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ATT Broadband Forfeits Mediaone Domain

Kancer was among the many readers to write with news (as carried by the Boston Globe) that "'beginning next month through March 15, current subscribers with (username)@mediaone.net addresses will be required to change them over to an address ending in attbi.com.' Also 'After March 15, any mail sent to a mediaone.net address will be rejected.' What a pain, looks like they are taking down pop mail and replacing it with web-based e-mail as well."

169 comments

  1. Never used the mail anyway by Woodrow · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Enough said. I guess next it will have to be switched to comcast when the purchase goes through. Own your own domain so you don't get screwed!!

    Enough said

    Chris Woodruff

  2. @home by FigBugDeux · · Score: 3, Funny

    i lost my @home.com address and had to switch to @shaw.ca

    i_am_not@home.com is just more funny that i_am_not@haw.ca

    1. Re:@home by FigBugDeux · · Score: 2, Funny

      oh man, i goofed up, i can't type. it sould be:

      "...more funny than i_am_not@shaw.ca"

      oh well...

    2. Re:@home by FigBugDeux · · Score: 1

      why aren't any of the replies to my comment even related at all? i don't get it...

  3. no more spam by drewqmn · · Score: 1

    Well, a temporary solution to *@mediaone.net subscribers.

    1st.

    1. Re:no more spam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It wouldn't be too difficult for spammers to run a simple search/replace through their spam lists to change mediaone.net to attbi.com...

  4. A Sad Day for ISP services. by ASyndicate · · Score: 2, Insightful

    No POP Email,
    This used to be the whole reason to get an ISP because there were no free POP servers. Great.
    I dont want to be looking at web-based email all day.

    --
    This page left intentionally blank.
    1. Re:A Sad Day for ISP services. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      First its pop3 and a few ports here and there. Pretty soon your only connection will be Microsoft .NET.

      neener! neener! neener!

    2. Re:A Sad Day for ISP services. by Fifth+of+Five · · Score: 1

      I read the article and didn't see anything about abandoning POP3, just that they were adding a web-mail system to let users access thier mail from any computer. Did I mis-read it?

      --
      "Melt the ice; eat the moose; drill the oil; get it over with." -Max Boot
    3. Re:A Sad Day for ISP services. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have attbi.com currently. Got switched from @home when athome kicked at&t cable off.

      I can access my email either with their pop server or by web page. I suspect that pop3 isn't going away. They are simply offering another access method for method.

  5. attbroadband.com as well? by Rackemup · · Score: 5, Insightful
    anyone with @mediaone.com will have to get a new email address... AND anyone with @attbroadband.com will have to get a new address as well.

    What does attbroadband.com have to do with mediaone? Probably nothing, they just said to themselves "well we're going to piss off 100000 subscribers by making them change their email addresses, what's a few thousand more? Then they'll all look the same!"

    Cuz we all know how much marketing people like to make everything look pretty =)

    1. Re:attbroadband.com as well? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      AT&T bought out Mediaone. Mediaone bought out my cable service, Cablevision. Big fish eat little fish before they can be properly digested

    2. Re:attbroadband.com as well? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      See, if everyone just used AOL there would be no problems in the world. st3v3c4s3235295@aol.com is much easier to remember than having to send people your new email address everytime your cable company goes under. In fact, AOL should be adopted as the defacto United States ISP. Everyone should pay a tax of $250 a year for e-mail access. This would be collected by the USPS and split with AOL.

    3. Re:attbroadband.com as well? by bourne · · Score: 1

      anyone with @mediaone.com will have to get a new email address... AND anyone with @attbroadband.com will have to get a new address as well.

      The sad thing is, they just went and deleted all the mediaone.* newsgroups and created a new attbroadband.* hierarchy to replace them. No doubt they'll want to move them to attbi.* now.
  6. POP3 Will Be Available by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    There'll be POP3, it's just there will now *also* be webmail.

  7. Web based email blows by Penrod+Pooch · · Score: 1

    I lost the main email address I've been using since 1995 to a seriously crappy web based system about six months ago. If I ever find the moron who invented that shit...

    1. Re:Web based email blows by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Webmail as we know it today was invented by open source hero Mike Bouma

  8. current atbi mail sux by jpellino · · Score: 4, Funny

    they took away the abilty to use a standard client when not hooked to your actual cable modem - so i can't use mail.app or entourage unless i'm at home.

    they will only let you get remote mail via an att web page, so it's no longer integrated into the client with all your other mail..

    they claim this is an improvement. in order to let you access mail remotely - which every other tin-horn isp can let you do anyway...

    1. half speed since dec 1
    2. 11% price jack
    3. dns sux
    4. dhcp pool sux
    5. toy mail

    if i'm gonna grab my ankles like this, i at least want a free pair of better looking sneakers.

    --
    "Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
    1. Re:current atbi mail sux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      most places the price has not gone up.

      AFAIK it has only gone up in 1 or 2 places. The standard for the nation is 45.95. Beats what I pay for RoadRunner.

      You are paying 45.95 (less or the same as DSL) and getting 2x the speed. Stop whining please.

      Are people ever happy w/the service that they receive?

    2. Re:current atbi mail sux by jpellino · · Score: 2

      it went from $45.95 to $49.95 +tax

      i don't care about most places - i care what comes out of my checkbook.

      service went from 3 mbps to 1.5 mbps

      i'm getting half the speed for more money.

      if that's your idea of fair, good luck.

      suppose they cut your cable channels by half and the price went up. what would you do?

      we don't care how they do it in dsl land.
      i can't get dsl to my door
      the dsl in ct sux anyway

      if they can do this what else can they do - the data side of their biz is unregulated, doncha know.

      --
      "Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
    3. Re:current atbi mail sux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Let me get this straight. You think you deserve 3mbps for $50?

      Wow, I thought I was naive.

    4. Re:current atbi mail sux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How is this insightful? He's expecting business class services for $50!

    5. Re:current atbi mail sux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      it isn't 49.95. It is 45.95. You are wrong. You are including taxes and local franchise fees. That isn't a part of the service.

      Awww, paying $50 for service that should cost you over $450.

      Shutup or payup.

    6. Re:current atbi mail sux by catalina · · Score: 1
      suppose they cut your cable channels by half and the price went up. what would you do?


      Well, in the last couple o' months, ATT Cable did just that...They've started moving the interesting channels to their new "digital cable" service, and upped the price for this service.

      But whoop-de-doo! If I change to the new service I can get 45 music and 38 PPV channels! Oh, my lucky stars!

    7. Re:current atbi mail sux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      lol, you get a normal POP account with a $15 per month dialup service!

    8. Re:current atbi mail sux by tb3 · · Score: 2

      Huh? Use mail.app with iTools email. Works great over cable modem. I moved from a Mediaone/ATT broadband account to a Cogeco (Canada) broadband account without a hitch. Plus, you get IMAP instead of POP.

      --

      www.lucernesys.comHorizon: Calendar-based personal finance

    9. Re:current atbi mail sux by Desco · · Score: 1

      You're telling me "3. dns sux"!!! Christ! Half the time I can't get to the servers I wanna get to. "Server Not Found" is the response I get a lot from their shit ass server. Hell, I can't even get to this article right now 'cause they're dns server doesn't know the domain. The other day I couldn't get to cia.gov. CIA.GOV!!! What a crock of shit service. Good thing I'm moving in 2 months to an area where I can get dsl... not that it'll be much better, but atleast I won't have to deal with AT&T anymore.

      -Desco-

  9. they are not getting rid of POP. by garcia · · Score: 5, Informative

    right now you have the choice of either. There is no preference at this time.

    WebMail is for people who move around and want to check their account from non-attbi network connected computers.

