[CLUE-Tech] newsfeed

[Sean LeBlanc]

On 11-17 12:16, Jeremiah Stanley wrote:
> > I consider @Home a "real" ISP, BTW. They don't do anything proprietary
> > or make you use "user friendly" clients that lock you in to certain
> > OS's. They just give you a static IP (or dynamic, depending on when
> > and where you signed up, apparently), some name servers, a mail server
> > and news server and you're off...just don't expect any support for
> > Linux. (or Windows NT, at least at one point, or *BSD) :)
> 
> Not to start a flame war, here is an excerpt from the "Fair Use" 
> agreement:
> 
> "Examples of prohibited uses include, but are not limited to, running
> servers for mail, http, ftp, irc, and dhcp, and multi-user interactive
> forums."

Yep, that's definitely a valid complaint. I see what you mean about
not being a "real" ISP when you look at it that way.
 
> 
> I understand a few of these, DHCP is a part of their network and letting
> anybody and their brother run an IRC server is just bad business. But
> blocking ports 80 and 21 is just folly. There is no reason I can't run
> those service off of another port. And isn't running a gnutella client
> like running an anonymous FTP server with search capabilites (archie
> anyone)?

Erm, they *don't* block those ports, AFAIK. At least not yet. 
:/

> 
> Most of my problem is that their support and their customer service leave 
> the taste of AOL in my mouth.
> 
> Don't get me wrong, I like the service and accept it for what it is. But, 
> I'd gladly go back to a slower speed if I could run my own services (like 
> DNS, mail and ftp).

Yep, I've never used AOL before, but I think @Home is the absolute worst
customer service I've ever experienced for any kind of service, not just an
ISP...and I've had three ISPs prior to @Home, and like three or four 
different telcos and a few cable providers over the years, so that is saying a lot.    
:)

> 
> I've got Pan working beautifully on the newsfeed.
> 
> Thanks for all the help guys, you are actually faster than waiting on hold 
> with @Home (granted it is my fault for waiting until Sat to call...).

I actually called them about their name servers going down, or at least
I couldn't route to them (but could route to IP address of, say, yahoo.com.
Rather than admit that (the guy on the other end didn't even know what ping was, for
Pete's sake, and so wouldn't run it) the problem was on their end, he heard
the word "Linux" and kept bringing up the fact that Linux is not supported.
He also kept saying, well, *I* can see the name server, so there's no problem.
They always want you to go the blasted Start button and bring up their 
diagnostic utility, rather than actually giving their people some basic
troubleshooting skills. Anyway, the way I finally got the problem resolved?
I got another set of name servers from some other @Home users (Jef in study
group, and another guy up in Arvada I know who runs @Home). Then the problem
was fixed. 

A dial-up ISP I had back in PA was great; they actually had directions for
Windows (of all flavors at the time, not just 95), and Linux, and, I think,
FreeBSD. When you called for any support, you usually got a guy who actually
used Solaris(that's what they ran at the time)  more during his day than Windoze.  
 
-- 
-
Sean LeBlanc, seanleblanc at home.com