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I am a Drupal contributor for the past 15 years, so I know Drupal pretty well.

As I mentioned before Drupal 6 (core) has been patched to fully work with PHP 7.2. There is a concerted effort to do the same for Drupal 7.

Yesterday, I tried PHP 7.2 with 4 sites on two servers. One site is Drupal 6, the others are Drupal 7. They all worked without a single code change. One configuration statement had to be omitted, but that was it. The sites in question have the advantage of not being a victim of the open buffet binge syndrome.

There are known examples of modules that don't work (e.g. Rules). For sites that use 200+ modules (a very common thing), there is this thing called testing. If your workflow already has a test server, then test PHP 7.2 there and see if things work as expected. If not, then copy the live site to a test server and reproduce it there.

Regardless of Drupal's market share, it is just an example of a development community getting things working on newer PHP versions, and the process is sure not unique to Drupal at all. It can be done with a concerted group effort.

No kidding ...

For many years, I have been returning HTTP return code 418 (I'm a teapot) to obnoxious crawlers.

For example: Dealing with resource wasting crawlers in Drupal. Also here and here.

No kidding ...

For many years, I have been returning HTTP return code 418 (I'm a teapot) to obnoxious crawlers.

For example: Dealing with resource wasting crawlers in Drupal. Also here and here.

No kidding ...

For many years, I have been returning HTTP return code 418 (I'm a teapot) to obnoxious crawlers.

For example: Dealing with resource wasting crawlers in Drupal. Also here and here.

The mistake is trying to use mod_php with a heavy PHP application, such as a a complex Drupal site, without a reverse proxy such as Varnish or nginx.

One trick I have been using for a few years is using Apache as a threaded server, with MPM Worker, and FastCGI but with fcgid, not mod_fastcgi. Works exceptionally well. For static files, Apache is now lightweight and does not use much RAM.

For details, see my article on Apache MPM Worker with fcgid.

vim + xdebug - looks something like this (not my screenshot, just random google image search).

If you want to stay with Apache, then the quickest fix for this is to reduce the number of MaxClients so that an incoming avalanche of traffic does not cause overuse of memory and hence the swapping to hell syndrome.

What number to set it to depends on the size of each Apache process, and how much memory you can spare in the system.

As far as Lighttpd is concerned, there is an up and coming competitor called nginx (Engine X). Its reputation is that it has all the benefits of Lighty, minus the memory leaks.

I have benchmarked APC vs. eAccelerator and found that eAccelerator is some 13% faster. It also has significantly lower memory consumption than APC.

• PHP op-code caches / accelerators: Drupal large site case study
• Benchmarking APC vs. eAccelerator using Drupal
• Drupal core caching and contributed content caching modules
• Installing eAccelerator 0.9.5.1 on Ubuntu Feisty 7.04
• logwatcher: restart Apache after a segmentation fault
• MySQL InnoDB: performance gains as well as some pitfalls
• MySQL my.cnf configuration for a large Drupal site
• Presentation: Performance tuning and optimization of high traffic Drupal sites
• Tools for Performance Tuning and Optimization
• Tuning the Apache MaxClients parameter
• Links and resources on Drupal performance tuning and optimization

A few years ago, there was an ad on TV here (Ontario, Canada) that featured what is says to be Hippopotamus domesticus, the House Hippo. It lives in homes across North America, in people's houses.

The ad shows a very small hippopotamus (3-4 inches long) in various scenes in a normal house.

The following claims are made in the ad, in a voice that looks like Attenbourough on BBC nature programs:

- house hippos are friendly, but will defend their territory if necessary
- house hippos live in bedroom closets, where they make nests
- house hippos sleep 16 hours a day
- house hippos come out at night when they search for food
- house hippos like to eat chips, raisins, and crumbs

The ad then says something like : "Do not believe everything you see on TV. Ask questions".

Read the Wikipedia article, or see the UK version of it here

--
2bits :: Drupal development, consulting and customization.
The Baheyeldin Dynasty.

Cost of internet access (and infrastructure in general) is a never ending story outside North America, mainly because of metered per-minute access.

For example look at the Middle East, where I am from and where I live, you will find a comparison of Arabs vs. West, which is part of larger site on the Internet in Saudi Arabia.