    Some people also prefer WebMail to using Outlook Express (the only supported mail client -- although there are instructions on the web for other clients)

    1. Re:they are not getting rid of POP. by J'raxis · · Score: 1

      Supported mail clients? Dammit, its POP. See, I can do it myself:

      USER jraxis
      PASS foobar
      LIST
      RETR 1
      DELE 1
      RETR 2
      DELE 2
      QUIT

      I can do SMTP too!
      </sarcasm>

    2. Re:they are not getting rid of POP. by OverCode@work · · Score: 2

      Out of curiosity, do they allow remote access to ports 25 and 110?
      If so, I suspect many technically inclined people will start running their own mail servers.

      I run an IMAP server on my home box, and it's made life a LOT easier.

      -John

  10. and another thing... by jpellino · · Score: 2

    - i never used my @home address to sign up for anything;
    - only used that address to respond to official mail from them to that address;
    - and still got epic amounts of spam thru my @home account.
    - the buzz is that they had a massive absconding of email records but nothing more, they deny it absolutely.
    -any confirmation of this?

    -JP

    weak as kittens, dumb as a sack of hammers.

    --
    "Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
    1. Re:and another thing... by da_Den_man · · Score: 1
      I had both PacBell and Not@home while I lived in the Silicon Valley. The company I worked for paid for one, and at $40.00 I did not mind paying for the other. I used the DSL line to run my own Web/Mail/FTP service, and just used the cable for High Speed access. It soon came to a point where the cable connection became worthless due to shared bandwidth, but I left it hooked up for 6 - 8 months just to use it sporadically. I never loaded the Not@home specific browser or utility programs (I did not even know what my email address was for Not@Home) and just used the connection.

      I went to cancel and the CSR stated I had over 1200 emails. I told her I NEVER used this account, nor did I EVER give out the address as I did NOT KNOW IT. She stated that "sometimes this happens" and I had to clear out all the email before they could cancel the account. I asked for the login and password, and she said "None have been assigned to that account" They assigned one, I logged on, and proceeded to remove a years worth of SPAM. All of it addressed to the email address. NONE of the mail was worth the time it took to delete.

      I would bet they sold the list, similar to what QWEST is doing, before I would believe someone made off with information.

      --
      You keep going until you die..."Me".
    2. Re:and another thing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you have a website with @Home then they have your @home email address.

    3. Re:and another thing... by hrieke · · Score: 2

      No, but my story is the same.
      Just for a yucks I checked my email there yesterday afternoon, or was it Thursday.
      I've never used my mediaone email address and I had 50 messages waiting for me. 2 from ATT and 48 spam.

      --
      III.IIVIVIXIIVIVIIIVVIIIIXVIIIXIIIIIIIIVIIIIVVIIIV IIVIIIIIIVIII...
    4. Re:and another thing... by Corgha · · Score: 2

      Same deal with me and my @mediaone.net address.

      So now I get a new spam trap @attbi.com. *shrug*
      No one who knows anything uses their ISP's email account for anything important, anyway.

      What worries me is not what they do with their crappy mail servers, but that they might someday go the way of other ISPs and start blocking TCP to port 25.

    5. Re:and another thing... by SomeoneYouDontKnow · · Score: 2

      I wouldn't necessarily blame that on the company. What spammers will often do is launch a dictionary attack against a mail server. This is when they send spam to every possible combination of letters and numbers that has a decent chance of being an e-mail address. Many of the e-mails will bounce, but some will get through. If your address was at all common (the username wasn't complete gibberish), that could have been what happened. Now granted, most spammers won't want to see the bounces--they'll just insert a fake return address, but the ones actively building e-mail lists might, especially if they have a mailbox big enough to receive them and some software to weed through them and delete them from their list of possible addresses. And once your address has been confirmed as good, then you'll get more and more spam. Lovely, isn't it?

      --
      That light you see at the end of the tunnel might be from an oncoming train.
    6. Re:and another thing... by noweb4u · · Score: 1

      I recieved 3 mail messages during the 6 months I had an @home account. One welcome message, one promotional message from comcast, and one about the @home Chapter 11 thing.
      I never once used it for anything, and never got any spam.
      My username was noweb4u1@home.com. (for some reason, their servers prohibited noweb4u@ - I still to this day don't know why)
      Ah well, can't get cablemodem here where I moved anyway.

  11. I've got a solution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    A front page story like this?? Must be a slow news day.

    What's the big deal? Just mail your new address to everyone you need to be in contact with.

    Of course, a centralised and international e-mail address and cryptographic signature database would help a lot. You could look up e-mail addresses by name, physical address or any other field and the signature (obtained from the authorities with an official national level ID like passport as the proof-of-identity) would guarantee that the recipient/sender is who he/she claims to be.

    Too bad the privacy nuts would never go along with this so now we're stuck in this e-mail address chaos.

    1. Re:I've got a solution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Too bad the privacy nuts would never go along

      I recommend that you read a book like Curt Gentry's "J. Edgar Hoover -- The Man and the Secrets" before you dismiss concerns over huge databases as paranoia. The right-wing conservatives would be just drooling over a database like this. It would make tracking people in the not so much easier: download some non-mainstream porn and your signature gets recorded for future blackmail. Or express your leftwing sympathies or refuse calling September 11th a terrorist strike (like BBC) and end up on a terrorist list. You can be this kind of information would leak out, be sold and abused.

    2. Re:I've got a solution by filtersweep · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Have you been living in a cave?

      It IS a big deal when software activation codes, hard disk keys (for copy protected software), all sorts of "account info," etc. are tied to email addresses. I don't exactly trust a forwarding service such as yahoo mail for a more permanent solution. Sure, it is not the end of the world, but it can be a real pain to prove you are who you are to some vendors after your email changes.

      It also simply sucks if you have an email address you actually like (rather than epd54346@blahblahblah.com). I went through this whole nightmare when MSN assimilated Qwest customers. I am NOT having a hotmail or MSN account- so I switched to a local ISP out of principle- and that was not without its bumps considering I use DSL and there are few people at Qwest who have a clue what they are talking about (they obviously give tech support from a script). Granted this is a different company, but it is the same set of issues. If you vote with your feet, you still get spanked.

      --


      Those that suggest you "dance like no one is watching" really want to see you make a complete fool of yourself.
    3. Re:I've got a solution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Like many people have said before, for a few dollars a year you can get your own domain and never have to change. I've had my same domain name for the last 6 years and I'll have it for the next 6 years (registered in advance). All I need is DSL, a static IP, and BIND + Exim. :-)

    4. Re:I've got a solution by AndroidCat · · Score: 1

      So when's Qwest going to stop being so spam-friendly?

      --
      One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
    5. Re:I've got a solution by Jaysyn · · Score: 1

      I've been using Yahoo as my main e-mail provider for about 4 years now. I haven't had any problems with them. The 6Mb mailbox is more than what my local ISP gives me.

      Jaysyn

      --
      There is a war going on for your mind.
  12. reminds me of @home by nilstar · · Score: 1

    I used to have an @home.com address, but now I have an @rogers.com email address for highspeed cable. This is one smart(er) thing done by ATT though... I don't think I want *all* my high speed customers having the same extension as my employees... so I think the attbi.com extension is a smart thing by them.

    --
    ===> An eye for an eye makes everyone blind - MG
    1. Re:reminds me of @home by gillrock · · Score: 1

      yes, but attbi.NET would be so much better.

      --
      "...the shortest distance between two points may be straight line, but it is by no means the most interesting."
    2. Re:reminds me of @home by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Rogers employees use @rci.rogers.com for their email addresses. But you're still partially right. The similarities are enough to cause some confusion.

  13. Forwarding? by AndrewRUK · · Score: 1

    "After March 15, any mail sent to a mediaone.net address will be rejected."
    Have they never heard of forwarding?

    1. Re:Forwarding? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And pay for the bandwidth?

    2. Re:Forwarding? by penguinboy · · Score: 4, Informative

      If you read the article, the issue behind this is that some other company apparently won the rights to the mediaone.net domain. If ATT doesn't control the domain any more, they can't do any forwarding.

    3. Re:Forwarding? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hmm. How... convinient, isn't it?

  14. webmail outcry by humanasset · · Score: 1

    I don't understand why there is such an outcry here whenever an ISP proposes changing customers' mail clients to webmail.

