The AT&T Broadband Rant

The saga begins perhaps three or four months ago, when Excite@HOME was still alive.

I switched from dialup to AT&T cable because of a pressing need for bandwidth. I ordered basic cable--service tech is supposed to come out, run the cable line, hook up the modem, and leave.

Installation tech gets there. Nice, competent fellow, knows what he's doing. Hooks up Piece O' [-peep-] Surfboard modem, but it won't connect. Cable TV works fine, but modem doesn't; ergo, modem is probably flaky. Hey, it's a Surfboard.

He has ye olde kick-ass 3com sharkfin modem right there, but <i>he can't install it</i> without a go-ahead from someone higher up in the command chain. Which--surprise--he can't get in touch with, since the lines are tied up. Apparently AT&T management doesn't believe in giving techs the power to do their fricking job.

Ok, so the tech can't do anything, and he has other appointments. He notes it on the service order, apologizes profusely, but he must leave. No problem, everything's cool, it's not his fault. A few hours later, the modem mysteriously starts working on its own, so we just let it be.

About a month ago, the modem loses the connection and doesn't get it back. We wonder what the hell is going on. Cable TV still works; modem must be flaky. We call tech support, get the standard "listed response", get elevated to level 2 support after a mere ten minutes. Hey, I <i>am</i> a fairly accomplished network tech.

We set up a service appointment to figure out what's wrong. Three hours later, modem starts working again.

Hmmm.

...oooookay. Might as well cancel the service call.

Four days ago, modem stops working AGAIN. Goes for hours without working. Call tech support, explain situation, set up a service call, ask for replacement modem. Earliest available timeslot is Sunday afternoon (tomorrow).

I think there's one word that sums up all my feelings at this point:

<b>FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK.</b>

Modem started working again yesterday. I'm keeping this service call on, though; i want a replacement modem already.

<pre>We now <b>return</b>(<font color=blue>-1</font color=blue> ) to an irregular program scheduler.</pre><p>

I signed up for attbi broadband, my modem was installed promptly, and 3 weeks ago they doubled my upload speed to 256k for free.


attbi rocks.


Must be like your luck with via eh crash?

The Cash Left In My Pocket,The BEST Benchmark

I use Shaw cable up here in Canada.
What is great is they don't cap bandwidth unless there's speed complaints.
So on an average day I can pull 1000KBs (kiloBYTES) down
and push about half that up.
My record is 1850KBs down.

Flame not, lest ye be phlegmed.

The service itself has been OK, at least while the cable modem was working. The bandwidth got capped to a mere 1.5Mbit when Excite@Home died, but it's still a good deal for the cost. I'm inclined to blame Motorola for all my troubles at this point, although AT&T could have handled things better.

I'm starting to think I should have pressed harder for the 3com sharkfin modem at the beginning. It now appears that 3com has stopped making cable modems, and most of the companies left manufacturing the things are just manufacturing them as cheap, almost disposable commodity items. Needless to say, I am annoyed.

<pre>We now <b>return</b>(<font color=blue>-1</font color=blue> ) to an irregular program scheduler.</pre><p>

ouch, I can't take limited access. somehow I tend to go over like 5+ times my limit and that cost an arm and a leg.

Total Activity Over Plan Limit: 15.2 GB
Total Bandwidth Activity Cost: $ 120.84

Lucky the limited and pay for it is not on yet, but it will be starting this month (but I'm finish with sympatico anyway, too much bs).

<font color=red>Got a silent setup, now I can hear myself thinking. hmm still silence</font color=red>