birding-aus

Dead time

To: "birding-aus" <>, "Pam" <>, "Justin Russell" <>, "Martin Russell" <>, "Wesley & Vanessa Russell" <>
Subject: Dead time
From: "Tony Russell" <>
Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2003 10:37:30 +1030
This is a message for all you out there who purchase block time, like 100hrs for $100 from your ISP, not those of you who purchase  "all you can eat" monthly for around $25 / month.
 
Have you ever noticed how during up or downloading emails your data transmission stops from time to time ? For those of you who are unfamiliar you can pick this whilst on line by watching the two little TV screens in your task bar at bottom right on your screen , or by clicking on them and watching the actual flow of data in a dialogue box that comes up. When the little screens are blue data is flowing and when they are black it isn't. This happens during download from visited websites too.
You should check this carefully because while the screens are black you are paying for online time during which nothing is happening - you are being ripped off. I have noticed recently that for between 30 - 50% of the time ( on average) with my ISP the screens are black which means that although I am paying for 100hrs of time ( plus an annual "membership fee") I am actually losing 30 - 50 hrs of this time.  I am sure some sort of "priority" system is at work, although my ISP will not admit this.
I have complained to my ISP about this and at first the response was " we can't do anything about that - it's part of the email system ". Later it evolved that if I switched to a monthly "all you can eat" plan, the problem will not exist, which implies that if the ISP wished to fix the problem it can be done.  Meanwhile of course one would be paying around $300 per year for the monthly plan instead of $100 for 100 hrs - which lasts me well over a year.
 
I then spoke with other ISPs about this and they assured me that they could fix the problem, if I joined them at the same rate  (without annual fees) , by instructing me on how to alter the command settings in my modem - the init strings.  If they can do that, I asked my ISP, why can't you ?  A deathly silence - which I suppose means they would prefer to rip me off rather than help fix the problem.
This is something you need to be very aware of to avoid being ripped off in a block plan.
 
Needless to say I will be switching ISPs when my current block of time is used up.
 
I'd be interested in hearing about other people's experiences in this matter.
 
Tony.
 
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