Re: [Junk released by Allow List] Re: more on MS networking

["Robert Holmgren" holmgren@xxxxxxxx]

** Reply to message from Carl Distefano  on Wed,
05 Dec 2007 20:53:34 -0500


> What's the word on Verizon FiOS?

I'd like to know, too. For the future. Verizon has a knack for
locking you in, and keeping you (I was FINALLY able to get out
of my Verizon wireless contract, and skip over to a GSM provider
with unlocked phones, hackable ROMs, rock-bottom rates when
abroad, etc). But fiber optics has promise. In Japan and
Korea, millions of ordinary users enjoy internet service a
HUNDRED times faster than U.S. DSL, at the same cost. I've read
that the new Verizon network has similar capabilities, but that
they've deliberately throttled it waaay back to just an
incremental improvement over current expectations (this way they
can ramp up real slowly and present each incremental
unthrottling as a huge technological achievement -- keep that
income stream alive). The subtle questions are the important
ones: do they offer static IPs, do they block port 21 (or 53)
so you have to use their SMTP server (or their DNS -- I've read
that they block ALL outgoing ports unless you have a business
account @ $100+/month), do they let you run servers (some people
say port 80 is blocked, others say it isn't), do they blacklist
or censor, do they block VOIP connections (after all, they're a
PHONE company!), what happens if you use Peer-to-Peer services
-- are they, in short, control addicts? They CERTAINLY
collaborate with the fasc -- with the US government's snooping
and sniffing. Also, they aren't fiber right up to your machine
-- the last leg is copper wire, and that compromises everything.
And BTW, they cut your old copper wires so that there's no going
back to other providers. In short, you have to read the fine
print, and then read some more. But guess what: it may not
matter. Here's a change to their current Terms of Service to
DSL customers, who started getting this in the mail two weeks
ago: "At such time as Verizon is able to provision the Service
utilizing fiber optic technologies, we may in our discretion
terminate your DSL Service and no longer make DSL service
available to your location. In cases of such termination, we
will offer to you Verizon Fios Internet Service and we will
disclose to you applicable rates and additional terms, if any,
and such rates and terms may differ from the DSL Services
provided under this Agreement."

It is still possible to find quality ISPs committed to the
quaint and archaic notion that you are an adult and can do what
you want with your computer as long as you don't mess with
_their_ equipment or make them partners in crime. Which means,
I guess, that in this narrow niche there is still a semblance of
freedom -- with all the risks that freedom necessarily entails.

-----------------------------
Robert Holmgren
holmgren@xxxxxxxx
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