Broken Out of the Box

First problem, it doesn’t work out of the box. There’s no reason why a DSL modem shouldn’t just work when you plug in the wall. AT&T already knows who’s paying for the line. There’s no question about that. So why doesn’t it just work?

The modem wanted a username and password to connect. Okay, this is stupid, but whatever. I entered my username and password (actually the default one that tech support gave me when I was trying to get my old modem working). It still didn’t work.

Oh, the DSL connection was established. It passed all of its internal tests. I could even ping, dig, etc. from the command-line. But I couldn’t get my browser to connect to anything. Why didn’t it work? Damned if I know. Apparently it’s intentionally shipped in a half-working state, so that you’re forced to use the install software it ships with. The software is the source of the real problems.

Stupid Software

There’s is no reason any user should ever have to install software to get an external DSL modem to work. The software is completely unnecessary to actually use the modem once it’s configured.

It is absolutely obnoxious that users are forced to install extremely invasive software that is unnecessary for actual use of the device. All necessary configuration should be exposed through the modem’s own interface.

This software committed a lot of sins. Very briefly:

1. It’s slow. Extremely slow. The software felt like I was running it on a 386. I could hear the hard disk and CD churning each time it loaded the next step in the wizard. And oh yes, there were a lot of steps. It probably took me 15 minutes to go through all the steps. And of course, there was no option to skip any steps. I had to click through ten pages on how to install line filters. I’m not using line filters. I bought naked DSL.
2. It’s invasive. The software installed new hardware drivers. Why in the hell is this software installing drivers? I don’t even know what these drivers do, but they sure as hell aren’t necessary. There’s no option to not install them, though.
3. It’s inconsiderate. Aside from generally being all-around poor-quality, the software also installed icons on my desktop, changed my homepage, installed unnecessary services, and rebooted my computer without asking me. After it installed it’s idiotic drivers, it actually rebooted my computer with no request and only about two seconds of warning. Who does this? After it started back up, Windows requested that I reboot again, but at least Windows gave me the option to decline.

There were plenty other issues with this software, but let me just move on to the grand finale.

The Trojan

After the AT&T software finally finished installing, I got a nice message from my antivirus program. Apparently, the AT&T installer let a trojan in, or installed one directly. Maybe it’s even a false alarm, because the installer just exhibits such inappropriate, trojan-like behavior. I don’t know, and I really don’t care. There is absolutely no reason that this should have happened. This goes past incompetence into the realm of gross negligence.

In order to get my DSL modem, I had to install unnecessary software, sit through a ridiculously long install procedure, receive totally unnecessary drivers and services, have my computer reboot without warning, and be infected with a trojan. Are you serious? How much do you have to despise your customers to put them through this crap. It almost makes me wish I’d gone with Comcast. It definitely makes me wish I’d had more options.

Oh, and by the way, this software is version 7.6. Does that mean that the previous versions were even worse, or that it took them 7 major versions to screw things up this bad?

I actually got all of AT&T’s crap removed from my computer. Thankfully, I installed their stupid, infectious software in a virtual machine, so all I had to do was revert to a previous snapshot. I feel really bad for the majority of their customers, though. The average person isn’t going to have access to a virtual machine, and wouldn’t know to use it anyway. Instead, the average person will sit through the whole install, and then after it’s all done installing all its trash, wonder why their computer seems slower and less stable.

AT&T, you should be ashamed.