[lug] @home mail failures - isp alternatives?

Thu Feb 8 18:24:33 MST 2001

ATT @Home service uses very poor DNS servers.  I decided after many times
of not being able to use name resolution to build my own /etc/resolv.conf

I use the DNS servers of some ISP's back in Illinois where a friend
works.  I haven't had a problem since.  There is a command within 'pump'
that will allow you to tell it to not rebuild the resolv.conf when you
pole the DHCP server for your IP info; that was essential otherwise the
resolv.conf get's re-written after every reboot.

As far as e-mail goes, I have sendmail setup on my box and also use
hotmail.

-trever

On Thu, 8 Feb 2001, Neal McBurnett wrote:

> I use AT&T's local @home service and find it useful, but I run into pretty
> frequent DNS and DHCP outages.  All the DNS servers are on a single
> subnet!  But those are pretty easy to work around.
> 
> Jeff Sparhawk forwards this interesting and alarming page of
> statistics about email outages, though:
> 
> 	http://members.home.net/mblackford/eGroup-chart.htm
> 
> I think the author is in California, and I wonder if local experience
> is as bad.  All users would share a lot of the email infrastructure.
> 
> I don't use the email part of the package and would love to stop
> paying for it.  Does anyone know the status of the current experiment
> (pioneered in Boulder) with AT&T providing alternative ISPs for
> a small selected group of users?
> 
> I've copied Ricard Varnes on this message - he is Director of
> Operations for Cable Refranchising Issues with the City of Boulder:
> (303) 441-3102.
> 
> Some other details are in the messages attached below.
> 
> Sigh,
> 
> Neal McBurnett <neal at bcn.boulder.co.us>  303-538-4852
> http://bcn.boulder.co.us/~neal/      (with GPG/PGP keys)
> 
> 
> ----- Forwarded message from Jeff Sparhawk <jsparhawk at home.com> -----
> 
> From: "Jeff Sparhawk" <jsparhawk at home.com>
> To: "Neal McBurnett" <nealmcb at avaya.com>
> Subject: RE: @home
> Date: Thu, 8 Feb 2001 15:39:01 -0700
> 
> Neal,
> Thanks for the response.  I have emailed @home tech support and
> customer service and have received responses but no satisfaction.  My
> problem is that the mail servers are down almost 50% of the time.
> People tell me they get bounces from my email constantly.  Sometimes I
> get the mail and they get a bounce, sometimes I don't get the mail and
> they get a bounce, sometimes the mail just vanishes.  This mail is
> coming from at least 20 different sources from all over the country.
> 
> I found a web page that someone put together that discussed in detail
> the problems with @home.  I can't seem to find it again.  This link is
> kind of interesting regarding the problems with email @home is having.
> http://members.home.net/mblackford/eGroup-chart.htm
> 
> I have thought about contacting Tom Martino and seeing if he can get
> any results since individuals don't really seem to matter to AT&T.
> 
> --Jeff
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Neal McBurnett [mailto:nealmcb at avaya.com]
> Sent: Thursday, February 08, 2001 13:49
> To: Jeff Sparhawk; Sparhawk at colorado.edu
> Subject: Re: @home
> 
> I'm not sure, but seem to recall that it was the AT&T rep on the
> phone who said that.  Sorry I don't have a citation.
> 
> What problems have you seen?  I see DNS as unreliable (all their
> servers are on one subnet) and dhcp also as unreliable.  But
> by configuring alternate DNS servers and just fixing my IP address
> to what they gave me in the past it works fine.
> 
> I was never interested in their email service.  I've just started
> trying the linuxfreemail.com service, which does IMAP so I can
> be mobile.  It would be nice to save the money though.  I think
> the speeds I get are better than I could get with DSL.
> 
> Good luck.
> 
> -Neal
> 
> On Tue, Feb 06, 2001 at 04:08:57PM -0700, Jeff Sparhawk wrote:
> > Neal,
> > I just read a post you made Aug 8th 2000 to the Boulder Linux Users Group.
> > In your post you reference that in February a new law will kick in forcing @home to allow ISP choice.  What did you mean by this
> and
> > is it still true?  I am very very dissatisfied with my @home service and have been thinking about changing to DSL but if I can
> > simply switch ISPs it would be much easier.
> > Thanks,
> > --Jeff
> > Oh, and my e-mail is so unreliable I might not get your response.  Could you also reply to Sparhawk at colorado.edu
> >
> > --original post-
> >
> > * To: lug at lug.boulder.co.us
> > * Subject: [lug] AT&T @Home cable Internet access in Boulder - experiences?
> > * From: Neal McBurnett <nealmcb at avaya.com>
> > * Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2000 20:40:28 -0600 (MDT)
> > * List-Id: Boulder (Colorado) Linux Users Group -- General Mailing List <lug.lug.boulder.co.us>
> > * Reply-To: lug at lug.boulder.co.us
> > * Sender: lug-admin at lug.boulder.co.us
> >
> > Well, I got a flier from AT&T @Home, and had heard from a guy in an
> > @Home truck that our neighborhood (40th and Baseline) was wired, so I
> > called to sign up.  They're offering free installation, 2 months free
> > service, static ip address for free, and $39.95/month after that
> > (perhaps assuming you already have cable service).  Extra static ip
> > addrs (up to 5) at $4.95/month.  The policy is supposed to say you
> > can't run servers, but she said they don't have time to police that at
> > least now.  Downlink 1.5 Mb/s uplink 128 kb/s (sigh) 7 email
> > addresses, 70 MB free web space.  "we support linux but don't install
> > our software on it for you".
> >
> > They say they'll be here on Saturday to do the install, providing
> > an additional cable jack for free also.
> >
> > No choice of ISP now, but in February she said a new law would
> > kick in and they would have to allow ISP choice and the prices
> > would drop.
> >
> > http://www.athome.att.com/home.html
> > config: http://home.excite.com
> > 888-824-8418
> >
> > Sounds good, especially when it is no cost for 2 months, but there
> > always seem to be some gotcha's and misunderstandings.  Any local
> > experiences?  Things to watch out for?
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > Neal McBurnett <neal at bcn.boulder.co.us>  303-538-4852
> > Avaya Communication / Internet2 / Bell Labs / Lucent Technologies
> > http://bcn.boulder.co.us/~neal/      (with PGP key)
> >
> 
> ----- End forwarded message -----
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