DSL provider which serves customer's hostname on their DNS

[richb at pioneer.ci.net]

Ali Taalebi <taalebi at ai.mit.edu> wrote:
>  However, after reading your comments about MediaOne/ATT I am doubting 
>  my choise and thinking of swithing to a:
>   
>  	reliable DSL provider which offers 
>  	inclusion of customer's hostname on their DNS.
>  
>  Your comments on choosing between:
>  	Verizon, EarthLink, RCN, speackeasy, ...
>  Has anyone been happy with any of their current services?

I have gone from TIAC PPP to various flavors of my old company PGT's
service (PPP, ISDN) to microwave (CAI Wireless) to RCN to MediaOne.

By far I've gotten the best satisfaction out of MediaOne.  I got the
least satisfaction out of RCN.

Despite recent reports of MediaOne's DHCP woes, the only effect it had
on me was an IP address change two weeks in a row.  I think before that
I'd only gotten 3 different IPs in the previous year and a half.

MediaOne's service does include a fixed hostname.  Mine is
h004005516d2d.ne.mediaone.net.  I bought DNS service from EasyDNS (which
only costs $20/year and I highly recommend it) and can easily CNAME or
MX my names through the MediaOne hostname.  EasyDNS also supports dynamic
DNS but I haven't played with that.

Even though I've run two good-sized IP backbone networks, and I now work
for a broadband equipment manufacturer, I see absolutely no need for
a static IP address.  If I were hosting a website, I'd buy a colo somewhere
and use that vendor's IP.

I do worry about the ongoing encroachment of port-blocking restrictions
on consumer services, and I worry that someday they'll try to do away with
routable IP in favor of 10.x.x.x private IPs for customers.

But thus far I have seen no signs that AT&T is changing the MediaOne
service.  I've been up 100% since subscribing a year and a half ago.  (One
of their DHCP server glitches briefly tripped me up sometime late last
year.  I worked around it quickly by killing dhcpcd and hard-coding my IP.)
Note that I do not use any MediaOne hosting services (email, DNS, netnews
or whatever), just IP dialtone.

My experience may be colored by the fact that I live within 1/2 mile of the
earliest Continental Cable prototype head-end site on Sherman Street.

Regarding the current debate over what should happen to AT&T
Broadband: privatize, bring back Amos Hostetter and have him run the
thing from his wharf in Boston.

-rich