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Excite Could Go Dark On Friday
robvasquez writes: "According to this CNET article, excite @home could be pulling the plug on cable modem subscribers. What's your providers back up plan? Could milions of trolls and Nimda spreaders be taken off line?"
Cox@home is staying up, they're just going to be dropping the "@home" part.
In Canada - Rogers cable is currently switching to their own servers.
-->If Linux was written by Bill Gates & Co. - no one would want to switch !!
So my @home email wont work after, Whats the uptime on Hotmail like? In all fairness, Shaw did a good job of taking over @home high speed internet, except for the email addresses. I did not notice a change, except for their mass messages telling me that my inbox will forever be silent. I'm guessing that becuase of this there will be a LOT of lost packets out there. Any idea's if this will affect the internet? or just weekly email messages?
I signed up with Covad!
Duh! It has instant messaging built IN!!!
Some of us slashdot readers are going to be caught in that too you know.
It's not all "trolls and Nimda spreaders" who happen to be on @home, and could be screwed.
blah.
As you may be aware, Excite@Home, our service provider, recently
filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. In order to continue providing
you the quality and reliable high-speed cable Internet service
that you expect, AT&T has submitted a proposal to purchase the
Excite@Home network. If AT&T is able to purchase and manage the
Excite@Home network, there will be no immediate change to your
current service. If the network purchase is approved, we will
notify you via your AT&T@Home email account as soon as possible.
As a precautionary measure, AT&T Broadband also has been building
its own network and service in the event that AT&T is unable to
purchase the Excite@Home network. If the proposal to purchase the
Excite@Home network is not approved, your service may be temporarily
interrupted and it will be necessary to move your service to a new
AT&T Broadband network.
In any event, AT&T Broadband is deeply committed to providing you
the best cable Internet service possible and communicating any
upcoming changes. Be sure to frequently check the "Announcements
and Updates" section of our Web site for the latest information
about your service:
http://help.broadband.att.com/
In the meantime, please check your AT&T Broadband email account(s)
on a daily basis. Doing this will automatically save your email
to your hard drive as well as ensure timely receipt of important
future communications from AT&T Broadband. Also, if you use our
Personal WebSpace feature, we recommend you backup your personal
web page(s) by copying it to a diskette, CD, or to your computer
hard drive.
If migrating your service to the AT&T Broadband network and service
becomes necessary, we will call to notify you of the migration timing.
A message will be left on your voicemail or recorder if no one is
available at the time of the call. As a precaution, we are
providing you the following instructions, which will enable you
to connect your computer to the new AT&T Broadband network. Again,
you will only need to follow these steps in the event you receive a
call from AT&T Broadband instructing you to do so.
1. Restart your computer to begin the process.
2. Open your Internet browser. You should be automatically
sent to an AT&T Broadband welcome page. This page includes
instructions on how to download software used to change
your computer settings for the new network. If the welcome
page does not automatically appear when you open your browser,
please go to
http://newuser.attbi.com/
(This website will only be available if the service migration
is necessary).
3. Follow the instructions on the Web site to run the Automated
Configuration Utility (or you can choose to change your
computer settings manually).
4. The software will automatically change your Outlook Express
email client, your Internet Explorer settings, and configure
your computer for the new AT&T Broadband network.
Information on how to manually change your settings for
other email clients and Internet browsers such as Netscape
Communicator and Netscape Navigator can be found at
http://help.broadband.att.com/
5. You can now surf the Internet and use email on the new
AT&T Broadband Internet network and service.
If migrating your service to the new network is necessary, certain
aspects of your service would change. Your current homepage would
feature new content and your current email address domain name
would change. Please note that your username would remain the same.
For example, jsmith@home.com would change to jsmith@attbi.com.
If service changes are necessary, a detailed description of all
changes will be provided at
http://help.broadband.att.com/
in the Announcements and Updates section.
Whether the Excite@Home network is purchased or your service is
migrated to the new AT&T Broadband network, your Subscriber
Agreement, which outlines the general Terms and Conditions of your
service will change. You will be able to view the amended and
restated Subscriber Agreement that will apply to the AT&T Broadband
Internet service at
http://help.broadband.att.com/
Your continued use of the service will constitute your acceptance
of the amended and restated AT&T Broadband Internet Subscriber
Agreement.
If you need assistance, visit us online at
http://help.broadband.att.com/
to chat with a customer care specialist. Please remember, AT&T
Broadband will call you if any action is required on your part.
While we realize these potential changes may cause some inconvenience,
please be assured that we are doing everything possible to avoid
any service disruptions. However, in the event the service is
disrupted during a migration, you will receive a credit for those
days of interrupted service.
We are working hard to provide you with the best high-speed cable
Internet service possible. We appreciate your patience and your
business.
Sincerely,
Susan K. Marshall
Senior Vice President
Advanced Broadband Services
Please do not click "Reply" to respond to this message. AT&T Broadband feels it is imperative that we communicate pertinent information such as this to our customers. In addition, you may receive promotional messages highlighting special offers. If you wish to change your email address or unsubscribe from receiving promotional messages from AT&T Broadband, click here.
I really hope so. Too bad about the innocents that will be taken down with them, but that's the price you pay.
My provider's backup plan (Cox, Orange County) is to switch over to their own equipment/people sometime next year. I certainly hope Excite doesn't pull the plug before then or I'd up the proverbial creek without a paddle.
Strangely enough, they have been silent about this
save for one e-mail from them saying that service
would not be interrupted. Somehow I don't think
they're being totally honest with their customers.
I'm going to www.dslreports.com and seeing if I can
get DSL. At least if I switch away from Comcast@HOME,
I won't have to worry about really draconian AUPs.
Fialar
I got an email from AT&T yesterday:
Dear *************,
As you may be aware, Excite@Home, our service provider, recently filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. In order to continue providing you the quality and reliable high-speed cable Internet service that you expect, AT&T has submitted a proposal to purchase the Excite@Home network. If AT&T is able to purchase and manage the Excite@Home network, there will be no immediate change to your current service. If the network purchase is approved, we will notify you via your AT&T@Home email account as soon as possible.
As a precautionary measure, AT&T Broadband also has been building its own network and service in the event that AT&T is unable to purchase the Excite@Home network. If the proposal to purchase the Excite@Home network is not approved, your service may be temporarily interrupted and it will be necessary to move your service to a new AT&T Broadband network.
In any event, AT&T Broadband is deeply committed to providing you the best cable Internet service possible and communicating any upcoming changes. Be sure to frequently check the "Announcements and Updates" section of our Web site for the latest information about your service: http://help.broadband.att.com/
In the meantime, please check your AT&T Broadband email account(s) on a daily basis. Doing this will automatically save your email to your hard drive as well as ensure timely receipt of important future communications from AT&T Broadband. Also, if you use our Personal WebSpace feature, we recommend you backup your personal web page(s) by copying it to a diskette, CD, or to your computer hard drive.
If migrating your service to the AT&T Broadband network and service becomes necessary, we will call to notify you of the migration timing. A message will be left on your voicemail or recorder if no one is available at the time of the call. As a precaution, we are providing you the following instructions, which will enable you to connect your computer to the new AT&T Broadband network. Again, you will only need to follow these steps in the event you receive a call from AT&T Broadband instructing you to do so.
1. Restart your computer to begin the process.
2. Open your Internet browser. You should be automatically sent to an AT&T Broadband welcome page. This page includes instructions on how to download software used to change your computer settings for the new network. If the welcome page does not automatically appear when you open your browser, please go to http://newuser.attbi.com/ (This website will only be available if the service migration is necessary).
3. Follow the instructions on the Web site to run the Automated Configuration Utility (or you can choose to change your computer settings manually).
4. The software will automatically change your Outlook Express email client, your Internet Explorer settings, and configure your computer for the new AT&T Broadband network. Information on how to manually change your settings for other email clients and Internet browsers such as Netscape Communicator and Netscape Navigator can be found at http://help.broadband.att.com/
5. You can now surf the Internet and use email on the new AT&T Broadband Internet network and service.
If migrating your service to the new network is necessary, certain aspects of your service would change. Your current homepage would feature new content and your current email address domain name would change. Please note that your username would remain the same. For example, jsmith@home.com would change to jsmith@attbi.com. If service changes are necessary, a detailed description of all changes will be provided at http://help.broadband.att.com/ in the Announcements and Updates section.
Whether the Excite@Home network is purchased or your service is migrated to the new AT&T Broadband network, your Subscriber Agreement, which outlines the general Terms and Conditions of your service will change. You will be able to view the amended and restated Subscriber Agreement that will apply to the AT&T Broadband Internet service at http://help.broadband.att.com/ Your continued use of the service will constitute your acceptance of the amended and restated AT&T Broadband Internet Subscriber Agreement.
If you need assistance, visit us online at http://help.broadband.att.com/ to chat with a customer care specialist. Please remember, AT&T Broadband will call you if any action is required on your part.
While we realize these potential changes may cause some inconvenience, please be assured that we are doing everything possible to avoid any service disruptions. However, in the event the service is disrupted during a migration, you will receive a credit for those days of interrupted service.
We are working hard to provide you with the best high-speed cable Internet service possible. We appreciate your patience and your business.
Sincerely,
Susan K. Marshall
Senior Vice President
Advanced Broadband Services
I bet bandwidth skyrockets on friday...everything will be moving a little bit faster. Only one problem, the p2p networks will probably have some pretty slim pickings.
However, I probably won't be affected in the least by this. There is NO broadband opportunities for Trout Run PA. No cable, no DSL, no ISDN, nothing! (unless you want to shell huge quantities of $$ out for a satellite system). So, I guess I will be stuck with 56k for a while.
The anti-salmon
If this really happens, it'll be interesting to see whether it show up in the Netcraft web server survey. Sircam, nimda and Code Red seem to have coincided with a rise in IIS installations at the expense of Apache :(( Could this be conclusive proof that there's no such thing as bad publicity?
"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free." -- Goethe
My provider, Shaw Cable, started making plans for this almost two years ago. They've been transistioning users to the new servers months. Yay for foresighted providers:)
I'd supply links but most Shaw customers visiting this site probably already know, and I'm feeling lazy.
