Singing the praises of Speakeasy [was Re: unblock port 80]

[mark at buttery.org (Mark J. Dulcey)]

Peter R. Wood (Lists) wrote:
>  From what I've heard, Speakeasy.net DSL is pretty good about letting 
> you run servers.  I would subscribe to them if I didn't live so far away 
> from my CO.

Yes, they are - their TOS even says so! Here's what it says (excerpted 
from http://www.speakeasy.net/main.php?page=bus_dsltos). Although that 
page claims to be the business services TOS, it also applies to 
residential services. (Some differences between business and residential 
services are noted in the full document.)


Speakeasy believes in the right of the individual to publish information 
they feel is important to the world via the Internet. Unlike many ISP's, 
Speakeasy allows customers to run servers (web, mail, etc.) over their 
Internet connections.

Any service that causes a disruption in the network integrity of 
Speakeasy or its vendors, whether directly or indirectly, is strictly 
prohibited and could result in termination of service. This may include 
but is not limited to: IRC servers, adult-content servers, bots, 
webpages hosted on any Speakeasy servers, or servers connected to a 
Speakeasy provided Internet connection. Speakeasy reserves the right of 
final discretion.

...

You are ultimately responsible for any and all activity that originates 
from your Internet circuit regardless of your knowledge of such 
activity. This includes but is not limited to activity by other 
household members, friends and guests. This also applies to security 
breaches of your own system by others who launch attacks from your 
machine. It is absolutely imperative that everyone with an Internet 
connection take proper precautions to ensure the security of their machine.


In other words, don't be a pig, don't break the system, and if you break 
the law by using your internet connection or get cracked over it, it's 
your problem, not Speakeasy's problem. I can deal with that.

The TOS doesn't specifically mention NAT, but it does contain this language:


Each circuit may only service a single location (residence, apartment, 
office, or place of business). If you connect your circuit to a 
neighboring premise without specific permission from Speakeasy, your 
service may be disconnected or terminated at our sole discretion.


That's one LOCATION, not one COMPUTER. And their site tells you how to 
configure broadband gateways. So they're clearly OK as well.

By the way, if anybody DOES want to sign up with Speakeasy, and feels 
like being nice to me, they can go by way of 
http://www.speakeasy.net/refer/mdulcey - I get a rebate on our service, 
and you pay nothing extra.

Mark Dulcey
satisfied Speakeasy customer