🚀 go-pugleaf

      
        HELP!!!   NETCOM IS GETTING HARDER AND HARDER TO LOG ONTO!!!



I have been using Netcom Netcruiser for over a year now.   Back when I
first started using it, it was always quite easy to dial up and log on.
The process took no more than about 30 seconds to a minute at the most.

Then after using Netcom for about 6 or 7 months, I noticed things
changing.   More and more, I was getting busy signals on my first
dial-in attempt.   Soon other problems with the dial-in process started
to occur more frequently.   I would get a dial tone, the number would
dial, and I'd connect, but after that the whole thing would just stall
as if in "limbo", and I would never get as far as the initial Netcom
screen.    Fortunately, however, these problems weren't occurring so
frequently (back then) that it caused real frustration.   I did notice
that these things were happening at virtually any time of the day, from
early morning to late at night, but perhaps more frequently at hours
which are presumably "peak" Internet use hours:  First, there is an
early peak just before people leave for work (averaged out between the
US time zones) continuing through about the first hour of work.   [This
can be reasoned out by assuming that a whole horde of people will check
their home e-mail accounts before they leave for work, and another
whole horde of people, partly overlapping the first horde, will be
checking their e-mail first thing they do at work.]   There is another
peak (probably even a bigger peak) which occurs late in the afternoon,
after people get home from work (I notice this starts about 4:30 pm.)  
This peak continues, and actually becomes even more of a peak (a
"mountain") after 6 or 7 pm, when telephone rates go down.

I also assumed some of the problem was due not only to increased
traffic on the Internet (more and more Americans joining the ranks of
Inernet users each day) but also, of increased subscriptions to Netcom!

But now, in the past 2 months or so, I have noticed a new, much more
disturbing trend on Netcom.   I now get a message, just about EVERY
time I try to log on, saying, "Log-in Error: File not found".   

WHAT IS THIS?   And why is it happening more and more frequently??  
When I first noticed it, starting around 2 months ago, it was
happening, say, every 3 or 4 times I attempted to log on.   Soon,
however, the frequency of this message increased, to about once every 2
times I tried logging on.   Then, about a week ago, I noticed its
frequency had increased still more, so it was happening EVERY time I
tried to log on.    It is a small box, which appears in the center of
my screen, after my modem dials the designated Netcom number -- but
before the modem actually connects -- saying, (as noted above): 
"Log-in Error: File not found."    What is this?   What does it mean?

In any event, when this happens, I click on the "button" provided to
"cancel", and I am thrown out of the Netcom Netcruiser program,
backward to my Windows 95 Program Manager screen, from where I am
forced to start all over again and load the Netcom program AGAIN.

I have also noticed recently that this is happening not only EVERY time
I try to log onto Netcom now, but twice, three times, four times, five
times OR MORE, each time I attempt to log on!    At this rate, by the
end of the year, I'll never be able to log onto Netcom and I'll just
give up and renounce my membership/subscription.   Netcom will be
$19.95 poorer each month, for I will officially tell them that I am FED
UP and have no use for their services any more!

What is "File not found"?   What does it mean?    Please don't tell me
that it is a problem with my computer, since if I remember back five or
six months ago, I never had this problem with Netcom.   Why should this
start happening now?   Much more likely than this being a problem
"native" to my computer, it is a mechanism Netcom has cleverly devised
to dissuade so many people from attempting to log onto Netcom, in the
hopes that, out of frustration, many people will give up or use the
service less (and still pay their $19.95 a month!)   Why would Netcom
be doing this?   Simple.   Because, as more and more people take
advantage of the free Netcom software that is available at every
computer store, and begin subscribing, THERE IS NOW A MASSIVE OVERLOAD
OF NETCOM SUBSCRIBERS, clogging the system nationwide.   Netcom has
done nothing to alleviate this congestion or make its service smoother
or easier to use, easier to log onto.   On the contrary, they keep on
PUSHING their software everywhere, in the hopes of attracting more and
more subscribers (and more and more $19.95/month subscription fees), to
keep their company alive.   And who suffers?   The Netcom users who
have always been accustomed to reasonably good, reliable service and
short waiting times!   Now, the service is NOT GOOD, NOT RELIABLE, and
the waiting times are LONG!!!

Netcom -- be honest with your customers/consumers and please do the
following:

1) Explain the "Log-in Error: File not found" phenomenon.

2) Admit that Netcom is becoming quite overcongested and that its
   capacity can no longer support the good service and quick log-in
   times that made Netcom a good value in the past.

3) Admit that this is largely Netcom's own fault:   Netcom continues to
   promote its free software in the hopes of attracting new business
   (new subscribers), but as a DIRECT CONSEQUENCE OF THIS, Netcom 
   services have deteriorated dramatically for its longtime, loyal
   users.

Please respond, Netcom!

Tony