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Television Media

MS and AOL Interested in MediaOne 110

Posted by CmdrTaco from the ever-expanding-empire dept.
Megaweapon writes "As a MediaOne customer (who is without cable modem access), this scares the scat out of me. First Comcast, then AT&T, now these two. " I hate MediaOne. I'm moving (all next week, so be gentle on the email!) and the 23 best things about moving are 1. No rats 2. No leaky ceiling 3. No more MediaOne- I'll actually be able to get a few channels I want. Oh well, watch the amazing expanding empire.
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MS and AOL Interested in MediaOne More

MS and AOL Interested in MediaOne

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  • How is MediaOne's Newsfeed? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    To me, a good newsfeed is a major criteria in an ISP. And one that big corporate ISPs tend ignore., especially in the alt.* hierarchy where all the bandwidth goes. My present ISP has a good feed and has xDSL service which would be ideal but I'm on the ragged edge of the Central Office range restriction. So MediaOne is a possible alternative. But I need to know about their newsfeed.

  • Okay, clearly you haven't bothered to look any deeper than a really superficial business article. The base service for BA's DSL is only a 640 Kbps downlink, but you can get up to 7 Mbps downlink, which is roughly a T2.

    Now, with a cable modem, you can get up to a max of 1.5 Mbps, but if you've got a busy segment, it goes way down. Checked their site quickly, but they don't list their guaranteed minimum bandwidth. Typical cable modem minimum is only about 300 Kbps, though.

    Granted, DSL is pricier, but it's worth it.

  • Well, you'll get your AT&T wish one way or the other. TCI and MediaOne are swapping some properties with the end result that all MediaOne territory in Chicago is going to become TCI (now AT&T).
  • TCI doesn't force customers to buy it's cable modem service, but if you do, it has to be through the TCI @Home venture. There is only one choice of ISP for the line. If you want AOL's content on top of it, then you have to pay extra to AOL. TCI says it paid for the cables and shouldn't have to share them with other people who are only interested in piggybacking on TCI's investment. AOL wanted to force TCI to unbundle their wires from their ISP business and allow any ISP to offer service over the wires (with the payment of some fee to TCI surely). They wanted this to be a condition of the TCI/AT&T merger. The FCC did not agree to this however.

    Now if AOL were to buy MediaOne, the shoe would be on the other foot. They could lock anyone who wanted cable modems into buying them from AOL. That's why I'm saying they would quickly change their tune on open access to the cable lines.

    BTW: Phone companies are required to unbundle their network elements such as the copper loop to a customer's house and sell them to all comers at a discount. AOL wanted the same provisions to apply to cable.

  • AOL Changing Tune? (Score:3)

    by Aaron M. Renn ( 539 ) <arenn@urbanophile.com> on Friday April 30, 1999 @12:48PM (#1908681) Homepage
    When AT&T bought TCI, AOL claimed that AT&T should have to open up TCI's cable to all ISP's who wanted to provide access. Think AOL will be making the same argument if they are able to buy MediaOne? Not! It would be funny to watch them do a 180 though.

  • I'm pretty happy with MediaOne's service here in LA. I have both cable TV and internet access at home through them, and aside from a few minor quirks, the serive has been fairly good.

    The tech people aren't always on the ball, but I hardly ever interact with them.

    Now if Microsoft bought MediaOne, I'd be really upset. If AOL bought it, I wouldn't be happy, but I could live with it. I don't like the idea of AT&T taking over the world's telecommunications, but at least I would have a decent alternative to PacBell's phone service.
  • As I just told some friends, if this goes through, we'll be getting some new channels on the line:

    MSNBC, MSCNN, MSFOX, MSMTV, MSVH-1, MSHBO....

    *sigh*

    -Enry
    MediaOne Customer with cable modem
  • MediaOne is the best internet ISP in the Boston
    area -- and the TV selection is OK. Simson
    Garfinkel yesterday had an article in Boston
    Globe which he says he compared MediaOne's speeds
    to Bell Atalantic's DSL service and MediaOne was
    ten fold faster.

  • They've been advertising AMAZING new services in the Atlanta area since 1995, and yet, the video service is still lower quality than an antenna, and modems are still vapor in many areas. Also, their service is more expensive than DSS and carries less channels.

  • I just wish they'd bring on Broadband. So many people in my neighborhood have it, I get less than optimal speeds.

