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Even though my company owns several E10K machines, I do most of my work on a E450. So that's what I read up on. Check out this blurb from http://www.reviewboard.com/Section/Cover/SunE450

All in all these tests have shown us that the Linux software/Sun hardware is a very viable solution, usefull specialy when you run a Linux based shop, while still requiring the I/O performance and stability the Sun hardware can provide you. Most customers however will likely stick to the Sun Solaris platform, but its allways good to have options.

Now all I need to do is get one of these for the house. *Shaking Piggybank* Well, it'll be a while I guess.

Steven

The evil backhoe is a common antagonist and joke among ISPs and backbone operators -- people 'in the business' (the internet business, that is).

I worked in a NOC and up into engineering at a minor internet backbone (for those of you up on your history, the first one to use ATM) and whenever something went down, we'd joke "Some drunk ran into a light pole," or "Some stupid backhoe operator took out MAE East again."

It's funny, but it does happen and causes a lot of people to pop Tums until it's over. Train wrecks can be devestating too, since fiber/copper are often run along train tracks for a lot of reasons.

After a brief search, I came up with the following interesting blurbs:

A fiber cut from 1999

One from 1998

An article about a fiber cut on Slashdot itself

Sprint has "fiber repair" rodeos, heh.

If you do a google search on "fiber cut" and "backhoe", you'll come up with tons of hits. So, you can see, backhoes being the bane of the service provider is a very true statement.

FYI, the NANOG mentioned in some of those articles is the "North American Network Operators' Group" and they have meetings where they discuss cool stuff related to the internet. I went to a meeting once.. boring as hell. But I got some t-shirts and the day off work to go. Wheeee!

Remember when Sprint announced ION for home users, with metered bandwidth? It went over like a lead balloon.

I posted a longish message before about US West DSL, and that I was going to try switching to Sprint ION - I just called them up for the installation today and thought I'd pass on more details abut thier service.

The Sprint ION service is more than just a DSL line - they provide you with a central box that has ports for ethernet as well as two or four voice/fax lines.

Here in Denver, it's going to cost about $119 a month. That seems expensive, but what do you get?

* Two static IP's
* Can run as many servers as you like
* Two voice lines
* Local phone service with callerID/call forwarding/call waiting (posibly confernencing?)
* If I heard them right, 400 free minutes of long distance per month
* 1Mb up/3Mb down ADSL (obviously that can alter, it's what's quoted on the web site).

For 256k service from U.S. West with everything else about the same (eight IP's instead of two though), I was paying about $116 a month.

They still are serving limited areas, but if you can get them they seem like a great deal. Finally a DSL provider that doesn't rip you apart for wanting to run simple servers from your house. It's also a major bonus that I no longer will be ties to U.S. West (whoops, Qwest) for service of any kind!

I've had my DSL line from about July of last year (right around when they first started installing it in Denver).

I've been pretty happy so far, but have had some frustrating experiences. I thought I'd share the mix, then tell you after my plans for the future...

The Good:

The install was great. Not that they didn't encounter technical problems - it turned out the eiring in my house for my primary line didn't really cut it for DSL, but the secondary wiring was OK so we just re-wired all the jacks in my house to use the second wiring. The installation guy really knew what he was doing, and spent about three hours on my install!

Another nice thing was that even though I signed up for 256k service, ever since the start it's been 640k down (still 256k up though). Just recently, they sent out mail announcing my downlink was being upgraded to 640k for free! Seems they decided to turn a technical problem into a marketing advantage.

Customer service reps I've actually found to be pretty friendly and helpful. If you are patient and nice to these people, they can do a lot for you... there are some non useful people but I really haven't had as many bad experiences as others have had.

The Bad:

About once a month or so, the DNS server seems to go down. I've had about four instances where my DSL has been down all weekend, a major bummer to say the least.

I have an early Netspeed DSL modem. At one point, it had a flaky power supply - the lights all seemed to indicate things were fine, but the DSL line didn't work! After three days on the phone with helpful (but ineffective) US West (oh wait, I forgot to say "US West is now Qwest") people, they finally sent two techs out. One of them knew phone systems, but had no idea about computers. The other one knew all about computers, but nothing about phone systems. Between them they knew nothing at all about how to solve a problem. After an hour tailing along behind them, it was eventually myself who diagnosed the power supply as the problem.

I also do not think U.S. West the ISP has the best of network connections.

