broadband access

[jc at trillian.mit.edu]

--------

|  The website for RCN is www.rcn.com
|  Your IP address will always stay the same if there is some traffic coming
|  from your box. That's why I always have IRC running in the background.
|  You can get cable TV from RCN.

Do they still require that you get the TV if you want just the  modem
connection?   A  few  months ago, they did.  This would be extra.  We
currently have a  Mediaone  cable  connection,  and  the  wife  would
probably  grumble  about  having  to  reprogram her three (count 'em)
remote controls and the VCR. OTOH, we had a Medaone cable modem for a
few  months  last  year,  and  they  kicked  me  off  because I was a
"hacker".  Actually, they wouldn't tell me anything at  all  specific
about  what  they  didn't  like; they just terminated the service and
said (verbally) that if I didn't like it, I could take them to court.
So  I  wouldn't  mind  switching the TV to RCN if they really support
linux ...

I have kept one bit of email in which  the  Mediaone  folks  made  it
clear  that  servers, even email and time servers, are forbidden.  It
did strike me as curious that Mediaone  objected  to  my  getting  my
email delivered directly to my home machine. They insisted that email
had to be delivered to their machine and then picked up  from  there.
This doubles the packet count and uses space on their disks, so their
motive is a bit of a puzzle.  I can't imagine that  they  ever  found
anything  in my email that was sufficiently exciting that they wanted
to read it all.  But what else could be their motive?   And  if  they
wanted a copy of my email, why didn't they just intercept the traffic
to port 25, so I wouldn't know they were doing it?

|  They allow servers if they're non commercial.

I bet they'd like you even better if you  applied  for  a  commercial
modem connection.  ;-)

|  $70 for cable modem, one local phone line, non-listed & non-published
|  number. Plus two free options. I have caller id and anonymous call
|  blocking.
|
|  $120 for EVERYTHING. Cable modem, two phones, and cable tv. 

How much per month?  Maybe I should check out their web site again.

Hmmm ...  I just tried, and I've managed to get all of three pages in
10 minutes.  The silly browser sits there for the longest time before
it shows anything at all, and the text appears on the  screen  a  few
chars at a time.  It shows a transfer rate of below 100 bytes/sec.  I
wonder what the problem is?  Other sites seem to work fine.

I did find the following in their FAQ:

What Operating Systems do you support?
RCN offers PC support for Windows 3.11, Windows 95,  Windows  98,  NT
3.51 and NT 4.0. Macintosh support is also available for OS 8 and up.

No mention of linux here.  I wonder if their linux "support" is  like
Mediaone,  who  require that you be running Windows when they install
it.  My current machine doesn't have Windows.  I did have the  usual
involuntary Windows installation, but the disk went flakey, and I saw
no reason to waste space on the second disk.

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