    FTP downloads are like 110kps and cable to cable is like 20-40kps.
    It's far easier to forgive your enemy after you get even with him.
  • There are many other things that affect speed..

    Do you live near any transition towers? Power lines? These all slow it down to a crawl..

  • And whenever their computer systems hit the dirt, it'll be MS-Showtime, eh?

  • Agreed (Score:1)

    by mattdm ( 1931 )
    I'm in cambridge, and am very very happy. All of this merger talk scares me, 'cause I don't want a good thing to be messed up.

    --

  • I've got both options and I'm opting xDSL- thank the Lord.

  • I have had it for about 2 months and I have loved every minute of it. I had a few minor problems with installation and I had excellent customer service fixing them.

    What bothers me about this is that either MS or AOL getting anywhere near MediaOne is bound to screw things up. For one thing, cable modem companies right now enjoy virtual monopolies for that particular service. Like Microsoft needs another monopoly. I would hate to have to use MSCable to have the service I have enjoyed up to now. Or AOL, for that matter. Both of these companies, by the way, are known for attempting to force their way upon users. Here's what I see happening:

    User: "Hello customer service? I can't seem to get my browser to work over my MSOne connection."

    MSOne: "You need to be running IE 6.0 in order to connect to the internet."

    User: "Has that been ported to Linux yet?"

    MSOne: "We don't support Unixes or Macs with MSOne. Only PC's with Windows2000."



    Ok. So I'm paranoid. The point is MediaOne is good. The connection is fast. The service is wonderful. MS and AOL will f*** it up. And I don't want either of them to get any more control than they already have.

  • This is stupid. Linux is more secure (and provably so) than MS anything. It seems to be more a matter of simple persecution than anything.
  • I HIGHLY doubt your getting 300K upstream man The best I've EVER gotten is 150k/s down and 30-40k/s upstream...check your numbers
  • You have only had them for two months...wait until the "GLOW" from all the bandwidth wears off and you start encountering the true face of mediaone tech support....And if everything is fine 6 months from now you get in touch with me...I'll move ...up here in southern NH northern MA they have their heads up their butt
  • just re-read it ...my bad ;)
  • You probably see all these US oriented news items because slashdot is a US server...run by US citizens....just a shot in the dark....
  • Hello, I have Mediaone currently. I had mediaone for cable for about 1 year and for the past 2 I have had their internet service. First let me say this: 1) Their cable service is good ( at least in my area )
    2) They don't screw up billing ( much )
    3) I get about 90 channels where I live ( New Hampshire ) so I'm doing ok
    Now lets talk about their internet access:
    First I was told that I would have their internet access about a year before I really did...which was fine because delays happen.
    But the real problems didn't start until i actually got hooked up.
    The first thing I noticed is that its not as fast as they claim...no problem going from 3k/s to 150k/s works for me...no no REALLY it REALLY works for me ;)
    What does annoy me is that nobody at Mediaone seems to know how to run a DHCP server. I'm always getting disconnected and when I look at my logs I see that my address is already in use...how wonderful....well stuff happens right? So you/me call support...where you are on hold for 2-3 hours sometimes how very very nice..when you finally get through you are usually speaking to a HS dropout? I'm not sure if that is actually the case but it MUST be. Once I called and I told them that my hostname wasn't resolving anymore. They said " A what?" ..I said my HOSTNAME...the person on the line says...ok hold I'll transfer you....

    They transfer me to the Cable TV department...after explaining to the guy what happened he transfers me back to the internet dept. where I explain what happened and that my hostname no longer resolves...they say "A what?" I say my HOSTNAME...they say hold I'll transfer you....

    I get transfered to Sales at this point I think I was on the line for 2.5 hours including the hold time...
    I explain what is happening and they transfer me back to internet...
    I say to the guy on the line

    "Before you say anything or transfer me answer me this...do you know what a HOSTNAME is?"
    His reply was "no"
    I say "let me talk to your boss"
    I speak with the boss and he says that "Mediaone doesn't deal with hostnames"
    I asked for his boss ( I don't know if that is who I got )

