Since the subject is somewhat open, I want to pass on some current serious
problems that the coffee shop I usually go to is having with the WiFi provided
by 19th Century Link (19CL). Last fall 19CL goaded the owner into buying a
New! Improved! WiFi hub, at which point I and others lost all internet access.
Turned out that the new hub did not have two or more handshake protocols
needed by older chip sets. It took me weeks to resolve this and I had to buy a
USB wireless adapter to regain access.
Two weeks ago 19CL remotely disabled the WiFi hub and it took the owner
most of a day to get them to restore it. They told him that the way it was
restored would keep the problem from recurring. That was until two days ago,
when it failed completely. Partial access was restored after four hours on the
phone with a support tech. Mac Ibook users have to use a separate channel that
has been set up just for them.
Other users are having weird problems, and mine is really unique. All
graphic images are blocked. All search engines are blocked. Some pages such
as Earthlink and eBay can be viewed once, then they are blocked for 24 hours or
more, seemingly some from of active roaming denial of access. The response
from 19CL is that the customers laptops are at fault. All of them. I was
listening in on the conversation when that remark was made.
I'm at another coffee shop that has Cox WiFi and there are zero problems.
Starbucks here in Phoenix uses AT&T, and there are zero problems. Google is
poised to move into the Phoenix ISP market with their new 1GPS optical fiber
system. I can imagine that 19CL will eventually be leaving the ISP market as
their defective equipment, technical incompepence, and open contempt for the
customers simply will not survive in a competitive market.
The owner of the coffee shop is out of town but will return this evening,
and he is furious. The defective WiFi provided by 19CL is costing him a lot of
business as the place is a popular hangout for students from three colleges,
and without WiFi access they are forced to go elsewhere.
Welcome to the 21st century. I really miss the 19th. Mostly.
Chris
When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro
- Hunter S. Thompson
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