Re: Comcast throws down gauntlet to residential accounts

[Bill Weiss <houdini+tor@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Praedor Atrebates(praedor@xxxxxxxxx)@Mon, Aug 10, 2009 at 03:09:23PM -0400:
> On Monday 10 August 2009 02:55:13 pm Gregory Maxwell wrote:
> > On Mon, Aug 10, 2009 at 2:39 PM, Scott Bennett<bennett@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > [snip]
> >
> > > business-class service, but it seems unlikely to be any cheaper.
> > >  Verizon's residential service does not currently have a cap, but I don't
> > > know whether they prohibit listening on ports accessable from the
> > > Internet.
> >
> > VZN's residential AUP prohibits "servers" along with a number of other
> > offensive prohibitions which they don't currently enforce. (For
> > example, you're prohibited from using your VZN broadband for anything
> > "sexually explicit").
> >
> > As I recall the business FiOS AUP had it's own set of ridiculous
> > terms... but it didn't attempt to prohibit you from running "servers".
> 
> AUPs are rarely enforced.  They are there so they can cut you off if/when 
> someone complains or you do something to annoy them.
> 
> In any case, I would run my servers regardless of their AUP.  NO ONE tells me 
> I cannot run sshd or any other of what I consider personally critical apps.  
> They also don't get to tell me not to run a tor relay.

Don't take this the wrong way; I hate the restrictions most US ISPs put on
their providers.  That said, actually, yes they do tell you.  Since you
agreed to their TOS when you signed up, they are free to enforce it.
Denying this possibility is just sticking your head in the sand.  Maybe
they won't ever bother you, but maybe they will.  They can tell you not to
run sshd, vpn servers, Tor, whatever.  They might even be able to tell you
not to surf porn from that connection, mattering on what their TOS looks
like.

Like it?  No.  Live with it?  You have to, unless you find a provider that
sucks less.

-- 
Bill Weiss
 
The ten commandments of hooking anything to anything
IX. Always set aside an ample amount of time to do thy work, for what
looks simple now, might not look so simple 2 hours later when thou comes
back from wherever thou came.