[plug] So-called Internet access

[Nick Bannon]

On Thu, Dec 28, 2000 at 01:09:57PM +0800, Mark Saxon wrote:
[...]
> They are insisting the current regime would be in force until the end of
> January. Unfair to say the
> least on others who have ponied up with full price for access.
[...]

This is one of my pet peeves - companies engaging in false advertising
on this point.

Omninet quite clearly advertises that they provide "Internet Access
Accounts". In other words, they should allocate you with one or more IP
addresses and make a best-effort attempt to carry internet protocol
packets to and from those addresses.

There are other services people can sell. They can sell local web proxy
access. They can sell various types of filtered and firewalled
services. They can sell access to a private network that has a
masquerading gateway to the outside world. None of that qualifies as
"Internet Access".

Not all of the variations cause immediate problems - I've never felt
the need to fileshare with Microsoft protocols across the world (often
firewalled for security reasons), and most of the time proxies improve
the performance and reduce the cost of HTTP transfers (except where
they break them completely). When they get in your road though, it's
important to remember that they're simply value added services that you
should be able to do without, not a take-it-or-leave-it indivisible
bundle.

Nick.

-- 
  Nick Bannon  | "I made this letter longer than usual because
nick at it.net.au | I lack the time to make it shorter." - Pascal