========================================
Death will come, and will have your eyes
-- Pavese
I think @home going dark could be a really good thing. The ensuing clamor might be enough to motivate the gubment to monopolize Internet provision and bring it to everyone for a reasonable fee. Monopolies work for water, power, and sewage (to some extent), so why not Internet access? Bridge the rich-poor gap and bring the Internet to everyone. Monopolize it and make it reliable.
FYI, there are three Canadian providers of @Home's service. The biggest (at least in eastern Canada) is Rogers, which started up separate email servers on Friday (after two delays for more testing), and started up their separate web servers (AFAIK) about a week before that. The 2nd-largest, Shaw, wanted to separate itself about a year ago, and started switching web servers long before @Home even filed for Chp.11, and switched email services about 2 months ago. Cogeco switched it's web and email services about 1 month ago.
My other sig is funny!
the difference between Chapter 11 bankruptcy (where the court holds off the creditors while you submit a plan and work towards paying everything off and becoming profitable) and "going dark"???
No wonder so many dot.coms went tits-up
No one ever had to evacuate a city because the solar panels broke!
I'm hearing rumors that @Home is delibrately causing issues with customer account conversions at various cable offices. My fiance is a CSR, and she's been talking about how @Home's sytems are no longer removing modem records from the headends, and the regional General Manager is contantly on the phone bitching at them to fix it (and fast). Apparently every time they try to convert a customer, they issue the account close operation, and it returns successfully, but the customer's modem stays online. When they add the local record for the subscriber, their UBR is given the appropriate information and will accept the modems, but the customer has a 50/50 chance of the @Home UBR responding before theirs. Effectively keeping most customers on @Home's network.
You'd think that they were just having issues with their UBR, or maybe with their access to @Home's subscriber management system, but they are able to successfully add new customers to their own service just fine, and everything was going smoothly with conversions until just a week ago.
Could be @Home being a prick until the very last minute, could be a coincedence. I'm not apt to support one theory or the other, I'm just relaying what I hear.
Moderation: -1 Heresay! (lmao)
Excite@home is no doubt going bankrupt due to all those NATs.
Charter is the local cable provider, and their backup plan is to bring their own ISP in -- Pipeline. Well, one might have figured on that, but they seem determined that I should not forget for one waking moment that they're coming to save the day. I got an appointment with the installers to come to the house -- it's all set! So stop with the recorded messages on the phone, already!
According to this CNET article, excite @home could be pulling the plug on cable modem subscribers.
After going to the first ten thousand houses to unplug the modems, they'll probably just opt to throw some big switch.
Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
SERIOUSLY: I have Comcast@Home and do NOT want to lose my service. This is the best ISP that I've had (partly because of the speed). I waited for months to be able to get off of my 56k modem (which could only get ~21 due to the terrible phone lines), only to have it canceled in a few months? Just my luck. I am about 12x too far out for DSL and my only other option would be to go back to ISDN which is about 15x slower and costs easily 3x as much per month. I hope @home knows that there are many people like me who would be willing to pay an extra $5 or $10 per month if only I could keep my service. I have no other options. Let's review why:
I'm off to try to find the Judge's e-mail so that I can tell him of the situation he may put me and many others in. Of course hopefully the talks will work and none of this will happen, but with my luck...
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
All Your Base Are Up Your Ass!
is moving everyone to their own infrastructure since last week and they seem to hope they have everyone off by the end of this week.
:(
Only drawback of this: I lost my static IP
Michael
If you want to e-mail me, use my PGP Key.
Comcast seems to have confidence that there will be no interruption in service. AT&T is buying Excite@Home's broadband pieces, so of course they won't be worried. Since Comcast and Cox are major shareholders along with AT&T, there's plenty of squabbling because no one wants their customers to go dark.
Could milions of trolls and Nimda spreaders be taken off line?
Trolls? Is that what you're calling Windows users now?
I have Charter@Home, and they are in the process of switching everyone over to Charter Pipeline, their own network.
Rogers@Home is trying to convert like crazy for past few days, it's on the damn TV. You get a new email ending with @rogers.com but it is pissing awfully a lot of people.
I think if you call the tech support now, the wait time is around a couple of hours
kawai
Since AT&T is a majority shareholder and ALL of their Cable Subscribers rely on the @Home network, why would they let the network go tits up? In the letter they are sending out they say that they are building their own broadband network "just in case". Seems like a waste of time and money when they could just buy up @Home's fully functioning infrastructure for pennies on the dollar in bankruptcy court. Or maybe I am wrong and they can instantly pull another network the size of @home out of their arse.
This is great news. On friday, we can expect a drop in VBS worms, spam, and IIS attacks. Hooray!
-Lx?
We've been barraged for a couple months on Shaw @Home to set up new shaw.ca addresses.
I always looked on the cable company's as a bit more stable. The DSL were to dependant on someone else's infrastructure, while cable owned a lot of it. The DSL companys have been dropping left and right, and lately ive noticed the phone companies really pumping their service. I always wondered if the phone companies were jerking around the DSL providers to drive them out of business then clean up the pieces. Maybe cable companies are a bit dependant on the telcos at one point. id assume they would directly connect into the NAP's but who knows.
Oh yeah, that'll make things *so* much better. After all, they're world famous for running their projects more efficiently and staying under budget than companies can.
comcast took over the local cable company, and is forcing my ISP to stop providing cablemodem access. Choices are to stay with cable, and get comcast's crappy service which won't allow me any servers, go with sprint/earthlink dsl (yeah, right!), or stay with current ISP, but pay more, but still run all my servers. Any way I go, I end up with PPPoE and a 128K upstream cap (I have 512 both directions now).
Could milions of trolls and Nimda spreaders be
taken off line?
Yes, that's right Rob & Timmothy. If you have a cable modem, you are a troll or a Nimda spreader. You are not a geek. Real geeks don't use a Cable Modem. Real geeks have a t3 installed to their house.
How dare you use a Cable modem, you pathetic mundanes. How dare you go for an affordable solution. Next thing you'll tell me is that your computer is 3 years old!
Rogers is still up, just that they are dropping the @home. They recently setup new mail servers, etc to handle the switch over and are even providing a lot of incentive for users (Futureshop shopping sprees) to switch over early anticipating the closure of excite@home.
Great troll :)
A+ work making up bullshit that doesn't make sense. The moderators really bought into it.
"CSR", "UBR", moderators eat up terms they don't understand.
The old DirectPC service needed a modem for uploading. Look up the new DirecWay or Starband for both up and downloads via the dish.
no more XP..eXasperating Pissants attacking my machine from IP address 0.0.0.0.
The down side, of course, is they, nor I, will have access (possibly).
IP 0.0.0.0, yeah, sure, this is an os for "home users"....or maybe the @home users being equated with Nimda and 1337 |1DD13$ is somewhat dead on.
Have you read the moderator guidelines? Well, have you, PUNK? (and I want a Karma: Gnarly option)
Please read this thread on DSL Reports. It includes important information, schedule, etc. :)
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
So it'll be Rogers Cox at home...
:(
guess he left it there by mistake...
Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2001 22:52:21 -0800
To: Chip Rosenthal <chip@unicom.com>
Subject: Fwd: Newsletter Provided by The Black World Today [Evaluation - see full header]
From: AUP Enforcement Team <abuse@home.net>
Reply-To: AUP Enforcement Team <abuse@home.net>
Dear Chip Rosenthal,
Your message, including your pasted-in email message body, firewall log,
or newsgroup header, exceeded the maximum message size allowed by our
mail service. Please reduce the size of your email message and exclude
any excessive message body or MIME/UNICODE text.
For firewall users, usually one line detailing a system probe attempt
from an @Home user is sufficient for us to take action on the event.
Multiple lines detailing more than one event from the same user are not
necessary.
Thank you,
The @Home Network Policy Management Team
The message they refused was a whopping 50K.
Oh, and of course they fail to return the original report so that you can revise and resubmit it. That's a favorite trick of spam-friendly ISPs.
Pity @Home flushed all that money on the Excite portal. Otherwise, maybe they could afford another disk shelf for their mail server.
Why do you have so much trouble with high speed internet in the States? People want it. PEople are paying for it. Why do I continually hear stories of substandard service, quality, and speed and overly high prices? Why do things 'just work' here in Canada but not down there?
My only theory is because of regulation up here keeping the companies in line. Hmm.
excite sucked and was voted as the planet's worst ISP.
AT&T has a great plan I hope. although a monkey with a stick can do a better job than excite did.
just let the local cable offices deal with it. it's not like a proxy server, dhcp server and email server takes anyone with a brain to operate.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
For what, exactly? That doesn't really make much sense.
Could milions of trolls and Nimda spreaders be taken off line?
:)
What, AOL are being closed down too?
Qwest has given me byfar the most awful cellular service ever, and I jumped on the cellphone bandwagon in 1995. They've disconnected my home lines on numerous occasions. I'd hate to see what comes of their DSL, especially now that they're in bed with MSN!
Anyone know of any good Portland, OR based DSL providers? Most I know get the wire from Qwest anyhow, so I'd be just as bad off. I'd be more than happy to hear out suggestions tho!
-Scott
I pay AT&T for my service. An AT&T truck came out (or rather a subcontractor), and AT&T has been my only contact on the one time I had problems.
I thought Exite only provided the 'high bandwidth added content' portal homepage (oh, which I never used)
So the default homepage goes dark, they can't redirect it to msn.com? (erm, how bout aol.com?....slashdot.org?)
"Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus."
It seems at least rogers@home has put some planning into this, they've been continuously broadcasting instructions on how to convert your network settings to the new service, and all the *.on.wave.home.com addresses have changed to *.rogers.cable.net within the past few days.
This could get interesting.... I have an @Home cable modem, but am totally self-hosting. I use the cable modem solely for connectivity, running my own DNS servers, getting mail via MX records at my old ISP, etc.
It should go without saying that @Home customer service has no idea what to do with me. They don't have a mechanism to support a "foreign" email address for customers who neither need nor want the "@Home experience." (It could be worse - USWorst DSL service now requires you agree to the incomparable "MSN experience.") Every service call is a joy because I have no clue what my username or password is, and they can't believe anyone has had an account for years yet never logged in.
