Re: FreeBSD challenged by Internet

I doubt there is any reasonably priced ISP that will help in
troubleshooting a problem that's not reproducible on Windows.

$19.95 a month for DSL (ISP charges) is not reasonably priced?
WTF?

Dunno about your neck of the woods, but last time I checked around
here Verizon was charging something like $5 or $10 a month more for
just the DSL line to connect to a third-party ISP than for the whole
package using their own ISP. Makes it difficult for independents to
compete, at least on price :(

Well, if your not willing to pay the extra $5 or $10 a month
to connect your FreeBSD system to DSL then I have to seriously
question your leel of commitment to decent Internet service.

It was an extra $5 or $10 to Verizon, *plus* the otherwise-reasonable
$20 (or whatever) to the third-party ISP. Overall, about double the
cost.

What really grates is that I have to pay Verizon *more* if I want
*less* from them! Would you pay $40K for a pickup, if you could get
the same truck, from the same dealer, for $35K including a camper?
That sort of pricing, by a monopoly, is supposed to be illegal (at
least in the U.S.).

What I don't get is I
see guys walking in dropping $1000 on associated Mac hardware crap
without blinking, then they squawk about paying an additional $9
a month on DSL? That grand on Mac crap will pay for 9 years of
DSL at this so-called "unreasonable" rate.

The most expensive system around here is a Mac Sawtooth that cost
$225 -- including a 17" monitor -- last September. The (Dell)
FreeBSD box I'm using at the moment cost $10 at a flea market,
plus something like $40 for a 160GB hard drive to replace the
original 10GB that failed after a few months. The one I'm going
to be installing 6.2 on -- also a Dell -- was less than $5 at a
yard sale.

In any case, that pricing delta only exists if the independent
hasn't signed a wholesale agreement with Verizon. If the
independent has, it's a whole different ball game, pricing is
completely different and quite a bit less.

When I was looking, I couldn't find any for much less than double,
but it has been a while. Do you happen to know of any low-cost
DSL providers who offer service in Washington County, Oregon, and
who will actually support (as opposed to tolerate) FreeBSD and/or
Linux? It would also be good if they knew what a firewall is --
last time I had a problem after a Verizon "system upgrade" the only
arrangement that Verizon was willing to troubleshoot was a Windoze
box connected directly to the DSL modem. This does not strike me
as an acceptable level of security.

Basically IMHO the Verizon pricing program was designed to push
the really tiny independents, ie: the guys that might have a
grand total of 5 or 10 Verizon DSL customers, off of their network.

That would have violated at least the intent, if not the letter, of
the antitrust laws. My suspicion is that they wanted no competition
whatsoever (also an antitrust violation).
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