How do you train the user that calls helpdesk when they realize they haven't received email for two hours, then insists the computer is broken, then argues with helpdesk for twenty minutes after they have been asked to click the send/receive button. This type of person almost invariably will go on about how the heldesk associate was rude and annoying because the user doesn't have the maturity to deal with being wrong, or in this case, a total moron.
Ditto for the people that have someone from IT paged as if were an emergency everytime paper jams in the printer when they could have resolve the problem by opening the printer to pull out the paper, using the paper feed, refilling the machine with paper, or simply using another one of the other ten printers in the department.
IT people can be annoying. We have to deal with a lot of stupidity entirely unrelated to the newbie syndrome that is used as a scapegoat to such stupidity because people don't use their brains. At the same time a very large percentage of users find IT people annoying because helpdesk pointed out a very simple solution to their problem and the user just realized how stupid they were.
Then there is management that finds the entire IT department to be annoying because the IT staff has advised them there is no such thing as a $5.00 solution for a $25,000 problem.
About three months ago I came very close to landing a fairly decent job. The manager of IT wanted to hire me even though I don't have an certifications. Unfortunately he wasn't able to bypass human resources and their prerequisite that all new IT employees have certifications. This guy spent nearly three weeks trying to get them to bend the rules. HR took the position that people have to be taught everything they know and since I don't have any formal IT related education or certifications I couldn't possibly know what I'm doing.
Simply put, they do not understand that people with motivatin can be self-taught.
In a lot of companies all that matters to HR and corporate types are certifications and degrees. You must realize many times the people making these decisions are the ones that had to be taught how to right-click.
It's more of a hobby than a necessity
For most people, owning a computer and having internet access is more of a hobby than a necessity.
It will be interesting to see people's broadband connections come to a grinding halt when the neighbourhood ham gets on 40 meters with 1kW.
I can see it now. Every time the net slows down the closest ham will be blamed.
Don't knock too hard. I got the new and improved version of that, the KT7A, and I have had nothing but problems. I finally fixed it by replacing it with an Epox.
You are correct. Bandwith (data transfer) is cheap. Adding bandwidth capacity (fatter pipe) does cost more, but it is a reasonable investment that is required to continue providing good service to their customers. Unfortunately there are a large number of ISPs around the country that think they place an unlimited number of subscribers on a given pop without adding bandwidth capacity to that pop.
The whole fact of the matter is these companies want to place more people on their networks without upgrading hardware or adding needed capacity (a fatter pipe) to accomodate the extra data transferred by additional subscribers.
The quick and inexpensive short term solution is to limit transfer rates and impose further restrictions on data transfers.
I currently don't have data transfer limit and if ATTBI implements one I will likely change providers depending on limit and the pricing of additional transfers.
I do think there are people that abuse bandwith privileges. Anyone that consistently has 1mbps transferring 24/7 is likely doing something they shouldn't be. On the other hand I think the 3GB - 5GB transfer limit you see with many providers is inadequate. A moderate to heavy surfer can use over 1GB per month just from the graphics and popups on many web pages. Add in email and a few attatchments of senseless jokes that aren't funny anymore and you can easily exceend 1GB.
The last time I checked my bandwidth use for browsing it was at 1.7GB for a month. That is probably close to what my web surfing last month was plus I downloaded the three Mandrake 8.2 ISOs weighing in at 1.9GB. Add to that about 30-40 hours of streaming ICECAST during the month and another 40 to 50 hours of gaming. I probably transferred well over 4.5GB last month. Even though I don't download 1.9GB of ISOs every month I think this illustrates how easy it is exceed their limits.
Do I think I am abusing bandwith? Absolutely not. I'm using it for exactly what broadband ISPs jump around and sing about when they advertise broadband service, and that is downloading large files faster, the ability to listen to streaming music and other multimedia (specifically gaming for me) content.
Did you notice the lack of "mail to:" in the html code on his page? My guess is this would limit the amount of spam bots that search for the "mail to:" string for collecting addresses.
But then I am just making an assumption, and I could be wrong.
"The initial term of this agreement is six (6) months from the date that the Service is first used ("Activation Date") and will continue on a month-to-month basis thereafter."
