On Thu, Mar 28, 2013 at 7:49 PM, Peter Humphrey <pe...@humphrey.ukfsn.org> wrote: > On Thursday 28 March 2013 20:53:49 Paul Hartman wrote: > >> In my case, my ISP's DNS servers are slow (several seconds to reply), >> fail randomly when they should resolve, return an IP (which goes to >> their ad-laden "helper" website if you are using a web browser) when >> they should instead return nxdomain, and they have openly admitted to >> selling customer DNS lookup history to marketers for targeted >> advertising. > > > > That is just evil. Have you no alternative to this ISP?
Not really. I have a 100 megabit connection through the cable company; my only wired alternative is DSL (1.5 mbit for almost half the price I'm paying for 100mbit). Cellular or satellite are not viable options for me because of comparatively poor value, latency and miniscule data usage caps. In the USA, the local governments (cities and towns, etc.) are in control of regulating which utilities can use public land, and are entitled to compensation from those who use it. Cable companies negotiate rental of that space called a "franchise fee" so they can bury cables, etc. The franchise fee used to be a government-protected monopoly. In the 1980's, when cable television started booming, regional pockets of cable providers were built up thanks to these local monopolies allowing them to move into towns with no competition. For the sake of efficiency, cable companies would build out in adjacent towns and kept spreading and growing outward until at some point nearly everyone in the country had cable TV services available to them, with the exception of those living in rural areas which were not dense enough to justify the cost of laying cables, even when presented with a monopoly. It is no longer legal for local governments to award monopolies, but the damage has been done. What we have is essentially the cable TV infrastructure that was laid out during the decade when local cable monopolies were legal, and the cost of entry for a new player into the market now is so high that nobody ever bothers. End result for consumers is a lack of choice. There are some places where competition exists, but those places are pretty rare, in my experience. There are some other possible alternatives to cable internet and DSL, such as municipal wifi, mesh networks, powerline and FTTx, but none are available where I live. The service I receive from the cable company here is actually excellent, with the exception of the aforementioned DNS woes. Pretty much every major ISP in the US does DNS-hijacking and other shenanigans, so there's no avoiding the evilness. I believe the board members of major cable and telecom companies would sell their own mothers into slavery if it meant a rise in share prices or a larger bonus at the end of the year...