Hopefully if things go *splat* I'll get a call... or can get through to them. I'll be severely annoyed if I have to go back to dialup after I finally dropped the second phone line.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. -- H L Mencken
Now one of the top spam factories will finally die. Hopefully, any parts of it that continue under a different name will also open abuse departments. For a while now, the @home abuse department has been asleep at the wheel. Spamcop started sending complaints for abuse@home.net to /dev/null quite a while ago. This could definitely be a good thing.
No no! Not the trolls!
Given that you're about 15th post, I'm guessing you're already an Excite@Home customer...
Reached an aggreement with Excite@Home in Australia months ago and have scince been moving over to their own infrastructure. Changes are complete now except for internal newsgroups :-(
Adrian
@Home email updates (ie: changes of password) are no longer handled via internal @home software at all. The interfaces have been taken down so that the only available methods to update accounts are though the customer webpage, meaning that @home based ISPs cannot manage accounts internally.
Also no @home primaries (you know the 11 digit number required to generate additional @home email addresses and/or webspace?) have been issued since Sept 1. If you didn't already have one, then you could not register for email/webspace.
They've known a long-time in advance and scaled towards a total stop of services. I think the end of year predictions for @home were optimistic in retrospect.
"Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati" -- Red Green
I have been on comcast @home for a year and a half now. Completely addicted to my connection... Has ANYONE heard what comcast may be doing about this? I know that @home is just the portal/email/webspace/proxy... surely they wouldnt just drop the customers b/c of that would they?
Anyone? (Do not mod up please)
Xavier said many of the cable companies that carry Excite@Home have informed users that their service could cease after Friday.
MANY of the users?! It scares me even more that this implies that there are some who haven't been informed about the situation!
By the sounds of it they are trying to apply for Chapter 11 with the courts.
Otherwise the creditors will pull it apart and sell everything off?
Go out and get sailing!
Here is the E-Mail I received from COX:
... now and in the future.
:)
Dear Cox @ Home customer:
Recently, you were informed that our high-speed Internet partner - Excite @
Home - filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection. We recognize that this
situation may have caused you some concern about the future of your service.
Rest assured, we are taking all the necessary steps to provide continued reliable
high-speed Internet service to our customers
We are deeply committed to providing you with a quality high-speed Internet
service. For several months, we have been hard at work creating a new Cox-
managed network to better serve you. There are many benefits to directly
managing our own network, such as:
* Easier, more streamlined customer service experience.
* Enhanced network performance.
* Ability to bring you the latest in cutting-edge technology and product
features.
In the weeks ahead, we'll continue to keep you informed and share more details
of our exciting plans. For more information, please visit www.cox.com/moreinfo
We thank you for being a valued Cox customer.
Sincerely,
Cox Communications
Hopefully, this E-Mail means that I do not have to dig out my 56k external modem again. Sometimes, I think that there would be fewer headaches with Dial-up, oh well, Mo Bandwidth, Mo Problems
I hate sigs.
I've been on @Home for quite some time and for some reason, for the past year at least, they've been referring to themselves as AT&T@Home, not Excite@Home or TCI@Home which they originally were in my area. I'm hoping that this is just saying that they have already staked out my area as AT&T service and that I will have no disruption.
All Cogeco customers have been given @cogeco.ca addresses, so there should be no problem on this end.
Does it make you happy you're so strange?
The local @home partner (Optus) here in Oz bought out our local division of excite@home. So no big problems here at all, we even get to keep our e-mail addresses :-) Only thing is there were a few small glitches a few weekends ago as they were transferring everyone over to new non-@home server infrastructure and new ip-addressing scheme. They did the whole shebang in one weekend.
...this is getting out of hand
www.home.net
News release, letter to subscribers and excite users, vendor and investor info.
May actually be a source of information for youse guys.
Have you read the moderator guidelines? Well, have you, PUNK? (and I want a Karma: Gnarly option)
Could milions of trolls and Nimda spreaders be taken off line?"
It seems the editors spellchecker has already been taken off line.
I stole this Sig
Both Shaw and Rogers have problems: Static IPs? 'You must want our business plan, sir.' POP/SMTP? 'Are you running a server? Why are you running a server? Are you trying to steal our precious bandwidth?' Assholes.
========================================
Death will come, and will have your eyes
-- Pavese
AT&T recently sent my folks a letter informing them that prices had gone up to $50 per month. This caused them to seriously consider the worth of the cable service. Two weeks later, the statement arrives - my folks had overpaid $5, and it was refunded to their account.
And just today, during a SSH session at school, the SSH session went dead for no good reason. When I got home, I discovered that the cable modem lights were syncing again and again and again and again. Once lights were finally synced up, I went online to discover a network outage, no doubt.
Then there's the odd issue of their DHCP servers. My address includes a DHCP server address, but updating it doesn't really do anything - in March 2001, my IP address shifted from 24.*.*.* to 65.*.*.*.
AT&T@home's been sending out a bunch of emails over the past couple weeks, mainly saying "uh, we're not sure what's going to happen, but your cablemodem service might go out so backup your stuff". Personally, I can't believe it's gotten this bad so fast...I've been using my @home connection and email address for years, and it'd take a huge amount of effort if I were to lose one or both (more the latter). Anyway, this is pretty big, so I'd say there's a good chance everything's going to be resolved with little difficulty (*fingers*crossed*)
What did @home actually do? (other than operating the common mail servers?) I know that they ran the DHCP servers for a while (which is why they were so unreliable), but my cable company began taking that back a long time ago.
I use Macs to up my productivity, so up yours Microsoft!
Here in Omaha we have COX, and for the most part I have to say their service has been pretty good. @home never meant bad things to me like it has in other areas. I'm pretty sure there won't be an issue here this friday, and for that I'm truely thankful. :-)
-- "The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant: It's just that they know so much that isn't so.
As a customer I'm a bit concerned. I havn't heard a word from my ISP (Insight@Home) about a possible shutdown. I don't know if this is a good or a bad thing. If it goes down arn't they obligated to arrange a new service or are they just going to bail and run? Anyway, as a poor college student I dont have the cash or the time to be screwing around with a new service and put up some bucks for a DSL modem (the stupid cable modem cost me an arm and a leg). So far the service has been great (minus the crap software they want you to install) I'd really hate to loose it.
"I've figured out what's wrong with life: It's other people." -Dilbert
Geez - I guess that's one way to keep people from using NAT behind their cable modem.
I agree. Comcast is the cable provider in the Baltimore area, and the Comcast@Home service I've had from them has been nothing short of fantastic. It's very reliable and the speed is satisfactory (can never have enough). Seriously, the connection has only gone down once during prime time for 2 hours in the past year (no kidding), and once in a blue moon it'll go offline at 4am presumably for maintainance which I can accept unless I'm in the middle of a late night game of Quake.
.home.com - so I pray that we Comcast subscribers won't go dark tomorrow.
My IP address recently switched for the first time which caused some confusion for a while until I realized it. But I am concerned that that my network address is still on
Someone moderate +1 troll to the poster of the article!
And I'm your host Tim the Trollman Taylor
Sponsored by Borland tools...available on a Quality Operating System (Windows) near you and linux too.
Ohohohoho MORE POWER...which would be FreeBSD, way more power than that stupid penguin infested OS.
Fight the Slashtrash IP Address Ban on Trolls...Use anonymizer.com!
Remember Trolls are Geeks too!
Charter Communications, aka That OTHER Evil Empire(TM), already switched us over from @Home to Charter Pipeline. So far, so good. It's up, anyway. Thanks to OpenBSD, I don't need their interesting but useless Weendoze software. BTW, if you decide to use their software, don't. You can't uninstall it save via reinstalling Winduhs.
... R.I.P.
Unfortunately, DSL was not much of an option since I'm 18,000 feet from the CO. Oh, well. It still beats dial-up.
@Home
It's a very dark ride.
I had customers calling into today saying they couldnt reach excite mobile mail on the phones. After some checking, mobile.excite.com says they discontinued thier service. They didnt even let me know so I could remove the connection.
I'm currently having to sue them to get their incorrect billing off my credit record. Fuck AT&T.
Date sent: Mon, 19 Nov 2001 19:50:28 -0500 (EST)
Dear Cox @ Home customer:
Recently, you were informed that our high-speed Internet partner - Excite @ Home - filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection. We recognize that this situation may have caused you some concern about the future of your service. Rest assured, we are taking all the necessary steps to provide continued reliable high-speed Internet service to our customers ... now and in the future.
We are deeply committed to providing you with a quality high-speed Internet service. For several months, we have been hard at work creating a new Cox- managed network to better serve you. There are many benefits to directly managing our own network, such as:
* Easier, more streamlined customer service experience.
* Enhanced network performance.
* Ability to bring you the latest in cutting-edge technology and product features.
In the weeks ahead, we'll continue to keep you informed and share more details of our exciting plans. For more information, please visit www.cox.com/moreinfo.
We thank you for being a valued Cox customer.
Sincerely, Cox Communications
Step 2: Merge with MediaOne and control 30% of cable.
Step 3: Get the FCC to withdraw the cable ownership caps set during MediaOne merger
Step 4: Buy out the number one broadband company, despite protests from stockholders that AT&T (being the majority stockholder) had set itself up to pay very little for Excite@Home.
6.7 billion dollars (of someone elses money) for a pathetic excuse of a company with nothing more then a search engine, news feeds, and no clue what to make money on, (which by the way is worth around only $250,000 today) .. and tell me how long your company can stay afloat ..
.. they were EXCITEd when they bought it .... I dumped my shares the next day ....
But DAM
-- Knowing too much can get you killed, but knowing who knows too much can make you rich.
They screwed up my credit billing system - so I had like 68$ of back payments. I resolved it today with a friendly person on the phone. It didn't seem like they were going down the toilet - it only took seconds to talk to an operator
My Isp put this site up
Http://www.rogershelp.com
I suppose i should mention i have a Lancity modem, and the settings that the 1800 # gave me are diffrent than the website.. but neather settings work, i cant even ping the settings they gave me.. if im loosing my valuable @home email address.. i might as well just switch ISP's good news: all thoes news groups that got blocked 2 months ago.. THERE BACK!!! WHOOHOOHOOHOO!!! bad news.. ping reply is %50 slower
The More Knowledge you have the Luckier you Get- J.R. Ewing
`excite @home' is (soon to be was) Excite@Home
`providers' should be provider's
`milions' is millions
Or is that too much to ask?
