ISPs who suck, ISP Hall of Shame, AT&T WorldNet
ISPs who suck, ISP Hall of Shame, AT&T WorldNet
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Back to the phone company: [sigh] I signed up for AT&T WorldNet i495 service back in July. I get 150 hours of online access for $4.95 per month. That works out to five hours per day; there's a nasty hourly surcharge if I go over the limit, but I've never hit it.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, WorldNet's network performance is better than that of the free ISPs (NetZero, BlueLight.com, Juno). Over the years, AT&T WorldNet has actually garnered some decent ratings concerning availability, connection speeds, etc. amongst the large ISPs.
There's a useless little control panel and some banner ads, but it is a real ISP and I doubt if Ma Bell (NYSE: T) is going out of business anytime soon. The ads are rather small windows and pop to the top, but they don't grab window focus like the utterly annoying NetZero ads do.
Logging onto WorldNet opens up a browser window which takes you to their portal which is totally lame and pointless; fortunately, they don't try to hijack your browser's home page settings. Sadly, the control panel applet is Windows only (but it doesn't suck as hard as the NetZero, BlueLight.com or Juno end-user software), so I continue to boot Linux without a network connection for the moment. :-(
Today's tragic events in New York City, Washington D.C., and southwestern Pennsylvania put a tremendous strain on ISPs and news web sites. I had much difficulty logging in, but got online several times and I dug for more information. Amazingly, the AT&T WorldNet web site actually indicated that Internet access might be spotty. Now those are the sort of honest, informational bulletins that we need to see more of from ISPs (Telocity never posted service outages).
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Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2001 03:54:05 -0400 (EDT)
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To: AT&T WorldNet Customers <WorldNetCustomers@att.net>
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Subject: Message from AT&T WorldNet Service
Dear AT&T WorldNet(r) Service Member:
It is a tragic time for our country, one during which all of us at AT&T
WorldNet Service extend our prayers and condolences to the victims and their
families of Tuesday's attacks. Thoughts of hope, strength, and courage also
go out to the emergency rescue and medical teams working around the clock to
save lives in New York City and Washington D.C.
Because of these tragic events, AT&T WorldNet Service has been affected in some
New York metropolitan areas. AT&T is working to restore service back to normal
levels and re-route connections, where necessary.
AT&T WorldNet Service members will find a list of national emergency contact
and relief information at http://www.att.net/general-info/uscrisis/index.html.
As we wait for news of survivors and mourn the incomprehensible losses from
this horrific event, all of us at AT&T join the nation in prayer and hope.
Sincerely,
AT&T WorldNet Service Team
You know, that's okay in my book. AT&T WorldNet has shown at least a minimal amount of concern. I note that Juno Online made no such announcement.
I downloaded the latest version of Zero Popup (beta 1.32) and to my pleasant surprise, it appears to block AT&T WorldNet's little pop-up ads (which were only mildly annoying compared with the in-your-face NetZero stuff).
AT&T has announced that it is shuttering its i495 service. I apparently have the choice of being automatically switched to a 50-hr. $10.95/month service (no ads), or to go to the 150-hr. $16.95/month service. The i495 service is to be terminated on January 4, 2002. (sigh)
I cancelled my i495 account today since next month I get to pay more money for less service. I've switched back to a smallish ISP with local roots: BDCSI.
It's too bad that I have to put the i495 service in the ISP Hall of Shame since it actually worked great. It was reliable and provided consistently good service. Oh well, I guess that's too much to ask for at $4.95 a month.
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