The Ugly:

I think US West DSL is rather expensive - between my phone bill, by DSL line, the US West ISP, and my eight static IP's (you can only buy them in blocks of eight and you have to turn on business service), my phone bill is about $116 a month. I'm trying to sign up for Sprint ION, which should save me a bit of money while increasing my DSL speed by quite a bit and adding another phone line. I can't seem to get them to return my messages though!

Right now I'm still not sure if DSL is better than a cable modem, though I still want to go that route to avoid future congestion. I think at some point I might get both just to have a reliable connection.

The front page of www.sprint.com lists both business and residential ION services. They also have a form that lets you check availability in your area.

The front page of www.sprint.com lists both business and residential ION services. They also have a form that lets you check availability in your area.

If that happens, I for one will be happy to spend five grand on a server and an OC-12 (or whatever is needed) to set up a "private server." On this server, you will be able to do what you please (as long as you don't tick me off) and also access the internet. Very similar to an ISP but I won't be making money off of it except for you rich people, who will set up slush funds for me.

IRC, Mail, Webserver, the whole works, totally private. Now of course, when asked about it, you will respond "Huh, never heard of that, good idea though." Maybe I am crazy, but there hasn't been anything yet that we havne't gotten around.

Sure this isn't totally realistic, but this way it can be scaled back to meet economic demads. Any feedback?

(I think my sig goes nicely with the two top moderated posts) I realize that I am late for moderation, but am I late to save the net?

If that happens, I for one will be happy to spend five grand on a server and an OC-12 (or whatever is needed) to set up a "private server." On this server, you will be able to do what you please (as long as you don't tick me off) and also access the internet. Very similar to an ISP but I won't be making money off of it except for you rich people, who will set up slush funds for me.

IRC, Mail, Webserver, the whole works, totally private. Now of course, when asked about it, you will respond "Huh, never heard of that, good idea though." Maybe I am crazy, but there hasn't been anything yet that we havne't gotten around.

Sure this isn't totally realistic, but this way it can be scaled back to meet economic demads. Any feedback?

(I think my sig goes nicely with the two top moderated posts) I realize that I am late for moderation, but am I late to save the net?

When I spent a year travelling around the US for work, a buddy and I signed up for Sprint access. Wasn't bad... local numbers in almost every city I came to. Check it out at their site. They bill to a credit card, and you don't have to be a US citizen or use their long distance for the $19.95 rate. And when you tell them you'd like to cancel, they do it quickly and politely.

Your parents should probably look into getting a personal toll-free number like the ones the folks over at sprint will sell you. It ends up being much cheaper than collect calls, and it's even less susceptable to filtering on the college's end.

I actually don't recommend sprint in particular, and in fact, my stock portfolio would probably prefer it if you went with AT&T, so run along and do that instead. :)

I switched my LD carrier to Qwest. There's probably a couple of awful things about Qwest I don't know about, but I'll be O.K. with that just as long as I can stay away from Sprint.

Sprint is horrible. To me its kind of like the Highlander TV-series, everyone you absorb changes you, and Sprint is so bad, it couldn't help but make MCI WorldCom worse. Sprint PCS has to be about the worst mobile carrier on the planet.

Why oh, why, do telecommunications companies suck so much? I can't wait for a break through in quantum communications, just the sort of thing we need to erase large beaureaucratic near-monopolies from the face of the Earth.

On the gripping hand, we can all get DSL and standardize on some kind of voice-o'er-IP standard. That'll show them.

• Sites Disendorsed:
• Sprint
• MCI WorldCom
  Sites Endorsed:
• Qwest

I switched my LD carrier to Qwest. There's probably a couple of awful things about Qwest I don't know about, but I'll be O.K. with that just as long as I can stay away from Sprint.

Sprint is horrible. To me its kind of like the Highlander TV-series, everyone you absorb changes you, and Sprint is so bad, it couldn't help but make MCI WorldCom worse. Sprint PCS has to be about the worst mobile carrier on the planet.

Why oh, why, do telecommunications companies suck so much? I can't wait for a break through in quantum communications, just the sort of thing we need to erase large beaureaucratic near-monopolies from the face of the Earth.

On the gripping hand, we can all get DSL and standardize on some kind of voice-o'er-IP standard. That'll show them.

• Sites Disendorsed:
• Sprint
• MCI WorldCom
  Sites Endorsed:
• Qwest