Wednesday 13 August 2008

Dial-up hell

I'd forgotten just how bad it is to have no broadband. Note the past tense. I had forgotten. For various sad and bureaucratic reasons involving Vodaphone, iHug and the other users of my network, I'm now being reminded -- and for another two weeks will continue to be reminded.

That's one reason posts here have been short in recent days; it's hard to point you to great stories and articles on the internet when I can't read them myself.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

It may not be relevant in your case, but my experience has been that ihug is no longer the great ISP it once was. Time to consider moving on? I recently did.

I look forward to the resumption of your excellent postings.

Peter Cresswell said...

Thanks James.

Yes, iHug is no more, having been absorbed by Vodaphone, who now offer lesser plans at a higher cost, with less responsive service (for myself, I draw the line at waiting twenty minutes on the phone).


So who can recommend a good ISP offering over 20GB of broadband per month?

And what does one do about having to abandon an existing iHug email address?

Anonymous said...

I moved to Xnet on the recommendation of a family member. They let you customise your own plan and don't force you to sign up for their telephone service. No complaints so far although it's still early days.

I wanted to keep my old ihug email addresses for the sake of convenience. So I am currently paying $5 a month for a dialup account that I do not use but which lets me access their email servers. You might want to talk to them about a similar arrangement. Or just bite the bullet and move to a new email address.

Owen McShane said...

And Cullen says broadband has nothing to do with productivity!
That statement alone makes him unfit to govern.
Broadband is about to have a huge impact on health services and of course telecommuting is the fastest growing form of commuting in the US.

I use Planet. When I phone up I always get the same engineer and he knows my voice. He once diagnosed a telecom fault from his desk.
Great service.

Libertyscott said...

I keep my IHUG email alive for a token amount of $3.50 a month, which is nothing in £s for me anyway.

Anonymous said...

For various sad and bureaucratic reasons involving Vodaphone

Blame Labour for not nationalizing Telecom much earlier (ie, in early 2000s). If this had taken place 7 or 8 years ago, then our broadband would be much better today.

Unknown said...

Why no broadband Peter

I'm currently throttled back to dialup speed, but only because I've used up my 5GB for the month streaming the Olympics. Back up to broadband tomorrow, and I think I'll double up for the next month.

Speaking of Olympics, there was no convincing performance from the NZ rowers in the semis tonight, including the ones who have made it to the finals on Saturday. I'm even thinking Drysdale is going to have trouble placing in the final, let alone taking the gold.

I'm just hoping beyond hope they're all keeping their powder dry.

Unknown said...

Oh, forgot to say I'm Ihug/Vodafone. HATE their call centre help.