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Date:	Mon, 18 Mar 2002 14:39:49 PST7
From:	"J. R. Fox" <jr_fox@pacbell.net >
Reply-To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
Subject:	SCOUG-Help: Scapegoats & Red Herrings (Pac Bell DSL)

Content Type: text/plain

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{Special Attn.: Dave Watson}

I broached this subject once before on the list, and got no
response. Now there's reason to do so again.

I have Pac. Bell DSL service. It has mostly been rather good,
though I've logged a number of different "incident tickets" with
their Tech. Support Dept. over the nearly 2 years I've had the
service. Almost always, the problems have turned out to be
something hardware-related at their end. Reaching that point of
determination has often been torturous, though. It can take
multiple calls, being passed through different departments with
automated message systems before getting to the "right" live
person. And then we get to the inevitable "Well, we don't
support _that_ operating system" (if they even know what you're
talking about), with lame attempts to fob the problem off on your
choice of OS, browser s/w, or whatever. If you're really lucky,
they _may_ offer to troubleshoot your problem under Windows.

When it has been an overall connectivity problem -- painfully
slow connections, or no service at all -- I've found the magic
phrase to be "Will you please check your Virtual White Board."
In every such case to date, upon further investigation, it has
turned out that some key Pac Bell router downstream (upstream ?)
of me had crapped out -- a fact not necessarily reflected in
their regularly updated System Status recording.

The problem at hand has been annoying me off and on for the
better part of a year; I just didn't get around to complaining to
them about it until this morning. This is supposedly a 24/7
connection, for which I have a fixed IP, yet I cannot seem to
maintain contact with their mail server. At least once a day,
and some days far more often, I get one of two requests from NS
4.61: either the plain "Log-In" box saying I need to re-enter my
Password, or a box saying it cannot contact the xyz (full address
of their) Mail Server, and would I please Log In again with my
Password. If the latter, NS may spend 5 minutes atttempting to
reconnect, before giving up and re-requesting this. If a
reconnect succeeds, mail resumes coming in . . . until whenever
the problem next occurs.

The best I could get out of Pac Bell Tech Support this morning
was a supervisor's notion that OS/2 does not cache one's password
for the connection, while Winblows does. Most likely, this
theory is Utter CRAP ! If it were true, then why has this been
an intermittent problem ? It seems to have gotten much worse
lately, but going back a few months, there were sometimes 3 or 4
straight days between incidents. Also, I'm 90% sure that this
does not happen on my EarthLink account, which of course uses
different mail servers. Typically, I spend far less time
continuously connected to ELN, so I can't be absolutely sure.
They could offer no explanation to account for this. I don't
want to state with any certititude that it can't be some settings
within OS/2, but I rather doubt it.

Please don't bother telling me that Pac Bell sux, or that I
should switch over to cable service. Adelphia is even worse, and
I hope to dump their cable TV service in the near future. I like
having the fixed IP, and don't want to give it up. But for that,
and the fact that ELN has to sublease their DSL infrastructure
from Pac Bell anyway, I would have switched my DSL completely
over to EarthLink by now.

Jordan

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