[//Nathan]

So I'm on vacation in CT for a week, and got to meet a longtime friend of ours from Long Island, NY, who used to be a computer geek, but whose new passion is cars. He tells me about this site, HowStuffWorks.com, how they simplify everything, and that that would be a good place to start, for learning the basics. I'm not that interested in cars, except looking at them, but I could stand to learn a few more things.

So I get home, try to access the site - kicked. Could be a coincidence or it could be blacklisted... so a few hours later I try again. Sure enough, kicked.

I don't know how an ISP owned by a company that uses child labor and which buys most of its goods from China gets by stopping people from accessing sites that they disagree with for whatever reason.

I mean, I shop at the stores, it's cheaper than other places, and I don't have much sympathy for other stores that charge higher prices. For some things, I'll pay more for the quality... like Walmart's lemon-lime soda is $0.28 cheaper on the 12-pack than Food Lion's (generic brands), but the Food Lions' is better. I have the Walmart stuff now, having tried it... but next time I buy lemon-lime soda, I'm going back to Food Lion. But what they're doing with the ISP, to compare with the store, would be like selling a candy bar, and then when you open it, it's a piece of cardboard saying "chocolate isn't good for you". They shouldn't be selling something they disagree with.

It's weird, it doesn't tell me it's blocked. Walmart Connect is essentially the latest CompuServe (itself essentially AOL 6), redesigned with the Walmart brand. So it has AOL's Parental Controls, but those are disabled. It doesn't "Say" anything, it just causes all HTTP requests to time out. Jen (my fiance) thought it might have been a problem with the web page itself, but it does it with pages that worked fine when I was on DSL in CA (such as Postsecret, and the nVidia site). And the same thing happened on my laptop when I was here visiting. Jen said the same thing happened on her old Win98 computer, though she never caught on - she'd get kicked from a site, and just not visit that site anymore. But now they're blocking Myspace, although getting kicked is like a 1/10 chance per pageload, and the Disturbed board, both of which she frequents. I keep a MySpace account to keep in touch with people, another way... but I don't use it much.

For those of you who are tired of me whining about Walmart... Since they've been kicking Jen for accessing MySpace and the Disturbed board, she's been getting pissed about it, too. I emailed Netzero about this, having checked and finding they have an access number here (most ISPs don't), and they said they don't even offer censorship/parental control stuff to customers who want it, they send them to NetNanny and the like. We have business in Greenville ("The City" to folks around here) so we're gonna stop in at Best Buy tomorrow, get the NetZero CD, and switch tomorrow or the next day, most likely tomorrow though. So the next time I'm complaining about my ISP, it'll be NetZero. Hopefully I won't have anything to complain about. Ultimately, though, we both want to move closer to Greenville, where we can get Cable internet. Jen was spoiled for a week visiting me in CA last December, on DSL, and Cable's faster. In CT they have Optima Cable, and I could not believe how fast that was! Like 1MB/sec... megabyte, not megabit. Around here it's either Cox or Roadrunner.

[lstresrt]

Here is the deal, ya don't like it you don't buy it. You have the choice to buy from many companies selling similar products. The companies that sell the product get to decide what is in the product and how they will offer it. If they were the same there would be no reason for companies to compete.

I like having choice.

And don't complain that you have no choice because of where you live, as that is also a choice.

[Quillz]

If you can get RoadRunner cable where you are, go for it. I have wireless cable from them and it works great. Nice and fast.

[CTerry]

lstresrt, on Jan 4 2006, 02:40 AM, said:

And don't complain that you have no choice because of where you live, as that is also a choice.

So people should uproot and move, changing jobs, forcing their children into different schools... all because they don't like their ISP.

[FrostedPopTart]

I have Comcast here, 10mb/s down and 768k/s up ... I heard talk on the Comcast forums that a "super upgrade" (my words, not theirs) later this year will put Comcast's speeds at 16000kb/2000kb for the gold tier (which is what I have). I can only imagine how fast that would make my speeds.

[lstresrt]

CTerry, on Jan 4 2006, 03:47 AM, said:

So people should uproot and move, changing jobs, forcing their children into different schools... all because they don't like their ISP.

If Internet is that big of an issue for them, yes.

Everyone has to make choices. I would much rather be living in north east AZ but, at this point in my life it is not the best choice. So I live in Southern California and put up with all the crap here until I am willing to live where I want to. When I move out there Internet will be a last concern as I will be off the grid ... no power, no water or any other city service.

