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."

Comments

How to classify a VPN?

[adadun]

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.

Re:What's wrong with this?

[jamesoden]

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.

Actually, It's Worse Than That

[StormyMonday]

I invesigated Comcast cable a while back, as I'm out of range for DSL. Their terms of service were, in a word, unacceptable.

• No VPN. I suspect that there would be problems with the dynamic IP address anyway.
• Nothing that remotely resembles a server is allowed.
• No "business usage" of any kind. It's worded so that it applies to checking office mail from home.
• They have the usual clause "we reserve the right to change the Terms of Service at any time, in any way, with no notice."
• (The real kicker) They explicitly claim ownership of all intellectual property that you generate and that passes through their network.

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.