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Some People @Home, Some Not @Home

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the hey-brother-can-you-spare-a-dialup dept.

11thangel writes: "Dotcomscoop is reporting that Excite@home has released a statement saying that they have discontinued service to AT&T, as it's certain negotiations will be fruitless. All others are still at the bargaining table. Earlier statements indicated that an example would be made out of one provider, AT&T being the obvious target. Everyone else keep your fingers crossed." There's a Reuters story about AT&T being unplugged. Various submissions have noted that some people who still have connectivity have lost their DNS servers. Just add "64.28.67.150 slashdot.org" to your hosts file and you should be good to go. :)

12 of 513 comments (clear)

  1. Somewhat working by brocktune · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I changed DNS to the old Mediaone servers and I'm working again. My DHCP-generated IP address changed. Mail and news are not up yet.

    Details on how to change are here. I assume other folks can replace the "ga" in the URL with their state or city name. There was an email sent out last week with more details.

  2. more dns #'s by loraksus · · Score: 5, Interesting

    4.2.2.2
    4.2.2.3
    provided to you by verizon and painfully easy to remember.

    I'm still shocked about how this is happening in the USA. I mean, if it happened in some eastern bloc country, or some nation in Africa that is very corrupt / piss poor, I could understand, but here?
    No offense to people in those countries, btw, it seems that the telecommunications infrastructure in most countries is beter than that of the usa.
    I honestly don't understand why the service costs so much in the usa - In BC, Canada, 1.5mb down / 768 up, 2 static ip's for $40 a month CANADIAN! Here, I pay $55ish for a whole 768dn / 100k up, a dynamic ip and shitty ping. WTF. The Canadian dollar is worth less, so it stands to reason that the equipment costs more for the Canadian providers (because they take in canadian $, not us $) . . .

    bah, at least my dsl provider looks like they will be in service for the next month or so....

    --
    1q2w3e4r5t6y7u8i9o0pqawsedrftgthyjukilo;p'azsxdcfv gbhnjmk,l.;/
    1. Re:more dns #'s by seanadams.com · · Score: 5, Interesting

      4.2.2.4: i-will-not-steal-service.gtei.net

      Kinda stupid, actually. "Hey, we've left our DNS servers accessible to the public with no access control, but please don't use them unless you're paying us"

      Most people configure their DNS servers to allow anyone to do a recursive lookup, because usually there's no point in using someone else's DNS as opposed to running your own or using your ISPs.

      If they wanted to prevent the public from using their DNS servers, they would have one set of servers only accessible to their own customers, and another set accessible to the world, but which only served domains they were hosting. It's very easy to do, so it's silly of them to insinuate that we're "stealing" by using name servers which have been deliberately left open.

    2. Re:more dns #'s by FunkMonkey#9 · · Score: 2, Interesting
      The Canadian dollar is worth less, so it stands to reason that the equipment costs more for the Canadian providers (because they take in canadian $, not us $) . . .

      There's a couple of very good reasons why high-speed service is a lot cheaper in Canada, and neither of them are the relative strength of the Canadian dollar.

      First and foremost, we have the CRTC. Those guys are in charge of regulating the Telecommunications industry, and they do a pretty good job (for the most part).

      Secondly, the major difference between telecom in Canada and the US is that phone companies in the US are run in their respective states. In Canada, telecommunications are regulated across Canada as a whole, which allows for lower overhead so far as providing amalgamated service to the entire country.

      Whew. Way too hot (25C+) in the office this evening. I hate working weekends; can't think straight. If anyone else comes up with something, feel free to, you know, discuss...

      --

      -- The One and Only NotMike.

  3. Perhaps... by bteeter · · Score: 2, Interesting

    DSL wasn't such a bad way to go after all. Verizon isn't going away anytime soon, the service is fast, reliable and always on.

    Maybe this will be how the battle of DSL vs Cable will be decided - in bankruptcy court.

    Take care,

    Brian
    --
    Come and get a free Palm m100 --

  4. More bandwidth for the rest of us by ryanvm · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Hmmm, with Excite pulling the plug on a large portion of its subscribers (AT&T), shouldn't that free up quite a bit of bandwith for the rest of the @Home customers (Insight, Comcast, Cox)?

    Maybe now I can return to the days of 50ms CounterStrike ping that I had in back January. Suhweet!

    Of course, that is until Excite pulls this shit again in 2 months.

  5. Covad offers free swith to DSL for @Home users by mr.crutch · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Just saw this press release stating that Covad is offering @Home customers the opportunity to switch any @Home customer to DSL for free (free hardware & install).

    Might be worth investigating...

  6. ATT Now Limiting Downstream Speeds Too by denovich · · Score: 3, Interesting
    ...assuming you even have a connection. Less for More! Horray.

    I cliped this from ATT's broadband support page:

    I Understand that AT&T Broadband Has Changed Downstream Speeds on the New Service. Why are You Limiting Downstream Bandwidth?

    The new AT&T Broadband Internet network as been built to optimize our customers' high-speed Internet experience. This means that customers speed settings will be set at 1.5 MB downstream and 128kb upstream to ensure that all customers receive an optimized broadband experience. These speed settings are part of our continuous effort to provide customers with the fastest, most consistent broadband service at the lowest possible price. Our lightning-fast connection enhances Internet experiences through fast e-mail communication, quick access to research and surfing, a fantastic gaming experience, quick video clip and music downloads and a whole lot more. The AT&T Broadband Internet network also has been built for future advanced service offerings. We're examining tiered speeds as a future service enhancement in addition to other offerings.

  7. Corporate Warfare by ahde · · Score: 2, Interesting

    You are all aware that Excite@Home was just bought at pennies on the dollar by Microsoft? This is the first strike in a corporate warfare between AT&T and the Redmond giant. Did you notice how the article quotes a Microsoft employee (from Sammamish, Washington) who blames AT&T for service being cut off --and threatens a lawsuit, when it was actually Microsoft that pulled the plug?

    Microsoft's ultimate target is AOL/Time Warner, but they need the broadband infrastructure that AT&T has before they take on AOL. They've already got Qwest, and are forcing virtually all DSL subscribers west of the Mississippi (outside California) to use a proprietary MSN and sign up for Passport. Expect Real Networks to fall soon too, unless they ally with AOL.

  8. Stupid move by at home? by pdqlamb · · Score: 3, Interesting
    AT&T, for all its problems, is the only one of their top three customers that has a chance of reconnecting its cable customers in a timely fashion. Why would excite go after the capable one, instead of making an example of Comcast or Charter?

    Mind you, since I'm on Comcast, I don't mind...

  9. Covad's OK -- they secured more funding! by nbvb · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It's really not fair to "report" months-old news without checking for updates:

    Check out:

    Here

    and

    here.

    Covad's gonna be OK. Really.

    --NBVB

  10. Re:Bad, stupid move by Excite@home... by trenton · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Excite@Home actually didn't make the decision to turn off the modems. The bondholders that financed Excite@Home did. AT&T's offer was so low, they stood to loose tons of money if the deal went through. So, they filed a law suit and had a judge COMPEL Excite@Home to turn off the service. Their reason for this was that keeping the modems on was costing 6 million per week, thus causing the company to lose even more money.

    It still remains to be seen if the bondholders will come out ahead. They claim that the assets of Excite@Home alone are worth much more than AT&T's buyout offer of $307 million. I guess they're waiting for a better offer.

    But, to be sure, pissing off 850,000 people is sure going to lower the value of Excite@Home.

    --
    Too big to fail? Does that make me to small to succeed?