Excite@Home & Comcast/AT&T Reach Agreement 196
whee writes: "Through a $160 million deal, it looks like Comcast users will have Excite@Home supplied access for at least more three months (press release). Comcast anticipates moving existing customers over to a new Comcast-owned and managed network before the new contract expires." As well, it appears that the folks who were using AT&T's brand of Excite@Home are back online - as this press release said. T: CNET also has a story on the 3-way deal.
dyslexia anyone? (Score:1, Funny)
three months
more three months? what the hell?
Re:dyslexia anyone? (Score:1)
Exite@home transfer from you must. Hmmmmmmmm.
Re:dyslexia anyone? (Score:1, Interesting)
i have dyslexia, and it not what people think it is. contrary to popular belief, it is not seeing words out of order, and not even (exactly) seeing words written backwards (i.e. was = saw). dyslexia is the inability (or resistence) of the mind to break a word into its components (syllables). this means that text is read pictorially/graphically, instead of phoenetically (which leads to the was = saw stuff).
its pretty useful though b/c i think it helps me remember symbol names in long math proofs and code
Need a new ISP? (Score:4, Funny)
tcd004
STILL Waiting (Score:1)
Re:STILL Waiting (Score:1)
Just got back online (Score:5, Informative)
df
Re:Just got back online (Score:1)
I'm assuming that AT&T is (rightfully) concentrating on getting everyone back online first, then email and personal webspace will follow - but I'm curious about how long this will take. I'm not looking forward to changing everything over (again) and letting everyone know what my new address is (we were just moved from mediaone.net in October, and yes, I do have a webmail account - call me old-fashioned, but I do prefer to have real email)
Re:Just got back online (Score:2)
I prefer real email, too. Over the years, I've jumped from AOL (long, long ago) to a local, shell-based ISP (back when SLIP access wasn't a flat-rate) to a college big pipe connection to a work big pipe connection (with FreeZero when I had to dialup from home) to a national PPP-based ISP to residential DSL. It almost goes without saying that I do not consider email artificially tied to my connection provider to be "real" email.
One idea is to get a number of geek friends together, pool your resources, and see about getting a couple email accounts hosted somewhere.
Re:Just got back online (Score:1)
All this for less bandwidth than before -- and oh yes, for $5 more a month. If @home survives and continues to offer service in my area, I will definitely be going back to them. Just to spite the cable companies if necessary.
I think everyone should try to use @home or other non-cable-operated systems. Don't let the greedy cable monopolies become the exclusive providers of this service or else you will see them raising your cable modem rates as fast as the raise the cable rates.
Re:Just got back online (Score:1, Informative)
. IP is 12.x.x.x
. ping times are better b/c most of the country
has yet to be converted to the new network -- as of Monday at 7:55am EST only OR, WA, and parts of TX were back online.
. 1.5mbs down, 768k up
. some serious DNS issues were going on on Sunday and into Monday. A good majority of people could not even access sites without using the IP
. no one got their "new IP" manually. If they did then they rogued it. DHCP was fine.
. You aren't calling the right number. 1-888-262-6300
As a person that was dealing with the issue on the other end...
. Most people were cool about the whole ordeal. I only dealt with a single fucker. He was switching to DSL. I waved bye.
. A lot of things are being added to the services offered by AT&T for those on the new network. Webmail, more webserver space, etc.
. As far as how fast AT&T dumped the crap in our laps. I am not a fan. We shall see how the rest of the conversions go, and we shall see how the speeds handle that many people.
Oh REALLLY? (Score:2, Interesting)
Something suspicious is definitely going on here. I think AT&T found a new way of blocking routers on their new network. Has anyone else figured out how they are doing this and how to fix it?
-sting3r
Re:Oh REALLLY? (Score:4, Informative)
Well, I had the same problem -- my SMC router wasn't working. I called tech support, and after an hour on hold, they asked for my computer's Mac address. I gave them the router's Mac address. Things still didn't work, so they transferred me to the "next level" of support. While on hold, I typed winipcfg in my Windows box's Run menu, and set the computer itself to release/renew it's address. Then I restarted the computer and suddenly it was working. I tried the other computers -- didn't work, like the router was busted. I restarted each computer, and they all began working. So best bet: do a "release" through your router, then reboot it, then do a release/renew on your windoze boxen, then restart every computer.
My Xsense router works fine... (Score:1)
All in all, I'm pretty happy that it only took 2 days to get me back. Sure, it's 2 more days than I was hoping for, but it could have been a lot worse.
Re:Just got back online (Score:1)
no, not everyone has service (Score:1)
Re:no, not everyone has service (Score:1)
6 Days with out porn is a lot of spunk build up. I may need a new JO rag when I get a newsfeed back.
Re:no, not everyone has service (Score:1)
Responsibility of ISPs (Score:4, Insightful)
I can't do that if I don't have service..
