ms said:
What else didn't you like?
Do you mean about ELNK/MSPG, or about Copper.net?
For now, I'm guessing the latter. I don't have any long or interesting tales.
It mainly just surrounds that ten minute disconnect. It was the day after
doing a sign-up that I read the policy. I posted to their web board about it.
I did not use strong language, as I did in the thread here. Basically, I
asked how it is they expect us to always be able to finish reading a web
page, or netnews post, in less than ten minutes; and might they ever come
around to rethinking the policy into making the idle time-out period
something more reasonable, like 20 min. Also that day, I posted one other
question on their web board. An inquiry about the multiple email accounts
they advertised, whether those are real POP3 accounts each, or virtual.
My messages never appeared. I admit that I cannot rule out that there
might have been some technical failure on their end, but my essential
interpretation was otherwise. That is, the act of a moderator. I've got no
tolerance for that. Reminds me of AOL, and Zippo (Newsguy), and the like.
I never did dial into their network. When I set up my DUN connectoid, I got
"bad password" refusals. My config, the name and settings, were all correct,
and my belief is that they forgot to set the account to on. I had other ISPs
to use, so just set the matter aside. Later, since they were billing my CC,
eventually I got around to calling to get an official cancel. There was a
month charge of $10, and I pointed out that I had never once been able to log
in. They said that it was my duty to have called their tech line about that,
and refund was out of the question.
OK, it was the answer I expected. It's not like when you're out at local
store, where the customer is generally treated generously for any
misunderstandings. ISPs tend to be adamant about billing, no matter what.
Just I brought it up, to give them the chance. If they wanted the goodwill,
where I might come back and try them out some day. Then they could get that
by not billing me the $10 for a service I'd not once been able to use.
Instead, they answered: Adios, take a hike.
So, really, no extensively useful experience with them, that I can offer.
For my taste, I'd just not have signed up with them in the first place, had
I read about the 10-min idle disconnect policy. Even while software can
circumvent it, the policy bothers me.
MSPG, theirs was 30 minutes, a fair unit, and plus they only set it in during
periods when their was a load on the modem pools.
A longtime local ISP I had, they had no disconnect policy at all: they
expected us to use our own DUN connectoid settings for that. I use a 30
min inactivity timeout on my connectoids. The fact of not having to run
software to deal with an ISP hanging me up, it results in the convenience
of having my local settings functional such that I don't have to worry
about always remembering to log off.
My current ISP is without limits of any kind. Not idle disconnects, nor
session lengths, nor monthly usages. It might cost me an extra .25 or
whatever a day over a discount ISP, but it is worth it to me not to have
think about those sorts of time-numbers.
.. . .
Mike, say you do decide to proceed with signing Copper.net. First, of course
you never want to do one of those year-long commitments. Not with an ISP you
don't know. And not even with an ISP you do know, since service quality can
abruptly bomb out.
Second, they have offers around. Like, three months for a $1? I believe
current? If you google something like "copper.net free months," then you
might be able to find a coupon code or whatever it is. At a $1 investment,
it might be worth it for your test drive, even if they prove to be totally
sucky.