    The next person tells me that it has been taken care of and everything should be all set.
    I check my machine and sure enough it was fine.
    ----
    The following is just a sample of the crap I get from that company all the time.
    ----
    Another time I called and after being on hold ( NO JOKE ) for 3 hours they guy on the other line tells me that my internet isn't working because I have linux and linux is very buggy and unsupported by Mediaone. I told him that the error was "......address is already in use" I say "You are having a problem with your DHCP server" He says there is nothing he can do for me. So I waited for a day until they got their heads out of their asses and fixed. I renewed my lease and on went life.... They don't care about their customers at all...I have more stories...like the time I moved and when the tech came out and saw that my linux box was a 486 SX/25 he told my G/F that he wasn't going to install it because it "it just wouldn't work on such an old machine" ...the very machine it is workign with now..
    I had to wait for another month before it was installed :(

    Oh and this is the best one....they try to log into my machine through telnet and my machine banned them...when I called to ask wtf was happening they said they were just protecting me ...and they do regular port scans and login attempts to make sure people have their machines secured.
    Maybe some mediaone users have seen it cpusage.mediaone.net
    haha and when you try to log into that machine it says that any further attempts will be procecuted! --------------
    Well those are my reasons why Mediaone sucks...they don't care about customer service on the internet side because there is no competiton. I hope someone DOES buy them and cleans up the mess that they call Service. I just hope it isn't MS ...because I'm sure I'll get a call from someone asking why I downloaded 100 megs in the last day .......
  • I really must remember to hate Cablevision... oh wait, I already _do_ hate Cablevision.

    Geeze... I live in Boston, and I can _see_ Newton from where I live. I'd give anything to get something better than this crappy 56K. But Cablevision can't even fit all their channels onto a single coax. Whatta gyp! Can't wait to move into the west burbs.

  • Lemme tellya, the only reason I'm still using MediaOne for cable TV (rather than getting a dish) is that there will be cable modem service in the future. When? I dunno. I asked in 1996 and they said "two years," then in late 1998 I asked again and they said "another 18 to 24 months."

    I'm banking on DSL becoming available -- and cheaper, because of COMPETITION -- before MediaOne finally gets their digital act together.

    And if MS or AOL buys MediaOne, I definitely won't subscribe to cable modem service when it becomes available. I run Linux, and I run servers.

    By the way, this is in New York state, in Westchester county.

  • I'm not a fan of regulation, but I think even less of POOR regulation.

    The reality is we have a few cable companies who DO NOT COMPETE with each other. Instead, they sit tight on their asses and continually charge just a little more than the national average in an always upward cycle.

    Why aren't these titans competing with each other? Because we don't raise awareness locally, that Town/City Hall is sometimes BY CHOICE granting "exclusivity" to the local franchise, usually over expensive dinner paid for by same company. Why risk a good thing by trying to "invade" someone else's turf.

    I could care less if we had just 3 or 4 cable companies, as long as they were coast to coast and I could choose between them all, like I do with long distance carriers. How can ANYONE - besides the cable companies - actually LIKE the way things are today? If you hate all forms or regulation, there's enough red tape to irrate you... BUT, if you favor regulation to protect the consumer, what we have is not enough since it's obvious the prices of cable rise FASTER than inflation or in other words they are sticking it to us.

    I'd just like to see the whole thing go away. We HAVE the Internet - give me an international video file server that streams TV quality video faster than I can download it... and the American-style cable companies can go to hell. Why can't someone just step in and serve the pent-up demand.. or is Hollywood going to say it's none of their business until we're all downloading their latest products, free, on Internet Relay Chat??

    Feh... can anyone think of an industry where everyone to a greater extend hates all available choices? I'm glad it's Friday.

  • watanabe wrote:
    MediaOne's cable modem service is excellent, IMHO. I run a 14 computer LAN off one of their basic rate cable modems. Not only is there plenty of speed, but they don't even mind. They actually support (sort of) Linux firewalls, and LANs behind them. My dream is that other cable modem ISPs take lessons in service and flexibility from MediaOne.

    Yeah, and watch THAT continue if Micro$loth steps in. It's quite nearly enough to make me gag. I can't imagine AOL being loads better.
  • Potential for a "Battle of the Billionaires"? BillG vs TedT oughtta be fun to watch.
    Christopher A. Bohn
  • Granted that mediaone doesnt exactly have awesome TV service, but they finally started putting up new lines in my area for cable modems, I've been waiting for this thing for 10 months now. And I am still waiting. If I have to use AOL or MSN to get a cable modem, I may have to go on a rampage or something.

