posted on August 19, 2001 12:12:26 PM new
While it might not be sinking under the waves just yet it would be wise for the @home customers to at least know where their lifeboat stations were.
posted on August 19, 2001 12:12:35 PM new
We use Road Runner here. I only saw that article because someone posted on an MSN newsgroup that the Excite.com portal will most likely be tanking along with @Home. That caught my eye, not the part about @Home. We use the Excite portal on our main system, and hubby uses it at work.
Guess we'll just have to wait and see how it plays out.
posted on August 19, 2001 12:24:49 PM new
AT&T recently announced that they were seriously concidering pulling out of the Cable Internet business. Seeing how many peoblems @Home has with their servers and with Excite, it will take a MAJOR overhaul to make them solvent again in a way that investors want In on. @Home lacks the vision for the future that propels great companies into making history and drive the economy into new directions that it otherwise would likely never have taken.
posted on August 19, 2001 01:07:56 PM new
Bah, it's you Oregonians and your old fashioned ways that have brought @home all of it's trouble. Whining about programming, availability, and fear of monopoly has stalled their plans for west coast connection top to bottom. Look at the number of court cases in Oregon right now, all because Oregone is afraid that a monopoly of service may be a coming reality even though no other provider except for silly little local startup companies has a chance to maintain even a reasonably reliable product.
Doesn't matter. SprintUSA is waiting in the wings for the smoke to clear, though in Oregon smoke stays put for months and may force the people of that state to have their wish to be an independent and simple little community because they've been abandoned by all major players for widespread PITAism.
The only thing lacking is a unitized faith system up there for the entire state to be afforded the same regard as the Amish, but unfortunately those indians with their new casinos won't buy into one.
By the way, Borillar, you'd better watch out! I've recently aquired properties in both Coos Bay and Roseburg and am right now negotiating for another, which I think may be my home, in Boring because I like the name of the place.
posted on August 19, 2001 04:43:43 PM new
Well, KRS, the tiny town of Boring is really a nice little spot - blink your eyes and drive through it! It is situated just outside of Portland, between Portland and Mount Hood. Very nice place to go live -- if you like the sort of folks who live there (you'll see!)
As far as my understanding of the situation up here in oregon goes, it was AT&T coming in here and buying out every Cable Internet provider and connection in the state. Then, AT&T refused to allow anyone else to lease lines; such as existing ISPs who compete and keep prices for services low and quality high. The idea was to drive out of business all of the other local ISPs -- and that means MONOPOLY and high prices and poor quality of product. Hell, AT&T even bought out the local telephone company US Worst (West) just to grab nearly all of the DSL capability here. AT&T bought out all of the Cable Companies that it could get its hands on. You want to connect to the Internet here? Pay AT&T one way or the other!
So there are lawsuits against AT&T. The first allows AT&T a return on its investment by allowing them to maintain their monopoly control for two years. After that, they MUST offer leasing of Cable and DSL lines to other busineses at normal rates!
Now, whatever you wre going on about, I'm not sure of. Maybe you'd like to explain it a bit in-depth?
posted on August 19, 2001 09:49:58 PM new
That's what I said, borillar. Fear of monopoly, programming, and that. The state should realize that there is no viable internet provider there unless you count AOL, and bite the AT&[email protected] bullet. As I recall, you already are, so tell your friends.
As to boring, it suits me fine. Just as soon as I get new plates on my cars no one would know that I hadn't always been there, but it's a little too far south to really draw a lot of wind surfers, isn't it? The gorge wind funnel whacks Sandy and Gresham pretty good, but boring is just outside of that channel. Fewer people is good, and acres of insulation from the remainder is very good. I'm not about to live in Portland--going into that city would be the only times I'd carry a pistol.
posted on August 19, 2001 10:30:00 PM new
I live in Portland you can barrow one of my guns when im not out making the street
safer for our out of town guest..... and I know a half a dozen “skuffers”
who year round between Boring and Corbet...