    It allows the ISP to reduce their support costs for two obvious reasons I see:

    -Easier mail client to walk the "AOL crowd" through

    -Webmail is less vulnerable to viruses designed for Outlook/Outlook Express

    It also allows customers to view email from anywhere.

    If you really need POP3 access, find a friendly local ISP and pay a few bucks extra a month.

    1. Re:webmail outcry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A few extra bucks?! When I'm already paying extortionist rates for cable modem access? Who the hell do you work for?

    2. Re:webmail outcry by Penrod+Pooch · · Score: 1

      Because they are shortchanging the inexperienced users. Web based mail has a slower and generally crappier UI, it is less featureful and powerful, users can't archive their mail in any sensible way and last but not least they miss out on learning how to operate a mailclient.

    3. Re:webmail outcry by Genom · · Score: 4, Informative

      Easier mail client to walk the "AOL crowd" through

      As long as the mail client is standardized (ie: "We support this mail client, if you want to use another one, that's fine, we'll give you the servernames, but we won't help you with settings, etc...") then it's just as easy to walk someone through it. Heck, most tech support places just use a script they read from anyway - half the time the "tech" is as clueless as the user, at least in "front-line" tech support, where these kinds of queries get handled.

      Webmail is less vulnerable to viruses designed for Outlook/Outlook Express

      If it's being brosed by IE, it's insecure. Until MS decides to put some sane defaults in IE as to what kinds of scripts it will execute "out-of-the-box", and what kinds of system information and file access those scripts will have, it will be possible to exploit a user's system through any webpage.

      Since 90% of their users will be coming in through IE, "added security" is most definitely NOT what they're getting. The Windows Addressbook is accessible through IE's scripting engine. Unless they have people ditch their addressbooks (good luck - I tried to get my parents to ditch theirs a while ago, in favor of a local webpage, in part to save them from being a node for addressbook worms, and they would not give it up. They were that attached to it.) it's not going to help.

      What it will do is add a layer of indirection. IE can't be told to respond to a mailto: link by opening up a webmail client - so all those users are going to have to be explained to why clicking on an email link no longer allows them to email the address pointed to.

    4. Re:webmail outcry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "We support this mail client, if you want to use another one, that's fine, we'll give you the servernames, but we won't help you with settings, etc...")

      This works in theory. However, I can't tell you how many idiots just disregard this and proceed to bug tech support anyway: "but I use this-never-heard-of-piece-of-crap" and AS A CUSTOMER DEMAND IMMEDIATE ANSWERS" or "so you dont know THAT email client? oh, you are incompetent retard and I will write your CEO about it"

      Fuckers.

    5. Re:webmail outcry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      $50/month for T1 speeds is not "extortionist". It's cheap. You people are all fucking cheapskates. If you don't want to pay $50/month go back to dialup. Otherwise quit complaining you're getting $800/month speeds for $50/month.

    6. Re:webmail outcry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If it's being brosed by IE, it's insecure. Until MS decides to put some sane defaults in IE as to what kinds of scripts it will execute "out-of-the-box", and what kinds of system information and file access those scripts will have, it will be possible to exploit a user's system through any webpage.

      They already do. Just go into "Tools -> Internet Options -> Security" and click on the Internet icon and slide the ruler up to "High". Since I've done that I've also had the added benefit of no longer seeing those god damned pop under advertisements. For sites I trust I just add them into the Trusted group where javascript, java, etc. is enabled.

    7. Re:webmail outcry by The+Pi-Guy · · Score: 1

      IE can't be told to respond to a mailto: link by opening up a webmail client - so all those users are going to have to be explained to why clicking on an email link no longer allows them to email the address pointed to.

      Err, last I checked, my Yahoo! Mail can do it, I downloaded the addon and it runs fine.

      --joshua

    8. Re:webmail outcry by Dun+Malg · · Score: 1

      Dude, you have it backwards. Just because cable is cheaper than a telco T1 doesn't mean it's not overpriced. The rates charged for a T1 are extortionate to begin with. Cable, being 1/16 as extortionate isn't necessarilly a good deal.

      --
      If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
  15. Operator independence by oddityfds · · Score: 2, Informative
    Do not use your ISP-provided e-mail address. Do not use your ISP-provided e-mail address. Do not use your ISP-provided e-mail address. You will loose it, be it because your ISP screws you like in this article, or because you move to a new home and change cable or DSL operator.

    Even a HoTMaiL account is better, or preferably some other for-a-fee services. The best and most expensive is to register your own domain name and point it to some hosting service.

    1. Re:Operator independence by Detritus · · Score: 2

      Many professional associations offer mail forwarding services to their members. This lets you give out an email address (jre@ieee.org) that is independent of whatever ISP (769438@conglomo.net) you happen to be using.

      --
      Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
    2. Re:Operator independence by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are absolutely correct. That is why I have used mail.com for years. They provide email forwarding to any address.

      There was a time when ISPs would forward email for a while. I remember eskimo.com (an old Seattle based ISP) did that for me for over a year after I changed ISPs. Not any more. It's the new economy, baby, and we're here to make money, not provide conveniences like mobile POP3 or email forwarding.

      Unfortunately, mail.com forwarding used to be free, until last month when they decided to charge 9.95/year for the service. The independence is still worth it to me.

      I think other services (bigfoot.com?) provide free service but you will likely be subjected to a spam fest.

    3. Re:Operator independence by blibbleblobble · · Score: 1

      There's a bit of a trend to get POP email accounts free with thing anyway now. You can get email accounts at sourceforce, openoffice, mandrake, and the like, when you use their products.

      I use yahoo (POP access) to help me write a spam-filtering program, and my own domain as a real email address. It's good to be able to give a different "suspect_spammers_website@mydomain.co.uk" email for each form you have to fill in, cos it makes it easier to track who's selling their email lists ;-)

    4. Re:Operator independence by rela · · Score: 1

      I registered a domain and set it up to forward emails. Change of ISP address? Just change the forwarding.

  16. POP3 going away?!?! by Vexler · · Score: 1

    I don't see any reference in the announcement that specifically and explicitly foretells the demise of POP3 account. Just because they introduce web-based email doesn't necessarily mean that they will get rid of POP3. Several years ago another ISP (I want to say Earthlink) had concurrent email access, through POP3 and the web. Maybe that's what they are doing now???

    1. Re:POP3 going away?!?! by SPiKe · · Score: 1

      > Several years ago another ISP (I want to say
      > Earthlink) had concurrent email access, through
      > POP3 and the web.

      Yes, this is what Earthlink does (I'm a current Earthlink DSL customer). While I don't really use that account all that much, from what I've seen of the web client, it's not that bad.

  17. Re:reasons for POP by futuresheep · · Score: 1

    -I have yet to see webmail that allows me to filter mailing lists, family members, and business mail into their respective folders.

    -Webmail is slower and kludgier.

    -I can see my POP mail when I'm not online, which is a great bonus for laptop users.

  18. pop only works thru the cable modem by jpellino · · Score: 2

    it dies when you're hooked to anything else, like my fallback dialup, my office t1, 802.11 anywhere.

    they must think we sit at home bug-eyed to their pipe.

    a case of 'depends' and you never have to leave the house.

    --
    "Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
    1. Re:pop only works thru the cable modem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      prior to the switchover the only thing that you could do from a system that was not connected to the ATTBI service (via POP) was to receive mail.

      Honestly, most of the subscribers do sit bug-eyed in front of their "pipe".

      They aren't there to give you service outside of what you are paying for. If you don't like it. Find another provider.

  19. ummm... by jpellino · · Score: 3, Insightful

    if you can't configure via a wizard or mac assistant, you probably can't operate a mouse either.

    pop will still work when you're on the cable modem itself - what we want is pop anywhere - so i can stop having to throw a switch every time i want to check all my mail on all my addresses - i have 6 to check between personal and admin respoonsibilities,

    i'd like to give out my @home as it's the easiest to give by voice, but now i can't integrate it into a mail client unless i'm playing couch potato.

    and for what good reason? certainly none on the customer end - have both - like every mom and pop isp.