You would think that in an age where people have become dependent on the internet for just about everything that these companies should be obligated to tell you when they are just going to cut you off, or when they really don't know what's going to happen. It's not like you've violated your end of the deal and they have the right to "discontinue service at any time."
Re:Responsibility of ISPs (Score:1)
Re:Responsibility of ISPs (Score:1)
Read your contract lately?
I would bet that your cable internet provider is allowed to terminate yours service at any time (given reasonable notice), whether or not you have violated your end of the deal.
Do you guys READ anything before posting updates? (Score:2, Interesting)
READING IS FUNDAMENTAL. Try it sometime.
Re:Do you guys READ anything before posting update (Score:1, Interesting)
Cox is the other MSO cable co. in that "3-way deal", they paid excite (along with comcast) 160million for the next 3 months... after those 3 months, they'll have all thier customers up and running on thier own cox run network.
personally I can't wait...
interesting note though:
$160 million over 3 months is $53 mil a month, $1.7mil a day..
last i heard, cox and comcast has a little under a million @home customers each.. (call it a mil for easy calc's) that's $53+ per subscriber, per month.. and they only charge $35-49 per month??? the MSO's are getting BONED in this deal... but excite had thier nuts in a sling. they had to go along with it...
but it's good to see those companies who would rather lose some money and actually watch out for thier subscribers than to take the easy way out.
Re:Do you guys READ anything before posting update (Score:2)
example
We reacted quickly. Customers had been notified earlier that this might occur. In Michigan an auto-dialer started calling customers at 9:00 AM Saturday and an e-mail was sent to Minnesota customers. 700 additional call-center resources were brought on-line around the country to help answer customer inquiries. Calls were 300% over normal loads and customers overflowed into the Minnesota call-center and inbound sales. Although many calls were received, call center personnel reported that most were courteous and simply in search of additional information.
AT&T told excite to stuff it and their extra crappy service. AT&T is lighting up a broadband solution that has been engineered basically overnight by the best and brightest that cisco and AT&T has.
This is possibly the best thing to ever happen to AT&T, and the fact will shine through over the next few months.
Well, kinda.... (Score:2)
Well, most things are working again here in Sunnyvale, California. However, if you call AT&T's tech support line, they indicate trouble in California and few other states. For me, the trouble appears to be that I can get to some big sites like slashdot, but a lot of obscure sites are not coming up. I wonder if this is a caching problem -- anything really popular is still cached by AT&T, anything not popular is a "black hole" for me.
California (Score:2)
--
Evan
Re:Well, kinda.... (Score:1)
Re:Well, kinda.... (Score:2)
ling, set your router (if you use one) to release the IP, then on Windows boxes run "winipcfg" and release the IP, then restart everything -- reboot the router, reboot the computers. The computers will ask for new info, and the router will give those computers new info.
Title Misleading (Score:1)
Complaining about 1.5MBps? (Score:4, Funny)
Anyway, I was just reading the other article about @Home, and noticed the many complaints about the new 1.5MBps download cap. All I can say is, Are you serious? After using dialup for two days, I'm glad I have broadband again!
Let's look at the facts:
-- I had Speakeasy DSL at my old place of residence. I got 5 static IPs and a 1.5 down/384 up connection for $100 a month. Now, for half that price, I get the same download speed. I really don't think there is a complaint to be made there.
-- The Speakeasy/Covad/PacBell trio took six weeks to get my DSL installed. I found I had to reset the modem every month or so because it would myseriously give up the ghost. My cable modem was installed at 8AM the day after I called, and running by 8:30 that same morning.
I have only once had to reset my cable modem, excluding this weekend's outage.
--AT&T said that they would take 7 days to get those of us in the Bay Area back up. They took 3. Not bad, considering this was pretty much unexpected on their end.
-- As some of you in the Bay Area know, the @Home gateway out of San Jose was completely overtaxed. My ping on my favorite Quake III server went from 27 to 100 within the past couple of months. Now that I'm on AT&T's new network, my ping is 50 -- quite acceptable.
For those of you whining about the 1.5MBps cap, I say go back to dialup. Better yet, sign on with PacBell DSL. You'll get 608/128 (yes, less than half the speed you get now) for the same price. Plus, you'll get idiots from tech support and billing problems (by the time I cancelled PacHell and moved to cable modem at my current place of residence, they had managed to rack up over $900 of incorrect charges on my account, which took 4 months to resolve.)
Let's not forget that there are still millions of broadband-starved people in this world. I should think that there are better things to complain about than the fact that your $40 a month broadband connection went from sometimes-incredibly-super-fast to still-fast-but-maybe-not-as-fast-as-it-was-before
Re:Complaining about 1.5MBps? (Score:1, Insightful)
AT&T isn't stupid. They can't provide less than DSL, or they'd lose customers. They can't provide more, or they'd lose money.
