I Hate My ISP

No, I have not had my DSL cut out (lately), but I am starting to understand why some people take off for Buddhist temples to meditate. I went from using a cable modem to DSL, which meant a 50% drop in my maximum download speed, and don't think I haven't noticed. OK, I can handle that, even when SBC wants to charge me too much.

Yes, there were issues at the start. They told me that I had to sign up for my phone service a week before my activation date for DSL. Then they scheduled me a few days before the people in the control center were able to retract their thumbs from their asses long enough to type in the little bit it takes to say that my line would have active service. Finally, I can't have a static IP address unless I pay $200 to have someone to come out and do two minutes of configuration I can do on my own, so I have a dynamic IP address.

OK, but with all of that behind me, I have been fighting with SBC for three months now, trying to get an answer to a simple question: Why am I not allowed to FTP my web pages into my directory. I understand that there are people who think, on hearing "FTP," that it is a fuel additive or a band, and the gimpy web interface is great for that. I'm not one of those people. So far, support has described FTP as a "feature" of the premium (an additional $30/month) service. FTP is a protocol; it's right there in the name, for cryin' out loud! Direct access to my web space is a "feature"? Hey, maybe they will start calling a POP mailbox a "feature" too, and then they can charge extra for that.

I am curious about something: Do any of you have ISPs that do not allow you to upload web pages to your public_html folders? I mean, sure, not everyone cares about such things, so maybe you never found out, but what SBC has is backward. If I want to upload a file, I can get up to 20 "Choose File" buttons at once, clicking each in turn to select a single file. And when I upload the batch, they don't necessarily appear on the server. And I am being charged for this. I ask you, is that right? No wonder I have so much trouble chasing down that damned itch.