That means they agree to charge you the "initial" monthly fee of $39.95 a month for six months. Before you interpret the "will continue on a monthly basis" part, maybe you should finish reading the agreement, including the clause that states,
"EarthLink reserves the right to change the price of the Service at any time after the initial term upon 30 days notice."
For those of you that have a hard time with comprehension, this means they may raise the price on the seventh month.
After reading the contract several times, I could not find the word "lifetime" in it anywhere.
It appears to me someone just wants to complain about paying $10 a month more. Most DSL providers charge much more than $50 a month, Even if you are paying Earthlink $65 for a static IP, it is still less expensive than most other DSL providers out there, except for the telcos that are making their best effort to run the competition out of business, which is why their competitors have to raise prices in the first place.
And the posts in this thread that rant about Earthlink not providing DSL in their area amuse me. Earthlink has no control over that. In the city I live in, Earthlink is available wherever DSL is available. Unfortunately DSL is available in about 15% of the Sacramento metro area because PacBell refuses to upgrade. The story is the same in much of the Bay Area.
So, before you blame Earthlink, Speakeasy, XO, Omnisoft, or other DSL providers, do some homework and take a good look at the constant roadblocks PacBell, Verizon (the worst of telcos), Qwest, and Ameritech throw in front of their competitors.
It took me 1 week short of two years to get DSL here. I lost count of how many ISPs cancelled my order because they couldn't get PacBell to provision my line. The provisioning took 8 months, then I had to deal with PacBell's installers not showing up for appointments. In the meantime they had their telemarketers call me about PacBell DSL through PacBell Internet. They also sent a lot of ads in for their DSL service in the mail. I am sure they would have emailed me the ads, but their email servers never work so that wasn't possible.
Anyway, I finally got DSL installed a week after cable modem service was introduced in my neighbourhood. I guess the competition gave 'em some motivation to make an extra $20 a month from my ISP rather than lose it to the cable company.
I wouldn't have signed up for cable access here anyway. They can people for running gaming servers.
Slashdot Mirror
How do you train the user that calls helpdesk when they realize they haven't received email for two hours, then insists the computer is broken, then argues with helpdesk for twenty minutes after they have been asked to click the send/receive button. This type of person almost invariably will go on about how the heldesk associate was rude and annoying because the user doesn't have the maturity to deal with being wrong, or in this case, a total moron.
Ditto for the people that have someone from IT paged as if were an emergency everytime paper jams in the printer when they could have resolve the problem by opening the printer to pull out the paper, using the paper feed, refilling the machine with paper, or simply using another one of the other ten printers in the department.
IT people can be annoying. We have to deal with a lot of stupidity entirely unrelated to the newbie syndrome that is used as a scapegoat to such stupidity because people don't use their brains. At the same time a very large percentage of users find IT people annoying because helpdesk pointed out a very simple solution to their problem and the user just realized how stupid they were.
Then there is management that finds the entire IT department to be annoying because the IT staff has advised them there is no such thing as a $5.00 solution for a $25,000 problem.
About three months ago I came very close to landing a fairly decent job. The manager of IT wanted to hire me even though I don't have an certifications. Unfortunately he wasn't able to bypass human resources and their prerequisite that all new IT employees have certifications. This guy spent nearly three weeks trying to get them to bend the rules. HR took the position that people have to be taught everything they know and since I don't have any formal IT related education or certifications I couldn't possibly know what I'm doing.
Simply put, they do not understand that people with motivatin can be self-taught.
In a lot of companies all that matters to HR and corporate types are certifications and degrees. You must realize many times the people making these decisions are the ones that had to be taught how to right-click.
It's more of a hobby than a necessity For most people, owning a computer and having internet access is more of a hobby than a necessity. It will be interesting to see people's broadband connections come to a grinding halt when the neighbourhood ham gets on 40 meters with 1kW. I can see it now. Every time the net slows down the closest ham will be blamed.
Look at the whois results for cabletheft.com.
If this site is legitimate why is the information bogus?
Don't knock too hard. I got the new and improved version of that, the KT7A, and I have had nothing but problems. I finally fixed it by replacing it with an Epox.
