ISP's?

I think DSL is Avaiable as long as your location is in DSL range. You will have to call your local Telephone Co. and they can test and tell you over the phone if you are. DSL is your only other option that will give you high speed access like your cable for about the same price. You could check into the Satilite stuff too. I think its a little more spendy. I would go with a local ISP, not MSN AOL Earth Link Compuserve and so on. I work for an ISP and we do service Qwest DSL in the Portland area. So you should first call Qwest and see if you are in range. Your other option is just to go back to Dial up access. After being used to the speed it may take a bit to get used too again but its usually pretty reliable if your not using one of the big ISP's mentioned above. Hope that helps,

Jeff

The Excite buyout is happening quickly. My buddy has cable and lost his service with the closing of Excite. And they sent him a letter saying too bad ho hum bye. 3 days later his service is back on and he recieved an email stating that AT&T had already made the buyout and the switch and that his new cable provider will increase the cable speed from 512Kbps to 1.5Mbps which is a huge jump in speed for no additional cost, effectively making DSL a totall rip off. And if you buy your cable modem you only pay 29.99 a month and you can cancell anytime unlike DSLs required 1 year service contract at 49.99 a month at 512Kbps(you do get the modem for free though). And if you know what a ping is, then cable is the ONLY choice. And Cable is available in alot more areas than DSL.

I have Qwest 256 DSL (running about 300). I was with the local ISP Teleport, but they were consumed by Earthlink. Although national, I have not had many problems that weren't resolved pretty quickly. You're not going to save any money with DSL. You still pay the ISP $20/mo minimum and $39/mo for the DSL line.

I drool over the cable speeds but am now kind of glad I didn't have it available here. I imagine you have to show some pretty solid patience because of the conversion from @home to @attbi. Although inconvenient and frustrating at the moment, I'd still strongly consider it if they offered it in my area. I figure once they get the bugs ironed out, ATT has the horsepower to support the money losing cable ISP game longer than @home did.

AuntyM,

A little trick for you and other dialups out there. This is what I did before I got cable.

I would open up a second browser window and go to www.bloomberg.com . Since it automatically does a refresh every 60 seconds, I would never get the hangup warning. I also set my default to hangup after 20 minutes of inactivity there by ensuring it usually wouldn't happen. MSN would still boot me every now and then, but it worked most days. I would let that browser just run in the background.

Good luck.

Pitch and FFF,

I was with Excite @home and was down Sat/Sun, back up on Monday on ATTs new system. It wasn't a buyout, they were already building their own network and were ready to turn up WA for the most part. Speed is kind of a bummer. W/ @home, I was commonly running at 3,700kps (no, thats not a typo!!). Much higher than advertised. With ATT's new network, they state up to 1,500 (or 1.5, same diff) but www.dslreports.com shows me only at about 1,100, about 1/3rd the speed. Still better than dial or dsl but before it was unreal.

[ 12-07-2001: Message edited by: Saltine ]

Steve, Steve, Steve,

IF only you would have listened to me the first time you would not have this problem.

V E R I Z O N D S L A N D I S P

I typed slowly to make it easier for you to read it....

FB

I'm sticking with ATT til the bitter end (if it comes). I have experienced very little interruption of service. They are giving me 2 days credit for every day off line. Once you get used to a cable modem, dial-up service is hard to tolerate. And of course you get accustomed to having a constant connection without occupying a phone line. Also I have heard cable is faster than DSL.

As far as dial-up ISP's, I would recommend EarthLink.

Hi Saltine, are you sure your actuall connection speed was 3.7MBps? or 3.7Mbps(3700). I hate to talk Bits and Bytes cuz this crap is addicting and i could talk forever about it... but if it is 3.7MBps then you had a hell of a connection. And i'd hunt down the bass tard that ruined it for ya. But 3.7Mbps is about the same as they are advertising now(around 1.5MBps) But higher speeds are common i guess even with the standard 512KBps. Anyways it's beats my few k connection on AOL, but i haven't had the boot syndrome like i hear about. I stay on for hours at a time. I think it's a stability issue. Well one second of advice. 56k users turn your error controll off and back off your recieve buffer one notch from fastest, it will help.

