My friend's ISP didn't know what a shell account was... (A call for dumb ISP stories)

[Chaotic42]

I gave my friend my old computer (1GHz, 256 MB, 11 Gigs, not a bad setup). They of course wanted internet access so I went to the ISP with them just in case there any problems. I noticed things like the $320 Geforce 2MX card and pretty much knew what we were in for.

Anyway, they sign up and I ask if they get a shell account. The woman figited and asked me what I meant. I explained it to her the best I could, it's fairly self-explanitory for anyone in the computer business. She went to the back and asked the tech.

He said that they were too insecure. I knew right away that they were using Windows

Anyone have any similar experiences with ISPs?

 

[Wallydraigle]

Well, it's technically against my TOS to leave a download going while I leave the computer to make a sandwich. According to my TOS I have to be physically at the computer to be online. If I get up without going offline that's abuse. If I'm reading something long, and they think I've been online too long they will literally delete my account from their system, without notification, and I have to call and bitch at them to make a new one. New login name, new password, the whole thing. It happens about every other week. I spoke with the head guy at one point and I told him that if they thought there was a problem they could have emailed me about it, rather than nuking my account. I pretty much got a line word for word from Office Space, "We try to avoid confrontation whenever possible," blah, blah, blah, "it all worked out from our end," yatta, yatta, yatta.

 

[BillGates]

May I ask why an ordinary person (average internet user) would ever need to use a shell account?

 

[BillGates]

Originally posted by: lirion
Well, it's technically against my TOS to leave a download going while I leave the computer to make a sandwich. According to my TOS I have to be physically at the computer to be online. If I get up without going offline that's abuse. If I'm reading something long, and they think I've been online too long they will literally delete my account from their system, without notification, and I have to call and bitch at them to make a new one. New login name, new password, the whole thing. It happens about every other week. I spoke with the head guy at one point and I told him that if they thought there was a problem they could have emailed me about it, rather than nuking my account. I pretty much got a line word for word from Office Space, "We try to avoid confrontation whenever possible," blah, blah, blah, "it all worked out from our end," yatta, yatta, yatta.

That's way crappy! Do you have internet through HitlerNet or something?

 

[IcemanJer]

then you should think about going with another ISP or go broadband

 

[Chaotic42]

Originally posted by: billgates380
May I ask why an ordinary person (average internet user) would ever need to use a shell account?

Well, if they had been using some Unix variant, I would have shown him how to play around on it, just for fun, maybe to pick up something.

It's not the fact that they don't have it, it's just the lame excuse.

 

[Wallydraigle]

Originally posted by: billgates380

Originally posted by: lirion
Well, it's technically against my TOS to leave a download going while I leave the computer to make a sandwich. According to my TOS I have to be physically at the computer to be online. If I get up without going offline that's abuse. If I'm reading something long, and they think I've been online too long they will literally delete my account from their system, without notification, and I have to call and bitch at them to make a new one. New login name, new password, the whole thing. It happens about every other week. I spoke with the head guy at one point and I told him that if they thought there was a problem they could have emailed me about it, rather than nuking my account. I pretty much got a line word for word from Office Space, "We try to avoid confrontation whenever possible," blah, blah, blah, "it all worked out from our end," yatta, yatta, yatta.

That's way crappy! Do you have internet through HitlerNet or something?

Sometimes I wonder. "No internet for YOU! You come back in ONE YEAR!" I asked them why on my bill it says unlimited access, if I can't read a long paper, or do my taxes online without gettting my account deleted, and I was told that "unlimited" doesn't literally mean unlimited. Ummmkay, yeah. What they meant was, "We already have you're money for the year, so put up with it or go somewhere else and forfeit it." If they delete enough accounts often enough that's got to bring overhead way down:disgust:

 

[SyahM]

Originally posted by: lirion
Well, it's technically against my TOS to leave a download going while I leave the computer to make a sandwich. According to my TOS I have to be physically at the computer to be online. If I get up without going offline that's abuse. If I'm reading something long, and they think I've been online too long they will literally delete my account from their system, without notification, and I have to call and bitch at them to make a new one. New login name, new password, the whole thing. It happens about every other week. I spoke with the head guy at one point and I told him that if they thought there was a problem they could have emailed me about it, rather than nuking my account. I pretty much got a line word for word from Office Space, "We try to avoid confrontation whenever possible," blah, blah, blah, "it all worked out from our end," yatta, yatta, yatta.

Damnnn ... can you switch ISP? If I have them, they would have deleted my account everyday .... what a POC TOS.

 

[Wallydraigle]

This is not the first ISP I've had out here. This one is actually pretty good compared to the other one I have to choose from. I'm convinced broadband will not be here anytime in this century. Satellite is looking better everyday.

 

[Stealth1024]

I have problems with my ISP too since it was bought out. All of a sudden I ended up paying several dollars more per month $22, and now they instituted a 150 hour limit per month! You go over your account is toast. Its happened twice this month all ready (5 people in the family... someone it bound to be using a computer somewhere in the house, especially with the auto updates in windows, norton, etc.)

Its rediculous!

 

[Saltin]

You're not going to easily find an ISP that will be willing to give you shell account.

Half of them don't offer them/ dont know what they are

The other half know exactly what they are, what they (generally) are used for, know you don't need one, and know they don't want to give you one.

 

[ElFenix]

damn, lirion, you're in isp hell.

 

[randal]

The other half know exactly what they are, what they (generally) are used for, know you don't need one, and know they don't want to give you one.

Working at an ISP, this is exactly how it is.

randal

 

[Peetoeng]

Originally posted by: Chaotic42

He said that they were too insecure. I knew right away that they were using Windows

The tech guy was correct, it is often abused to gain access to root account. Internet access account has no need for shell access. Client computer dials into a modem bank/access terminal, gets authenticated by RADIUS or other authentication protocol, and there it goes.
OS doesn't matter, especially rootkits for any popular OS can be easily obtained online.

Back before SLIP/PPP, users needed to login to their shell account for
email or other IP clients. Nowadays, you have all those clients, with whistles and bells, right in your computer.

If you want the ISP to host your fancy web sites (with customed cgi scripts and all), then you may legitimate need to have a shell account.