Let me add a sub-title to this topic: I HATE AT&T!
Yesterday afternoon, the newsreader program I use gave me a "Connection refused" error. It had worked fine in the morning, but in the afternoon, it wouldn't connect.
I had installed a small security update to Windows, so I naturally thought that was the problem. I did a system restore to a point just before the security update. That didn't fix it. So I sent an email to the software supplier.
For about six hours today, we were exchanging emails and trying various things. I finally concluded that the problem had to be the DNS. About ten minutes later, I got an email from the vendor saying that he thought I had a DNS problem. For those not familiar with it, DNS means Domain Name Server. Every time you send the internet a name, like "Goomba.com," the first thing that happens is a server out there somewhere (a DNS) translates that name to a numerical IP address.
I used a program to identify the servers that were being used as DNS by my connection, and they were AT&T servers. There is a way around using a DNS (it's called the hosts file), and when I tried that, everything worked fine. Son no only is AT&T unable to provide a dependable internet connection with decent speed, they can't even properly maintain their own servers.
I have since changed the TCP/IP settings on my internet connections to use a Google DNS. Now everything is working fine.
Fuck AT&T.
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