[Vision2020] V2020 Problems

[Tom Hansen]

The ISP service out of London may be generations ahead of FSR, but I don't
think that I can handle the cost related to long-distance calls.

Tom "49er" Hansen

We could learn a lot from crayons: some are sharp, some are pretty, some are
dull, some have weird names, and all are different colors....but they all
exist very nicely in the same box. 

-----Original Message-----
From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com]
On Behalf Of lrr
Sent: Thursday, December 09, 2004 9:02 AM
To: Vision 2020
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] V2020 Problems 

Seems like small business growing pains.  For husband and me, the solution
was
to go with an ISP in London that's basically a couple of linux-geeky dudes
who
know their stuff and have little interest in expanding beyond their means.
I'm
not sure how broadband works, and how different it is in the states, but
somehow
they work through BT (the phone company over here), yet still manage to be
the
provider of the services and are intimate enough that they are on the ball
with
support.  I shall ask my dear one if he has any more specific
recommendations.

L.Rosgen

Quoting "Art Deco aka W. Fox" <deco at moscow.com>:

> Ted, et al,
>
> I may be wrong, but below is a possible explanation of the FSR email, V
2020
> problems.
>
> First, it is not just V 2020 but emails from various sources and
geographical
> locations that are sometimes delayed up to six days.  Some emails have
been
> forever lost.
>
> The servers at FSR have a maximum capacity to handle email.  When that
> capacity
> is exceeded, the emails are cached somewhere else and retrieved, if
possible,
> when the system has enough unused capacity to handle them.  Sometimes it
is
> not
> possible to retrieve the cached emails on a timely basis or to retrieve
them
> at
> all.
>
> Another problem concerns the allegations that certain users emails are
being
> read by certain FSR staff.
>
> When I first signed up with FSR, the technical support was very good and
one
> seldom had to wait.  Now, it is hard to get connected on call to them;
> leaving a
> message sometimes leads to a long (more than a day) wait.  The last
> experience I
> had was with someone who could not find the problem of why I could not
> connect
> to the mail server and seemed to have no idea of how to investigate the
> problem.
> (I always do the obvious before calling, including a cold boot just in
case
> of
> an OS foul-up).  He then said it was a problem with my machine.  A few
hours
> later without any more action on my part, the mail connection started
working
> again.
>
> I am on a wireless connection.  Sometimes it works very well.  Sometimes
it
> is
> pathetically slow, due probably due to FSR's insufficient bandwidth.
>
> Further, FSR is on a number of span-block lists.  This means that certain
> ISPs
> will not accept any emails from anyone using FSR.  I reported the problem
> yesterday after receiving another message saying my email was blocked
because
> FSR was considered a spammer.  The problem was acknowledged by FSR with a
> very
> short note saying that they are working on it.  It may be a problem with
> virus
> infected machines of FSR users who are spam robots and/or real spammers.
> This
> explanation would also explain the sluggish response at times.  It is
alleged
> that FSR does not have the adequate hardware, software, or technical
> expertise
> to find the spammers.
>
> I like to support local businesses.  However, the problems above are
> beginning
> to lead me to consider finding a more reliable, more secure, and more
> responsive
> ISP connection.
>
> Has anyone else had these problems?  Or different explanations/solutions?
>
> Wayne
>
> Wayne A. Fox

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