The saga all began late September, when I noticed that my SBC Yahoo dsl rate jumped from $29.99 a month to $49.99. A quick call to SBC informed me that my year contract with SBC, which provided me the discounted rate of $29.99/month, had expired. I was given the option to renew for $24.99 a month for another year worth of service. Hmm...I quickly declined the offer and figured now was my chance to explore the market.
My research of ISP's in the Chicago market lead me to the "Big 3", namely, SBC Yahoo, Comcast, and RCN. RCN's offer especially intrigued me, as they would provide me with Cable TV and Cable Modem service (at a BLAZING fast 7.0 Mbps) for $45/month for the first 6 months, no contract or install fee. I figured hey, great deal, right? They came the next week and everything was installed, including Showtime free for 6 months...sweet!
I was quickly blown away by the speed, seeing downloads of over 1200k per second! Woohoo. Life was good, especially when my SBC connection could rarely top 60k/s. My podcasts were downloading in record time, and I was able to move my wireless router to a more central location in my home, speeding up my TivoToGo transfers.
My joy quickly faded when I realized that, alas, Engy's Experiment was no longer pubicly viewable. WHAT?! The site was still configured properly and all the pc's on my home network could see it. What was going on? Well, apparently, there are still some ISP's out there that block port 80. ARGH!! I hadn't even thought of asking that question, and by this time, my service with SBC was disconnected. For a while I toyed with the idea of setting up the site on port 81, but a URL like http://www.jasonengstrom.com:81/blog just wasn't working for me.
Back to the drawing board. I looked into Comcast service, for how could I part with my blazing fast cable modem connection? I signed up online for service at a much higher rate of $58 per month. By now Engy's Experiment had already been down for a week, and they weren't able to come for an installation appointment for another week, on 10/14.
The fateful day had arrived, my beloved blog would be back up and running with only a couple of weeks downtime (ugh!) The appointment was set for Comcast to arrive between 1 and 3 pm. 1 o'clock rolls around....I wonder if they will be here by 2. 2 o'clock passes, and 3 pm rolls around. WHERE were they?! It was like being a kid again, waiting for mom and dad to wake up so we could open Christmas presents! I called Comcast, and was "assured" a technician would be arriving soon. 3:30. 4:00. No technician. I call again, and an "escalation ticket" was opened up. 5 pm. 5:30. NOT COOL!
I called 2 or 3 more times, at times NEVER getting through to someone, and finally I talked with a new customer service rep, gave her my escalation ticket, and she says, "is this Maria Gonzalez, 3538 N. Karlov?" NO, it's not!!! "We don't have any record of your escalation ticket." By this point I was peeved. I had waited 3 hours PAST my delivery window, and I wasn't about to sit around all night to get my service installed. Again, I was assured that someone would be here by 6 pm at the latest. In fact, the woman was "nice enough" to offer to call me back at 6 to make sure the tech had arrived.
6:05 pm. No tech. No phone call. Finally, she does call back, and was "apalled" that the tech hadn't arrived. "Let me call the tech and get back to you as soon as possible" she says. No problem. I can wait 10 more minutes, right?
6:25 pm. Phone rings. "I'm sorry sir, I have some bad news for you. The tech has gone home for the evening, and won't be able to make it to your place until Monday." Allright, I'd had it. I explained I was leaving for vacation Sunday the 16th and absolutely needed service by then. I was told it wasn't possible. I told Comcast they had lost my business. Sidenote: looks like I'm not the only one not happy with Comcast...one of my college roommates, Westy, doesn't seem to be all that happy with them either!
At this point, I just wanted internet service again. Luckily, RCN hadn't disconnected me yet, but since I would be gone for a week, I needed something quick. Reluctantly, I made the phone call to SBC and signed up with them once again. $24.99/mo for 1.5 mbps. Gone was my beloved 7.0 mpbs, but, at least I had internet service that was cheap and allowed me to host a site on port 80. It only cost me a month of downtime and a lot of headache!!