    The fact that I only get a 26.4 connection from my house doesnt help. Oh and the quake3test? hah! I wish. Probably will have to stick with a nice 300ms ping on quake2.
    oh the humanity!
    -doobman
  • I don't know about you but I'd want to run Sendmail because I hate using ISP mailboxes because of the extreme lack of control (ie-stopping lame spammers). Really though, cable modem access is going to suck until there is competition in this market, which there should be. I really see these cablemodem policies to be an abuse of monopoly power because where else can you go to get high speed access as cheap? All I want from my cable co. is bandwidth, not service, if they can't provide that then they can burn in hell. Here in my town we have what I call expensive RoadRunner. It's $60/mo for 128k up/256k down and there's a bit of port filtering plus you only get one dynamic IP. Looks like I'll have to find another method of high speed access. The potential for this highspeed access is in a box below my desk -- a shitload of WaveLAN cards. Short of that I'll have to wait on DSL, or for there to be fair competition in the cable internet industy.
  • Actually since RCN bought out my ISP, Ultranet, the service has gone to hell.

    I was on an automatic payment plan, and in January, my bank began rejecting their billing attempts. RCN/Ultranet said nothing to me until two weeks ago, threatening to tell the credit bureaus bad things about me, unless I fixed the problem within a week.

    WTF! They've been having this problem since January, and instead of politely inquiring about it, they wait 4 months and threaten me?
  • They don't support Linux, They don't support NT Server either. They seem to be afraid that both OSes will break their security (spammers using your sendmail), people running unauthorized web servers, etc.

    Maybe you shouldn't have tried to get technical on them, next time call and say "My internet isn't working, yes it's turned on, yes it's plugged in", and I predict you'll only be on the phone two hours instead of three! ;-)
  • From what I've seen, it's alot more pricey!
  • You can also read about it here. [theonion.com]
  • I find their advertising rather intriguing. It's incredibly smooth and slick - I wouldn't mind having their ad agency on my side. Only problem is that, in the end, you are left with their real slogan:

    You VILL get Broadband. You VILL. And you VILL shop. And Shop. Or else!

    D

    ----
  • I'll tell ya, if MS ends up buying MediaOne, I'll switch just as soon as RCN (the only major cable competitor in MA that I know of anyway) makes it up to my area. I bet we'd start getting MSNBC on our cable though! :-S

    This is further proof of Bill Gates' Pinky and the Brain complex. (-- Gee Bill, what do you want to do tonight? -- The same thing we do every night! Try to take over the world!)

  • Do any of these companies offer basic IP connectivity? I don't want their news server, mail server, proxy server, DHCP server or silly policies on what software and services that can run on my computer. Just give me a static IP address, a high speed line and route the packets.
  • I believe I heard somewhere that you have to have (at least) cookie support for the @Home service to work. You may also need Java support (or JavaScript, I'm not sure). If you're using something like Junkbusters that blocks cookies, this may be your problem...
  • but you can get up to 7 Mbps downlink, which is roughly a T2

    Err, what the hell is a T2? I've been in the networking business for quite a while and I've never heard of a T2. You may mean 2 T1's (2x 1.536Mbps = 3.072Mbps) but you'd be wrong anyway. 7Mbps is more like 4 T1's (4x 1.536bps = 6.144Mbps). It's more like a Fractional T3, but you'd probably have to have a HSSI interface if you actually had a FT3.

    Note, the T1 speeds are if you are running ESF and B8ZS. If you're stuck with AMI/D4 you run at more like 1.344 Mbps. Moral of the story, demand ESF/B8ZS on your T1 lines, it gives you 192Kbps more bandwidth.

    [I'd swear I remembered a T1 being at 1.544, but doing the calculations it seems it is 1.536. Guess I got it confused with a T1 running with AMI/D4.]
  • MediaOne ain't great, but the cable modem is so much better than a regular dial-up that I put up with 'em. I just can't imagine that things will get better for me as a Linux user, if Uncle Bill owns my data line.

    I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm pulling for AT&T.
  • Up here in Canada we get Rogers. The cable Sucks. The @Home service is ok, but I can't get their homepage to load using linux.
  • In fact they have a whole listing [mediaonegroup.com] of where they are, including the Netherlands. If your local cable or wireless phone company is owned by MediaOne, you should care what happens to them...and most of you probably have no idea who owns part of your local cable company.
  • Mediaone actually has a very liberal policy. While they only support Win & Mac they allow pretty much anything. Their fear with NT server is that some bonehead will run a DHCP server on their wire and they will get a flood of support calls from neighbors - a very real possibility. If you read their terms for this region, nowhere does it ban any particular type of service, but they do reserver the right to cut you off if your use/abuse effects others on the segment. If you're a bad internet citizen they reserve the right to escort you to the edge of town.

