[ale] cheapest DSL service... ?

[Christopher Fowler]

Recently I saw the Speakeasy had some nice speed options.


On Wed, 2004-01-14 at 13:01, Dow Hurst wrote:
> Our users have Earthlink/Mindspring, CharterCable, and 
> Bellsouth.  I have Earthlink.  Each user has slightly 
> different configurations of DSL modems and accounts. 
> Overall, once the service is setup with our firewalls, it is 
> pretty transparent until the provider changes parameters on 
> logins or decide to do maintenance.  I am talking about 7 
> users including myself here.  Cost ranges between $50 and 
> $70 per month too since some are static and some aren't. 
> When downtime occurs it usually means a full day to a month 
> of problems for those on Earthlink or Bellsouth.  I mean 
> that about a full month.  I would recommend Earthlink since 
> once I've gotten past low level support, I have had decent 
> Linux support.  This recommendation is only for a user that 
> can put up with outages of at least once per year of a full 
> day to a month without dying.  Sort of reliable in that most 
> of the time it just works.
> 
> If you want a more reliable and Linux friendly service, I 
> would definitely go with Speakeasy.  I've wanted to switch 
> but Earthlink works well enough that I don't want to change 
> my email or deal with any outage problems.  I still have 
> this on the ToDo list at a low priority.  The next long 
> outage might force me over the edge! ;-)
> 
> Okay, those are my thoughts.  I definitely recommend using 
> Bob Toxen for setting up a standalone firewall that 
> autoconnects to your provider and is managed for updates and 
> security by him.  We have 7 in the field and 3 at KSU.  They 
> are the machines that cause me the least trouble and time. ;-)
> 
> Also, an account with Linux support, better reliability, no 
> PPPoE or PPPoA, and static IP is worth a significant extra 
> cost in my opinion.  I would say eliminating the PPPoE and 
> PPPoA would significantly reduce our DSL problems.  I've 
> never had a single issue with the user on Charter Cable, 
> however, it they won't talk about Linux at all.
> 
> Best of luck,
> Dow
> 
> 
> Courtney Thomas,,, wrote:
> > Who do you recommend Dow ?
> > 
> > Thank you.
> > 
> > Dow Hurst wrote:
> > 
> >> I really despise that now!  Reliability and quality mean a whole lot 
> >> more in the long run.  I've spent many days working on unreliable DSL 
> >> connections that ended up being a provider problem.  That just should 
> >> not be.
> >> Dow
> >>
> >>
> >> Christopher Fowler wrote:
> >>
> >>> Many people have a higher value of their money than they do of their
> >>> time.  They'll pick the cheapest route regardless of the amount of work
> >>> involved.
> >>> On Wed, 2004-01-14 at 09:07, Geoffrey wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> Christopher Fowler wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>>> An average internet user would be bellsouth or Earthlink.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> An engineer gets Speedfactory or Speakeasy.
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> I don't understand that.  I do understand why 'an engineer' would 
> >>>> choose Speedfactory or Speakeasy.  I would expect an 'educated' 
> >>>> average internet user would as well.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> _______________________________________________
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> >>>
> >>
> > 
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