Subj : Re: FidoGazette Vol 13 n
To   : MIKE POWELL
From : Daryl Stout
Date : Sun Sep 15 2019 13:01:00

Mike,

MP>>Sorry to butt in - but I hope more BBSes start to offer dial-up. And more
MP>users
MP>>switch off their routers and dust off their modems.

MP>I have a dial up system - 1-502-875-8938

  At present, I have a US Robotics external v.92 56K Fax Modem. However,
I'm not about to pay $75 a month for a vanilla phone line, just to get
dial-up BBS callers...especially after the rude way my late Mom and
myself were treated by AT&T "customer service personnel" (I use the term
loosely). On a call, when I demanded to speak to a supervisor, they hung
up on me. When I dialed back, and was told "this call may be monitored
or recorded", I said "It damn sure better be, for ahat I'm going to
say".

  Whenever there's a power outage or lightning strike, the DSL modems
are toast. So, my Mom had no phone service (all the analog lines are
going digital/VoIP), no internet (UVerse), and no 911 service (this was
3 years before she died on August 9, at 92 years of age). I was told
that "we can't get a Technician out there for a week"...never mind she
was elderly and disabled. Their attitude was that "they didn't give a
rats @$$ about customers like her".

  When they sent a service man out the next day, because of my b!+ch!ng,
he was livid...saying "there was absolutely NO EXCUSE for her to be
treated like that!!". He gave us his card and private contact
number...and told us "if this happens again, call me first!! Either I
myself, or one of my team members will be there within 24 hours".

  After I had to put her into a nursing home and set up a Miller Trust
nearly 2 years ago, I called and CANCELLED every bit of the AT&T
service...cellphone, UVerse, landline...EVERYTHING. I told them that "I
get MagicJack for $45 a year, and you want to charge me $75 a month plus
long distance charges??!! You are severely disillusioned!!"...and added
"I wouldn't use you if you gave me the service free for life!!".

  I apologized to my Mom for cussing in front of her, but when I asked
"can you blame me for my outburst?", she said "No"...she was there and
heard everything that happened.

  As for cellphone service, I'm with Straight Talk, and it's the best
cellphone package I've ever had...$50 a month with tax, and I get 25
Gigabytes of data, before it gets throttled down. I use nowhere near
that amount each month. And, with the rewards plan, some months, I can
claim the points, so I get a free month of cellphone service.

  But back to the dial-up, those modems only really work with analog
lines, and not with VoIP lines. Yet, I wonder what the fax machines are
working with...since practically all the old analog lines are now
digital/VoIP. If there was a way to make that work, I'd put dial-up
access back on the BBS...but I saw a comment from Rob Swindell (aka
digital man), author of Synchronet, noting that "28.8 and 33.6 aren't as
fast as you remember them".

Daryl

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