The only country that is forward looking on this is the United Arab Emirates, which just a month ago introduced Al Shamil ADSL, albeit at 103.25$ per month for 384 Kbps down and 128 Kbps down. In Saudi Arabia, I pay more than that per month for a 33.6 Kpbs dialup connection! No ISDN nor DSL in Saudi Arabia yet!

On top of that the service is very erratic and is of low standard compared to other countries. Symptoms include busy lines, disconnects, and slow connections. Check the Speed and Service Watch pages.

Internet penetration in the Middle East as whole is very low, compared to North America and even in Europe. Check my Middle East Internet Statistics web site.

Cost of internet access (and infrastructure in general) is a never ending story outside North America, mainly because of metered per-minute access.

For example look at the Middle East, where I am from and where I live, you will find a comparison of Arabs vs. West, which is part of larger site on the Internet in Saudi Arabia.

The only country that is forward looking on this is the United Arab Emirates, which just a month ago introduced Al Shamil ADSL, albeit at 103.25$ per month for 384 Kbps down and 128 Kbps down. In Saudi Arabia, I pay more than that per month for a 33.6 Kpbs dialup connection! No ISDN nor DSL in Saudi Arabia yet!

On top of that the service is very erratic and is of low standard compared to other countries. Symptoms include busy lines, disconnects, and slow connections. Check the Speed and Service Watch pages.

Internet penetration in the Middle East as whole is very low, compared to North America and even in Europe. Check my Middle East Internet Statistics web site.

Cost of internet access (and infrastructure in general) is a never ending story outside North America, mainly because of metered per-minute access.

For example look at the Middle East, where I am from and where I live, you will find a comparison of Arabs vs. West, which is part of larger site on the Internet in Saudi Arabia.

The only country that is forward looking on this is the United Arab Emirates, which just a month ago introduced Al Shamil ADSL, albeit at 103.25$ per month for 384 Kbps down and 128 Kbps down. In Saudi Arabia, I pay more than that per month for a 33.6 Kpbs dialup connection! No ISDN nor DSL in Saudi Arabia yet!

On top of that the service is very erratic and is of low standard compared to other countries. Symptoms include busy lines, disconnects, and slow connections. Check the Speed and Service Watch pages.

Internet penetration in the Middle East as whole is very low, compared to North America and even in Europe. Check my Middle East Internet Statistics web site.

Cost of internet access (and infrastructure in general) is a never ending story outside North America, mainly because of metered per-minute access.

For example look at the Middle East, where I am from and where I live, you will find a comparison of Arabs vs. West, which is part of larger site on the Internet in Saudi Arabia.

The only country that is forward looking on this is the United Arab Emirates, which just a month ago introduced Al Shamil ADSL, albeit at 103.25$ per month for 384 Kbps down and 128 Kbps down. In Saudi Arabia, I pay more than that per month for a 33.6 Kpbs dialup connection! No ISDN nor DSL in Saudi Arabia yet!

On top of that the service is very erratic and is of low standard compared to other countries. Symptoms include busy lines, disconnects, and slow connections. Check the Speed and Service Watch pages.

Internet penetration in the Middle East as whole is very low, compared to North America and even in Europe. Check my Middle East Internet Statistics web site.

Cost of internet access (and infrastructure in general) is a never ending story outside North America, mainly because of metered per-minute access.

For example look at the Middle East, where I am from and where I live, you will find a comparison of Arabs vs. West, which is part of larger site on the Internet in Saudi Arabia.

The only country that is forward looking on this is the United Arab Emirates, which just a month ago introduced Al Shamil ADSL, albeit at 103.25$ per month for 384 Kbps down and 128 Kbps down. In Saudi Arabia, I pay more than that per month for a 33.6 Kpbs dialup connection! No ISDN nor DSL in Saudi Arabia yet!

On top of that the service is very erratic and is of low standard compared to other countries. Symptoms include busy lines, disconnects, and slow connections. Check the Speed and Service Watch pages.

Internet penetration in the Middle East as whole is very low, compared to North America and even in Europe. Check my Middle East Internet Statistics web site.

Someone above asked for a List of OpenSRS affiliates (i.e. resellers). I have been trying to do the same, but never could get such a list, despite extensive searches.

Note that the Domain Name Buyers Guide does not cover any OpenSRS affiliate yet.

