Slashdot Mirror
MS and AOL Interested in MediaOne
Megaweapon writes "As a MediaOne customer (who is without cable modem access), this scares the scat out of me. First Comcast, then AT&T, now these two. "
I hate MediaOne. I'm moving (all next week, so be gentle
on the email!) and the 23 best things about moving are
1. No rats 2. No leaky ceiling 3. No more MediaOne- I'll actually
be able to get a few channels I want. Oh well, watch
the amazing expanding empire.
1) They suck big time
2) Don't let them touch your computer
3) Say 'this is my MAC, activite my account, and go home!'
4) Good luck getting your service back on-line in a timely fashion.
On another issue, NO I DON'T WATCH TV! Why do you oppress my bank account by making me pay for TV programming when I don't own a freaken TV!
I had them in the Chicago area. Channel selection
wasn't too hot. But the cable modem absolutely
kicked A. I got incredible speeds and it passed
my treadmill tests. My only complaint was the
micro-outages... several a day, lasting for a
short amount of time. As long as they don't try
to offer telephone service over it, I'd go for
it again. It was a powerful incentive for me NOT
to move. Do you know how painful a 28.8 is after
something like that?
I'm not so much afraid that MS may control everything that I get to watch/eat/breathe. I'm more afraid that all of these things are being controled by major corporate empires in the first place. I can see it now. Disney's Coke and Washington, MS.
it's pretty good but sometimes a little more pricey.
I like my cable modem, but if it's gonna be annexed by the Evil Empire, then I'll go back to friggin' dialup.
I mean it.
However, in the Ann Arbor area, Media One provides terrible cable TV service, and even worse cable modem service. Currently the cable modem service is ONE WAY. And you need to dial in with a normal phone line to connect. As a result you get tremendous download speeds, but uploads are a joke. And though they plan on installing broadband service soon (they've said next April for 2 years now), they won't allow any servers of any kind to run over the connection. The only other real game in town is Ameritech's ADSL service, which requires you to be within a cable mile (or so) of the downtown office, and they have no publicly stated interest in expanding. On the plus side, however, Ameritech will allow any service except web to be run off of your connection.
I got a whole bunch of spam originating
from netmedia1 the last days. Seems
they are not able to handle it
reasonably.
In jacksonville florida i have a two way cable
connection and it is the best thing i have ever
had at my home. I am very pleased with it and
mediaone's selection of cable channels. So shut the heck up..
MediaOne IS the BEST ISP you can have!
I have had it Los Angeles since they started beta testing the service and I haven't had any problems!!! Compared to the other ISPs I used in the past, MSN, AOL, Netcom, etc. You name it!
Their policy states that they will track all
traffic to all sites, time spent at sites, have
information on your machine and config and
you must run Bill Ware registered copy or they
don't install. (what about linux? nothing in
policy) Gimme DSL, ISDN, satalite or anything
else.
Doesn't Paul Allen own a big chunk of TicketMaster as well? That's a nice little monopoly...
Coming from someone who worked for them, their
...
Service sucks.. they are so Hellbent on tracking
people running servers, but internal people are
guilty of running Q1 Q2 servers as well as Warez
Servers with no complaints.. Not to mention
they only support M$ or MAC..
Primecable's speed kinda blows but still they
could give a crap if you decide to run a web
server from your box..
And dont get me Started on the management..
My boss actually said he could find out how many
machines are connected even if one box was
masquerading (too much of a hurry to check
spelling) IP's - i laughed at him
-BlahSnarto
Corporation Nation by Charles Derber deals with this very subject.8 6/qid%3D925524637/002-3643040-0956443
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/03121928
A recommended read for anyone worried about *big* business.
ESEMANTIC, TicketBastard described as "nice". This is not a recoverable error.
^H looks like control-H, which is the same as the they-arent-supposed-to-see-that-button (AKA backspace)
-Zog
______________________
Oh the places you'll gWindows has experienced a fatal error in KERNEL.EXE in module:
%s, createconfusion.errors.rand());
...but at least @Home, at least here in San Diego, doesn't appear to mess much with you. Quasi-static DHCP addresses... etc.
