From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Jun 4 16:48:31 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 712E7106564A for ; Thu, 4 Jun 2009 16:48:31 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from hartkemd@gmail.com) Received: from qw-out-2122.google.com (qw-out-2122.google.com [74.125.92.24]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2E7088FC15 for ; Thu, 4 Jun 2009 16:48:30 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from hartkemd@gmail.com) Received: by qw-out-2122.google.com with SMTP id 3so519739qwe.7 for ; Thu, 04 Jun 2009 09:48:30 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:mime-version:received:date:message-id:subject :from:to:content-type:content-transfer-encoding; bh=3GxpXtled+89CeQwMuhUd//E19Oe8EcZx+wQ5evn8n0=; b=tgqzLo5XBnkx8is+6P9slTi6+0Cb9hDBVPqbAPYPlt1xU3OFGOsE3ZfvaQgzi1/ikg k/zzZNiZswQyZXeJno+QXb7pbBryLVeQY4sL8uaGdlOSc4KfQB/EhXmjtRpue53qTTVS fsUualfqKigK9F1AQFWFE+Tg5rrG4sSMRPszE= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:date:message-id:subject:from:to:content-type :content-transfer-encoding; b=cyE3oZIbmaPeyGKlBB0Znsqti0BayFtF0tv7o4w6c1X980IjkgxUFjbYRf74PPHAUc NesjwTj+ezqtgKrFV/sKvh3/6gfHyzLZLXI8wFFlzNUbWiignWNXwcl5LJesjYEKhSCY si+DbRUlcJqxmasf329RIvFMpiaZTLu8NEUWQ= MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.229.100.77 with SMTP id x13mr654977qcn.105.1244132598466; Thu, 04 Jun 2009 09:23:18 -0700 (PDT) Date: Thu, 4 Jun 2009 12:23:18 -0400 Message-ID: <4096aedd0906040923p6288e319ia083f47c7ccc29e1@mail.gmail.com> From: Mark Hartkemeyer To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: ISP questions X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 04 Jun 2009 16:48:31 -0000 I'm pretty new to FreeBSD and was reading part of Greg Lehey's The Complete FreeBSD 4th Edition. I found the section on ISPs in chapter 18 really interesting. I put some of his recommended questions to my ISP, Cincinnati Bell's Zoomtown. I think I talked to three or four people before I even got some of them answered. Here are some of the questions and answers: 1. What speed connections do you offer? 5MBps upload/5MBps download (she said bytes, but should it be bits?) 768kBps 2. Can you supply a static IP address? At what cost? Yes, $49.95/month for the whole Internet package 3. How many hops are there to the backbone? "It depends on the site you're trying to reach." (I think they misunderstood what I meant by "backbone"?) 4. What kind of hardware and software are you running? "Can't provide this, due to security reasons." 5. Can you supply primary or secondary DNS for me? "You need a static IP." 6. Can you provide name registration? At what cost? "Talk to residential services." 7. Do you give complete access to the Internet, or do you block some ports? "Cannot provide this info, due to security reasons." After asking, I was told that I would be able to run a mail server and http server on my connection. 8. Do you have complete reverse DNS? (They didn't know.) I assume this is a pretty typical response from ISPs. Has anyone asked their ISP questions like these? If so, what kind of response did you get? Does anyone know of a really good ISP, or a good resource for finding a good ISP around Cincinnati, OH? Thanks, Mark Hartkemeyer