Last week, I decided to ask OpenSRS themselves, and opened a sales ticket and a support ticket. The support guy gave me the usual run around ("Our reseller list is confidential", "we cannot release such info", "try a web search").

The sales person was more helpful and gave me a list of five resellers:

• http://www.nal.qc.ca
• http://www.msnhosting.com
• http://internationalwebhostingservices.c om
• http://www.islelink.com
• http://www.msquaredweb.net

Independantly, I tried searching for such info myself. Here is what I found:

• JumpDomain 14.99$ a year.
• DiscountDomainRegistry 14.99$ a year.
• DomainMonger 17$ a year.
• Processing Innovations 15$ a year. I am not sure if they are OpenSRS or not. Some (see above) have objected to their agreement, since they can terminate the domain, ...etc.
• Domains JH Cloos
• . Again not sure if he is OpenSRS or not. He offers domains for 12.50$. You cannot pay by credit card and need
• e-gold.

In case you are wondering, if your reseller goes out of business (many of them are small operations or a one-man-shows), then OpenSRS will be the registrar. The sales person told me they would help me find another registrar should this happen.

I am willing to maintain a list of OpenSRS resllers that offer cheap (20$ or less per year) domain registrations. If you find more, please let me know. You can contact me via the web site above or via 2bits.com (fill a contact form) or you can e-mail me at khalidATbaheyeldinDOTcom.

As a related issue, I have been looking for a PHP port of the OpenSRS library (Yeah, I am a Perl-Hater!), so I can implement it myself, shell out the 250$ minimum needed for being an Open SRS reseller, then I can provide domain registry for friends, family and clients. However, there is no such port planned by OpenSRS.org, and one reseller (forget which one) has a library that is working in every aspect except the encryption stuff.

I am a Muslim, an Arab, and a resident of Saudi Arabia for the last 11 years.

I have built an extensive web site that describes how the internet is setup, list of all the Saudi ISPs, comparison of prices, service issues, internet cafes, ...etc.

You can check the Saudi ISPs site for all the details. The Internet Setup in Saudi Arabia page will give you an idea on the setup.

Slashdot is not blocked in Saudi Arabia. However, some links (related to hacking and porn, specially when CmdrTaco does the Quickies) are blocked.

Prior to the internet becoming available to the public (January 1999), there have been rumors that Saudi Arabia will allow access to the internet thru a "White List", meaning that only those sites that are explicitly allowed can be accessed. This turned out to be just a rumor. Only those sites that are explicitly blocked are unaccessible.

I am told that sites are blocked not by an employee seeing that it is inappropriate, but there is an approval process in place (he has to go to higher levels of authority and get approval).

Anyone can recommend a site for blocking or request the unblocking of a site (the links are on the site mentioned above.

My main gripes about the internet in Saudi Arabia are:

• Price
  It is very expensive compared to neighboring countries, even those with a comparable (see the Arabs vs. West page on the above site.
• Poor Service
  There is overload on the infrastructure. Proxies just make things slower than they should be. Compared to internet access in (say) Alexandria, Egypt, my home town. Access in Saudi Arabia is slow! Check Speed and Service Watch pages.

In reality, I have not found this censorship to be bothersome.

You should also consider that there are tons of backdoors available for those who are keen to access something that is blocked.

When an Automatic English to Arabic translation service (Tarjim) was made available two months ago, kiddies started to use it as a back door to access pron. The result: it was blocked! (Note to Arabs: The translation isn't any good. Just try it on your own site and sit back and laugh. Bablefish is ages ahead of it!)

The growth of the internet in Saudi Arabia is explosive. Check the Middle East Internet Statistics site for details.

You should also consider that The United Arab Emirates also blocks porn from the net. So does Singapore.

To its credit, Saudi Arabia doesn't block any Voice over IP services (Net2Phone, MediaRing, Dialpad, Yahoo Voice Chat, ...etc.), unlike most of the Gulf countries (Kuwait, Qatar, UAE) and even Lebanon, where the Telecom monopolies are afraid of loss of revenue.

I am a Muslim, an Arab, and a resident of Saudi Arabia for the last 11 years.

I have built an extensive web site that describes how the internet is setup, list of all the Saudi ISPs, comparison of prices, service issues, internet cafes, ...etc.

You can check the Saudi ISPs site for all the details. The Internet Setup in Saudi Arabia page will give you an idea on the setup.

