Attn: MSN Dial-Up Users (long)

For some reason i have yet to fathom, my isp is currently MSN dial-up. I'm here to talk about how incredbly crappy this service is, and to prevent others from making the mistake of using MSN.

First off lets start with autosyncing/autodownloading.
This "feature" is completly useless. It autosync's the calendar, e-mail settings, parently controls and "other information" every 15 minutes.

Next on to the persistent micro$oft trying to corner the market on... EVERYTHING. It's called MSN messenger. It's pretty much the same as MS mesenger except that it's required to be installed to run the MSN "service". It's incredibly annoying. It autoloads when you start youre computer. It autosigns in when you sign in to MSN. If you uninstall it, it reinstalls. If you stop it from starting when your computer starts, it resets so that it starts automatically anyway. The most obnoxious program i've ever encountered.

Also there is, Tech Support. I am (almost) speechless as to how to describe there tech support. It's so incredibly bad that i think 12 monkeys with computers could do a better job. Make that 2 monkeys. The tech reps talk like ai programs. Dancing around the subject purposefuly it seems. They bombard you with constant, quickfix-so-this-person-will leave-me-alone solutions.

Finally and most important. What is going on with your connection? I have reason to believe that MSN steals your info, and alows others to do so. I did a test once... i connected to MSN and just sat idle on the desktop. After leaving it this way for 2hours, i check my bytes sent/recieved. 134Megs sent, 13Megs recieved. I'd like to point out that the Entire contents of the MSN folder are only 124megs... So, where does all those bytes sent come from? I have no idea, but i do know that somethings not right. If anyone has any idea what is transpiring here, please enlighten me. I've included the folowing talk with there tech support to illustrate my point.

In short, if you have MSN, switch providers. If you are thinking of getting MSN, do'nt.

Quote:

Question: Stop MSN from syncronizing/autdownloading.

( Eric Volovski has joined )
( Shaik has joined )
Shaik: Thank you for using MSN Interactive Online Support, Eric. My name is Shaik, I will be your Online Technical Support Engineer.
Shaik: Hello Eric, I look forward to assisting you with your issue today.
Eric Volovski: ok
Shaik: I am sorry to say that I am unable to understand the problem you are experiencing. I would be glad if you please elaborate the issue.
Eric Volovski: sure
Eric Volovski: MSN autodownloads stuff and syncronizes various thigns such as the calendar. i dont want this to happen
Eric Volovski: i eats my bandwith and i dont need it
Shaik: Thank you for information, Eric.
Shaik: I understand that you want to stop synchronization of events which you do not use as it is slowing the Internet speed.
Shaik: Am I correct, Eric?
Eric Volovski: yeah
Eric Volovski: hey can you do me a favor and something that doesnt make you sound like an AI program?
Eric Volovski: say something that is
Shaik: Eric, please be assured that a real person is assisting you.

Eric Volovski: ok well then you don't need to use my name all the time, and les punctuation would be nice
Eric Volovski: just get strait to the point
Shaik: Okay Eric.
Shaik: May I have the e-mail address associated with the account.
Eric Volovski: Edit
Shaik: I would like to inform that MSN automatically synchronize all its events like Calendar, E-mail, Favorites and other information every 15 Minutes.
Shaik: I am afraid there is not such option to stop synchronization of any event.
Eric Volovski: thats incredibly stupid
Eric Volovski: who thought of implenting such an idiotic requirement...
Eric Volovski: maybe on broadband it might be nice for SOME users but on dialup...
Shaik: I suggest you to use our Feedback option to give your comment so that MSN will add this feature in the future releases.
Eric Volovski: yeah right
Shaik: I am providing you the link for using MSN Feedback.

Eric Volovski: no thanks, ill just get cable
Eric Volovski: so what else is transmitted by this thing?
Shaik: Shall I provide you the link for MSN Feedback?