    --
    "Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
  20. privacy issues by jpellino · · Score: 2

    paranoia is underrated in this arena

    remember, aids testing is anonymous in the US because certain
    school districts were caught drooling over the prospects of being able to use the info to fire suspected gay teachers.

    http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/97jun/burr.htm

    --
    "Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
  21. attbi??? by kisrael · · Score: 2

    I don't have anything of actual value to add to this discussion, except to ask...

    Are you bi- curious?

    Seriously, who came up with the domain name "attbi.com"? It might be vaguely easier to type, but sheesh.

    --
    SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
    1. Re:attbi??? by J'raxis · · Score: 1

      American Telephone & Telegraph Broadband Internet?

    2. Re:attbi??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      attbi.com is a hell of a lot better than directvinternet.com, which is the domain used for DirecTV Broadband DSL customers. They switched to that from telocity.com, although (thank god) existing customers got to keep their old domain (DirecTV Broadband really is just a new name for Telocity).

      Not only do our customers hate typing directvinternet.com, but many of them can't spell it (only one "t" in "directv"). The result of this is that not only do our basic tech support reps have to explain it to the customers (many have started saying "direct v internet" instead of "direc tv internet" because that's much clearer, if less logical, to most people), but the customers then have to explain it to their friends.

      The solution here is so obvious. How I wish I had more influence with management.

  22. @home @attbi by ekephart · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This might be a little off topic, but I noticed, when ATT@Home turned into @attbi, both a speed up in service and a drop off in spam/Nimda hits. Anyone who has web logs knows that the average residential user with the pirated win2k server ("Der, I got this here copy of server and I'm gonna run it cuz I done wanna gonna be 31337") probably still has Nimda. Sigh. For about 4 days after the switch I take it these people were on the phone trying to get their machines online again. Some words of advice for you MediaOne customers: Relish those few days. Call in sick to work. Eat plenty of food the few days before so you don't even have to get up during said time.

    Oh BTW here is evidence of Nimda living on. Depending on the day you see that log you may even see some CodeRed boxes out there.

    --
    sig
  23. Technicians and knowledge of security breaches by JonathanF · · Score: 1

    I wouldn't have full information, but from my own experience I can tell you that most of your contact avenues with @Home support (standard e-mail, phone, etc.) just wouldn't have that information unless it were true (and they were aware of it). It would have too serious an impact on e-mail to go unignored.

    Generally, if it's only a rumour, don't contact the company asking for information; 99% of the time it's just a rumour. We get that at work (not @Home, although I subscribe to a former @Home service) all the time: people are convinced that one cable modem is faster than another (when they don't even max out the speed on either), or that they're suddenly going to get 4 Mbps speeds, or something else that doesn't have any official backing.

    I'm not accusing, just noting something as both a user and a cable modem tech support rep.

  24. Larger technical issue than thought at first by satsuke · · Score: 2, Funny

    Cut AT&T some slack. I am sure more of us are aware of the complexities of adding mx records to DNS and ensuring said changes are propogated out to each and every DNS server out there.

    1. Re:Larger technical issue than thought at first by satsuke · · Score: 1

      /sarcasm/

    2. Re:Larger technical issue than thought at first by Phroggy · · Score: 2

      Cut AT&T some slack. I am sure more of us are aware of the complexities of adding mx records to DNS and ensuring said changes are propogated out to each and every DNS server out there.

      Huh? MX what? What's a POP server? Why doesn't everybody just use Webmail? This Internet thing scares me...

      Actually, Webmail is cheaper for tech support, because they don't have to walk everyone through the settings for their mail clients. I don't mind walking somebody through configuring a mail client when they're reasonably competent, but for newbies it can be tedious.

      --
      $x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
      $x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
  25. Can't count on uptime by CaptainSuperBoy · · Score: 2

    That would be a good solution, except you can't count on your connection being up. I'm on AT&T and I've lost connectivity for days. That's plenty of time for a mailserver to stop trying to connect. Plus, they do change your IP address every once in a while. If that happens, you're screwed until you can get the MX records updated.

  26. Re:reasons for POP by Svenne · · Score: 1

    "I have yet to see webmail that allows me to filter mailing lists, family members, and business mail into their respective folders."

    You have obviously never tried SquirrelMail.

    Please do, you'll be pleasantly suprised.

    --

    Slagborr
  27. Should ISPs provide email forward like USPS? by Masem · · Score: 5, Insightful
    While email addresses are relatively a dime a dozen, compared to snail mail addresses, the analogy to how to the USPS forwards mail when you move for up to a year would seem to be apt. Particularly since maintaining such forwarding would be incredibly simple (at least, the various unix sendmail variants make it easy; I'd suspect that Exchange is sufficiently simple as well). In this case, they'd only need to set up a single mail server at mediaone.com and attbroadband.com, and redirect addresses appropriately to the attbi.com addresses.

    Maybe they could also include before resending a 4-line notice that they should ask the sender to change the reciever's address (whether in a personal mailbox, or updating a server profile). Then after, say, 3 or 6 months, it would be more reasonable to discontinue those addresses.

    The only reason I think this can become more important is that as more people turn to online bill paying, they would need sufficient time to be able to point the various collectors' sites to point to the new address, and since some bills are only sent out every 2,3,4 or 6 months, this would allow for most billing cycles to occur once.

    --
    "Pinky, you've left the lens cap of your mind on again." - P&TB
    "I can see my house from here!" - ST:
    1. Re:Should ISPs provide email forward like USPS? by vrmlknight · · Score: 1

      That would work fine if it was still ATT's domain but ATT lost the domain to some other company so if the other company was nice they would do that but seeing as how they fought for the domain i dont see it as being on good terms with ATT.

      --
      This must be Thursday, I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
    2. Re:Should ISPs provide email forward like USPS? by Masem · · Score: 2

      Ok, even if this is the case, then there should be an argeement between ISPs that mail forwarding should be implemented, for at least 6 months after a buyout as such happens. Yes, it may not be great for either company, but if email is 'critical', then email forwarding is just as important.

      --
      "Pinky, you've left the lens cap of your mind on again." - P&TB
      "I can see my house from here!" - ST:
    3. Re:Should ISPs provide email forward like USPS? by pen · · Score: 1

      If you want reliable e-mail, buy your own domain and host it.

    4. Re:Should ISPs provide email forward like USPS? by alanjstr · · Score: 2

      That's exactly why I use sneakemail. Whent it came time to change my email account, I only had to do it in one place, Sneakemail's website. And of course the usual reasons about being able to tell where someone gets my email address from. Recently my mozilla address was gathered for spam. But it wasn't my real address, so it was easy to drop.

    5. Re:Should ISPs provide email forward like USPS? by Geekboy(Wizard) · · Score: 1

      Recently my mozilla address was gathered for spam. But it wasn't my real address, so it was easy to drop.

      That is exactly why I run my own email server. I'm still in the process of moving everything over, but then, I can see where the spam is comming from, and inform list owners, and take action against the spammers.

  28. Re:I've got your right wing conservative right her by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In other words, you think the Al Quaeda jerks who flew planes into buildings were just reacting against being victims of American cultural imperialism, right?

  29. Re:Hello Jackass. by vrmlknight · · Score: 1

    does yahoo have pop access casue if your like me and i know i am i don't like web e-mail (i honestly havent looked in to yahoo to check)

    --
    This must be Thursday, I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
  30. I wonder if AT&T talks to itself? by Malor · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Right now I'm pulling email through an AT&T Worldnet account. They're pretty cool, actually -- they allow remote access from anywhere, if you turn that setting on *from within their network*. You can't make changes to your account unless you're dialed into their systems. And they have dialups all over the world.

