LB

Larry Blanchard

10/06/2004 9:13 AM

OT - ISP

For years now, Fox Internet has been my ISP. Even when they
raised their rates, the service was good enough and reliable
enough that I stayed with them. I may even have recommended
them to others in this group.

Well, early this year they sold out to an organization called
Y3K. Since then, it's been a steady deterioration, at least in
the Spokane area.

I think I've given them enough time to fix their problems, so
I'm looking for a replacement. A site that ranks ISPs available
in a given area has good things to say about a company called
InterGate. Anyone here have good or bad comments about
InterGate?

Thanks.

--
Where ARE those Iraqi WMDs?


This topic has 11 replies

Ww

WD

in reply to Larry Blanchard on 10/06/2004 9:13 AM

12/06/2004 3:23 PM

On Sat, 12 Jun 2004 08:59:39 -0700, Larry Blanchard <[email protected]> wrote:

>Plus a lot of news servers forbid the use of those programs.

My ISP used to scribe to newsfeeds or corp.newsgroups, a crappy new provider and
late last year change to Supernews. Supernews is VERY fast and long retention
time. Supernews have something like 90,000 plus articles on rec.woodworking.
Newsguy is also fairly a reasonable news provider. Another good one is Talkway,
and now it's no longer free.

DH

Dave Hinz

in reply to Larry Blanchard on 10/06/2004 9:13 AM

10/06/2004 4:17 PM

On Thu, 10 Jun 2004 09:13:04 -0700, Larry Blanchard <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> I think I've given them enough time to fix their problems, so
> I'm looking for a replacement. A site that ranks ISPs available
> in a given area has good things to say about a company called
> InterGate. Anyone here have good or bad comments about
> InterGate?

I don't know, but keep in mind you can get a newsfeed from other than
your ISP, and email can also be handled by another provider. I've been
doing this for some time now (while getting my network connectivity
yet a third or fourth way) which lets me change things around alot
while keeping the same address, killfile, etc. I'm happy with the
free newsserver at cis.dfn.de, and very happy with the spamfiltering
that spamcop.net does for me. If you just see the ISP as someone to give
you basic connectivity, it frees up the decision process a bit.

Dave Hinz

LB

Larry Blanchard

in reply to Larry Blanchard on 10/06/2004 9:13 AM

10/06/2004 7:44 PM

In article <[email protected]>,
[email protected] says...
> their rules "require" that the sender's address be legit.
> Do they REALLY enforce such a bizarre requirement, with all
> the spamming going on? Most folks don't want their true
> email address to be posted anywhere on the web.
>
> Dave Hinz wrote:
> I'm happy with the
> > free newsserver at cis.dfn.de, and very happy with the spamfiltering

cis.dfn.de is now news.individual.net and I've happily used them
(and readfreenews) for some time. Yes they require a valid
email address, but suggest a couple of places you can get a free
account and use it as a garbage collector. See my header - I
use fastmail.fm.

--
Where ARE those Iraqi WMDs?

LB

Larry Blanchard

in reply to Larry Blanchard on 10/06/2004 9:13 AM

11/06/2004 3:54 PM

In article <[email protected]>,
[email protected] says...
> Thanks, Larry. is the latency pretty short? as in just a
> minute or two?
>
I've never seen anything over a few seconds, and that's getting
the connection. If I click on an article header, I get the text
almost instantly.

Of course there are exceptions when the whole net is bogged
down, but I haven't known them to be any slower than anything
else.

The only drawback is that they have a short timeout - about 5
minutes, so if I spend a long time composing a response I have
to reconnect. Doesn't happen often.

--
Where ARE those Iraqi WMDs?

DH

Dave Hinz

in reply to Larry Blanchard on 10/06/2004 9:13 AM

12/06/2004 2:06 PM

On Sat, 12 Jun 2004 05:20:02 GMT, Upscale <[email protected]> wrote:
> "Larry Blanchard" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:2iurc3Frrgu5U2@uni->
>> The only drawback is that they have a short timeout - about 5
>> minutes, so if I spend a long time composing a response I have
>> to reconnect. Doesn't happen often.
>
> Sounds like you need one of those little stay-connected programs. It's
> designed to prevent disconnection by pinging the server every few minutes or
> whatever period you set.

Well, with the newsserver we both use, it's not a huge deal; I'm using
'slrn' as a newsreader, which authenticates for me and I don't lose
anything, just get the two second "reconnecting to server ...." message.

It's gone down twice in the last couple of years; much more reliable
than any ISP newsserver that I've ever paid for.