I used to get so angry with AOL and MSN that finally I saw a deal I couldn't pass up. I got in with my server a couple years ago when it was trying to attract customers. I pay $4.95 per month for unlimited service and the server actually is pretty good. They now offer the same service for $9.95 per month. I'd tell you who it is but then the server would get jammed up with new subscribers and then I would be screwed.....

FFF,

My old connection was 3700 kbps. Not techy enough to know the diff between MBps & Mbps so let me some it up with, it used to be much faster than it is. If they are advertising 1.5 MBps and that is roughly the same as 3700 kbps, they're not being very acurate or my area isn't enjoying the full speed yet. My load times have definitely slowed and dslreports confirmed what I thought I noticed. Either way, wouldn't trade it for dial or dsl. I don't recall @home ever going down in the 8 months I had it, and I work from home! Hope that record stands with attbi.

Steve

I have MSN through Costco. $11.95 a month no problems in 2 years.

Thanks for all the feedback. I need something - my son wouldn't let me on here until now and I'll get about a 15 minute stint on here.

I called my phone co. Verizon and they don't have DSL into our new neighborhood yet. So no DSL for awhile. The consensus opinions of computer store salespeople was that of the big servers Earthlink is the best way to go. The cheaper local servers are OK but they too often get bought out by bigger companies and you have to change everything around.

But ... what I found out is that since my son is on a 3 year contract with MSN (part of a $400 rebate deal at Best Buy for his computer) that we can get the new MSN 7.0 CD to download on both our computers and I can then network the 2 'puters so I get MSN for free. We have to go back to using both our phone lines when we both are online though. But free is a good price. They said the new software has less probs, and we will try those tricks like the refresh thing. I hope to get it done this weekend. Thanks again. - Steve

Steve, go with Earthlink. I have had no problems with them, usually real easy to get connected. I leave mine online all the time, usually get disconnected about every four or five days. $21.95 a month for unlimited use and something like 8 mailboxes. I also have Weatherbug going all the time so that helps keep the connection. Good luck.

Tony

I use pacifier ((735-3700)vancouver) they are local so I can pay by check and there prices are competitive and I have not had any serious downtime.
Now on another note msn and aol in my opinion are very clunky, slow, and the customer support (despite what any ad tells you)is the worst in the country.
just one fishin dudes opinion
now quit worry'n and go get a fish

Hey RT ,
We were having major problems getting on & more trouble staying connected. 3 servers & 2 'puters later, I was talking on the landline to a "help unit" workin' for Juno. (Juno has worked well for us). Even though our 'puter was new,the driver for the p/ctel micromodem was outdated.(6 mo. old haha) I got the p/ctel site, downloaded new driver software. Poof! No more problem! E me for more info on this if you like. It's the least I can do after the low vis' paint tip. (gawd that's funny) bfwa1@juno.com

Jeff

I signed up for Quest DSL over a week ago and am still waiting for the software modem filters.My wife was talked into the package but what I hear from you guys ,it is not a bad service although a little over priced.I didn't realizeI I was going to have to pay MSN and Quest?I suppose MSN will want access to either my checking or credit acounts.won't do that again.I will wait for ATT to get there ducks back ina row and go for them.One of the big factors with us is the billing,I will not give anybody access to my acounts again,not unless they want to give me access to thiers!

If you plan on keeping your isp for a year and you can afford it, just pay for 12 months at a time. One check, no bank access. You also get a small discount (I think 10%). Also if they raise rates, you are covered for the balance of your year.

I actually talked about paying for the year today.I also did some checking and msn and qwest are bundled together with this plan.I just am getting impatient now.I keep hearing that dsl isn't a bad way to go.

If you can't get cable, then go for the DSL. It is at least 5 times faster than a 56k modem and it's only money. Once you go fast, you'll never go back.

I have Qwest DSL and Earthlink. I don't think Qwest can require you to use MSN. MSN is the lowest rated ISP in Consumer Reports a while back. Earthlink is in the top 3.