    I have very good luck with them. In fact, every time I've called tech support I have gotten very knowledgeable people. My friend works for Cisco and help build Mediaone's ATM backbone in Ma. One night I called in for a MAC address change and got to talking with the tech. I keep notching up the level of tech, first packet filtering in the cable modem, network architecture, their ATM backbone, he stayed right with me all the way - I suspect he actually knew more than me ! Now how often does that happen when you call for support ?

    Then, get this, the guy says "I only do this nights for extra cash, I'm actually a lawyer." Holy Einstein, Batman ! I went to their web site and filled out an online job app that night.

    Jake.
  • Best case:
    Everything won't change much

    Worse case:
    if you subscribe Cable TV, you'll see MS's logo flying all over your TV. you might see cartoon network's Cartoon got MS logos on their back.
    if you subscribe Cable internet, you might be required to use windows, and must use IE to hookup. And every morning MS will check your computer for illegal software, and force you to update to the latest version of IE.
  • Here in Canada several ISPs have successfully gotten the cable companies to open up service. As of this June we should be able to get cable modem access from any ISP who wants to offer it.
  • ..and yet with all the mergers (ie, Record companies, Nortel/Baybridge, etc.)
    you ever notice the first thing they do is fire a whole ton of people
    in the name of "Efficiency/Redudancy."
    How are you supposed to do more work with fewer people working for you?
    The great merger lie has been exposed!
    It's never about customer service, it's about filling th pockets of the CEO and a select few shareholders.
    Remeber the 80's? Mass takeovers, with Boesky et al pocketing fortunes and leaving their targets laden with junk-bond debt?

    Yeah, didn't think so.
    Popey, cookie back on file
  • Yuck. Here in my corner of Chicagoland, MediaOne's channel selection is actually pretty good, but I'm still without a cable modem. Their stupid website has been promising me one "within three months" for the last five months. Jerks.

    I don't want to become an unwilling servant of the evil empire, though. Yuck. Never thought I'd be rooting for AT&T. ;-)

    --
  • In all honesty, I could care less who owns my cable service as long as: 1) they don't screw up the channel line-up, 2)I GET A CABLE MODEM. Though the thought of shelling out money every month to Microsoft gives me a bad case of the willies. :P

    --
  • Last I saw on the newswire was that Comcast was talking to AOL & M$ in an attempt to gather a little extra financial support to out bid AT&T. That maybe why their talking is to try and work out an agreement for their on-line services if they do help Comcast back it financially.
  • No offence, but aren't these items a little too American oriented? The rest of the world doesn't care what MediaOne does. I myself have never heard of the company. The thing is: I see all these US oriented newsitems, but the same stuff happens in Europe, Asia, etc. too. I never see those stories on /.
  • Correct. But I assume Rob & co. get a lot of these stories from other parts of the world too. I was just wondering why I do not see those posted regularly on /. (or at least: a lot less then American oriented articles)... Maybe there could be a poll on where Slashdot readers come from (which continent)...
  • Well, I know that my calbe company (Telekabel) is partly owned by UPC. Indeed, an American company. But still these things are generally only important for American citizens. The customers of A2000 (which is from MediaOne and also UPC if I'm not mistaken) will not notice a thing from what MediaOne itself does. This is because A2000 still makes it's own policy. Not that these messages shouldn't be on Slashdot. In fact, I indeed think that these are important for Americans. But I find that there are still almost no articles (on these subjects) that are interesting for Europeans (or Asians, for that matter).
  • Yes! I'm stuck on RCN because MediaOne hasn't wired my area. RCN service sucks. My cable modem is down 20% of the time, and often the phones and cable go down as well. (And the FX channel has sound problems; but maybe that's not RCN's fault). -m
  • The one thing that got me was, after they set up my account, and set up the modem (after I asked them if they would skip the installation price if I did it myself), I started up my linux box, and started surfing around (wmnet is great for watching those transfer rates :).. anyways, i called technical support for mediaone-chicago, since, again, they neglected to give me the password for my email, and for the hell of it, asked "So how do I set up Linux to use the cable modem?" (it was already running) the reply, "Linux? that's the new operating system isnt it?"
    "umm.. sure.. how do i set it up?"
    "well, I dont think it's possible, we haven't heard anything about doing that"

