[CLUE-Talk] OpenSouce Friendly ISP [WAS Re: [CLUE-Tech] Easiest DHCP]

[Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier]

On Sun, 27 Jan 2002, Randy Arabie wrote:

*snip*

> I spent over 30-hours on the phone, mostly on hold.  That isn't an exageration
> either, I kept detailed notes for each phone call.  On four occaisions I
> called, waited in the queue for 2+ hours, talked to Tier 1, and got dropped
> on transfer to Tier 2...the only option was call back and get into the
> Tier 1 queue again.

I can second this -- I've spent countless hours trying to get through
to people at AT&T... the most galling part is when you're unable
to connect to the net because their service is down, and then you
get the message telling you that rather than waiting on hold, check
their Web site for support... (Particularly when that's the first
recorded message and you can't get a menu until it finishes. AUGH!)

> I'm a DSL subscriber, and as one am allowed 640K downstream and 240K up.  I
> believe I should be able to use that however I want...I'm paying for it.  I
> don't expect my ISP to "support" or otherwise "help" me run a server, I can
> do that on my own.

Amen.

> As I understand DSL (which may be wrong) they can and do limit my up and
> downstream bandwidth.  So, there really isn't much chance of me "sucking
> down the available bandwidth for everyone on the link".
>
> I do understand that is a real possiblity with the cable architecture.

I don't know if that's an issue anymore -- if they're able to institute
hard bandwidth caps, I would imagine that my usage shouldn't degrade
someone else's -- but I don't know that for sure.

> I just want someone who doesn't care if I want to run a home network of
> unix boxes and do my own http, ftp, and email.

Yup. I can understand some restrictions on email, as it'd be easy
for spammers to spew their evil over a high-speed connection for
quite a while until detected. Otherwise there's nothing harmful in
home users being able to run HTTP or FTP.

Take care,

Zonker
--
Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier -=- jbrockmeier at earthlink.net
http://www.DissociatedPress.net/
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"Computers are like Old Testament gods;
 lots of rules and no mercy." -- Joseph Campbell