[lug] attbi troubles

[Calvin Dodge]

On Thu, Dec 06, 2001 at 11:01:57AM -0700, Sean LeBlanc wrote:
> > 
> What is the price range on this? What areas is it available in? I loathe
> going from static to non-static IP...

DirecTV DSL is quoting a price of $49.95/month. If you buy a year's worth, then there's an initial $25 charge (shipping their private brand external DSL modem), and the first three months cost $19.95 each.  If you want to go month by month, then (IIRC) the initial charge (setup plus shipping) is $75, and you pay the full $49.95/month from the start.

The site (http://www.directvdsl.com) is quoting the same bandwidth as the new, "improved" AT&T (1.5 Mbps down 128 Kbps up) - I guess that'll be one of those YMMV situations.

So ... assuming the bandwidth figures are correct, it seems to be competitive with AT&T.  Even if the download bandwidth is somewhat lower, it should be suitable for Mom and Dad's use (latency is the biggest time-killer for them, since their usage is primarily web-browsing). 

Upload bandwidth will be the same (an issue when Mom is updating the web sites she maintains), and download bandwidth will matter only when grabbing updates from Red Hat via ftp (that's done around midnight from cron, so I don't have to wait for it to finish).

There's a "check availability" form on the main page for the site - enter your phone number, address, etc., and it will let you know if it thinks the service is available for your location (I gather DSL availability calculations aren't foolproof).

Their server-friendly attitude shows in their FAQ (http://www.directvdsl.com/why/faq.asp#server)

> > I'd already stopped dhcpcd on the affected interface. I just had to start it again, then rerun my firewall/masquerade script.
> > 
> 
> Any chance that you are running ipchains? This is the first time I've used
> non-static IP, so I had to hard-code new IP in one of the calls to ipchains
> - if it changes, I think my firewall may be hosed again.

Nope - iptables.  The Linux box has two NICs - one outward-facing (cable modem) and one inward-facing (local network), so the script does its blocking based on the interface, rather than an IP address (which we had to do at work, thanks to Qwest's brainless decision to drop support of bridging mode).

Calvin
-- 
Calvin Dodge
Certified Linux Bigot (tm)
http://www.caldodge.fpcc.net