Re:Complaining about 1.5MBps? (Score:1, Informative)
On the other hand, cable is almost always going to be around 1.5MBps, which makes cable a better value. Plus, cable companies have the upper hand because they can provide service to more customers without having to worry about distances and "electronics" and such. You can't beat the 24-hours-or-less signup-to-surfing that AT&T has out here.
corky6921
Re:Complaining about 1.5MBps? (Score:2)
Re:Complaining about 1.5MBps? (Score:1)
Re:Complaining about 1.5MBps? (Score:1)
Re:Complaining about 1.5MBps? (Score:1)
Re:Complaining about 1.5MBps? (Score:1)
Not so fast... I'm in Chicago, which is a pretty big market, and I'm still not on-line. Why don't we see how long it takes them to get *everyone* back on-line before we start suckin' each other's dicks?
Re:Complaining about 1.5MBps? (Score:2)
T1 speed for $50.00 a month? Hell yeah I'll take that.. I was paying $1500.00 a month for a T1 into my company what does that give me? a static IP range and the right to set up internet servers.
anyone that is bitching about the speed is pretty much clueless.
Re:Complaining about 1.5MBps? (Score:3, Insightful)
More than 384k upstream.
dead in the water (Score:1)
Any hope of keeping existing customers flew out the window already, they might as well give up.
Comcast's letter to customers (Score:2, Informative)
(attached letter from comcast)
Dear Comcast @Home Customer,
I am pleased to announce that Comcast has reached an agreement with Excite@Home,
pending approval from the Bankruptcy Court, that provides you with uninterrupted
high-speed Internet service. Comcast's first priority is to provide you
with reliable and high-quality service. This agreement also will ensure
a smooth transition from your current service to an improved, all-Comcast
managed Internet service in the weeks ahead.
Comcast High-Speed Internet will provide you with the high-speed, always-on
connection you've come to enjoy. This new Comcast service also will offer
improved reliability, customer support and features, such as "e-mail from
anywhere" with web-based e-mail and an innovative storage solution for
MP3s and photos.
We will provide you with notification and instructions on how to convert
your account to Comcast High-Speed Internet before we introduce service
in your area. In addition, Comcast will continue to provide you with regular
updates on our toll-free hotline at 1-888-433-6963 and on our website at
http://www.comcastonline.com/info.htm.
Having this agreement in place is an important piece to ensuring a smooth
transition to Comcast High-Speed Internet. We appreciate your loyalty
as a customer and apologize for any inconvenience you have been caused
in the last week. We will continue to aggressively strive to provide you
the best high-speed Internet service and support possible. Thank you for
choosing Comcast.
Sincerely,
David Juliano
Senior Vice President, Comcast Online Communications
The real loser in all of this... (Score:4, Insightful)
1) The $320 million Comcast and Cox (NOT AT&T) are paying @Home will be the last revenue @Home will ever see. Both Comcast and Cox are planning to have their users migrated to their own networks well in advance of the expiration of the 90-day contract term.
2) By flipping the bird to AT&T, @Home lost whatever bargaining leverage it had with them. AT&T said they could have their network up and running in short order, and they appear well on track to do so. I'm one of the disconnected AT&T@Home users, and here in San Mateo CA, we were down for a total of 48 hours. I was back up this morning with full connectivity. (And to all you people whinging about the AWFUL 1.5Mbps download cap, please inform me where you can get T-1 speed for under $50/month and I'll gladly sign up. Didn't think so.)
3) Item 2 above led directly to today's all-hands at @Home where CEO Patti Hart announced that @Home is history [dotcomscoop.com] after the Comcast and Cox contracts finish on March 1, 2002. AT&T has pulled their bid for the company, and barring a rescue at the 11th hour, @Home will convert their Chapter 11 filing to Chapter 7 in March.
Add them all up, and that's one dead company. Maybe AT&T did put them in this position, but speaking for the subscribers, we really don't care whose fault it was.
Re:The real loser in all of this... (Score:2)
I thought it was the bondholders (people who lent money?), not the stockholders (those that bought equity) who went to court? What I remember hearing was that AT&T's offer wouldn't cover the debt. This dosn't make much sense to me since the idea was to buy out the company and keep it running, not cash-out the bonds?
Yeah, not very good strategy on their part.
Yeah, well show them. We'll cut off their service and then they'll *have* to come crawling back with more money. I mean, what are they going to do? Convert almost a million users over to a brand-new network?! HAH!"
"What? They DID?!"
Adelphia PowerLink@Home (Score:2, Informative)
It should be coming back online on/around Dec 16th as a new local service.
- ez
(Just FYI)
at&t back online? no way (Score:1)
Couldn't AT&T just pretend to stay in negotiations so @home wouldn't turn off access before they set up the new network?