Slashdot is not blocked in Saudi Arabia. However, some links (related to hacking and porn, specially when CmdrTaco does the Quickies) are blocked.

Prior to the internet becoming available to the public (January 1999), there have been rumors that Saudi Arabia will allow access to the internet thru a "White List", meaning that only those sites that are explicitly allowed can be accessed. This turned out to be just a rumor. Only those sites that are explicitly blocked are unaccessible.

I am told that sites are blocked not by an employee seeing that it is inappropriate, but there is an approval process in place (he has to go to higher levels of authority and get approval).

Anyone can recommend a site for blocking or request the unblocking of a site (the links are on the site mentioned above.

My main gripes about the internet in Saudi Arabia are:

• Price
  It is very expensive compared to neighboring countries, even those with a comparable (see the Arabs vs. West page on the above site.
• Poor Service
  There is overload on the infrastructure. Proxies just make things slower than they should be. Compared to internet access in (say) Alexandria, Egypt, my home town. Access in Saudi Arabia is slow! Check Speed and Service Watch pages.

In reality, I have not found this censorship to be bothersome.

You should also consider that there are tons of backdoors available for those who are keen to access something that is blocked.

When an Automatic English to Arabic translation service (Tarjim) was made available two months ago, kiddies started to use it as a back door to access pron. The result: it was blocked! (Note to Arabs: The translation isn't any good. Just try it on your own site and sit back and laugh. Bablefish is ages ahead of it!)

The growth of the internet in Saudi Arabia is explosive. Check the Middle East Internet Statistics site for details.

You should also consider that The United Arab Emirates also blocks porn from the net. So does Singapore.

To its credit, Saudi Arabia doesn't block any Voice over IP services (Net2Phone, MediaRing, Dialpad, Yahoo Voice Chat, ...etc.), unlike most of the Gulf countries (Kuwait, Qatar, UAE) and even Lebanon, where the Telecom monopolies are afraid of loss of revenue.

I am a Muslim, an Arab, and a resident of Saudi Arabia for the last 11 years.

I have built an extensive web site that describes how the internet is setup, list of all the Saudi ISPs, comparison of prices, service issues, internet cafes, ...etc.

You can check the Saudi ISPs site for all the details. The Internet Setup in Saudi Arabia page will give you an idea on the setup.

Slashdot is not blocked in Saudi Arabia. However, some links (related to hacking and porn, specially when CmdrTaco does the Quickies) are blocked.

Prior to the internet becoming available to the public (January 1999), there have been rumors that Saudi Arabia will allow access to the internet thru a "White List", meaning that only those sites that are explicitly allowed can be accessed. This turned out to be just a rumor. Only those sites that are explicitly blocked are unaccessible.

I am told that sites are blocked not by an employee seeing that it is inappropriate, but there is an approval process in place (he has to go to higher levels of authority and get approval).

Anyone can recommend a site for blocking or request the unblocking of a site (the links are on the site mentioned above.

My main gripes about the internet in Saudi Arabia are:

• Price
  It is very expensive compared to neighboring countries, even those with a comparable (see the Arabs vs. West page on the above site.
• Poor Service
  There is overload on the infrastructure. Proxies just make things slower than they should be. Compared to internet access in (say) Alexandria, Egypt, my home town. Access in Saudi Arabia is slow! Check Speed and Service Watch pages.

In reality, I have not found this censorship to be bothersome.

You should also consider that there are tons of backdoors available for those who are keen to access something that is blocked.

When an Automatic English to Arabic translation service (Tarjim) was made available two months ago, kiddies started to use it as a back door to access pron. The result: it was blocked! (Note to Arabs: The translation isn't any good. Just try it on your own site and sit back and laugh. Bablefish is ages ahead of it!)

The growth of the internet in Saudi Arabia is explosive. Check the Middle East Internet Statistics site for details.

You should also consider that The United Arab Emirates also blocks porn from the net. So does Singapore.

To its credit, Saudi Arabia doesn't block any Voice over IP services (Net2Phone, MediaRing, Dialpad, Yahoo Voice Chat, ...etc.), unlike most of the Gulf countries (Kuwait, Qatar, UAE) and even Lebanon, where the Telecom monopolies are afraid of loss of revenue.

