Good Earthlink tier one tech gets me back on line.

My Earthlink dial-up had been hosey all week. Saturday afternoon it went south then hosed totally. I did most of the stuff I could think of and no go. Modem was handshaking and I was getting a connect but IE 6 just wasn't happening. Repaired it and still no go. Then my machine started crashing on IE 6. Dern it Gates, I thought.

I called Earthlink and the tech did some more stuff and got me on, but it was hosey and finally failed again. Then my machine started crashing on re-starts. Great!

I called Earthlink two more times and on the 3rd call, a good tier one tech got it.

We went through some more steps and he finally concluded it was on my end. I insisted that Zone Alarm had not only been disabled but taken out of start up and task manager couldn't see it. I finally conceded to uninstall it. Luckily I have a folder with all my install .exes on it. I uninstalled it and the browser went lickity split.

He explained that Zone Alarm logs lots of events and files and may eventually become corrupt and block your connection. IOW He's seen this many times before.

Well, I'm not going to claim victory yet...you know how that goes. But I'm getting no more crashes and can navigate just fine.

I thought I'd let you guys know about this as many of you use ZA.

Re: Good Earthlink tier one tech gets me back on l

Glad you found that good tech at Earthlink - he's so damned busy that few people get to talk to him. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Seriously, Earthlink 'phone support techs are pretty good, for the most part, but some are beter than others. You'll probably get a survey form from Earthlink, so let them know that he did a really good job. Hopefully he'll eventually even get promoted to second level tech. *

The 'Net's doing pretty well right now, so hopefully you'll just cruise along and have no problems.

Thanks for letting the rest of the guys know about Zone Alarm eventually choking and needing to be cleaned out and re-installed. That's good information to know. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Take care,


* Back when I had clients who'd often ask me who to get their service from, if they were going to need local access only I'd recommend Alternate Access (since bought by Earthlink), and if they might need access from anywhere - like folks who traveled a lot for business - I'd send 'em to Earthlink. Compared to most of the rest, a very professional organization (and UNIX based) with good support for both MS Windows and Mac users. I understand they even have some Linux techs, now. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

T

Re: Good Earthlink tier one tech gets me back on l

"For Windows, press one...For McIntosh, press two...for all others, press three."

I guess Linux is one of the "Others". /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Reinstalled ZA and we've been cruising along all night and this morning with no problems at all.

- Jeff

Re: Good Earthlink tier one tech gets me back on l

Thanks for the headsup on Zone Alarm. Others? Most of those aren't supported (if any) by most major ISPs, including Roadrunner. Of course, Mandrake Linux install sets up the connection automatically during installation of Linux.

The interesting thing, is that those 'others' rarely, if ever need support by ISP techs.

Re: Good Earthlink tier one tech gets me back on l

Very glad you found this of some use, Charles.

I was impressed with this tech. As we were going through the fix, I could tell he had left his "sheet" and was drilling his way through the possibilities on his own steam. Fairly early on (not finally, like I previously posted) he mentioned it could be ZA but I momentarily talked him out of it.

We did some more things and he stated that, "there may be a problem here that I cannot percieve." obviously a tactful way of saying, "Dude, this may be your problem." I don't mind telling you; I was sceered.

We were getting connected, just hosing and bombing on the browser. I thought he was going to drop it but he kept trying. Heck, he was ready to take on CallWave and MailWasher too. I think this speaks well for Earthlink and you betcha I'll fill out a survey. I was going to ask to compliment his efforts to his supervisor but I figured 30 min. had already messed up his closure rate.

At the top of the conversation with the telephony switch, when I heard, "for all others, press three." I figured that meant Linux was included. I would like to know who the other Others are.

When Tomas mentioned the 'hear, tell' about the possibility of Linux techs at Earthlink, I was sure it was true. This speaks well for Earthlink also...forward thinking.

Again, thanks for the acknowlegdement that this might be a good heads up or at least interesting. I like to help Others. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

- Jeff

Re: Good Earthlink tier one tech gets me back on l

I agree about Zone Alarm causing weird dial-up access problems (slow connections, sluggish PC, problems connecting and disconnecting)--even if it is disabled.

I have had several pc's (Windows 98, 2000, NT) that worked great and them after a few months of use they started to get flaky, then fail. The only way to fix was to de-install the program.

On my current machine, I have turned off the Daily Log File Archiving (under an Advanced button on the newest version). I don't know if this stops the problem--but it does continue to work OK (Windows XP for Home). For what ever reason, never had a problem on Windows 95 (newest version does not support Win95).

-Bill

Re: Good Earthlink tier one tech gets me back on l

I've had Earthlink (used to be mindspring) ,still use that for e:mail, for seven years this January and for the most part found their tech support to be pretty good. Nothing is perfect but I have never left them for the above reasons.I'm sure that if I had bombarded other Internet providers with some of the stuff I've that I've put on Earthlink I imagine they would have hung up.