For 4.5 years we had the same Internet Service Provider. That has to be some kind of new world record. But then they sold off their e-mail division, so they could concentrate on Web hosting. This change has been a bad thing for us because they sold us down the river to Earthlink. You may have seen Earthlink’s unbelievably annoying orange commercials filled with spastic animated Internet surfer people you’d never want to meet in real life.
Earthlink’s commercials merely hint at the joys of being part of the Earthlink "family." After sending a few "your-line-is always-busy" e-mails to Earthlink tech support, I’ve been rewarded with lots of condescending canned replies from "concerned" technicians. And now I’m starting to really wonder what’s up with dial-up service here in Sandpoint. Adding a few more modems to the modem pool doesn’t seem like it would be out of the realm of possibility, but we’re dealing with a huge bureaucracy here. Anyway, not surprisingly I’ve been researching other options.
This is where it starts to get weird. We were hoping to find a new provider that has national access so we can get our e-mail when we travel. But it appears that with a few exceptions, almost every ISP that has service in Sandpoint is using the same dial-up access number. According to my limited research, www.excel.com, www.avon.net, www.1access.net, www.highstream.net, www.ivwnet.com, www.gerbersoft.net, www.yellowstone.net, www.asburyusa.net, and www.iinternetservices.com are all using 255-5360. This access number is the same one Earthlink uses that’s always busy. So, by switching from Earthlink, we’d gain exactly nothing.
The moral of the story is that when attempting to change ISPs always, always find out what access number you would be using. Then try it out. At one point in my research, I thought about MSN. Yes, they have a Sandpoint access number and it’s actually not the same one Earthlink uses. So, I tried dialing it with the regular ole telephone. Guess what? It was busy.