Re: Changing my ISP

["Robert G. (Doc) Savage" <dsavage@peaknet.net>]

On Wed, 2010-07-28 at 22:06 -0500, Scott Duensing wrote:
> That's cool.  What kind of up-speed do they have?  They really don't
> filter?  And you can run servers off it without being sneaky?  If so,
> I may be ordering myself!

Scott,

I'll be blunt. Getting hard core technical information out of AT&T over
the phone is an absolute bitch. 99% of the folks in their call centers
are telemarketing ditzes, and they don't give them the telephone numbers
of the techies you really want to talk to.

* I don't honestly know -- yet -- what the upload speed limits are. Most
consumer connections are assymetrical with upload speeds typically
limited to 50% of download. We'll see.

* I spent a great deal of time, energy, and bile digging up information
about what ports and services they block. Call center weenies don't have
the first clue what you're talking about. The default settings for the
U-verse router block all kinds of useful things like port 25 (SMTP),
port 53 (DNS), etc. You have to ask them for the optional "DMZ"
configuration that forwards everything -- good and bad -- to your
downstream router. You are responsible for your own firewalling. No
safety net.

* As long as I don't violate their Terms of Service, they don't care
what kind of computers I connect. Their ToS lists three restrictions on
use: resale of U-verse Internet services to 3rd parties, copyright and
DMCA infringement, and unsupervised use by children 12 and under.
Reading the fine print in the ToS, I did spot the following section that
could conceivably apply to BitTorrent users:

        "In order to provide a consistently high-quality video service,
        AT&T Uverse High Speed Internet throughput speeds may be
        temporarily reduced when a customer is using other U-verse
        services in a manner that requires high bandwidth. This could
        occur more often with higher speed Internet access products. It
        may be necessary for some AT&T High Speed Internet users, for
        AT&T to set a a maximum downstream speed on a customer line to
        enhance the reliability and consistency of performance. While
        this performance optimization process will prevent some
        customers from obtaining the maximum downstream speed
        capability, service capability speed will not be set lower than
        the service tier you have purchased."

I am not a lawyer, but it appears to me that the intent of this
paragraph is to acknowledge the technical fact that Quality (not Terms)
of Service demands of concurrent U-verse TV and VoIP services may give
priority to those packets, dynamically reducing the bandwidth available
to Internet service.

It's interesting to note that my 12Mbps download service will exceed the
max speed tier defined in the ToS:

        "Broadband access is provided in speed tiers of:
        (1) 200Kbps to 768Kbps downstream (not available for AT&T
        U-verse High Speed Internet service)
        (2) 769Kbps to 1.5Mbps downstream
        (3) 1.56Mbps [sic] to 3.0Mbps downstream
        (4) 3.1Mbps to 6.0Mbps downstream
        (5) 6.1 to 10.0Mbps (available only with AT&T U-verse High Speed
        Internet service)"

U-verse Internet service is available at the following download speeds:
        
        Up to 3Mbps	$35/month (Tier 3)
        Up to 6Mbps	$40/month (Tier 4)
        Up to 12Mbps	$45/month (Tier not defined)
        Up to 18Mbps	$55/month (Tier not defined)
        Up to 24Mbps	$65/month (Tier not defined)

Obviously AT&T's lawyers are lagging behind their marketeers.

--Doc Savage
  Fairview Heights, IL



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