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Speakeasy Welcomes WiFi network sharing

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the doing-the-right-thing dept.

sedawkgrep writes "Speakeasy.net has recently published a policy concerning their subscribers. They're openly welcoming the sharing of subscribers bandwidth via WiFi as long as you don't violate the existing terms of service. Speakeasy has always had a very liberal and open policy with their users. Even though I wouldn't open my network via WiFi, it's refreshing to see a company who is taking a more open approach rather than restrictive when dealing with its customers." I've been a Speakeasy customer for a while now ('tho my move from Boston to Ann Arbor meant going from 768 to 144 *sigh*) and have always been impressed with them. Great step supporting WiFi as well.

5 of 121 comments (clear)

  1. How's their download speed? by phr2 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I have PacBell DSL (now SBC) and though the stories of their ever-increasing suckage are all true, they have one redeeming feature. Although my service is supposedly 128kbps up/384 down, in fact I consistently get 1.5 mbps download speed at any time of the day or night, even for multi-gigabyte downloads. Speakeasy seems to charge quite a bit extra for > 384k download speed; if you only pay for 384, what do you usually actually get? I wouldn't mind if it's 384k some of the time and faster at night, but I really like that high speed for large transfers.

  2. switching and 600kbit+ upstream broadband by Erpo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm moving from Cox Cable because they recently instituted monthly transfer caps, and was all set to transfer to pac bell dsl when I read about how they're sending out spyware in the mail. I'm not about to commit for a year (or pay an extra $10/month) when they could very easily make that kind of software mandatory to use their service. Speakeasy.net was my next choice.

    Anyone have any experience to share about speakeasy.net, specifically their customer service as well as how badly the bells abuse their monopoly when you sign up with an alternative dsl carrier? Also, I'm probably just not looking hard enough, but I didn't see any mention on their web site of the speeds provided with each tier of service. I'm looking at either the plain vanilla or sysadmin packages. Preferred rpmfind access would be great, but unless there's a significant speed increase (preferably in the upstream direction) over normal service it's not worth the extra $10/month. Any experience/information would be great.

    Speaking of increased upstream bandwidth, I saw something interesting a while ago and I though I'd ask the slashdot community about it. At the end of the interview with the WinMX developers on slyck.com, someone (it's not clear whether it's the interviewer or interviewee) adds the comment:

    Also I'd like to take this opportunity to point out that as more and more people move away from the crappy 128kbit upstream broadband connections onto the next generation 600kbit+ upstream broadband connections over the next year or two, the amount of available files and other resources will flourish on ALL P2P networks beyond all our wildest dreams.

    600kbit+ upstream connections that people can actually afford? Huh? Has anyone heard anything about this anywhere else?

  3. They're better than average but... by EzDi · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I like many of their policies, gaming servers, rpmfind server, and fileshack.

    Too bad they have the all too common problem of only 128k upstream in my area (unless you want to spend too much on internet). Even Qwest in my old neighborhood had 256k on the base accouns, AT&T had 400k,and Time Warner was even faster.

    But my big problem is a couple months ago they started a 1GB/month download quota for their newsgroups. You can buy more downloads, but it's more expensive than getting a newsgroups account from many newgroup providers, not to mention most places will provide full newsgroup access with your acocunt.

  4. Covad also welcomed line sharing last I checked by Adam+J.+Richter · · Score: 4, Interesting
    As I mentioned in replying to a previous slashdot story, Covad welcomed line sharing the last time I checked, including wireless, including for-profit. This was the big selling point that the Covad sales rep used to convince me to sign up, and I described in detail the idea of reselling my covad connection over an access point just to make sure there was no misunderstanding.

    In general, DSL providers seem to be less worried about usage patterns than cable modem providers, probably because having separate lines from the DSL Access Multiplexer to each subscriber gives them a more reliable ability to throttle individual customers if necessary, as opposed to having a shared local loop in the case of cable modems.

  5. Just move to Japan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Here in Tokyo I have adsl 8mb down/2up for about $50 US a month. They, and by they I mean probably 5 or 6 different companies, are now offering 12mb. They don't care if you share bandwidth or what. They are concerned with getting customers signed up and using their service. From what I hear, most people in the US aren't too happy with their high speed access. Maybe if companies worked more at customer service and less on pinching pennies they'd get more people opting for high speed access.