.000001% amount of spam from @Home, as opposed to those who still think that all that spam in their AOL e-mail isn't a bad thing...
I'm happy with it, but will become unhappy whenif they are coerced to start restricting client OS, either rather explicitly (i.e., they rewrite their custom browser in Microsoft JScript instead of Java/JavaScript/VBScript (the VBScript is to control the IE layout...what do they do for the custom NS?) or they get really hostile to non Win/Mac users of their network.
The AOLs, GeoCities, HotMails, etc. as far as I'm concerned can go stick their heads back up their asses. I get a refreshingly
That will change in a bad way if @Home has to open up...
Hmm... your @Home user agreement says that running a web server from your @Home-connected machine(s) is a no-no...
It's their network, they can certainly do with it what they want.
Wah.
Why would you expect the phone support people for a cable ISP to configure any OS? They really shouldn't be expected to troubleshoot and configure your system. The cable company responsibility ends at the rj45 port on your network's side of the of the cable modem.
Having been cursed with a couple of phone support jobs in the past I can tell you that customers who try to impress phone reps by talking about Linux, NT Server, or home LANS are generally pompous idiots. If you know enough to setup server software then you should be expected to figure out how to use it. Even if the poor tech support person taking your call knows a bit about your OS he would be an idiot to dig himself a hole trying to troubleshoot Joe Powerluser's system.
"Sir, I understand that you are having trouble configuring our CONSUMER-GRADE SERVICE to run on your Linux(or NT)Server? It should work just fine, but I don't have the resources to troubleshoot your network operating system. You will need to contact your SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR, he or she should be qualified to make sure the proper parameters have been set on your SERVER."
In other words "Fuck you."
I suspect that the only reason that AOL, in particular, is getting into
the fray is that as matters presently stand, AT&T forces customers to use
them as ISP if they want network access. AT&T can neatly diffuse this issue
by opening up their network to allow customers to select the ISP of their
choice. This is something independent ISPs have been clamoring for and
something I think AT&T should do. Doing this will also likely dampen some
of the concerns that Federal regulators will have with regards to the
acquisition.
I hope that AT&T wakes up and does this. I'd certainly rather see AT&T
get Media One than any of Comcast (in which Microsoft has an equity
stake), Microsoft itself, or AOL.
Listen up, AT&T: I like you as a company and a long-distance (both voice
and digital) services provider. But if you're not going to allow me to
choose my ISP, I'll stick with dial-up or go ISDN. And by the way: I do
specify service providers for the company for which I work. Think about
it.
I don't currently have MediaOne, but am going to be moving into an area that is wired for cable modems. Problem is I was told _by_ MediaOne reps that I _cannot_ have anything but Window or Mac machines hooked into the service. Anyone else here this? Can they really stop me from switching the modem into a Linux box and running a small server there?
If Bill Gates so much as lays a FINGER on the Powerpuff Girls I am coming after him with a knife.
To me, a good newsfeed is a major criteria in an ISP. And one that big corporate ISPs tend ignore., especially in the alt.* hierarchy where all the bandwidth goes. My present ISP has a good feed and has xDSL service which would be ideal but I'm on the ragged edge of the Central Office range restriction. So MediaOne is a possible alternative. But I need to know about their newsfeed.
Okay, clearly you haven't bothered to look any deeper than a really superficial business article. The base service for BA's DSL is only a 640 Kbps downlink, but you can get up to 7 Mbps downlink, which is roughly a T2.
Now, with a cable modem, you can get up to a max of 1.5 Mbps, but if you've got a busy segment, it goes way down. Checked their site quickly, but they don't list their guaranteed minimum bandwidth. Typical cable modem minimum is only about 300 Kbps, though.
Granted, DSL is pricier, but it's worth it.
Well, you'll get your AT&T wish one way or the other. TCI and MediaOne are swapping some properties with the end result that all MediaOne territory in Chicago is going to become TCI (now AT&T).
