[[[ Excite@Home HAS gone dark !!! ]]] -- CableModem customers stranded!

12/01/2001 | Lazamataz

[Lazamataz]

I'm an @home customer, AT&T to be exact. At 8:15 CST, I no longer could access any pages. Not google.com, not cnn.com, none of the old standbys that ALWAYS work.

I've heard a lot about the poaaibility of @Home pulling the plug on 4.1 million customers. Did it happen? The only reason I can connect at all is that my lovely and gracious fiance also has a dialup account for when she is on the road, and I am calling in here using that. I am presently on hold on the AT&T@Home help line. I'll have more information.

Technically, the light is on but no pages are being connected. My Cable Modem is up and connected but nothing loads.

[Fighting Falcons]

speed check

Go there and run the test then post your results. We'll see about this!

[prisoner6]

Ok so I tried a "soft" reset of my RCA cable modem. Now I'm getting the power, pc link and cable led's all slowly flashing in unison. I think that means teh cable has been disconnected from the net.

OTOH, I'm noticing that after a time all the led's go out except for the power which continues to flash. Then the pc link begins to flash with the power led, and then the cable led begins to flash as well.

Could this be AT&T uploading new software or reprograming the cable modem?

prisoner6

[Lazamataz]

Darkness Map

AT&T, Chicago, IL

AT&T, Denver, CO

AT&T, Grand Rapids, MI

AT&T, Dallas, TX

AT&T, Pittsburgh, PA

AT&T, Olympia, WA

[godiva]

All lit up here in New Jersey~~Comcast~~they have Hotline for customers and are negotiating.....just called.....1-888-433-6963

[Great Dane]

I heard about a week ago, @home was applying for chapter 11, that used to mean they could go on with business, while reorganizing.

[Two Thirds Vote Aye]

I got lucky and already had one.

Same here. I have always carried an extra phone line dedicated to a dial-up, along with a 5 hour/month dial-up backup just in case my cable modem went down, which it does, of course from time to time. I really lucked out last night when a friend told me it was going down. My dial-up account locks in at midnight on the first of the month, so last night I went in and switched from 5 hours to unlimited connect JUST IN TIME!

[texasbluebell]

Should have said I'm in Chicago, as you are, Laz.

[jmp702]

Here's another one to try

Results test run: 10:10CST Dec 1, 2001

your ISP: @Home Network

Your raw speed was 1870249.06 bits per second. There are 3 meaningful ways we can interpret this number:

Communications context 1.9 megabits per second This is how communication devices are rated. Kilo means 1,000 and mega means 1,000,000. Examples of this context include 56k modem, 384/128 DSL, and 10Mbit Ethernet

Storage context 228.3 kilobytes per second This is how data is measured on your hard drive and how FTP programs measure transfer speeds. Kilo is 1,024 and mega is 1,048,576.

1MB file download 4.5 seconds The time it would take you to download a 1 megabyte file at this speed.

[Two Thirds Vote Aye]

Yup. I have ATT Denver, and it is DEAD. I'm on my backup (the old NETCOM).

[DensaMensa]

ATT/@HOME Vancouver, WA web pages shut down. Can't check broadband service as am out of town.

[Johnny B.]

I have AT&T service in the Chicago suburbs (Lombard). My system "died" about 9AM CST. I can't get to the support website, and when I tried to call support, I got a busy signal.

AT&T previously stated that the problems with Excite would not interfere with their continued service. I guess they were wrong.

[Lazamataz]

Darkness Map

AT&T, Chicago, IL

AT&T, Denver, CO

AT&T, Grand Rapids, MI

AT&T, Dallas, TX

AT&T, Pittsburgh, PA

AT&T, Olympia, WA

AT&T, Vancouver, WA

[too-taxed]

4226 Download; 2226 upload according to speed test. 84 times the speed of 56K dial up --- oops, I'm sitting here (at AT&T Wireless -- hey, we are a separate company, we separated from the mothership!) This morning at 4 am my AT Home service in Seattle was working. I'm monitoring FR from work because I need to know if contingency emails need to go out to tell others that I will be down for a few days.

Regarding AT&T from a former AT&T perspective -- everybody views Big T as we call it, as "Deep Pockets", people go after their money all the time. Excite screwed up -- their problems are their own making. AT&T shouldn't bail out Exite by raising their offer. Big T already invested hundred of millions into the business. -- That would be akin to asking people to buy out Enron for 8 billion just so it could get away with all the fraud they perpetrated ---- Last comment, THANKS a MILLION for running this thread.!!!

[prisoner6]

AT&T previously stated that the problems with Excite would not interfere with their continued service. I guess they were wrong.

That's what has me ticked.

prisoner6

[TheDon]

I'm on Cox@Home in Orange County, CA. My cable connection is still up and running, for now.

From what I've read, it is the cable providers who have the choice to turn off their customer's internet connection. So if it happens to you, go DSL for internet, and satellite for TV. Don't give your provider another penny. I sent Cox an email letting them know that was how we would respond to any action on their part to discontinue our service.

[RadioAstronomer]

You gotta hear this! I got through to the customer service center and the guy told me they have had 850,000 calls since 6am this morning. WOW! He told me he has no idea when thay will have service again.

[VA Advogado]

This is worse than a Y2K crisis.

[OrangeDaisy]

After the ruling yesterday @Home supposedly was negotiating with the cable companies (Cox, Comcast & AT&T) to continue service. Maybe AT&T said forget it, we'll switch over to our new network. Rumor is that they are farther along on having their own network up and running than the other two companies.

[LurkedLongEnough]

Verizon DSL user for 6 months. Very satisfied with accessability (only one outage for 30 min. in 6 mos), speed and price including phone service overlay. Was with AT&T for a while before for phone service and their customer service stunk, mainly because they had to work through the local phone co. to get anything done and both were less than cooperative with each other. So, anyway, mine has been an excellent experience with Verizon.

I think it makes a big difference where you start out, because the competition is so fierce the "other" company will offer you a real deal to gain market share.