    They also ONLY do encrypted mail; you can't do regular POP3, only encrypted. (I think it's over SSL, but I'd have to go review my settings and I'm too lazy to do that now. :-) ) Personally, I think that's very cool; force the user to spend a little bit more time setting up their client, and in exchange there's no cleartest mail going to or from their systems. Admittedly, AT&T can't control what other ISPs do, and in many cases the mail will be unencrypted during transit, but at least they're doing the part that's under their control RIGHT. If enough providers did that, email would be a lot more secure.

    It seems really weird that att.net and attbi.com don't talk to each other. Sounds like att.net has it a hell of a lot more together.

  31. Re:reasons for POP by Halvard · · Score: 1

    -I have yet to see webmail that allows me to filter mailing lists, family members, and business mail into their respective folders.

    I can think of at least one Webmail client, the one I'm switching the ISP I own to. It's called SquirrelMail . To quote from the About page:

    "SquirrelMail is a standards-based webmail package written in PHP4. It includes built-in pure PHP support for the IMAP and SMTP protocols, and all pages render in pure HTML 4.0 (with no Javascript) for maximum compatibility across browsers. It has very few requirements and is very easy to configure and install. SquirrelMail has a all the functionality you would want from an email client, including strong MIME support, address books, and folder manipulation."

    Supporting plugins, you can spell check (using ispell or aspell) in two languages, filter spam, use black hole lists, etc. It's also GPL'd. It's also available in lots of languages so it isn't just US centric.

    -Webmail is slower and kludgier.

    It certainly can be slow like it was for me when I was syncing several thousand messages, but it's acceptable for hundreds of messages in multiple folders. And I like lower support requirements as a previous poster stated. Plus I think SquirrelMail is pretty elegant and it's easily brandable.

    -I can see my POP mail when I'm not online, which is a great bonus for laptop users.

    This is very true, but please remember that MediaOne/ATTBI is a residential service. I've got service from them and have for the last about 2 years. I work from home alot and have been unable to work frequently. Since I do and can't afford to not be able to work, I'm suckiing up the cost of the loop charge for a T-1 starting in a couple of weeks or as soon a Verizon can get off their ass.

  32. What about DNS? by Corgha · · Score: 2

    Something that is not at all mentioned in the article (or the /. story) is the issue of DNS, but I can't see AT&T retaining rights to the DNS records but not the use of email (the article seems to treat email as the only use for the domain name).

    I suppose this means that my spiffy old <username>.ne.mediaone.net (I have fought many times to keep it from changing to one of those ugly hXXXXXXXXX.ne.mediaone.net addresses) will get changed into some ugly attbi.com address.

    Either that or they will forgo the PTR record altogether, or screw it up so the PTR and A records don't match. DNS incompetence seems to be a sad trend with AT&T lately.

    1. Re:What about DNS? by bourne · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I suppose this means that my spiffy old .ne.mediaone.net (I have fought many times to keep it from changing to one of those ugly hXXXXXXXXX.ne.mediaone.net addresses) will get changed into some ugly attbi.com address.

      Since the hXXXXXXXXXXXX.ne.mediaone.net addresses were machine-constant (X == MAC address, and therefore you always had the same name) I just pointed my www and MX records at that name for the first year. Then came the big DHCP/DNS "upgrade" a couple of months ago. DNS was screwed up for a week and a half. I went to DynDNS and haven't looked back. Free to host up to 5 DNS records; $30/lifetime to host 1 domain, and more reliable than AT&T will ever be.
    2. Re:What about DNS? by Corgha · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Sure, DynDNS is great for some A records and CNAMEs under another domain (in fact I use them), but I'm not talking about that -- no one in his/her right mind would use his/her ISP address as something to hand out to people. Get a domain or subdomain and use that; you can migrate it easily from ISP to ISP.

      What I'm talking about is the PTR records and the hopefully-matching A record going the other way. DynDNS can't help you there, because I seriously doubt AT&T is going to delegate your little part of in-addr.arpa to DynDNS.

      Some paranoid admins won't allow connections from IPs that don't resolve into names or that resolve into names that don't resolve back into the IP. Rightfully so, I might add, as it only takes a modicum of competence (usually scripting) to ensure that reverse records are correctly set up. I don't want to suddenly lose access to those sites (as some friends on a different subnet have) because AT&T can't get their act together.

      Sadly, competence seems to be going out of style. My personal favorites that I've seen lately (they've been portscanning me -- I don't go looking for this stuff):
      12.161.192.5 => ip4.wpic.com.192.161.12.IN-ADDR.ARPA
      207.252.75.118 => kayne1

      Some folks clearly need to learn about $ORIGIN. (75.252.207.in-addr.arpa has turned into a lame server in the past few days, but used to be full of gems; the first one you can verify yourself.)

  33. Re:I've got your right wing conservative right her by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Dude, I think he's yanking your chain...

  34. Re:@home @attbi by Halvard · · Score: 1

    Oh BTW here [12.237.137.0] is evidence of Nimda living on. Depending on the day you see that log you may even see some CodeRed boxes out there.

    Gawd that looks just like the logs on my web servers currently!

  35. Alternatives for Boston area by domsol · · Score: 1

    As a fellow mediaone soon-to-be victim (though I use my ancient-as-dirt TIAC account for most mail), I just checked on RCN, which both my neighbors have.

    http://www.rcn.com/massachusetts/

    There's a popup with a list of towns supported; while not a *huge* area, it's better than being fscked over yet again by what happens to mediaone -- service went downhill when ATT acquired them, then again with the @home nonsense; I can't imagine the Comcast will be any *better*.

    Medford and Cambridge city councils ought to get off their duffs and get RCN in to compete with the ATT megalith. Just *my* opinion.

    Toodles,
    --domsol

    --
    > My comment can be quoted whenever, wherever, so long as you bloody well provide attribution! >
    1. Re:Alternatives for Boston area by HiyaPower · · Score: 2
      Be aware that you also have to switch your cable TV to RCN also. You cannot split the cable tv and cable modem. Not a big deal, but something to be aware of. Also I would check around to make sure that you are not signing up for something even worse (if that is indeed possible) than AT&T. Some RCN customers have told me horror stories worthy of AT&T and then some.


      Finally AT&T is not doing this because they want to. They are doing this because they have to given the legal issues of the domain name. Not nice, not pleasant, but as long as the lawyers are going to play in the domain name space we should all get used to it even if we "own" our own domain names.

  36. Re:reasons for POP by penguinboy · · Score: 2

    For those not interested in setting up their own webmail system (such as those mentioned above), Yahoo! Mail does both #1 and #3.

  37. They do this on dial-up too... (workaround). by balamw · · Score: 1

    My primary e-mail has been through AT&T Worldnet Services (AWS) for a long time now, POP3 only works if I am logged on to AWS, but you can turn on webmail to access your mail accounts from the net at large. What is not widely known and is not officially supported is that they provide POP3/SSL and SMTP/SSL that can be accessed from anywhere on the net. Details are available at the WURD site http://www.wurd.com/. I use this all the time to get my e-mail over DSL or at work... This allowed me to keep my long time e-mail address and still get the advantages of DSL. (My DSL provider's servers just plain suck.) Hopefully they'll do something like that for broadband users too... B

  38. attBB not attBI by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think both the boston article and /. made a mistake, it's not attbi.com it's attBB.com.

    1. Re:attBB not attBI by porges · · Score: 1

      Nope. It's attbi.com, according to their own information. I'd post a url but I'm not sure you can see it from outside their network.

    2. Re:attBB not attBI by J1a2o · · Score: 1

      AT&T Broadband Internet

  39. Re:Hello Jackass. by SomeoneYouDontKnow · · Score: 2

    Yep, they do. You have to be willing to get their newsletter, but that's no problem because they only seem to send it once every few weeks.

    Still, I agree with the original poster. Getting a domain is the best way to go.

    --
    That light you see at the end of the tunnel might be from an oncoming train.
  40. Profit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What I would like to se is the new owner of mediaone.com start charging 15$/month for email addresses on the domain. Talk about a killing....