TCI doesn't force customers to buy it's cable modem service, but if you do, it has to be through the TCI @Home venture. There is only one choice of ISP for the line. If you want AOL's content on top of it, then you have to pay extra to AOL. TCI says it paid for the cables and shouldn't have to share them with other people who are only interested in piggybacking on TCI's investment. AOL wanted to force TCI to unbundle their wires from their ISP business and allow any ISP to offer service over the wires (with the payment of some fee to TCI surely). They wanted this to be a condition of the TCI/AT&T merger. The FCC did not agree to this however.
Now if AOL were to buy MediaOne, the shoe would be on the other foot. They could lock anyone who wanted cable modems into buying them from AOL. That's why I'm saying they would quickly change their tune on open access to the cable lines.
BTW: Phone companies are required to unbundle their network elements such as the copper loop to a customer's house and sell them to all comers at a discount. AOL wanted the same provisions to apply to cable.
When AT&T bought TCI, AOL claimed that AT&T should have to open up TCI's cable to all ISP's who wanted to provide access. Think AOL will be making the same argument if they are able to buy MediaOne? Not! It would be funny to watch them do a 180 though.
I'm pretty happy with MediaOne's service here in LA. I have both cable TV and internet access at home through them, and aside from a few minor quirks, the serive has been fairly good.
The tech people aren't always on the ball, but I hardly ever interact with them.
Now if Microsoft bought MediaOne, I'd be really upset. If AOL bought it, I wouldn't be happy, but I could live with it. I don't like the idea of AT&T taking over the world's telecommunications, but at least I would have a decent alternative to PacBell's phone service.
As I just told some friends, if this goes through, we'll be getting some new channels on the line:
MSNBC, MSCNN, MSFOX, MSMTV, MSVH-1, MSHBO....
*sigh*
-Enry
MediaOne Customer with cable modem
MediaOne is the best internet ISP in the Boston
area -- and the TV selection is OK. Simson
Garfinkel yesterday had an article in Boston
Globe which he says he compared MediaOne's speeds
to Bell Atalantic's DSL service and MediaOne was
ten fold faster.
can anyone recommend a good DSL or cable modem service in South Carolina, specifically Columbia area? i dont want some shitty thing like @home that uses their own TCP stack etc...any recommendations? :)
"There is no spoon" - Neo, The Matrix
They've been advertising AMAZING new services in the Atlanta area since 1995, and yet, the video service is still lower quality than an antenna, and modems are still vapor in many areas. Also, their service is more expensive than DSS and carries less channels.
I'd be more worried about @Home. They're huge, and getting bigger all the time.
I just wish they'd bring on Broadband. So many people in my neighborhood have it, I get less than optimal speeds.
FTP downloads are like 110kps and cable to cable is like 20-40kps.
It's far easier to forgive your enemy after you get even with him.
It's far easier to forgive your enemy after you get even with him.
There are many other things that affect speed..
Do you live near any transition towers? Power lines? These all slow it down to a crawl..
-- I'm the root of all that's evil, but you can call me cookie..
--
I've got both options and I'm opting xDSL- thank the Lord.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
I have had it for about 2 months and I have loved every minute of it. I had a few minor problems with installation and I had excellent customer service fixing them.
What bothers me about this is that either MS or AOL getting anywhere near MediaOne is bound to screw things up. For one thing, cable modem companies right now enjoy virtual monopolies for that particular service. Like Microsoft needs another monopoly. I would hate to have to use MSCable to have the service I have enjoyed up to now. Or AOL, for that matter. Both of these companies, by the way, are known for attempting to force their way upon users. Here's what I see happening:
User: "Hello customer service? I can't seem to get my browser to work over my MSOne connection."
MSOne: "You need to be running IE 6.0 in order to connect to the internet."
User: "Has that been ported to Linux yet?"
MSOne: "We don't support Unixes or Macs with MSOne. Only PC's with Windows2000."
Ok. So I'm paranoid. The point is MediaOne is good. The connection is fast. The service is wonderful. MS and AOL will f*** it up. And I don't want either of them to get any more control than they already have.
This is stupid. Linux is more secure (and provably so) than MS anything. It seems to be more a matter of simple persecution than anything.
You probably see all these US oriented news items because slashdot is a US server...run by US citizens....just a shot in the dark....
