[ale] Bellsouth ADSL? Restrictions ? Alternatives ?

[Stephan Uphoff]

I am moving to Roswell,GA and have to look for a new high speed ISP
for telecommuting. Cable ISP is unfortunately not an option in my area.

A static IP address would be nice - but not at the price
of paying per bytes transfered or signing a two year contract.
( Call be paranoid: I don't want to pay for an incoming packet
  storm or mailbombs while being on vacation ) 

It looks like this means Bellsouth ADSL.
( If I can get it)

If you know a better alternative please let me know.
I am willing to pay more for static IP
and the ability to have a  DNS MX record for this IP address
and to use ssh to connect home when I am away.

I think I have read somewhere that Bellsouth is blocking outgoing TCP port 25
connections and require you to go through their mail relay.
I am not sure. Can anyone confirm this ?
If this is true: Are there any outgoing size limitations ?

( I know the incoming mailbox is restricted to 2MBytes - but I am not
planning to use their pop server)

Do they block any other incoming / outgoing tcp connections / udp packets 
/ IP packets ?

Does anybody have Bellsouth ADSL ?

How is their DHCP server ?

	Does it require sending along the hostname ?
	       (instead of just Ethernet address)

	Are the Lease times for the IP addresses reasonable ?
	Do they switch IP addresses often ?
	

Is getting assigned a new address a problem with linux ? 
- beside tearing down all tcp connections ?
( I assume they will be torn down ) 

What happens if a server binds to this address ?
Is there any normal server that binds to a specific address
without being explicitly told to do so ?

Yes - I know that Bellsouth requires a NT machine to install.
Don't like it but they will get one - also I am tempted to use vmware ...


Thanks in advance

	Stephan


PS: I am currently a very satisfied  comcast @home customer (Dekalb) .