Tweeters,
No bird stuff in this post.
I forward it because Dennis and others have asked about local Internet
service providers and I have responded with information about ISOMEDIA. I
have been critical of my own provider and some of this criticism has been
forwarded to Tweeters. During the past couple of days ISOMEDIA has informed
its subscribers about some problems they have recently discovered, and I
think it's only fair to pass on what they report.
These situations ought to be of interest to many of those in this
cyberworld, because something like this could happen to You.
The post is slightly edited.

>Date: Thu, 8 Feb 1996 19:45:37 -0800

>We realize that there is a serious busy problem during peak times at
>ISOMEDIA. The busy signal you are hearing is exactly that: A busy signal.
>The phone company has limited
>the switch coming from the Seattle line so only a certain number of people
>can use it at a time. IT WILL SEND YOU A BUSY SIGNAL EVEN IF WE HAVE
>MODEMS OPEN!
>---------------------------
>I-M-P-O-R-T-A-N-T I-N-F-O
>---------------------------
>IT HAS COME TO OUR ATTENTION that the phone companies are using an
>interesting trick to cram more people ino fewer lines: They are taking
>four phone lines and using digital compression to jam them into one single
>line. The result for us cyber-surfers, is that A) If you're on-line and
>another person in your "gruop" of four makes a call, you may get axed from
>your line because of the sudden drop in line quality
>B) You will get INCREDIBLY slow connect speeds.

A&B have both happened to me regularly. Whether the entire blame for
this problem can be laid at the phone company's door remains to be seen.
------------------------
Scott Richardson
NE Seattle
salix at isomedia.com