[TriLUG] geek-friendly ISP's

[ronyoung at nc.rr.com]

I have been in contact with BS on behalf of a customer of mine within
the past 3 months.  They told me at the time that BS does not block any
ports for his business account.

My RoadRunner connection at home also does not seem to be blocking any
of the most often used ports.

Finally, for your phone consider just going completely cellular.  The
wife and I have been sans land-line for about six months and have not
even missed it once.  I find that Verizon gives me the best service and
coverage of any of the 4 carriers I have used.  And there is no local
service phone bill each month that I was not using anyway and no
additional long distance charges that we only used occasionally.

FWIW...

Ron Young
(M) 919-621-9015

----- Original Message -----
From: Alan Porter <porter at trilug.org>
Date: Wednesday, January 25, 2006 9:39 pm
Subject: [TriLUG] geek-friendly ISP's

> 
> Over the past year, BellSouth has been gradually making
> changes to their DSL network.  In the process, they have
> started blocking port 25, incoming and outgoing.  For them,
> it's a necessity to keep the spam traffic down.  For me,
> it solved my spam problem completely... in fact, it cut
> off ALL of my email!
> 
> Before we get into a discussion about terms and conditions,
> I know that they don't want their customers running servers
> of any kind (I wonder why they switched me to a fixed IP).
> 
> Anyway, THAT IS NOT THE POINT of this email.
> 
> The point is: I want an ISP that will let me run services.
> 
> BellSouth's solution was for me to upgrade to Business class
> DSL, a $90/month package (plus $26 local line).
> 
> I have heard good things about Intrex DSL (which is resold
> BellSouth service).  Intrex's T&C also say "no servers".
> But I hear that their sales staff are happy to help out
> TriLUG members by bending those rules.  Their service is
> $45/mo for 1.5 mbps.  But I'd have to keep my BellSouth
> local service ($26) because BS will not run "naked" DSL.
> 
> Time Warner is $45/mo for ~3-5 mbps.  I could dump BellSouth
> altogether, but I'd probably want to get some sort of phone
> service to replace them, maybe Vonage ($15 or $25) or Packet8
> ($10).
> 
> Then there are cable resellers, like Earthlink ($42).  Again,
> add $10-$25 for VOIP.
> 
> So there's this complex mix of cost vs services (internet,
> phone, TV, etc).  But then there's also attitude.  If I
> switch to Time Warner and they block ports also, then I
> have not gained any ground.
> 
> One alternative that I have been looking at recently is
> "sucky local access" plus "an outpost".  I signed up for a
> unixshell# account ($8) and now I simply tunnel port 25
> from my unixshell# virtual server to my house through SSH.
> With this setup, BellSouth could block ALL incoming ports
> and I could simply use their line as a VPN link to my outpost,
> which has a fixed IP.  It sounds good in theory, but in
> practice unixshell# has a hard time keeping their virtual
> servers up during the last week while I have been trying
> them out.
> 
> Just curious, what do other folks run?  Specifically, I am
> interested in people who run services (SMTP/POP/IMAP, VPN,
> whatever) from their homes.
> 
> Are you always one step ahead of the ISP cops?  Or did you
> get some free ticket to run what you want?  What kind of
> pipe did you get?  How much did it cost?
> 
> As always, thanks for the suggestions, comments, and even
> the occasional hijacked thread into OT never-never land.
> 
> 
> Alan
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> .
> 
> 
> 
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