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VPN Clients Not Allowed On Residential Service
wayn3 writes "ComputerWorld reports here that two of the major cable companies have language in their terms of service that VPN clients are forbidden for "residential" class, forcing clients on their "business" offering which is at twice or more times the cost of residential service.
Has any been bit by this, and do those companies consider SSH a VPN client? This would stop me from telecommuting since my company would not be able to afford the business service."
The obvious question is "what classifies as a VPN?" A VPN is a Virtual Private Network which usually is constructed using a secure IP layer such as IPsec. While it is easy to scan for IPsec usage (it has it's own protocol number - even as TCP and UDP has), it is much harder to scan for other types of VPN solutions.
Even encrypted HTTP, HTTPS, can be used to build a VPN-similar type of thing (think "VNC"). Since HTTPS is used to encrypt on-line banking traffic, e-commerce sites and such, they cannot just stop everyone from using HTTPS.
Furthermore, since the data (by definition) is encrypted, it is impossible to peek at the data to determine if a data stream is "a VPN" or just some other HTTPS transfer.
The conlusion is that they will have huge problems trying to enforce this.
Wrong. Wrong Wrong. When you sign up with an ISP, they are providing general purpose internet connectivity. When you buy a business account, you are buying that and:
1) Better service (i.e. technical support).
2) Perhaps a static IP address.
3) Web hosting, email hosting for multiple
accounts.
4) Some other item that adds value to the service
thus justifying the added cost to you.
Also, business class service is meant for situations where more bandwidth needs to be allocated for your use (such as with a web server that gets many hits).
Differentiating your servous based on what applications you use, if the application does not use any more bandwidth that any other regular users use, is just unacceptable.
I personnaly do have a business account, but that was because I was willing to pay for a static IP.
Have you tried UNIX today, its most satisfying...
I invesigated Comcast cable a while back, as I'm out of range for DSL. Their terms of service were, in a word, unacceptable.
I suspect that you could get away with practically anything as long as nobody complained and you didn't generate too much traffic.
Oh, as to their "business solution"? DSL. Not an option. Near as I can tell, there is no such thing as "business class cable" Internet.
No high-speed internet for me. Sigh.
Welcome to the Turing Tarpit, where everything is possible but nothing interesting is easy.
I work for one of these cm isp's. When a customer pays the business rate here they DO get better QOS, ability to call our business help desk (which staffs local people who are much sharper folks than the retards at the nation helpdesk for residential customers). They also get access to our other services, static ip, etc. We have even higher levels of service where your modem is basically watched ALL the time and if your modem goes down, there's someone on it before you can even pick up the phone, 24/7.
I know for a fact that probably 80% of the cm isp's out there aren't like us, but those of us who *are* customer satisfaction oriented cringe when we get lumped in with the ones who don't give a damn...
"I can be self-referential if I want to," said Tom, swiftly.
I have comcast, and I dont see this written anywhere in the TOS, and Ive been looking at them for a while. I'm reading them here, and I see nothing about VPNs or that I interpret as VPN usage.
Ive been looking at these TOS for a while, becuase a whole lot of crap has been going on with comcast lately. Here are some of the email I've recieved from them lately.
They are changing mail services. This means my address changes from user@mediaone.net to user@comcast.com (or comcast.net, cant remember). No prob, EXCEPT the new addres becomes active Dec 29th, old address is deactive Dec 31s. This means we have 3 days to make the udate to all our online accounts, subscriptions, mailing list, etc. and what 3 days do we get? Sat, Sun, New Years Eve. If I have a problem making this update for one of my accounts, good luck finding someone to help, since most companies will be closed these 3 days.
Furthermore, until mid Jan, we will only have 1 comcast email address. What about those of us now that have 2 or 3 address. We only have 1 until mid Jan. I have an email, my wife has an email, some families have kids with emails. I guess someone in the household get left out in the cold for half a month (luckily for me/my wife, I've already transitioned to my own personal domain with email, so its not an issue for me, but Im sure it is for MANY, MANY people). They wont get email in that time, and what happens when they try to switch over one of their accounts in mid jan, and the system tells them "to confirm your update, we have send an email to your previous address. Please click the link in that email to complete your update".
What else have they told me lately...oh yeah. They send me an email all about how some home pages are going to change, something really minor. Then, burried 5 paragraphs down, they mention that, by the way, there will also be a new acceptable use policy effective Jan 1st, 2002 which "includes new information on several subjects, including use of bandwidth". Are they going to charge us for excessive downloads or uploads? I tried to look up these changes at the URL I posted above, but I see nothing about bandwidth. It says what I can/cant do, but nothing about how much of it I can do. Im puzzled. Are they getting worried about wireless neighborhood area networks?
What else...oh yeah. Im getting a new modem mailed to me that I have to hook up by end of year. According to them "This new modem will prepare your computer for upcoming Comcast High Speed Internet product enhancements including improved reliability and new features". I talked with some people, and came up with rumors that they are decreasing our upload speed to 128Kbit. I currently get 250Kbit up, and I know people that get almost 400Kbit up. I looked on their site, and nowhere do they mention upload speeds anymore, except on one pricing chart, they list the serivice as "1.5/128K" (1.5Mbit down/128Kbit up). Im afraid this new modem is their attempt to "upgrade" my upload speeds.
Oh, yeah, I almost forgot about the letter I got through postal mail last week...price goes up $5.
YEAH COMCAST!!!!!!