IP: Not all operators are broken Pesky Home Networks Trouble Cable Behemoths

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Richard Fritzson <fritzson () cs umbc edu>
Date: Wed, 03 Apr 2002 15:36:39 -0500
To: farber () cis upenn edu
Subject: Re: IP: Pesky Home Networks Trouble Cable Behemoths

Not all providers of high speed internet service treat home networks
like this. I've been a user of Verizon's ADSL service for two and a half
years. From day one they said that use of NAT to put multiple home
computers on the connection was absolutely OK. They couldn't provide
technical assistance, but it was explicitly allowed under the contract.
I've always done it; first with an old PC running LINUX and then with a
Linksys box.

Last year they started selling products (hardware) to help their users
do this. (See http://www.2wire.com/pr/pr100201.html) There has never
been any mention of additional fees or requirements.

Also, while the service has been very reliable, the one time we had
trouble with it, it was not hard to get past the initial helpdesk
reaction (Oh, you have a Linux box, that must be the problem....) and
get a person who could find the line problem and fix it.

    Rich Fritzson




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