One love Hoody Boy.....
.
EBAY ID
JUMPIN*JACK
[ edited by jumpinjacko on Aug 19, 2001 10:30 PM ]
[ edited by jumpinjacko on Aug 19, 2001 10:32 PM ]
posted on August 20, 2001 01:18:40 AM new
I think that the fear of monopoly was the lawsuits brought about on the behalf of the local ISPs. With cable programming so bad here - a hundred channels and nothing but the worst movies and programs nearly 24/7, it isn't worth having. Only competition between cable companies has ever brought us any kind of quality programming -- and AT&T made sure that would never happen around here again. They bought out not only US West, but GTE and every Ma & Pa telephone exchange that they leverage.
My experience with Oregon is that Portland and Salem are Liberal hotspots, but the rest of the state is sparcely populated with Libertarians, conservatives of every stripe, survivalist nuts, anti-government groups, and in the last decade, organized religious bigots. While friendly on the outside, the Good-Old-Boy attitude runs deep here in the outskirts, reminicent of the South in the 1930's. Nice folk -- but be sure that you mind your own business and don't bother anyone else.
As far as Portland goes -- since when does anyone need a gun? Sure, there are some small "hotspots" -- every city of this size has some, but I can walk nearly anywhere in any area at anytime of the night and not get harassed by anybody but the cops.
posted on August 20, 2001 02:10:23 AM new
The dream of quality programming is nothing but a myth, particularly when promised by small (mom & pop, as you said) companies. They can't survive for long because they depend for their programming on the offerings of the satellite feed sources and have to pay for them. And paying for them has been the largest part of the objection to any centralized system in Oregon. The populace harken back to the days when they could buy an 11 foot dish and tune anything they want. Those days are, perhaps sadly, gone. As to whether it's worth having, well, that's always an individual choice. Except for the PBS offerings programming is much the same across the country now.
You make me wonder how long it's been, borillar, since you've left the city for a Sunday drive. It's changing quite rapidly out there and what was once far away and rural is now an easy commute from suburbia. There are new homes being built in every community in Oregon and Washington surrounding Portland, and most of them start at prices of over $200K. You're bigtime, son, or you will be soon. Take a drive out to Oregon City now and see the monstrosities being erected there--they might call it Developer's City as well, with houses so tightly packed that all you'd need is a piece of 2" x !2" merch to go visit your neighbor on the second floor. The rural Oregon has faded out to the east, but don't make the mistake of going to Bend to find it as that place could as well be called Aspen and get away with it.
posted on August 20, 2001 12:55:01 PM new
Oh great, and just when I'd decided to finally get cable Internet access... guess DSL is looking better and better.
posted on August 20, 2001 02:07:02 PM new
RaineyBear: Cable Internet access will continue to be available from one provider or another. Of course, the AOL/Microsoft/Time/CNN/Warner/etc. conglomerate will end up owning ALL OF IT within this decade and you'll have the same choice that Ma Bell used to give you ... remember? "If you don't like our service - don't us it! Haw! Haw! Haw!" That was back when Ma Bell was THE telephone commpany and no other.
But the days of DSL are numbered! By the end of this decade, copper telephone wires will be just a memory. All telephone calls will be over your cable.
posted on August 20, 2001 02:14:43 PM new
KRS, I am aware of how Bend Oregon turned out, although I've never been to Aspen. My brother and his wife just up-graded to a new-built home for $250,000 and the house is almost touching the neighbor's home. It rminds me of the homes back East where only a six-foot piece of land seperates one house from another. That city councils allowed such an ugly arrangement for developers to maximize the numbr of homes is bad news. People need an acre of land to feel like they actually own anything.
Oregon is getting too big and trafic is almost as bad as Seattle and California Bay Area now. The problem stems from the fact that many vacationers come to Oregon during the six-weeks of Summer here and think that this is how it is all-year long. Most of the year, it is cool to cold, cloudy and rainey. I talked to one person fixing my car and he had done just what I mentioned there. His family had come in August on vacation and in September, moved here. From September through January, we did not have a clear, sunny day and more than half those days was wet and rainey.
