[Discuss] Local ISP Recommendations?

[david at thekramers.net (David Kramer)]

On 01/18/2016 01:30 PM, Matthew Gillen wrote:
> On 01/18/2016 01:06 PM, Kent Borg wrote:
>> P.S. The extra charge for static IP on their web site is a lot and gets
>> a lot worse with speed, makes me toy with the idea of getting two lines
>> (if they are willing, and if Verizon has the copper pairs available on
>> my street): one line that is fast but dynamic IP and one that is slow
>> but static IP. That would be a chance to learn some networking...
>
> Good idea, but good luck with that.  Not with the networking, that is 
> a technical problem that can be solved.
>
> The "business class" service you need  to run your mail server from 
> Comcast and Verizon so that you could actually run your own mail 
> server is effectively a separate company from their residential 
> services.  So to get those two lines from either company you're going 
> to have to have two accounts, call two different phone numbers for 
> support, and inferring a bit, probably run two separate lines to your 
> house (even if they were both FIOS).
>
> And most places that have the "residential" offerings don't actually 
> even offer the "business class" too.  You might luck out if you live 
> close to a commercial district.
>
> If your incoming server requirements are low, it's almost certainly 
> cheaper to just have a single "residential" line, and do one of a 
> couple things to solve the rest.  DynDNS used to have a MailHop 
> service for $40/yr to forward incoming email traffic to whatever port 
> you wanted (helps defeat Comcast's port 25 block), although I can't 
> find that service anymore.  You could always rent a cheap AWS server 
> for $30/mo to forward all kinds of traffic from low static ports like 
> 80 and 25.
>
> Matt

I actually brought this up in the meeting yesterday.  I also have been 
running a web/mail/etc server from home for like 15 years over Comcast 
Business Internet, but I'm getting like 2-3MBs when I'm paying for 16/3, 
and they are not willing to look into it unless I'm willing to risk 
spending $100 if they can't find out why.  That's right, if they can't 
fix their own service, I have to pay $100 for the call.  Their solution 
is for me to pay another $30/month for the next level package up.

And I have to deal will effectively two different companies for TV/Phone 
and internet, the whole thing is outrageously painful and expensive.  
There is much fingerpointing between the residential services and 
business services, and no way to consolidate them. Don't underestimate 
the pain that causes.

If I can get by with a dynamic IP address I can get 150Mbps symmetrical 
from Verizon for less than I'm paying for the 20-30Mbps I'm getting 
now.  In researching it though, about half the articles say it should be 
fine, and half the articles point out how it's super dangerous and you 
can end up having your mail sent to someone else's server if your IP 
address gets assigned to them.

I would love to get your opinions (or even better, facts) on how 
dangerous it would be to run a web and mail server on a dynamic IP. I 
think Matt was asking about that too.

Thanks.

Side note: I'm working on a Plan B which is set up the web/mail server 
on Linode or DigitalOcean, etc so I no longer need a static IP address 
at home.  At $20/month, it's about double what it costs me to power my 
server at home, so the incremental cost would be $10/mo, but then the 
Triple Play package would be like $60 less than I'm paying now.