On Sat, 11 Aug 2001, Bob Tanner wrote:

> So, are there any Telco or Cable modem providers that don't suck?

Not that I'm aware of.  Here in St. Cloud I used to go through Local
Link.  They have better support and competitive rates with Qwest, but last
I checked no DSL (the typical "DSL coming soon in your area" for the last
3 years).  If they had DSL Local Link would be ok.  Then one day I
happened to be digging through the dumpster outside their building for
something else and I discovered reams of paper which appeared to be logs
of their TNs, aka who's calling who.  If I knew my TN I could have had my
entire phone bill, and so could anyone else who wanted to figure it
out.  So much for them.

Verizon sucks.  Qworst is a given.  All cable service sucks because in
order for a cable modem to work you need the cable installers
(clueless) to install the cable hardware and a PC tech (usually doesn't
understand networking past what their sheet tells them) to make the end to
end connection.  Took 2 months for my cable modem to work properly.  Now
it's saturated with CR/CRII/CRIII hits and my service is degrading
slowly.  I miss DSL :-(

In all fairness, I've never had service outages with Qworst.  I have with
other phone companies that I've tried.  I know that if my service does go
out though that it'll be a long, uphill struggle to get it back.

Amyway, all providers suck.

-Brian