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Hey, AT&T! Don’t send clumsy oafs to bury my cable!

Dave Farquhar ISPs November 18, 2011August 3, 2017AT&T, cissp

Late Thursday morning, AT&T sent a subcontractor out to bury the cable strung across my yard for U-Verse. He buried the cable, but tore it up in the process. He knocked on the door and asked my wife to see if anything worked. It didn’t. Then he told her to contact AT&T and left.

That’s customer service. Poor customer service. But customer service, nonetheless, right?
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Dave Farquhar

David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He started his career as a part-time computer technician in 1994, worked his way up to system administrator by 1997, and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He invests in real estate on the side and his hobbies include O gauge trains, baseball cards, and retro computers and video games. A University of Missouri graduate, he holds CISSP and Security+ certifications. He lives in St. Louis with his family.

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Things I wish I’d known about AT&T U-Verse before I signed up

Dave Farquhar ISPs November 14, 2011February 8, 2018antenna, AT&T, AT&T U-verse, caller id, phone service, VOIP, western electric

As I wrote earlier this week, I’m a new AT&T U-Verse customer. Prior to that, I was using old-school POTS with a DSL connection. Between the phone service, DSL, and long-distance calls, I was spending around $75 a month. So it looked like I could switch to U-Verse with the 250-minute voice plan and 3-megabit Internet, save some money, and get a bit of an upgrade in connection speed.

I was mostly correct.

Dave Farquhar

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Back in business after a 20-hour hiatus

Dave Farquhar Uncategorized November 10, 2011AT&T, AT&T U-verse

A routine upgrade to AT&T U-Verse ended up being anything but. The good news, however, is that everything works now, and I have a much faster upstream connection than I ever had before. If the blog is faster now, that’s why.

Dave Farquhar

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If the AT&T/T-Mobile deal is dead, good riddance

Dave Farquhar Uncategorized September 2, 2011AT&T, consolidation, pc magazine, sprint, verizon

If you haven’t seen, the Department of Justice voiced its lack of support for AT&T’s buyout of T-Mobile USA. I find myself agreeing with Sascha Segan’s analysis at PC Magazine.
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Dave Farquhar

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Lessons of the HP Touchpad

Dave Farquhar Hardware August 24, 2011October 16, 20181980s, android, apple, Apple Ipad, AT&T, hp, IBM, ipad, kindle, nintendo, pc world, playstation, web os, xbox

At full price ($499 for the 16 GB model and $599 for the 32 GB model) the HP Touchpad was a colossal flop. Like AT&T’s first PC clones of the mid 1980s, it was a me-too product at a me-too price that wasn’t quite as good as the product it was imitating. So, basically, there was no reason to buy it.

At closeout prices, it became an Internet sensation. The few web sites that have it in stock can’t handle the traffic they’re getting. At $99 and $149, it’s selling like the Nintendo Wii in its glory days.

And I think there’s a significant parallel there that highlights the missed opportunity.
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Dave Farquhar

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Lenovo and IBM look back at IBM’s PC exit

Dave Farquhar Hardware August 19, 2011July 14, 20171980s, 1990s, asus, AT&T, compaq, dell, hp, IBM, lenovo, lexmark, thinkpad, web os

The Register reports that Lenovo is gloating over its purchase of IBM’s PC division and its turnaround efforts, while IBM doesn’t regret pulling out, at all, even going so far as to call the PC dead. Who’s right?

Lenovo. Though IBM was right to get out–but the PC is only as dead as the television. Old media doesn’t go away quickly. Radio was supposed to make newspapers go away, and it’s only now, 90 years later, that newsprint is hurting. The old stuff adapts and evolves and finds new uses. Some people argue that if newspapers were managed better, they wouldn’t be hurting, but that’s a different issue. Let’s talk IBM PCs.
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Dave Farquhar

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Android-ified.

Dave Farquhar Hardware April 12, 2011amiga, amiga os, android, Angry Birds, AT&T, dell, hp, samsung, verizon, VOIP, wi-fi

After agonizing for a few weeks, I bought an Android phone. Specifically, a Samsung Galaxy S 4G. Being a T-Mobile phone, it’s a potential dead end, but I opted to do it for a few reasons.

Why? I’m sick of not being able to play Angry Birds. Not really, but I like seeing people’s reaction when I say that.

Dave Farquhar

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AT&T buying T-Mobile isn’t good for anyone but AT&T

Dave Farquhar Uncategorized March 21, 2011android, AT&T, Missouri, sprint, verizon

I suspect AT&T is going to be allowed to swallow up T-Mobile, but there’s nothing good about this.

T-Mobile survived solely on customer service and low prices. Let me tell you a story about T-Mobile.
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Dave Farquhar

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Usage caps for solving problems that don’t exist

Dave Farquhar ISPs March 15, 2011August 3, 2017AT&T, netflix, Southwestern Bell, VOIP

If you haven’t read, ~~Southwestern Bell~~ AT&T is solving a bogeyman problem of network congestion by imposing usage caps of 150 GB per month for standard DSL, and 250 GB per month for U-Verse (fiber). Use of AT&T’s own IPTV, VOIP, etc. are exempted from the usage limits, of course.

They cite network congestion, but really, this is more about making certain that non-AT&T services like Netflix, Skype, Vonage, etc. have a competitive disadvantage over AT&T’s costlier services.
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Dave Farquhar

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DNS and iTunes and other streaming media

Dave Farquhar Servers and Networking December 30, 2010July 5, 2018apple, AT&T, benchmark, datacenter, itunes, Missouri, networking equipment, sprint, steve gibson

There are reports floating about regarding third-party DNS affecting downloads of movies and other media, particularly from iTunes.

So, if tweaking DNS settings used to be what all the cool kids are doing, maybe it’s about to become less trendy, thanks to advice circulating to ditch third-party, centralized DNS providers like Google and OpenDNS, because they “defeat the distributed nature of DNS itself.”

The answer of what DNS to use and why is more complex than that.
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Dave Farquhar

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