If you can read this ...

... you're not on Bell Sympatico in Toronto.

My extra special secret contact in tech support in Ottawa -- no, I am not sharing -- tells me three servers are down in the GTA. Mine included, for some five hours now.

It seems that your server is affected at the moment. Your server is TOROON05OL6. I apologize – They are working on it ASAP!!!

And this, which he copied and pasted from Sympatico Sucks Central:

Some high speed subscribers in the region of Toronto (ON) may experience Timeouts when trying to connect to the Internet. The problem seems to be related with the server : TOROON05OL5, TOROON05OL6 or TOROON05OL8.

Luckily, I have a neighbour who has shared his wireless password with me. He's on the OTHER major Internet service provider in town. You know the one. The one that advertises itself as the ''fastest and most reliable.''

I'm beginning to believe it.

Meanwhile, the neighbour's signal is super weak for me, slower even than dial-up and it's taking forever to load web pages. Blogging is out until full high-speed is restored.
 
I feel like I am in the Stone Age.

I feel like I may just throw some stones.

This is nature's way of telling me to take the time to clean up my desk.

Later.

Comments

[Kat]

You know, you don't have to go with just one of the Two Big Companies. I went with one of the smaller DSL companies (they're based in Montreal, but I won't say who because I doubt the moderators will like that). I've been with them for almost five years, and during that time they've been down... maybe twice. Both times it was on weekends and I wasn't especially put out. They're cheaper, have great customer service, and mostly just give the customers what they pay for and stay out of their way otherwise. Compare that to the Two Big Companies, who both want to dictate their customers' internet experience.

Remember the internet was designed to be decentralised!

[Sara]

I agree! I've been with my Quebec-based ISP for years and they're cheap, reliable and when there is a problem they answer the phone in seconds and are very friendly. They'll even call you the next day to make sure everything is still ok.

The problem is the 'big two' dominate in advertising and most people don't know they have options. I didn't either until I heard about my ISP through word of mouth...now I try to spread the gospel myself.