Driving Me Nuts (Hell) (nutshell.net)

Member Name: Ian Proudfoot

Product:	nutshell.net
Date:	29/11/01 (67 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It was realible, Looks like I didn't pay

Disadvantages: It's gone

You know this whole internet thing is really starting to disappoint me. Most of the websites out there are full of more trash than the local rubbish tip, downloading MP3s has become a drag. (How many times have I found a supposed rarity and found it’s either not the artist in question or of such poor quality it might as well been recorded underwater by a tone deaf man wearing ear plugs). However it is not the content that has disappointed me the most but the way that I have to connect to the web. Yes were back to everyone’s favourite topic Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Like bog paper they’re something that most people don’t want to talk about but are an essential luxury for a ‘decent’ standard of modern living. Without that I am nothing , with them I am a frustrated and twisted individual whose resentment grows steadily as every day passes.

I have already written about the joy and rapture my last ISP brought me. Thanks TheFreeInternet (TFI) the agony you gave me has only made me stronger. Now I wish to bring you the second chapter of my story. A chapter I would like to call ‘Driving Me Nuts (Hell)’.

It was August 2001. A barmy summer of patchy cloud and sunny spells. I had been driven to the verge of insanity by current ISP, the harsh mistress by the name of TFI. She had often given me a poor connection and short shrift with session times, however in August she said she was leaving for a month to sort things out. It then I made the decision to ditch the harlot and find myself a new ISP.

Following a trial of recommendations from Websites and friends I arrive at the home of Nutshell. A ISP offering a service of such beauty and simplicity that it made TFI seem like a flea eaten dog whispering complex maths problems into my ears. Nutshell offered me a monthly package of unlimited and unmetered connection for the humble sum of 14.99 per month. Not the cheapest but a mighty fine deal
as it wasn’t locked into a certain number of months connection like certain other ISPs I shall not mention. This package suited me to a T. The attraction of unmetered access after the time limited connections of TFI being the icing on the cake.

The registration and installation of the connection software went like a dream. After tapping in my Card details I was able to download the connection software and start surfing the Web within five minutes. The time in takes to start a revolution according to rock legends MC-5. However I was in no need to start any form of revolution or even a small street protest as I only had to made one attempt to connect to the web and I was ready to surf. Compare this to the mammoth hair pulling and expletive shouting that TFI had caused as I tried to connect to the web for the 75th time in a row without success and you could have seen the visible change in my personality. I was finally relaxed and the internet had become a device of pleasure rather than a instrument of torture.

My Summer of Love continued with Nutshell. I was getting a connection first time every time . I was no longer getting cut off sporadically or at completely incontinent times. My care free days of surfing the seas of the Internet had truly begun. My collection of MP3s steadily increased and for a change I was also able to allow people to download MP3s from my computer. Not only because I was free of time restrictions but also because Nutshell had finally given me a stable bandwidth. I was averaging a connection speed of about 48000kbs on a 56K (Which given the fact that data headers take up a good percentage of the remaining data rate was a very good thing).

Things were going so swimmingly well I even joined the world of ICQ. I suddenly found that I could have inane conversations with drunken friends and strangers in real time. I also joined the wonderful world of FTP (File Transfer Protocol) and found that I know longer ne
eded Audiogalaxy or Morpheus when I could log onto a remote computer and download straight from the horse’s mouth . Truly the wonders of the modern telecommunications system had been laid open before me.

One thing I have learnt in life is never to get complacent in life, for things are bound to change for the worse. Yes a very pessimistic view point, but then again a pessimist is never disappointed. Nutshell was very shortly going to prove me right. It is now early October the UK is enjoying an Indian Summer and like all Holiday romances my love affair with Nutshell is about to crash and come to a bitter end.

I’m having a week of Holiday at home and looking forward to doing a bit of uploading and downloading of various software. Great I’m thinking I’ve got unlimited Internet access, now to make good of all those promises of sending files to my friends. I attempt to log on Nutshell and for the first time I can’t log on first time. No problem the dial up software attempts another nine times. Nine times later and I’m still not connected. My dial up is not even getting as far as Password verification. So I leave trying to log on thinking that many they’re doing some maintenance work on the servers during a non busy time (How many home users do you know who use the Internet at 10.30 in the morning?) . I try again later and after a further few attempts finally get connected. The connection is slow and intermittent so I decide to contact the Nutshell helpdesk to see if there is any known problems and just to do a sanity check to see if it’s not my end that’s playing up (insert flatulence joke here).

I send an e-mail to the Services desk and also make a note of the Technical support desk number (Which was incredibly difficult to find amongst the acres of gibberish that constitutes the Nutshell homepage). A couple of days later after a few days of connections they make me wish I had stay
ed with TFI I finally get a E-mail from the Services desk saying that the problems have been caused by Cable & Wireless (C&W) have accidentally taken one of their servers out of action and that everything should be back to normal. Great at least I got a decent response.

However three days pass and still my connection is a joke. Time to phone the Technical Helpdesk. Anyone that knows me knows that this is a big step for me to take, as I not the best person and communicating on the telephone and try to avoid using it as much as possible. I ring Nutshell and immediately get through to the Technical Helpdesk and they quickly and politely tell me that C&W still haven’t fixed the server problem. This doesn’t surprise me as C&W have the moniker Cable & Clueless within the Telecomms industry. The Helpdesk chap promises me that service will be back to normal again by the weekend. Grudgingly I except his word on this.

The weekend comes and goes and still I’m having massive problems getting a connection . So I decide to phone again. Firstly the Technical Helpdesk. All I get is a dead line. Thinking maybe Nutshell has closed the Technical Helpdesk because it was getting too busy , I phone the Services desk and get another dead line. I try several other numbers only to get that lovely tone of death.

Now back at work I check that the site is still up and running it is. However all further phone calls end up the same. It is now that I give up the ghost with Nutshell and go to cancel my direct debit with them, only to find it never existed. Everything begins to fall into place when a friend tells me that C&W actually backed Nutshell and it looks like they pulled the plug on the company. Luckily it seems I was never charged for the service.

When I had Nutshell as my ISP it was a joy to use, however when things went wrong they did in a big way. I’m now signed a deal with the Devil (AOL) and at least I’m back
on the web. If anyone has any more info on what happened with Nutshell I be overjoyed to hear it. Come back in a few months and I’m sure I be ranting about AOL. Sometimes I think that the internet maybe isn’t the place for me, but hopefully one day I will be again beguiled by it’s novelty and wonder.

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