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| Three local ISP's, which do Mac users prefer? |
In 1999 a survey was taken of members of the Strait Macintosh Users Group to see which of the three Internet Service Providers on the Olympic Peninsula they liked the best. The three ISP's are Olympus, Olypen and Tenforward.
Best is not the only criteria. Because my hubby and I are online many hours every day, Olypen is the affordable (but unreliable) one.
I have to reply that I think Olympus is the best for all users -- not just Mac users. I know three, no four, people who have, in the past six weeks transferred from Tenforward to Olypen (two give their as their reason the inability to get online when they needed.) and I know three who are currently having big problems with Olypen. (One can't get on at all and another's messages are being held anywhere from one to four hours before being sent out). I haven't heard of these kinds of problems with Olympus Net. But for Mac users --- John Baxter is the best server.
My answer is Olympus because I feel they are faster and more MacIntosh friendly.
My only experience has been with olympus and I've been very satisfied with their service. I understand they are a bit more expensive than olypen but have heard some negatives about olypen so I'm not switching.
I am only familiar with Olympus.net. They are fine except I do get disconnected on occasion, and rather frequently with using Eudora Pro.
The only ISP I've used is olympus.net. I've had the service for several years, and have found it extremely reliable, with almost no busy signals, rare problems connecting and few dropped connections. The service is always polite and generally prompt, though I've not needed any basic help at all.
Olympus is knowledgeable and prompt to answer any questions you might have about their service which I find to be extremely reliable and/or the mail program you are using. Well worth the extra charge per month.
In my view, Olympus.net is the best provider. Why? Service/help and in three years of use never a failed connection attempt or a dropped line.
Olympus .net ---they have great technical assistance and are available POST HASTE
I have Townsend Communications INC (olympus.net) and find no fault with them. Of course, I am not into surfing the net much and so I use it for email mostly. So add my name to Olympus.net.
I have used only olympus.net ; so have no way to compare. However, I have found their service good and dependable. They keep in touch and I get on the net with no delay. I would like any information anyone has on the new service that MacAid is ovvering.
My only experience has been with Olypen, so therefore I cannot say directly which is best. I chose Olypen over Olympus because of the difference in cost. However, several of my friends who use Olympus net think it is superior. Also friends who use tenforward like it very much. Mostly I find Olypen satisfactory except in the early evening when it is in a lot of use. The fact that it is a local call is important since Aol does not choose to service this area. Good luck on your survey--will be interested in the results.
I only have limited experience. I signed up with Olypen when we came here two years ago, and do not know about the others. Olypen is oriented towards PC's and Windows. However, they do provide reasonable technical support upon request. A couple of times they solved problems with modems and newsreaders in a timely fashion that enabled me to get back online. I have internet connections that are consistently 45K +. They just are not Apple-oriented, nor do they offer up-to-date Apple connection instructions, or software, like they do for Windoze. Let us know what the outcome of your survey is.
I only have experience with Tenforward (very difficult to get on most evenings) and Olypen (who doesn't seem to know that there ARE Macs- I would give them 0 out of 10). By default, I guess I vote for Olympus.net.
I have very limited experience with providers other than Olympus, namely, Olypen and Tenforward. Olympus is or was more expensive than the others, but their knowledge of Macs and its operating sysytem(s) is far superior to the other two. The Olympus tech support people have been outstanding and their response time has been excellent. Finally, their down-time has been minimal.
We purchased our Mac 6500 in March of 1998, and it is our first personal computer. I first contacted Tenforward and signed up. They said they could support Macintosh, but two weeks later I was still not on line. I then paid Olypen and was on line in a week, but still no email. We went to our first Smug meeting in April,1998 where we learned about Olympus Net. I am very pleased with their service and received my FIRST busy signal last night. Shortly later I was on line. I have been disconnected a few times, but no problem to us. It appears to me that Olympus Net is the only Mac supported ISP on the Peninsula, and I feel lucky they are here.
I started with Olympus in PT, but using email, fax and phone they were unable to get me online smoothly. OlyPen being the only local provider at the time I took the CPU into them in PA. They installed the settings and I have had reasonably good service since...mostly meaning that I get online whenever I want almost immediately every time. I have heard that OlyPen is not very MAC friendly, but I have never had enough problems to really test their service. It doesn't appear to me that my own experience really goes very far in determining who is "best".
I had been with Olympus and am now with tenforward. While with Olympus they installed an antispam which cut out all my overseas mail (except for Australia) and also cut out all my Alaskan mail. They said the ISPs at the other end were all making a mistake in their programming. My brother in Alaska and my overseas friends were contacting my son in Australia and he continued to forward all my overseas email. After a month of this I went to tenforward (who had the same physical setup and equipment). They immediately contacted all the overseas addresses I gave them. I switched to tenforward that day. I have been with tenforward almost 2 years now and am very pleased with their help.
Olympus Net has great service and support. They have good Mac support, always helpful, Email is dependable, and we always get online.
I was connected to Olympus.net for about two years.. They did a great job of getting me hooked up in the infant stages of internet connection. If I had a problem they were there...but via the phone line because they were based in Port Townsend... I would have stayed with them as the connection was excellent and had no problems, but the price was too good to resist with Tenforward @ $120 a year for teachers....
Also, I found out that they have a Mac person on hand that can help in times of stress... which I have had to use... Even take my hard drive in to them to get the connection right... So I have stayed... The connection is not as good as Olympus.net, but getting much better... so here I stay!
Olypen is a PC place, with little or no MAC support... so I have stayed away from them!
I have had my iMac only 4 months so I can make no comparisons with OlympusNet. Most of the time it does require five or six attempts before I can get on the internet. Some of the people to whom I have mentioned this say it is a common occurence and others say they can get on line on the initial dialing. Other than this I am satisfied with my server. |
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