transact vpn- vapourware private network

[Paul Bryan]

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Who said cartoons weren't worth it?! I wouldn't leave the house if I didn't
have to go to work. 24 hour cartoons have made me very unsociable.

Seriously though, I've been connected to TransACT for about 4 months now and
nothing I've seen indicates that TransACT really know what they're doing. From
an admin point of view, I'm suprised they're even running sometimes. 

When I signed up I was told about 5 differernt stories about when we'd be
installed and most phone calls resulted in a "<name removed to protect the
innocent> is not here at them moment so we don't know what happened to your
application form - we'll call back", which never happened.

Another one: a company I used to work for indicated an interest in becoming a
TransWeb ready provider (I think thats the correct term). Basically, the terms
of the agreement were: "you do work for us, we pay nothing", so we didn't go
ahead. This was about 12-18 months ago. The company name was still on the
TransACT web site when I last check a couple of months ago.

It seems as though the only people who know whats going on are the contractors.
The guy who did the install for us was very personable and completed his work
smoothly and efficiently. In dealing with Netspeed to set up the account and
in later communications with them, I've had a great experience. No problems,
friendly service and quick responses to the questions I've asked. Great!

I think a p2p (even with a small fee) would be great. It'd make life easier in
so many ways. I can't wait! Hopefully TransACT will get it going before some
one like Telstra jump in and grab it. Then I'll have to change again :(

Netspeed offer ISO's as well as telstra for about $4.95 (with their games
deals). This sort of thing I like a lot. It makes it so much easier to get a
wide variety of distros. At the moment though, I'll just get them at work from
Telstra if I can ever get into that 30 concurrent connections.

On another note, has any other TransACT users had issues with their set top
boxes as well? We find it locks up at times and we can't watch TV for a while
- - sometimes the internet connection drops out as well. Leave it for a little
while and we're okay again. I've also got some issues with bad wiring in my
house, so sometimes the circuit breaker trips and when we fire up again, often
the set top box refuses to behave. 

The guy who installed us mentioned that they overheat (the boxes, not the
installation guys!) at times and need to be turned off and left to cool for a
while. Anyone else get this too?

Okay, I'm done now.
Paul.

On 29-Jun-2002 Bob Edwards wrote:
> Matthew Hawkins wrote:
>> 
>> Bob Edwards (Robert.Edwards at anu.edu.au) wrote:
>> > For people trying to make a decision to get TransACT based on the
>> > availability of the free p2p, it is quite difficult. Should they subscribe
>> > now to get the free installation (whilst it is available in their suburb)
>> > or wait until someone in TransACT gets a clue and makes the free p2p
>> > service work.
>> 
>> You'd think if they were having such technical difficulties they'd hire
>> some people who have done VPN connections before and have at least half
>> a clue about it.  I'd like to hope that employment contracts with ANU
>> for example wouldn't preclude clued network people from assisting, or
>> perhaps TransACT could approach local tertiary institutions with good
>> reputations to assist them.  Not quite sure how you'd architect such a
>> system but it sure sounds like an interesting assessable project.
>> 
>> Maybe I'm oversimplifying the problem but it sounds to me like they have
>> or will lose more money than it would have cost them to get people to
>> fix it.
>> 
>> --
>> Matt
> 
> I'm certain it isn't a technical problem. I'm certain that it is a
> marketing/management problem. Someone in TransACT is trying to sell
> these overpriced VPNs and I don't think they will be able to once
> they have the free p2p network running (other than by hobbling the
> data rate of the free p2p).
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Bob Edwards.

- -- 
- ----------------------------------
Paul Bryan
E-Mail: Paul Bryan <pa_bryan at yahoo.co.uk>
Date: 29-Jun-2002
Time: 23:04:28

PGP Key
http://www.keyserver.net:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0xB1D405DA

If I pull this SWITCH I'll be RITA HAYWORTH!!  Or a SCIENTOLOGIST!

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