Not if it is anything like my last three Abit boards.
You are correct. Bandwith (data transfer) is cheap. Adding bandwidth capacity (fatter pipe) does cost more, but it is a reasonable investment that is required to continue providing good service to their customers. Unfortunately there are a large number of ISPs around the country that think they place an unlimited number of subscribers on a given pop without adding bandwidth capacity to that pop.
The whole fact of the matter is these companies want to place more people on their networks without upgrading hardware or adding needed capacity (a fatter pipe) to accomodate the extra data transferred by additional subscribers.
The quick and inexpensive short term solution is to limit transfer rates and impose further restrictions on data transfers.
I currently don't have data transfer limit and if ATTBI implements one I will likely change providers depending on limit and the pricing of additional transfers.
I do think there are people that abuse bandwith privileges. Anyone that consistently has 1mbps transferring 24/7 is likely doing something they shouldn't be. On the other hand I think the 3GB - 5GB transfer limit you see with many providers is inadequate. A moderate to heavy surfer can use over 1GB per month just from the graphics and popups on many web pages. Add in email and a few attatchments of senseless jokes that aren't funny anymore and you can easily exceend 1GB.
The last time I checked my bandwidth use for browsing it was at 1.7GB for a month. That is probably close to what my web surfing last month was plus I downloaded the three Mandrake 8.2 ISOs weighing in at 1.9GB. Add to that about 30-40 hours of streaming ICECAST during the month and another 40 to 50 hours of gaming. I probably transferred well over 4.5GB last month. Even though I don't download 1.9GB of ISOs every month I think this illustrates how easy it is exceed their limits.
Do I think I am abusing bandwith? Absolutely not. I'm using it for exactly what broadband ISPs jump around and sing about when they advertise broadband service, and that is downloading large files faster, the ability to listen to streaming music and other multimedia (specifically gaming for me) content.
Did you notice the lack of "mail to:" in the html code on his page? My guess is this would limit the amount of spam bots that search for the "mail to:" string for collecting addresses. But then I am just making an assumption, and I could be wrong.
I will use the preview button in the future.
"The initial term of this agreement is six (6) months from the date that the Service is first used ("Activation Date") and will continue on a month-to-month basis thereafter." That means they agree to charge you the "initial" monthly fee of $39.95 a month for six months. Before you interpret the "will continue on a monthly basis" part, maybe you should finish reading the agreement, including the clause that states, "EarthLink reserves the right to change the price of the Service at any time after the initial term upon 30 days notice." For those of you that have a hard time with comprehension, this means they may raise the price on the seventh month. After reading the contract several times, I could not find the word "lifetime" in it anywhere. It appears to me someone just wants to complain about paying $10 a month more. Most DSL providers charge much more than $50 a month, Even if you are paying Earthlink $65 for a static IP, it is still less expensive than most other DSL providers out there, except for the telcos that are making their best effort to run the competition out of business, which is why their competitors have to raise prices in the first place. And the posts in this thread that rant about Earthlink not providing DSL in their area amuse me. Earthlink has no control over that. In the city I live in, Earthlink is available wherever DSL is available. Unfortunately DSL is available in about 15% of the Sacramento metro area because PacBell refuses to upgrade. The story is the same in much of the Bay Area. So, before you blame Earthlink, Speakeasy, XO, Omnisoft, or other DSL providers, do some homework and take a good look at the constant roadblocks PacBell, Verizon (the worst of telcos), Qwest, and Ameritech throw in front of their competitors.
It took me 1 week short of two years to get DSL here. I lost count of how many ISPs cancelled my order because they couldn't get PacBell to provision my line. The provisioning took 8 months, then I had to deal with PacBell's installers not showing up for appointments. In the meantime they had their telemarketers call me about PacBell DSL through PacBell Internet. They also sent a lot of ads in for their DSL service in the mail. I am sure they would have emailed me the ads, but their email servers never work so that wasn't possible. Anyway, I finally got DSL installed a week after cable modem service was introduced in my neighbourhood. I guess the competition gave 'em some motivation to make an extra $20 a month from my ISP rather than lose it to the cable company. I wouldn't have signed up for cable access here anyway. They can people for running gaming servers.