Free Geek is not what it was. They used to have all these programs to grant computers to low income individuals and school kids and those were all shut down during COVID
Their programs to grant to non-profits are also closed. The only thing they have left is the online ebay store and if you are a non-profit that needs more than 10 computers you can contact them for a bulk buy of used computers. However, they mainly are dealing in Dell. To understand what's going on with them you have to understand that at least 80% of their computers pushed out the door with Linux on them were immediately reformatted with Windows. The reason this worked well for them is that the non-profit organizations that were doing this would then be unable to go back to Free Geek and obtain any kind of technical support other than hardware replacement. So they people crowding into their support programs for support were a small minority of recipients of computers they sent out the door. The problem today is win11's demands. The only used computers nowadays that can run it are coming from off-lease programs, such programs are heavily used by Fortune 1000 and above, the majority of which are congregated on the East Coast. Nowadays I'm doing a LOT of buying of used win11-capable machines and ALL of them are coming out of the East Coast. On occasion I'll see win11 capable machines on the used market by ones and twos but not available in large lots. FreeGeek cannot support my purchasing needs so they are clearly not tapped into the off-lease market on the West Coast, what little of it there is. Also, Dell is mostly sold direct and most direct buys of computers are to small businesses. Large orgs tend to buy from dealers and HP, Lenovo and so on are favored by those because they are sold through distribution while Dell is not. As a result most of what FG is flooded with are computers that are donated yet have no commercial value at all. My guess is they are not making a lot of money off their sale programs, and won't for another 3-4 years. Ted -----Original Message----- From: PLUG <plug-boun...@lists.pdxlinux.org> On Behalf Of markcasi...@comcast.net Sent: Monday, January 1, 2024 11:48 AM To: p...@pdxlinux.org Subject: [PLUG] email issues It seems I only post to this forum when I have an issue. I do read the postings and if could contribute to the solutions I would. But I do appreciate being able to ask questions of a group of experts. In my younger days I used to attend meetings at Free Geek. Does it still exist? I even saw names on the PLUG list that I remember. Some of you may even be older than I am. I remember a guy named Keith that solved a lot of my problems. Here is my issue. I have put in a lot of time trying to solve this, but have made zip progress. I even posted on the Xfinity forum but have received no replies (lots of views though) My Comcast/Charter email is unreliable When I talk with Comcast Support, they tell me it is Charter's problem. When I talk with Charter Support, they tell me it is Comcast's problem. I've done a number of tests (described below). I think (although I am far from certain) that it is a Comcast issue. Has anyone else experienced this problem? Can anyone suggest why I am experiencing it? Sorry for the length of this post. I've been doing tests for days. I've summarized those tests that I think contribute to characterizing the problem. Background I have two ISPs, Comcast and Charter. I have Comcast in Portland and Charter in Cannon Beach. I have mail accounts with Comcast. I have mail accounts with Charter. Here is the problem. When I send mail from my Charter account to my Comcast account, it does not arrive. Comcast receives mail from all other sources. Comcast does not receive mail from Charter. Before Testing I changed the passwords on all my Comcast accounts (they had that data breach, you know). I changed the passwords on all my Charter accounts. I cleared the cache and cookies from my browser and then I log onto the servers. My issue is not dependent on my browser and OS. I see the same problem with Edge on win10, Edge on win11, Firefox on Ubuntu, Safari on IOS. Here is how I tested. I send/receive mail directly on the Comcast and Charter websites. I am not using an email client (although when I do, I see the same issue). So there is no 3rd party application involved. (Even when I tell Comcast and Charter support I am not using an email client, they reply that they cannot help me because they do not support 3rd party applications.) My primary charter account is <primary charter account>. Mail from charter to comcast does not arrive at comcast Mail from comcast to charter does arrive at charter Mail from charter to Gmail does arrive at Gmail Mail from Gmail to charter does arrive at charter Mail from charter to comcast does not arrive at comcast I log into <http://www.charter.net/> www.charter.net as <primary charter account>. I send mail to <primary comcast account>. I do not get an error message. Really no error message! I see the mail I sent appear in the Sent folder on <http://www.charter.net/> www.charter.net. I log onto <http://www.comcast.net/> www.comcast.net as <primary comcast account>. I do not see the mail I sent from <primary charter account>. It never arrives. Mail from comcast to charter does arrive at charter I log onto <http://www.comcast.net/> www.comcast.net as <primary comcast account>. I send mail to <primary charter account>. I see the mail I sent appear in the Sent folder on <http://www.comcast.net/> www.comcast.net. I log onto <http://www.charter.net/> www.charter.net as <primary charter account>. I see the mail I sent from <primary comcast account> arrive. Mail from charter to Gmail does arrive at Gmail As another test, I log onto gmail.com as <Gmail account>. I send mail from <primary charter account> while on <http://www.charter.com/> www.charter.com in another window. The mail arrives at <Gmail account>. Mail from Gmail to charter does arrive at charter As another test, I log onto gmail.com as <Gmail account>. I send mail from <Gmail account> to <primary charter account>. On <http://www.charter.net/> www.charter.net I see the mail from <Gmail account> arrive. Summary I am at a loss. The Comcast/Charter connection is unreliable enough to be dangerous. If someone (a business, for example) has a Charter email address and records my connection as a Comcast email address, I can lose valuable information. I would never see that information. It is possible that the problem only exists with my Comcast/Charter accounts. I doubt that because there is nothing special about my Comcast/Charter accounts.