  41. Unanswered questions by maggard · · Score: 3, Insightful
    In its typical way AT&T Broadband has left us more questions then they've given answers.

    From my posting on attbroadband.ne.techtalk.general:

    1. Will we loose our Usenet?
    2. Will we loose the current dial-up roaming service?
    3. Will we loose the ability to use an email client while outside ATTBI?
    4. Will we loose our "vanity" machine addresses (something.ne.mediaone.net)?
    5. Will we loose simple connectivity and be required to use PPoE?
    6. Will we loose home networks that have been ignored or tacitly supported by M1/AT&T Broadband?
    7. Will we loose Network servers that have been at-your-own-risk, unsupported, and not to create excessive traffic, but *not* forbidden for the former M1 folks?
    8. Will we loose the ability to use Virtual Private Networking to/from our homes (vital to many folks working from home)?
    9. Will we loose the FrontPage Server Extensions that AT&T Broadband advertises as being in their web package but work only erratically and not at all for months on end (not my taste but some folks have wasted much time on these)?
    10. Will we loose the top-notch fast-response world-class knowledgeable and on-top-of-it-all current phone support folks (cycle your cable modem and reboot your PC...)?
    11. What about the discussions of Open Access and the ability to select from a pool of ISPs?
    12. Can we receive a guarantee of no more lost services and a stable rate for an extended period of time after all of this?

    --
    I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
    1. Re:Unanswered questions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You might want to %s/loose/lose/g if you send these questions in to AT&T.

    2. Re:Unanswered questions by Sc00ter · · Score: 2
      "Will we loose our "vanity" machine addresses (something.ne.mediaone.net)?"



      I used to work for MediaOne.. They ALWAYS hated giving out these vanity hostnames, not sure why. They've been trying to phase them out forever but keep getting complaints, that's why they're still available. My guess would be that they would dump them.

    3. Re:Unanswered questions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      1. no
      2. yes
      3. yes, only able to use WebMail outside ATTBI
      4. yes, there are no "vanity" names.
      5. no. normal DHCP
      6. they aren't given support but you are welcome to use them. They will support extra IPs
      7. they don't seem to ban them.
      8. they don't support VPN, your company has to support ATTBI, ATTBI doesn't have to support you
      9. dunno
      10. 24/7, 365 days a year. Some of the people you speak to are knowledgeable. Most are not.
      11. AFAIK you get ATT and that's it.
      12. Nope, no ISP guarantees that for rec services.

    4. Re:Unanswered questions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      because to give them out you had to enter/go through about 9 extra config screens to do it right.... And when it comes to troubleshoot, any one of the screens can mean BIG trouble [ex: one screen the mac address has to be entered, and is case sensitive (upper) another screen the mac address has to be entered (case sensitive, must be entered lowercase) ...]

      --
      formwer M1 drone....

    5. Re:Unanswered questions by Kancer · · Score: 1

      Ah the super fun of Remedy/ETE

  42. DynDNS... by hardware_failure · · Score: 1

    DynDNS and Sendmail here I come!

  43. Change ISPs by Animats · · Score: 3, Informative
    When your ISP changes your domain name, you may as well change ISPs. It's so much hassle changing domain names that it's worth reshopping.

    Incidentally, you can buy domain-based E-mail redirection for about $20 per year. So you can buy your own domain (maybe in .nom) just for forwarding purposes.

    Make sure you get DNS MX record redirection, not mail forwarding, so the mail doesn't take an extra step.

    1. Re:Change ISPs by howardjeremy · · Score: 2, Informative

      Incidentally, you can buy domain-based E-mail redirection [dnscentral.com] for about $20 per year. So you can buy your own domain (maybe in .nom) just for forwarding purposes.

      This is a good idea. But you can do it cheaper, with extremely reliable providers. You can get MX records or full forwarding for free from ZoneEdit. And you can get a domain for just $9 from GoDaddy. And you can forward it to account which you can access using IMAP with any mail client, or using the web, by using FastMail.FM.

      This setup is that currently recommended by most of the community at http://www.emaildiscussions.com, which is the best place to find out about effective use of email.

  44. AT&T's Secret DSL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    I've been frustrated with AT&T Broadband ever since I signed up. They block port 80 (which wasn't spelled out in my user agreement, although the 'no servers' rule was), they use your MAC address to limit your access to a single computer, they don't offer static IPs at all.

    (Obviously, most of these things are easy to get around. They're just annoying. When I signed up, AT&T was the only broadband service available to me, since you asked. :)

    What's interesting to me is that no where on AT&T Broadband's site do they mention that they also provide consumer DSL service, hidden in their business site. I actually stumbled across this during another unrelated search.

    I just found it interesting that AT&T isn't promoting this at all. Apparently they want consumers only on cable modems. Any thoughts as to why, especially when they've been having so many problems with their cable network?

    1. Re:AT&T's Secret DSL by rela · · Score: 1

      Funny, since the swtich from @Home, I've found that AT&T is not using the MAC addresses to limit DHCP, or at least not doing it right.

    2. Re:AT&T's Secret DSL by awing0 · · Score: 1

      Actually the port 80 block stopped some time ago, it was only in affect during the heavy code red period. They do howerver filter smb ports (137 and 139) and proxy ports (8080). You can request to have this filters lifted, but i feel they actually do some good. And yes, in my neighborhood they use MAC address limited dhcp. But you can change your MAC address, even in windows (depending on your NIC drivers). Linux, its simple as ifconfig. Trust me, it's worlds better than PPOE.

      --
      Cthulhu Saves.
    3. Re:AT&T's Secret DSL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      AT&T and AT&T Broadband are for all practical purposes two different companies. And once the sale of AT&T Broadband to Comcast is completed, this separation will be even more apparent.

      This reminds me of Japanese brands like Mitsubishi, or even Panasonic, which are actually multiple companies operating under the same name.

  45. mediaone hostnames by PaRaFLeX · · Score: 1

    The first thing that occured to me when I saw that the mediaone.net domain would be replaced with attbi.com, is what would happen to my custom ne.mediaone.net hostname?

    Mediaone (in the Northeast at least) used to designate hostnames based on their customer's email address, ie. if your email address is slashdot5@mediaone.net, your hostname would be slashdot5.ne.mediaone.net. One of my favorite things about mediaone was that they assigned easy to remember hostnames, unlike pretty much every other ISP. At some point a few years ago they decided to change the system so that instead of email addresses, hostnames would be based on ethernet mac addresses, such as h000a05294027.ne.mediaone.net. Since I liked my email hostname, and they provided the option, I decided to keep mine. This custom hostname has remained active thus far. However, what will happen to it when the domain is changed to attbi.com? From looking at current attbi.com hostnames, they appear to be all based on ip addresses. This means not only will there not likely be custom hostnames, they will now be dynamic hostnames, instead of the static mac address/email ones. I will be disappointed when I lose my 1337 hostname on IRC :(

    1. Re:mediaone hostnames by Vexler · · Score: 1

      I just talked with an AT&T tech this morning via "Chat Room", and he said that it stands to reason that everything will be migrated over to the new domain name with no change. Thus far they are still allowing persistent hostnames to exist although they no longer take any more registration for it. The thinking is probably that the custom hostnames will gradually die off as attrition takes place.

    2. Re:mediaone hostnames by awing0 · · Score: 1

      Just change your NIC's MAC address to something 1337. You can spell something cool from 0-9, A-F. Like: h1ee700000000.ne.mediaone.net Well, you get the idea. Just imagine tech support if you goto register the same mac that someone else has. With the software MAC address set, it's entirely possible. (I'm not entirely sure on what is or isn't a valid MAC address)

      --
      Cthulhu Saves.
  46. try this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I just turned my keyboard updide down and shook it for a few seconds. There was some disgusting stuff in there. Try it!!!