Dave Hinz

LB

Larry Blanchard

in reply to Larry Blanchard on 10/06/2004 9:13 AM

12/06/2004 8:59 AM

In article <[email protected]>, [email protected]
says...
> On Sat, 12 Jun 2004 05:20:02 GMT, Upscale <[email protected]> wrote:
> > Sounds like you need one of those little stay-connected programs. It's
> > designed to prevent disconnection by pinging the server every few minutes or
> > whatever period you set.
>
> Well, with the newsserver we both use, it's not a huge deal; I'm using
> 'slrn' as a newsreader, which authenticates for me and I don't lose
> anything, just get the two second "reconnecting to server ...." message.
>
Plus a lot of news servers forbid the use of those programs.

--
Where ARE those Iraqi WMDs?

Uu

"Upscale"

in reply to Larry Blanchard on 10/06/2004 9:13 AM

12/06/2004 5:20 AM

"Larry Blanchard" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:2iurc3Frrgu5U2@uni->
> The only drawback is that they have a short timeout - about 5
> minutes, so if I spend a long time composing a response I have
> to reconnect. Doesn't happen often.

Sounds like you need one of those little stay-connected programs. It's
designed to prevent disconnection by pinging the server every few minutes or
whatever period you set.

BA

Bay Area Dave

in reply to Larry Blanchard on 10/06/2004 9:13 AM

10/06/2004 5:27 PM

dave,
their rules "require" that the sender's address be legit.
Do they REALLY enforce such a bizarre requirement, with all
the spamming going on? Most folks don't want their true
email address to be posted anywhere on the web.

dave

Dave Hinz wrote:
I'm happy with the
> free newsserver at cis.dfn.de, and very happy with the spamfiltering
> that spamcop.net does for me.
> Dave Hinz
>

BA

Bay Area Dave

in reply to Larry Blanchard on 10/06/2004 9:13 AM

11/06/2004 2:45 AM

thanks, Larry. is the latency pretty short? as in just a
minute or two?

dave

Larry Blanchard wrote:

> In article <[email protected]>,
> [email protected] says...
>
>>their rules "require" that the sender's address be legit.
>>Do they REALLY enforce such a bizarre requirement, with all
>>the spamming going on? Most folks don't want their true
>>email address to be posted anywhere on the web.
>>
>>Dave Hinz wrote:
>> I'm happy with the
>>
>>>free newsserver at cis.dfn.de, and very happy with the spamfiltering
>
>
> cis.dfn.de is now news.individual.net and I've happily used them
> (and readfreenews) for some time. Yes they require a valid
> email address, but suggest a couple of places you can get a free
> account and use it as a garbage collector. See my header - I
> use fastmail.fm.
>

Jf

"Joe_Stein \(formerly KB8QLR\)"

in reply to Larry Blanchard on 10/06/2004 9:13 AM

10/06/2004 8:02 PM

My ISP is Peoplepc. I like it a lot.
I will recommend it to you.
Take care.
Joe



"Larry Blanchard" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> For years now, Fox Internet has been my ISP. Even when they
> raised their rates, the service was good enough and reliable
> enough that I stayed with them. I may even have recommended
> them to others in this group.
>
> Well, early this year they sold out to an organization called
> Y3K. Since then, it's been a steady deterioration, at least in
> the Spokane area.
>
> I think I've given them enough time to fix their problems, so
> I'm looking for a replacement. A site that ranks ISPs available
> in a given area has good things to say about a company called
> InterGate. Anyone here have good or bad comments about
> InterGate?
>
> Thanks.
>
> --
> Where ARE those Iraqi WMDs?

En

Eugene

in reply to Larry Blanchard on 10/06/2004 9:13 AM

10/06/2004 12:38 PM

Larry Blanchard wrote:

> For years now, Fox Internet has been my ISP. Even when they
> raised their rates, the service was good enough and reliable
> enough that I stayed with them. I may even have recommended
> them to others in this group.
>
> Well, early this year they sold out to an organization called
> Y3K. Since then, it's been a steady deterioration, at least in
> the Spokane area.
>
> I think I've given them enough time to fix their problems, so
> I'm looking for a replacement. A site that ranks ISPs available
> in a given area has good things to say about a company called
> InterGate. Anyone here have good or bad comments about
> InterGate?
>
> Thanks.
>
Seems to be common. I just had to leave Time Warner after years because
their AOL merger brought once good service down to AOL levels. My solution
was to register my own domain and use that for all my mail so I can hop
around local ISP's as necessary without sending out new e-mail address
reminders each time.


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