[CS-FSLUG] DSL (Verizon) vs. Cable (RoadRunner)

[Josiah Ritchie]

On Wed, 2004-06-23 at 22:44, Frank Bax wrote:
> I've had no problems with either LinkSys or D-link routers.  The D-link 
> ones I've used had more features than LinkSys did, like being able to block 
> access to websites (parental control), support for dyndns.org.  Do you 
> think remote ssh/vnc access to your home machine is considered "running a 
> server"?

My opinion is "no", but theirs may differ. Technically it ssh and vnc
require a server and a client and the thing running at home waiting for
a connection is probably the server. 

The "spirit of the law" is bandwidth conservation. If you are pushing
lots of bandwidth, they want you to pay more. That makes sense cause
your a more demanding customer. SSH and VNC if used occasionally by one
person is probably not anywhere near comparable to a web server on the
line.

The "letter of the law" is that its a server and if they want to they
can cut your access. I imagine they'd give warning though. 

I'm going to guess that they have bandwidth usage triggers that holler
when a certain lines uses x Mb of bandwith in y amount of time or
something like that. Then they'll watch and if they don't like what they
see, will provide warning or if they are feeling ornery just cut your
access.

I've known grumpy corporate net admins to disrupt connection to a client
because of abuse that they didn't have the ability to control beyond the
occasional drop of connection. It's also an excellent way to get an
abuser to give themselves up. We've had to do that on our student
network at times. Usually related to major virual infection.

JSR/