    *sigh*

    and now M$ wants it? will this ever stop?

    cheers
  • despite their cult-like slogan
    "this is the way", it's really the best option in the Greater Boston area (Mass.) since none of the other providers offer cable modems right now. Unless you count RCN, and the 2 or 3 customers that they've actually deigned to wire up. The providers in other locales (Cablevision in Boston, Time Warner on the north suburbs) will just laugh at you if you ask them about timeframe for internet access. So don't know MediaOne so fast. Unless AO-Hell buys them, then I'll agree with you.
  • Well I think its perfectly fair for them to charge a reasonable fee of the isps to allow them to connect to the cable infestructure. But I always thought all utilites had to allow anyone to provide service over thier inferstructure with the new deregulation.
  • Accually if your implying that AOL might buy MediaOne and force any cable modems through MediaOne to be through AOL, I seriously doupt that would happen thought it may. Correct me if I'm wrong but that sounds highly illegial and monopolistic. Using a utility (cable is considered a utility now right? if not still same rules would apply I think) to force people to subscribe to AOL sounds highly illigal. I don't know the specifics behind the AT&T and TCI thing??? DID AT&T force TCI customers to use AT&T ISP?? what became of that?
  • Go to school / library

    Get Economics textbook

    Read about Economies of Scale

  • Point well taken, however, there won't ever be MSHBO, HBO is owned by Time Warner, who owns CNN, who undoubtedly would never give MS the gratification. :>

    Yeah yeah, semantics.
  • I have also had nothing but great success with my Boston-area Mediaone Cable modem. I run a Quake 2 CTF Server off it 24/7, with little to no problems. Now if only I could get more upstream bandwidth...300Kbitps is good enough for most things, but it'd be nice to be able to run more than 12 people on my Quake server [mediaone.net].
  • That would be 300Kbit, not 300KByte. *grin*
  • MediaOne's cable modem service is excellent, IMHO. I run a 14 computer LAN off one of their basic rate cable modems. Not only is there plenty of speed, but they don't even mind. They actually support (sort of) Linux firewalls, and LANs behind them. My dream is that other cable modem ISPs take lessons in service and flexibility from MediaOne.
  • Here's the deal:

    When they send the tech guys to your house, those tech guys will only know windows or macintosh. In addition, they will try and sell you an $80 3com ISA 10MBit card for $109 or so. Don't do it. Have a $20 PCI card there, and installed in your windows machine. All the tech guys will do is check the MAC address of the card, and turn on your cable modem.

    Now, once they've gone, put that card in your linux box, and configure DHCP, and voila. Instant access. You can also just connect your linux box up to the cable modem with a different card, and call customer service, asking them to change the MAC address. It takes about 10 minutes once you get them on the phone.

    Incidentally, the install guys know nothing about linux, but Mediaone actually has at least one guy who deals solely with Linux users who use MediaOne. His job is not to provide tech support, but to help the users whose systems have been compromised. I know, because I've spent many an hour on the phone with him.

    Incidentally, I would have been happy to e-mail this to you, if you had registered.
  • but I am in Chicago and I know from experience that the location can make a night/day difference.

    I used to have TCI (sux big time), and M1 bought out the Cable Co operating in the burb I moved to. I get pretty much very good video service (comedy central and all my faves are in basic, I get 3HBO and a couple other premium channels bundled with my broadband package) and the cable modem is excellent, except for a couple weeks of spotty outages.

    I was horrified when they announced last year they were going to swap chicago and a couple other markets for TCI markets, grr back to TCI.

    Then AT&T bought TCI, I wasn't sure what to make of it. The deal is still going through so the M1 deal probably doesn't really affect me, but Comcast, AOL and MS vs AT&T buying them could make things interesting.
  • 200k of portscans? This is not good, the ISP being able to tell you what software you can use on your machine. I am currently running Windows 98 on this machine, and I have Apache installed as a simple testbed server...if I opt for our local cable modem service, will they start telling me that I need to disable Apache? They had better not...I also plan to set up a private FTP server so that I can move large graphic files between work and home without trying to split them up to multiple disks...they had better not tell me that is not acceptable...I know that portscans are not illegal but you have the right to block any addresses that excessively scan your machine.
    _______
    Scott Jones
    Newscast Director / WKPT-TV 19
    Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
  • If you're moving to the Boston area, then MediaOne is probably the best bet. By all means, don't land in a town that has Cablevision. Their TV technology is so far behind that when you tune to ESPN, Chris Berman still has hair, and Internet isn't even on their radar.

