[NTLUG:Discuss] Linux ISP?

[fredjame]

Alton R. Pouncey, II wrote:

>On Sat, 2003-08-16 at 17:14, fredjame wrote:
>  
>
>>David Camm wrote:
>>
>>    
>>
>>>check out august.net - great dsl!
>>>
>>>david camm
>>>advanced web systems
>>>
>>>Ulfathome at aol.com wrote:
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>>>Hi all,
>>>>
>>>>I'm a new (well... , with a total of 6 years of Sun Solaris I guess 
>>>>it's some kinda of coming back) addition to the Linux user family and 
>>>>would like to know if there are any ISP out there that cater to Linux 
>>>>users? My present ISP (AOL) requires me to use their browser for 
>>>>connection, and since that browser does not run on Linux I have to 
>>>>stay on Windows for my surfing :(
>>>>
>>>>Thanks
>>>>Ulf    
>>>>        
>>>>
>>Personal experience has been good with Concentric (now owned by XO) for 
>>dial up and Comcast (formerly ATTBI) for cable, though officially 
>>neither one supports Linux.  I run a home network behind a Linksys 
>>DSL/Cable router/switch/firewall, which is configured through a browser 
>>running on a box with your choice of OS.
>>
>>Let's expand the question, OK?  Does anyone know of an ISP that does 
>>support Linux?
>>    
>>
>
>Try: 
>
>texas.net
>metronet.com
>august.net (they are my provider)
>
>In my years of ISP work, I've always wondered what people mean/meant by
>"support".  You may think it is a silly question but different people do
>mean different things when they ask "does ISP XYZ support linux?".  Some
>people are merely asking if Linux will work as a client and others are
>wanting to know that, if they use Linux and have a problem, there will
>be a tech. on the other end of phone who knows what you're talking
>about.
>
>So, what do you mean by "support"?  
>
>Alton Pouncey
>
Many things, and all of the above.  Personally, I have been using Linux 
on the Internet successfully since Red Hat 6.x, and so I probably won't 
need a telephone voice to walk me through that.  But, if I call to 
report, or inquire about, a network problem (an outage for example) if I 
am not running a Windows machine it is either (a) obviously my fault, or 
(b) nothing they can help with, despite the fact that the outage is at 
the ISP's end, such as a damaged cable (actually happened to me, 
twice).  So what I see is that while Linux works, and works well, with 
many ISPs (MSN and AOL being notable exceptions), one basically has to 
keep a MS machine running for those times one has to report a problem to 
the ISP.  My Win95 (TechEval version) somehow seems to annoy them 
though, as they are not conversant with it anymore.  In short, it would 
probably cost too much (and create too many jobs) for the ISPs to "know 
about" too many OSs, but it might help if they could diagnose (or maybe 
just admit) their own problems without insulting depending so much on my 
choice of OS.  Probably just dreaming there, eh?  I do know how to check 
for my assigned (DHCP) address, and how to reset (restart) the network 
(i.e,. release and refresh, as it is in MSeese).

-- 
...small is beautiful.