IPv4 to IPv6...

[Christopher Browne]

On Thu, Oct 7, 2010 at 11:21 AM, Lennart Sorensen
<lsorense-1wCw9BSqJbv44Nm34jS7GywD8/FfD2ys at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> I suspect the "good" modems were ones that let you choose which way
> they operated.  The older ones were just modems and nothing else, but
> I suspect Bell stopped suppliying those some years ago given they now
> love to advertise that their internet service includes wifi for your
> laptop.

Bingo.  Renting users a more sophisticated, hence higher rental fee,
device is a larger revenue stream, and I used to pretty regularly get
calls from Bell hawking this.

BTW, I speak as a "not loving, but not particularly disgruntled" user
that happens to use Sympatico.  I haven't had a need to touch anything
frequently, so the problems people report are ones I have (thus far)
evaded.

My worst problem was when they forced an upgrade because the
circa-2001 ADSL "modem" wasn't compatible with whatever newish network
hardware they were moving to.  The painful part was the several day
outage.  And I noticed pretty material speed increases afterwards, so
I haven't grand complaints.

My main complaint that hasn't justified "making a leap" yet is the
periodic "junk mail" calls where they try to sell supplementary
services.  Usually one of:
 - We've got this cool "security software."  Oh, you're not running
Windows...  (This is the time I pick
   the most obscure thing on my network, usually the laptop running
FreeBSD, as "what I'm running."
   "You don't have a FreeBSD version?  How sad...")
 - Would you like a wireless router?  Only a few bucks more per month...

The sad bit is that I know in *an instant* from the accents I hear that:
 - It's Bell, hiring a 3rd world call centre
 - They're operating their *sales centre* in the 3rd world
 - If they chose to offer *more* service, it could be "cheaper but better"
 - But reality is that they're offering less, and worse, service,
because it's cheaper.

The 3rd world call centre thing saddens me more than Bell's lack of
technical acumen.

Not only are they not particularly "world class," they've not got
terribly much "class"...
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