[CLUG] DSL stuff

[Christian van den Bosch]

On Thu, 25 Sep 2003, adam beecher wrote:

> I decided against Netsource in the end for two reasons:
>
>  - Their handing of the throttling setup was pathetic. Not only did they
> change the TOS without notice and not inform customers, they didn't make
> any attmept to explain themselves afterwards. This is how Eircom and
> Esat run their businesses.

I gather that if Eircom had enforced contention on their resold RADSL
product properly, the issue would never have arisen in the first place.
Anyway, the TOS change results in a *reduced* contention ratio for heavy
users; it's not customary to have to notify customers of an improvement in
service. I gather that there was throttling (as distinct from contention
reassignment) for a brief period, but that this was only an interim
measure to cope with users downloading up to 20 gigabytes a week! which is
clearly not sustainable at 48:1 contention on a 512kbit pipe.

> - The domain name requirement is a scam. Their product is $listedPrice +
> $domainScam + VAT / month, listing it as $listedPrice is just plain
> fraudulent. UTV bundle CPS with their Internet products, but at least
> they have the guts to admit it.

Even with the domain name requirement (the idea of which is to target
business rather than residential users - likewise the quoting of prices ex
vat) it's still good value; and for your money, you effectively get a
30Gbyte cap, compared to 8 or 4 for comparably priced offerings from other
providers). I concede Netsource could make this requirement somewhat
clearer, but I certainly wouldn't go so far as to say they're not
admitting it. They're also far from the first to bundle domain registry
with other services - I had a Homenet dialup account once upon a time;
eunet (now Esat) bought them out, and wrote to me saying something along
the lines that they no longer wanted my business as a residential
customer, unless I also wished to buy a domain name from them.

I'll also concede that the whole no-cap affair has been a PR disaster for
Netsource, but what other provider gives you a static IP and 30G cap for
50something euros a month plus vat? Sounds like a good deal to me.

> On the whole, Netsource reminds me of Esat and Eircom too much to do
> business with them, which left only UTV. Who've served me extremely well
> for the past few years.

You're entitled to your opinion of course, but I'd rather give my money to
someone who bothers to peer at Inex, which UTV don't, last I heard.

cjb

http://ocean.ucc.ie/~cjvdb1