======== In the future, everything will be artificial. ========
Hello, I have Mediaone currently. I had mediaone for cable for about 1 year and for the past 2 I have had their internet service. First let me say this: 1) Their cable service is good ( at least in my area ) ;) ..I said my HOSTNAME...the person on the line says...ok hold I'll transfer you....
...the very machine it is workign with now.. :(
...and they do regular port scans and login attempts to make sure people have their machines secured. ...because I'm sure I'll get a call from someone asking why I downloaded 100 megs in the last day .......
2) They don't screw up billing ( much )
3) I get about 90 channels where I live ( New Hampshire ) so I'm doing ok
Now lets talk about their internet access:
First I was told that I would have their internet access about a year before I really did...which was fine because delays happen.
But the real problems didn't start until i actually got hooked up.
The first thing I noticed is that its not as fast as they claim...no problem going from 3k/s to 150k/s works for me...no no REALLY it REALLY works for me
What does annoy me is that nobody at Mediaone seems to know how to run a DHCP server. I'm always getting disconnected and when I look at my logs I see that my address is already in use...how wonderful....well stuff happens right? So you/me call support...where you are on hold for 2-3 hours sometimes how very very nice..when you finally get through you are usually speaking to a HS dropout? I'm not sure if that is actually the case but it MUST be. Once I called and I told them that my hostname wasn't resolving anymore. They said " A what?"
They transfer me to the Cable TV department...after explaining to the guy what happened he transfers me back to the internet dept. where I explain what happened and that my hostname no longer resolves...they say "A what?" I say my HOSTNAME...they say hold I'll transfer you....
I get transfered to Sales at this point I think I was on the line for 2.5 hours including the hold time...
I explain what is happening and they transfer me back to internet...
I say to the guy on the line
"Before you say anything or transfer me answer me this...do you know what a HOSTNAME is?"
His reply was "no"
I say "let me talk to your boss"
I speak with the boss and he says that "Mediaone doesn't deal with hostnames"
I asked for his boss ( I don't know if that is who I got )
The next person tells me that it has been taken care of and everything should be all set.
I check my machine and sure enough it was fine.
----
The following is just a sample of the crap I get from that company all the time.
----
Another time I called and after being on hold ( NO JOKE ) for 3 hours they guy on the other line tells me that my internet isn't working because I have linux and linux is very buggy and unsupported by Mediaone. I told him that the error was "......address is already in use" I say "You are having a problem with your DHCP server" He says there is nothing he can do for me. So I waited for a day until they got their heads out of their asses and fixed. I renewed my lease and on went life.... They don't care about their customers at all...I have more stories...like the time I moved and when the tech came out and saw that my linux box was a 486 SX/25 he told my G/F that he wasn't going to install it because it "it just wouldn't work on such an old machine"
I had to wait for another month before it was installed
Oh and this is the best one....they try to log into my machine through telnet and my machine banned them...when I called to ask wtf was happening they said they were just protecting me
Maybe some mediaone users have seen it cpusage.mediaone.net
haha and when you try to log into that machine it says that any further attempts will be procecuted! --------------
Well those are my reasons why Mediaone sucks...they don't care about customer service on the internet side because there is no competiton. I hope someone DOES buy them and cleans up the mess that they call Service. I just hope it isn't MS
======== In the future, everything will be artificial. ========
I really must remember to hate Cablevision... oh wait, I already _do_ hate Cablevision.
Geeze... I live in Boston, and I can _see_ Newton from where I live. I'd give anything to get something better than this crappy 56K. But Cablevision can't even fit all their channels onto a single coax. Whatta gyp! Can't wait to move into the west burbs.
-- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
Lemme tellya, the only reason I'm still using MediaOne for cable TV (rather than getting a dish) is that there will be cable modem service in the future. When? I dunno. I asked in 1996 and they said "two years," then in late 1998 I asked again and they said "another 18 to 24 months."
I'm banking on DSL becoming available -- and cheaper, because of COMPETITION -- before MediaOne finally gets their digital act together.
