[PLUG] was DCA now Speakeasy

[Jeff Abrahamson <jeff@purple.com>]

Since ISP choice gets frequent coverage here and since this is all
archived, I thought it important that I note that I no longer feel DCA
is such a great ISP.  When things go right they're still quite good:
fixed IP, reverse mapped, good uptime until recently.  But when things
have gone wrong they've been abominable where once they were
exceptional.  I've seen two outages recently.  My neighbor, using
Speakeasy, called S tech support and was immediately told (network
status recording) that there was an outage covering a broad region.
When I called DCA support, the recording in both instances said no
problems, even 12 hours into the outage.  The system email status list
never mentioned it either time.

Meanwhile, tech support insisted on having me verify connectivity with
a Windows laptop before they would escalate my support instance to
level 2 or to Covad.  (Is this because Windows or laptops are more
reliable than solid state routers?)  One tech with whom I spoke said
that they won't support me at all if I have a home network, although
they don't mind my having one.  Another said they don't mind my using
linux, they just won't support me if I do.  By "support" they mean
accept that there might be a problem.

In any case, DCA support used to be able to confirm ATM connectivity
to my modem, so that at least they could say "Yes, we believe the line
works" or "Ah, I see that it doesn't work."  But now they want this
rigamarole when, in fact, they apparently (based on Speakeasy) could
simply know that there's a broad outage and say so.

My Speakeasy install should complete this week.  The service is more
price competitive anyway.  I'll cancel DCA at that time.  Since these
two outages have affected me on DCA and my neighbor on Speakeasy, I
don't expect my actual uptime to change.  But I do expect to have a
more pleasant downtime experience because of the change.

-- 
 Jeff

 Jeff Abrahamson  <http://jeff.purple.com/>          +1 215/837-2287
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