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Attention Optimum Internet Users!


Gene Steinberg

Forum Super Hero
Staff member
It appears that Optimum's email system is blocking our email. This includes forum notices, newsletter signups, even personal email from us.

I have contacted Optimum's technical support to resolve the issue and make sure our server is whitelisted.

If you are one of their customers, I suggest you contact them as well to speed this up.

Thanks.
 
Aside from the feature set or lack thereof, what do you do if you move to a place where that service is not available, or you switch another provider, if there is one?
 
Okay. Not original with me.

What if your ISP moved in with you? Literally

"Most of us use the internet constantly, yet think nothing of what we’re giving away.

So walk through my day with me. I mean, with me and my ISP.

My phone alarm rings. I open my eyes, and there it is: my ISP. Stubbly, bedhead-y, and totally freaking me out. (Or, if a different visualization suits you, think Single White Female.) Trying to ignore it, and before I even get out of bed, I check Facebook and Twitter, while my ISP reads over my shoulder. I like a few of my friends’ selfies, and my ISP writes that down. Check weather, read a few emails (ISP taking screenshots now), then I -- we, rather -- get out of bed.

My ISP gives itself a piggyback ride on me as I make my way downstairs, sits on my lap at breakfast while I read the news, always scribbling things down in its little notebook. Now I’m freaked and annoyed.

In the car on the way to work, my ISP watches the directions I use. Now I notice it’s making a call to someone else every time it writes down what I do. Who is it talking to? What is it saying? Why won’t it answer my questions? Why is it in my face? Is it going to hurt me?

Before I eat my lunch, I obviously have to post a photo of the plate to Instagram. There’s my ISP. During lunch, I catch up on NBA news, and by now my ISP is breathing on my neck, practically attached to me at the elbow.

After work and dinner, I open my laptop and pick something to binge-watch on Netflix. But it’s gotta be something I can follow while still paying bills, doing a little shopping, and then disappearing down the internet rabbit hole reading up on musicians I like, searching for upcoming cultural events, basically searching on anything and everything that pops into my head like a conspiracy theory about Avril Lavigne, pop punk star of the early 2000s, being replaced with a lookalike. Right before bed, one last YouTube video before I conk out.

By the end of the day, I get pretty tired of my ISP, so I try to crouch over my laptop, cover the screen, block its huge, wandering eyes. It’s no use, though. It sees everything."

How does it feel to be watched by your ISP?
 
I do not use my ISP's DNS. I use Namecheap's "private" DNS.

I do not use my ISP's email. I use the email system on my web server, managed by me and my team.

Safari for macOS has a Website tracking option, "Prevent cross-site tracking."

When I leave the boundaries of my ISP's wi-fi connection, my wireless provider takes over. :)

I don't assume I'm not being watched. I just make it a little harder.
 
Optimum support claims they cannot do anything until a customer complains that they cannot receive email from us.

I do receive copies of newsletter opt-in notices to Optimum users that are rejected. In other words they cannot sign up for any mailings.
 
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