On Thu, Aug 28, 2003 at 12:04:09PM -0400, Matthew Crocker wrote: > Technically no, There is no reason for a customer to have direct > access to the net so long as the ISP can provide appropriate proxies > for the services required. > It gets complex, it gets hard to manage but it can be done. There is a > stigma against proxing because of the early days when stale content was > all over the place. Does a dynamically assigned dialup/DSL user even > need a valid routable IP? For games? Maybe games should be more NAT > friendly. > > We do remove the filters for customers that have a valid need and show > that they have a clue out it all works.
There is a perfectly good reason for direct access: We buy IP connectivity. We don't buy {list of specific applications} connectivity. If I create a new network application, how many ISPs are going to sit there and create a new proxy so it will work? Even on the outside chance that I could talk my own ISP into it since I pay them, it's not going to be a very useful app if one of the prerequisites is "must be a customer of ISP X". -c