[PLUG] Re: [PLUG-TALK] Cheap WiFi coming (?)

[Russell Senior]

>>>>> "Larry" == Larry Brigman <larry.brigman at gmail.com> writes:

Dennis> This brings into focus a question I have had for some time.
Dennis> Won't the ISP's financial interests urge them to seek ways to
Dennis> limit multi-family access?  My ISP gets $18/mo from me and
Dennis> from each of my neighbors.  It is easy to see that $18/house
Dennis> goes away with these schemes.

Dennis> This must have come up already.  Can you point to some
Dennis> discussions?

Larry> If you are behind a NATing router/firewall, the ISP will have a
Larry> difficult time proving that you are sharing the resource.  They
Larry> don't have limits on the number of computers accessing the
Larry> resource as long as it is all through one IP address.

Furthermore, there are ISPs that are officially okay with you sharing
your connection.  There are four that come to mind, in no particular
order:

  Easystreet
  Stephouse Networks
  Integra Telecom
  Speakeasy

You might think that it runs counter to their interests (Comcast and
Verizon agree), but:

 a) they might not be able to police the sharing if they wanted to;

 b) having such policies actually drives business to them that might
    go elsewhere.

Not only are some of these ISPs supportive in their sharing-friendly
policies, but some of them (the local ones) go out of their way to be
even more supportive of the Personal Telco Project:

 * Easystreet donates the internet connection for our landmark node,
   at Pioneer Square;

 * Stephouse donates the internet connection for our neighborhood-wide
   Mississippi Avenue project;

 * Integra provides free colocation for one of our servers.

There may well be others that I am not fully aware of.  What goes
around, comes around.  These ISPs certainly have our warm feelings as
a result.


-- 
Russell Senior, Secretary
russell at personaltelco.net