Broadband with limited access?

[LordRaiden]

Friend of mine called me last night to tell me that his ISP (name to be withheld till proven guilty) who he gets his cable broadband through has decided on a new policy effective immediately. They are blocking access to all ports on their network except outbound port 21, 80, 25, 119 and 110. AKA basic internet access. Real audio will be allowed as well as a couple other streaming media types and some other useless ports. All servers are banned effective immediately, which means if you host any kind of server, be it mail, ftp, sql, http, etc, if they catch you, you're service is turned off immediately, and you have to pay a $200 reconnect fee for breaking the rules each time, and for each rule broken. SO you break 3 rules and they catch you, that's $600 just to get your connection back. All inbound connections are blocked outright which would make the servers pointless since nobody on his cablemodem service, nor anyone outside could connect to them anyways. Online gaming is outright blocked, as well as all associated ports. AKA no WC3, UT, Quake, Unreal, CS, C&C, nothing. Bandwidth per month is capped at 1/2 gig. Go over that and they charge you $5 a meg over.

Now I don't know if this is a hoax, him exagurating or if the ISP in question is really doing this, but with the current trend towards highly restricted surfing, I wouldn't be surprised if this were true. Seems kind of extreme for a broadband ISP to do. Someone who charges you lots of money and sucks you in with the promise of high speed surfing. Now I'm perty much sure my friend doesn't do anything online that he shouldn't. The closest thing to being a bandwidth hog is his massive WC3 addiction. Anybody else seen anything like this? What do you think he should do? Do you agree with it?

 

[DoNotDisturb]

WTF, TELL HIM TO GET A NEW SERVICE FAST.

i've NEVER seen any policy like THAT before other than the server one (u can't run a continuous server). that one he has is totally UNFAIR.

 

[NutBucket]

If it is the case, that broadband co. is shooting itself in the foot. On a related note, tell your friend to investigate my sig.

 

[Darien]

Originally posted by: NutBucket
If it is the case, that broadband co. is shooting itself in the foot. On a related note, tell your friend to investigate my sig.

I'm with you on that one.



<--- Happy SpeakEasy customer

 

[Zenmervolt]

Where's the "Killing spree" option?

Seriously though, he should look at a different company.

ZV

 

[no0b]

Originally posted by: DoNotDisturb
WTF, TELL HIM TO GET A NEW SERVICE FAST.

i've NEVER seen any policy like THAT before other than the server one (u can't run a continuous server). that one he has is totally UNFAIR.

I agree 100%

 

[LordRaiden]

I think they are too, but then again with conversations we've had over the years, his ISP sounds like a bunch of utter morons anyways.

Case in point. They were down for 3 days one time. Total ISP outage. Turns out that they didn't have the sence to see if the power was on to the master fiber router. Which it wasn't. Someone had switched it off to "clean" it supposidly and never turned it back on.

Yes, their admins are that dumb.

 

[Vampirrella]

at this point even AO-hell seems better then this!

 

[Vic]

WTF? I could surf ATOT and use more than 1/2 Gig/mo. (as I'm sure Anand is aware ).
Tell him to ditch that POS and get another ISP. Fighting legally is pointless. They provide the service, they set the rules. Vote with the dollar, spread the word, and watch 'em go bankrupt. :|

 

[Antisocial Virge]

Bandwidth per month is capped at 1/2 gig

:Q I guess he is only gonna check email is he?

 

[no0b]

If there were Crimes Against Internet Access these people would be the first one in jail.

 

[ElFenix]

1/2 gig a month? whats the point of broadband?

 

[ThisIsMatt]

M-M-M-MONSTER KILL!

 

[ThisIsMatt]

Originally posted by: ElFenix
1/2 gig a month? whats the point of broadband?

I do more than that in 2 days and I'm on dialup, lmao

 

[Chadder007]

I know that Comcast has just implemented something that blocks my VPN access to work now. Now I have to go in on a call instead of working on it from home. #*@@*

 

[no0b]

Originally posted by: Chadder007
I know that Comcast has just implemented something that blocks my VPN access to work now. Now I have to go in on a call instead of working on it from home. #*@@*

You should probaly write a complaint letter since you have a legitamite purpose.

 

[LordRaiden]

Ok, I talked with him again today and I have a few corrections. Either he misspoke or I wasn't listening. Bandwidth is capped at 1/2 a gig a day. Not per month. The rest still applies though. I did show him this thread and he's definately going to switch ISP's. He's looking at either a Wi-Fi solution or joining in on the appartment communities high speed access they have that comes with the apartments. It's slow, but bearable. And zero restrictions.

 

[bmacd]

i've had a few incidents with TimeWarner (RR), but since then, the service could not be any more perfect.

-=bmacd=-