From tomorrow's press release:
/PRNewswire/ -- Excite@Home (Nasdaq: ATHM) today announced that it has agreed to sell essentially all of its broadband Internet access business assets and related services to AT&T for $307 million in cash. The company plans to file for relief under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code today in San Francisco. The asset sale is subject to the emergence of higher offers and closing conditions, including bankruptcy court approval.
REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Sept. 28
The Chapter 11 filing will enable Excite@Home to maintain operation of its high-speed cable Internet access services and other related services during the sale approval process.
"This filing is a tool to protect the value of the broadband business for the benefit of the company's financial stakeholders and will help reassure our customers that service will continue uninterrupted through the restructuring process," said Patti Hart, Excite@Home chairman and chief executive officer. "AT&T's offer reflects the value in our network, services, customer base and skilled employees."
While the bankruptcy court reviews the proposed sale and other offers that may emerge, Excite@Home has sufficient cash on hand to finance its operations, including supporting the company's post-petition trade and employee obligations, as well as its ongoing operating needs during the process.
Excite@Home retained the investment-banking firm Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin Capital to assist it in pursuing strategic alternatives and continuing with the bidding process.
About Excite@Home
Excite@Home is the leader in broadband, offering consumers residential broadband services and businesses high-speed commercial services. Excite@Home has interests in one joint venture outside of North America delivering high-speed Internet services and three joint ventures outside of North America operating localized versions of the Excite portal.
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Exchange Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Action of 1934, and is subject to the safe harbors created by those sections. These forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements relating to the transaction with AT the bidding process in Chapter 11 and proceeds to creditors; the company's cash position; and the company's ability to provide the service without interruption.
Actual results may differ materially due to a number of factors, including, but not limited to, obtaining court approval of motions critical to the company's operations; whether or not other parties make adequate, competitive bids; the company's ability to maintain its relationships with its cable partners and critical vendors; the company's ability to retain key employees; the company's ability to grow and maintain its subscriber base; the company's ability to otherwise manage its operations without interruption; the company's ability to comply with its covenants under its agreement with AT&T and to complete this transaction, and other risks and uncertainties described in the Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended June 30, 2001 and 8-K reports subsequently filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Rogers @Home users should be a-ok - since I last met with their network engineering people (a couple months ago) they were pushing through with their contingency plans in case Excite @Home went boom. Now that it's apparently happening, they're more or less ready. Of course, the changeover hasn't been flawless, but a) what do you expect when you try to set up e-mail for 422,000 broadband users, about 1-1.5million accounts in six weeks? It's simply not a very easy thing to do. Also, having all 422,000 activate their e-mail accounts within a day or two isn't something you'd expect to go flawlessly. We spoke with their VP of Network Ops and Engineering before the changeover on the phone, and he said there are still several bugs to be ironed out (apparently the requiring the FROM: header to be @rogers.com isn't gonna stay around).
The new news service right now is kinda sucky, but again, what do you expect when you go from Excite@Home, who have at least 30 (our guess) news peers to a server with only one. But again, I expect that'll change and improve with time.
As for the IP services, Rogers is running their own DHCP/DNS/TFTP servers now - and almost all of the network is using these new servers now. Basically, there are three DHCP/DNS/etc clusters, with each modem be dualhomed to two at any given point. If one fails or is unavailable, the modems will be rehomed to the remaining two. Each cluster is made up of three Sun E420 (I believe) machines, with two production servers and one hot failover. DHCP is no longer run using the CRXXXX client-id number, but is now entirely MAC address based (hence your IP's reverse DNS lookup now containing your MAC address).
As for the 'net access, Rogers has purchased a 5Gbps transit link from Teleglobe in NYC, and they said they are currently negotiating peering with other providers.
So in a nutshell, if @Home goes bye bye on Friday, Rogers users are pretty well covered (although I'm sure there will still be some problems - there ALWAYS are).
----
Bryan Samis
http://www.thesamis.net
I'm in Orange County too and I've got a Cox@Home and CoxNet express business circuit for hosting stugg. The CoxNet is much more expensive but it's a dedicated circuit (no sharing with the neighbors) and you can host your own servers. It's like a fractional T1 circuit.
That you can get an ISP other than USWest/Qwest and still use their DSL network, right? My ISP deals with Qworst, they are hooked up via fiber, up to Qwest's DSLAM, wich gives me service.
I too host all my services, but Iv'e never had to call customer service for an issue I could not resolve. (Once, someone put a rouge DHCP server on the bridged ethernet link, having their router route all data through their DSL line. Needless to say, it screwed everything up. I called the tech and told him where the server was, he unplugged it, and all was well.) I digress, but I'm just trying to say that even though my data flows over a Qwest network, Iv'e had very few problems.
...requires functioning computers. Way to not figure that out.
Think, don't just jerk your knees
Or I could do like you and skip the thinking process altogther.
I received the following e-mail from Charter earlier this month. I am sure Charter would be quite happy for @Home not to kill its connection. However, from what I have read Charter is not paying @Home. Its seems to have to do with the stockholders trying to renegotiate contracts and not being happy with AT&Ts offer. Those cable providers that are paying their bills are not being cut off. @Home apparently is being forced to cut off those cable companies that are not paying them. Makes sense to me.
Charter, if you want to make us customers happy, pay @Home and keep our connection up. I plan on giving Charter a call tomorrow and inquiring their opinion is of what is going on. I doubt I will get a good answer, but I personally like @Home. Pipeline seems to be aligned with Earthlink and AOL. @Home sounds better. @Home has been entirely reliable for me. Much better than the Pacbell DSL I had before, which I had cron jobs running keeping track of network connectivity with mrtg so I could get credit for the days worth of outages a month.
Dear Charter@Home® Customer:
@Home, the network provider through which Charter Communications® delivers your high-speed Internet access to you and other Charter customers, has filed for bankruptcy. @Home recently asked the Bankruptcy Court for permission to terminate Charter's contracts effective November 30, 2001. If the Court grants @Home's request, your Charter@Home service would no longer be available.
We are actively working with @Home to prevent the termination of your account on November 30. However, if @Home continues to insist upon terminating its contract with Charter, we are committed to minimizing the inconvenience that its action would cause you and other Charter customers.
To that end, we are diligently working so that we may be able to offer Charter Pipeline high-speed Internet access service to you in the event @Home disconnects its service. Charter is aggressively pursuing every reasonable option possible to guarantee the delivery of high quality Internet access service to you. However, if @Home's service is discontinued on November 30, 2001, there is likely to be a gap in time from the date of the @Home shutdown until the date Charter will be able to provide Charter Pipeline in your area. Please let me assure you that we are working around the clock to do everything in our power to minimize any service interruption. Once we are ready to deliver Charter Pipeline to you, we expect to have a web site or a CD ROM available through which you may download the software necessary to begin service.
We want to make it clear that we are not encouraging you to end your @Home relationship. As long as @Home continues to provide uninterrupted services to you, we believe you are being well served. However, we want to do whatever we can to keep you on-line.
As we learn more about @Home's plans, we will let you know. Please watch your mail and check your email for timely updates on the status of your Charter @Home account. Please know that Charter Communications is committed to doing whatever we can to serve your high speed data needs now and in the future.
Thank you your patience and thank you for being a Charter customer.
Truly Yours,
Marwan Fawaz
Vice President, Operations
Northwest Region
CHARTER COMMUNICATIONS, INC.
This message is encrypted with Quad ROT-13 to protect the author's copyright under the DMCA.
When AT&T acquired the Northpoint DSL assets, they stranded all the affected DSL users. I had multiple UUNET DSL connections using Northpoint as a CLEC, and all were dropped overnight with zero notice -- suddenly one day, there was no service. All those emails, pending web transactions, etc. went into the dustbin of history. UUNET failed utterly to provide any advance warning, or any reasonable recovery strategy. (This is despite all those Worldcom TV ads about safety and security. Don't you believe it!) AT&T had (presumably) no legal obligation to keep existing Northpoint customers operating, since they just bought the assets; but if AT&T had given us a few days to get off our active connections, it would have been nice. Every vendor involved screwed the end-user.
I now have contracts with an RBOC who happens to provide broadband servce, so there's a single vendor. I'm still not totally safe, but at least I only have one set of schmucks to deal with.
Bottom line: Have contingency plans that assume your ISP and all intermediaries will fail and will leave you high and dry. (UUNET's contract had a force majeure clause that excluded service interruption due to their suppliers -- one assumed this was to cover the case where a tornado hit a central office, but it apparently was much broader. Here's a similar situation: "Oh, CISCO has stopped supporting the principal router model in our network, so we're terminating your contract rather than upgrading our hardware.")
-- We all have enough strength to endure the misfortunes of other people. La Rochefoucauld
I have Insight @home in Bloomington, IN. I made a quick call to the customer serivce number and after being bounced about 3 times - I finally got someone to tell me that they have not "at this time" found any alternate provider, however they are "optimistic" that things will work out and "I really wouldn't worry, ok hun?" ...
says helen the 78 year old csr working afternoons.
-neil
I think I have Comcast@home. At least that's what I think will be on the bills, I'm still riding my 3 free months. I talked to a guy I know that works at @home, and he said that ATT bought it out, so no one's going anywhere.
AT&T still there just like in the movie 2001.
Remember the famous videophone scene with the girls birthday, demonstrating bandwidth and video capabilities from space?
It's good to see if the newcomers can't handle the load that the old reliable is still there.
I hope they and the former Bells don't abuse their almost monopoly positions.
How do you know cox is staying up? And what region do you mean? Cox is multi-region, and in SB, CA (where I of course am) they do things rather differently. So if you have more information, please spill it; otherwise I will have to assume the worst and start looking for (gag, barf, cough, hack) DSL (again).
