Life in the trenches

[crfriend]

I am seriously considering going "off-grid" when it comes to the Internot [sic]. I can receive e-mail for the time being, but cannot send it because of a sell-off of a part of on I"SP" (service provider is in quotes because they don't provide service now -- more like "servicing") and my other I"SP" sees fit to change my IP address every time my router gets knocked offline by a ping-of-death originating with a pack of bastards in Russia ("netangels.ru").

In the meantime, I'm trying to build a version of an MTA (Mail Transfer Agent) that supports authentication (an anti-spam measure) and am gradually working backwards through versions of openssl trying to find one that'll compile on my 1990s-era system (apparently the openssl folks don't believe it's possible that anybody might have a computer older than, say, six months). Then I get to build the SASL layer, which'll likely be more of a fight, and then -- assuming I can get out of Dependency Hell -- build the MTA.

If I do opt for kicking the Internot to the kerb, it'll be a controlled transition. I'll need to find a replacement for my presence here, and then I'll need to make sure my friends have my 'phone number and my postal address (in case I decide to unplug the 'phone as well). I lived a perfectly happy existence for 20+ years without 'Net access; I figure I can live out the remainder of my life without it.

What a dream it was. What a nightmare it has become.

[Couya]

Bit what will we do here without your wise words, Carl?
Don't leave us, please.
Martin

[Big and Bashful]

Looks like a worrying developement, I am glad I live in the U of K and have discovered a decent ISP in the form of Plusnet. They are a subsidiary of BT (Spit!) however they are faultless and a pleasure to deal with.
I hope you find a way out of your interweb hell!

[Sinned]

I started with Freeserve and have stayed with them through name changes and corporate marriages ( I suppose it's now EE ) and have had very few troubles. I get free routers every now and again. In fact my main email address ends in fsnet.co.uk. It may not be the fastest around but I don't do big downloads or play on-line games so it's enough for me. I hope you get sorted soon, Crl, as I, among others, will miss your level-headed advice and ready wit.

[Tor]

Arg. Lousy beasts. I'm actually in the market for a new server host - or more specifically a new email host. The one I currently have (godaddy (they don't deserve capitalization)) runs excessive spam filters that cannot be turned off, and have a habit of blocking legitimate mail in one or both directions. I don't really have the option of getting away from the internet either. So far my ISP hasn't shown itself to be a problem. Running my own mail server isn't something I want to do, mostly because I don't want to spend that admin time, but also because I'd rather not pay for a (virtual) dedicated server yet, and I don't have a static home IP.

Hope your frustrations get solved in short order, and without further roadblocks, leaving you free to enjoy the better parts of being connected.

[crfriend]

I started with Freeserve and have stayed with them through name changes and corporate marriages ( I suppose it's now EE ) and have had very few troubles.

Sapphire and I started with a little local ISP called "Ultranet" back in 1995 or '96. The company was started by a DEC alumnus and was your typical "start-up" for quite a while. We used to joke that when it didn't work Geoff's cat chewed on a cable or somebody tripped over one. Ultranet was bought by RCN (my current e-mail I"SP") in 1998, and it worked splendidly for years, save for the occasional glitch which earned them the nickname "Really Can't Network". This past year, however, has been pure Hell. First, back in April or so, I guess the last guy that knew how to manage static IP addresses for dial-up lines quit for greener pastures, and while the system worked for a while it pretty soon broke down and they couldn't fix it -- so they downgraded our commercial-grade account to consumer-grade dial-up and forced me to change how I route mail. I was p!ssed at the time about that as the loss of the static IP meant that I could no longer gain access to home whilst I was on the road or at work. Then to pile injury atop insult, earlier this week RCN sold off its dial-up business to another firm which finally -- and probably terminally -- broke outbound e-mail due to a change in IP address.