And if MS or AOL buys MediaOne, I definitely won't subscribe to cable modem service when it becomes available. I run Linux, and I run servers.
By the way, this is in New York state, in Westchester county.
Tired of FB/Google censorship? Visit UNCENSORED!
I'm not a fan of regulation, but I think even less of POOR regulation.
The reality is we have a few cable companies who DO NOT COMPETE with each other. Instead, they sit tight on their asses and continually charge just a little more than the national average in an always upward cycle.
Why aren't these titans competing with each other? Because we don't raise awareness locally, that Town/City Hall is sometimes BY CHOICE granting "exclusivity" to the local franchise, usually over expensive dinner paid for by same company. Why risk a good thing by trying to "invade" someone else's turf.
I could care less if we had just 3 or 4 cable companies, as long as they were coast to coast and I could choose between them all, like I do with long distance carriers. How can ANYONE - besides the cable companies - actually LIKE the way things are today? If you hate all forms or regulation, there's enough red tape to irrate you... BUT, if you favor regulation to protect the consumer, what we have is not enough since it's obvious the prices of cable rise FASTER than inflation or in other words they are sticking it to us.
I'd just like to see the whole thing go away. We HAVE the Internet - give me an international video file server that streams TV quality video faster than I can download it... and the American-style cable companies can go to hell. Why can't someone just step in and serve the pent-up demand.. or is Hollywood going to say it's none of their business until we're all downloading their latest products, free, on Internet Relay Chat??
Feh... can anyone think of an industry where everyone to a greater extend hates all available choices? I'm glad it's Friday.
MediaOne's cable modem service is excellent, IMHO. I run a 14 computer LAN off one of their basic rate cable modems. Not only is there plenty of speed, but they don't even mind. They actually support (sort of) Linux firewalls, and LANs behind them. My dream is that other cable modem ISPs take lessons in service and flexibility from MediaOne.
Granted that mediaone doesnt exactly have awesome TV service, but they finally started putting up new lines in my area for cable modems, I've been waiting for this thing for 10 months now. And I am still waiting. If I have to use AOL or MSN to get a cable modem, I may have to go on a rampage or something.
The fact that I only get a 26.4 connection from my house doesnt help. Oh and the quake3test? hah! I wish. Probably will have to stick with a nice 300ms ping on quake2.
oh the humanity!
-doobman
I don't know about you but I'd want to run Sendmail because I hate using ISP mailboxes because of the extreme lack of control (ie-stopping lame spammers). Really though, cable modem access is going to suck until there is competition in this market, which there should be. I really see these cablemodem policies to be an abuse of monopoly power because where else can you go to get high speed access as cheap? All I want from my cable co. is bandwidth, not service, if they can't provide that then they can burn in hell. Here in my town we have what I call expensive RoadRunner. It's $60/mo for 128k up/256k down and there's a bit of port filtering plus you only get one dynamic IP. Looks like I'll have to find another method of high speed access. The potential for this highspeed access is in a box below my desk -- a shitload of WaveLAN cards. Short of that I'll have to wait on DSL, or for there to be fair competition in the cable internet industy.
Actually since RCN bought out my ISP, Ultranet, the service has gone to hell.
I was on an automatic payment plan, and in January, my bank began rejecting their billing attempts. RCN/Ultranet said nothing to me until two weeks ago, threatening to tell the credit bureaus bad things about me, unless I fixed the problem within a week.
WTF! They've been having this problem since January, and instead of politely inquiring about it, they wait 4 months and threaten me?
Of all the comments I've ever posted, this is definately one of them
You can also read about it here.
Ita erat quando hic adveni.
I find their advertising rather intriguing. It's incredibly smooth and slick - I wouldn't mind having their ad agency on my side. Only problem is that, in the end, you are left with their real slogan:
You VILL get Broadband. You VILL. And you VILL shop. And Shop. Or else!
D
----
I'll tell ya, if MS ends up buying MediaOne, I'll switch just as soon as RCN (the only major cable competitor in MA that I know of anyway) makes it up to my area. I bet we'd start getting MSNBC on our cable though! :-S
This is further proof of Bill Gates' Pinky and the Brain complex. (-- Gee Bill, what do you want to do tonight? -- The same thing we do every night! Try to take over the world!)
