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WOW, or Way Out West.

If there is competition around your area, they seem to ignore the caps. We have Comcast, WOW, and AT&T U-Verse available in the area. I got Comcast when I moved in (sadly, WOW is not available in my building, but is available down the block). I've blown past their cap multiple times, and haven't heard a thing from them. Something tells me that doesn't happen in markets with less competition.

Are you running that and hoping that your dynamic IP address doesn't change or do you have a business account with a fixed IP? If it's a business account than I would assume that they aren't redirecting those but could still be redirecting on consumer accounts.

Dynamic IPs are not ``dynamic'' if one nevers gives up the lease. I have WOW (wide open west / http://wowway.com/ ) Internet and the only time my IP has changed is when our router was replaced (giving it a different client ID) and, of course, when I directly plugged my computer into a hub connected to the modem (to give it direct Internet access). Because WOW has blocked all UDP traffic on port 53, I have a gracious friend who has ComCast and serves my DNS. Comcast doesn't seem to change IPs unless if the router/DHCP client releases a lease. This means I essentially don't need to change glue records at all. But Comcast has seemed to more often supposedly required people to re-plug-in their modems and (I'm guessing only from slight experience) Comcast may have even forced an IP change upon one router I've had access to.

Has any other WOW user tested serving DNS? I sent a query to WOW people and they said:

Port 53 is reserved for internal WOW! network use only. Please try using an alternate port.

Here in the chicagoland area, we have an ISP called wideopenwest http://www1.wowway.com/ that uses the same lines as Comcast to provide service. Not only has my connection been outstanding (600KB/sec assigned limit... actual is 814 :D )but I just got off the phone with them and they have no intentions of imposing any bandwidth limit on their customers.(Not to mention no stupid Sandvine crap either) I hope this helps some of you guys, I know they are available in alot of areas. quick edit: And no I don't work for them, just a satisfied customer... something you don't get alot of nowadays.

WOW, not WoW. Sorry, forgot they're a regional ISP. I wouldn't touch WoW with a ten foot pole.

A little more research for WOW customers... Internet Use Terms and Conditions http://www1.wowway.com/wow/wow.aspx?ConIdent=28&RCView=False&TermID=11 In there you'll find the section on NebuAd, and their opt-out page.

Are there any other cable companies right now?

Yes, Wideopenwest is available in some areas. I call them about once every two months to see if they have service in my neighborhood. I had them in the place I lived about 5 miles from where I am now. They were great. The service worked almost all the time, and when it didn't they always tried to be helpful about getting it fixed. For broadband, you bought (or rented from them) your cablemodem, so you had a choice to buy something decent and not get stuck with some used/broken POS. Good luck getting T/W to acknowledge you have a problem that isn't somehow your fault.

This "agreement" seems to suggest less competition - making it even more unlikely for a company like WOW to expand their service area.

I think you're agreeing with me. When there is competition you can complain and it means something. When they have the monopoly you're cooked. BTW check your TOS before you go checking your connection. I'm not sure if the EFF tool fits the description but...

from http://www1.wowway.com/wow/wow.aspx?ConIdent=28&RCView=False&TermID=2

N. Customer will not use or distribute tools designed or used for compromising security, such as password guessing programs, decoders, password gatherers, analyzers, cracking tools, packet sniffers, encryption circumvention devices, or Trojan Horse programs. Network probing or port scanning tools are only permitted when used in conjunction with a residential home network, or if explicitly authorized by the destination host and/or network. Unauthorized port scanning, for any reason, is strictly prohibited.

"Nintendo went a step further, announcing Tuesday to applause and cheers that Revolution's built-in wireless Internet will provide downloadable access to the thousands of games in company's 20-year-old library, going back to the original Nintendo Entertainment System."--http://portal.wowway.com/news/read.php?i d=13182274&ps=scitech&cat=&cps=

That ALONE is worth the price of admission, countless old school SNES rpgs that I would love to have, and not pay 50 bucks for on ebay. Hopefully these downloadable games will only come with a monthly fee or fairly cheap or just free.

This company has been doing it since blaster. They probably weren't the first, but this is hardly a new idea.

Cute. But technically it wouldn't work, because there's quite a few competitors around here who'd be Quite happy to pick up the slack. ;) (WideOpenWest especially comes to mind...)

..just called me the other day to see if I wanted to step mine up to 3Mbps down (512kbps/up). It's only $15/more a month. Their price stratifications look like this: 112k down ($34.99/mo), 500k down ($39.99/mo), 1.5Mbps down ($44.99/mo), 3.0Mbps down ($59.99/mo).

Pricing found here.

Funny, my cable company has different tiers of service....
WOW