Why Netcabo Sucks

Picking up a topic widely echoed here in Portugal, allow me to comment on the QoS offered by Portuguese ISPs with a real-life example.

I use Fink. And I'm a Netcabo customer (not entirely by choice, but that's another matter). I've just taken steps to route all of my Fink traffic through this box's connection, because I cannot download a single Fink update, no matter what apt repository I pick (and let me tell you I'm used to changing that to try to get around the "transparent" proxies).

The downloads simply stop. And I get the exact same truncated files every time I try to download the files again, no matter what I use (, wget, curl, etc.). The only thing that works is rsync, but I can't use it for the rest - it's mostly the same for Software Updates, and it's only due to the fact I set up an apt proxy for my boxes that it doesn't happen to them too.

It's not the first time this happens. It's not even the fiftieth time it happens. And I've already given up complaining, because it's no use whatsoever.

And that's just about all I have to say tonight, really. I've been putting off dissing the company publicly for a couple of years now (after all, I know some of the people who work there), but I guess it was about time.

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