Nov 14, 1998, 9:15am

And another thing that's bothering me...

How dumbed up (or down) most ISPs are these days. From the international corporations like @home and Netcom, right down to a lot of local ones.

The following is a true story. About a year ago Sprint Canada, a telephone long distance provider, started offering a national ISP service. It gave you one free month if you were a Sprint subscriber, unlimited access, and the rate was $22.95, or $20.95 a month if you were a Sprint subscriber, which I am. Since my previous ISP tanked it, I was in search for a new one then, so Sprint was my option.

Now before I get into this, I have to say - I love Sprint Canada. I've always had only good things to say about them, and I recommended them to anyone who would listen. You see, I hate that big giant US-owned evil empire called BC Telecom (or BC Tel for short, though I call it BC Hell) with a passion. I wrote rants about BC Hell years ago, and while that archived stuff is ether now, I won't bore you with details today. I just hate them. Sprint gives me excellent rates (better than BC Hell of course), and because I make so many US calls, their flat per minute rate anywhere anytime is a boon. No more waking up at 5 am to make an east coast call on the cheap, or waiting until after 6pm to call the folks back home (where it's 9pm or later).

With all this said, Sprint was naturally my choice for an ISP.

So, I get this CD-ROM in my bill for January, and I figure, lets sign up. But I didn't want to use the CD-ROM which was full of Microsoft IE 3 and it's leechware. I figure, I've got everything in place, Eudora, Agent, Netscape 4 and 3, IE4, everything is just the way I want it, so I'll call them up to open my account, get the DNS server numbers from them, get the mail and news addresses from them, set my password up, get my email name, and boom - "I'm surfing the web!" (for you Yanks out there, that quote is from the Sprint Canada tv spots).

This is my conversation:

Me: "Hi Sprint. I love you, and I would marry you if I could. I am calling because I want to sign up with your Most ISP plan."

Sprint: "Yes sir. Are you a Sprint subscriber? We'll send you a CD-ROM right away."

Me: "Oh, I have the CD-ROM, it came with my last bill. But I don't want to use it - I already have all my programs loaded, so I just need..."

Sprint: "Sir, you have to use the CD-ROM to get our service. (sounds of flipping pages in a manual) 'First, you press the button on your CD-ROM drive in your computer. Insert the Sprint Most disc into the drive, close the door. If a program isn't auto loading, then you need to open Windows Explorer. If you need to open Explorer, do so now. You can find it on your Start menu under...'"

Me: "Excuse me, I don't want to install the program, see. I already have Internet Exploder 4 loaded, and I don't want to load IE 3. Can you just give me the DNS numbers and..."

Sprint: One moment sir... Sir, you cannot use our service with Internet Exploder 4. We do not support it sir. It will not work with our service. Now have you put the disc in?"

Me: "Excuse me, what you just said is wrong. The browser I use does not matter as far as the internet connection. Now all I need is your DNS numbers so I can set up my Dial up Networking connection on my own."

Sprint: "DNS numbers? Sir, I don't know what that is. (I swear, their tech support said that to me). Now if you put in your CD-ROM, we can have you surfing...."

Me: "You don't know what a DNS number is??? You are kidding, right? Can I speak to someone who actually knows how the internet works?"

Sprint: (silence) "... Yes sir, I will transfer you to my supervisor."

Okay, to cut out the dialog, the same spiel went on with the "supervisor". He swore up and down that I simply couldn't use IE4 or Netscape for that matter to "surf the web" with the Sprint Account. He didnt' know what Sprint's west coast DNS numbers were either. He told me he would get their systems administrator to call me. I waited two days for the call, but no dice, so I called again (luckily he told me the sysadmin's name) and got in touch with the guy. Finally, I found someone who knew my POP server address, usenet address and DNS numbers.

BUT, I still couldn't install. The sysadmin said their ISP was set up so you could only sign on with the service from the CD-ROM. Yes it was a pain in the ass for people like me he said, but it was made as automated and as simple as possible for the "general public". Me? I had to actually sign on to the site through a telnet session, which ended up being a coded maze that thankfully he guided me through. About an hour into this phone conversation, I was finally an active Sprint Canada ISP customer.

And the service sucked. One problem we have here in Canada is that most of the major ISPs (including my current one, @home) seem to think Toronto is the centre of the known universe, and everything should be routed through there. When I visit vancouver.com, I go through 20 hops, bouncing around Toronto, New York, California, Seattle, and finally back to BC.Net. With a cable modem, it isn't so bad, but with a dialup, it sucks. Plus the newsfeed, while having gobs of tor.x newsgroups, was very lean when it came to bc.x and van.x newsgroups.

So to wrap up this particular ditty, I dropped the service after my free month was up.

So where was I? Oh yeah - the dumbing down of ISPs. Sprint isn't an isolated case - I've had my own headaches dealing with @home and Rogers, the provider of the service in Canada. They too insisted on me loading their version of Netscape (4.05, full version). I minded that, and I didn't mind it - I didn't mind it cuz I have to admit their customized version is pretty cool (though I wish it supported 1024x768 in it's custom window, instead of 640x480 only).

However, I did "mind it" because I previously had Netscrape 4.07 standalone loaded - no email, no usenet reader, no composer, no netcaster - just a relatively lean Netscrape. Now I got the bloatware back on my hard drive.

So anyway, they insisted I MUST install their CD-ROM or I wouldn't be able to access the Net. A day after the install, I realized this was complete bullshit of course. I could have remained with my leaner version of Netscrape no problems. And oh yeah, their install wiped out my bookmarks - because it's replaced with @home's customized (read, companies paid us good money to put links to them on your browser) link buttons. Luckily, I archived the bookmark.htm file before the new install.

So this is the trend - make the product into some brainless install that even a monkey (or a disk jockey or BC Hell employee) could install. Grand idea of course, but what if we don't want that behind-the-times browser (a la Sprint), or that bloatware (a la @home)? Then you're screwed, they say. "We don't even bother telling our techs how to do it, because we don't want to encourage you to use any other program other than our own - it's a tech support nightmare!"

Screw that.

I mean, this is getting ridiculous. I have a friend on Netcom who went through the same bullshit. I won't even get into AOL - if you subscribe to AOL, you get what you asked for. Everything is so dumbed down, it's getting hard to even find a tech support person who knows anything more than reading a manual on the phone, or punching a few keys in a FAQ.

When I first used the Internet, everything was command line controlled, and stuff like Gopher, Archie, Veronica and FTP was the norm. (Quick straw poll - how many of you honestly know what Gopher is?). If you didn't know how to telnet (from DOS no less), didn't know how to use that old Windows 3.xx SOCKS program (it's been so long, I forget what it was called), you were screwed as far as Net access goes.

Now I'm not advocating a step back to those times. I hated command line access. I hated that SOCKS program - it was buggy as hell. I happen to like DuN, the dialup control that ships with Windows 95 (though everyone should get the DuN 1.3 upgrade from mikeysoft, if you haven't gotten it yet). But I also like being able to enter my own POP address in Eudora, my mail server address in Agent, and my DNS numbers in DuN. And this isn't hard, folks - all tech support needs is a post-it note beside their computer that contains the following info:

Dial up Access Number
Primary and Secondary DNS Numbers
Mail server Address
Email Server Address

That's it! So when an ISP customer calls up to subscribe to their service, and that customer knows what he or she is doing (I think if someone is asking for server addresses and DNS numbers, they are), The ISP should give them this info, take their CC information, ask for a password, get an email address set up, and boom, "You're surfing the Web!"

Till next time folks.... thanks for stopping by.

1 comments | reply

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