I am a Muslim, an Arab, and a resident of Saudi Arabia for the last 11 years.

I have built an extensive web site that describes how the internet is setup, list of all the Saudi ISPs, comparison of prices, service issues, internet cafes, ...etc.

You can check the Saudi ISPs site for all the details. The Internet Setup in Saudi Arabia page will give you an idea on the setup.

Slashdot is not blocked in Saudi Arabia. However, some links (related to hacking and porn, specially when CmdrTaco does the Quickies) are blocked.

Prior to the internet becoming available to the public (January 1999), there have been rumors that Saudi Arabia will allow access to the internet thru a "White List", meaning that only those sites that are explicitly allowed can be accessed. This turned out to be just a rumor. Only those sites that are explicitly blocked are unaccessible.

I am told that sites are blocked not by an employee seeing that it is inappropriate, but there is an approval process in place (he has to go to higher levels of authority and get approval).

Anyone can recommend a site for blocking or request the unblocking of a site (the links are on the site mentioned above.

My main gripes about the internet in Saudi Arabia are:

• Price
  It is very expensive compared to neighboring countries, even those with a comparable (see the Arabs vs. West page on the above site.
• Poor Service
  There is overload on the infrastructure. Proxies just make things slower than they should be. Compared to internet access in (say) Alexandria, Egypt, my home town. Access in Saudi Arabia is slow! Check Speed and Service Watch pages.

In reality, I have not found this censorship to be bothersome.

You should also consider that there are tons of backdoors available for those who are keen to access something that is blocked.

When an Automatic English to Arabic translation service (Tarjim) was made available two months ago, kiddies started to use it as a back door to access pron. The result: it was blocked! (Note to Arabs: The translation isn't any good. Just try it on your own site and sit back and laugh. Bablefish is ages ahead of it!)

The growth of the internet in Saudi Arabia is explosive. Check the Middle East Internet Statistics site for details.

You should also consider that The United Arab Emirates also blocks porn from the net. So does Singapore.

To its credit, Saudi Arabia doesn't block any Voice over IP services (Net2Phone, MediaRing, Dialpad, Yahoo Voice Chat, ...etc.), unlike most of the Gulf countries (Kuwait, Qatar, UAE) and even Lebanon, where the Telecom monopolies are afraid of loss of revenue.

I am a Muslim, an Arab, and a resident of Saudi Arabia for the last 11 years.

I have built an extensive web site that describes how the internet is setup, list of all the Saudi ISPs, comparison of prices, service issues, internet cafes, ...etc.

You can check the Saudi ISPs site for all the details. The Internet Setup in Saudi Arabia page will give you an idea on the setup.

Slashdot is not blocked in Saudi Arabia. However, some links (related to hacking and porn, specially when CmdrTaco does the Quickies) are blocked.

Prior to the internet becoming available to the public (January 1999), there have been rumors that Saudi Arabia will allow access to the internet thru a "White List", meaning that only those sites that are explicitly allowed can be accessed. This turned out to be just a rumor. Only those sites that are explicitly blocked are unaccessible.

I am told that sites are blocked not by an employee seeing that it is inappropriate, but there is an approval process in place (he has to go to higher levels of authority and get approval).

Anyone can recommend a site for blocking or request the unblocking of a site (the links are on the site mentioned above.

My main gripes about the internet in Saudi Arabia are:

• Price
  It is very expensive compared to neighboring countries, even those with a comparable (see the Arabs vs. West page on the above site.
• Poor Service
  There is overload on the infrastructure. Proxies just make things slower than they should be. Compared to internet access in (say) Alexandria, Egypt, my home town. Access in Saudi Arabia is slow! Check Speed and Service Watch pages.

In reality, I have not found this censorship to be bothersome.

You should also consider that there are tons of backdoors available for those who are keen to access something that is blocked.

When an Automatic English to Arabic translation service (Tarjim) was made available two months ago, kiddies started to use it as a back door to access pron. The result: it was blocked! (Note to Arabs: The translation isn't any good. Just try it on your own site and sit back and laugh. Bablefish is ages ahead of it!)

The growth of the internet in Saudi Arabia is explosive. Check the Middle East Internet Statistics site for details.

You should also consider that The United Arab Emirates also blocks porn from the net. So does Singapore.

