LM_NET: Library Media Networking
Taking the advice of several LM_NET members, I signed up for att@home and
have never had such horrible service. The technician who came to my house
on Tuesday when my husband was home could not get any type of signal. When
I signed up, I told the representative that the outlet in that particular
room would have to be turned on since it was not activated. After two
hours, the technician told my husband that he was not authorized to install
a new drop or go into the attic and it might be several weeks before someone
would come out. He left the modem and ethernet card and 15 feet of line
connecting the modem to the "dead" outlet. Later I found that only five
feet of line from the modem to the wall was recommended. I had to
reconfigure both IE and Outlook Express to its former configurations because
networking was causing some very strange occurrences since it wasn't
working.
For the past three days I have been trying to schedule someone to come and
finish the installation. Apparently our local office wants to work from
8:00 until 3:00, which is the time that I work. They are not willing to
come after 3:45 when I can be home. Today I got a call from the national
office telling me they could come tomorrow between 8:00 and 10:00 and to
call the local office if that wasn't convenient. The lady called at home
and left a message, although I had given both of my work numbers to the
office and I didn't receive the message until I got home after school. I
could not get anyone in the local dispatch office. Every time I called our
local office, no matter what time of day, I never could get through to the
att dispatch.
Because of this, I have decided to forget about cable modem for a while and
continue with my regular ISP, who has given me excellent, if sometimes not
very fast, service. Although everyone at the national office has been very
nice, I realize that if the local service is not good, it will be very hard
to get service. I would like to know when they install since most people
who can afford their prices do work. The technician who told me how to
uninstall their software was very nice; however, I am concerned that I will
lose my bookmarks and mail folders since my headings now say that this
software is provided by att@home (even though I have never been able to use
their specific software; this shows up on my regular IE and Outlook
Express).
I am writing this to let everyone know to think twice before making a
change; to see if the company is willing to provide service when the
customer needs it, and to communicate with the customer (plus letting off
some steam). This has been very frustrating since I had been looking
forward to faster service (although twice when I called the mail service was
down).
At least all of this didn't mess up my dial-up.
By the way, when I got to school Monday, I found out that although all of
the classrooms (except the library) did get new networked computers, it will
be at least December before they can be used. Hopefully by then my area
supervisor will have worked out something for the library.
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Madeline L. Buchanan, Library Media Specialist
W. J. Christian School (K-8)
Birmingham, Alabama 35206
Phone (205) 838-7666 or 231-5277
Fax (205) 838-7673
mlbuchan@hiwaay.net
http://home.hiwaay.net/~mlbuchan/
http://home.hiwaay.net/~wjcs/
"The world looks brighter from behind a smile."
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