Eric Volovski: nope, but you can provide me with a detailed description of everything that MSN transfers from or to my computer
Shaik: I would like to inform that MSN will synchronize information of events like E-mails, Calendar settings, Favorites, Parental Controls settings.
Eric Volovski: filenames?
Shaik: Please be informed that synchronization will not take much time if there are no events to synchroize. If the user has not made any changes to any settings then the synchronization to these settings will not take place.
Eric Volovski: then what is being transfered?
Eric Volovski: sitting here talking to you i've uploaded 11mbytes of data to msn
Eric Volovski: i want to know WHAT IT IS
Shaik: Please allow me a moment to address your issue.
Eric Volovski: now 14mbytes
Shaik: Please let me know whether this problems has started recently or you are experiencing this issue from a long time.
Eric Volovski: long time
Eric Volovski: now 17 mbytes, also id like to add that it doesnt end... it sends about 15megs every half hour
Shaik: Please let me know whether you are experiencing this only with MSN or also with Internet Explorer ?
Eric Volovski: umm
Eric Volovski: niether
Eric Volovski: i could just be sitting idle online, and it still happens
Shaik: Eric, I would like to inform that you cannot stop this synchronization as this is necessary to synchronize your e-mails and other information from MSN Server to your computer.
Eric Volovski: so youre telling me that it happens even if i dont change anything
Eric Volovski: hmm no see that doesnt make sense
Shaik: This synchronization will take place once MSN is started.
Eric Volovski: if i was to sync with the server i would recieve bytes, not send them, well not this much anyway
Eric Volovski: so something else is going on that im not being informed of
Eric Volovski: now 20Mbytes sent, Almost 2MBytes recieved
Shaik: Please be assured that except E-mails, calendar, Favorites and MSN settings nothing is being synchronized.

Eric Volovski: this is moronic
Eric Volovski: why would an isp MANDATE that you must sync with theyre not wanted services
Eric Volovski: since i have unlimited time to be online, it only increases the amount of bandwith used by the server!
Eric Volovski: it also downgrades the performace of my connection, making me unhappy and making me switch to broadband
Eric Volovski: making you guys lose money
Eric Volovski: what is going on here?
Eric Volovski: i really dont believe that a company such as ms would implement such self-destructive policys, so therefore i am inclined to believe that microsoft is somehow making money(or atleast not losing any) from me constantly syncing with them
Shaik: Eric, I apologize for the inconvenience casued to you. I suggest you to use MSN Feedback so that We can forward your suggestion to the product team.

Eric Volovski: no
Eric Volovski: im just going to go tell all my friends that msn steals your personal info
Eric Volovski: atleast unless i get a real answer, thats what im going to believe
Shaik: In that case, I will need to escalate your account details to our senior technicians as they are in a better position to help you in this issue.
Eric Volovski: sweet
Shaik: To initiate the escalation process, I will need some information.
Eric Volovski: hehe
Shaik: We would appreciate if you can provide us with your 1. Full name. 2. Telephone number with the area code. 3. Internet access number (if possible). 4. The best time to call you. 5. The account creation date. 6. MSN Internet Access software version.

Eric Volovski: Eric Volovski, EDIT, dont call we'll resolve online, no idea, and version 8
Shaik: Thank you for the information and be assured that our senior technicians will assist you in a better way.
Eric Volovski: 28megs sent / 2.5 megs recieved
Eric Volovski: so will i be transfered or is it some kind of email deal were ill never get an answer?
Shaik: Please allow me a moment to provide you the ticket number for future reference.

Shaik: Our technicians will give a call back incase they need to talk to you.
Eric Volovski: so.. am i going to talk to one now is what im getting at?
Shaik: Please be assured that your issue will be resolved by our senior technicians once this issue is escalated.

Eric Volovski: is that a no?
Eric Volovski: holy!
Eric Volovski: i just ran netstat.... you should see my active connections while im just sitting here doing nothing!
Eric Volovski: 53 of them :)
Shaik: Eric, please be informed that your issue has been escalated and it will be resolved.

