Windows NT emulation mode!ISPs who suck, ISP Hall of Shame, United Online, NetZero, Juno
ISPs who suck, ISP Hall of Shame, United Online, NetZero, Juno
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NetZero Inc. has completed its merger with Juno Online Services Inc. forming the very generically named United Online Inc. which will commence trading on the Nasdaq tomorrow, Wednesday, 26 September 2001, under the ticker symbol UNTD.
I tried to visit the new corporate web site on Tuesday, 25 September (the one mentioned in the official press release), and only got the following 403 Forbidden error:
You don't have permission to access / on this server. Apache/1.3.4 Server at www.unitedonline.net Port 80
Hmmm, running a moldy old, security-compromised version of Apache, I see.
Ooohhh, can you hear the wedding bells?
Subject: NetZero and Juno are now United Online Date: Wed Sep 26 10:49:12 PDT 2001 From: Mark Goldston - Chairman & CEO <ceo@untd.com> To: allnetzero@netzero.net Dear NetZero member, It is with great pleasure that I announce that we have completed the strategic merger of NetZero, Inc. and Juno Online services, forming the new company United Online (Nasdaq: UNTD). This merger of two of the leading Internet service providers makes us one of the most powerful competitors in the ISP marketplace with over 20 million registered users who have discovered NetZero and Juno's quality Internet services. If you would like more information on United Online, please go to our newly launched homepage, http://www.unitedonline.net. The NetZero and Juno brands will remain intact as United Online's Internet service options. Your start page, email address, customer support contacts, and billing contacts will all remain NetZero, and all information about the NetZero services will still be available at http://www.netzero.net. Nothing will change for you, except for the fact that you will now be part of a much bigger, more powerful service. We are diligently working on the integration of the two companies and you will begin to see some significant benefits almost immediately, including a redesign of the NetZero and Juno logos and graphics, and an exciting, soon-to-be-released new NetZero start page. I speak for all of us at United Online when I say that we are all really looking forward to maximizing the collective talent and innovation within NetZero and Juno to continue to bring you a choice of high-quality, easy-to-use Internet services. Sincerely, Mark R. Goldston Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer United Online, Inc.
United Online (NASDAQ: UNTD) closes the day at $1.84, down $0.13 from its initial opening price of $1.97. Well, at least their new corporate web site is finally up.
Note: technically, there was a 5-to-1 reverse stock split before the market opened.
It's the last free weekend in the September promotion and boy does NetZero's network really suck. Dropped TCP/IP connections, router loops, DNS errors galore, etc. I don't think any packets moved from my modem during 5-7 minutes. I killed the session and dialed up again. This is one really, really messed up infrastructure (my modem connects fine and logs in, so it's their network).
Windows NT emulation mode!The Juno Online service has recently changed the color of its "prioritization of web-related services" web page from red to blue. Very soothing. Probably a new usability-sensitive web producer in charge. Now it looks more like something many of us are familiar with: Microsoft Windows NT's Blue Screen Of DeathTM (BSOD).
I got the BSOD today, and retrieved three messages before aborting the mail transfer. One of the messages mentions NaviPath's recent demise and how this may negatively impact Juno availability. Huh?!? The service is mostly down anyhow.
I haven't dialed into Juno for sixteen days and as soon as I did, I got Juno's Blue Screen Of Death. Juno continues to flood my e-mail inbox with spam. With the downturn in online advertising, it's mostly junk mail touting their Juno Platinum pay-to-surf services.
Today: DNS lookup errors galore. ZeroPort wedged again, fixed only by the Vulcan Death Grip. United Online is running one of the worst dial-up networks I have ever witnessed. Thess ad windows are a real nuisance; too bad nobody really looks at them.
The following is a rather typical way how ZeroPort ends a session:
ZCAST caused an invalid page fault in module <unknown> at 0000:0564e269. Registers: EAX=d0262cd7 CS=016f EIP=0564e269 EFLGS=00010286 EBX=0564fe28 SS=0177 ESP=550564e6 EBP=0564e21c ECX=0564e244 DS=0177 ESI=0564e244 FS=8e2f EDX=00000001 ES=0177 EDI=81ba3058 GS=0000 Bytes at CS:EIP: 68 f7 bf 28 fe 64 05 04 e3 64 05 e9 7f f8 bf 1c Stack dump:
Atrocious, simply atrocious.
United Online has informed certain rural customers that the cost of servicing them is too great; people out in the boondocks are having their pay service cancelled.
Well, I tried Juno today. Surprisingly there was no Blue Screen Of Death, but I was seeing massive DNS errors (i.e., couldn't resolve Yahoo!). And the Juno application bailed out after eight minutes. Lame, lame, lame!
Of course, NetZero isn't doing much better. They're having DNS performance issues, but it didn't come to a complete grinding halt like Juno. I'm also seeing errors from one of their mail servers, zm.netzero.net.
Cable provider Comcast Communications (NASDAQ: CMCSA) is planning to offer NetZero and Juno ISPs of United Online (NASDAQ: UNTD) on their broadband service. Great, two ISPs who suck on a cable service that sucks. This allegedly gives Comcast access to 5.6 million paying Juno and NetZero customers.
Last night I booted Windoze and I tried my Juno connection and surprisingly I got a fairly decent connection. Of course, there's that crummy banner ad widget that lives on the desktop and I got a lot of error messages about ActiveX errors (I've stuck a couple of juno.com servers in my Restricted Sites). My guess is that this was a fluke and that the service is probably back to sucking already.
Hooray! I switched from my dual-boot Wintel/Linux deskside to a brand-new Apple iBook. End of the line for NetZero and Juno services for me. Of course, this little baby plays nice with my current ISP. All of my old hardware (except my Sony CPD-G400 Multiscan 19" Trinitron monitor and my trusty APC Back-UPS Pro 650S) gets donated to The Marine Mammal Center.
United Online (NASDAQ: UNTD), the merger between two sucky ISPs NetZero and Juno intends to pick up this festering sore ISP from the scrap heap upcoming auction from K-Mart.
I love feedback! Here are some of the more interesting things that have landed in my inbox.
Apparently nothing has changed as of February 2004. What a surprise.
X-Apparently-To: tarahertz@yahoo.com via 216.136.172.135;
Tue, 17 Feb 2004 18:53:49 -0800
Return-Path: "Jeff"
Received: from 24.163.248.248 (EHLO ghart.homeip.net) (24.163.248.248)
by mta137.mail.dcn.yahoo.com with SMTP; Tue, 17 Feb 2004 18:53:49 -0800
Received: from media (unknown [192.168.0.28]) by ghart.homeip.net (Postfix)
with SMTP id 639D14261D4 for <tarahertz@yahoo.com>; Tue, 17 Feb 2004
20:53:39 -0600 (CST)
Message-ID: <005501c3f5ca$69e06b60$1c00a8c0@media>
From: "Jeff"
To: tarahertz@yahoo.com
Subject: nothing much....
Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2004 20:53:14 -0600
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1158
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1165
Content-Length: 300
except I loved your isps-who-suck site :)
it's not often I see such a well organized, elegant, and fairly long-term project like yours. thanks for sharing it :D
"Jeff"
p.s. the reason I stumbled upon your site was my dad just started seeing "Zcast caused...." so yah, Juno/NetZero still suck :(
Thanks for the feedback!
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| Last modified on
Sun Feb 22 19:29:56 GMT 2004
by tarahertz@yahoo.com |
Copyright © 1999-2004 Tara Hertz. All rights reserved. |
ISPs who suck, ISP Hall of Shame, United Online, NetZero, Juno