Creme de la Creme Starting to Curdle
Written: Oct 15 '99 (Updated Dec 31 '99)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: 3 e-mail addresses, newsreaders, 56K capable I guess, no line drops
Cons: slow downloads, slow web page loading, lots of 26.4K connections
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| JMB623's Full Review: Mindspring |
I just dumped Juno after more than a year, but would have done it sooner if I'd had Mindspring among the many ISP's I tried (not necessarily true, read on for the full story). Only have had it since 10/12, but was connected in less than an hour after signing up. I downloaded the software to a Zip disk, but I called tech support to ask if my using Windows Dial-up-Networking (DUN) would be a problem if I didn't use their software. He said the software was for novices and that DUN would work fine with their servers. That saved 4.5 Mb of disk space, and I received the CD two days later. Knocked 4.5 Mb off my Zip Disk as well.
My first day I was able to connect to the internet using DUN the first time in less than 10 seconds. After Juno's response times, I was so excited I had to go take a cold shower, but Mindspring didn't cut me off while I was gone. Everything was perfect, including the much ballyhooed tech support. The next day it rained on my parade. I was able to get my e-mail first thing in the morning, but after that I could not logon to either of the two local numbers after in excess of 20 tries for each. Kept getting an "unable to establish connection" on the DUN interface. So once again I called the much ballyhooed tech support. I was speaking to a live person in less than a minute. He starts telling me we need to make changes in my network neighborhood interface. I had long ago removed that from my desktop and from the control panel(thank you TweakUI), though the .cpl still existed in Windows System. He says I can never use Mindspring without making these critical changes. I knew he didn't know much when he didn't suggest we go double click on the .cpl in the System Directory. I say, look here pal, I logged on yesterday and this morning without a problem, and that thing has not been moved or changed in at least a year. He copped an attitude that I might know more about my system than he did, and he has probably been trained to blame problems on the customer or his/her equipment. Two hours later, without changing anything, I logged on as usual, but noooo, it couldn't possibly have been a problem on their end.
Today is my fourth day with Mindspring, and it started off with faster logons than usual, zero line drops, and zero problems. Mindspring is so concerned about their service that I received automated e-mail surveys for both my tech calls within hours. Mr. Attitude Guy got himself a blistering review just because they are so efficient at sending out those follow-up surveys. I was still wicked mad when I filled it out.
Later I spoke to a supervisor, who, without the attitude, backed this guy up, even though I told him I had been able to log on trouble free a couple of hours later. So to test this Mr. Wizard I asked him how to put the network neighborhood .cpl back on the control panel. He says, call Microsoft or your computer manufacturer. I knew I didn't need it, but to remove all doubt if it happens again, I put the .cpl back in Kansas by right clicking on it and choosing "Open with control panel" (remember to check the boxes next to it in TweakUI if you used that to remove it). I left it off my desktop because I despise those icons. My connection continued to work just fine even with it back, no changes were made, and I've decided that in the absence of creeping Earthlinkism (they just bought Mindspring) I'm gonna keep Mindspring until cable modems or xDSL reach my remote neighborhood. Oh, right now they have a special, pay one month at $19.95 for unlimited access (no setup fee), and get two months free.
Additional information you may need to make your connection to Mindspring work best comes under the heading modem settings. Today is day five, and my pages were downloading slowly as well as having downloads at speeds as low as 79 bytes per second. I have a v.90 56K modem, but terrible phone lines, so on a really good hair day I connect at 31.2K. My usual is the default on a 56K modem, 28.8K. I was connecting at 28.8K, but where I used to download with Juno at an average of 2.4Kbps, and sometimes even get to 3.2kbps, with Mindspring I'm barely getting 1kbps. I called tech support and we ran through all my TC/IP settings, then made changes in the modem settings, finally disabling x2 and v.90. The tech guy spent 45 minutes with me and waited until we checked the new settings by going on line. When we finished, I no longer had a v.90 modem, but started downloading the latest Mcafee virus scan update at 3.2kbps. He e-mailed me a dozen pages of modem troubleshooting stuff, and my connection is as fast as it's ever going to get on my phone lines. If you sign up with Mindspring and find your pages or downloads slow, be sure to call tech support and make sure your modem settings are compatible with their system.
I'm now into day 8 of Mindspring, and a new problem has sprung up. Now in the middle of viewing some pages on a single web site, when I click to go to page 4 from page 3, the little systray icon shows the monitor screen representing Mindspring being completely dark. I used the URL drop down menu to see if any other sites would open. Nothing but "This page cannot be viewed" and DNS messages. The icon screen remains dark. I called Mindspring tech support and got the usual quick answer. The techie tries my line and says it works fine, no problem at Mindspring. Next we disconnect and shut down my computer. On restart and a reconnect, it works again. Tech tells me that it is not uncommon to just have your connection not work, even though it shows you are still connected. Solution is to disconnect from the Internet and reconnect. Can't say as I still think Mindspring is the greatest thing since sliced bread. One more problem and I'm going to change the title, the rating, and my recommendation (10/20).
My second week with Mindspring is up tomorrow, and it's starting to act like Earthlink. Today I had several episodes of "not able to establish connection", and had to make 5 attempts to logon. As I write I'm downloading a 7 Mb update for MS Virtual Machine to plug a security hole in IE 5. Even after killing my 56K v.90 modem with adjustments to make it compatible with their connections, Mindspring is now giving me a download throughput of .6 Kbps on a 7 Mb file. That's way beyond pathetic, it's abysmal. I'm going to call tech support when the download is over, but I don't think there's much they can do, it's already been done. I think it is Earthlink pod people(10/25). Except for the horrible download speed, it's still better than most, but it is going to get a different rating and title.
This is day 16, and I'm getting a lot of 26.4K connections interspersed with some 28.8K's. My system is not non-standard, as has been suggested in another Epinion ballyhooing the perfection of Mindspring, and wasn't even when the network .cpl was not on my control panel. My modem was a standard USR/Gateway 56K with X2 which I upgraded to v.90. Now I don't know what it is after the changes the techies at Mindspring made. I do know that if I had 3 millionK modem I would never get better than 28.8K on these phone lines, but all these 26.4's bother me a lot. I haven't been dropped, and I haven't had any major problems, but Mindspring isn't exactly the cat's pajamas either. Unless something major happens, I won't update this review anymore. Give 'em a try, they might be better where you live, and with the $19.95 for 3 months, it's a cheap try out. Watch out for the cancer of Earthlink, though (10/28/99). Something major has happened: service has improved for unknown reasons. Not getting all those "server hangs", no more dropped connections. I still get an awful lot of 26.4K connections, slow web page loads and more DNS's than I would expect, but overall it has improved. Just to cover all bases I'm trying out rcn.com because they have a 3 months free, no set-up fee, but only one mailbox at $19.95 a month for unlimited access. If you search around you could subscribe to major ISP's forever for nothing if you were willing to change every time the free try out period ended. Because I didn't change anything on my system, and the service has improved, I have to conclude that the problem was never my system to begin with. Whatever (11/10/99). Finito!!!
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
JMB623
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Member: Joel
Reviews written: 97
Trusted by: 209 members
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