Seattle is worse, though. We get more clouds - they get more rain and snow. We don't get snow here any more -- too much pollution keeps it too warm for snow to stick.
posted on August 20, 2001 02:17:51 PM new
Borillar - you think DSL is going the way of the dinosaur?
I'd be happy to go with a cable company other than AT&T Broadband, but as far as I know, they're the only choice in my area (south of Seattle) -- though I certainly could be wrong.
posted on August 20, 2001 02:32:46 PM new
I know that Comcast is attempting to buy AT&T Broadband. The tech guy I had here yesterday is in great hopes they'll succeed. He says they're a smaller and more responsive company. It's certainly true that everything has turned to garbage since AT&T bought out Mediaone Roadrunner...particularly support.
What I don't understand is what @home has to do with AT&T Broadband. They changed their homepage to [email protected], what does that mean to us? I can't find an explanation on the AT&T Support page.
posted on August 20, 2001 02:38:00 PM new
Ya know--I have had some incredible problems with @home. Even to the point of a techie coming out and threatening me with charging me for the next call. Honest folks---it was not me--it was ATT. (They will never admit it!)
Their service has been at best--uneven and spotty.
So--am I surprised that the fat has hit the frying pan? No. Knew I was not alone in these internet problems.
Signing off from W. PA.
posted on August 20, 2001 03:10:46 PM new
Well, Toke, around HERE, AT&T and @Home are paired up. It used to be TCI & @Home, with TCI owning the cable lines and regular cable TV service, and @Home was the ISP that leased the cable lines to the homes and provided Internet service. I hear that in other parts of the country, it was Roadrunner and other services.
Like I said : AT&T came in here, bought out ALL of the local cable companies - Paragon and TCI; bought out the telephone companies - US West and GTE and others; bought out every friggin' form of non-postal form of communication.
The broadband service from AT&T has varied with very few interruptions of service -- and if you called them, they would credit your account for the outages -- unlike how eBay treats their customers with outages.
The technicians have always managed to solve any proble, except having Excite.com to host the Web Space. Excite.com has such poor bandwidth that if you put any pictures up for auction on it, chances are that the pictures only come up between 2:00am and 6:00am. What good are seven 10Mbyte Web Space accounts if what you put up there can never be accessed? It has only been this very month that access has improved a bit and now I can use our Web Space to host auction photos. What angered me was that complaining to AT&T about the crappy web server always brought the brush-off from them; as in, "We don't have a thing to do with that end of it." and Excite.com never returned any e-mails or calls about their service to me.
posted on August 20, 2001 03:38:52 PM new
Well...I'm completely confused. I should be used to that, by now.
I had Mediaone...then MediaoneRoadrunner...then AT&T Broadband...then, about a month ago, I was instructed to change my homepage to Excite@home. I still pay AT&T on my bill. I've seen nothing about any merger with @home, or any physical change to my service. Also...my PersonalPage is still Mediaone, as is my email.
Phooey...I just don't get it...but, thanks for trying, borillar.
posted on August 22, 2001 08:17:13 PM new
I was just watching a news report on the @Home situation and I thought I'd pass it along here.
The problem with @Home came when auditors of the company discovered that @Home's finanical state was such that it was unlikely that they would survive much longer. On that news, @Home stock tumbled.
Today, the CEO of @Home took firm measures to help out his company's plight by firing the auditors, but not because they did anything wrong, it was reported. On news of the firing of the auditors, stocks rose 56-cents in trading right away! @Home is happy to announce that they are on their way back to success.
posted on August 23, 2001 10:47:12 AM new
Thanks for the update, Borillar. So I'm safe to subscribe to ATT@Home, then? I'm still confused about where AT&T Broadband starts and where the @Home service comes in, but it's not the first thing I've been confused about, nor will it be the last, I'm sure.