Cox has same deal (Score:1)
New bandwidth caps? (Score:1)
Upstream and downstream speeds will be managed to provide a faster and more consistent broadband service
I'd heard rumors that the much bemoaned 128kbps upload cap would be joined by a 1.5mbps download cap, and the quote from their press release seems to confirm this. Last week, my downloads benchmarked to about 4.5mbps (courtesy of www.dslreports.com), but now I'm getting a little under 1mbps. No complaints for now, though -- I'm just happy to be back online.
PS - Don't wait for AT&T to call you. I unplugged my modem for 30 seconds, renewed my DHCP (or you can reboot your PC), and voila, I'm back online! (Petaluma, California)
Re:New bandwidth caps? (Score:1)
http://198.178.8.101/faq.jsp?content_id=1168&lo
At&t extra notes and a question (Score:1)
Re:At&t extra notes and a question (Score:1)
Buy Now! (Score:2)
Maybe Slash could buy it. Or better yet sell it to MS, and help bleed the beast of Remond as they desperately try to show how to run things right.
;-)
AT&T@Home back online? (Score:2, Informative)
Yeah, back online through NETZERO! Do you have any idea how slow netzero is? I read that, got all excited, turned my modem back on, and then discovered that it still won't sync. Thanks for nothing! hehe
Where I can go??? (Score:1)
After came back from work tonight, I was surprised that my cable modem was syncing up again. Tried to set my gateway to DHCP mode and soon the browser leads me the welcome page... I found there is actually nothing informational, for surfing the net, you only need to setup dynamically grabbing a IP address instead of the priveious static one (Look like my static IP is gone now.. :(().
Unfortunately I found I can not go anywhere else, although I can ping anywhere I like. Whenever I fired up the browser, I will go to the anonying Weclome page automatically no matter which address I keyed in...
Surprising, I can visit Slashdot.org, of course all the external links don't work. I can only view the post here and the headline inside of Slashdot... It is ok to post something here, but what's the problem? Do I missing anything in the setup? The AT&T phone service is damned, nobody answering it, and hang up directly after you pounch the "1" key.... Help needed.. or information needed... please tell me your experience and the transition...
The real @Home product remains (Score:2, Insightful)
As I've said before, the fastest pipe does no good if it's only getting water from a trickling spring.
Their caching techniques will remain, @Home has made its contribution to the infrastructure knowledge base of this I-net thing, and we all move on.
If there is a market, someone will step in to fill it. If it is cheaper for Comcast, ATT, Cox Cablevision and Big Bob's Bait, Tackle & Routing to buy some level of service from an "@Home" style of super ISP, then such a thing will happen again.
@Home's failure doesn't get me down. I worked with many of those same people at different times, the people and their skills remain alive and well and ready to move on to the next project.
How's Juniper stock doing, anyway?
Use it up, wear it out, make do or do without.
Bob-
Re:The real @Home product remains (Score:1)
This is sad for @home... (Score:2)
The sad part is that @home is pretty much dead. I was a customer of Rogers@home. Now it's just Rogers (for those who do not know, Rogers is the cable monopoly in Toronto, Canada). They made the transition, and while it was pretty messy, it's done. And you can be sure they're not moving back to @home. They took 400 000 subscribers away from the 4mil that @home had. Same for Shaw@home (which is another Canadian cable company). That's another 2-300 000 subscribers.
Not to mention AT&T, with God knows how many customers. Actually, God might know, or even google.com, but it's too late at night for me to check the actual numbers.
And those are not by far the only companies that decided to leave @home. So now Excite@home is left with less than half of its former users, maybe even less. But it has the same debt, and an even worse situation. Just the fact that they came close to shutting down and it killed their former image. If it would have been hard for it to survive before the bankrupcy, now that's pretty much impossible. So the bond holders that opposed the AT&T buyout are just as screwed, if not worse.
Re:This is sad for @home... (Score:3, Insightful)
AT&T and the smaller cable compaies that have left @Home represented about half of @Home's subscribers. @Home is gone. AT&T no longer wants it (they pulled their offer to buy).
The @Home bondholders shot themselves in the foot by stopping the AT&T bid. NO WAY will they get the $300 million that AT&T was offering now. As soon as the other cable companies build their own networks, @Home becomes worthless. In fact, it is worthless right now. All that @Home has going for it is its assets (buildings and equipment) and those will go for pennies on the dollar.
Does anyone want some cheap network equipment?
@Home incl bondholders are idiots (Score:1)
Re:@Home incl bondholders are idiots (Score:3, Funny)
These guys paid $785M for BlueMountain.com. I kid you not,
Are you serious?
Oh my god.
I could have made a shitty web site just like that for much less
I guess instead I should be charging MORE for crappier products.
sigh....
