Website Designers and Webmasters

Network Solutions continues to amaze me. I have a client who bought some very good domain names early in the domain rush, and she purchased them at Network Solutions for $35/year (as opposed to $9/year at godaddy.com or $6/year at 1and1.com).

Can Network Solutions Get Worse?

I wanted to forward one of her domains to 301 redirect to another domain, and after a couple clicks I found that it costs $20/year to forward a domain… and if you didn’t know… that is normally provided for free.

But Network Solutions Can’t get worse than that… Can they?

Yes they can. If you buy a domain at Godaddy, you get 100 email accounts free (or something ridiculous like that). If you want to get email with your Network Solutions domain, it costs $1.34/month for each email account… If you actually ended up using 100 email accounts with Network Solutions, they would charge you $134/month! That’s $1608/year for what you normally get for free at any other registrar…

-If you use network solutions, you obviously haven’t opened your eyes.
-Ashton Sanders

(P.S. If you are someone who actually likes Network Solutions, please shoot me a message with why that is. If you don’t exist, I wouldn’t be surprised.)

You can really summarize companies in two general categories:

(Obviously this is a sliding scale but for the majority, companies will prefer one or the other.)

I have observed companies like Logitech and In-And-Out to be very Customer Oriented. When they (or even I) messed something up, they would go out of their way to fix it for me. And because of this customer orientation, I speak highly of them, and spend more money with them.

AOL is on the other end of the spectrum: Profit Oriented. They go out of their way to stop you from canceling their services etc. Their first programs were basically impossible to uninstall from your computer unless you were a computer genius… and even then it could take weeks to really get it off of your computer.

My first email address was with AOL, and when we realized that we could get better internet connection for cheaper elsewhere, we tried to uninstall it from our computer… for two years. Granted we didn’t know a lot about our computer, but we did know that once something is uninstalled, it shouldn’t keep making shortcuts on your desktop…

“But that was years ago, they are better now…”

If you believe that, I recommend checking out some of these people who tried to cancel their AOL account within the last few years:

Ask Dave Taylor how he canceled his AOL account.
Vincent Ferrari tries to cancel his AOL account.

AOL’s business decisions have lead to shirts that say “Friends don’t let friends use AOL” and hopefully will end up destroying them.

-Customer Service is King
-Ashton Sanders

You may have read my previous rants on Network Solutions. If you haven’t, I’ll give you a quick run-down.

Network solutions, charges you a lot of money for normally inexpensive services. I’m not talking just a couple more buck; I’m talking six times what I’m paying. I pay $6/year for domain, Network Solutions charges $35/year.

If that doesn’t make you hate them, this might:

I got a client who had a domain registered there, and it was about to expire. Instead of paying $35/year, I recommended transferring their domain to a good domain registrar and pay $6-9/year. So I called in to transfer it.

I started the first transfer, and the email was sent to the wrong email address. (My fault.)

So I fixed the WhoIs information, and started the domain transfer request again. Nothing happened… (Network Solutions’ fault)

I called in again. Unfortunately, the domain had expired by this time, and they said I’d have to register for a year to unlock the domain. Well I didn’t want to pay $35 because they didn’t send an email that they should have. Finally after calling three or four times, I got someone who knew what they were doing and unlocked my domain.

I got the approval email, and I approved the transfer. Yeay! Now I only need to wait 7 days to get it to domain transfered. I was about to leave for a couple weeks, but that shouldn’t matter. The transfer has already begun, and the domain will be transfered.

Oh wait… my mistake… I forgot how BAD Network Solutions was.

I get back from my trip to find the domain hasn’t transfered yet… I call them up to find:

“I’m sorry, but this domain has been transfered to one of our partner companies, and I don’t have access to it.”

“So basically instead of transferring my domain to a different host, you transfered it to a domain scalper that’s going to charge me $1000 to get my domain back…”

Thank You Network Solutions! Keep up your horrible customer service, and America will catch on (slowly, but they will).