-gwynnebaer
http://www.home.net still has a link to sign up for internet service. I bet you can get a great deal for only 3 more days.
3 of my email addresses could go poohey.
2 from @home (moved.) and one from my own server when they kick me off this IP.
crap.
ppl using insight@home shouldn't be too bad off..
http://www.insight-com.com/net/UPDATES/
@home is by far one of the worst offenders in the spam business. They refuse to deal with spammers and even refuse reports from folks like spamcop.com.
Let 'em burn.
AT&T has made a bid to buy and maintain @home's network. The court has not yet approved it. If they approve that's exactly what AT&T will do.
-Brian
"Faith strikes me as intellectual laziness." -Robert A. Heinlen
I also live in Portland, right in downtown. Now mind you, I have Qwest.net as my ISP, NOT MSN. You need to go for the slightly more expensive Qwest.net deluxe package to get out of the MSN deal, but then you do get 640k down 256k up. I have not experienced even one second of down time nor perceptable bandwidth issues since subscribing 4 months ago. Go for it.
Comcast at home just sent an e-mail to their users. They also posted a URL with more information, including their Dial-UP backup. When you click on the link for their dial-up backup, you get Net Zero's webpage. Man, I need to get DSL.
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Hash: SHA1
As an @home user who has made a GNU/Linux system from scratch, writes software in C, C++, Objective-C, Java, and a number of other languages, who is currently in the process of building a PC, and who signs his messages with GPG, I will not be called a "trolls and Nimda spreaders"!
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.0.6 (Darwin)
Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org
iD8DBQE8BFyuCwKQ8Z46eHoRAmoXAKDYEPGiBqL1SezdMKRrh
t3rkARpSPkK2Kfn96T8N8Kc=
=R5GH
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Were getting switched over to charter pipeline tommoroww morning. I used to get about 400-500K/s from ftp.kernel.org but its now going to be capped at 70. Also my static ip is GONE so I'll be using a dynamic DNS. I'm not a happy customer, but its better than no broadband.
edge
What about dish systems, like directTV. I heard about starBand? and some others, but never hear much about the reliability etc. I would really like to see some other solutions other than DSL (which sadly I cannot get beyond 144K IDSL, some fiber optic problem with the local loop according to Verizon, my local carrier.)
With Ricochete dead and @home on the way out, what other options are on the horizon / radar for tomorrow.
I have comcast@home and have been moderately happy with it, I can pull content, but for telecommuting its kinda sketchy if you need to do any large file transfers. I have happily run a server off my static IP for almost 2 years now and never caught greif, so even though the EUA is rough, they don't seem to inforce it here anyway.
Even still, its the best I can do for the price. I would hate to move back to my dialup connection (I'd have to get one first!)
AF-Design, web development.
You plagiarized my troll. Why don't you think up your own next time. Asshole.
-wally
Microsoft VBScript runtime error '800a01f5'
/news/627086.asp, line 2
Illegal assignment: 'sSourceName'
Heheheh!!!!MSNBC sucks!
YOUARETHEWEAKESTLINK...GOOD-BYE!
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I have an account with Cogeco cable in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, and they had us switch our e-mail addresses about a month ago to user@cogeco.ca. I notice now when I do a traceroute I see only one router with a .home.net name (there used to be many) and the traffic then goes through a bunch of routers in Teleglobe.net starting in Toronto then getting to New York by way of Chicago. So, other than that one router (in Ontario) which may not even be owned by @Home anymore, we seem to be completely independent of Excite@Home. Service seems about the same as always: great when it's up, down a bit too often.
If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?
Are they going to continue to allow your web server?
Cox has already purchased all the necessary equipment to set up data centers to replace @Home's data centers. Basically all they have to do is migrate the DHCP databases / subscriber services and flip the switch. I imagine Cox is delaying this as long as possible due to their estimated cost overruns they're having right now (gotta please the stockholders first). However, should Excite go belly-up I'm sure no Cox subscribers would lose their connection; they'd probably just find they have a new domain on their e-mail.
-- We live in a world where lemonade is artificial and soap has real lemon.
My cable modem went out of service tonite at @home. I placed a few calls to customer support at both Adelphia cable in Carlsbad and @home. They said my account was turned off. They couldn't tell me why. But after I got off the phone, my modem started working again. Adelphia is to take over their @home subscribers in San Diego on Dec 14th.
I switched from DSL to cable and never looked back. I get rock solid service for extremely low prices - my connection sync's at 4 megabits and I frequently get it. The fastest DSL line I can get is 768k and I live downtown :(. (thank you verizon?)
Some internal-only information recently given out is basically that we (Cox) is ready for the demise of Excite@Home. In fact, many are really hoping for it. @Home has always been a bitch to work with, as they require mountains of proof as to a problem being on their side before they will even investigate it.
Cox has set up three centers for handling its high-speed data products -- one in Virginia, one in Oklahoma, and one in California. Currently all the equipment acquisitions are complete, but there are not sufficient personnel to run the equipment -- a frantic hiring spree is about to begin. (Hint, hint, Slashdotters looking for cool jobs). Priority money (a very rare occurance except in the case of natural disasters) has been given to solve this problem. This all leads me to believe that Cox is desperate to keep this product going. In fact, with @Home out of the way, it's in Cox's best interest (since now all the subscribers' fees go to just Cox instead of split up between Cox & @Home).
BTW, anyone who wants to know, Cox is awesome to work for if you can get in the door.
They're making huge profits, and are extremely popular in the metro-detroit area (although I'm ignorant about whats its like elsewhere). Everyone here pretty much has cable, I don't they'd just pull the plug -- especially since for the last 4 weeks they've been offering 2 months of free service to new users if they sign up by december.
If @home does disapear its a pretty safe bet Comcast will be switching over to another provider real fast.
I talked to a few people at Comcast back when Excite was having trouble earlier this year, and they hinted at the fact that there wouldn't be a problem if Excite went under.
Later, when I called to complain about the newly-imposed bandwidth caps, they hinted at the fact that they would be offering different service plans in the near future, and mentioned Excite's financial troubles numerous times.
Also, if you notice they have had their own portal (www.icomcast.net) up and running for some time now.
Lastly, they just upped their cable modem service rates--from what I'm told by people at Comcast again, its to cover new operating expenses (read: no more Excite).
So, with any luck, Comcast users shouldn't experience many, if any, problems with service. All signs are pointing to them keeping service afloat.
Is your local market still @Home? No @Home market has been, or likely will ever be PPPoE. @Home may have screwed up along the line, but they know evil when they see it.
Help us build a better map!
Rogers was rogers.wave.ca long before @home came along. The service was actually a lot better back then. Hopefully it'll improve again now that @home is gone.
keep the cable running, even if they have to
replicate @home's portions of the service to
do it. Now I just wait to see if they actually
DO that, and if I'm interrupted from it.
We will see
According to the acceptable use policy. No
I know someone that works in one of their call centers, there. They've been talked up down left and right about staying online, for what that's worth.
After moving from California back to Colorado, I had to move from C0x@home (worst customer service/horrible uptime) to Qwest with MSN.
Here is the funny part, when you sign up with qwest you can use their DSL with another ISP other then MSN. ONLY they never tell you about that (customer service, website does though you have to have a connection to read it).
And another kicker, MSN supplies a dsl modem with unique settings that no one knows. It took me friggin 3 weeks to setup a router to use the modem. And the only thing customer service would say was 1)we don't support home networking solutions and 2)wouldn't you like to buy an additional ip address and have new equipment sent out. All that after waiting a MONTH to have them turn on the service.
STAY AWAY FROM QWEST/MSN!
Thats how you know they are going down ....
when your able to reach a customer service rep within seconds and not DAYS!!!!!!!!!!
For what it's worth I got an e-mail several weeks back from Cox saying basically they'd be taking over from @home and run the network themselves.
We shall see I suppose.
Why should it? I used to be with TCI@Home until AT&T bought them up. Hell shouldn't any assets go back to the main @Home company if Excite loses them, including the inforstructure?
:)
Oh well, whatever, I'm sitting on top of the NW Gigapop so theres no f*cking way that my bandwidth is leaving me, hehe, the Pacific Northwest DOES have some major advantages to it.
Uh, but still though, TCI@Home ---> AT&T@Home, where now does Excite@Home come into all of this?
Need help treating your acne? Come here!
I just called Comcast. The guy was very emphatic that my service would not be affected. His reasons were less than coherent: "You have service with Comcast, we have nothing to do with @home." But at least his script said there would be no interuption.
Haydn
I'm using Rogers' service in Canada (I guess you can't call it Rogers@home anymore ??) and I'm glad to see @Home go under. I just never saw the point of them being in business in the first place. What exclusive service did they provide the ISPs with in the first place.
They provisionned accounts for new/existing customers but this was really a waste of time/ money for the ISPs. If problems occurred in the provisioning it would only cause delay for the customer.
They ran their own mail and news servers. Big deal. Every other ISP runs their own so why couldn't the cable companies?
The only "benefit" I could see is the Excite @home portal. heh. I never used it and so many other sites have such better coverage.
Ultimately when/if a company that provides outsourced services risks of going under (ie @home) the ISPs end up running the services anyways. Explain to me the benefit....Anyone?
I go to the glorious [insert sarcasm here] University of Kentucky in Lexington, KY. This really hits home, not because my family uses @Home or anything like that.. They're smart, they use the sweet ADSL service back home, provided by Zoomtown through our local telco. This hits home because my school uses it for student Internet access in the dorms!
:)
:)
We're unfortunate enough to have been raped into a contract by our local high dollar cable company, Insight Communications.
Yeah, sounds good, right? Yeah, until you notice that their cable modem service is provided by freakin @Home!
Now what the hell am I going to do for net access? The cost is already included in our Housing, so now what? Do I get a refund? Hell no, this is UK we're talking about!
Am I going to get some different service, in the event that our service is terminated (more like when it is)? Our service, if you could classify it as a service, and not an overpriced unreliable annoyance, is already slow as hell, and hit or miss at best. Just about every night I come back from the Lab, my cable modem is retraining.
At least they had the intelligence to get some halfway decent equipment in our rooms, namely the Cisco uBR w/ non-functioning VoIP.