Do any of these companies offer basic IP connectivity? I don't want their news server, mail server, proxy server, DHCP server or silly policies on what software and services that can run on my computer. Just give me a static IP address, a high speed line and route the packets.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
I believe I heard somewhere that you have to have (at least) cookie support for the @Home service to work. You may also need Java support (or JavaScript, I'm not sure). If you're using something like Junkbusters that blocks cookies, this may be your problem...
MediaOne ain't great, but the cable modem is so much better than a regular dial-up that I put up with 'em. I just can't imagine that things will get better for me as a Linux user, if Uncle Bill owns my data line.
I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm pulling for AT&T.
Up here in Canada we get Rogers. The cable Sucks. The @Home service is ok, but I can't get their homepage to load using linux.
In fact they have a whole listing of where they are, including the Netherlands. If your local cable or wireless phone company is owned by MediaOne, you should care what happens to them...and most of you probably have no idea who owns part of your local cable company.
This sucks ass! Mediaone sucks, MS sucks, AOL sucks, and the ADSL alternative isn't available, not to mention Bellsouth sucking too. I only hope that MS, if they buy into it, don't try to do what they did to Hotmail and put everything on NT and scrap the solaris machines. That would be a nightmare. BTW: my email doesn't work, goddamn mediaone cable modem one way piece of shit! Give me ATM backbone into my rat infested shack or givee me death (or more crappy cable modem access, whichever comes first)
Mediaone actually has a very liberal policy. While they only support Win & Mac they allow pretty much anything. Their fear with NT server is that some bonehead will run a DHCP server on their wire and they will get a flood of support calls from neighbors - a very real possibility. If you read their terms for this region, nowhere does it ban any particular type of service, but they do reserver the right to cut you off if your use/abuse effects others on the segment. If you're a bad internet citizen they reserve the right to escort you to the edge of town.
I have very good luck with them. In fact, every time I've called tech support I have gotten very knowledgeable people. My friend works for Cisco and help build Mediaone's ATM backbone in Ma. One night I called in for a MAC address change and got to talking with the tech. I keep notching up the level of tech, first packet filtering in the cable modem, network architecture, their ATM backbone, he stayed right with me all the way - I suspect he actually knew more than me ! Now how often does that happen when you call for support ?
Then, get this, the guy says "I only do this nights for extra cash, I'm actually a lawyer." Holy Einstein, Batman ! I went to their web site and filled out an online job app that night.
Jake.
The Steampunk Workshop
Best case:
Everything won't change much
Worse case:
if you subscribe Cable TV, you'll see MS's logo flying all over your TV. you might see cartoon network's Cartoon got MS logos on their back.
if you subscribe Cable internet, you might be required to use windows, and must use IE to hookup. And every morning MS will check your computer for illegal software, and force you to update to the latest version of IE.
..and yet with all the mergers (ie, Record companies, Nortel/Baybridge, etc.)
you ever notice the first thing they do is fire a whole ton of people
in the name of "Efficiency/Redudancy."
How are you supposed to do more work with fewer people working for you?
The great merger lie has been exposed!
It's never about customer service, it's about filling th pockets of the CEO and a select few shareholders.
Remeber the 80's? Mass takeovers, with Boesky et al pocketing fortunes and leaving their targets laden with junk-bond debt?
Yeah, didn't think so.
Popey, cookie back on file
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
Yuck. Here in my corner of Chicagoland, MediaOne's channel selection is actually pretty good, but I'm still without a cable modem. Their stupid website has been promising me one "within three months" for the last five months. Jerks.
;-)
I don't want to become an unwilling servant of the evil empire, though. Yuck. Never thought I'd be rooting for AT&T.
--
Okay, I got Linux installed. So where's the free beer everyone keeps talking about??
Last I saw on the newswire was that Comcast was talking to AOL & M$ in an attempt to gather a little extra financial support to out bid AT&T. That maybe why their talking is to try and work out an agreement for their on-line services if they do help Comcast back it financially.
