Re: Qwest DLS & MSN Premium & Linksys Router & FreeBSD.. Oh my

From: Kris Anderson (ciscoaix_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 10/27/05

  • Next message: Alex Kapranoff: "packages for older 4.x systems" 
    Date: Thu, 27 Oct 2005 08:28:17 -0700 (PDT)
To: "Gary W. Swearingen" <garys@opusnet.com>

    --- "Gary W. Swearingen" <garys@opusnet.com> wrote:

    > Kris Anderson <ciscoaix@yahoo.com> writes:
    >
    > > I'm getting off cable (Comcast and 6 megabits) and
    >
    > Good move.
    >
    > > Their fine print -
    >
    > Don't forget the finer print. "Invisible print"
    > might be a better
    > term; good luck even finding it before committing
    > yourself. More
    > below.
    >
    > > home phone pac kage ($24.99 otherwise), free
    >
    > Check out which "phone pac" that is. I doubt very
    > much if regular
    > phone service is considered to be a home phone pac;
    > I mangaged to find
    > (after considerable searching) their page for
    > ordering non-pac phone
    > service to get a 12.50 basic service (before more
    > than that in various
    > fees and taxes, one which seems to be part of
    > _their_ taxes -- grrr).
    >
    > > restrictions may apply. MSN ISP requires agreement
    > to
    > > MSN Acceptable Use Policy.
    >
    > Yeah, after considerable searching I found a "MSN
    > Subscription
    > Agreement" link at http://support.msn.com/ which
    > took me to a member
    > sign-in form. Do you really want to do business
    > with a company that
    > does business like that?
    >
    > > So am I right in still thinking that with MSN as
    > the
    > > ISP my setup it isn't going to be FreeBSD friendly
    > and
    > > that my spiffy little Comcast setup isn't going to
    > > work with MSN as the ISP?
    >
    > I can't help you; and I wouldn't help MSN if I
    > could. I know I
    > first bought a (used) modem that was "guaranteed" to
    > work with
    > Qwest and a non-MSFT ISP, but I later learned that
    > it would only
    > work with Qwest+MSN and had to pay a "restocking"
    > fee to get most
    > of my money back. Grrr.
    >
    >
    > I found what seems (in about 5 mo) to be a good ISP
    > at opusnet.com .
    > Relatively good contract terms and in actual
    > practice, so far. And
    > about as cheap as they come.
    >
    >
    > Note that _almost_ all ISPs have indemnity clauses
    > whereby you agree
    > to pay their legal and other costs if some third
    > party makes claims
    > against the ISP which involve you in any way,
    > whether or not you've
    > done anything wrong in most such clauses. Another
    > facter is how far
    > away the courthouse and your lawyer would be.
    >
    > Last time I looked, Quest had no indemnity clause
    > for their pure DSL
    > service, but they had one in their ISP contract and,
    > of course, MSN
    > does too. I say "of course", but I should note that
    > MSN.net is one of
    > increasingly-few web sites that has no indemnity
    > clause in the
    > site-use contract. Even such "open source" sites as
    > Slashdot have
    > them these days. I assume the risk of using such
    > sites in read-only
    > mode, but seldom, if ever, post anything to them.
    > BTW, my insurance
    > guy knows of no personal insurance against such
    > indemnity risks.
    >
    >
    > I bought a DSL modem at Fry's for about 10 $ more
    > than Qwest's, mostly
    > because Qwest has given me many reasons to dislike
    > and distrust them
    > and partly because my modem has a 2-yr guarantee. It
    > is a Zoom ADSL X5
    > and seems to work fine and was easy to configure
    > once I got past some
    > problem that I had with Mozilla not accessing the
    > modem's
    > configuration web forms correctly. (I've already
    > forgotten the
    > cause.) Beware that the Zoom modem package says in
    > big print that it
    > comes with DSL filters and in fine print it says how
    > many it comes
    > with, which I didn't notice was _zero_. Grrr.)
    >
    > With the Zoom modem, at least, you may configure it
    > to run DHCP and
    > give the modem a fixed (eg, 10.something) IP address
    > or run DHCP on
    > whatever you connect to the modem. The Zoom X5 is
    > also a 4-port
    > router, but this one was not wireless like the Qwest
    > modem.
    >
    >
    > Finally, beware that a few weeks ago DSL providers
    > like Qwest got
    > permission (from the US gov) to refuse to do
    > business (after 2005,
    > IIRC) with good ISPs like opusnet.com, so don't be
    > suprised if your
    > choice in 2006 is between Qwest+MSN and
    > Comcast+Comcast. Grr.
    >
    > -- Grry
    > _______________________________________________
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    >
    Wowzers, I think I'll get a couple of tin cans and a
    string.

    Thanks Gary, and everybody else who replied. Most
    appreciated.

    ~Mr. Anderson

            
                    
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