> This isn't necessarily the case. It certainly appears to vary by > region. They don't do it here (Denver, Colorado). Perhaps this is > because DSL is so easily available :}
One interesting thing that many providers are doing is not allowing any VPN traffic. If you want to "telecommute" and work from home, your company is going to have to buy you a commercial VPN capable account. The reasoning from the ISP standpoint is that the pricing on home accounts is very low. They are designed for private personal use. If you want to put these accounts into commercial service (they view a company offering employees a VPN connection into the company net for purposes of performing work to be commercial use) then you are going to need to buy a commercial account (or, rather, your EMPLOYER will need to purchase the account). Individual home internet accounts are a "loss leader" for most ISP's. They don't make beans from them and make their real money offering services to business. In that light, I really can't blame them. It is going to get much more difficult as time goes by to find a basic home account that will let you do much more than act as a basic client.