RE: Lazy network operators

["Vivien M." <vivienm () dyndns org>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-nanog () merit edu [mailto:owner-nanog () merit edu] On 
> Behalf Of Stephen J. Wilcox
> Sent: April 14, 2004 9:59 AM
> To: daryl () introspect net
> Cc: nanog () merit edu
> Subject: RE: Lazy network operators
>
>
>
> On Wed, 14 Apr 2004, daryl () introspect net wrote:
>
> > > Not being happy with the ISP's smarthost is not 
> justification to run 
> > > your own;  you should change ISPs.. assuming we implement this 
> > > locked
> >
> > That's a super idea.  Now explain how that works when you 
> have access 
> > to only a single broadband provider.  If you already 
> thought of this 
> > scenario, you're seriously underestimating the number of people in 
> > this situation.
>
> In my example I suggested that there would be tiers of 
> service, for an extra fee 
> they would give you a service where you could run your smarthost.

I don't know how they do it in the UK, but in many North American places,
the random large corporation providing high-speed residential/small-biz
services don't WANT to offer tiered services. Oh, sure, they have a few
tiers that differ on speed (and sometimes monthly bandwidth restrictions),
but that's it, and that's all they want to do. These providers like
providing the same thing to everybody (for example, if you get X POP3
accounts with your service, and you need X+1, they will NOT sell you an
extra POP3 for $2/month or whatever), because it reduces cost, and they do
NOT give a damn about the technologically-skilled user who wants to run
their own small-scale $PROTOCOL server, etc. It's not a matter of "give us
$Y and we'll do/let you do it", it's a "you can't do that. End of story."
from their outsourced tech support guy.

The "go elsewhere" argument against big impersonal ISPs that aren't able to
match your needs isn't workable for many people, as was pointed out. For
some people, the best solution is to buy IP connectivity from the big ISP,
avoid using any of their other services (yes, I have fetchmail download mail
from my POP3 at my ISP, but do I _use_ that account for anything? Obviously
not), and do your own thing. If you advocate restricting this IP
connectivity further, then you're screwing such people over, and possibly
creating a big market for people on Mr. Vixie's list of colo providers...

Vivien
-- 
Vivien M.
vivienm () dyndns org
Assistant System Administrator
Dynamic Network Services, Inc.
http://www.dyndns.org/