Anyway, I'm through ranting. I just hope my SSH connection doesn't drop again when remotely editing server config files!
Soon to be access-less in Lexington.
AT&T's philosophy seems to be that if they are partnered with you, and they are making money, and if your having problems, they are going to buy you out. AT&T has said quite openlly that they may buy Covad just to keep their customers up. I can see the same thing happening with Excite@home.
BTW, If nobody was aware of this, SDSL through AT&T is powered by Covad.
The e-mail from AT&T points you to http://newuser.attbi.com. That page doesn't exist yet but will be activated "if necessary." But if you want to see it now this page looks like a test-run of what's to come. It includes a FAQ and a new Subscriber Agreement too.
No, I don't want to explore the Recycle Bin.
Ok, apparently neither mozilla nor w3m from my machine could connect, but I could using lynx from an alternate location.
Here's the scoop from http://www.cox.com/moreinfo:
Following you will find some information to address questions you might have about the email communication that you recently received from us.
Q1. When will you be switching my service?
A1. Cox is creating its own managed network to enable it to ensure the quality and reliability of your service. This transition will be made before June 2002, however we have not yet finalized specific dates for each community
we serve. We will continue to keep you informed on our progress and will do everything we can to give you as much advance notice as possible when the time comes to transition to the new Cox high speed Internet service.
Q2. Do I have to change?
A2. Yes, our partnership with @Home will be ending. Once the Cox-managed network is ready, all customers who currently have the Cox@Home service will be transitioned over to the new Cox-managed network. We think you will be pleased with the new service. By managing all elements of our high speed Internet service, we will be in a much better position to control the quality of our service and deliver greater customer satisfaction. We will make every effort to make this transition as smooth as possible.
Q3. What do I have to do right now?
A3. There is nothing for you do right now. At the appropriate time, Cox will provide you with all of the information and tools you need to smoothly convert your service to our new Cox-managed high speed Internet service.
Q4. How will I be affected?
A4. Since we are in the process of finalizing the service and its features, we don't have specific information to share with you at this time. We assure you that your Cox-managed service will include the most popular features you
currently enjoy, as well as some additional benefits.
Q5. Is my new service going to be comparable to my existing service?
A5. It is our goal to provide you with high speed Internet service that is comparable to or better than your existing Cox@Home service. In fact, by offering our own Cox high speed Internet service, we will have a much better abilit
y to manage our network performance and provide the high-quality customer service and technical support our customers have grown to expect from Cox.
Q6. Will I get any new features?
A6. In addition to providing you with the features that you currently enjoy with your Cox @Home service, there will also be some new features and benefits associated with the new Cox-managed service. We are currently finalizing the details and we will share this exciting information with you in advance.
Q7. Is my email address going to change? If so, when?
A7. Since we are still finalizing the details of our Cox-managed high speed Internet service, we don't have any specific information to share with you at this time. You will be notified in advance about any changes to your service, so that you may have time to prepare for this change as necessary. Please know that we understand that an email address change is significant, and we will make every effort to make any service transition as smooth as possible.
Q8. So will you start offering other ISPs?
A8. We are in the process of testing the technical feasibility of offering multiple ISPs over our broadband network. Once this testing is complete, we will then determine the feasibility of rolling out multiple ISPs on a wider basis.
It really makes me wonder if they consider the port blocking on 80 and 25 to be a "feature" to "improve" "service". The funny thing is that I know someone else across the street w/ Cox@Home who DOESN'T have those ports blocked. And I wasn't even running a web server, while he is. Go figure.
"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule." --H.L. Mencken
I have a Pac Bell SBC Internet connection ~ 2.5 years now. Been workin' 24x7, very few hassles. Static IP, no passwords or anything, and very reliable, 1.5 Mb down and ~300Kb up - definitely no complaints at $50/mo!
I am just amazed that with all this demand, how could these companies just not be making any money?
SBC raised their rates for new accounts a while back by $10/mo, but didn't change any existing account's prices at all.
-Ben
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
Regardless what you think of @home users generally, it is a great tragedy for millions of people to lose internet access. It is at least as bad as millions of people losing phone and mail service at once. Wireheads like us should reasonably feel it is even more tragic.
Something is wrong with our models and system when infrastructure is that fragile.
i would hate to be the person who just found out from reading /. that they may be losing their broadband service very soon.. heh
Road Runner originally offered digital telephone service in my area: Free cable installation, about $7 cheaper/month than US West. Great! So when I wanted broadband internet as well, I got a $10/mo discount for having the digital phone service!
Then they were bought by the Death Star, AT&T. Grrr, I was trying to get away from monolithic telecoms!
The internet pipe works mighty fast, except for a random $650 unreturned modem charge, which could only be removed by *physically* turning in my fully-working cable modem at their local office and getting a different one. Grrrrr.
Now I get a letter from AT&T telling me that due to contract problems, 900 numbers can't be used from my home phone. Sorry. These things happen.
The other huge problem came when trying to change my long distance from MCI to Sprint. I called Sprint, picked a plan, and asked them to switch it. My call went through 3rd part verification, all that crep.
Got my next months' bill and found that my friend's calls overseas were billed at $2.69/min, instead of ~$.25/min. Bit of a slip-up, don't worry.
So after at least 10 calls between AT&T, MCI, and Sprint, it turns out that AT&T got the switch-over request but didn't implement the change. Seems that somehow they aren't really a phone company, they just lease the lines from someone else. Or some such runaround. So I was still on MCI, racking up another month's of long distance calls at the old casual rate.
But after pleading, MCI re-rated my 2-month's bills to a plan which reduces my total bill by *80%*. So I decide to give up on the switch and stay with MCI. I was *never* switched, BTW, and the cluster-fscks at AT&T are still well-clustered.
So don't depend on AT&T's precious letters to soothe any anxiety. Next time I gotta ask them to at least grease their shaft before scheduling my next appointment with their customer "service" drones...
Cox@work? Cox2work? Cox@live?
From a chat session with an att help type person:
f ro m=chat
Wed, November 28 2001 12:49AM Mountain Standard Time
https://help.broadband.att.com/index.jsp?pushed
Hello! Welcome to AT&T @Home's Online Customer Support Center. Your session ID # is xxxxxxx.
In-Mike Thomas has joined this session!
In-Mike Thomas says: Hello, and thank you for contacting AT&T @Home Online
Support. My name is Mike.I understand that you are having issue with excite services down. I would be glad to assist you.
You say: What I want to know, is what is going to happen on friday when excite shuts down
In-Mike Thomas says: xxxxx, I want to assure you that this will not affect your service connectivity in any way, as AT&T has already proposed to buy out excite's assets, which has now been approved by the court.
You say: will my address change?
In-Mike Thomas says: No your address will be the same.
In-Mike Thomas says: We remain committed to delivering high speed cable Internet service now and in future.
In-Mike Thomas says: I assure you that you will not face any service disruption from excite going down.
sounds good, just hope it is true. The only other option I have (that I can find) here in Seattle is Quest/MSN dsl... and that would just suck.
Math is like sex. People who get it are popular in class, people who don't are not.
Oh yeah, this will solve @Home problems. Piss off their MSO customers. Yeah, that's the ticket. Sure, they will come begging and crawling. Yeah, sure.
NOT
All the MSO's will build their own network as many of them have done already. Then, when @Home goes live again, they'll have no subscribers.
Oh yeah, this is the way to increase their valuation. Oh yeah, those bondholders are geniuses!
Me> So, will my service be interrupted?
Rep> Absolutely n[connection terminated]
O@H in .AU had bought out
:)
excites Australian divsion
when the probelms and posible
folding where first anounced
ages ago.. and finaly where
almost though the teathing problems
You have 5 Moderator Points!
Which Helpless Linux zealot/MS basher do you want to mod down today?
Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 27, @08:34PM
by Roofus on Tuesday November 27, @08:35PM
Anonymous post First!!!
WTF?
USA != planet
There are more countries in the world.
Anonymous Coward Protection Agency
I'm on Rogers@home (here in Canada).
Over the last week we have had to change email settings with the warning that as of friday they can no longer guarentee email forwarding. Otherwise our service here is unaffected. Go Rogers!
More Caffeine. NOW
Well, it's nice to see that you all trust your ISP. I currently work for one of them, and things ain't so rosy. We have currently been extended the offer of unlimited over time for the next long while, to handle the call volumes. The best case scenario goes like this, @Home tanks, your email address changes and you get moved to a new network, within a couple of days. You will of course have to stay on hold for days trying to get your new connection info, as everyone else is also calling. The worst case scenario is that you wake up, and you enter the realm of the unconnected...
This won't be a problem for Shaw@Home. Shaw has already rebranded as Shaw High-Speed Internet Services, has always used their own network, and has servers up which customers are being migrated too. They are EASILY the most prepared of all of the (former?) partners of @Home.
perl -e 'print $i=pack(c5, (41*2), sqrt(7056), (unpack(c,H)-2), oct(115), 10)'
This is less than impressive: most people know an email address is a "@" , and a local-part is a legal userid or alias on the underlying system. A mailbox containing an @ is prohibited... See http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc822.html for details.
And the workaround for Rogers' goof provided their customers is to use the new account wizard to create a new acount/profile with a name that shows a @rogers.com externally, and as @rogers.com@rogers.com internally. This approach leaves the users with one account/profile containing all their old mail, preferences and bookmarks, and a new account with the mail missing.
I wonder how many support calls come in entitled "you stole my email"?
davecb@spamcop.net
Cutting of someone's ISP without warning is like losing phone service without warning and not being able to get the same number again once phone service is resumed. It can screw your whole life up and I feel sorry for the people I know who aren't technical enough to buy and manage their own domain.
If you are really so attached to the internet that losing your ISP screws up your life, then you really ought to reconsider your priorities. There really are much more important things in life than instant messaging and email. There's also this thing called a phone; if you don't know how to use it, then just dial "0" and the operator will probably laugh at you, but will be more than willing to help.
Perhaps cutting off all these geeks who spend their entire lives online is a good thing. Perhaps now they will actually go somewhere and do something with a real person for a change. They complain all the time about not having social skills, and they use that excuse to justify their lack of direct contact with any other human being, but never once do they consider that the lack of social skills is due to lack of practice. I hope that can now change.
