Tell me about it Greg. I get my service directly from Covad, and have asked a number of times about IPv6. And yes, they are clueless when it comes to anything other than Windoze, and mostly clueless even then. Over the past two years, I have had problems where my DSL router stops talking on the WAN side (problems with SBC at the CO about 70% of the time), and where other times occasionally I will go through a period where the LAN side stops talking. Their response was "well, we want you to unplug the DSL router...", without any attempt to collect proper diagnostics. And one time, some moron tech claimed that I was too close to the DSLAM (I am under 1700'), and wanted to set my speed down.
If they had paid any attention to me and the years of IP experience I gained getting places like Ohio State and CompuServe on the net, they would have headed off a couple of problems in their backbone network (I detected a failing router interface 3 weeks before it failed and they suffered an outage of nearly 20 hours). But instead, most of their tier 1 techs are clueless and follow a script. They have no idea how to handle the fact that I connect via a NetBSD firewall, and have a number of times wanted me to connect a Windoze PC directly to the router. Fortunately, I have hammered them and the tier 1 support management enough times with enough volume of diagnostics (like pings, packet traces, etc.) that I can get routed to tier 2 about 50% of the time. And I was also lucky enough to finally get someone at Zyxel to put me in touch with one of their techs, from whom I got a FW update which seems to have lessened the the LAN side locking up. But Covad was still thinking of replacing my current router with some different brand which has nowhere near the capabilities (no SNMP, no serial console), and does seem to require Windoze to manage, so I said "No Thanks". Would I switch? Not unless there was one who was proven to know about UN*X, had static IPs and high speeds (I plan on upgrading to 3000/768 when I get a new job), and was actively talking IPv6 as well. My friends who use SBC or the other providers we seem to have here in central Ohio seem to have the same problems, so I will stick with stupidity I know and can sometimes manipulate rather than having to go through the learning curve with some other provider. Besides, word seems to have spread a bit through the tier 2 techs that I know what I am talking about, and generally have some good diagnostics by the time I call them. Shoot, last time I called, the tech knew that there was a diagram of my network in my support records. 8) - Doug Quoting Gregg C Levine ([EMAIL PROTECTED]): > Hello from Gregg C Levine > I am inclined to agree with all of you. > I have AT&T Worldnet's DSL service, which is supplied by Covad. As I > understand that, it turns out that the commercial side of AT&T's > activities are also jointly supplied by Covad. They are in the exact > same position that the clueless ISP is, that the fellow complained > about in an earlier message. I run here, yes Windows, and Linux. They > completely support Windows, barely support Macs, and do not support > Linux. They do not even know what that is. They have a user supplied, > and sometimes maintained website. It does not cover Linux or FreeBSD, > or any of the BSD operating systems properly. It does not even cover > the BSD operating systems. > > However, I suspect its because they haven't a clew as to what their > own servers are running that they chose Windows to be the default OS, > never realizing that it does not cover the monopoly that it was as > much as five years earlier. > > Oh and their tech support is exactly like the fellow who started this > discussion suggested. > > It is going to take an industrial strength miracle to straiten out > these companies. And I am fresh out of them. > ------------------- > Gregg C Levine [EMAIL PROTECTED] > ------------------------------------------------------------ > "The Force will be with you...Always." Obi-Wan Kenobi > "Use the Force, Luke."? Obi-Wan Kenobi > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > On Behalf Of Sander Steffann > > Sent: Wednesday, September 08, 2004 5:02 AM > > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Subject: RE: [6bone] The future > > > > Hi, > > > > Gert Doering wrote: > > > <rant> > > > I *really* can't understand that. People like myself invest > heavily > > > to get clueful and well-trained people to run the shop, and all we > > > get to hear from our customers is "you are too expensive, we will > > > choose the no-support-no-clue ISP round the corner". > > > > > > And then they complain that the ISP has no clue... > > > </rant> > > > > Same here :( The realy difficult part is to make them > understand/appreciate > > the extra value they get for their money... > > > > There will always be people that only look at the price and not at > the > > service, but we decided long ago that we don't even want those > people as our > > customers. > > > > Sander. > > > > _______________________________________________ > > 6bone mailing list > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > http://mailman.isi.edu/mailman/listinfo/6bone > > _______________________________________________ > 6bone mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://mailman.isi.edu/mailman/listinfo/6bone -- Douglas Wade Needham - KA8ZRT UN*X Consultant & UW/BSD kernel programmer Email: cinnion @ ka8zrt . com http://cinnion.ka8zrt.com Disclaimer: My opinions are my own. Since I don't want them, why should my employer, or anybody else for that matter! _______________________________________________ 6bone mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mailman.isi.edu/mailman/listinfo/6bone
