[TriLUG] OT: ATT UVerse internet access

[Igor Partola]

Did they discuss any usage caps with you? I know that for most people
it won't be an issue, but I now only watch "TV" through Netflix and
Hulu so I use a lot of bandwidth.

Igor

On Wed, Mar 30, 2011 at 3:10 PM, Chris Merrill <chris at webperformance.com> wrote:
> ATT came through our neighborhood a few months ago running fiber along the streets.
> I was very excited, but repeated visits to the ATT UVerse website resulted in the
> same response - "The address you have entered does not exist".
>
> Last week, the day I have been waiting for arrived!
>
> The AT&T UVerse salesguys came down our street selling their internet/phone/TV
> service.  They claimed to be offering a 25Mbps download / 2.5 Mbps upload for just a
> little over what I was paying TWC/RR for 7Mbps down / 0.3Mbps up.  They were also
> offering 30day free trial period.  I've been desperate for better upload speeds for
> quite a while -- I move a lot of big files to/from my office when working from home
> and run a web/mail server from home.
>
> They installed it on Friday.  Surprisingly, the installers were quite experienced and
> were willing to do a little extra work to get the wiring run the way I wanted.  When
> finished, the upload speed tested at 2.8Mbps!  Download speed was in the neighborhood
> of 25Mbps...I don't recall exactly.
>
> For anyone else considering the service - there is one "gotcha" to look out for.  AT&T
> blocks outgoing connections to port 25.  I need to send work e-mails through our server,
> not theirs, so this is a critical issue for me.
> You can get this block removed from your account - but this is where I had a very poor
> experience.  I spent well over an hour in a chat session with the ATT UVerse support drones
> in India (or perhaps Bangladesh) trying to get them to remove the block.  They claimed
> that they cannot do that and I need to call ATT ConnecTech services to remove the block.
> ConnecTech is a pay-per-incident support service - $49 per incident.  So they wanted me
> to pay to remove the block! There was a lot of arguing at this point, and after issuing
> me an $49 credit to my account, I called ConnectTech. After 2 minutes explaining the
> problem, they sent me right back to a UVerse support "Level 2" tech, who removed the
> block in a few minutes.  If you have to jump through this hoop, I suggest asking for
> a "Level 2 Technician" the moment that they say they can't remove the block.
>
> So on the upside, the internet services seems to be a big upgrade for about the same
> money - I am currently paying $58/mo for TWC/RR with all the added fees.  The ATT
> top-tier internet access is $67 without fees or bundle discounts.
>
> I am also trying out their TV service and comparing it to my current service, which
> is DirecTV.  I have a fairly new HD DVR from DirectTV and so far, the ATT DVR is
> comparable. Better in some respects - for example it can record 4 shows at a time
> while the DirectTV is limited to 2.  And it has quicker response in the UI than
> DirecTV (which was much better than the Time Warner HD DVR it replaced).  But in other
> aspects the UI is a bit inferior.  I can go into more detail if anyone is interested,
> but I haven't played with the TV service much - I was waiting to see if they would
> resolve the port-blocking issue, which they now have done.
>
> Chris
>
>
> (BTW, I later called ConnecTech and asked for a refund, which they promptly issued...so
> ConnecTech gets an A grade from me, UVerse support gets a big fat F).
>
>
>
> --
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -
> Chris Merrill                           |  Web Performance, Inc.
> chris at webperformance.com                |  http://webperformance.com
> 919-433-1762                            |  919-845-7601
>
> Web Performance: Website Load Testing Software & Services
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -
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