Access to the internet is a privelege, not a right. It's not the end of the world if you lose connectivity for a while. You will survive.
I just got this in response to my request for more information last night:
Within the next few weeks, Cox@Home will be changing to Cox High Speed Internet. This change will implement Cox to becoming the new Internet Service Provider (ISP) and will no longer use content from Excite. The new look will include new additions and content to the service, but mainly the conversion will convert us to becoming a true ISP. There will be notices sent to all current Cox@Home customers about the conversion, which will take place within the next few weeks. For additional information, please call us at <local support #>. Thank you for your question and for choosing Cox.
Thank you,
Cox High Speed Internet
I got @home. I can never go back to modem. My cable comes in at 1.2 Mbps, while dial-up where i live is around 10-20 Kbps.
If you don't understand any of my sayings, come to me in private and I shall take you in my German mouth.
You're completely right about Sympatico, I just switched to Rogers last week and what a difference. Rogers is much snappier for surfing, more than twice as fast for downloads (had a few at 230 KB/s), and it works with my Linksys router (something DSL never did). Rogers is like Microsoft, you hate the idea of them but they make the best stuff.
This according to their own press release. They've released nothing in recent days. But I seem to remember that AT&T bought up most everything Excite had, so continued service *shouldn't* be a problem.
"Excite@Home has informed us that they stopped provisioning for new customers today. This development does not affect operations for our existing high-speed Internet customers. Comcast is working closely with the management of Excite@Home and other interested parties to find a prompt solution that will allow the continued seamless deployment of high-speed Internet services to new customers. In the meantime, Comcast has taken steps to continue rolling out modems while we work to reach a resolution.
?Given that Excite@Home provides high speed Internet services to more than 3.6 million customers at many of the world?s largest MSOs including Comcast, Cox and AT&T Broadband, we are confident that the bankruptcy process will allow for a practical solution to quickly be found."
There are plenty of forwarding services that'll give you a lifetime e-mail address and web URL. You don't need to be remotely technical.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
If you live in a "Major metropolitan area", then I'm sure you'll have something before too long. Why should a big provider resist setting up a network in this "major metropolitan area" which is already setup for high speed? Sure, I guess you won't get your old email address back, but what are you gonna do?
luckman
I don't involve myself with flames, much less know how to bait one.
It's not that the loss of Excite isn't causing any confusion, but for both Rogers@Home and Cogeco@Home, customers have been contacted weeks ago about the change (snail mail, television commercials, e-mails, and even phone calls). Rogers and Cogeco will simply be changing over to @rogers.com and @cogeco.com respectively, and, as long as no one has their system set up as a static IP (which it shouldn't), the user only needs to change their e-mail program of the change (and maybe reupload their website to the new domain).
The sad part is, Excite is definitely being a big dink about all of this. I had several usernames from Cogeco, and then
I moved to a Rogers-controlled area. Everything was fine until now - unfortunately, since Rogers wasn't the original creator of the usernames, they can't transfer it to @rogers.com - and since Cogeco can't get Excite to transfer them to Rogers, I'm rather stuck. Fine, I can just get Rogers to create some accounts for me when everything's settled, but Excite could have simply deleted the accounts and then Rogers could have had free access to them - but no, they froze the accounts, not allowing anyone to touch it. Ugh. Ah well, things will be MUCH better now that Excite is over with... at least from my end of things.
Well, just talked with Insight Communications (the Fishers/Noblesville cable company) via phone, since "noblesvillefeedback@insight-com.com" does not exist.
@home is currently trying some legal manuevering. Insight was just notified today that the network may go dark on Friday. Insight cannot negotiate any contracts until service is terminated or notice of service termination is given. One of the legal manuverings with court motions and FCC intervention they are trying is to get at least a 30-day notice out to give customers & companies time to implement a change of networks.
The lady at Insight said the meeting this morning was basically silent. She read to me a letter that stated, in bold type, "we do not believe the
@home network will go dark on Friday." So hopefully some kind of legal manuevering will be put into place. But, if the network goes dark,
Insight has no room at this time to get an alternative service in place and therefore I may be out of service for a while.
Oh, and if you're into "conspiracy theories" I found this article linked from dslreports.com:
http://www.dotcomscoop.com/athm.html
John Kramer
God may be my co-pilot, but the devil is my backseat driver.
Your purose in life is to decorate the back entrance to the Magrathean planet-forges via high-altitude high-velocity impact with the ground.
And no, it will NOT be friends with you.
GTRacer
- I know where my towel is.
Defending IP by destroying access to it? That makes sense, RIAA/MPAA. Go to the corner until you can play nice!
Dear Mike,
Thank you for your message.
To respond to your inquiry regarding the recent news of a potential interruption of Comcast @Home service due to the Excite @Home Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Reorganization proceedings, the following Frequently Asked Questions information has been created to address your concerns:
Q: What does a -temporary service disruption- mean?
A: If a temporary service disruption occurs, you would not be able to connect to the Internet through your Comcast cable modem, or send or receive new e-mail. You would still be able to read any @Home e-mail messages that you had already opened as they would have been automatically saved to your hard drive.
Q: Does this mean that I'm going to lose my service? For how long?
A: At this point in time, we only know of the possibility of a temporary service disruption. While we have no information as to how long such an interruption would last, please know that we are doing everything possible to prevent this from happening. We will continue to provide you with information updates through our Toll-Free Customer Information Hotline (1-888-433-6963), and our website, www.comcastonline.com/info.htm.
Q: How can I connect to the Internet if my service is interrupted?
A: We recommend that you take advantage of Comcast's Connection Backup Program to obtain free dial-up and e-mail service as a temporary alternative. This service requires that you have a phone modem. Visit www.comcastonline.com/info.htm today to sign up for service. Please note that NetZero provides this service and will offer customer support for it.
Q: What will happen to any e-mail sent to me if my service is interrupted?
A: We are hopeful that Excite@Home would store and hold your @Home e-mail until the service is restored. However, we cannot guarantee that this will happen as Excite@Home controls the e-mail servers.
If you would like to set up a temporary e-mail account, we recommend that you take advantage of Comcast's Connection Backup Program. This service requires that you have a phone modem. Visit www.comcastonline.com/info.htm to sign up for free dial-up and e-mail service as a temporary alternative. Please note that NetZero provides this service and will offer customer support.
Q: What will happen to my personal Web page?
A: As a safety precaution, you should always backup your personal Web page to a CD or hard drive. (see instructions below)
Q: What should I do with my Comcast cable modem?
A: If service is interrupted, you should leave your modem connected to your computer until service is restored. If you lease your modem from Comcast, we would automatically issue a credit for both service and equipment rental during any service interruption that results from the Bankruptcy Court's ruling.
Q: I pay $____ every month for this service. Will I be charged if the service is interrupted?
A: We will automatically issue a credit to your account for service and equipment rental during any service interruption that results from the Bankruptcy Court's ruling.
Q: Can I switch now to the Comcast-managed network that is mentioned in the e-mail?
A: We are diligently working to make this new service available as quickly as possible. We will provide you with more details of the timing as they become available.
Q: What should I be doing right now?
A: Some suggested steps include the following:
1. Back up your personal Web page.
2. Check your @Home e-mail daily. Opened messages will be saved automatically to your hard drive.
3. Take advantage of Comcast's Connection Backup Program.
Q: What should I do if there is a temporary service interruption?
A: Please consider taking the following steps:
1. Call the Comcast Toll-Free Customer Information Hotline at 1-888-433-6963 for regular status updates.
2. Connect to the Web through Comcast's Connection Backup Program and visit www.comcastonline.com/info.htm for Web updates.
Q: I purchased (or am considering purchasing) a self-install kit, and was planning on signing up for Comcast @Home service. Should I reconsider this now because of the Excite@Home situation?
A: This news should not negatively impact your decision to choose Comcast for your high-speed Internet service. Comcast is working closely with the management of Excite@Home and its other cable partners to prevent any service interruptions.
To Transfer Files from WebSpace to your hard drive using the File Manager:
1. Download the files from WebSpace to your computer by logging in to the WebSpace login page at http://home-members.excite.com/m_webspace/ and clicking File Manager, located at the top-right corner of the screen.
2. Select Transfer from the File Manager navigation bar. In the window that appears, select the files you want to transfer from your WebSpace account to your computer, and the location to which you want them transferred, then click Transfer.
3. A window appears telling you when your file has been downloaded.
4. Click OK to return to the File Manager page.
5. Once you are finished with File Manager, log out by clicking Logout on the navigation bar. If you do not log out, and you share a computer with other people in your household, they may have access to your files.
If there is anything else we can help you with, please contact us. Thank you for choosing Comcast.
Melaney
Comcast
E-mail Response Specialist
Your monitor is staring at you.
I've called cox's tech support, and they will tell me NOTHING.......i need a monster truck and 30 flame throwers and i'll take care of this business.Anybody care to help?.....for i'd like to know if i'm gonna go dark on friday or not...for i have been told NOTHING....is that legal if i get shut down, but get no forewarning?
For those of you using a real OS such as Linux, BSD, Solaris, OS-X, just run your own. I don't use the excite stuff as I never felt that they had a clue. ATT has been excellent about it after the set-up. During the initial call in, you have to talk to the idiots at ohio, but it gets better. Be sure that you know what is required to set-up your system as the tech supports are also idiots (they are rehab cable installers or MCSE - worthless). However, I have found that if you have problems get into tier 2 asap and simply tell them that you do real OS's. Then they are pretty decent (they will be in Denver or Dallas, not Ohio).
Set up a minimum Web server, ssh, and e-mail with a STABLE system. Close everything else. And don't bother with RPCs.
Do NOT even think of using this for more than personal useage. They do monitor the bandwidth and will pretty much cut you off iff you overuse the system. I have had for the most part excellent service from them as long as you don't use excite.
From a TCI/AT&T/Charter@Home Static IP-for-three years customer.
.
