[wplug] ISP Recommendations

[Mike Griffin]

Even with ADSL from Speakeasy, the copper pair is leased from Covad. 
It's not just an SDSL thing.

I had a 1.5M ADSL line  from Verizon, Stargate, and direct TV they all 
maxed out with a download of 90k on average. This was because Verizon 
caps their lines for other companies. I don't know why my speed was so 
slow through Verizon itself. There were also alot of connection issues 
(all went across Verizons copper pair), and very limited tech support, 
When stargate moved to the pppoe software I switched to Direct TV and 
was happy, even with the capped line, but they went bankrupt and 
cancelled all internet services. Speakeasy was happy to take my 
business, and basically told me on the phone that I can do with my line 
(as far as servers and bandwidth go) whatever I wanted to. Plus, a 
static IP included in the package. Stargate charges $25 for a static IP 
on top of the $90 they charge for the 1.5M ADSL line. Verizon charges 
the same for the line, but no static IPs available on residential 
packages.

As an alternative, I have checked into AT&T for a cable provider. As 
soon as they told me that the block all ports 1024 and below, and it 
would cost me an additional $250 a month to have them unblocked, I hung 
up the phone.

Hopefully someone will benefit from my research/experience here.


Mike


On Thursday, June 26, 2003, at 01:47  PM, James O'Kane wrote:

> On Thu, 26 Jun 2003, Mike Griffin wrote:
>> I haven't tried telerama though, so I can't
>> say one is better than the other.
>
> I have used telerama and speakeasy each for a year or more. I didn't 
> have
> a problem with support from either of them. For telerama I could go on 
> IRC
> and ask them support questions. With Speakeasy I still needed to call 
> an
> 800 number, but the hold times were minimal. Both staff accepted that I
> might know what I'm talking about when I give them diagnostic 
> information
> about my problem, and neither have a problem with servers or 
> non-monopoly
> operating systems. I switched from Speakeasy to telerama because I was
> laid off and I needed to cut my expenses. I had a semi-beefy business 
> SDSL
> connection from Speakeasy.
> I think I'm going to go back with Speakeasy when I move in 35 days (23
> hours and 56 minutes). My needs have changed a little and I'll be 
> sharing
> bandwidth between more people and computers, and I would like to have a
> continuous block of 16 or 32 IP addresses again.
> Unless this is important to you, it wouldn't matter, but if you are
> hosting a webpage with Telerama, and you get an IP address of 
> 205.201.9.x
> for example, people who share that subnet will have trouble viewing 
> your
> page. This is partly a feature of the technology, and part the 
> trade-off
> of manageability on telerama's end and what the average user's needs 
> are.
> (There was more talk about this in January if you want to check the
> archives)
>
> The other consideration is Telerama uses Verizon as the provider of the
> copper, Speakeasy uses Covad. As far as I can tell, If you're using
> verizon, you need to have dialtone service to get the line needed for
> ADSL. Covad just leases dry copper from Verizon in bulk, and it doesn't
> need to share a line. This might actually be a ADSL vs. SDSL thing.
>
> The thing that I don't think anyone has ever gotten right to my
> satisfaction is easy of billing information on the web. It seemed very
> hard to tell what period of time the check I was sending was covering 
> and
> to what date I was paid up until.
>
>
> -james
> ADSL from Bell Atlantic 1998-1999
> SDSL from Verio 1999-2000
> SDSL from Speakeasy 2000-2002
> ADSL from Telerama 2002-Present
> Owner of about 10 different DSL modems. :)
>
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