broadband access

[rpeterson at wallacefloyd.com (Ron Peterson)]

jc at trillian.mit.edu wrote:
>  
> I have kept one bit of email in which  the  Mediaone  folks  made  it
> clear  that  servers, even email and time servers, are forbidden.  It
> did strike me as curious that Mediaone  objected  to  my  getting  my
> email delivered directly to my home machine. They insisted that email
> had to be delivered to their machine and then picked up  from  there.
> This doubles the packet count and uses space on their disks, so their
> motive is a bit of a puzzle.

I'm moving to Western Mass soon, so I've been investigating my ISP
options in that area.  I talked to the media one (verizon broadband)
folks.  No static IP.  Not now, probably not ever.

I don't think their motive is a puzzle at all.  It's about money.  They
want to control the available services, so they can charge for them. 
You want more POP boxes?  Sure, ante up.  You want more disk space for
your web site?  Sure, ante up.  You want to run a database?  Well,
that's *really* gonna cost you.

My opinion?  Don't do business with companies that won't respect your
right to use your data service as you see fit.  In my case, that means
dealing with a dial-up connection (I picked Earthlink, because they'll
let me compile C++ on their Alpha servers), until such time as an ISP
comes along w/ static IP's.

I talked to Shore Net to see if they provide DSL service in my area
(they'll provide static IP's if you like - last I heard, anyway.)  Not
yet.  The sales guy basically said that since they're symbiotically
linked to verizon, when verizon offers DSL, they'll offer DSL.

Moral being: there *are* companies that don't have their head up their
ass.  If you can find them.

-- 

Ron Peterson
Systems Manager
Wallace Floyd Design Group
273 Summer Street
Boston, MA  02210
617.350.7400 tel
617.350.0051 fax
rpeterson at wallacefloyd.com
-
Subcription/unsubscription/info requests: send e-mail with
"subscribe", "unsubscribe", or "info" on the first line of the
message body to discuss-request at blu.org (Subject line is ignored).