Personal Servers And "Commercial" DSL? 32
Blue Dog Fever asks: "I've been helping a friend of mine look around for a DSL service provider. He doesn't need a lot of speed, but what he does need is the ability to place his own server on the DSL (in his case, it would be Web, e-mail, telnet, and maybe FTP). The only problem is, every DSL service provider we've looked at restricts the use of servers to their 'commercial' DSL offerings, which usually start at $120 a month and go up from there. What I'm wondering is if anybody knows of an ISP that lets people put up small servers for somebody that isn't interested in getting thousands of Web hits or huge amounts of e-mail traffic, but just wants to set up a small server for fun."
august.net (Score:1)
SWBell provides the line.
Correct me if I'm wrong (Score:1)
Re:Flashcom DSL (Score:1)
Re:What about Montreal's area? (Score:1)
Even though I work for Videotron, I am in no way related with the cable business
** DISCLAIMER **
The 15kb limit reason really _is_ technical. Most cable cells are oversold. A place like St-Hubert is 180% oversold. Whatever they had planned for got shot to shit. In order to maintain decent service on the downstream (average mom and pop web downloads) they cut back on the upstream.
If you live in a non-crowded cell (like I do , 6 modems in one cell, on brand new fiber)you will have an uplink restriction, but it'll be around 30k second. Downlink is extremely fast at anywhere between 500 and 800k per second.
As far as bandwidth quota goes, you can cough up an extra 20$, get a second IP and 6Gb of extra bandwidth (which can be up or down, they dont regulate.) This should be more then enough for _anyone_ doing _LEGAL_ stuff with the box. I've been running a web/mail/ftp/ssh server for 15 months now, and never have I busted my quota.
On the Bell DSL side, the sad truth is that they're so full of shit it smells a mile around. I ordered DSL the second day it became available in my area, and tested it side by side (on identical hardware) with the cable modem. They have 100K uplink and 10K downlink _IF_ you're lucky. And they make you go through ATM authentification and their shitty Fastproxy.sympatico.ca . Not worth 50$ / month.
I have 192k sDSL w/ 32 static IPs for $99/month (Score:1)
192k is small bandwith compared to the speed the residential cable modem and DSL users get but I like my quality of service and the pile of static IPs they gave me. It is also cheaper than what I was laying out for 56k DOV ISDN back in the day
The freedom to push whatever the heck kind of data/services I want upstream more than makes up for the small pipe and higer cost. The acceptable use policies and terms that get forced on the residential contracts are just too limiting.
Despite some initial problems I would recommend them as a solid ISP to deal with regarding DSL as long as you know enough to 'guide' their first level tech support people.
I'm in the Boston area and CAIS is in the DC area so one downside is that my packets go through NYC and DC before actually getting out on the internet.
Re:Just Do It (Score:1)
They haven't done it recently (since AT&T bought them out), but I suspect they will start again once they get things stabalized.
from the ISPs perspective.... (Score:1)
We are a midsized regional ISP with a healthy and happy dialup base who are jumping ship to go with the damn cableco's (have I mentioned how much I hate monopolies that blatently lie in their advertising) so we are setting up with the only dsl wholesaler in town - the monopolistic phone company.
The deal they offer us is pretty raw - without disclosing things, I can tell you that they are selling their service for just slightly more than $10 over what it costs us. Leaving us to provide (a) bandwidth, (b) servers, and (c) support and administration in less than $10/customer. The telco hides behind a bundling arrangement that saves you $10 if you use their LD service and claims that should give us $20/sub to spend on the rest of things.
Given that a megabit of bandwidth still costs roughly $1500 - even in large quantities (this is for T1/T3/ethernet or fractions of) that means that to supply service under the price guidelines I have to have a bandwidth to user ratio of 1:150 which isn't so good. So... we back the land line bandwidth with some satellite caching (cidera skycache rocks my world) and then we start playing the bandwidth hog game...
I see a multitude of problems with watching for and shutting down bandwidth hogs... mostly that some guy will get cut off cuz he uses the internet to babysit his preteenage kid and that kid is a massive mp3 collector.
I wouldn't mind servers on residential connections - interestingly enough the telco says that if you are piggybacking dsl on a business line, you pay the business rate - so that makes it easier for me.
