Earthlink: The Fall of An Empire

[TechJumper]

Comparatively, Earthlink was the Cadillac of ISP's. Their features extended well beyond that of any other firm, and their support was always friendly and fast. Backed by Sprint, it seemed that this service would be forever the Best, but sadly, this is not so.

I Should Have Known
About a year ago- I called Earthlink in regards to a problem I was having with my email. In previous support calls, my call was answered in less than 5 minutes. This time, however, I was disconnected. From then on I noticed a gradual dissipation of service quality all around.

While this was disapointing, I let it pass, "Their making some management changes, this will clear up." This hope was proven frivilous by this:

Port 25 SMTP Block
I own a website, a real .com. I pay 15 dollars a month to have it hosted by a well respected company. I also have an email account that I use under my .com domain.

This is the only email address I have ever used since I signed up with Earthlink 2 years ago. 3 months ago Earthlink made a decision that they do not want their servers processing mail for any accounts but Theirs. They issued what they called 'a fix for spam mail' which was a front for the port 25 smtp block they put up baring accounts other than earthlink from sending mail out through earthlink.

I knew how to get around the block, and now use a routing service that is stable sometimes. The point was that there was NO warning issued about this block, NOTHING. This was the final red flag before all heck broke loose.


I now have variating degrees of logons with Earthlink. Their downtime jumped from 6% to approx 28%. It is not my number, for it is the same in Houston, TX 300 miles away from Dallas (me).

The Fall of An Empire
It is sad to think that a company as esteemed as Earthlink has done itself in. I still, now, debate whether I should continue with them. Ive known about their company since its inception, but now, it is time to move on. This company has lost the spark it once had, and the market stronghold on internet access. They had it all. I wonder if they still have a chance? 2001 will tell.


The End
///---///
Micahel Morelli

[Mykex]

I also have in the past sworn by Earthlink. It is unfortunate that you cannot send Email over other ISP connetions. The trade off for there spam free service I think is almost worth it. I love watching others open there Email "Hey your pretty popular lots of Emails.....Oh wait thats all spam....Get a real ISP!" was my favorite saying. http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/wink.gif I was upset enough to quit but they threw 2 months free at me so still hanging on. http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

[tonym]

Mike,

What's happened with you is totally contrary to the experience that I've had with Earthlink/Mindspring.

I use Earthlink to host my website...I have my own domain name so they host my .com domain for my business. No problems in over two years! Ewxcept when I had several MB of inbox mail messages and their server rejected them...my fault, though.

Also, I use Verizon/Bell Atlantic DSL service. Part of this is that I use their outgoing SMTP mail server and use Mindspring's POP as my incoming mail server. How is this different than your situation??

I send/receive a great volume of e-mails for my business each week...except for some outbound traffic-use delays, the service has been great!

I very infrequently use my Mindspring dial-up, but when I need to (the Verizon DSL has had several major ****-outs recently!!), it works perfectly!

I don't know what's going on...maybe it's regional or something but all I can speak is good of Earthlink/Mindspring!

Hope things work out...


Tony

[TechJumper]

I am afraid the above post is true---it started in texas, when they appointed a new division vp, who was from New York, i think.


Hope you're right.


Merry Christmas,

Michael

[socalgal]

Hmmm. ELN DSL thru PacBell here. I'm still happy with them.

BTW, there was a notice about the Port 25 block before they implemented it - at least in their newsletter (if you receive it) and, I think, on the site. Ii remember reading about it.

Perhaps, as a consumer, you could write them and let them know how you feel. It may not change things, but at least you can tell them what you think.

[This message has been edited by socalgal (edited 12-24-2000).]

[CMonster]

..Hmmmm?...seems Earthlink went downhill shortly after Socalgal joined ..hehe..'snicker..'snicker http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/wink.gifhmmm?

In order to get around the block I guess you are using some sort of http tunneling?

[TechJumper]

Correct- it is coincidently called Http Tunnel!


Yep- Maybe its Socalgal's visual firewall that is blocking my servers http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/wink.gif


Best,

Michael

[Beemer]

Another little trick is to apply the address to this post to the ***** mail you send your ISP. Let them see that there is unfavorable news getting out about their service. They don't like that but free speach is wonderful thing to have. The keyboard is mightier than the sword.

I just went through a battle with my ISP and won a minor victory. I taught everyone I could, in the area, how to do a ftp test on the server, using the Dos Prompt window and had them send the information right from the Dos Prompt window. Showed them how to use the mouse to copy on that window was the key. The ISP ended up shutting down the FTP access after 150 E-mails hit their support E-mail address. They now have an upgrade planned for Jan. 6/2001 and tech's swarmed around trying to appease us at our homes.

Cheers!
(I don't think I am to well liked in their office now) lol

[This message has been edited by Beemer (edited 12-25-2000).]

