[TriLUG] Earthlink as ISP

[Scott Chilcote]

On 01/24/2014 08:23 AM, Bill Farrow wrote:
> On Fri, Jan 24, 2014 at 8:21 AM, Brian McCullough <bdmc at buadh-brath.com> wrote:
>> Yes, we are dependent on the TW infrastructure, but I have always found
>> the Earthlink people easy to deal with.
> Does Earthlink use their own backend infrastructure for getting your
> traffic onto the internet ?
>
> Are there any downsides ?
>
> Bill

I used EarthLink DSL for three happy years at our previous (local)
address, until the service tanked.  I've written about it on here before.

What happened was we got a new next door neighbor who arranged for a new
phone line to be dug in.  After that our throughput dropped to dial-up
service levels.

This launched three weeks of dystopian satire (see movie Brazil).  I'd
call EarthLink tech support.  They'd start with "please connnect a
Windows computer running the software we provided", and continue
repeating the request like a parrot until I lied and said I had.  Then
they'd get to the point where it actually did appear to be a problem
with their service, and promise to request a check from the phone
service provider (BellSouth), and call me back within 24 hours.  After
that various things would happen, none of them helpful.

Most often there would be no call back.  When I called EarthLink again,
it would start over from step zero.  After that happened a few times and
I became more irate, they actually followed through and called back. 
But AT&T/BellSouth said that they checked their equipment and it was
fine, without ever sending someone to check our end.  They said that our
home phone lines would need to be tested next, which they could arrange
the phone company to perform for an hourly rate.

I finally gave up after taking my laptop and DSL modem outdoors to the
telco NID, connecting it directly, and finding that fewer than 40% of
pings to their gateway were being returned.  It took several attempts
just to get them to stop asking me to connect a Windows computer and
their software.  Even after they claimed to understand what I was
describing, EarthLink refused to move up from Level 1. They just
repeated that the phone company had run a test and their equipment
reported no problems.

Far too many wasted hours trying to re-float that sinking ship.  We
switched to TWC and did not look back.

   Scott C.

-- 
Scott Chilcote
Cary, NC USA
scottchilcote at att.net