RCN blithely assume that everybody's using Windows and behave accordingly. I don't because I'm still in carrier-grade commercial mode for my internal network here -- and save for what others do to me, my environment is rock-solid between power-failures. I run UNIX (of various flavours) of course and am not your typical "content consumer" -- I expect reliability above all else; if I miss an advert or two in the process, GOOD. But I want the infrastructure to work. RCN miss this. So do Verizon (my other I"SP") by virtue of resetting my IP address every few hours which makes my life even here miserable.

I wish them ALL the very worst.

I hope you get sorted soon, Crl, as I, among others, will miss your level-headed advice and ready wit.

Thanks for your voice of support and encouragement -- all of you. It means a lot. I've been working on this issue for well over ten hours straight now and am frustrated enough to put a few shells into the high-speed router which connects to Verizon and simply tell RCN to cancel the account because they cannot -- or, more precisely, will not -- deliver. And I'll go back to using the post. Just as we did in the first half of the 20th Century except for extremely high priority items for which we sent telegrams.

[pelmut]

...I am glad I live in the U of K and have discovered a decent ISP in the form of Plusnet. They are a subsidiary of BT (Spit!) however they are faultless and a pleasure to deal with.

I've been with Plusnet for a while now and until a couple of months ago their service was faultless - however, recently they completely screwed up what should have been a simple fault-reporting process:

A friend who lives in a remote spot, with no mobile 'phone coverage, rents her 'phone & internet service from them; she lost both of them because of a line fault. The numbskull on the Plusnet helpdesk refused to accept a fault report from me and insisted that my friend had to report it herself, despite being repeatedly told she couldn't because her line was faulty.

It might have been one isolated case of a brainless operator, but it seems to me that something in Plusnet has recently changed for the worst.

[crfriend]

The numbskull on the Plusnet helpdesk refused to accept a fault report from me and insisted that my friend had to report it herself, despite being repeatedly told she couldn't because her line was faulty.

This is when you ask that the problem to be escalated or to talk to a superior. Either are entirely appropriate requests.

I just had a telephone call -- on the land-line -- from the I"SP" in question and seem to have been finally able to drive the observed symptoms, times, and diagnoses into the head of somebody. It was "duly noted" and the kid mentioned that the e-mail team would probably respond in 12 to 24 hours. We shall see what happens.

Methinks it's time to buy a small box of shotgun shells. The rounds I have are all better than 30 years old. (Yes, I am that frustrated.)

I changed Sapphire's e-mail config a little while ago, so she's back in operation (although now I cannot tell her concretely about whether a message she sent really left the premises), and I prototyped that "fix" on my Windwoes (spit!) box which now "works" (for varying values of "work").

I continue to fight with both Sendmail and Postfix, and to grow ever more frustrated with each failure.

The answer to spam is not to dick with the protocols. The answer to spam is jail time for the spammer -- 1 minute per message would likely drive the point home following a few 5,000-year sentences.

[pleated]

Carl, I hope you manage to get your connection problems sorted. It would be a major loss here if you gave up and decided to go "off grid".

I am currently grappling with a different computer problem. Last Monday my 2005 vintage desktop finally gave up so this weekend I bought myself a laptop. Now I am struggling with the truly ghastly windows8
If I remember correctly the windows8 problem (and possible ways of reverting it to windows7 ?) was discussed here some time ago. I would be grateful if anyone here could direct me toward the thread(s) where it was discussed.

[Big and Bashful]

...I am glad I live in the U of K and have discovered a decent ISP in the form of Plusnet. They are a subsidiary of BT (Spit!) however they are faultless and a pleasure to deal with.

I've been with Plusnet for a while now and until a couple of months ago their service was faultless - however, recently they completely screwed up what should have been a simple fault-reporting process:

A friend who lives in a remote spot, with no mobile 'phone coverage, rents her 'phone & internet service from them; she lost both of them because of a line fault. The numbskull on the Plusnet helpdesk refused to accept a fault report from me and insisted that my friend had to report it herself, despite being repeatedly told she couldn't because her line was faulty.

It might have been one isolated case of a brainless operator, but it seems to me that something in Plusnet has recently changed for the worst.