To its credit, Saudi Arabia doesn't block any Voice over IP services (Net2Phone, MediaRing, Dialpad, Yahoo Voice Chat, ...etc.), unlike most of the Gulf countries (Kuwait, Qatar, UAE) and even Lebanon, where the Telecom monopolies are afraid of loss of revenue.

I am a Muslim, an Arab, and a resident of Saudi Arabia for the last 11 years.

I have built an extensive web site that describes how the internet is setup, list of all the Saudi ISPs, comparison of prices, service issues, internet cafes, ...etc.

You can check the Saudi ISPs site for all the details. The Internet Setup in Saudi Arabia page will give you an idea on the setup.

Slashdot is not blocked in Saudi Arabia. However, some links (related to hacking and porn, specially when CmdrTaco does the Quickies) are blocked.

Prior to the internet becoming available to the public (January 1999), there have been rumors that Saudi Arabia will allow access to the internet thru a "White List", meaning that only those sites that are explicitly allowed can be accessed. This turned out to be just a rumor. Only those sites that are explicitly blocked are unaccessible.

I am told that sites are blocked not by an employee seeing that it is inappropriate, but there is an approval process in place (he has to go to higher levels of authority and get approval).

Anyone can recommend a site for blocking or request the unblocking of a site (the links are on the site mentioned above.

My main gripes about the internet in Saudi Arabia are:

• Price
  It is very expensive compared to neighboring countries, even those with a comparable (see the Arabs vs. West page on the above site.
• Poor Service
  There is overload on the infrastructure. Proxies just make things slower than they should be. Compared to internet access in (say) Alexandria, Egypt, my home town. Access in Saudi Arabia is slow! Check Speed and Service Watch pages.

In reality, I have not found this censorship to be bothersome.

You should also consider that there are tons of backdoors available for those who are keen to access something that is blocked.

When an Automatic English to Arabic translation service (Tarjim) was made available two months ago, kiddies started to use it as a back door to access pron. The result: it was blocked! (Note to Arabs: The translation isn't any good. Just try it on your own site and sit back and laugh. Bablefish is ages ahead of it!)

The growth of the internet in Saudi Arabia is explosive. Check the Middle East Internet Statistics site for details.

You should also consider that The United Arab Emirates also blocks porn from the net. So does Singapore.

To its credit, Saudi Arabia doesn't block any Voice over IP services (Net2Phone, MediaRing, Dialpad, Yahoo Voice Chat, ...etc.), unlike most of the Gulf countries (Kuwait, Qatar, UAE) and even Lebanon, where the Telecom monopolies are afraid of loss of revenue.

Well, I cannot give you actual code or configuration files, but here are some ways others are doing it:

• Yahoo!Mail uses POP authentication for SMTP, and mandates that your e-mail must be the Yahoo mail. This works OK, but the problem is that I am behind a corporate firewall that block POP, which means that I cannot use SMTP as a result.
• My hosting provider allows SMTP from my domain, but only from a predefined set of IP Addresses and/or IP Address ranges. They do this because of the ORB RBL mentioned in the article. This works well from the office and from home, but is annoying when I travel, since I have to check what IP subnet I am using and send it to my host, ...etc.

Seconded! I fully agree!

All of my domains (except one) are with register.com. I only have good things to say about their web site and service.

They are not cheap, the price is the same as NSI, but service is awesome!

I am looking forward to transfer that one last domain from NSI to register.com, but there is some paper work they require (notarization, photo ID, legalization - not easy when you have those in Arabic!). But eventually, I will do it!

You are right about many slashdotters, but not all. Some of us are older geeks with families and jobs, and yes brains as well :-)

This is not unlike Juno, FreeDSL, FreePC, any free email, free dial up internet, free[anything].

The real issue with NameZero is ownership. Say you have asite that you toiled to build, advertize and maintain. It becomes a success, only to discover that they took it back from you and capitalized on your blood, sweat and tears? Not nice is it?

A similar thing happened to a friend of mine who had a great idea for a web site. He was web illeterate (only a user) and gave the job to someone, who turned out to be a crook. That crook made himself the contact for the domain (technical, zone, admin, billing) although the registrant is still my friend's company). The crook asked for an exorbitant amount of money or he will pull the site down. When my friend refused to pay, he shut down the site and disappeared (even fled to another country!). Network Solutions, being the dinosaur they are, are not reacting at all to change the details on the domain to allow a different hosting company, ...etc....etc. ad nauseum! See what can happen?