  47. A Question(s) and a Comment by questforme · · Score: 1

    Ever since I've had internet access I've used a forwarding service to my ISP's account which was really convenient because in the early days I switched dial-up ISP's every few months but I haven't switched from TCI/@Home/ATT since I signed up with them about 5 years ago but reading the posts on here about not using your ISP's email address, does fowarding to it count as using it? If yes what are the alternatives? Right now I'm using www.spamcop.net and while it does cut down on my spam it's a paid service which I want to avoid as I have better things to spend my meager dollars on. I notice that I get about 3-5 spam emails a day in my Spamcop account. I was also told by ATT that they may give external access to email "later", as soon as the switchover has been completed for a month or two.

  48. Re:I've got your right wing conservative right her by david+duncan+scott · · Score: 1, Offtopic
    Hint: Israel is not occupying Oman, Egypt, or Saudi Arabia.

    Al Queda is not a Palestinian organization. Their agenda is considerably different. Simply because they speak they same language and worship the same way doesn't make them allies any more than, for instance, Greenpeace and the KKK, although no doubt from several thousand miles away it would be easy to view them both as just "American dissidents" and lump them together.

    --

    This next song is very sad. Please clap along. -- Robin Zander

  49. Comcast is doing this too... the solution is... by mlg9000 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I am a former Mediaone customer. My area was bought out by Comcast and they are changing all our email address too. Comcast just bought ATT too... so guess what might happen to those people... Since being on Comcast they have done the following:

    1. Raised prices 20%
    2. Eliminated all our email accounts (you can call in 3 weeks to get new ones... gee thanks)
    3. Mailed us new cable modems and required us to self install them... then bring the old one back to them. (Not that this is difficult but for some people it might be... and bring the modem to US!!! BTW... the Comcast people were appropriately behind bulletproof glass when I brought the modem back)
    4. Eliminated the NNTP server completely!
    5. DNS servers switched several times and slowed to a crawl when it didn't timeout. (Because I run Linux and that is not a "client OS" it did not pickup the DNS servers from DHCP... I had to call a friend and have him run nslookup on his Win2k machine)
    6. Web performance was in the 56k range and down several hours a day for several weeks while things were being changed over to Comcast... (It's now back)

    My solution to all this since there are no other broadband providers in the area was to:

    1. Setup a DNS caching server... performance increased 10 fold.
    2. Register my own domain at dotster.com ($15 a year) and use zoneedit.com (free DNS!)
    3. Use my new dynamic domain to setup my own mail server at home... I paid Zoneedit $11 for the year for email backup in case I was down for some reason. Now I have unlimited email accounts, POP, IMAP.... anything I want!

    1. Re:Comcast is doing this too... the solution is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The problem is that you are now running a server, which the ISP can TOS your ass on...

      [a DSL provider in Amarillo, TX, ARNet did just that to myself and about 7 others people I know of]

      Since a personal account is not for servers, anything, including SMTP servers can be a cause for termination...

  50. for $450 you get 1.5 synchronous by jpellino · · Score: 2

    i want them to scale price and service like anyone else does.

    the 'everyone gets 1.5 fair and square' argument doesn't hold water. you think they can guarantee everyone on the block 1.5?

    feh.

    --
    "Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
  51. my bad - meant 1.5 symmetrical by jpellino · · Score: 2

    look - they took tci and att - two of the most maddening companies in the world from a customer support view, and married them - and is anyone surprised? i was hoping they's learn, but guess not.

    --
    "Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
  52. do the math by jpellino · · Score: 2

    my november bill as AS BILLED to my bank statement was $45.95
    January ON MY STATEMENT was $50.95
    delta $5,
    divided by $45.95
    = 11.69590643274854% increase.
    Any questions?

    --
    "Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
    1. Re:do the math by Saint+Stephen · · Score: 1

      Actually,

      50.95 / 45.95 = 1.1088139281828073993471164309032

      10.88% increase

      And they wonder why nobody can balance the books :-)

    2. Re:do the math by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't know how either of you are getting your numbers, but here's how you calculate percent change:

      Take your before (A) and after (B) amounts, and do B - A = C. This your difference, or delta.

      Now do C / A * 100. This is your percent change. The correct number is a 10.01001% increase. Both of you are wrong.

  53. obscure names by jpellino · · Score: 2

    'pellino' is a fairly rare name. Only a few hundred in the US - so I doubt the dictionary / random spelling was thrown at a system with only 800K users... and the ones with disclosed recipient names were very specific to *my* combo, and didn't have apellino, bpellino, cpellino, etc...

    --
    "Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
    1. Re:obscure names by fschwiet · · Score: 1

      Many spammers don't do a pure dictionary attack, they just do random combinations of letters and maybe numbers. They are even less likely to use '_'. So if you create an email address at a highly targetted site like hotmail, make sure you put an '_' in your name.

      I've never gotten spam at my AT&T email account, and I do have numerics in my username so that may have blocked the spam.

      I despise companies giving out personal information as much as anything, but false accusations do not help the situation. They make the whole thing unwinnable for the honest folks.

  54. att the ruiner? by athagon · · Score: 1

    This disappoints me somewhat. Although I no longer use MediaOne/ATT, I used to - up to six months ago. MediaOne actually used to be fairly decent - outages were rare, tech support was good, service was (relatively) cheap, and downloads/uploads were FAST. Unfortunately, the fateful day came when ATT bought them out. After that day, outages were weekly to bi-weekly, you spent an hour to get on the phone with tech support only to get an ingrate who didn't know a mouse from a monitor, the service cost went up, and the download/upload speeds went down. Oh, but they sent us a cute little "AT&T" sticker to put on our TV Remote.

    --
    I think, therefore, I'm smarter than our president.
  55. Not the whole story... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I work for ATT Broadband's national help desk. Only people who were former @Home customers will change over to @attbi.com, the rest of AT&T's user base will change to @attbroadband.com, this was a court ordered decision to be completed by March 1st.
    The unfortunate thing is, that they only announced it now. They've known since before November that this was coming, and there was actually a day when all agents at my call centre began telling customers and then were told to retract these statements the next day.
    The instructions we are given tell us to start telling customers Feb 1st, but agents not wanting to deal with an unholy onslaught beginning Feb 1st, have been easing it in on thier own accord.

  56. Screwed again by djtweak · · Score: 1

    Do corporations care about customers anymore? Or have they gotten this clueluess? POP is like a basic right with internet access. Webmail is a terrible trade.

    1. Re:Screwed again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...... sounds like the same old ATT from the old days .... 'we don't have to care, we're the phone company!' .... i'd rate the ATT management as a great big 0. They initially paid $5000 a customer to buy the cable franchise. The road's been rocky with outages, gridlock during prime time, etc. They dumped our homepages and gave us Excite@home. Within monthes excite@home goes down the tubes.... Maybe ATT needs to be reaquainted with their old friend the FCC. Would the FCC allow your phone number to be changed every other week ? This is the same ATT that has slammed my long distance carrier more than once. They are scum at heart! coffeejoe

  57. Gandi.net has domain-based e-mail fwding by yerricde · · Score: 2

    you can buy domain-based E-mail redirection [dnscentral.com] for about $20 per year.

    Even cheaper: At Gandi.net, you can get your own domain name for €12/domain/yr. If you turn on Gandi's free mail and web forwarding, it redirects http://www.foobar4.org/rest/of/URL to http://you.your.isp/rest/of/URL or http://your.isp/you/rest/of/URL and forwards *@foobar4.org to you@your.isp with up to five exceptions going to other addresses.

    --
    Will I retire or break 10K?
  58. The article says nothing about taking down POP by Lord+Bitman · · Score: 1

    read the article before saying shit like that

    --
    -- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
    1. Re:The article says nothing about taking down POP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nor does the article say that it will be leaving POP up

  59. Will ATTBI change again? by isdnip · · Score: 2

    First off, I'm skeptical about "losing" the mediaone.net domain; it has been in use since, oh, 1997 or so, so a cybersquatting claim is dubious at best. But if ATT-B decided they wanted an *excuse* to can it, then they might have decided to "lose" it. Anybody know more?

