After trying several ISPs, I settled on AT&T WorldNet because of its pricing, customer support, nationwide presence and, I thought, reliability. Well, the pricing, customer service and nationwide presence are okay. As for reliability ...
Two or three months ago it was impossible to access WorldNet's Washington, D.C. node for about a week. After a couple of days I demanded to be able to use the 1-800 number (which is not free) to access the Internet until the problem was solved. AT&T agreed.
A few weeks ago, it was impossible to access the node for several days. This time AT&T didn't want to provide a credit for accessing the 1-800 number. I guess they've been swamped with disgruntled customers credits. Also, when I spoke to a customer support supervisor he (1) said I should call back in a few days (!) if the node was still unavailable and (2) didn't have the phone number of WorldNet's headquarters and didn't even know the city where it was located. Maybe I should revise my opinion about WorldNet customer support! This morning I can access the Web, but the POP3 mail server for Washington, D.C. is down for "scheduled maintenance," according to an AT&T customer support person. Scheduled maintenance at 9:00 a.m. -- when everyone wants to check e-mail? Either WorldNet doesn't know the first thing about scheduling or this is "unscheduled" scheduled maintenance. AT&T says I should try to log on in about an hour.
This also doesn't bode well for the wireless industry (to segue into my favorite topic!). AT&T Wireless is pushing hard to promote "smart" phones and CDPD, especially access to the Internet and intranet using Unwired Planet's "microbrowser" software.
It's certainly logical that AT&T Wireless would want to team with WorldNet to offer some sort of bundled wireless/Internet package. But considering WorldNet's reliability, at least in my area of the country, I wouldn't recommend using WorldNet -- especially for any mission critical messages.
Alan A. Reiter Editor, Wireless Internet & Mobile Computing reiter@wirelessinternet.com Phone: 301-951-0385
------- End of Forwarded Message
From: "Geoff Goodfellow"
AT&T is not the only one with woes, check out the IBM Global Network at
http://www.ibm.net/net/status.html
Network Status as of: Nov 15 11:26 AM (EST) (GMT: Nov 15 16:26 )
Our mail servers are currently behind in delivering email. We apologize for
the inconvenience and are working to correct the problem.
This has been going on for about a day, and if you read their usenet
newsgroups (available only to ibmnet subscribers) on
news:ibmnet.services.info and ibmnet.general you'll see this is more of a
regular occurance than a one off event.
Many users have been sounding off with woes of delayed mail, news, dial
node problems, etc. IBM seems to have been having many of the same
problems as AT&T, NETCOM, et al. -- but for some reason have been able to
avoid the limelight of the press.
Are there money problems at IBM? Apparently, one would gather from the
report below, IBM is having trouble finding the cash to buy the hardware to
fix their problems???
On the IBMNET.GENERAL news group, 11/4/96 "Status Report":
What is Happening Behind the scenes
Specifications have been completed to upgrade all news servers
(CA & NY). The request still needs to be approved, money allocated
and hardware ordered. This is not a "quick fix", but a long term
solution, which will provide for easy expansion as the service grows.
In the short term, additional hardware with software changes are
being implemented to improve the service.
Concurrently evaluation of other news server software is in progress.
These evaluations are currently in the ALPHA stage of testing, early
evaluation has identified some problems that we are working to
overcome.
We hope to move to BETA test once the problems have been corrected.
Please continue to address all concerns and problems to the
IGN Help Desk.
Further status reports will be posted in ibmnet.news.admin.
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ADVANTIS - The US Provider of the IBM Global Network
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