[PLUG] Is Qwest/Centurylink a good ISP?

[Ken Stephens]

Robert Munro wrote:
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> As my email address reveals, my ISP is Speakeasy. I've been with it
> for about eight years and during that time it's been bought by Best
> Buy (!) and then recently merged into Megapath, a national MPLS
> enabled network.
>
> However, twice in the past month Megapath has f*cked up and turned
> into Zeropath during my work day (I work online, in London). I've been
> using Skype to chat with London, while at the same time I could not
> reach any internet addresses beyond the Speakeasy POP in Seattle,
> which prevented me from working. That's happened twice, and I am
> getting fed up with it even though Megapath worked the problems and
> came back up within hours. That never happened before, so I'm
> considering changing to another ISP.
>
> What do people here think of Qwest/Centurylink as an ISP? Is it decent?
>
> I know it's a big telco, one of the Baby Bells, but it was the only
> one to resist the Bush administration's demands to suck up all its
> internet data and the CEO 'coincidentally' was charged with insider
> trading, and went to prison, so it can't be all bad. How good / bad is
> it as an ISP?
>
> Feel free to send war stories and opinions to my private email
> address, if you don't want to reveal your experience or thoughts here
> in public.
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Robert
>    
I have been with Qwest and now CenturyLink.  I have had very few down 
times.  Most of them caused by local power outages.  YMMV.  Qwest blocks 
port 25 so Spiritone (aracnet) gave me another port to direct my mail 
clients, which has been working for the last two months.  They started 
blocking the port without notice.  Very inconvenient.  Took a week to 
figure out it was not my fault.  Took about three emails for Patrick at 
Spiritone to figure out Qwest was blocking the port.  All the time I 
could surf the net all I wanted.

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Ken Stephens SV Aventura Portland, OR