[Ado]

Hi guys just an outlay,
I bought a years worth of .MAC and have not found it lives upto what it promises. Im currently in UK right now and this thing is "unusably" slow.
To save a 5 meg file to my idisk has taken me now 28 mins..
To update a iweb page with iphoto pics is around the same.

I feel for my 70 pounds all I got was an email address LOL..
Am I the only one getting these probs? I feel I WILL NOT commit to giving out my .mac address as I dont feel I will renew this subscription.

I feel GOOGLE will create an idisk equivalent for free then i say whats the point of idisk. With ichat, noone but mac people use it and the world uses messenger anyway. I think .Mac really needs a rethink in what they should be charging for.


Specs: Latest MBP, 4 gig ram, BT Wifi unlimited...West London.
Leopard, Safari.

[Cold Warrior]

.Mac is more an extension of OS X, something that enables additional functionality and extends the OS X experience. Moving to Applications...


What's your upload bandwidth?

[TETENAL]

iChat works with AIM as well. And you don't need to purchase .Mac to use your .Mac name with iChat by the way. That is free.

When Google offers a free iDisk equivalent that would be great. But right now they don't.

[mkral]

For some reason, European .mac services have been running REALLY slow & Lots of people are upset about it. Macnn has reported on this a few times. Apparently apple has fixed the problem a little bit, but it's still very slow. Maybe if you complain enough, you can get a refund. The service does seem to be unexcusably (sp?) slow.

[Koralatov]

Originally Posted by Ado 

To save a 5 meg file to my idisk has taken me now 28 mins..
To update a iweb page with iphoto pics is around the same.

You're having exactly the kind of problems that have put me off buying a .Mac subscription; I really like the idea of a seamless extension to OSX, but I've read nothing good about its implementation in the UK and Europe. It really seems that Apple doesn't give a rat's ass about Europe in this regard. I'm with mkral on this: go into an Apple store, explain your issue and politely demand a refund. You're entitled to one, I think, as the service does not meet your reasonable explanations.

Cold Warrior: I imagine the OP's upload bandwidth is the same as mine, as he would appear to be on the same ISP package. I don't have exact upload-speed figures to hand, but the package is an 8MBps connection. I've uploaded variously sized files to a variety of different destinations, and I can tell you for definite that it didn't take ~6min/MB. Also, the OP is in London, so I'd be surprised if his connection wasn't significantly better than mine. I think, in this case, it's very likely a problem with .Mac. It could, however, have been an isolated incident, but what I've read on the web doesn't lead me to believe it's particularly uncommon.

[Ado]

I've had it for 2 months now am I entitled for a refund?
The way I see it is Apple will only notice its rubbish if it actually looses sales through complaints and refunds. Im on an 8mbps BT connection so uploading a 5 meg file shouldn't take 23 mins.

I laugh at the fact Apple sells you this dream they give you 5 gigs space to backup your system...LOL I would never bother with these speeds.

[besson3c]

Isn't there a 30 day trial offered? Do you try out .Mac for 30 days beforehand?

If all you need is a file server, you could build on locally for probably the cost of two years of .Mac, and obviously it would be much faster and you would have infinitely more flexibility. Have you looked into that?

[64stang06]

Originally Posted by besson3c 

Isn't there a 30 day trial offered? Do you try out .Mac for 30 days beforehand?

If all you need is a file server, you could build on locally for probably the cost of two years of .Mac, and obviously it would be much faster and you would have infinitely more flexibility. Have you looked into that?

It's 60 days, but yes, there is a trial. Of course, if the poster bought .Mac at a retail store, they were prob. pushed into buying it and didn't know about the trial.

[analogika]

Originally Posted by Ado 

Hi guys just an outlay,
I bought a years worth of .MAC and have not found it lives upto what it promises. Im currently in UK right now and this thing is "unusably" slow.
To save a 5 meg file to my idisk has taken me now 28 mins..
To update a iweb page with iphoto pics is around the same.

I strongly suspect that this has absolutely NOTHING to do with the .Mac service.

I just uploaded a 7.8 MB file to my iDisk in just over 7 minutes.

I'm in Germany.

5MB in 28 minutes translates to an upstream of about 24kbps. That's less than dial-up modem connection.
I doubt that there's anything Apple *could* do to make their servers *that* slow.

I'll ask the question again: What is your internet connection's rated upstream bandwidth?

And then, I'll ask the dumb question: Did you, or any flatmate possibly sharing your internet connection, have any file-sharing programs running in the background?

[voodoo]

10 mbits per second up and down where I am and I got about 20 Kbps at best with iDisk at any given time.

V

[MacosNerd]

I guess the term you mileage may vary comes to mind.

My .mac throughput is better then the OPs but I cannot consider it fast by any stretch of the word. It does what I want it too, but then I'm pretty entrenched in .mac since I've had my email address since the iTools days.

[Cadaver]

All of the .Mac services work very well for me, though I'm in the US.

[Krusty]

Originally Posted by MacosNerd 

I guess the term you mileage may vary comes to mind.

My .mac throughput is better then the OPs but I cannot consider it fast by any stretch of the word. It does what I want it too, but then I'm pretty entrenched in .mac since I've had my email address since the iTools days.

Ditto.

I've used since the free iTools. I consider .Mac somewhat overpriced but I just do my best to find it on sale at Amazon or somewhere for $70-$75 instead of the $99 list price. Its a lot easier to swallow at $70

[FozzieUK]

$70! That's £35 + VAT. It is £69.00 here I think I will just get an external hard disk. ( I know .mac is more than that )