[//Nathan]

lstresrt, on Jan 3 2006, 09:40 PM, said:

Here is the deal, ya don't like it you don't buy it. You have the choice to buy from many companies selling similar products. The companies that sell the product get to decide what is in the product and how they will offer it. If they were the same there would be no reason for companies to compete.

I like having choice.

And don't complain that you have no choice because of where you live, as that is also a choice.

^^ Corporate tool.

Actually I moved here from Northern CA (where DSL was the only choice for high-speed; Comcast is the Cable company, but they hadn't offered Cable internet at the time I was living there) and I did make a choice to come out here, where 56K dialup is the only choice. As it is now, we have a choice between Walmart and NetZero, as well as the $25/month services like AOL, Earthlink, and MSN. My fiance set up Walmart, because that's what her mother has, before I moved out here. It was fine for her, but now it's blocking a few of her favorite sites.

I partially agree with some of your post, but the problem is the Walmart ISP advertises unlimited Internet. It doesn't say anywhere that you'll be kicked without warning for accessing sites that their corporate HQ has a moral objection to. False advertisement, bait & switch, and other shady tactics aren't cool. Who signs YOUR paychecks?

Quillz, on Jan 4 2006, 05:47 AM, said:

If you can get RoadRunner cable where you are, go for it. I have wireless cable from them and it works great. Nice and fast.

People in this area can get Roadrunner, but it's not available out in the boonies which is where we are. RR's probably what we'll get when we can.

Didn't make it to Greenville today, my fiance and I both slept in till 1pm, and she had to go to work at 3, but we're planning on doing it tomorrow.

And I got kicked earlier for accessing Ford's site. Ford! How the heck can FORD (the car company) POSSIBLY offend Walmart? This is beyond silly.

[lstresrt]

I sign my pay checks.

[Dªn]

lstresrt, on Jan 4 2006, 01:37 PM, said:

If Internet is that big of an issue for them, yes.

Everyone has to make choices. I would much rather be living in north east AZ but, at this point in my life it is not the best choice. So I live in Southern California and put up with all the crap here until I am willing to live where I want to. When I move out there Internet will be a last concern as I will be off the grid ... no power, no water or any other city service.

You knoow there's no need to be rude and arrorgant unless you're me.

Firstly, I like anybody else on here probably saw this thread and thought "here he goes again" but I still read it, and I don't have any issues with it. Everybody has choices, and I think you're missing something here. DR made a choice, he chose Walmart's ISP based on his circumstances and what they advertised. They state they offer unlimited internet access, and they don't. They block websites and they do not advertise this. They do not provide the service they advertise (although they probably cover their legal ass with their TOS). By writing about these, DR is highlighting others to the service they DO NOT provide. There are hundreds of other posts around these forums highlighting other companies shortfalls, and others all around the internet. If you don't like it, don't read the posts.

He is making a choice and swtiching ISP's. He's mentioned that in his above post. Get off your high horse.

lstresrt, on Jan 5 2006, 10:33 AM, said:

I sign my pay checks.

Nobody cares.

[Stephen]

Dªn, on Jan 5 2006, 11:21 AM, said:

You knoow there's no need to be rude and arrorgant unless you're me.

Firstly, I like anybody else on here probably saw this thread and thought "here he goes again"

LOL so true

Dªn, on Jan 5 2006, 11:21 AM, said:

but I still read it, and I don't have any issues with it. Everybody has choices, and I think you're missing something here. DR made a choice, he chose Walmart's ISP based on his circumstances and what they advertised. They state they offer unlimited internet access, and they don't. They block websites and they do not advertise this. They do not provide the service they advertise (although they probably cover their legal ass with their TOS). By writing about these, DR is highlighting others to the service they DO NOT provide. There are hundreds of other posts around these forums highlighting other companies shortfalls, and others all around the internet. If you don't like it, don't read the posts.

He is making a choice and swtiching ISP's. He's mentioned that in his above post. Get off your high horse.

Well said, couldn't agree more

[lstresrt]

LOL

You have to be kidding. Rude and arrogant?

And DR asked

... and if it's in their TOS then it is out there for a customer to know prior to their purchase. If one is not interested enough to invesigate what they are purchasing it is no ones fault but their own.

[Nimdock]

Dªn, on Jan 5 2006, 06:21 AM, said:

Firstly, I like anybody else on here probably saw this thread and thought "here he goes again"

I didn't think that.

[elj]

These threads are interesting, anyway! (Well, to me, at least.)

Glad you're getting a switch, DR.

[Michael Merritt]

I think Walmart needs to learn that when people pay good money for internet, they expect real service, not something that appears to be service, but then blocks all the websites you go to.

The irony of all this? All the pr0n websites are probably unblocked.