On Wed, May 23, 2001, Alex Shnitman wrote about "Re: ISP":
> > Some people have one machine connected to ADSL and download Linux
> > distributions or listen to online music all day, and other people
> > connect 3 machines with very light email and occasional surfing
> > load.
> >
> > Do the ISPs actually care (I mean, is it in their contract) whether
> > you do the former or the latter? How come?
>
> Yes, they care, because on the average, the more machines you connect
> the more traffic you'll see. (I don't see the relevance of your
> example above -- of course there are extreme cases in any
> situation!). That's why the contract says that you can't connect a
> network to the ADSL line, but only a single computer.
I'm not talking about extreme situation or someone connecting their entire
neighborhood to his ADSL connection: I'm talking about two typical
homes commecting to ADSL
1. A home with 2 computers, say for the parents and the kids, with
relatively light Internet usage.
2. A home with 1 computer, on which the kids download stuff continuously
for at least 5 hours a day.
Which one would the ISP prefer? There is absolutely no correlation between
number of computers and the bandwidth usage! If an ISP wants to limit
bandwidth usage, or total usage per month, or whatever - they should do
exactly that, and not place arbitrary and artificial limitations.
Besides, I bet the clause in the contract is not even enforaceble, since
technically, you ARE connecting only one computer to their connection. This
computer can send whichever packets it wants, and the fact the idea for
some of them come from communicating to another computer first is irrelevant...
Sorry for the ranting... I get really disgusted by companies trying to
limit your freedoms for arbitrary reasons.
--
Nadav Har'El | Wednesday, May 23 2001, 1 Sivan 5761
[EMAIL PROTECTED] |-----------------------------------------
Phone: +972-53-245868, ICQ 13349191 |I'm a peripheral visionary: I see into
http://nadav.harel.org.il |the future, but mostly off to the sides.
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