Not Starting A Flame War Here, But ... (Score:2)
Oh my god.
I could have made a shitty web site just like that for much less "
Don't you remember a company that paid 1bln for a website called slashdot.org?
The thing is that these outrageous sums were part of the game these times. Worthless companies were buying other worthless companies with their potentially worthless stock.
I don't think they have wasted much cash on BlueMountain (I might be mistaken though).
Up, my ass... (pun f***ing intended) (Score:1)
up in the bay area (Score:1)
in general things seem pretty much the same, except:
- no more static ip
- no more web proxy server
- max downstream has a lower cap?
with @home, i could grab things like the sun jdk at some ridiculous speeds. i remember on several occasions in the past year getting the whole ~30MB file in ~2 minutes. i was utterly amazed by those speeds--i didn't think it was possible to reach those speeds on a cable modem. not sure if it had to do with their web proxy server or not--i always imagined it must have.
just tried downloading the 1.3 jdk with attbi, and the download caps at about 111 KB/s. @home always claimed a 1.5Mb/s cap, but there always seemed to be exceptions to that.
anyone tried playing a multiplayer network game like quake3? i remember latency sucked with @home compared to my friend's dsl.
Re:up in the bay area (Score:2)
I'd kill for that 111KB connection now.....
from @home to attbi (Score:4, Informative)
A few things I noticed right off the bat was that my previous @home connection gave my computer a dns entry that was static, and -could- be used to host a site, it followed the convention of hostname.city.state.home.com. But now my computer's "url" doesn't seem to make any sense, and rather than being associated with my current IP address, it links me to some control panel of sorts, however the last I checked it wasn't really complete offering a few tools, but no UI.
Secondly, I read up on AT&T's website, noting that my parents' user@home.com e-mail account would now be user@attbi.com, which is not nearly as easy to remember, or to give out, and that all mail sent to @home would not be redirected, but rather rejected. Unfortunately, any mail sent to their old account returns the following:
This Message was undeliverable due to the following reason:
HEIALMBOS.MHRIH
Isn't that helpful? I was hoping it would at least advise the sender to change the hostname of the e-mail address. Secondly, AT&T@home previously placed a 650 KB/s downstream, and 128 KB/s upstream cap on our connection. However now on attbi we have 1.5 Mb down (which after running a speedtest [slashdot.org] I found to hover around 1.1 and 1.2 Mb/s) and again 128 KB/s upstream. This is a nice change for us, although I am aware other users didn't have such a cap.
Also, @home previously offered webspace with each account, which was 10 Mb. Now it seems they have modified their service to include 60 Mb of webspace, I never used this feature before, but have activated it now in anticipation of a backup site for my regular page. As of yet their "df" command in the web-based control panel still says I have 10240 Kb free, but I'm assuming that's either a limitation of the webpanel, or they haven't upgraded the servers yet.
Additionally, their user management page is -completely- redesigned, making itself much more intuitive, and helpful, not to mention easy to use. I attempted to get an e-mail address with our @home service, but it had been taken by someone else previously, and then deleted, rendering it unusable because AT&T won't reactivate e-mail accounts after they have been deleted. However, with the switch, all the "dead" e-mail addresses are now available, and I was able to successfully activate my preferred address. On the same note, we were previously allowed 7 total fixed addresses, but now we are only allowed 5 simultaneous addresses, I say this is a good thing though, because before when you deleted an address, you didn't get credit back to create any more, but now you can "rename" a user account, so I renamed my old one, to the desired username without changing the number of e-mail's we're using. The @home service limited the password length on accounts to a maximum of 9 characters, and a minimum of 6, this was -very- limiting. The new attbi service allows the standard 8-16 character password, which is very handy.
Overall I am pleased with our change in service, and although other people have experienced DNS, and login errors, I had zero issues with the change-over, and can only hope, in my case at least, it is a permanent change. My loss of a domain is hardly earth-shattering, and as far as I know, once attbi gets stabilized, their IP's will again become semi-static like it was before. I can't speak for others, I know some people in California who once used @home and are now on juno. My transition was smooth, and my service has gone from pretty good to even better. But as they say, YMMV.
Score 1: Repetitive Information Fodder
Mixed feelings (Score:2, Informative)
The minus is we lost our static IP address, which means we can't let it leak through the firewall to VPN into work anymore -- now we're back to physically bypassing the firewall to work from home.
The plus -- and it's a big one -- is the new Subscriber's Agreement. Under @Home we were not allowed to run a "server" -- any server. They did not allow http or ftp or anything else. ATTBI say [attbi.com]:
In other words, if you run an FTP server and someone downloads your files, it's your problem not theirs. In other words, they don't care! They also say: But that also means you can use dynamic DNS to associate a host hame to your dynamic IP for non-commercial purposes. Way cool -- I like that a lot!But I'm bummed at losing the static IP. And myname@Home sounded better than myname@ATTBI. I just hope that I'm not forced to switch to AOL or MSN [yahoo.com] next month.
