RE: [aclug-L] Problem with ISP...

[Jonathan Hall <jonhall@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> It is not going to make a bit of difference at this time because a few
> months ago BOTH Southwind and Feist Internet were sold to a company
> named 'One Main Street'.

It's actually called OneMain.com


> At this time the two are acting as two different companies but shortly
> will be joined as one.
> Any new subscribers will be given a Southwind address, but from what I
> have read in the Feist Support Email Group that soon the modem pools
> will be joined and all users of the two services will have a
> 'DOT.OneMainSt.Com' address.........

Feist operations have been handled by SouthWind for nearly 3 months now.

And no existing Feist or SouthWind customers will be getting OneMain.com
addresses any time in the near future, if ever.

And there are no firm plans to integrate modem pools between Feist and
SouthWind.  There are some ideas on the drawing board.  Nothing more.


> Also if you were paying 'Feist' to change your logon password it was
> because you did not know how to do it online, they have a web page that
> allows users to change their logon password.  I have used it many times
> and never once got charged.

I was not aware that Feist ever charged to change passwords.  I know they
do not now.  You can call customer service and they will change it for you
with no charge whatsoever.


> Also I personally have found that close to 90% of the 'Stolen Passwords'
> were family members or friends using autologon on the members computer.

> The other 10% were people that 'GOT SOME ONE' (AKA: hackerz) mad at the
> user in question.

Feist's system traditionally has not been nearly as strict as some at
making people select secure passwords.  Supposing your login name is
"jones", you could use "Jones" as your password.  This is obviously very
insecure, and excellent "hacker" bate.  Anyone can guess that password.

There are now some more strict guidelines, although they are still not
very strict--they likely will become more strict as time goes on, and more
closely resemble SouthWind's policy of "no dictionary words", etc.


> Now don't get me wrong I am personally very 'PO'ed at the lack of
> support that I have received from Feist for the past 12 months, and I

The technical support status at Feist has been poor.  Things are in
process to improve the situtation--hopefully very dramatically.  But these
types of things take time.  Hopefully by the year's end Feist customers
will see a dramatic improvement in the quality of technical support.


> have been a user of their system since the days of 'Future Net' (1995).
> I have had Southwestern Bell prove to them that it was their hardware
> causing my connection troubles.... And it has gotten really bad over the

Recently (in the last week) there were some problems resulting in high
numbers of busy signals.  Those problems lasted 48-72 hours, but have been
resolved to my knowledge.


> last few weeks where ONLY one day did I not get knocked offline or have
> poor connection speed ranging from 21K -> 48K and at other times get
> great connection speeds of 52 > 56K.

Varying connection speeds will be experienced with nearly any Internet
provider, and are often the result of numerous factors.  If they vary 
that widely (21k - 53k), it's more than likely not soley the fault of your
ISP's equipment.  Feist uses USRobotics TotalControl racks, which are
essentially Couriers, which are for the most part, very high quality
modems.  When connection speeds fluctiuate between 21k and 53k, it's
almost always due to the analog end of the connection, which lies between
the telephone company CO and the customer's end.  This does not mean it's
the fault of the customer's equipment or telephone lines necessarily, but
that the problem lies between the CO and the customer's computer, and not
between the CO and the server.  Digital is digital.  If you can connect at
53k at some times, you should be able to at any time, because the digital
circuit never changes.  Analog routing, however, can change in ways that
can effect connection speeds and reliability.

The exception to this rule would be when there is varying digital
equipment--some that works at 53k with your modem, some that works at 21k
with your modem.  However, Feist uses the same type of equipment across
the board.  If you have truely eliminated all possibilities of problems on
"your end" of the connection, you should probably report the time of day
you experience connection problems.  It might be that one of the
TotalControl racks is faulty and causing poor connections.  A report
explaining precisely when the problem occured would help in narrowing down
the problem to a specific modem rack.

Also, I'm sure you're not getting connection speeds of 56k, as this is
impossible in the U.S. due to FCC regulations that limit the power output
of telephony devices in such a maner than data speeds of 53k are the
absolute theoretical maximum.  And if you ever reach that, you're doing
EXTREMELY well! 



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  Jonathan Hall  *  jonhall@xxxxxxxxxxxx  *  PGP public key available
 Systems Admin, Future Internet Services; Goessel, KS * (316) 367-2487
         http://www.futureks.net  *  PGP Key ID: FE 00 FD 51
         -=  Running Debian GNU/Linux 2.0, kernel 2.0.36  =-
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