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Conference 7.286::macintosh

Title:	Apple Macintosh Volume II
Notice:	Mac is NOT an acronym - it's Mac or Macintosh not MAC
Moderator:	SMURF::BINDERONS

Created:	Sun Jan 20 1991
Last Modified:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	964
Total number of notes:	30983

950.0. "Problems with Ultranet Comm" by SHRCTR::DWAITE () Wed Feb 05 1997 13:08

    My son uses our MACs for school work and we've recently been having a
    lot of promlems with the "successful" connection to the Internet via
    Ultranet Communications.  Has anyone else in the 3M area had connection
    problems using Ultranet?
    
    Does anyone else in the area USE Ultranet?
    
    What other providers do you suggest in the Littleton, MA area?
    
    I have reached a frustration level.  We have called repeatedly to the
    tech support line and the phone answers, then puts you on hold for an
    eternity.  As of late, we can't get a person on the line to answer a
    question.
    
    Is 10-20 minutes waiting, listening to 70s music acceptable to wait for
    tech support?
    
    dw.

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
950.1		ROCK::SARRAZIN	David B. Sarrazin	`Wed Feb 05 1997 13:39`	9
	Please explain what you mean by "problems". I've had an Ultranet account since November and am quite happy with it. I suspect they've added a large number of users since the first of the year (perhaps converts from AOL), as I now have to redial 3 or 4 times to get connected between 7 and 10 PM. (I connect from Marlborough). Once connected, service is sluggish during those hours, with servers going down now and then (they're Digital products!) Somehow, this just doesn't bother me. I now read USENET news groups when I get up at 6 AM - no problem getting connected then!
950.2	What Mac? What software?	GAAS::TSUK	Michael Tsuk	`Wed Feb 05 1997 15:05`	11
	We had a lot of problems with Ultranet until we upgraded to 7.5.3 with Open Transport 1.1. We have a 7200/90. We also had problems with a noisy phone line that went away when NYNEX eventually found the problem. Now my wife is very happy with Ultranet (and she can be hard to please when it comes to computers!) Ultranet doesn't seem to be the most Mac-savvy people, which is too bad. But with the right versions of software, I think you can do okay. -Michael
950.3		CADSYS::LARRICK		`Wed Feb 05 1997 15:42`	19
	FYI, in a post I read yesterday, Geoff Schultz (Ultranet owner) passingly commented that they now have over 30,000 subscribers! I've been an Ultranet subscriber since February 1995, and have had few problems. What are you seeing? Common difficulties: * Modem configured to drop carrier if Mac drops DTR. Causes the modem to hang up if it overflows the Mac's serial port speed. * Out-of-date Internet software. MacTCP 2.0.6 or later; FreePPP 2.5v2 or later; Open Transport 1.1 or later * Corrupted system and/or disks. Run MacTools, Norton Utilities, or equivalent * Insufficient RAM given to net applications. Also note that if you're a long-time Ultranet subscriber and have a static IP address, you need to wait up to 5 minutes between logins, or the routers still think you're at the old modem. -Doug
950.4		REGENT::POWERS		`Thu Feb 06 1997 09:33`	17
	I've been on Ultranet since last summer, and things normally go right, but I had a week of frustration last fall when they changed some service capabilities without telling me (anybody?). I e-mailed to tech support (my problem was intermittent connection ability) rather than call first, but ended up calling and waiting a modest amount of time on hold. Then the tech guy talked me through some setups that needed to be changed, mostly about default IP addresses and the like. I got no answer about why I needed these changes without being told. Left-hand/right-hand mis(non)communication? I don't know their Mac skill level, but they do have some - perhaps it's a matter of INSISTING on talking to a Mac-savvy tech support person. (I can call either Marlboro or Framingham, and I usually call Framingham. As noted, redialing 2-5 times in the early to mid evening is usual, but that comes to an extra minute of waiting, and autodialing is automatic.) - tom]
950.5	the kind of problems & my attempts	SHRCTR::DWAITE		`Fri Feb 07 1997 07:48`	21
	RE: .1 The problem is when my son is trying to successfully access the Internet and/or send a file/message, the ususal things happen like, "send mail" and "preparing to transfer" and "contacting smtp.ultranet.com" message come up. Then, several minutes pass and "/\ server not responding" and "the connection came up half way and then failed' messages appear. Also, he's had times that he cannot even get a connection, and other times when he's been dropped with no messages at all. Is waiting 10-20 minutes to get answers from tech support usual? I don't know if it's our modem capability, or it's on the Ultranet side, but because it has worked in the past, I don't think it's the modem capability. Incidently, I have tried to contact Ultranet via phone as described in .0, by e-mail, and by fax. After two days, I have had no one respond to my inquiries. dw.
950.6		CADSYS::LARRICK		`Fri Feb 07 1997 10:35`	11
	> "contacting smtp.ultranet.com" That may be your problem. That should be "contacting smtp.ma.ultranet.com" (if you're in Massachusetts) or "contacting smtp.nh.ultranet.com" (New Hampshire), or similar for Rhode Island. Similarly, the POP servers are divided among the states. They changed this (if I recall correctly) last spring; how long have you been with Ultranet? -Doug
950.7	I'll try it. Ans=2-3 mths	SHRCTR::DWAITE		`Mon Feb 10 1997 12:40`	10
	RE: 6, I'll try anything at this point. That's a simple fix if it works. That doesn't explain why it was working two weeks ago, and now it does not. I've been on Ultranet for 2-3 months and followed the addressing pretty close, but who knows, I could have slipped into autopilot for a second or two when typing. Thanks, dw.