    MediaOne was the name US West made up for the stuff it bought, mostly from Continental Cable. And Continental had already set up cable modem service as "Continental Express". But MediaOne really grew it.

    Comcast has now agreed to buy ATT-B. Theoretically, the new corporation will be "AT&T Comcast", but there will be a separate AT&T Corp. (the original one) doing telephone and its own ISP stuff. So will "AT&T Comcast" keep the AT&T or ATTBI name forever, or will they decide next year to change it to "@comcast..." or @attcomcast..."?

    Me, I'm glad that my real mail is still on a private ISP that lets me POP from anywhere. (I use a MediaOne cable modem.) My wife's email is on Yahoo, which allows both POP and webmail access. Yahoo just announced that their SMTP server will demand authentication (I can understand that, though I don't think Eudora Light can do it) but they still seem okay for POP, and the price is right. My gradeschooler is not happy that his email will be changing, especially if he loses his "name" portion. They'll honor your current @mediaone.net if there's no dupe already on attbi, but a lot of former @home users are already using that space.

  60. IPSVC.NET? by PJC1 · · Score: 1

    It looks like the mediaone.net servers are also on ipsvc.net. Ex,
    pop.ne.mediaone.net = pop.ne.ipsvc.net.
    pop.ce.mediaone.net = chmls22.ne.ipsvc.net
    people.mw.mediaone.net = people.mw.ipsvc.net

  61. Failed to mention.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm a Jacksonville.net (Jacksonville, FL, former Mediaone) customer. According to the email I got, if the name's in use, you're out of luck.

    I've had my login/email address for 4 years. If I have to change it, I'll be more than happy to..

    I'm thinking something along the lines of fsckattbi.

    Let them try to stop me, too.

    1. Re:Failed to mention.. by kireK · · Score: 1

      This is why it's worth owning your own domain... service providers can come and go, but youe email would never change.

  62. Get a forwarding address by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Do not use the e-mail address given to you by the ISP. They only give you one to increase your switching costs. Instead, go to pobox.com, or another email forwarding provider and get a permanent address that can be forwarded to any ISP address you ever have. If you so desire you could also register your own domain and use that for e-mail service.

    1. Re:Get a forwarding address by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I second that.

      Not only third party email...

      But I also suggest it for things like usenet and web space

      I have had the unfortunate luck to have used an ISP in Amarillo, TX (http://www.arn.net) that have decided to cut off my access for no reason at all in 1999. [I was with them since they started in 1995]..

      It was at that point that I went with a pobox type email servive for mail, supernews.com for news service, and an outsourced ISP for my shell/web access.... [yes they DO offer a shell account accessible via SSH]

      since then I have had 3 other ISPs (dialup, DSL cable due to moving around) and am VERY happy that I did change to outsourced info.

      The benifits are great:

      1- All my registrations that are based on email addresses go to the right place {it was a pain to recover some lost passwords since ARNet cut off my email completely..}

      2- I am not tied to a single ISP.. I can change whenever I feel like it...

      Downside:

      It comes to about $20-30 /month extra to do it this way... but as I said just the lack of aggravation makes it worth it for me...

  63. ATT Broadband is the bad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I have been a ATT Broadband in Eastern Massachusetts member since 1999. At first it was great, but in the last few weeks it has gone horribly down hill. My download speed has been horrible, on average below 10 kbs/sec, my service goes out atleast twice a week for about 10 hours, and they have, for some reason, taken away my domain name. Oh well, I have been looking for a excuse to get DSL. Word of Warning: Don't go with ATT Broadband

  64. What newsgroups? by Blackwulf · · Score: 2

    The sad thing is, they just went and deleted all the mediaone.* newsgroups and created a new attbroadband.* hierarchy to replace them. No doubt they'll want to move them to attbi.* now.

    According to what I've read and what I'm experiencing, there IS no newsgroup server anymore to house the newsgroups.

    Problem solved.

  65. use flashmail or yahoo for POP by walterbyrd · · Score: 1

    This make way more sense to me. Then you don't have to worry about changing ISPs.

  66. SPAM and mass domain name changes by UNFAIRMAN · · Score: 1

    When my home.com email address goes away, I will be assigned a comcast.net address. My user ID will remain the same, so it will be fairly easy to guess my new email address. A spammer who knows about email address xxxx@home.com can easily translate it to xxxx@comcastonline.net, xxxx@attbi.com, and whatever domain Cox is using. Its a 3-for-one address swap, but the spammer would be likely to have at least one valid address. And given the number of @home users, it may be worth their while. My question is, is this legal? If there has been no communication with the new address, a user can easily prove the address was not obtained through an opt-in process. Can companies legitimately make this kind of change automatically to their "existing customers"? I've been looking forward to a drop-off of SPAM, but I'm concerned I won't live to see the dream com true.

  67. Re:Should it have to? by Lord+Bitman · · Score: 1

    The article not existing at all wouldnt mention either.. would that imply the pop is going down?

    --
    -- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
  68. Some info for you all by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Coming from someone...on the other end of things...you could say

    scripts for what to say are not used
    you can still use pop mail clients
    forwarding cant be done when the domain and network dies and no one wants to pay extra money to keep it floating
    the majority of email calls are issues with outlook express itself...lots of corrupt accounts and identities that are only fixable through the registry....no one saves money with tech support with web based but it sure as hell makes things easier
    no more having to give new users correct settings...just go to the web mail...if you want to use a pop client...go ahead...get your settings and you should be competent enough

    comcast is doing a bit better with email, people are allowed to use their former email addresses up till the 28th of february when the entire @home network is shut down...domain, the hardware, everything

    and for those of you who claim the tech guys dont know anything...at least at level two...a large amount hold multiple certifications with networking and regardless of what you want to believe, they know more about their own network than you do, because there are just some things you dont tell the public

    so, bash the system all you want, but dont make stupid assumptions about what's going on at the other end
    it's quite an ordeal to convert a database of aprox 1 million people over to a new one with a different dchp serving structure (hardware assignment instead of computername)

  69. Verio screws people too... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I used to be a BEST customer--then they were bought by Verio. Now Verio just decided to stop supporting dialup... so they gave their business to Earthlink... which will charge me $20/month for the privilege. (Of course Verio is still charging me the same rate they used to, for maintaining my web pages and email account.) And they announced this right before Christmas, to take effect on January 6th. ARGH! Alas, for many years I've been using a whoever@best.com email address, so I hate to change... (one thing Verio did right is forwarding, but they only forward for a few days after I leave their service.)

  70. When Will It Stop? by ryanisflyboy · · Score: 1

    Recently I've noticed the AT&T cable boys out and about in thier trucks. Usually when they come in force to our apartment complex it means trouble. Last time they came I didn't have Internet access at home for over a week. So far I have been under impressed with attbi and all of their strange network quirks that make life difficult. Perhaps it is this reason (poor technical ability, screwing customers) that broadband appears to be dying a slow, painful death. There has been talk of the government getting involved in broadband Internet somehow, but will they really do a better job than AT&T?

  71. They Really Messed Up by herbierobinson · · Score: 1

    I thought big corporations weren't supposed to mess up and use other people's trademarks. About the only good thing about this annoyance is that the spammers will lose an address...

    Oh my. Think about the poor schmos who think they have just "won" this domain name... There e-mail servers will be inundated for years...

    --
    An engineer who ran for Congress. http://herbrobinson.us
  72. For those on the MediaOne network like myself... by xpccx · · Score: 1

    ...go to AT&T's help page about what's going on with the mediaone domain. If that doesn't work as a direct link, there's a link to that page from the main help page. I would look to those pages for updates if you haven't gotten the official email yet (has anyone?).

  73. Re:Let there be truth... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    He is able and willing. But he wants you to grow as a soul. If he started making decisions for man, man would cease to learn.

    Is he able, but not willing? Maybe thats because he created man to be of free will.

    Epicurus was just a shmuck who liked the sound of his own voice.

    -Me