Wednesday, September 23, 2009

ISP Issues

Just a short note. And it will probably take all morning to post.

As you know, we're on satellite. It's a "shaped plan", so we get a few gig of 'prime time' at moderately useful speed (about 500kbps, I believe) and a few more of 'off peak', and then the whole lot gets throttled back to 54kbps or something similar. Theoretically.

54kbps is dial-up pace, for those who live anywhere with real connectivity.

Anyway. For the last 24 hours or so, we've had shitty, shitty connectivity. Thought it might be due to exceeding the 'prime time' allocation, so I ponied up for an extra bloc of data - but there's been no change. I tried phoning the satellite johnnies, but all I got was half an hour of hold message. Apparently there are "intermittent browsing issues" which their "engineers will rectify shortly".

Does that explain my situation? I don't know. Certainly, it's not just browsing for me. Email sucks too. Is it a result of technical error at their end? Throttling? Technical issues at my end? Shitty Tasmanian weather?

I have no way of knowing. I can't get through to the support desk. I've sent in an email, but I doubt that will produce any result. I can't get through on the phone.

So that's it, really.

I'll get back to you when I can. If you're trying to email me, or you're awaiting a reply for something, please be patient. I can't do anything about it until I can consult with the support people for activ8me -- and I can't contact them until they solve their "intermittent browsing issues".

Roll on, National Broadband Network, eh?