[Leaplist] Linux on cfl-road-runner

[Jesse Goerz]

On Mon, 2007-04-09 at 14:10 -0400, Dan Cherry wrote:
> Hi,
> I've had Bellsouth DSL since they offered it in my area, and it's been 'okay', 
> but lately they seem to be losing the ability to provide acceptable service - 
> lots of mistakes, mostly in their offices and behind the scenes, not the 
> connection itself.
> 
> After checking out the Brighthouse website (primarily advertising - not much 
> tech info useful from a networking or Linux perspective), I searched the LEAP 
> archives and most road runner info was several years old.  
> 
> So I'll ask if anybody is currently using central-florida roadrunner (thru 
> Brighthouse) with a run-of-mill Linksys type router and Linux boxes behind 
> it.  If so...
> 
> Do they block any ports (25 in particular, or any other key ports)?  
> Do they offer a static IP addr on their residential service?
> Does their contract limit the number of computers or anything else key to a 
> home network?
> Any problems in general?
> 
> I appreciate any info or comments on the subject.  Thanks,


I have had Brighthouse for about 4 years or so.  No real problems.  In
my old house the connectivity was much faster and the only port they
blocked was 25.  I ran a webserver that I used with Zope to collect all
my notes from school/work.  It was really nice.  I had this webserver
running the entire time I lived there without incident.

The neighborhood I live in now, has some noticeable slow down, but only
during the early evening, and not consistently.  Since day one here,
they have blocked my ports.  I think it is because when the tech showed
up, I hooked up my linux firewall, got an IP and pinged google.  I told
him I was good and thanked him.  He never touched anything inside the
house.  He asked what I was using and I made the mistake of telling
him.  

After several calls to tech support, they told me that they have always
blocked all the ports.  They refuse to unblock them unless I pay them
for business service.  They quoted me $99.99.  Maybe I should look at
the prices again after reviewing some of the other posts.

I would suggest that when you have them come over to install it, play
stupid.  Have a sacrificial windows machine and hide all your networking
stuff.  Let them install it and get it running.  Maybe even ask them a
few dumb questions. Then set it up how you want.  Unfortunately, I think
they are starting to port scan, so they can determine whether they can
charge you more.  Unfortunately, I think your options are to pay, or
look elsewhere if you want to run a server.  You can get around it, but
as some of the other posts have noted, they have the TOS hanging over
you.

I wonder how long it will be before they are charging $100 just for a
basic "client" connection to the internet...

Good luck,
Jesse