Date: Wed, 6 Aug 1997 16:57:00 +0930 (CST) From: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com> To: dsutton@nectar.com.au Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Setting Up As An ISP Message-ID: <199708060727.QAA05646@freebie.lemis.com> In-Reply-To: <199708060651.QAA13475@plum.nectar.com.au> from Mark Sutton at "Aug 6, 97 04:52:48 pm"
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Mark Sutton writes: > Hi FreeBSD, > My friend and I live in Australia, Looks like Sydney, eh? > and have seen how the Internet 'business' is booming. Well, there are lots of people jumping on the bandwagon, anyway. > We subsequently have decided to set up our own Internet Service > Company (ISP). Bad idea. > I have been looking around at things on the net, and have realised > that I need some pretty powerful software. My friend told me of > your company. Can your program allow me to set up an ISP, or do I > need additional software? If it is possible to set up an ISP using > your software as server software, then what am I expected to give > you in return?! Surely you don't expect nothing! Well, you *could* say "Thank you". Take a look at http://www.FreeBSD.ORG. The FreeBSD project (not a company) is dedicated to supplying a free version of UNIX. Yes, it's free. You can, of course, buy CD-ROMs, and I'd recommend it, but they're sold just for the cost of the materials. > I was going to download your program, but I got VERY confused. I read the > FAQ's, but they confused me even more! Providing that you software can > help me send e-mails, and set up the like of an ISP, what things o I have > to download. I went to the Australian FTP site, but yet again...I was > confused. I simply want my computer to be a server where people can dial > in, and gain access to the Internet via a Direct Connection. Similarly, do > you know ways of gaining a Direct Connection to the Internet that is a T1, > or equivilant connection? I really hope that you can help me with my > business. I look forward to hearing from you! The ISP market is going to get really nasty in the next year or two. There's no place for people who don't know the business Really Well. >From your message, it's evident that you come from a Microsoft background, which, combined with a lack of knowledge of Internet software, is a significant handicap. It's my considered opinion that a lot of the old hands are going to go broke, and I expect most of those who just jump on the bandwagon will do so as well. Even now, I know no small ISP who gets a good night's sleep. Before you take the step, make very sure that you know you can survive, or at least come out ahead. Consider also that even now anybody who wants to can become a Telstra customer (on the Real Internet, not the Bigpond Home or whatever they call it) and pay $0.19 per megabyte in (nothing on data out). How are you going to beat that? I'm not saying this to be nasty; I've seen enough people suffer because they underestimated the work and the profit margins. If you want to talk about it, give me a call on the phone, and I can tell you more. Having said that, I suppose I should say something about FreeBSD as the basis of an ISP setup. It's arguably the best you can get (in particular, I'll accept arguments that BSD/OS is better, but there's not much in it). If you do take the plunge, by all means use FreeBSD. And there are plenty of people here and in FreeBSD-ISP who are more than pleased to help somebody who first tries to help himself. Greg
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