You become a pawn in the direct market game. Not new, and not surprising. You just can't get something for nothing, not now, not ever.

I have used Free dialup ISPs in Canada. I have a friend and a relative using them in USA. They are great! You get a lot for nothing! I wish they are available here in the Middle East and we do not have to pay thru the nose!

Well, this is not your typical "has been done before SlashDot troll", but yes, Egypt has been doing this for a long time.

I am talking here about Alexandria, Egypt (4.5 Million) and Cairo as well (16 Million), which are not rural at all, and the forces at play are not the same as those mentioned in the article.

A little bit of background: Egypt has undergone massive telecom infrastructure upgrades in the mid 1980s and early 1990s. The old wiring was almost totally replaced with new wiring, and the switches were replaced from mechanical to electronic.

This left the old wiring in place, doing nothing. That is until the internet came in the mid 1990s.

Let me say that Cable TV does not exist in the Middle East (maybe only Qatar), and therefore it is not an option for high speed connections. Also, the phone company in Egypt is a government monopoly (but this may change soon).

Internet Cafes are very popular in Egypt, since not everyone has a computer, and per-minute charges get to be expensive (read more about it in the Cost of the Net in the Middle East comparison page).

An Internet Cafe approaches the ISP for a leased line connection, and they ask the telco to provide the . The ISP provides the rest (modems, ...etc). ISPs are concerned about bandwidth and normally limit this to 33.6Kbps, unless you pay heavily for more.

Companies having branch offices do the same (but put xDSL technology in place) so they can exchange documents, graphics and more.

I am glad to say that the internet is improving in Egypt year after year, as compared to other places in the region (read about it in Speed in Jeddah vs. Alexandria page).

Well, this is not your typical "has been done before SlashDot troll", but yes, Egypt has been doing this for a long time.

I am talking here about Alexandria, Egypt (4.5 Million) and Cairo as well (16 Million), which are not rural at all, and the forces at play are not the same as those mentioned in the article.

A little bit of background: Egypt has undergone massive telecom infrastructure upgrades in the mid 1980s and early 1990s. The old wiring was almost totally replaced with new wiring, and the switches were replaced from mechanical to electronic.

This left the old wiring in place, doing nothing. That is until the internet came in the mid 1990s.

Let me say that Cable TV does not exist in the Middle East (maybe only Qatar), and therefore it is not an option for high speed connections. Also, the phone company in Egypt is a government monopoly (but this may change soon).

Internet Cafes are very popular in Egypt, since not everyone has a computer, and per-minute charges get to be expensive (read more about it in the Cost of the Net in the Middle East comparison page).

An Internet Cafe approaches the ISP for a leased line connection, and they ask the telco to provide the . The ISP provides the rest (modems, ...etc). ISPs are concerned about bandwidth and normally limit this to 33.6Kbps, unless you pay heavily for more.

Companies having branch offices do the same (but put xDSL technology in place) so they can exchange documents, graphics and more.

I am glad to say that the internet is improving in Egypt year after year, as compared to other places in the region (read about it in Speed in Jeddah vs. Alexandria page).

It is because of this cost (and sharing revenue from it), that the UK allows the so called Free Internet providers.

Now look at the Middle East and you find a worse picture, where we pay per minute, plus very high ISP monthly subscription.

It ends up 5 times costing as much a fast broadband Cable connection in Canada (40$Cdn), but for a measly slow 31,000 bps connection with busy signals, disconnects, ...etc.

Check this page for further analysis.

I pay close to 133$ US per month and that is for lousy 31,200bps access, and have to suffer thru busy lines, and disconnections.

This is in Saudi Arabia, and half that amount is a monthly subscription fee (233 SR), and the rest is per minute charges from the telephone company (0.075 SR per minute).

You can read more about it in Cost of Access in the Middle East vs. other places on my Saudi ISPs Comparison web site, and also Middle East Internet Statistics site.

You guys in North America have it really easy, with free access providers popping up, and free local calls as well.

Sigh! If this sounds like a complaint, it probably is!

I pay close to 133$ US per month and that is for lousy 31,200bps access, and have to suffer thru busy lines, and disconnections.

