ISP irritations

[Choo Choo]

Yesterday evening I got home from the movies, to find that my Internet connection didn't seem to be working.  Since my business depends totally on this, it's not a trivial matter.

1st call to the helpdesk in India turned up the "information" that my account had "become de-activated" - and "no sir, there is no reason for that."  I was given a series of steps to follow, consisting of a series of usernames and password to log in with, which I was assured would "re-activate" it.  None of these did a damn thing.

The second helpdesk guy concluded that there was something wrong with either the phone line or the router - despite the fact that the (ultra-reliable) Draytek router was reporting the broadband connection as 100% healthy, and identifying the problem at the ISP end.  No sir - absolutely no problem at their end, no sir.  I was told that I should (a) get another router, preferably a new one, and confirm that that didn't work either;  otherwise (b) it would cost me £169 to have an engineer call to check the (healthy) phone line.

So I disinterred an old dial-up ISP account and made a connection via steam modem - and found I could collect my email no problem from all the various servers on which I have accounts - except, amazingly, the one connected with my broadband provider.  The email collection there was being rejected for "username/password" reasons.

Call #3 to the helpdesk put me in touch with a cheery guy who informed that "sometimes your password will get corrupted on our servers."  Really?  "Oh yes sir."  That's not my fault, is it?  "Oh no sir."  After a bit more cajoling, he agreed to reset it (back to what it was.)  And hey presto - suddenly I could not only collect my email, but the broadband connection miraculously sprang back into life.

I wouldn't mind so much (well, yes, I suppose I would) expect I'm paying these buggers a lot of money for a so-called "business-standard" connection.  I hear stories like this all the time from people who have "bargain" broadband packages at home - but a premium-rate business package?  If I ran my business like that, I'd be out of business pretty quick.

Grrrr. 

[Harry]

Same here, my business also depends on a working internet, if not than I am in trouble, and helpdesk isn't much of a help, and I pay a hefty sum for good support.

[Mark]

Which ISPs do you guys use? My business also depends on a reliable internet connection, and I use 1&1 Internet. Touch wood, they've been fine for the past five years.

[Choo Choo]

Which ISPs do you guys use? My business also depends on a reliable internet connection, and I use 1&1 Internet. Touch wood, they've been fine for the past five years.

I do still have a number of web hosting packages with 1&1, and, like you, I've mostly found them OK - only a couple of glitches over the years, and these were (eventually) sorted out.

In recent years I've switched to a number of different web hosts, primarily small companies here in the UK, mostly because (a) it's possible to speak to an English-speaking human on the phone, and (b) there are no issues with .COM sites failing to turn up in Google "UK-only" searches (as can be the case with e.g. 1&1's Germany-based servers.)

The broadband connection is provided by Demon Internet, who once upon a time were a very good ISP.  I don't use them for web hosting as I don't find their packages particularly competitive.  All I want from them is a reliable broadband connection.  If I get any repetition of this then I'm going to switch.  Only the pain which this will inevitably involve is putting me off.