    The cable modem is a blast, it's available in almost all MediaOne towns, and they're pretty cool about what you do with it. That's what impresses me the most, they really do give you pretty much just a pipe instead of trying to "add value" by forcibly guiding you to their own content. They don't "support" Linux, but they've set up a private newsgroup for Linux customers, which, given how most companies deal with unsupported platforms, is pretty refreshing.

    All of which has had me concerned since the original Comcast merger was announced. I'm not familair with Comcast, or RoadRunner, or any of the other players involved, but I suspect any one of them might change it into some sort of proprietary service designed to sell you services or content.

  • RCN? (Score:1)

    by thelars ( 30688 )
    Hmm, I live up in Somerville and I can guarantee that RCN has more than "2 or 3 customers" signed up.

    In fact, they're providing service in both Somerville and Arlington, and to my knowledge the service is available almost everywhere they're not blocked by private right-of-way issues.

    Which isn't to say I'm not waiting for MediaOne to take over the Time-Warner license here; competition in cable modem service should be interesting.
  • Quick conspiracy question/notice.

    Are Gates and Allen still on good terms. They started M$ together, and now Allen owns *tons* of cable. He controls the access, gates controls the desktop. And have you seen that silly picture of Allen smiling smugly/slyly with his hand posed in the evil mastermind pose?

    Off Topic:
    Q: What is the difference between Texas and yogurt? A: Yogurt has culture. Gimme a break. How many of your states used to be their own country? Damn Yankees. id is based in Texas and so are the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders. Sex and Violence, Texas kicks ass.

  • I was fairly amused when the guy who did the original install showed up with some buddies to harass^H^H^H^H^H^Help the guy who was diagnosing the modem, but whatever

    I may be clueless, but what does the ^H^H^H^H^H^ mean? I'm just curious, but I have seen it here on /. several times.

    I had a teacher once say "There are no stupid questions", please remember that.

    Thanks

  • Back to Work!

    You must bow to the Almighty Chuck and hope that he does not bestow upon you a mighty whuppin'

  • :-( (Score:1)

    by thales ( 32660 )
    After being promised a cable modem in 3 to 6 month's for over a year NOW I find out things are going to get worse. M$ and AO-Hell! Oh boy lets combine sorry Cable TV service with junk M$ software and the worst internet service known. Fantastic, all they need is to get Packard Bell involved so they can run it all on junk hardware.
    I wasn't happy with AT&T's bid, but this makes it look like a Godsend.
  • ACtually, a T2 DOES exist and it is functionally 4 T1s. And your gut is correct, D4/AMI is 1.544 and is typically used for voice, where ESF/B8ZS is used for data, e.g. frame relay. But to be perfectly correct, Tx does enter into the disccusion, these are DSx, as in DS0. T is the line coding and framing specs, NOT the bandwidth which has the DS nomenclature.

  • 1) They suck big time

    I've had pretty good luck with them so far. The initial setup went very quickly, and I've had very few problems with it. I run it through a Linux (P90) firewall to my apartment's lan, and it works great.

    Especially Q3Test on my G3/400... [g]

    2) Don't let them touch your computer

    Of course not. Get your roommate's iMac and let them set it up on that, then call up and have the MAC addr changed. Or boot into windoze for the install. The techs are (probably wisely) phobic about Linux boxen. (i.e., there's a lot of possibly hard configuring to do given all the random distributions of Linux there are [or have been at one time on that poor P90])

    4) Good luck getting your service back on-line in a timely fashion.

    They did a good job here too; when the cable modem died (of course I rent it), they came in about a day or two, and had a new one hooked up pretty quickly. Yes, it was a couple phone calls to juggle the MAC addr, but they were perfectly able to do the job.

    I was fairly amused when the guy who did the original install showed up with some buddies to harass^H^H^H^H^H^Help the guy who was diagnosing the modem, but whatever.

    Of course, I'm probably about to get an unplesantly large shaft when I move apartments... anyone know what moving the service costs these days?