"Imagination is more important than knowledge" -- Albert Einstein
No offence, but aren't these items a little too American oriented? The rest of the world doesn't care what MediaOne does. I myself have never heard of the company. The thing is: I see all these US oriented newsitems, but the same stuff happens in Europe, Asia, etc. too. I never see those stories on /.
Yes! I'm stuck on RCN because MediaOne hasn't wired my area. RCN service sucks. My cable modem is down 20% of the time, and often the phones and cable go down as well. (And the FX channel has sound problems; but maybe that's not RCN's fault). -m
despite their cult-like slogan
"this is the way", it's really the best option in the Greater Boston area (Mass.) since none of the other providers offer cable modems right now. Unless you count RCN, and the 2 or 3 customers that they've actually deigned to wire up. The providers in other locales (Cablevision in Boston, Time Warner on the north suburbs) will just laugh at you if you ask them about timeframe for internet access. So don't know MediaOne so fast. Unless AO-Hell buys them, then I'll agree with you.
Go to school / library
Get Economics textbook
Read about Economies of Scale
DrLunch.com The site that tells you what's for lunch!
but I am in Chicago and I know from experience that the location can make a night/day difference.
I used to have TCI (sux big time), and M1 bought out the Cable Co operating in the burb I moved to. I get pretty much very good video service (comedy central and all my faves are in basic, I get 3HBO and a couple other premium channels bundled with my broadband package) and the cable modem is excellent, except for a couple weeks of spotty outages.
I was horrified when they announced last year they were going to swap chicago and a couple other markets for TCI markets, grr back to TCI.
Then AT&T bought TCI, I wasn't sure what to make of it. The deal is still going through so the M1 deal probably doesn't really affect me, but Comcast, AOL and MS vs AT&T buying them could make things interesting.
200k of portscans? This is not good, the ISP being able to tell you what software you can use on your machine. I am currently running Windows 98 on this machine, and I have Apache installed as a simple testbed server...if I opt for our local cable modem service, will they start telling me that I need to disable Apache? They had better not...I also plan to set up a private FTP server so that I can move large graphic files between work and home without trying to split them up to multiple disks...they had better not tell me that is not acceptable...I know that portscans are not illegal but you have the right to block any addresses that excessively scan your machine.
_______
Scott Jones
Newscast Director / WKPT-TV 19
Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
FC Closer
If you're moving to the Boston area, then MediaOne is probably the best bet. By all means, don't land in a town that has Cablevision. Their TV technology is so far behind that when you tune to ESPN, Chris Berman still has hair, and Internet isn't even on their radar.
The cable modem is a blast, it's available in almost all MediaOne towns, and they're pretty cool about what you do with it. That's what impresses me the most, they really do give you pretty much just a pipe instead of trying to "add value" by forcibly guiding you to their own content. They don't "support" Linux, but they've set up a private newsgroup for Linux customers, which, given how most companies deal with unsupported platforms, is pretty refreshing.
All of which has had me concerned since the original Comcast merger was announced. I'm not familair with Comcast, or RoadRunner, or any of the other players involved, but I suspect any one of them might change it into some sort of proprietary service designed to sell you services or content.
Hmm, I live up in Somerville and I can guarantee that RCN has more than "2 or 3 customers" signed up.
In fact, they're providing service in both Somerville and Arlington, and to my knowledge the service is available almost everywhere they're not blocked by private right-of-way issues.
Which isn't to say I'm not waiting for MediaOne to take over the Time-Warner license here; competition in cable modem service should be interesting.
Lars Kellogg-Stedman <lars@larsshack.org>
Quick conspiracy question/notice.
Are Gates and Allen still on good terms. They started M$ together, and now Allen owns *tons* of cable. He controls the access, gates controls the desktop. And have you seen that silly picture of Allen smiling smugly/slyly with his hand posed in the evil mastermind pose?
Off Topic:
Q: What is the difference between Texas and yogurt? A: Yogurt has culture. Gimme a break. How many of your states used to be their own country? Damn Yankees. id is based in Texas and so are the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders. Sex and Violence, Texas kicks ass.
