[CLUG] Chorus Powernet

[Peter Flynn]

[As there are no matches on linux.ie for "chorus" I am assuming 
that this information has not been posted already -- my 
apologies if it is a duplicate.]

I have been sent the details of projected costs for Chorus when 
it arrives in Cork (year end?). Their only mention of speeds was 
"up to 512Kb" by which I assume they mean asynchronous 128Kb/s
upstream and 512Kb/s downstream. There is no information about 
any difference in service between business and residential 
connections, so I assume there is none.

Residential:  installation of modem        £150
               monthly rental               £40
               monthly download limit       3Gb
               excess                       2p/Mb
               minimum contract             12 months

Business:     installation of modem        £299

               single PC monthly rental     £79
                         download limit     6Gb/month
                         excess             2p/Mb

               LAN (<20) Zyxel router       tba
                         monthly rental     £150
                         download limit     10Gb/month
                         excess             1p/Mb

They make a great fuss about paying "an authorised IT install 
company" to put in "the software" (£48) and the network card 
(£99 for a "specified d-link ethernet card" -- what's that?)
or a USB<-->Ethernet adapter (£tba), and LAN installation 
(£65/hour); and they point out they only support Win/Mac.

I mailed them to ask about Linux, pointing out that they don't 
need to "support" Linux -- they only need to support their own 
system and Linux users will support Linux :-) and they mailed 
back saying that that's fine so long as they don't have to 
troubleshoot Linux.

I suggest that when this becomes available we should take care 
to get it working and document any problems so that we can 
eventually take the solutions back to them and say how easy it 
is to support Linux (assuming that it actually is :-)

///Peter