Switching from Comcast to Atlantic Nexus
- Sunday, July 27, 2008
A few months back, Comcast started blocking port 25 on my connection. After a few phone calls, I realized they were not going to lift the block under any circumstances unless I upgraded to a business class service. Within 3 days I had a new ISP through a regional DSL provider, Atlantic Nexus, and was ready to cancel Comcast.My problems began because I am running my own mail server at home. I just prefer to be able to ensure that my email is under my control. I can add addresses easier that having to log onto some other service. Plus I just feel more secure having my email automatically collected for me on my home machine. I figured as long as the traffic was low it would go unnoticed. And it did, for a couple years actually.
But then I switched to Gmail, and am forwarding all my received mail back out to Gmail. Because all spam is forwarded as well, and I get about 400 messages a day, that's a lot of emailing spam. Almost immediately Comcast blocked me.
I switched from Comcast to a small regional ISP here in Atlanta with DSL service. Atlantic Nexus' service couldn't be better, they do NOT block any ports, and don't mind that I'm running a server. Looking back, I can't believe I resisted the urge to go back to DSL from Cable for so long. Yes, paying for the home phone like completely sucks. You get ripped off by the phone company for the cost of a basic line with no long distance (can you believe they still charge for that!). BUT, DSL service is much cheaper than Comcast, so it's really only about 10 bucks more a month.
And that's a small price to pay for the freedom from the shackels of Comcast!
What's your experience with either Comcast or a regional ISP?
posted by Kevin Watts | 
Permalink |
2 Comments:
I'm currently evaluating Atlantic Nexus and am please to find that I cannot find any negative reports about them.
I was a BellSouth DSL customer for many years and was moderately satisfied, but my service was unreliable. There were serious issues with their infrastructure in my area and they refused to admit it. All they would do is send a lineman to test my line and tell me that I needed to update the wiring in my house (even though the signal and line noise tests were fine). Because I needed static IP addresses, I had to switch to a business account. This doubled the cost of my phone line and DSL, but I had no choice and my employer picked up half the cost.
When BS was purchased by AT&T, I was encouraged because they replaced a lot of 30 year old cabling in my area and the DSL problems disappeared. I moved into a new job at my company and no longer needed static multiple IP addresses, so I called AT&T to switch my account back to residential. This is when the horror began.
Muy request to switch was met with utter stupidity on the part of all customer service representatives involved. None of them could get the order correct and flat out lied to me on no less than six crutial points of the process and the impact of it. As a result, not only did my DLS suddenly go down, but my phone line did too. It took nearly two weeks and 120 hours of very frustrating phone time to get my service re-established.
The straw that broke the camel's back: about a week after I made the switch, I received a final bill from AT&T business service. On it was a charge for $630. When I inquired about this, I was told that nearly three years earlier (three years minus two weeks, atcually), BS had upgraded my service to 6.0 mb. While this was not a service change that had any contractual impact for BS, it most certainly did for AT&T and they had retroactively reset my contract term. As a result, because I had switched from one AT&T division to another, I had to refund them three years worth of package discounts. They would not budge and waive the fees. AT&T residential division is in no way connected to the business division and as far as AT&T was concerned, my switch was the exact same thing as going with one of their cometitors and I was to be penalized for it. Yeah, that's exactly what they told me.
To rub salt on the wound, the next day, I received a bill from resediential services with charges for my modem (the one I'd had for three years), installation services, and various and sundry fees. They needed another $250. Since that time, my phone and DSL service has run $40 more a month than I'd signed up for, dues to all their hidden junk fees.
So now I'm looking to dump AT&T for my DLS, phone and cellular servics. Screw them. They don't care about their customers and they will lie steal and cheat.
DSL has its advantages... However, there is no other option for some of us than to submit to the iron will of Comcast. Given the somewhat remote area in which I live (rural Azalea Drive :P ), I am too far from the Central Office to get a decent DSL signal. By the time my packets get half way to me or half way to where they're going, the speed is nil... It's just too much wire for the data to travel. Comcast offers me great speed at prison sex costs... But at least they spit on it first.
Post a Comment
<< Home