Hello Ian,

30 Sep 99 08:00, Ian Moote wrote to ALL:

 IM> I don't understand this problem. ISP's don't "support" operating
 IM> systems, they provide an Internet connection service through a clearly
 IM>  defined interface.

Depends on how you look at it. They may not "support" operating systems, but
they can certainly shape the information they provide based on assumptions
about what operating system you're running or try to refuse information or
help because you are not running the "right" os. Examples:

The first real ISP I had for more than a month was Erols. Early last year, I
had problems connecting and, as part of my process in determining the problem, 
called their tech support to see if they had a problem on their end. I
immediately got through to a tech that confirmed that yes, they did, and to
give them an hour or so and try again. Problem solved.

A year later, I again had connection problems. Again, I called tech support
just to confirm which end the problem was on. However, in the intervening year 
Erols had merged with RCN and tech support had changed. Instead of a tech, I
got a bimbo asking me irrelevant questions like what version Windows and what
browser I was running. A bimbo that seemed confused when I informed her that I 
wasn't running Windows of any version nor was a browser involved in my problem 
(which was a mailrun connection). She left the phone and returned to inform me 
that, "I'm sorry, but we don't support OS/2." Not that I'd ever asked them to. 
I had to explain, *again*, that I simply wanted to know if thier end had a
problem, that I was perfectly capable of supporting my end and had never asked 
them to do so. I also changed ISP's within the next couple of months.

Now, my current ISP recently sent us *all* an email that detailed a series of
steps for going through a Win95 network setup and checking all of the various
server settings. Nowhere did the message explain the intent of these checks
and changes, or what was actually to be accomplished. I pretty much figured it 
out, but they clearly were behaving under the assumption that *everyone* was
running Win9x and needed no further information. For that matter, even the
original setup information I was given consisted of pictures of the various
Win9x setup dialogs. No nice neat summary of the server addresses, I had to
read through several pages to find the various ip's and phone numbers
scattered through their instructions.

I emailed them asking for confirmation as to why they had asked for the
changes and what they were trying to accomplish, so that I could do the same
myself. I got back a vague response that they were making changes and wanted
to make sure no one had the wrong information. Now, this past week, we've
gotten an additional email from them that states that the changes *only*
affect bidirectional cable modem customers (which I'm not) and all the dialups 
were completely unaffected.

I might add that I'm once again in the market for a new ISP, but this time I'm 
emailing tech support *beforehand*. :-)

Kenneth (kabrams@us.hsanet.net)

--- GoldED/2 2.50+