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So are they all moving to the butterfly, or to popup blocker land, or have they wised up and are (doubtful) speaking easy? At the very least we know they aren't finishing the internet...

Considering MY DSL provider just tanked.

Thanks Slashdot, for making the holidays truly happy. ;-)

I dunno why they posted this under "Ask Slashdot", but here's some more info:

DSLReports (forum)
DirecTV DSL (info for customers)
Press Release from Hughes (parent company of DirecTV)

Well, here's their customer FAQ that explains a lot.

DirecTVDSL just went out of business. I have a feeling that'll be the next slashdot news story. Out of business.

Well, I don't work for directtv DSL but I believe that GTE got rolled up into them at one point. Anyway, these guys don't give a rats ass about servers as long as the usage is reasonable (though they do reserve the right to yank you if you get abusive using a residential service for business), they give you a static IP standard, and no caps. the actual service agreement is here.

Oh, they explicitly support Windows, Mac (including X) and Unix. Unfortunately, they don't serve my new central office (neither does anybody else) so I'm screwed but I'm getting my church wired (as soon as the gateway arrives) so consider this a testimonial from a former and future customer.

YMMV

Well, I don't work for directtv DSL but I believe that GTE got rolled up into them at one point. Anyway, these guys don't give a rats ass about servers as long as the usage is reasonable (though they do reserve the right to yank you if you get abusive using a residential service for business), they give you a static IP standard, and no caps. the actual service agreement is here.

Oh, they explicitly support Windows, Mac (including X) and Unix. Unfortunately, they don't serve my new central office (neither does anybody else) so I'm screwed but I'm getting my church wired (as soon as the gateway arrives) so consider this a testimonial from a former and future customer.

YMMV

I suggest that you do change. I've been using DirecTV for years and enjoying great service from a company that knows that you could go somewhere else in a heartbeat if they didn't provide quality service at a fair price.

I recently switched from my cable modem to DirecTV's DSL service also. I'm not sending another check to Time Fucking Warner ever again. And take a peek at this: VPN? FTP servers? Web servers? No problem!

You do have a choice and IMHO your local cable company is generally the wrong one.

Peter

just another happy customer...

Mine says I "may not connect more than 5 computers at a single location" and that I can't "resell the Service or any portion thereof," but it doesn't say anything about giving it away for free (assuming fewer than 5 computers at a time are connected).

Telocity is great. I have nothing bad to say about them.

My cheapo DSL ISP (telocity, now DirecTVDSL) does this as well.

It's not the wrong thing to do provided, as is the case, my computers never have a need to talk directly to my ISPs intermediate routers and their intermediate routers never have a need to talk directly to my DSL hosts. So it shows up as an actual hop in the traceroute, big deal; you might as well think of it as your packet being tunneled through a cloud of routers running another protocol.

I am still free to use those addresses on my internal network all I want without any problems.

(well sort of, they make http://10.5.1.2/ hit the web interface on their proprietary dsl modem to check status, gather line speed and traffic statistics, etc. but so what; there's 24 million 10/8 addresses)

Very true. Or might I suggest an alternative for the those needlers? Set up your own mail server. Doamin names are cheap to get now, and any type of broadband connection is relatively cheap now as well. I've also found that most DSL providers at least use a static address on the line, including Covad and DirecTV at least they did when I asked about it). So, setup your own server on your own domain and it won't matter anymore.

You can check hotfiles and Download.com and Shareware.com for free software (it does exist). Just look for 'SMTP server' and/or 'POP server'.

While demanding a refund may seem a little off, I'd have to admit that if I was a subscriber to a program such as this one, offered by my provider, and got "protected" by having my port 80 shut off, I'd be asking for a refund too.

With Covad filing for bankruptcy and Rhythms doing the same, I'd like to put in a plug for DirectTV DSL (formerly Telocity). They have resonable prices and are owned by Hughes Electronics so presumably they're a more stable...right? One more inportant advantage, they provide static IP addresses.

I am using DirecTVDSL (previously Telocity) over a SBC line. They only offer static IP. I still need to use DHCP to get the gateway to recognize that my computer is up, but the IP never changes. They even brag about it on their homepage.

On the downside, they offer only one IP total. You cannot get an additional static IP or even dynamic. Their "Connect and Protect" is not what it seems. It does not give additional routable IP's; it acts as a gateway for multiple machines as opposed to just a modem. A Linksys or Netgear router would do the trick. Personally, I use a FreeBSD box with a hub behind it. Firewall, mail server, web server, etc.

For those of you who haven't bothered to check, sending the Telocity gateway back when the service is over is right in their service agreement:

http://www.directvdsl.com/products/agreement.asp

If you say you couldn't find it on their web site, then you must not have been looking hard; I found it in under 30 seconds.

I've been a Telocity customer for a few years now, and I've been mostly pleased with their service. I *distinctly* remember the clause about paying for the modem if you don't return it. Read your contracts more clearly. There have been a few blips now and then, but all in all:

- they support linux (I got a RedHat engineer on the phone from tech support when I had problems DHCPing to my Telocity Gateway)
- they allow NAT (doesn't cost extra)
- they allow you to run servers (sshd, etc.)
- in some places (like Louisville, KY), you get a fixed IP

How can you argue with that?