[SunRescue] Real ISPs

[Gregory Leblanc]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: bobk [mailto:bobk at sinister.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, February 23, 2000 11:18 AM
> To: rescue at sunhelp.org
> Subject: [SunRescue] Real ISPs
> 
> WAS RE: Country Kits
> 
> On Tue, 22 Feb 2000, Earl Baugh wrote:
> > would have checked out this in more detail, and looked to 
> see what Cisco 
> > solutions I had, but since I had another issue that was 
> more important, namely 
> > keeping my class C address...and finding an ISP who would 
> host it for the 
> > STANDARD IDSL price...[repeat, I'm NOT A BUSINESS.  Network 
> nerd, yes, 
> > BUSINESS No]
> 
> It seems a lot of ISPs will charge you per IP, claiming that 
> IP space is
> expensive (if you buy it from ARIN in small chunks it is), 
> but won't route
> IP space you own ("we aren't set up for that", or, better yet 
> "no, your
> current ISP owns the IP space you have...no you can't 
> possibly have your
> own...look, buddy, I've got an MCSE and therefore I am an 
> expert. I have
> been doing this for a year now....oh, you're one of those 
> unix nerds eh?
> well, we don't support unix"...<click>)

Actually, I think that you can't "charge" for IP addresses.  You can have a
service charge associated with them, but you can't actually charge for the
use of an IP address.  Not 100% sure on the exact regulations, but I'll find
out, hopefully before I finish my reply.  As long as you mentioned that evil
4 letter acronym, I'm going to make a SMALL rant on that.  Of all the certs
that I've looked at, the ONLY ones that aren't regurgitation are the CCIE,
and perhaps the next cisco down from that (can't remember the letters).
MCSE is just taking the tests, as is CNE.  I haven't taken a look at the
Solaris ones, but since there are "study guides", I'd suspect that it
doesn't do much more than the others (now THAT'S asking for a flame).

> 
> Right now, I have a T1 to the house which we split between different
> floors, and have one Class C routed to it. We eventually want 
> to route the
> rest of the IP space I have, as well. But my main point is: I 
> wish we had
> a list, a sort of pruned-out, geek-friendly version of 
> "thelist.com", that
> wasn't hostile to anyone not running Winderz/Mac, would route our IP
> space, have reasonable prices, decent service, etc.

I know which ones in Portland, Oegon are good, but not too familiar with
other places.  I'll bet that Bill and James and James know for their
respective areas.  If you live somewhere else, I don't know how to find
that, except to start calling ISPs.

> 
> For me, a persistant connection and reasonable service is 
> more important
> than claimed bandwidth (I'd take 112K ISDN over a cable modem 
> any day).

I don't have cable modem, but a friend of mine does, and it's been pretty
consistent for him, and bandwidth is better than the t1 at work.  The cable
modem is persistent, so I'm not sure what the gripes are, except that
service sucks in some areas.

> IDSL looks like a good solution for people that are out of 
> reach of other
> DSL services, but I like tradtional DSL in that if you want 
> to ditch your
> ISP for another, you just dial a different phone #.

How so?  If I want to change ISPs on my "tradtional DSL" (256K ADSL), I have
to call US Worst and have them change where my line is "pointed".  Since
it's DSL over ATM, I'm assuming that it's just a digital switch change, but
it still takes them 10 days.

> 
> In many places, there's a per-minute charge to use a data channel on
> switched ISDN. In mass., however, there is a loophole: you can use the
> voice channel to make a data call and eliminate the per-minute charge.
> This drops your channel rate down to 56k instead of 64k, but 
> its real 56k
> and not what the lying modem manufacturers and ISPs try to 
> sell as 56k.
> Also, traditional home ISDN lines (Basic Rate ISDN, BRI) have 
> two channels
> for use (and a third swtiching channel that you generally 
> can't use, but
> is used for IDSL..), one "data" and the other "voice". For an 
> extra $5/mo,
> you can get two "voice" channels. If your ISP supports it, you can
> aggregate these channels to 112K. Out here in Boston, pre-T1, we used
> shore.net as our provider in this manner. It was about 
> $120/mo, but the
> drawback was that they did not allow me to use my own IP space.

Ahh, now I think I see why we run 6x56K for the video systems at work.  :)
I would think that ISPs who allow bonded "voice" data channels would be
pretty common.  

> 
> Anyhow, you guys get the gist of what I think would be a good 
> resource,
> who have you had good/bad experiences with?

Aracnet.com.  They run mostly Linux, with a few BSD and Solaris boxes in
there as well.  As far as I know, they're just in Portland and some of the
Pac Northwest, but they're good, and have good prices.  Second choice for me
would be Teleport, since they actually have a few competent people there,
and are big enough to have be able to support something other than
Mac/windows.
	Greg