🚀 go-pugleaf

Hi all,

maybe you have noticed that the Swissonline news server has had major
problems for about _two weeks_ now.

This not only impacts Swissonline customers, but also many others
(like me) who have other providers relying on this news server
(Cablecom in my case).

Of course, we will all be billed the same amount by our providers in
September, even though an important service has been down for a very
long time.

Swissonline has not replied to mail messages about this problem, and
the support address  given by their NNRP server
(<usenet@news.swissonline.ch>) is completely bogus.

The Swissonline technical information page
http://www.swissonline.ch/cgi-bin/tech_stoerung_show.pl
says that this problem is "solved", even though it is far from being
the case.

This situation demonstrates that Swissonline is making money selling a
service that they are completely unable to understand and maintain.
There are legal dispositions addressing this kind of behavior.

Since we obviously can't rely on them to fulfill their
responsibilities in this area, I suggest that we put a little bit more
pressure on them by acting in a coordinated way, and trying to use
legal means to at least get a rebate for the September period.

If you also think this situation is unacceptable, please contact me,
either by email or by following up to this message. (Maybe e-mail will
be safer ;-).

PS:
Maybe you are using the Swissonline news server and you don't know it.
This server has many aliases, and is being used by many providers.
The IP address of this server is 62.2.32.50. You can use nslookup on
your news server address to find out. Anyway, if you've had major
problems reading news for the last two weeks, chances are that you're
using this server.

-- 
Didier Frick  
Freelance Software Developer & Consultant
Sun Certified Java Programmer
http://www.dfr.ch/