Greg Pratt
2005-07-16 20:46:42 UTC
While rearranging some files on my home page, I ran across an old
archive of the frontiernet.general newsgroup, from 30 July 2001 through
5 September 2001. That was the period during which I finally saw the
writing on the wall; I ditched the dying Frontiernet and went with Panix,
never looking back.
Okay, that's not quite true. NOW I'm looking back, almost four years on.
A recap: during 2001, the formerly local & wonderful and (relatively)
geek-friendly ISP known as Frontiernet was spun off from Global Crossing
(which itself filed for bankruptcy less than a year later). I was told
that Global Crossing was keeping all the nice hardware, and that
Frontiernet, under the auspices of Citizens Telecom, would become just
another LCD (lowest common denominator) ISP. Its former hallmarks -- shell
access, reasonably good Usenet feeds, and better-than-average system
administrators -- were all to go the way of the dodo.
What actually happened to Frontiernet, other than some DNS changes and
people having to change their e-mail addresses? Someone who was in a
knowledgeable position at the time (no, not Karl Rove) sent me this via
e-mail: "Citizens is building their own Linux/NT systems to move the
Frontiernet users onto. So if you think [Frontiernet] bending under the
perpetual DoS mail load is bad, wait until you see what happens to them."
Who quit the old or new ISP groups? Who stayed with Global Crossing, and
got laid off later? Who stayed on as a Frontiernet customer? Are you
satisfied with what they became, or did you just stay with them due to
inertia? Did my source's predictions come true?
archive of the frontiernet.general newsgroup, from 30 July 2001 through
5 September 2001. That was the period during which I finally saw the
writing on the wall; I ditched the dying Frontiernet and went with Panix,
never looking back.
Okay, that's not quite true. NOW I'm looking back, almost four years on.
A recap: during 2001, the formerly local & wonderful and (relatively)
geek-friendly ISP known as Frontiernet was spun off from Global Crossing
(which itself filed for bankruptcy less than a year later). I was told
that Global Crossing was keeping all the nice hardware, and that
Frontiernet, under the auspices of Citizens Telecom, would become just
another LCD (lowest common denominator) ISP. Its former hallmarks -- shell
access, reasonably good Usenet feeds, and better-than-average system
administrators -- were all to go the way of the dodo.
What actually happened to Frontiernet, other than some DNS changes and
people having to change their e-mail addresses? Someone who was in a
knowledgeable position at the time (no, not Karl Rove) sent me this via
e-mail: "Citizens is building their own Linux/NT systems to move the
Frontiernet users onto. So if you think [Frontiernet] bending under the
perpetual DoS mail load is bad, wait until you see what happens to them."
Who quit the old or new ISP groups? Who stayed with Global Crossing, and
got laid off later? Who stayed on as a Frontiernet customer? Are you
satisfied with what they became, or did you just stay with them due to
inertia? Did my source's predictions come true?
--
Gregory Pratt ***@panix.com
East Rutherford, NJ, USA http://www.panix.com/~gp/
"The only good spammer is a dead spammer."
PGP Key Fingerprint: DC60 FCDE 91E2 3D41 91A3 45DB B474 3D3A 3621 AAFE
Gregory Pratt ***@panix.com
East Rutherford, NJ, USA http://www.panix.com/~gp/
"The only good spammer is a dead spammer."
PGP Key Fingerprint: DC60 FCDE 91E2 3D41 91A3 45DB B474 3D3A 3621 AAFE