[SLL] Nationwide Internet: melting down?

[Nicholas Bodley]

On Mon, 13 Aug 2007 16:44:40 -0400, Ken Meyer <kmeyer at blarg.net> wrote:

> It's becoming clear to me that the offerings of all ISP's should include  
> information that defines, at least in general terms, where their servers  
> are located and the redundancy they have in: servers, colo's, upstream  
> connections, power, security, whatever.

Some time ago, I fed my own IP to Sam Spade, an excellent Win 'Net lookup  
utility. Results are likely to have clickable links, so I clicked, and  
found that Speakeasy's recional site is in Somerville. True, that didn't  
tell me a lot, but it was a bit more. (Back then, I didn't think of  
asking.)

As to honest representation: Telocity (which became DirecTV Internet,  
DSL*) told me quite honestly that they had been using a third-party tech  
support org., and it didn't work out; they had brought it in-house.  
*DTVI's DSL bridge, a nice one, was made in USA; I still have it. Might be  
fun to hack. I'm on the other coast, but it's looking for a good home.  
While it lasted, DirecTV Internet was a class act. Afaik, they weren't  
making enough profit, and I became one of many Direct Switch customers.

A Verizon sales type learned that I was in that category, and started a  
high-pressure attempt to make me stop my provisioning with Speakeasy and  
go Verizon. There's more to tell, but for the average Joe (ar Jill),  
Verizon seems OK. They seem to censor, and are restrictive in what you can  
do, unlike Speakeasy. (They are also far less costly!)


-- 
Nicholas  B o d l e y
Waltham, Mass.