Re:Mixed feelings (Score:2)
Unlike the @home portion of the AT&T network, New England users were not generally affected by last week's outage, and we were always allowed to run servers, though they are unsupported. We did have to deal with Port 80 blocking when Code Red was peaking this summer, though (dealt with in my case by using ZoneEdit's redirection to hit my Port 8080, and by running Apache in the first place).
I'm a little jealous that folks had static addresses, though - a static IP makes things so much simpler.
Re:Mixed feelings (Score:2)
FAQ: can I run a server? [att.com]
AT&T Broadband does not allow servers to be connected to the cable modem. This means that no computer in a personal network can be used as a server.
What the hell does this mean? I can't have a file/print server within my home network? Or are they tring to say the machine(s) connected directly to the modem can't be servers?
Re:Mixed feelings (Score:2)
The text you supplied is the EXACT same text that is in the @Home subscriber agreement. The only difference is I hear AT&T will block certain ports that @Home did not. The examples I have heard so far are 25, 80 and 21. This will really put a damper on my mail and web server, they are not commercial but they are important to me. I guess my site will remain down and all my email will bounce until I make other arrangements.
But I'm bummed at losing the static IP.
So am I.
And myname@Home sounded better than myname@ATTBI. I just hope that I'm not forced to switch to AOL or MSN
I think this would be unlikely since AT&T Worldnet is a direct competitor of those 2 companies. What I worry about is AT&T's network not being able to keep up with the strain of 850,000 additional users.
Re:Mixed feelings (Score:2)
I'm not running a MP3/porn/webserver, I am hosting the page for a small, local band. I also host ~10 mail accounts for the band. These amount to a very small amount of bandwidth. I realize that it is the illicit servers that are causing AT&T to make these restrictions, but I would much rather they filter by how much bandwidth you use, not by what services you happen to have running. Blocking port 80 will not stop warez sites. They have no qualms with running their server on port 8080 or 1337 since the URL is usually published manually to usenet or sent in an email. The band website I host, however, is often found by domain name guessing based on the name of the band, or is given to the user orally. It is much easier for me to say "we're at <band name>.com" than it is for me to sat "we're at <band name>.com, port 7666. Most of the fans are not technically inclined and most likely would not know what a port is, not to mention know how to use it in a URL. I'm not looking for sympathy, I am simply venting my frustration at being charged the same price for a reduced level of service.
Re:Mixed feelings (Score:2)
Re:Mixed feelings (Score:2)
Of course it changed only once, and that was when the node was split up.
Of course I don't seem to be affected by any "changes" yet. I have configured my firewall/NAT router with static IP in mind, but I've been able to get a dynamic setup working for a PPP backup connection and I could probably apply that to a dynamically-assigned IP from the cable modem connection.
My biggest concern is that when my cable provider seeks a new ISP partnership following @Home's death they will go with some ISP that requires Windows-specific software to make the connection work at all.
Re:Mixed feelings (Score:2)
Re:Mixed feelings (Score:2)
AT&T -- Old Mediaone Customers (Score:1)
There was a story on the evening news today that explained what was happening. For those AT&T customers who were Mediaone customers (a company that actually cared about customer satisfaction before AT&T bought them!), AT&T is using the old Mediaone net -- they never changed those regions over. In other words, if you were a Mediaone customer, you were never on the Excite net and yoru service should remain intact.
--WH
Um, not yet... (Score:5, Insightful)
Um, well, first... that press release doesn't say that everyone is back on-line... in fact, it's a release from Saturday. Here, it's Tuesday. Can Hemos read??
Second, since I am an ATT Broadband customer in Chicago, sitting here dialed in using a 56k modem, I can assure you that ATT customers are *not* all back on-line. Contrary to the attitude in SF, the bay area does not constitute the entire world...
Re:Um, not yet... (Score:1)
Re:Um, not yet... (Score:1)
Re:Um, not yet... (Score:2)
AT&T Broadband has moved about 86,000 customers in Oregon and the Vancouver area of Washington from the Excite@Home network to the new AT&T Broadband Internet network
The deal is between Comcast, Cox and @Home. Those subs didn't even lose service, did they?
Here in Chicago, the modem light went on about 10:30 but no service yet (well, can't even get DHCP yet). We are still being told we will be moved to attbi, and in Chicago we can expect service today.
Opportunity to Switch to OpenDNS (Score:3, Informative)
There is a list of public servers [unrated.net], but please use the tier 2 DNS servers [opennic.glue]. Find the lowest latency servers and follow the directions [unrated.net] if you don't know how to set up DNS.
Then, if you get into it, get a
P.S.