+&x
I was fairly amused when the guy who did the original install showed up with some buddies to harass^H^H^H^H^H^Help the guy who was diagnosing the modem, but whatever
I may be clueless, but what does the ^H^H^H^H^H^ mean? I'm just curious, but I have seen it here on /. several times.
I had a teacher once say "There are no stupid questions", please remember that.
Thanks
After being promised a cable modem in 3 to 6 month's for over a year NOW I find out things are going to get worse. M$ and AO-Hell! Oh boy lets combine sorry Cable TV service with junk M$ software and the worst internet service known. Fantastic, all they need is to get Packard Bell involved so they can run it all on junk hardware.
I wasn't happy with AT&T's bid, but this makes it look like a Godsend.
Quemadmodum gladius neminem occidit, occidentis telum est
Well, I'm not really sure about MediaOne, as they don't offer cable in my area, however I must say that I am extremely disappointed in Shaw @Home (Red Deer, Alberta, Canada). Yesterday I received a long e-mail from one of their system engineers (an mcse at that), explaining how because I was running Linux, and had sendmail and a web server running, (i do internal CGI testing with it, and dont use either for external traffic), and because Linux is insecure, I had 14 days to remove all my server processes and "secure my system".
Previous to this, I had logged about 200k of portscans coming from the Shaw office in Calgary, Alberta, and had firewalled the address that they were coming from. After being put on technical support for about 8 hours, (approximately), I finally got to speak to a technician, who then told me that I had been placed on the abuse list, and it was doubtful whether I would ever get my cable access back.
I then followed up the e-mail I got from the MCSE with a lengthy reply explaining my position, and the fact that I kind of know whether or not my box is secure (I am a UNIX sysadmin for an ISP), and am still waiting for his reply. This has frustrated me immensely, and I am at the end of my rope. Unfortunately, Shaw @Home is the fastest Internet around, and I don't know if I could go back to modem. (Although its free). Anyways, that's my rant of the day.
>Simson Garfinkel yesterday had an article in Boston Globe which he says he compared MediaOne's speeds to Bell Atalantic's DSL service and MediaOne was ten fold faster.
Not quite, if I may echo the skepticism of Tony's post. Garfinkel reported that the latency on BA DSL were about 10x as long. (apparently due to BAIS peering in Virginia). He also reported that download speeds are comparable, but upload is on 90k.
For those of us in Boston/Brookline, DSL is better than nothing. And it's *just gone live*-- it won't be difficult to peer at more places (probably will need FCC approval, of course!)
personally, i agree that the cable access sucks. you actually DON'T get comedy central as part of the basic package! but the cable modem access has seemed pretty good. i've had limited experience w/ cable modem access in the boston area... i'm moving there full time in a few weeks, and i expect the service will treat me just fine. anyone care to comment on the television access, though? anyone wanna rate mediaone for me? lemme know what i can expect?
i want to live life, not just go through the motions
We have just had comcast installed the pipes went in last year and we are *STILL* not connect the sales people have no idea what a cable modem is let alone when we will be likely to be able to get acsess to the net with one but this in the UK
after talking to techies they put me on the list of demo tester but this is not likely to be for a fwe years.
Our town was suposed to be connect about 2 years before but they are late the work of the pipe layers was very very shoddy ie not in a remotly straight line but hey i can weight for PSTN
what the hell is wrong with separate companies? If I see one more merger Im gonna puke. Can't wait to go by my MS groceries in my MS car, with my MS gasoline.
Its pretty sad when you make a move location
Based solely on connectivity..
21st century is another option in chicago,
And from what i have read, Enteract is being
bought out by 21st century as well (might of
read it wrong)
http://www.21stcentury.com/ser_area.htm
its a bit limited right now but i prefer them
over primecable or medianone..
Mediaone here in S. Florida a) can't keep a mailserver up even when the system is up, and in case case b) goes down when there is a cable cut anywhere between here and Virginia, where the authentication server resides; because c) they have no redundancy in the system; and d) are now charging us broadband rates but have not converted to 2-way cable modems. Heck, we're getting ADSL in 2000Q1, after which they won't have any customers down here anyway.