In computer news this week, 11/13/2001

In computer news this week, 11/15/2001

The problems with ISP's - internet service providers - and the ongoing search for one that just works consistently

Early this year I switched internet providers from America Online, which is now the largest provider, to Earthlink which is rated # 2 or #3. I had so many bad experiences with AOL and think it is such a bad and out of control service that I can't recommend it to any serious users.

I had even filed a complaint with the Washington State Attorney General's office against AOL, who merely forwarded my complaint letter to AOL, and an AOL spokesman replied back in a letter that said "Gee, we're not aware of any of our other 25 million users having any similar problems to what Mr. Delaney complains about, so it must be him, and not us." Then our Attorney General's office forwarded this Aol response letter back to me, and said that they considered the matter closed. Our tax dollars at work .... what a consumer watchdog agency ....

Earthlink has worked better for me than Aol, and I particularly like their anti-spam filters, which filter out most of the junk email that I was being inundated with on AOL. For any AOL users listening, AOL sets its defaults so that you get spammed mercilessly from AOL itself and companies it has marketing arrangements with, but you can go into your marketing preferences under MY AOL and turn this off.

I access Earthlink with a dialup connection from the tiny town I live in, and for serious internet access I use an AT&T DSL connection at a company I work with in Spokane, which actually seems to run much faster than advertised - we keep checking the actual throughput on an internet site that checks the actual speed of connections, but it's not as fast as the cable @home service some of my clients are using.

Most of the problems I've had with Earthlink have been accessing the service, but again overall it's better than my AOL access was. It's curious that sometimes Earthlink seems to be unable to connect with its own website, and I have always had to disconnect and sign on again.

The most aggravating thing recently has been Earthlink's "Mailcheck!" Voice message I keep getting when I log on, but then there's no email in my mailbox, and anyone who has ever used email can probably relate to the frustration you feel when you are expecting email, want to get email, are told you have email, but there's no email in your box.

It has been my experience with all the ISP's I've had, and observed - that they never admit they're having problems. You as a user know they're having problems, fellow users of the same service tell you they're having the same problems you're having, but the Isp company never admits problems.

So you either live with them, or switch; going though the pain of having to change your email address again; notify the people you email, hopefully find a way to convert your address book and favorite places automatically to your newest ISP service, and maybe even have to change your website hosting.

I'm not at that point with Earthlink, but I keep signing on and hearing the Mailcheck! voice message, but there's no email. I finally tried signing in on another one of my Earthlink account names, and saw that I did have mail under that name. And then when I signed back on under my primary account name again, I didn't get that Mailcheck! Message. Could it be they have a glitch in their email program? Stay tuned for what I find out, but one's thing for sure - just like the old Memorex tv ad - they'll never tell.

For Raw Bytes, This is Frank Delaney

POB 222 Spangle, Wa 99031 (509)245-3736 624-7230