-Ashton Sanders

By Viewsonic

The Optiquest Q19wb is a 19″ Widescreen Flat-panel monitor. Here are it’s specs:

Model

Brand : ViewSonic
Series : Optiquest Series
Model : Q19wb
Cabinet Color : Black

Display

Panel : Active Matrix, TFT LCD
Screen Size : 19″
Widescreen : Yes
Display Type : WXGA
Recommended Resolution : 1440 x 900
Viewing Angle : 160°(H) / 160°(V)
Brightness : 300 cd/m2
Contrast Ratio : 700 : 1
Response Time : 5ms
Horizontal Refresh Rate : 31kHz – 81kHz
Vertical Refresh Rate : 50Hz – 75Hz

Connectivity

Input Video Compatibility : Analog RGB
Connectors : D-Sub
D-Sub : 1
DVI : No
HDMI : No

Power

Complies with : ENERGY STAR
Power Supply : AC 100-240V (universal), 50/60Hz (auto switch)
Power Consumption : 33W (typ)

Convenience

User Controls : Basic : Power, 2, up, down,1
OnView : Auto image adjust, brightness, contrast, ViewMatch color adjust (sRGB, 9300K, 6500K, 5400K user color), H. position, V. position, H. size, resolution notice, OSD position, OSD timeout, OSD background, fine tune, sharpness, language, recall, volume, mute
Regulatory Approvals : UL, cUL, FCC-B, TCO-03, ICES-003B, RoHS, CB, CE, WEEE, ISO13406-2,TUV-S, NOM, GOST-R
Adjustable Stand : Tilt Adjustments
Built in TV Tuner : No
Built in Speakers : 2 x 1W
Features : •Stylish slim-bezel design
•OnView controls for superior screen adjustability
•Multimedia enhanced
•VESA 100mm wall-mount compliant
•PC and Mac compatible
•Power Mac G3/G4/G5 up to 1152×870
•Panel Surface : Anti-glare

Packaging

Package Contents : Q19wb LCD Monitor
Audio Cable
VGA Cable
Power Cable
Support Disk

Dimensions

Dimensions (W×H×D) : 17.6″ x 14.8″ x 7.6″
Weight : 9.9 lbs.
Temperature Range : 32 – 104 °F (0 – 40 °C)
Humidity Range : 10-90% (non-condensing)

Manufacturer Warranty

Parts : 1 year limited
Labor : 1 year limited

I just purchased my second of these monitors. I received my first on for Christmas 06, so it has been almost exactly 5 months. I have never had a problem with it. I’ve been using the plug and play drivers, and it hasn’t let me down.

The only difference I have seen in the more recent model is that it is about 1/4th of a cm taller than my first one. This may just be because the rubber pads on the bottom haven’t worn down very much yet.

I got this Optiquest Q19wb off of Newegg.com for $190 (with a $40 mail in rebate). With shipping and handling I will end up paying $163 for this beautiful monitor.

And I can’t fail to mention the energy star logo! Yes, both monitors have the energy star logo on them. Which means they don’t burn up electricity like the good old CRT’s.

I will also mention that you can view this monitor from just about any angle without a reduction in clarity! And of course since they are flat panel monitors, they don’t constantly barrage you with radiation. Which just means you’ll have to go outside to get a tan.

-Let me know how that goes
-Ashton

If you need a good laugh along the same lines of my recent annoyances with Century Tel Problems, it looks like AOL is even worse than Century Tel! I don’t know how that is even possible, but check out this:

Vincent Ferrari called AOL to cancel his AOL account, and it took 21 minutes, which isn’t really that impressive, but what is really amazing is the four minutes of recorded dialog with the customer service representative.

Check it out here:

Cancel AOL in 21 minutes

SOOO FUNNY!!!

Hahahah! That is a a very vivid horror story with AOL.

-Where has Customer Service gone?
-Ashton Sanders