isp cooperation

Wed Jan 17 16:44:13 UTC 1996

  Hello Ehud,

] However, I've got a question for the community at large.  In a recent
] client switchover, we discovered The Other ISP had no clue about DNS.
] Despite our best efforts to get their "technical" support involved,
] we discovered they had none.

  This is a surprise?

] When we asked them to enable DNS zone transfers, they said "We don't
] allow that.  Edit your files; if you don't know how to do that then
] you shouldn't be running DNS."  This haughty attitude punctuated their
] incompetence and lack of technical savvy.

  Maybe they were sore you were stealing their customer?

] Now stuck in the middle of this is the customer, who just wants the
] service transfered, and really doesn't want to hear things like "Domain
] zone transfer," "file editing," or "variable shield frequency modulation."

  Hmm, I can respect that, and I agree that the unprofessional
  attitude of 2kindsandaT1 is unhealthy, but I think capitalism has
  clauses for people like this....

] Any ideas on how to gain cooperation from what is clearly a "two-kid"
] shop of a few teenagers pretending to run an ISP with a holier-than-thou
] attitude and the technical knowhow of a Newt (with apologies to Mr. Speaker)?

  Patience, politeness, and persistence.  Works wonders.

  Thought rarely short term fulfilling, it's my favorite way of
  getting what I want, though I can't say as I use it as much as I'd
  like.  I don't see how we can expect the ISP business to be
  drastically different from the rest of the world.  There are nice
  companies, and rude companies.  There are rich companies, and used
  to be companies.  I think latter of each are linked, somehow.

  -alan