I don't mind servers for non-commercial purposes, but if you're making even a single cent from that server, you should pay for it. I have to pay suppliers for things that are used by my company - why shouldn't you? For example, my techgeeks tend to have domain names of their own and tend to run rather expansive servers at home (they are happier when they have constant fan noise and 60Hz hum) which doesn't bother me at all. But if I found that they had page upon page of banner ads, I'd expect them to pay for the bandwidth that they are consuming (I know it's only the HTML, but damnit, I had to pay for that bandwidth)
I guess my thoughts run all over the place on this stuff, but... it shouldn't be a big problem to pay for commercial use and be non-commercial if you are residential.
Have a wonderful day all.
M
speakeasy.net (Score:1)
Re:Flashcom DSL (Score:1)
Flashcom finally refunded my deposit. It took 11 months, but they accidentally did it three times. Whoops!
BTW: local telco techs told me servers weren't allowed unless I got a business account, but they didn't have any reason to check unless my IP was getting "unreasonable" usage. Whatever "unreasonable" means....
-jeremy
Cable Modem (Score:1)
Daniel
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Mediaone Sucks; Austin experiences ? (Score:1)
By the way, if someone else scans ports on their network, they get all excited and call the ISP about a hacking attempt. I know because I asked a friend to scan my box and attempt to break into it. It seems a little hypocritical for them to scan my box but complain about other people doing the same thing.
Anyway, I am moving to Austin, Texas. What are people's experiences with broadband service there ?
GTE Internet (Score:1)
"servers" on DSL (Score:1)
As others have said, I'd recommend you just go ahead and get a non-commercial line from a provider (if the intent of the server is to be non-commercial), and just don't make a big deal about it. One word of warning however: if you're not paying for it, don't expect any support from the ISP if there are problems specific to your server processes.
Try my DSL provider... (Score:1)
They don't care what you do with your connection as long as you aren't running a comercial site (and I'm not sure if they only really mean as long as you aren't reselling the bandwith for XYZ company's webpage).
Of course, they may not be in your area.
HTH
Gregg
Re:from the ISPs perspective.... (Score:1)
Know a guy who works there, says they have these little rackmounts with the CPU/etc, a UPS, and satellite hookup all in one thing. The only plugs in the back are 2 RJ45s and 2 power cables. I want one.
They used to... (Score:1)
But I still think they'd be worth a call.
Concentric has been excellent (Score:1)
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directlink.net (Score:1)
120 bucks is nothing (Score:1)
I've got standard BAnet DSL at 50 bucks a month, and I get 640/128 speeds and a static IP. This isn't fast enough on the upload to serve. It makes sense from an economic standpoint though. My download speeds are a little under half of a T1 (which isn't really acurate since most T-1's handle more than one computers connections) at about 1/30th of the price. Upload is about 1/12th the speed at 1/30th the price.
At some point in time, this hits a T-1, T-3 or something that hits the internet which does have to get paid for. For example, BAnet seems to hit a Quest backbone that they need to pay for. They probably have some sort of volume discount, but they still spend alot of what you're paying just to be able to tie into the net.
Obviously, if you can't afford 120 bucks a month, you can't afford it, but I don't think it's unreasonable if you're getting at least 384kb upload speed and a static IP address.
Don't let them scan your ports! (Score:1)
Re:speakeasy.net (Score:1)
FAWKING DSL!! (Score:1)
There's always that FAWKING DSL!!! You could try clicking on the Slashdot banner ads.
What about Montreal's area? (Score:1)
Of course, there's a mention that no personnal server is supposed to be running, but hey, there's no mention that the upload speed is limited to 15k/sec. So I used to host my server (web, ftp) from videotron. I recently cancelled my account however (i moved).
Furthermore, Videotron is charging extras if you download more than 6 gigs/month, or 1 gig in upload. Things are getting a little bit harder if you wish to run a server with this shitty, oops, sorry, i meant monopoliptic provider.
There's only 2 providers of high speed internet access to home customers in Montreal, bring a few more please.
