AT&T-anyone familiar?

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Is anyone familiar with how good AT&T Worldnet is? I am thinking of changing ISP’s. I am trying to eliminate a problem with my ISP disconnecting me before I can get a backup with my online backup service. I note that they no longer have 24/7 support, nor do they support MS Outlook. When I called, they said their web site would give me what I needed to know to accommodate Outlook, but unless I am having a specific problem right at the moment, there is no way to know how good it is.
Has anyone had experience with AT&T Worldnet? What was good, what was bad?
Does any ISP support MS Outlook?
Thank you,
Julia Henson

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Don’t know about Worldnet myself, but every ISP I’ve ever used (including my current ISP — Verizon DSL) supported Outlook (I don’t use Express as the client on my home machine). If the account is configured correctly, Outlook will find your mail.

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I’ve had Worldnet for about 2 years, although I really only use it when I travel or there is a major problem with our T1. AT&T does not have as many local access numbers as would be nice, and some of them get rather busy. I rarely get dropped, but if I do, it happens over and over on the same number fairly quickly as though there is a problem with the line or their hardware. I can’t recall ever “timing out”; my PC will go to sleep before the dialer turns off. They do offer 888 (10 cents/minute) for use at the airport payphone or wherever you cannot get a local number, but obviously that’s no substitute when you’re at your office or home.

I’ve had reasonable service and no problems with e-mail that I can recall. Like most ISPs, you cannot use third party SMTP servers, so if you are using the same PC inside and outside the office, you either need to have a second profile set up or manually change the SMTP server when you send the first time. I check my AT&T mail about once a week, and once you set an option on their web site, you can check it over your LAN connection from work so you don’t have to log in when you don’t need to. (Note: the servers have different names for when you are on their network vs. someone else’s network; it’s a bit of a hassle to switch ’em if you don’t create separate profiles).

(Don’t tell anyone, but when our DSL went out for 48 hours last Summer in our smaller office, I think we had 3 people using AT&T on my account for the better part of a day with no complaints from anyone, including AT&T.)

I got in at $14.95/month for 150 hours; I think that plan is currently $16.95, and still a pretty good deal.

Now, here is some free advice: when you sign up, save the “congratulations” page as a text file so you can manually set up your connection. I used the Worldnet set up program the first time, and it programmed Outlook and IE to automatically connect whenever I turned around. It made me crazy. I moved all the folders around until it broke and then I turned off automatic dialing and created a Windows dial-up networking connection from scratch. Yes, this means when I travel to a new city I need to set up another one, but I like the control it gives me. And who knows how the service might be different if I used the official dialer?

Hope this helps.

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Thank you all for responding. I did finally join AT&T. In my experience, which only includes AT&T now, plus XO Communications and MSN, Outlook is not supported. The difference is that AT&T will tell you in their online information how to set it up anyway. But if you ask any of these ISPs, they will say they don’t support it. XO definitely won’t and many times their tech support people won’t help you at all. My saving grace was that I had made print screen pictures of the set-up one of their people was willing to lead me through. I didn’t get far enough with MSN to know if they have set-up info on a site somewhere.
AT&T was nice enough to say that the OUtlook setup was the same as Outlook Express 5.

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I signed up for AT&T Worldnet about 5 years ago when I was living in Switzerland. I signed up with them because I need an ISP that I could use there, and when I was traveling back here to the USA and many other countries. It worked pretty well until they changed their billing to add an “Out of area surcharge” which is an hourly charge that they tack on if you call in from any country that is “our of your area.” That made using it VERY expensive when I was traveling. I have also found that when I use them from my current home back in the USA, they do disconnect me frequently and also are very slow (I typically connecy at 24kb on a 56kb modem). I still have my subscription for backup of my cable connection, and for when I travel, but don’t use them very much. I have also found their support to be pretty much useless. The do respond, but never seem to be able to come up with an answer.

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I wouldn’t use AT&T if it was the only one available. But my reason is the blasted advertising saturation. I get a phone solicitation every ten days and a live person walking in my door at least once a month. Not to mention the web popups. I have even lodged complaints with AT&T customer service but they tell me the solicitors are not AT&T employees. Seems to me they could save enough money to lower their rates if they cut back on the advertising.

BTW why is it that there is only one ISP server more expensive than MSN and it is Verizon (my local telephone company). Why does the phone company need a connection fee?

I decided to go with a local connection, keep the money at home and support a small business. Only to discover he is nothing but a go between. His “server” is really some national company.

But in my search I did run across a suggestion to help cut down the disconnects:
Run IE in the background set to check for mail every 10 minutes. Most of the servers have an automatic 20min with no activity disconnect.

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My disconnects are not related to inactivity. I get disconnected in the middle of a 3 hour download.

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Some ISP consider ONLY keyboard and mouse actions as activity.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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You might want to keep a self-refreshing page (like the former Excite home page, not sure now since it’s under new management) open during those long downloads. Or you could create your own…

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