Finally, yesterday, I took the plunge and changed my ISP. I'm on broadband, and my account was unlimited, but with limits. What sort of an unlimited account is that.
I'm a heavy downloader, and twice now, my download speed has been choked to less than I was getting on dial-up. For a few days I couldn't even update my antivirus, and the idiot technician told me if I didn't update for 14 days I would still be protected. Obviously he hasn't been inundated with trojans and spyware, which my antivirus catches most of the time. Then he tried to tell me that the 3.6 bps was the same as 64 kbs. I'd like to know how to get a job there. You don't need to know anything, probably reading from a prepared sheet. Yes, I am aware of my limitations. Yes, I've read all the fine print.
Anyway, after whinging about it for a month, I finally changed to "unlimited", meaning no cut-offs, no nasty surprises each month, free sign-up and equipment, and $15 a month cheaper than the $60 a month I was previously paying. It hasn't kicked in yet, I'm still under contract with the old ISP (due to expire at the end of this month), and fingers crossed there won't be any problems. Because despite the throttling each month, the service from my old ISP was very good. And to qualify for all the "freebies" with my new ISP I had to sign on for a 24 month contract.
So here's hoping I've done the right thing. I wasn't too impressed with their e-mail address either. Here I was thinking my e-mail address would be the same as the website, but they stuck a "dsl" in front of the name. Then came the daunting task of having to re-subscribe to all the places I get e-mail sent from, change all the contact info on the websites that I maintain, the friends that I haven't notified yet. When I thought about it, the only e-mail address that hasn't changed in all these years is my hotmail account, so it's had alot of the mail directed there.
Anyone thinking about changing ISPs, go through all your saved e-mails and change the address to something more permanent. The same with bookmarked sites where you need to log in. The worst problem was sites that actually use your e-mail address as the account name. Those can't be changed unless you cancel and sign up with a new e-mail address. Sometimes that just isn't practicable. I have a little book that I've been keeping for 7 years now. It has all the info on usernames and passwords, and software registrations. The handiest little book I've ever had. I'm constantly looking it up. If I were to lose it you may as well cut my throat because I'd be devastated (not sure about the spelling there, sorry).
I'm off now to do the canteen at Alex's school for the next 4 hours. Won't get much else done today. Have a good one y'all.
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