[clue-tech] DSL providers

[Jed S. Baer]

On Wed, 14 Feb 2007 16:22:33 -0700
William wrote:

> Unless the nature of Internet access has changed dramatically in the 
> last few years, I fail to see how you'll accomplish any kind of Internet
> service without an ISP; FRII or otherwise.  Please explain for my own 
> educational benefit.

Suppose it depends upon what you mean by "ISP". You know, most people
think that the little box they have for Comcast or DSL is a modem. Well,
for the marketing dweebs, I suppose it was easier to just keep using the
term "modem", rather than try to sell people routers and/or bridges and
hubs and/or switches.

Since I have DHCP, and a gateway, from Qwest, I suppose you could say
they're now my ISP. But that's not using the traditional definition of
ISP, though I suppose there's some legitimate debate over what exactly
that term means. But in the context of ordering DSL service directly from
Qwest, the typical thing is to choose either MSN or Qwest as your "ISP",
meaning someone who would provide a little more than just a gateway and an
IP address. I have neither, so from a marketing point of view, yes, there
is no ISP. How much more? Depends on the provider I suppose. FRII provides
e-mail, usenet, and a little web space. Beats me what you get from MSN. I
actually have no idea whether you can choose qwest.net as an ISP any more
-- you used to. (Note this is when ordering directl from Qwest --
obviously, you can order through another ISP, and still wind up with a
Qwest DSL).

If you want to get very generic about the term ISP, then my web hosting
provider is also an ISP, since web hosting is certainly an internet
service.

-- 
http://freedomsight.net/
... it is poor civic hygiene to install technologies that could someday
facilitate a police state. -- Bruce Schneier