Re:Try my DSL provider... (Score:2)
I asked a person at flashcom [flashcom.com] and they said they really didn't care. But from their Terms and Conditions, it looks like they don't like anyone even using NAT, which I find very hard to believe. It's funny that they didn't mention web servers, but I guess they don't want you providing access to lots of other people (their business DSL is $100/month vs $40 for personal).
Re:Megapath is pretty good... (Score:2)
That's because PacBell charges them so much for the line. Remember that to get IDSL, you have to have an ISDN line. It was a losing deal for them. It probably still is.
PacBell charges less for a "normal" grade phone line used for ADSL/SDSL...
<<I'm shopping around for another DSL provider as I type. >>
I doubt you'll find a better situation. Everyone has to go through PacBell. (or whoever your regional baby bell is...)
<<If you can foot the bill Megapath is nice.. but it's creeping up towards business class DSL pricing that others offer.>>
Didn't they *lower* prices for ADSL/SDSL at the same time that they raised IDSL prices?
-JF
How I dealt with Dynamic IPs (Score:2)
If anyone wishes to have the script, please mail me.
My home network (Score:2)
All my internal boxes (including a roommates win98 machine) are masqueraded through my LRP router. I forward ssh, http/https, and smtp to an internal box, so my web server is publicly accessible, and I can receive my own mail (I use Qmail [qmail.org]).
I also used the Public DNS [granitecanyon.com] service to provide forward DNS for 0xd6.org, which goes to my network at home. One bad thing about Telocity is that because they're swamped with tech support, etc., they won't delagate reverse DNS. For my simple home setup, I don't care.
This setup has been up and running for the last few months, I have also assisted a friend and my mother in getting this going. All you need is Telocity and a cheap 486 with two NICs and you're ready to go.
About telocity:
It took about a month from ordering Telocity to having our service installed. My friend and mother's installation went fine but I had a few minor quirks which were easily solved by Telocity (i.e. they knew what the problem was and fixed it themselves). As I mentioned before, Telocity's one true failing is technical support. Be prepared to spend hours waiting to get a human, this is due to the fact that Telocity has many users in many cities. But as for running your own network, Telocity doesn't care what you do as long as you don't do anything commercial. In fact, we were told that our service was limited to 768k down/384k up, but in actuality Telocity doesn't limit up (I've gotten 768k consistently) and they're rate-limiting software doesn't work as well as they thought, because I've gotten over 900k downloading before my speeds started dropping. The moral of this story is: get telocity and go nuts with your setup. Make sure that you protect your network.
Marcus
Bandwidth should be the only issue (Score:2)
They should allow you to put whatever the hell you want at the other end, and just charge for the bandwidth you actually use. Then it wouldn't matter.
try CO-LO (Score:2)
Many places charge for the hosting by the amount of bandwidth you want.
If you just want a little bandwidth then CO-LO will cost you less and be more dependable than DSL.
Plus with CO-LO you don't need to wory about utilities for the computer like AC and power.
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If my facts are wrong then tell me. I don't mind.
Just Do It (Score:2)
Megapath is pretty good... (Score:3)
Even when I had a personal account they were quite friendly helping me set up my domain name and the like...
-JF
Cable modem blues... (Score:3)
The Road Runner cable modems here in Georgia were great for a while, but soon they started playing tricks with their routers. I'm not an expert when it comes to routing TCP/IP, but here's what I understand: blocking ports is easy (duh... that's what a firewall does), but there is also some way of giving bandwidth precedence as well.
I knew people that used to tele-commute from home because they could get just at much work done telnetting in from their house as they could working in the office. Then RR worked their voodoo on the routing and telnet got so slow that the servers would time them out before they could even log in. It seems the best bandwitdh is coming in... and it is mainly the web ports. Going back upstream is usually only about 100K if you're lucky. Downloading is still extremely fast, but anything back upstream is very limited.
The explanation that was given to the people that I work with was that certain RR customers were operating "illegal servers" in violation of the service contract. Instead of eliminating problem users and/or bandwidth hogs, they just set up the system so that all upstream traffic would be limited to certain speeds and rarely used services (such as FTP and telnet) would also have their bandwidth limited. Okay, my parents my not ever telnet or even know what FTP stands for, but what about someone like me? I guess I'll have to get a business DSL connection just to get decent service.