OFF-TOPIC! nyc isp (was Slouching toward Bethlehem)

[fisher yesss@xxxxxxxx]

Norman: If Escape lawyers don't spend a lot of time
in court on its behalf I'd be surprised. That was
the *second* time esc erased my account--years of
archives, addresses, www site--with no warning,
no backup, no explanation, no apology. I endured
a decade of torment equally because of the rates,
because esc is just so totally weird (the East 50s
ex-mansion where they started was where the founder's
father had been a high-profile hairdresser to the
stars--not least Jackie O.--in the '60s; the first
years I had an acct you had to pass through what
was left of the salon to get to the esc office),
and because I loved--still do--that domain name.

But enough is enough. I can't tell you how
satisfying it was as my recently-current year
ground down--with nothing left to lose at esc
and having found an alternative--to sneer at
billing's bizarrely snotty renewal notices.
Most businesses at least *pretend* not to hate
customers. Just thinking of all the bouncing
spam makes me gleeful. I went from having to
delete nearly 100 a day--many apparently sent
from my own address--to zero.

Escape Escape! bway.net and of course panix are
two of many NYC ISPs that are far more responsive
and responsible but more costly than esc. Not
for everyone, but you might take a look at
http://www.freeshell.org --a (despite the server's
lonestar ID) Seattle public-access unix 501(c)(3).

Freeshell (around since '87--as I recall,
also the year Roman started esc) is basically
a one-man show, I gather, with the intense
attention to taking care of nerdy business
but reluctance to hand-hold that implies. An
active bbs offers peer support; the big enchilada
monitors the boards and steps in if help is
inadequate. What's refreshing to this esc
refugee is that he *announces* things that
matter to users (and some that don't).

A shell acct with limited services is free for
a couple of months; pay a one-time $1 fee for
fewer restrictions. A full array of shell services
costs a one-time $36 payment. I guess you'd set
up a gui interface the same as with esc. (?--
outside my experience.)

Independent of those and other services (many
I haven't mentioned--see Web site), freeshell
offers dialup through a subsidiary at rates
comparable to esc's: numbers nationwide, many 212. 		--annie

==================================== adpFisher  nyc
	xyWin+nbWin+xyW3 !xyWWWiz Web assistants +
	xyWrite 3 supplements !xyWise and !xyWiz +
	Wolfgang Bechstein's seafaring adventures:
http://yesss.freeshell.org ===========================================

	Escape.com must be the worst ISP in the world.
	It's like the Romanian electric company. Even
	at $120 a year, it's not worth it. I'm looking
	for a new ISP.

	I registered my domain name with them, and they
	let it expire, even though they gave me a screen
	(which I printed), saying that they had renewed
	it, and their tech support people confirmed to me
	personally that they had renewed it, when I got
	suspicious because there was no charge on my
	credit card. I had to pay $125 to get it out
	of redemption. Total incompetents.

	Norman
	-------------------------------------------------------
	Norman Bauman 
	411 W. 54 St. Apt. 2D
	New York, NY 10019
	(212) 977-3223
	http://www.nasw.org/users/nbauman
	Alternate address: nbauman@xxxxxxxx
	-------------------------------------------------------

	>www.escape.com/~yesss/ no longer exists.
	>After escape wiped out the account with no backup
	>in a kernel upgrade, those pages--xyW3-intensive
	>except for html assistants and content unrelated
	>to xyW--migrated to the url in my sig. Ciao. 	--annie