[plug] FAQ - alpha release

[Beau Kuiper]

On Tue, 26 Sep 2000, Colin Muller wrote:
> Beau Kuiper wrote:
> > iiNet is actually a very confused and strange company. So much so I am actually
> > suprised anything gets done there. I always dread communicating with them. They
> > actually use linux a fair bit for their equipment (their cityspan client side
> > box is a small linux box).
> 
> Our connection is through iiNet. I haven't needed their help much, but
> when I have (e.g. to get the name of their NTP server) they've been
> pretty helpful. I haven't tried any Linux-specific questions on them,
> though.

Their support isn't terrible, but they can get very simple things very wrong
occasionally. It is very frustrating. One example (that is probably still
there), is that when we were using modems, the script I wrote needed to take
into count two different sets of texts and types of logins. IInet denied this,
dispite having miles of chat logs saying otherwise.

> 
> Is anyone here using CitySpan, and if so how reliable is it, and how
> consistent are the speeds in inclement weather? We're on a 24-hr modem
> link, and are not in an ADSL-capable area, so CitySpan crosses my mind
> (although it would make my wallet cross) every now and then. That the
> box is Linux-based sounds promising.

I've set up and help maintain servers that use cityspan as their internet
connection.

Cityspan is sort of OK, it is fast and reasonably cheap when it works. It is a
real pain when it doesn't though. Weather does seems to not affect it much. The
linux box they use is not accessable by the user, and simply converts the
connection to an ethernet connection, so it works with any operating system.

Cityspan gives you 1 permanate internet address and you can get secondary host
name server support from iiNet. I recommend you maintain your own primary DNS
since getting iiNet to change settings for you is akin to tearing your own hair
out with a jackhammer. 

iiNet are ussually good in helping with their parts of hardware, but everything
after that is the user's responsibility (or costs money). Since you connect to
cityspan using POE (plain old ethernet) via a crossover cable, there should be
few problems on the user side.

Beau Kuiper
kuiperba at cs.curtin.edu.au