Eric Volovski: ill take that as a no for talking to senior tech guy now eh?
Shaik: I would like to inform that the Senior Technicians will call you to resolve your issue
Eric Volovski: hmmno dont do that
Eric Volovski: To be honest, i don't really care anymore. But i definetly will pass this info along to other MSN users: That you steal info and have no (logical) explanation as to what it is.
Eric Volovski: You win MSN, you beat me with idiocy untill im too dumb too notice, but thanks for trying! Bye!
Shaik: Eric, please be informed that you will get all the explanations from our Senior Technicians.
Eric Volovski: Hahaha, your funny.

Quote:

I did a test once... i connected to MSN and just sat idle on the desktop. After leaving it this way for 2hours, i check my bytes sent/recieved. 134Megs sent, 13Megs recieved.

Jesus. You dont need broadband do you? Are you really sure your dialup was that fast?

Quote:

Originally posted by Fountain
Jesus. You dont need broadband do you? Are you really sure your dialup was that fast?

Hopefully you're being sarcastic. I believe dial-up on a 56k modem is only capable of 7 kilobytes/sec download rate(hardware limitation). Anything else is a software error.

A 56K modem is only capable of sending 50.4MB in 2 hours.

Quote:

Originally posted by Shadow
Hopefully you're being sarcastic. I believe dial-up on a 56k modem is only capable of 7 kilobytes/sec download rate(hardware limitation). Anything else is a software error.

A 56K modem is only capable of transmitting about 5k d/l rate, but you'll only get about 4k d/l if you're really lucky.
Hoever, on an ISDN dial-up, you have 64k and the max I've managed to keep stable running Linux is 7.5k, according to my calcs, that's 54Megs in 2 hours. Are those MB or Mb?

Regardless, I agree. Why would anybody use MSN for interent when there's many services that are just as good if not better for half the price?

Quote:

Hopefully you're being sarcastic.

What do you think? :)

have you checked your computer recently for viruses/spyware?

Their tech support guy sounds like a robot.

normal download speeds for dialup are about 2 to 3 k/sec. if you are lucky you can get up to 5, or even higher.

if you have dial-up service, i suggest using Juno. They have excellent service. You get good speeds (for dial-up), you very very very rarely get disconnected, and it only cost $9.99/month. (a whole lot better than AOL's crap $30/month).

Not true on the dial-up being only able to get 5k d/l a sec. Well maybe downloading something, but strait to the server i usually get about 13kb a sec. And yes i think broadband is a little better since our cable service d/l's at around 400kb a sec. Optimum Online rocks. I got the 13kb a sec number using Dialup Monitor.

No i dont have any viruses. This happens even right after i reformat.

Quote:

Originally posted by SinAmerica
Not true on the dial-up being only able to get 5k d/l a sec. Well maybe downloading something, but strait to the server i usually get about 13kb a sec. And yes i think broadband is a little better since our cable service d/l's at around 400kb a sec. Optimum Online rocks. I got the 13kb a sec number using Dialup Monitor.

No i dont have any viruses. This happens even right after i reformat.

Physically impossible. 13Kb bursts I believe, but not steady. On a file thats like 500KB+ if you get 5 KB/s then you're kicking ass.

I connect at 50.6 Kb/s consistantly and have steady downloads of around 4-4.5. Faster connections are possible, but I've never seen anything more than 53.3 Kb/s and even then they download speeds wouldn't differ much.

I'm gonna have to totally agree with DavidP. I used NetZero (NetZero + Juno = United Online) for probably close to 2 years for only $10 a month and loved it. No busy lines, solid connections, all around goodness.

Install earthlink broadband; problem solved

Quote:

Originally posted by TravisS
Physically impossible. 13Kb bursts I believe, but not steady. On a file thats like 500KB+ if you get 5 KB/s then you're kicking ass.

I connect at 50.6 Kb/s consistantly and have steady downloads of around 4-4.5. Faster connections are possible, but I've never seen anything more than 53.3 Kb/s and even then they download speeds wouldn't differ much.

I'm gonna have to totally agree with DavidP. I used NetZero (NetZero + Juno = United Online) for probably close to 2 years for only $10 a month and loved it. No busy lines, solid connections, all around goodness.

Roughly 340kilobytes/sec.

Hmm after reading the "log" I have only one thing to say: Man you are such an ass.