[Tazmo]

TechJumper:

Your report sure hasn't given me much to look forward to. My ISP is currently Time Warner's Road Runner cable modem service. Unfortunately, from what I've read the recently FTC approved merger between Time Warner and AOL means that Road Runner will cease to exist.

From what I understand, the newly merged company had originally planned to have all subscribers join AOL. I breathed a sigh of relief when, as part of the conditions for merger approval, AOL/Time Warner agreed to allow customer's a choice of ISP's. One choice, of course, is to be AOL and the other to be offered will be Earthlink. I found some small consolation in this bit of news, but now after reading your post, I don't feel as optimistic.

[surrealchereal]

you guys think you feel bad about earthlink?
i have been with them for over 10 years.
and it has been killing me about their service. oh btw i just cked i still log onto port 25 for mail.......
i havent gotten a response for tech support in over a year, and they never got back to me regarding my 2 requests for a dsl line. back in october....needless to say with heavy heart i will be leaving my email address.
i even have my account figured manually like back in the day,,, in the beginning when it was a little company in pasadena, and they had a new south bay access number. oh well sometimes change is not good.

[TechJumper]

I certainly hope my post will not be thought of as a reason NOT to use Earthlink. I am simply relaying to everyone my personal experience and opinions about ELNK. If you have had good experience with them (socal) I am very happy for you. In fact, :I had such a wonderful christmas i think I will give them another chance.


Thanks,

Michael

[eshort]

had VERY bad experience with PRODIGY...

last June my service was suddenly stopped-no forwarning/explanation

several calls to customer "service" (with 5-15 minute waits on hold..) they reassured me nothing was wrong and to reconnect...the service wld work for 6 hours and then stop again--- finally spoke toa "supervisor" who apologized and prmised i wld have no more disconnects of service.

guess what- 24 hours later--sewrvice disconnected again.

Sent them nasty letter/email ceasing all further service--they have-since (June 2000) had the audacity to continue to BILL ME!!

needless to say-I have told me creditcard to charge them back(ie not to pay)..

they r still billing me...

the problem began when they (Prodigy) agred to "take over" WANSNET and continue to supply ISP unlimited for $9.95/month. Rather than saying they didnt wis to do so-they just disconnected and never intended to reconnect me--while haviung the ba..s to continue to send me bills!!

FOO on PRODIGY.

[AuraEdge]

Another earthlinker here
..on 56k for the last ...3 years or so?

Anyways, Ive had problems with them too...I found workarounds but I doubt the average net user who've just joined them could have.

For instance, I was using Earthlink when I refommated one day. I had to reinstall the Earthlink files and get the new dialup numbers from them, and the only dialup number from Earthlink thats local to me wouldnt recognize my password for some reason. Ive emailed them 3 times about it, and just asked them to give me the old number I was using. and they told me to try 'this number here or that number there' from the current list instead, but these numbers werent local to me.
Finally they kicked that one and threw up another one local to me. This one was horrible..it would connect slowly most of the time, or kick me off every once in a while, but i used it anyways
I just came back home from college, and they went back to that old number that wouldnt recognize my password, and nixed the number that kicked me off every once in a while. I couldnt get on!

I had to pull out a freebie Earthlink floppy disk from way back when, and ripped the telephone number off the access numbers in there, which was coincedentally the number that i was using before that first reformat. I tryed it, and it works....I cant believe the numbers still up and they dont list it on thier page or in the updated numbers.
With this one, I get flawless service (probably from small volume since most people have updated access numbers since way back when).
Without this workaround, I wouldnt be able to get on AT ALL without paying long distance fees! I emailed them about it 2 weeks ago, and got no response.
Well Im happy...dont think any other Earthlinkers in my area are though.

Anyways, think DSL will ever get cheaper? http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif
They want a 6 month commitment from me to get the free modem and installation, and Im not home for that long of a period of time (College...:P). I dont feel like paying 50 bucks a month when Im not even home..but the transision from T3 to 56k is pretty painful.


[This message has been edited by AuraEdge (edited 12-27-2000).]

[Beemer]

Lots of ISP's allow suspension of service instead of cancelling. they keep your account active as far as the information goes that you used for the registration of their service. Check it out. It might bare fruit.

Cheers!

[Brian48]

Wow. I thought I was the only one that felt this way. I will closing down my Earthlink account this month as soon as I migrate my website over to another webhost. Going over to MSN. Maybe not much better (although it seems better so far), but at least they were willing to hook me up with a deal.

Used Earthlink for about 2 years now. Started out great, but over the course of the last 8 months or so, they've been on a steady decline in terms of service.

[TechJumper]

My story goes right along with Brians.

Mike

--Hope you all had a wonderful holiday, our power has been out for the las 42 hours 17 minutes, and ahh.....36 sec, http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/wink.gif

[nunyadam]

you people are scaring me the local isp I go through was first taken over by one main.com which has just been taken over by guess who? earthlink. at the present there home page say "we are earthlink resistance is futile .you will be assimilated" or something like that.