[ale] Offtopic: ISPs and CableModems and ADSL

[ari]

i haven't tried adsl, as it's not available in my area.

i do, however, use mediaone's cable service.  i'm quite happy with it.

if you ask them if they support linux (or are "linux friendly"), they'll tell
you no, you have to run win95, '98, 'NT, or macOS.  don't listen to them;
they're full of <insert your favorite vulgar noun here>.  most tech support
actually seems to think that running linux is a breach of contract; it isn't
(i've read it).  just don't expect any technical support on the subject.
mediaone administers routine portscans every couple of weeks to make sure
you're not running an "insecure firewall" (i.e. wingate)... and it seems that
some of the employees get overzealous when those scans show a number of
daemons running; i've had a long history of annoyances such as portscans,
attempted anonymous ftp logins, attempted guest telnet logins, http browsing,
etc, from internal mediaone systems (cpusge.mediaone.net is the security
machine and SHOULD be the only mediaone system portscanning you.  fingering
@cpusge.mediaone.net usually tells you about this, but the machine doesn't
seem to be available at the moment).

the primary mediaone router for atlanta is digex.net, which drops numerous
packets... but connections are still quite fast.  i get 100 - 200 kbytes/s
downstream (60 - 130 upstream) normally, but when they periodically switch
over to bbnplanet.net, i achieve downstream speeds upwards of 500 kbytes/s.
i've sent them numerous unanswered requests for a changeover.

ari

Matt Williams (mwilliams009 at sprintmail.com) said this stuff:

> Howdy,
> I recently moved to Sandy Springs and of course signed up with the cheapest ISP i could find (sprint at the time).  i have since been tempted to switch to atlnet by the posts a while back to the list.  however, i dont remember reading anything about cable modems or ADSL.  ive been to bell south's web page and submitted the form to have my fone line checked for ADSL, and i recieved a postcard from MediaOne saying im getting cable modem access "within 30 to 90 days."  Because im new to the area, i dont know how much of this is propaganda or the real thing.  Does anyone use either of these services? if so, where can i find out more info about them and are they Linux friendly?  
> 
> --MaTT WiLLiaMS
> 
> Homer Simpson: "Its my first day."