[wplug] DSL? - Telerama and servers

[Bryon Gill]

World of Warcraft's updating service is peer-to-peer by default, therefore even 
simple gamers are running servers.  This policy is an unfortunate relic, and 
while it's never enforced, it's an excuse an ISP can use to yank your service 
any time for any real reason they might have.  Unfortunately since people don't 
read these much (nor understand them), Verizon et. al. have little incentive to 
remove perfectly good legalese from their standard contract.  I ask the verizon 
telemarketers who call to sell me dsl about this every time.

I spoke with a support person at Telerama last month who told me they 
anticipated selling the DSL service to another company very soon, what that 
means I don't know but I'll be sad to see their service go or change.

Bryon


On Thu, 25 Jan 2007, Pat Barron wrote:

> I've been a Telerama DSL subscriber pretty much since they started
> offering DSL (I just went back and looked, and my records show that I
> signed up for my DSL with them in 2000).  I chose them because they use
> plain old unadorned RFC1483 encapsuation (i.e., no PPPoE) with a static IP
> address (actually, they offer two static addresses, but I'm only using
> one).  As for DNS, I'm not sure if they'll give you names under the
> "telerama.com" domain, and they don't offer DNS hosting or domain
> registration as part of the DSL package - I register my own domain names
> and get my DNS service for free from EVERYDNS.NET, and that's worked fine
> for me (plus, they did give me a .IN-ADDR.ARPA mapping on their DNS
> servers, pointing back to my own domain name, without additional
> charge).  The basic DSL package is $34.95/month.  They have no restriction
> on running servers.
>
> On the other hand ... I really like their DSL service, when it works.  I
> don't often have problems - in fact, when I do have problems, it's
> traditionally been with the e-mail service they include with the DSL
> package, I can't remember the last time I had an problem with the actual
> DSL service itself.  But on those occasions when I do have a problem, it's
> gotten really difficult to get any kind of support these days.  For
> instance, the last few times I've tried to get online support during
> their normal, advertised support hours, no one has been there to help me.
>
> As to whether or not they're offering the service to new customers right
> now, I don't know.  If all you need is IP connectivity, and you don't need
> a lot of support, hand-holding, and/or you want to do things that ISPs
> like Verizon don't (on paper...) permit, they're a good choice.  Though I
> admit that if I had to do it over again, I might choose Speakeasy instead.
>
> The thing about ISPs not permitting running servers on their residential
> service offerings (and yes, by a literal interpretation that would
> prohibit you from running your own IRC server, web server, game server, or
> any other kind of server), is pretty standard among many ISPs.  I assume
> (and this is total speculation on my part, so take it with a grain of
> salt) that they do that for several reasons.  First, they don't want you
> doing anything connected with running a business (a "real" business, a
> home-based business, whatever), or anything that could be interpreted as
> offering any type of service to third-parties, on the residential service
> offering.  Second, they don't want to guarantee that any type of server
> functionality will actually work, for residential subscribers.
> Basically, most ISPs residential service is aimed at people who just want
> to sit there and surf the web, read their e-mail, and play World of
> Warcraft on-line...  With most ISPs, if you are running some kind of
> server, even if against their Terms of Service, they're probably not going
> to bug you about it - but if it stops working someday (like, because they
> decided to move all of their residential subscribers behind some NAT
> firewall or something), they don't want you calling to complain.  The same
> ISPs' commerical services don't have these restrictions, though they're
> generally more expensive.
>
> --Pat.
>
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