    On another issue, NO I DON'T WATCH TV! Why do you oppress my bank account by making me pay for TV programming when I don't own a freaken TV!

    Huh? I'm not paying for any cable TV with my modem, AFAIK...

    Peace,

  • Perhaps followed someday by MSTV, a "free"
    television that only receives MS* channels.... :-)

  • It's "their" network, but they typically have a
    city-sanctified monopoly, so if a customer doesn't
    like how they have set up "their" network the
    customer has no choice. The customer is screwed.
    As always. Gov't. and corporations working
    hand-in-hand to screw the little guy, what's new.

    I think either a cable company should allow ISP
    competition or give up their city-wide monopoly
    and allow competition for the wires themselves.
    Better yet, both. And city officials should be
    educated on why we don't need to create any
    more monopolies thank-you-very-much.

  • We get ADSL in two months. Unfortunately I won't be living here, and there will be a 1 gigabyte upstream transfer limit.
  • Well, I'm not really sure about MediaOne, as they don't offer cable in my area, however I must say that I am extremely disappointed in Shaw @Home (Red Deer, Alberta, Canada). Yesterday I received a long e-mail from one of their system engineers (an mcse at that), explaining how because I was running Linux, and had sendmail and a web server running, (i do internal CGI testing with it, and dont use either for external traffic), and because Linux is insecure, I had 14 days to remove all my server processes and "secure my system".

    Previous to this, I had logged about 200k of portscans coming from the Shaw office in Calgary, Alberta, and had firewalled the address that they were coming from. After being put on technical support for about 8 hours, (approximately), I finally got to speak to a technician, who then told me that I had been placed on the abuse list, and it was doubtful whether I would ever get my cable access back.

    I then followed up the e-mail I got from the MCSE with a lengthy reply explaining my position, and the fact that I kind of know whether or not my box is secure (I am a UNIX sysadmin for an ISP), and am still waiting for his reply. This has frustrated me immensely, and I am at the end of my rope. Unfortunately, Shaw @Home is the fastest Internet around, and I don't know if I could go back to modem. (Although its free). Anyways, that's my rant of the day.
  • >Simson Garfinkel yesterday had an article in Boston Globe which he says he compared MediaOne's speeds to Bell Atalantic's DSL service and MediaOne was ten fold faster.

    Not quite, if I may echo the skepticism of Tony's post. Garfinkel reported that the latency on BA DSL were about 10x as long. (apparently due to BAIS peering in Virginia). He also reported that download speeds are comparable, but upload is on 90k.

    For those of us in Boston/Brookline, DSL is better than nothing. And it's *just gone live*-- it won't be difficult to peer at more places (probably will need FCC approval, of course!)
  • personally, i agree that the cable access sucks. you actually DON'T get comedy central as part of the basic package! but the cable modem access has seemed pretty good. i've had limited experience w/ cable modem access in the boston area... i'm moving there full time in a few weeks, and i expect the service will treat me just fine. anyone care to comment on the television access, though? anyone wanna rate mediaone for me? lemme know what i can expect?
  • We have just had comcast installed the pipes went in last year and we are *STILL* not connect the sales people have no idea what a cable modem is let alone when we will be likely to be able to get acsess to the net with one but this in the UK
    after talking to techies they put me on the list of demo tester but this is not likely to be for a fwe years.
    Our town was suposed to be connect about 2 years before but they are late the work of the pipe layers was very very shoddy ie not in a remotly straight line but hey i can weight for PSTN
  • what the hell is wrong with separate companies? If I see one more merger Im gonna puke. Can't wait to go by my MS groceries in my MS car, with my MS gasoline.
  • Its pretty sad when you make a move location
    Based solely on connectivity..

    21st century is another option in chicago,
    And from what i have read, Enteract is being
    bought out by 21st century as well (might of
    read it wrong)

    http://www.21stcentury.com/ser_area.htm

    its a bit limited right now but i prefer them
    over primecable or medianone..
  • Mediaone here in S. Florida a) can't keep a mailserver up even when the system is up, and in case case b) goes down when there is a cable cut anywhere between here and Virginia, where the authentication server resides; because c) they have no redundancy in the system; and d) are now charging us broadband rates but have not converted to 2-way cable modems. Heck, we're getting ADSL in 2000Q1, after which they won't have any customers down here anyway.

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