My AT&T@Home came back up two days ago (Seattle).
Cox Press Release (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.cox.com/pressroom/No%20Service%20Dis
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2001
COX COMMUNICATIONS ANNOUNCES AGREEMENT TO AVOID DISRUPTION OF COX@HOME INTERNET SERVICE
Pact Ensures Residential Cox@Home Customers and Business Customers Continue To Receive High-Speed Internet Access During Transition To New Cox-Managed Network
ATLANTA - Cox Communications, Inc. (NYSE: COX) today announced that it has reached an agreement that will allow the company's 555,000 Cox@Home customers and more than 20,000 commercial business customers to maintain Internet access through their broadband connections until the company transitions to its own high-speed network. The agreement is pending approval by Bankruptcy Court Judge Thomas E. Carlson.
Through the agreement involving Excite@Home, its creditors, and other cable companies, Excite@Home will continue to serve as Cox's supplier of high-speed Internet service while Cox rolls out its own managed network over the next few months. Under the terms of the agreement, Cox will pay $160 million to Excite@Home for three months of uninterrupted service for its Cox@Home subscribers. This amount will be in lieu of the monthly subscriber fees previously paid to Excite@Home.
Excite@Home filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September and subsequently was faced with a court ruling that threatened to disrupt high-speed Internet service for approximately 4 million residential cable customers, including those served by Cox. Some customers of Cox's commercial division, Cox Business Services, would also have been impacted. On November 30, a bankruptcy court judge approved a petition filed by Excite@Home giving it the right to terminate its service agreements and cease providing service to its cable affiliates and their customers. However, following Friday's ruling, Cox was successful in negotiating a new temporary agreement with Excite@Home so that service will continue for a brief period of time until Cox's new network is fully deployed and its Internet customers have been transitioned to a new Cox-managed service.
"We are pleased that all parties in this case reached an agreement based on the best interests of our customers," said Dallas Clement, Senior Vice President of Strategy and Development. "This agreement allows an orderly transition of Cox@Home customers to our own high-speed network without the fear of major service disruptions."
The agreement doesn't change Cox Communications' plans to transition its customers to the company's own nationwide high-speed Internet network. That transition will begin in December and will be completed, on a market-by-market basis, by March 2002.
"This agreement means we have been given time to transition our customers in an orderly fashion, without any prolonged service outages or e-mail disruptions," said Pat Esser, Executive Vice President of Operations. "Establishing our own network will give us more control over the quality and reliability of service, the ability to add new features, and allow us to be more responsive. Our new system will be based on the most advanced technology and will be supported by Cox technicians and service representatives who will monitor all aspects of the service and quickly resolve any technical issues. Ultimately, our own network will allow us to provide an improved customer experience, which will increase customer loyalty and attract new customers." Cox Communications currently offers high-speed Internet access through Excite@Home in 18 markets. In addition, Cox provides high-speed Internet access to an additional 230,000 customers under the brands RoadRunner and Cox Express. These customers also will transition to Cox High Speed Internetsm service later next year. Cox Business Services Internet customers will simultaneously transition to the Cox-managed data network.
About Cox Communications:
Cox Communications, a Fortune 500 company, serves approximately 6.2 million customers nationwide, making it the nation's fifth largest cable television company. A full-service provider of telecommunications products, Cox offers an array of services, including Cox Cable; local and long distance telephone services under the Cox Digital Telephone brand; high-speed Internet access under the brands Cox@Home, RoadRunner and Cox Express; advanced digital video programming services under the Cox Digital Cable brand; and commercial voice and data services via Cox Business Services. Cox is an investor in telecommunications companies including Sprint PCS and Excite@Home, as well as programming networks including Discovery Channel and The Learning Channel. More information about Cox Communications can be accessed on the Internet at www.cox.com.
About Cox Business Services
Cox Business Services is the commercial broadband division of Atlanta-based Cox Communications, Inc. A full-service, facilities-based provider of telecommunications solutions, Cox Business Services serves home offices; small, medium and large-sized businesses; school districts; and hospitality, government and military properties in cities across the nation. Cox offers high-speed Internet services; switched voice services and long-distance; wholesale carrier access; and dedicated voice, data and video transport services. More information about Cox can be accessed on the Internet at www.coxbusiness.com.
It could be worse... (Score:1)
7:10 AM CST - still off-line! (Score:1)
Broadband - it's dead as disco.
Re:7:10 AM CST - still off-line! (Score:1)
It should be flashing as it tries to tune in the network.
If it is solid black, it means it is off.
Depending on the model, of course.
DNS Problems anyone? (Score:1)
anyone else experiencing this, and have a fix?
Still offline in Connecticut (Score:1)
The Hartford Courant [ctnow.com] said that AT&T was expecting service to be restored to this area on Thursday.
