On 2/10/07, Ted Mittelstaedt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
----- Original Message ----- From: "Jay Chandler" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Ted Mittelstaedt" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: "FreeBSD Questions" <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Sent: Friday, February 09, 2007 9:57 AM Subject: Re: Low-cost dedicated FreeBSD server or non-jail VPS? > > Maybe that's an option for you, but I'm looking at spending a minimum of > another $60 every month to my ISP if I want those services. I haven't > been sufficiently impressed to feel that they warrant that extra fee. > Maybe they haven't significantly impressed you because you bought the cheap service? Hell - $60 compared to a colo feel of $50? (the cheapest I've seen someone post here) In other words, you have a choice between actually having the physical box right there, vs having it 1000 miles away, and your in a -learning- situation? And your going to cut off your nose to spite your face just because of some issue with your ISP? What are they currently doing to you to warrant that? Without knowing your connectivity and how good/reliable/bad it is it's difficult to make a judgement call. But, I can say from experience that there isn't any -TECHNICAL- reason that cheaper DSL or cable connectivity can't be made as reliable as, say, a T1. There's not many places in the United States that you can't find multiple competing broadband providers. It's a lot different overseas, but here in the US if you don't like your ISP there's usually another one around the corner. Ted
But the problem in the US is that the physical lines are owned by one company that all other providers are at the mercy of. There are federal regulations in place to try to keep the line owners (Verizon, SBC, etc.) from abusing their powers, but they are pretty weak. I had this exact situation bite a customer of mine not too long ago. They hosted their server out of their office on DSL with a static IP through Speakeasy (a reseller). Speakeasy informed them that the people that owned the lines (Covad) had sold them to Verizon and that they would have to switch DSL modems, but that the outage should be minimal. I told them to plan for a full day of outage (even though the rep told us 2-3 hours), so they did. Well, when they switched over, something was wrong and the new modem would not connect. After several hours on the phone with Speakeasy, Speakeasy had determined that it was a problem at the CO and that Verizon would have to fix it. We could not call Verizon, they would not speak to us and Speakeasy only had the ability to submit trouble tickets and escalate them (common to all third party providers in our area). Although we screamed and shouted and threatened lawsuits (the customer was a law firm), there was nothing Speakeasy could do. I was then informed that if we had a T1, regulations would require a 24 hour response time, but since this was "only" Business DSL without a SLA (service level agreement), that it could be a week or two before they got someone to check it out at the CO. Long story short, they were out for a week. Finally it was fixed. We learned then and there that although they may call it Business class DSL and although the company you write your check to every month may have a stellar customer service record, if there is a problem in the last mile or at the CO, then you are at the mercy of whatever major telco owns your lines, and that if you do not have a T1 or higher, or at least DSL service with a SLA, then you are treated no better that a residential customer in terms of returning you back to service (could be 1-2 weeks). I think the OP just wanted a box to tinker with (I would still recommend johncomanies.com as an option), so uptime may not be a huge issue. I just thought I would share the lesson I learned that although they call it Business DSL, give you a static IP and charge you 5x the price for the same speeds, it doesn't always guarantee the same reliability that a T1 or colo facility will have. Preston _______________________________________________ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
