James Wack knew there would be complications when it came to setting up a VPN for All-Pak, a Pittsburgh manufacturer of bottles, cans and other containers. But he never imagined quite how complicated it could become.

The systems administrator's story began late last summer. Along with deploying a VPN to link the firm's nine offices, Wack wanted to use DSL for high-speed access. Working with ISP Verio to order DSL for the three sites that qualified for the service, he was told installation would take six to eight weeks.

If only things had gone as planned. Connecting the Buffalo, N.Y., office took more than three months, while hooking up the Columbus, Ohio, office took close to six months. And even now, the situation isn't completely resolved. The news that DSL wholesaler NorthPoint Communications is shutting down has forced Wack to scramble to keep the Buffalo and Philadelphia offices online.

Looking back on the experience, Wack says, "It was really, really upsetting. I've never been treated this way by any organization. I was shocked that a company of this size would seemingly blow me off."

Responding to those complaints, Verio spokesman Greg Falconer says, "Having three DSL lines they probably got a better sense of the frustrations sometimes involved in installing this service. These are unfortunate circumstances."

Wack is not alone. Web sites such as DSLReports.com are full of gripes about broken promises and frustrations when it comes to DSL service.

To some extent, the broadband deployment problem is systemic. DSL service is notoriously unpredictable in part because it is provided over copper phone lines that were never intended to be used for such high-speed service. As a result, the service is only available to customers within three miles of the carrier's central office.

"It's tough to totally understand the wires in the ground in any given city until we get the phone company to help us find some wires that work," says Falconer. "All-Pak was subject to those challenges."

Getting DSL service also typically involves three separate companies: ISPs such as Verio, DSL wholesalers and local phone companies. Communication breakdowns between any of them can result in nightmares for customers.

It appears to be a combination of those factors that hamstrung Wack's attempts to connect his company's offices.

All-Pak's biggest problems happened at its suburban Columbus office. Wack says he was originally told that he could get 384K bit/sec service there. But when the local carrier took a look at the wires, the service offering was downgraded to 144K bit/sec ISDN DSL. Then came a series of order cancellations that appeared to be the result of miscommunication between Verio and Covad Communications, the DSL wholesaler Verio uses in Columbus.

Wack says confusion within Verio about the speed of service delayed the first installation date until December. Then, on five or six occasions in December, January and February, installation dates were scheduled and then broken. The problem appeared to be the same paperwork snafu; the cancellation of the higher-speed service somehow led Covad to believe that all service had been canceled.

A Covad spokesman says All-Pak's service was canceled by Verio. The spokesman said it appeared as though All-Pak had requested the cancellations and that until February, it had no record of new service being ordered.

The situation was unpleasant for All-Pak. "I was getting a lot of pressure from my manager and the branch manager," Wack says. "They thought I was being too soft on Verio, not as forceful as I needed to be to get this through."

While Verio and Covad might have been trying their best, their methods of communicating with Wack often made things worse, he says.

"I received over 130 e-mail messages from Verio and Covad regarding these different DSL installations," he says. "Often, only a site number was used to identify the subject site, and since they canceled our installations so many times, and since Covad and Verio gave us different internal identifiers for each site, it was nearly impossible to keep track of our correspondence."

Adding to his frustration, Wack usually had to call someone at Verio to find out which All-Pak site was being referred to in an e-mail message. "Most of the time I would get a recording or I would be stuck on hold for 20 minutes. This got old very fast."

Wack didn't like feeling helpless and wishes Covad and Verio had listened to him. "They were so rigid in the way they tackled problems," he says. "It was as if everyone there had their hands tied."

At least All-Pak could use regular dial-up connections during the installation ordeal. After all three DSL lines were finally installed, Wack was pleased with their performance. However, he's now forced to line up alternate service in the Buffalo and Philadelphia offices because of the NorthPoint shutdown.

Verio says it received almost no notice about the impending shutdown, even though NorthPoint had been experiencing financial difficulties for months. But as soon as Verio officials learned of it, they notified All-Pak and other NorthPoint users via e-mail.

To compensate for the shutdown, Verio has offered its NorthPoint customers a dial-up Internet connection for up to 60 days, which has helped ease the burden.

"We've kind of gotten over the shock of it," Wack says. "Now we're back to the way they were a year ago when users did dial-up for their e-mail."

All-Pak is now planning to get DSL through AT&T in Philadelphia, and it will install a fractional T-1 line in Buffalo. The latter will cost about double what All-Pak is now paying for DSL in Buffalo -- roughly $100 to $135 per month.

As a footnote, Verio discontinued its DSL service as of March 31, according to Verio's Falconer, although the company will continue to service its existing customers. But in something that feels like a final insult to Wack, Verio has been billing him for three DSL lines in Buffalo even though there is only one line in place. There is no resolution in sight.

» posted by ITworld staff

Network World

• Email
• Print
• Share
  • Slashdot
  • Digg
  • Stumble
  • Reddit
  • Newsvine