-Jennifer
ATTBI status in CT & my broadband wishlist (Score:2)
Now that @Home is gone, this is a good time to suggest the introduction of a little more honesty in the business. How about telling us which cities are capped and what the limits are. How about a list of the addresses, ports, and newsgroups that are being blocked, instead of having the customers reverse-engineer the knowledge for themselves? It's not like we don't know this is happening!!! They can either "face the music" from the customer community or just let them bad-mouth the service in private to people who are thinking about signing up. Pick one.
I'd like to see them use and RBL-like service on e-mail, and it would be nice if they could get the packet loss under 5%, but for now I would be happy to just get basic connectivity back while I consider my options long-term.
Funny Math? (Score:1)
I'll Miss it When its gone (Score:2)
With all the talk of download caps as low as 768K on the ATT network, I realize how spoiled I've been. My download speeds are often 2.4Mbits or greater. On a speed test website, I tested 7x faster than my neighbors Verizon DSL service (basic level).
Comcast@home was an excellent deal at $39.95 per month. I'll be sorry to see it go.
BTW, about the modems (stuff ATT won't tell you) (Score:2)
So... when will YOU be migrated? (Score:1)
Please review the following AT&T Broadband Internet migration schedule to find out when your high-speed cable Internet service will be available on the AT&T network.
Customers in San Francisco and Illinois are scheduled to move this Monday and Tuesday
Customers in Denver, Colorado and Salt Lake City, Utah are scheduled for Wednesday
Customers in Hartford, Connecticut; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Sacramento, California and the Majority of the Rocky Mountain region are scheduled to move on Thursday
Customers in Michigan will be moved on Friday
You will be contacted by AT&T Broadband with further instructions when the transition of your high-speed cable Internet service is complete.
We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this interruption may cause and thank you for your patience as we work to provide you with the best high-speed cable Internet service possible.
Re:So... when will YOU be migrated? (Score:1)
Adelphia.net is up for me (Score:2)
Billy G is knocking @ your door (Score:1)
I heard this morning on Fox News that M$ may be trying to buy into the network... but I can't find any more info on the web.
What Insight is telling its customers... (Score:2)
Early this evening, Insight, along with other cable operators (including Cox, Comcast, Mediacom, and Rogers) signed an interim agreement with Excite@Home and the official unsecured bondholders' committee. This settlement agreement provides for continued service for three months, during which time we can accomplish an orderly transition to another high-speed provider.
The specific terms of the deal include a lump payment by the cable operators of $355 million, $10 million of which is Insight's portion. We agreed to pay this fee in order to extend the time required to ensure an orderly transition. This payment will not result in a price increase to you.
We're also actively continuing our discussions with other high-speed broadband providers. The offering of new providers will be the first step in opening up our network to bring more choices to our customers in the selection of their Internet Service Providers, fulfilling our vision of our broadband platform.
While today's settlement agreement is subject to court approval, we expect this approval shortly.
We have worked hard to ensure continued, uninterrupted broadband service for you and we're pleased it appears that effort has been successful. We appreciate your ongoing support of Insight.
Sincerely,
Kim D. Kelly
Chief Operating Officer
Insight Communications
AT&T most certainly NOT back online (Score:2)
Ironically, as the dateline on the press release indicated, AT&T Broadband is based in Englewood, CO, but most of @Home's Colorado customers are still without service (I live in Denver).
AT&T not going back to @home? (Score:2)
Am I reading this wrong? We've just gotten back online here in Chicago, and it sure ain't @home service!
Corrected AT&T Customer Service Number (Score:2)
In any event, I was able to get a different phone number that actually does connect with a tech (by calling sales who transferred me) -- that number is 866-447-7333. This might just be the number for my region, though. In any event, you can talk to an actual person if you have questions.
Lastly, the guy I talked with told me it could be 14 days from day of disconnection, at the latest, before service is restored. Even though I'm pretty impressed with how quickly AT&T has been able to effect the transition to their own network, I'm still expecting I'll have to wait the full 14 days, given that they don't even bother to list my state in their releases.
Oh well. As good a time as any to rebuild the server, I guess.
Mediacom phoned me.. (Score:2)
But I also received an interesting piece of news. In my state (Iowa) AT&T had been collecting sales tax, and now they were informed that those taxes were not required. So they're giving everyone a credit sometime in 3 or 4 months from now. Or you can send a form to the State tax board and get a refund immediately (well, immediately in bureacratic terms, probably a month or two). My tax refund will be over $70. Now if I can just get my other ISP to stop charging sales tax!
Re:Not happy, not happy at all... (Score:1)
56 "k" modems are 56 kiloBITS, not bytes. and 128kbits is 16kbytes not 56. obviously you DIDN'T do the math! 8)
server rule (Score:2)
Correct, but my Port 80 still isn't being blocked.