Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.
ISP Growth
Author: Dave Polaschek Posted: 11/10/1999; 5:26:16 AM Topic: Today's scriptingNews Outline Msg #: 12911 (In response to 12909) Prev/Next: 12910 / 12912
After last week's outages and poor communication, Conxion is no longer on our A-list. Something happens when an ISP grows. It's not a pretty thing from a customer's point of view. I offered suggestions for improving the service based on the problems we encountered, but didn't get a response. We're still using Conxion, but I don't have the confidence in them that I used to.I've seen this with other ISPs when they grow. Best.com experienced it in a very big way back in early 1996. USWest.net experienced it (and still are) when they added DSL service. In both cases, they went on an advertising blitz and signed up many more new customers than they had the capacity (mostly in the technical support department) to handle.
The real test in my mind is whether they get back to good customer service or not. In best's case, they did a pretty good job, but it took longer than I liked at the time. I'm still waiting to see what the fallout from them being acquired by verio will be, but it looks like best stayed mostly the same, and just gotten a wider coverage area.
USWest is a mixed bag. The folks who provide the actual connection are excellent. The part of the company that provides the routing/DNS/DHCP servers seems perpetually confused.
FYI, while having three ISPs may seem goofy, I'm getting a different service from each. I still host email and my web stuff with best, I connect through USWest (since I'm living in MN, and best/verio doesn't offer service here), and pro-ns.net will be providing me with IP addresses, routing, name-lookup, etc. It's actually workable, and while the cost is a little higher, having three providers gives me a company I'm happy with for each service.
-DaveP
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