This is in Saudi Arabia, and half that amount is a monthly subscription fee (233 SR), and the rest is per minute charges from the telephone company (0.075 SR per minute).

You can read more about it in Cost of Access in the Middle East vs. other places on my Saudi ISPs Comparison web site, and also Middle East Internet Statistics site.

You guys in North America have it really easy, with free access providers popping up, and free local calls as well.

Sigh! If this sounds like a complaint, it probably is!

I pay close to 133$ US per month and that is for lousy 31,200bps access, and have to suffer thru busy lines, and disconnections.

This is in Saudi Arabia, and half that amount is a monthly subscription fee (233 SR), and the rest is per minute charges from the telephone company (0.075 SR per minute).

You can read more about it in Cost of Access in the Middle East vs. other places on my Saudi ISPs Comparison web site, and also Middle East Internet Statistics site.

You guys in North America have it really easy, with free access providers popping up, and free local calls as well.

Sigh! If this sounds like a complaint, it probably is!

I am with them now for about 2 months, and they seem OK (not exceptionaly great, but good value for money).

They use Red Hat Linux on Intel servers from a larger (and more expensive) hosting company called Alabanza.com

They have a lot of nice features, including free parking of extra domains (I host Baheyeldin.com, as well as 2BITS and Muslim Investor all out of one account on NoMonthlyFees.com. Also, a few subdomains as well, including Saudi Arabia Internet Service Providers and Middle East Internet Statistics, and my own personal site khalid.baheyeldin.com.

They offer you stuff that others charge for, like mailing lists, lots of POP accounts, MySQL, PHP, ...etc. They charge extra for SSH access (there is no Telnet due to security reasons).

I think about it this way: at 180$ for lifetime hosting, this comes up to 15$ a month for a year, which is about what you pay for others or even less. Anything after that is a free bonus for me...

Downsides:

• The Apache log sometimes doesn't get written to at all for a whole day. It has been a few weeks since I reported the problem and they haven't solved it (well it was the holiday season in the USA, ...etc., so may be that is it...)
• They have a few minutes of downtime every few days for some reason, but I can live with that...

I am with them now for about 2 months, and they seem OK (not exceptionaly great, but good value for money).

They use Red Hat Linux on Intel servers from a larger (and more expensive) hosting company called Alabanza.com

They have a lot of nice features, including free parking of extra domains (I host Baheyeldin.com, as well as 2BITS and Muslim Investor all out of one account on NoMonthlyFees.com. Also, a few subdomains as well, including Saudi Arabia Internet Service Providers and Middle East Internet Statistics, and my own personal site khalid.baheyeldin.com.

They offer you stuff that others charge for, like mailing lists, lots of POP accounts, MySQL, PHP, ...etc. They charge extra for SSH access (there is no Telnet due to security reasons).

I think about it this way: at 180$ for lifetime hosting, this comes up to 15$ a month for a year, which is about what you pay for others or even less. Anything after that is a free bonus for me...

Downsides:

• The Apache log sometimes doesn't get written to at all for a whole day. It has been a few weeks since I reported the problem and they haven't solved it (well it was the holiday season in the USA, ...etc., so may be that is it...)
• They have a few minutes of downtime every few days for some reason, but I can live with that...

I am with them now for about 2 months, and they seem OK (not exceptionaly great, but good value for money).

They use Red Hat Linux on Intel servers from a larger (and more expensive) hosting company called Alabanza.com

They have a lot of nice features, including free parking of extra domains (I host Baheyeldin.com, as well as 2BITS and Muslim Investor all out of one account on NoMonthlyFees.com. Also, a few subdomains as well, including Saudi Arabia Internet Service Providers and Middle East Internet Statistics, and my own personal site khalid.baheyeldin.com.

They offer you stuff that others charge for, like mailing lists, lots of POP accounts, MySQL, PHP, ...etc. They charge extra for SSH access (there is no Telnet due to security reasons).

I think about it this way: at 180$ for lifetime hosting, this comes up to 15$ a month for a year, which is about what you pay for others or even less. Anything after that is a free bonus for me...

Downsides:

• The Apache log sometimes doesn't get written to at all for a whole day. It has been a few weeks since I reported the problem and they haven't solved it (well it was the holiday season in the USA, ...etc., so may be that is it...)
• They have a few minutes of downtime every few days for some reason, but I can live with that...