Just spoke to XXXX at the Tarrant, AL office with TCI/AT&T/Charter. They have to work all day Saturday and Sunday and have people available to go to customer premises if necessary. XXXX (her supervisor) spoke about the addresses some today, but didn't recall static IP vs dynamic IP. She says that the equipment change was completed on Friday, said that "we are off of cable and are now using fiber! She said I should notice it is much faster. (It is, if had crap for service the past month and a half)
I'll be getting an email today or tomorrow from Charter with the new settings, etc, but here is confirmation that yes,
indeed, @Home goes dark Fri nite at midnite
There should be no interruption of service. It sounds to me like we have already been converted to Charter's fiber network, and there are just settings (gateway, email) that will change. No speed change or subscription/install fees/modem change/nothing. Indeed, I think that this Com21 2000 modem can only handle static IP anyway.
We shall see.
PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS E-MAIL MESSAGE. REPLY MESSAGES WILL
NOT BE ROUTED PROPERLY TO A CUSTOMER CARE SPECIALIST.
Dear MaTcHBoY,
As you may be aware, Excite@Home, our service provider, recently
filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. In order to continue providing
you the quality and reliable high-speed cable Internet service
that you expect, AT&T has submitted a proposal to purchase the
Excite@Home network. If AT&T is able to purchase and manage the
Excite@Home network, there will be no immediate change to your
current service. If the network purchase is approved, we will
notify you via your AT&T@Home email account as soon as possible.
As a precautionary measure, AT&T Broadband also has been building
its own network and service in the event that AT&T is unable to
purchase the Excite@Home network. If the proposal to purchase the
Excite@Home network is not approved, your service may be temporarily
interrupted and it will be necessary to move your service to a new
AT&T Broadband network.
In any event, AT&T Broadband is deeply committed to providing you
the best cable Internet service possible and communicating any
upcoming changes. Be sure to frequently check the "Announcements
and Updates" section of our Web site for the latest information
about your service:
http://help.broadband.att.com/
In the meantime, please check your AT&T Broadband email account(s)
on a daily basis. Doing this will automatically save your email
to your hard drive as well as ensure timely receipt of important
future communications from AT&T Broadband. Also, if you use our
Personal WebSpace feature, we recommend you backup your personal
web page(s) by copying it to a diskette, CD, or to your computer
hard drive.
If migrating your service to the AT&T Broadband network and service
becomes necessary, we will call to notify you of the migration timing.
A message will be left on your voicemail or recorder if no one is
available at the time of the call. As a precaution, we are
providing you the following instructions, which will enable you
to connect your computer to the new AT&T Broadband network. Again,
you will only need to follow these steps in the event you receive a
call from AT&T Broadband instructing you to do so.
1. Restart your computer to begin the process.
2. Open your Internet browser. You should be automatically
sent to an AT&T Broadband welcome page. This page includes
instructions on how to download software used to change
your computer settings for the new network. If the welcome
page does not automatically appear when you open your browser,
please go to
http://newuser.attbi.com/
(This website will only be available if the service migration
is necessary).
3. Follow the instructions on the Web site to run the Automated
Configuration Utility (or you can choose to change your
computer settings manually).
4. The software will automatically change your Outlook Express
email client, your Internet Explorer settings, and configure
your computer for the new AT&T Broadband network.
Information on how to manually change your settings for
other email clients and Internet browsers such as Netscape
Communicator and Netscape Navigator can be found at
http://help.broadband.att.com/
5. You can now surf the Internet and use email on the new
AT&T Broadband Internet network and service.
If migrating your service to the new network is necessary, certain
aspects of your service would change. Your current homepage would
feature new content and your current email address domain name
would change. Please note that your username would remain the same.
For example, jsmith@home.com would change to jsmith@attbi.com.
If service changes are necessary, a detailed description of all
changes will be provided at
http://help.broadband.att.com/
in the Announcements and Updates section.
Whether the Excite@Home network is purchased or your service is
migrated to the new AT&T Broadband network, your Subscriber
Agreement, which outlines the general Terms and Conditions of your
service will change. You will be able to view the amended and
restated Subscriber Agreement that will apply to the AT&T Broadband
Internet service at
http://help.broadband.att.com/
Your continued use of the service will constitute your acceptance
of the amended and restated AT&T Broadband Internet Subscriber
Agreement.
If you need assistance, visit us online at
http://help.broadband.att.com/
to chat with a customer care specialist. Please remember, AT&T
Broadband will call you if any action is required on your part.
While we realize these potential changes may cause some inconvenience,
please be assured that we are doing everything possible to avoid
any service disruptions. However, in the event the service is
disrupted during a migration, you will receive a credit for those
days of interrupted service.
We are working hard to provide you with the best high-speed cable
Internet service possible. We appreciate your patience and your
business.
Sincerely,
Susan K. Marshall
Senior Vice President
Advanced Broadband Services
Robby Russell
PLANET ARGON
Robby on Rails
>Access to the internet is a privelege, not a right
Yeah? So is a car. And if you woke up tomorrow and it was stolen how fucked would you be? I live 40 minutes from work and we have almost nonexistant mass transit. Sure, you'd figure out how to function but for a while your life would be in turmoil.
Sorry that you have some kind of vendetta against geeks, but you need to separate that from the issue at hand. With very little notice, a lot of users are going to lose what could be an important communication tool. Your response doesn't even address the idea of lost receipts and online bill payment. And let's not forget how much cheaper AIM is for talking to my cousin in TX than a long-distance call. It's not just pervs and space cadets that will be affected here.
Before this morning, I received exactly one notice from Comcast and it said everything was A-OK. Now they're telling me to expect to lose service for a while starting as soon as 2 days from now. Thankfully I never trusted them and didn't use the email account much. Unfortunately, the copper in my area only supports 24.4 so I'm hosed for doing research on the net.
Don't deride a lifestyle choice that you don't agree with and try to pass it off as a valid argument.
"Can I say you're my lovepuppy?" Founding member of SODAMNHOTT
And my purposes in lifes would be to be killed over-and-over again by Arthur. I can't remember but wasn't it Agrajag?
101010b 2Ah 52o
I've switched over my account and my girlfriend's to Rogers' new mail servers, and now I get the error that their SMTP server won't relay my mail to outside domains. So I can only send email to people on Rogers now??
DataSquid.net, a little about me.
According to Charter Comm, here in Madison Wi. Excite@home will pull the plug. They first sent me an email that this might happen and offered me an alternative. Last night 11/28 I received a call from a Charter rep stating that Excite@home is indeed shutting down on 11/30 and offered me a package deal (one that gives me a fatter pipe at $20 less/month).
Now they're running the networks in parallel and we'll see how smoothly (or not) the transition goes!
The RFC you refer to has nothing at all to do with POP3, it is an e-mail header spec.
Are you huffing whippets or something?
Well if you were staying at the
;)
"Little Richard Hotel"
and you are dyslexic, you might remember that your lodging is really at the
"Big Dick Inn"
I'd rather be dyslexic than lessdixic.
O-O
|
|
Q
\
The _only_ place to look for DSL is at DSL Reports
(g) restrict, inhibit or otherwise interfere with the ability of any other person to use or enjoy the AT&T Equipment or the Service, including, without limitation, posting or transmitting any information or software which contains a virus or other harmful feature; or generating levels of traffic sufficient to impede others' ability to send or retrieve information;
Sounds to me like all machines running windoze are in violation fo the agreement
-michael
Check it out:
http://www.comcastonline.com/info.htm
Look at their very sophisticated and well thought out backup plan...
I wish I had AT&T....
So... will the customer service chix help you keep your Cox up?
Further...
That was just too easy...
Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats. -HLM
You forget their connections to AOL, young grasshopper.
Zodiac Survey
I work over there, so I know that they are trying hard. They are trying to get a FCC-approved reply about a 30-day grace period before any shutdowns. If we are shut down on Friday, there's going to be a lot of pissed off people, including me. Even so, I still hope AT&T wins and buys the company, because I'm not looking forward to a Roadrunner/AOL monopoly on cable.
There's some more information and an official statement from Insight here.
Zodiac Survey
SpamCop is a sorta good idea, but the implementation sucks. It's no wonder why @Home black-holed it, all those automated spam notifications for spams that weren't spams must have been driving their guys nuts (not that their guys had much sanity in the first place, otherwise they wouldn't have been working @Home).
-E
Send mail here if you want to reach me.
Here is Mediacom's response (taken from the annoying JavaScript popup windows).
I'm crossing my eyes, fingers, legs and anything else I can find. I really don't want to go back to Qwest ISDN. *shudder*
I just called my local TCI...err, AT&T Broad...err, Mediacom provider and the customer rep there just read me a letter that basically states what was on the web page above.
Guess we'll have to wait and see. I hope the judge has a lot of good karma in reserve if he allows Excite@Home's network to be turned off.
I've been a loyal Shaw@Home subscriber for years, it was about three years ago they started building their networks and such, last year they were trying to weasel out of their contract with @Home because of various issues, but excite wouldn't budge. It's market forces that's done this. @Home was way to power hungry and inflexible for their isps. The Shaw cable.net service has been up and runny for over a year, over the last three years they've sunk over $100 million into Calgary alone (which is where their NOC is located).
I say good riddens to them. @Home was a great idea, a good way to brand, and an awesome way to unify, but when you stifle your providers and are extremely rigid, what do you think is gonna happen? I'll take my @shaw.ca e-mail and thank god that a company that cares about service and quality is finally running the entire show. Because no matter what you say about the stability and consistency of cable modems providers, since Shaw has migrated to their own networks, I have not had a single problem, and even before hand, their service and support is second to none.
IMHO anyway.
http://www.hotlingo.com/ for all great slperlz out there.
-In the event that you disagree with the previous comment, be advised that you are most likely right anyway.
http://www.charter.com/installer/
"Uh, but still though, TCI@Home ---> AT&T@Home, where now does Excite@Home come into all of this?"
Uh, Excite and @Home are the same. They merged, what was it, about a year or two ago?
So, your AT&T@Home *is* Excite@Home's Internet services delivered c/o AT&T.
From your post I infer that you didn't know this.
Does anyone know what today's court decision actually means? http://news.cnet.com/news/topic/0-1400-249-0.html? tag=excitehome