Problems with Earthlinks PPP access

Interwrx.com runs Linux boxes and helped me get our dial-up NAT system
running when they were my employer's ISP. (They still do our CoLo
though.)
No 24-7 tech support, but at least they're Linux friendly.


Kimi Adams wrote:
>
> Hmmm, I doubt that most ISP's have any knowledge of Unix or Linux in
> any format beyond simple instructions. That's why it's important to
> be part of this group and to understand what other ISP's don't. It's
> a known fact that only Windows machine can get on the internet, right?
>
> ....................??...................right?
>
> (...and then the phone was picked up by a real person and they asked
> that one irritating question "What is your operation system, Windows
> 95, Windows 98 or Windows ME?") This is a topic worth saving.
>
> Kimi
>
> At 6/18/01 10:55 PM, you wrote:
>
> > I wanted to see what would happen when I pushed "4 - for other
> > operating systems".
> >
> > When they finally answered the phone, they asked if I had Windows
> > 3.1,
> > 95, 98, or ME. I told them I had Windows 95 (I do, honest. The CD is
> > somewhere in the closet. Swear to god. No one asked if I had it
> > installed on anything.), but that I was using a linux system to
> > debug
> > EXACTLY what had gone wrong, and that their machine wasnt
> > authenticating because the IP it claimed to have was invalid
> > (0.0.0.0).
> >
> > So the windows tech who answered the phone took down notes and
> > passed
> > them along (I hope?).
> >
> > Anyways, the point of this reply is that I imagine there really
> > wasnt
> > a tech there as speculated, and that finally one of the windows guys
> > got sick and tired of hearing the little chirp reminder that someone
> > is on hold, and took the call anyways. Surely there are
> > unix-literate
> > techs on the day staff somewhere, since they are an ISP...
> >
> > > \_ Hopefully the machine I connected and logged into will
> > > \_ be in their logs, and they can figure out what is wrong with
> > that
> > > \_ sucker.
> > >
> > > Which sucker? The machine? Or the one that sat on hold for more
> > than
> > > an hour?
> > >
> > > FWIW, as I understand call centers, the 15minutes is probably the
> > > average time to bail. With you sitting up in the queue, you ran
> > the
> > > accursed hotboard into an hour for them.
> > >
> > > I'd also be somewhat suspicious that there auto answerer has times
> > > like
> > >
> > > 30 seconds
> > > 1 minute
> > > 2 minutes
> > > 5 minutes
> > > 10 minutes
> > > 15 minutes
> > > ---oh darn, only 6 slots for times, guess we won't scare the
> > customer
> > > more with how long the wait *really* is.