VPN Clients Not Allowed On Residential Service 558
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."
Your company can't afford it? (Score:2, Informative)
That said, I don't think this is fair. I also don't think it is fair when a company *cough*Verizon*cough* offers "full Internet service* but then blocks ports on the router and outlaws servers in the TOS. If all they want to sell is a watered down, "just look at the pretty pictures and don't do anything technical" service that's within their rights--but then say so on the label.
How to classify a VPN? (Score:5, Informative)
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.
If they start sniffing packets (Score:3, Informative)
Hey, is HTTP based, so how would they tell the difenrence ?
Re:What's wrong with this? (Score:5, Informative)
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.
You can use VPN just don't expect support for it. (Score:1, Informative)
I work on a help desk and we do not support VPN connections/software either. The customer can still use it, just don't call in if you have no idea how to configure it. I think that these company's have a business class service that cost more to support service level agreements for these business class customers.
Of course doctors using a VPN connection to get patient information are going to want and deserve a higher level of service then someone downloading music. But if they are on a home class service and only paying for a home class service why should they get priority. If you want a service level agreement that supports you as a priority customer then you pay for it.
Actually, It's Worse Than That (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Re:@home has that in its AUP but... (Score:1, Informative)
By the way they like doing this @ 1700 on a friday so you have to go all weekend with out the net.
Roadrunner (Score:3, Informative)
Plus they recently added a nationwide dialup service. 10 hours / month for free, 99 cents an hour after that. In the past year I've had only three memorable outages and one was at 1am.
Do this make me sound like Scott Case's bitch or what?
Re:What if AT&T upped your phone bill? (Score:3, Informative)
AT&T cable cut out on me again last night. I see that their FAQ page has changed and now explicitly forbids servers- but how can you even be connected to the internet (inter meaning "between") unless you serve some traffic? Certainly you can't run the file sharing services that are driving their business without running a server.
I'm sure someone will respond and say something like "yeah, but it's in their best interest financially to do this". Well, yeah, but I don't give a shit about their bottom line. I am a pissed off customer. My gas company doesn't care which rooms I heat. My water company doesn't care what flavor kool-aid I make. I pay for 128k upstream bandwidth and goddamit I expect it.
Re:What's wrong with this? (Score:4, Informative)
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...
Cablevision ROCKS! (Score:2, Informative)
I have comcast, I dont see this in the TOS (Score:4, Informative)
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!!!!!!
Re:What if AT&T upped your phone bill? (Score:3, Informative)
Wrong - use your head man. If all of AT&T's customers used 100% their cable modem's capacity 24 hours a day, you would not be getting broadband for $40 a month.
A full T1 is (1.544 Mbps) usually comes in somewhere at about $1500/month. My cable modem from @Home (2.2 Mbps downstream / 128k upstream) costs $40/month. Is this starting to make sense to you?
Unless you want to pay $500/month for your cable modem, quit bitching that AT&T doesn't want you to saturate it with traffic 24 hours a day.
I love New Hampshire :) (Score:3, Informative)
I found this out when I mentioned servers while talking to a tech support guy, and he told me that servers were prohibited. I challenged him to show me the clause in the agreement that said this, and he pointed me to a web site. On the site, it asks for your zip code, and you get a different version of the agreement depending on your location. He was looking at the Massachusetts version, and I was looking at the New Hampshire one. Apparently he hadn't been aware of the distinction either until then
-- Brett
Re:Telecommuting IS a Business activity... (Score:2, Informative)
My choice in purchasing has been curtailed. In return, the cable companies are supposed to adhere to the terms of whatever contractual agreement was reached, under the oversight of those same goverment entities. In practice, however, the only consequence for ignoring their obligations, presuming whoever's in charge even catches on, is an occasional fine or strongly worded letter. There are exceptions, but the whole arrangement pretty much sucks.
And from what I hear DSL service isn't much better. Outside of cities or in areas with older lines availability and service is spotty at best, and the local telcos are generally not anxious to assist the competition in competing with them.
They block PPTP / GRE VPNs (Score:2, Informative)
In case you don't know, your standard, Microsoft software-based VPN solution makes an initial connection over TCP port 1723, then sends all encrypted traffic in IP:47 (Generic Routing Encapsulation?) packets. Completely seperate from your normal, TCP/UDP web games/https/ftp traffic.
GRE is used for pretty much nothing but PPTP / software VPN, and it's easy to filter at the router. They don't need to packet sniff to see if you, personally, are trying to use a VPN. They just block the lot.
Many DSL ISP's don't support VPN either..... (Score:2, Informative)