[Pdx-pm] OT: Escaping Comcast?

[alan]

On Thu, 2 Nov 2006, Randall Hansen wrote:

> On Nov 2, 2006, at 1:58 PM, Nick Welch wrote:
>
>> Are there any other decent options in inner (NE) Portland?
>
> my favorite broadband option is and has been Qwest DSL through
> Hevanet (http://hevanet.com).  that is, qwest provides the line and
> hevanet acts as ISP.  it is a little more expensive ($5/month IIRC),
> but it means that i deal with a local company, and never with qwest.
> hevanet have been very good to me over the years -- the best ISP i've
> had, including teleport, back in the day.

Hevanet is a good company.  Aracnet/Spiritone has also been very good.  (I 
went with Aracnet because the person who payed for the install already had 
an account there.)

> it's true that this provides less bandwidth than cable, unless you
> get into the more expensive DSL options.  in my experience it's more
> stable.  cable companies are used to pushing content at consumers;
> telcos are used to facilitating two-way communication.  i think this
> mindset difference carries over into the types and configuration of
> service offered.  e.g. qwest gives you a better upload/download
> ratio, and doesn't attempt to filter or restrict communications (e.g.
> SMTP blocking, restrictions on running servers, etc.).

Aracnet lets me run my own mail server and web server.  I have a fixed IP 
address.  Absolutly no hastles about it at all.  (Probably because I run 
Linux.  If there was a Windows box there, they might think differently.)

-- 
Q: Why do programmers confuse Halloween and Christmas?
A: Because OCT 31 == DEC 25