[SunRescue] Re: Real ISP & Fred (at bottom...check it out..)

[Earl Baugh]

Well, I'll relay some of my experiences here in Atlanta, 
with business level service, as well as my connection with 
InternetConnect now.  (BTW, I don't work for them, nor do I have any 
vested interest...aside from being a satisfied customer so far...)

I've had my own class C address for, oh, I dunno 8 years or so.
(got it when it, and domain names were free...)  For the past
7 or so, I've routed it through my previous employer (who I 
just left in Jan).  A dial up modem, and a pipe was all I was 
looking for.  I had control of how I arranged things, from DNS
to what ever ports I wanted open.  I was lucky enough to be in
charge of the network aspects of the company (on top of my programming
duties) and progress thru from a VERY poorly managed UUCP connection 
to a dual T1 configuration for phone and voice.  

Over that time we had contracts with with PSI, Cerfnet, MCI and Qwest. 
Overall, I'd have to say that in general I've been unimpressed with 
the "business" services.  Aside from being more expensive, the customer 
support wasn't any better from them as from any mom-and-pop operations I've
looked into.  If you're lucky enough to find the right person in one
of the big places, they can fix your problem.  But odds are, that within
6 months they'll be gone (job jumping...chasing the money)  With the
smaller places, I've seen the folks stick around longer (I'm guessing
they have a more vested interest...)

It's amazing what stupid things I heard from folks when we went thru
our "decide-whether-or-not-to-change" yearly or so reviews.  PSI
simply couldn't get any real gateways working (at the time) that
had any bandwith.  Their model was "gateways are unimportant", as
"everybody who's anybody will be on our network".  (yes, these are
paraphrases of REAL quotes).  I've had people from Sprint tell me that 
"there is no way anybody can hack our routers" (as part of telling me
that there wasn't any problems of "snooping" their traffic...even though
it all went across a common backbone....).  I've had AT&T folks
not even sure of what a PVC WAS....  It's amazing.  I've delt with the 
incredibly crappy service from MCI and Qwest.  This included "magic" 
re-numbering of DLCI's in the middle of the week (can you say dropped 
service?), and some amazing problems with "lines being cut" on almost
a weekly basis at one point (I think that was their "safe" excuse...)
I've got oodles of stories of nights up late re-routing PVC's across country 
from DC to LA as gateways came up and down...etc.  But, I'd say most amazing
has been how folks get all bent out of wack if you tell them something 
"out of the ordinary" such as "we've got our own IP's and we don't
want to use NAT, nor do we want to re-number all 500+ machines cause
you want us to."  If it doesn't fit their normal business model they
don't understand (spent a DAY on the phone will BellSouth trying to
find someone who would understand that "owning my own IP" did not
mean I had to be a commercial entity....never did find that person...
they said instead of the $100 ISDN 24/7 line, I need the $250 ISDN
24/7 BUSINESS line...)

That was part of what I was "looking forward" to when I had to change my 
connection when I finally left my old job.  I called up folks, and
asked "can you simply ROUTE packets for me?".  Aside from the phone
"wait" hell you get in (that ruled out 5 vendors...if they can't get
me to a salesman within 10 min, I can't imagine what their tech support
will be like).  InternetConnect understood my situation, checked with
their head technican, and had an answer for me in less than 5 min,
(from the time I dialed).  Perhaps it was the salesperson I called (Blaine)
or perhaps it's the company (I'm hoping it's the later...BTW, this isn't
the InternetConnect company based out of Utah...it's the one based out
of CA)  Anyway, out of this, I found 3 that I was considering.  CAIS,
InternetConnect and SmartGuys.  (Smart Guys had 1/2 a strike, they had
a phone answering service you got to, instead of phone wait hell....but
they got back to me within the hour)  InternetConnect was the only one
who gave me less than a 6-8 week window.  So, I figured I'd give it a
shot.  (Since they all route across a COVAD line, I figure I can change
by calling ISP's and arranging for a "hand over"...so movement isn't a
problem)  The CAIS sales person called back and said incredibly arrogantly
"well, when InternetConnect doesn't come thru on their delivery date, 
call us back".   I had the pleasure of calling him back to tell them
that they didn't deliver on the 3-4 week window, but EARLIER...(that
was a fun call)  Anyway, so far, I've had some minor routing problems,
but overall good service.  They've been upfront about me being backhauled
right now, and heck straight stories about what's up is worth it, even
if I have to wait a bit for things to be fixed.   The routing problems
weren't actually all their fault.  The provisioning guys got the outbound 
route right the day I set stuff up, and once I got Qwest to STOP routing the 
address [7 days LATER], it took one more call to get the filters adjusted 
on Level3....and two days for Level3 to process the request (Level3 provides 
the backbone service for them right now....but they're looking at InterNAP 
...according to Bob the head network engineer at InternetConnect (who I chatted with about networks as he set up the filter change request) says InterNAP
has direct DS3's to BBNPlanet, Sprint, MCI, etc. and that when they switch
I should see even better performance)

So, while I'm paying $89 a month, and not using the mailboxes, nor static
IP's that they'd provide (though I will be accessing their news feed)
I feel I'm getting a reasonable deal for the service, and it's providing
the "routed pipe" that I want. I've got full access to my router, and
can turn on (or off) any filtering I want.  All in all, a pretty plesant
experience.

RE: Fred and the monitors.

>Free monitors (take em, or he'll toss em!) and cheap SS4s;
>Fred is a great guy to deal with / buy from.  He's in 
>Atlanta, so if you're local to him you can get a great price 
>on a SS4 ($25 less than what he's offering them for to the public),
>or as many free 365-1168 monitors as you can load up and haul away.
>
>Bill
>
>----- Forwarded message from Fred Dikeman <fred at workstation.net> -----
>
>I've got a 330 server sitting here.  
>I've also got pallets of those 365-1168 monitors that I'm giving away.
>
>The special of the month....
>
>Sparc 4-70 w/  1x 32Mb dimm, 560Mb disk, T5 kybd/mse...
>$100.  (to you and the local packrats)  
>We're selling them for $125 + shipping to everyone else.
>
>Tell them to call so I can give them directions.  
>Tell them to bring a truck so they can haul off these monitors.
>
>Fred
>data inst.  local 770-919-2400

I'm a local SunRescuer (and packrat) in the Atlanta area (Fred is
like 10 min from my house)  I'll be picking up a couple of these
monitors for the IPC's I'm piecing together (so far $7 for the 
first one...and it's only short a monitor and NVRAM)  I can store
ONE or TWO for someone if they want one (I'm not shipping monitors...
way too much hassle) and can come by in the future.  I'll check out
the 330 if someone wants me to...


	Earl the Squirrel	
	Internet : home - earl at baugh.org
		   work - baugh at revenuetech.com
	Thank you for playing stump the clown. 0-