Sorry to hear that, I also heard today that Plusnet have a second call centre now, in Leeds, to go with the original Sheffield centre. Hopefully your friend was just extremely unlucky!

[crfriend]

Now I am struggling with the truly ghastly windows8

You, sir, have my sincerest sympathies. Windows 8 is quite likely the largest piece of offal foisted off unto the unsuspecting since the original version of Windows or, perhaps, the original MS DOS.

If I remember correctly the windows8 problem (and possible ways of reverting it to windows7 ?) was discussed here some time ago. I would be grateful if anyone here could direct me toward the thread(s) where it was discussed.

There's something called "Classic Shell" (and I don't have link to it) that might ease your pain somewhat. Also, Windows 8.1 is rumoured to have brought back the "Start" button although I have no concrete evidence of that here at the moment.

Windows 8 has likely taken a few months off my life expectancy by virtue of raising my blood-pressure to insane levels when dealing with it. In general, I refuse to touch the thing nowadays. It may be possible to polish a turd, but at the end of the day it remains precisely that -- a turd.

[skirted_in_SF]

Now I am struggling with the truly ghastly windows8

You, sir, have my sincerest sympathies. Windows 8 is quite likely the largest piece of offal foisted off unto the unsuspecting since the original version of Windows or, perhaps, the original MS DOS.

If I remember correctly the windows8 problem (and possible ways of reverting it to windows7 ?) was discussed here some time ago. I would be grateful if anyone here could direct me toward the thread(s) where it was discussed.

There's something called "Classic Shell" (and I don't have link to it) that might ease your pain somewhat. Also, Windows 8.1 is rumoured to have brought back the "Start" button although I have no concrete evidence of that here at the moment.

Windows 8 has likely taken a few months off my life expectancy by virtue of raising my blood-pressure to insane levels when dealing with it. In general, I refuse to touch the thing nowadays. It may be possible to polish a turd, but at the end of the day it remains precisely that -- a turd.

I use Win7 at home and work. A little creative stretching of the truth with our IT people resulted in new computers with Win7 for our accounting group (in place of XP) when they forced us to update our software in 2010. They continued to buy and install XP machines for several more years until the XP end of life hit and they did a panic replacement with Win8 machines. Win8 was very unpopular with run-of-the-mill users in our office.

According to ExtremeTech, Win8.1 is supposed to be a big improvement over 8.0 (including the start button). A story on bringing back the start button/menu can be found here: http://www.extremetech.com/computing/14 ... -windows-8

Win10, which is supposed to just over the horizon, is reviewed as being much better than Win8 (there is no Win9).

[Jim]

The answer to spam is not to dick with the protocols. The answer to spam is jail time for the spammer -- 1 minute per message would likely drive the point home following a few 5,000-year sentences.

I like that idea emotionally. But jail really doesn't help people change and is very expensive. Just ban from computer use 1 minute per message.

[crfriend]

Win10, which is supposed to just over the horizon, is reviewed as being much better than Win8 (there is no Win9).

I have precisely no proof of this, but there is online scuttlebutt about it to the effect that Windows 9 was so suitable for use that there was no way that Microsoft could release it. The story has it that everything "fell to hand" and usability was superb.

Note that I attach no real credibility to the rumour. Microsoft have a very nice kernel in Mica but have precisely no bloody clue when in comes to UI (User Interface). Not a lick. So, I am tempted to doubt the rumour about Windows 9. Very strongly tempted to doubt it.

[crfriend]

But jail really doesn't help people change and is very expensive. Just ban from computer use 1 minute per message.

It's true, jail time doesn't "change people" but it does get them off the street and away from computers. The question then becomes, "Which is more expensive for society? Putting the spammer in the slammer (I like the sound of that) or having large swathes of the population suffer theft-of-service -- and theft-of-time?" Time, recall, is irreplaceable.

I'd rather segregate spammers from society than recreational drug users who don't harm anyone else other than themselves.