[ale] State of play re home Internet with static IP

[Jeff Hubbs]

On 3/4/19 7:52 PM, Jim Kinney wrote:
> I've had comcast business for years. It's solid service. Outages are 
> caused by vehicles and storms wiping out poles with wires. They hustle 
> pretty fast on repairs. They can't spell Linux but If you can 
> translate into windows speak, it works. The tech support is quite 
> knowledgeable and they really do want to help.
>
> It will be slower than residential service but it has no bandwidth 
> limitations.
I'm pretty slow now - I think it's 12Mbps down and less up.
>
> With tmobile, you can add a phone number to an existing account and 
> can ring on multiple devices running the app. No Linux app other than 
> android. $10/m to stuff the old number to a virtual phone. Other 
> providers may have similar. Tmobile calls it "digits".
Got no T-Mobile and I'm fine with keeping the cell phones on AT&T. We've 
been grandfathered into unlimited data on those lines and we're holding 
on to that with a death grip for as long as possible.
>
> The old 2 wire stuff from AT&T is too brittle.
>
> On March 4, 2019 7:24:54 PM EST, Jeff Hubbs via Ale <ale at ale.org> wrote:
>
>     After many years at the status quo (AT&T UVerse and POTS land
>     line) I'm finally looking into a rework of the home telecomm
>     situation.
>
>     I have two main drivers that are forcing the decision:
>
>      1. Even after the shortest of power outages, upstream UVerse
>         service goes dead and stays dead for 10-20 minutes. This was
>         not always the case but in the last few years it's been the
>         "new normal;" my wife works at home via VPN enough that that's
>         a problem, and it's no good for me either. Yes, I have UPSses
>         out the wazoo on everything and it doesn't matter. I've tried
>         to get through to AT&T by phone to at least get the problem
>         acknowledged but that's been impossible.
>      2. There's a good chance I might be leaving town for my next job
>         for an unknown amount of time, but that won't mean that I'll
>         stop being the "IT guy" for the house; I will simply *have* to
>         be able to shell in from the outside. If there is such a thing
>         as a "reflector" service that sits on the Internet - even if
>         it's my own server somewhere - that gives me a way to tunnel
>         in reverse through some kind of connection that's initiated
>         from inside the house, I don't want to be dependent on it.
>
>     Being able to run my own Internet-reachable web and email servers
>     in the house is anticipated but is secondary to those two main
>     drivers.
>
>     It is my understanding that only AT&T and Comcast serve my street.
>
>     I've spoken to a rep for Comcast Business and they're telling me
>     that within reason (with respect to affected region(s) and length
>     of outage, I presume) their service will remain unaffected by
>     power outage. That handles 1. above, and they also offer as few as
>     one static IP address which should be sufficient to handle 2.
>
>     I have not yet called about any of AT&T's business residential
>     offerings but when I got a flyer in the mail about some kind of
>     fiber service being available in my neighborhood and called to
>     inquire, I couldn't get anything even remotely like a straight
>     answer but the upshot was that no, the fiber service wasn't
>     available to me. I'm quite rather done with AT&T, to be honest.
>
>     Comcast says they can give me a VoIP-like service that can
>     optionally use my old phone number. I'm undecided on that; the
>     phone rings with random robocalls and other solicitations 3-5
>     times a day (Do Not Call list notwithstanding) and there are only
>     3 living persons whom we know who ever, *ever* call that line.
>
>     We would like to have a TV service with DVR available and it's my
>     understanding from talking to Comcast that it would have to be
>     Xfinity piggybacked on the Comcast Business service. It would be
>     either that or satellite to still have DVR. I've never dealt with
>     satellite service before but the houses to either side of us have
>     it. I've built an HDTV antenna and mounted it in the attic but I
>     haven't completed the cabling to know for sure how well it will
>     work, and if we went that route, there'd be no DVR unless I went
>     the whole MythTV (or equivalent) route and I'm really not willing
>     to try that again.
>
>     I'm all (rabbit) ears, so let your replies rip.
>
>     - Jeff
>
>
> -- 
> Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. All tyopes are thumb 
> related and reflect authenticity. 


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