Re: Non-Linux-aware ISP: please spoon feed
Pigeon said:
> Please could someone suggest exactly the right questions to ask the ISP,
> so I don't have to keep ding-donging emails back and forth,
> rebooting from Linux to Windoze all the time cos the Linux box isn't on
> line yet?
What I would ask:
- what terminal server equipment do they use? Common is Ascend MAX, Ascend
TNT, Livingston portmaster.
- what method of authentication do they use? Most common is PAP. Though
some shitty ISPs may use CHAP(never had one that did, but its possible).
Even worse are some ISPs may require you to login and execute a command.
Even worse are ones that use their own software to connect and thats the
only way. If they don't use PAP I would look elsewhere.
- What are the IPs of the nameservers(good nameservers to use can usually
be found by doing WHOIS on the domain of the isp as well).
- What is the IP of the default gateway
I haven't had to look for a dialup isp since 1996 or was it 1997, when
I did, I used a website that listed all my local isps(at the time around
200), and I spent about 8 hours emailing support emails and admin emails
asking intensive questions. Out of about 50 emails I sent out I narrowed
it down to 2 ISPs. So I signed up for both. Cancelled one of them a few
months later based soley on the fact they had only a 128k ISDN uplink
and often it was saturated. Otherwise the service was great.
Other questions I asked
- What is your connection to the internet(ISDN, T1, T3 etc)
- What OS powers your network(I was looking for someone who used SunOS/Solaris
because in the past my isps which used it were rock solid, keep in mind
this was 1996, and I didn't know a whole lot about linux back then).
- How many hours/month can I stay online?(I was kicked off a few isps
for staying on too long). This one was key, the ISP I ended up with
gave me a response like:
"Lets see theres 24 hours in a day, and approx 30 days in a month,
so take 24*30=720 so you can stay on about 720 hours/month" And for the
2-3 years I used them they never complained once. And I never got a busy
signal when calling.
In the end I think the isp sorta went down the drain, they stopped billing
people, 2 of my friends signed up and got free service for 6-8 months. Maybe
their billing software wasn't good(they used quickbooks on a mac). The
admin there was wonderfully friendly and very knowledable, he would
quickly respond to my emails with informative detailled responses. I only
wish they were a bigger company to server more people. The ISP is
netquest.net, only served the southern california area(I moved to washington
in 2000).
The current ISP I use is theriver.com(formerally oz.net). They too do
not officially support linux. Their level 1 techs are aboslute idiots. But
their service is perfectly compadible with any system that can talk ethernet.
And their level 2 techs as well as their engineers are much more knowledgable
and responsive. I fought with their level 1 techs when I first got my
service. He was arguing to me "sir if you ran windows I'd have you up and
going by now" and "yes I can ping your IP address". That information
conflicted with my cisco 675 router at the time which said it had recieved
0 IP packets, and had sent 0 IP packets. After 10 minutes of fighting I gave
up, and told them I would play with it on my own. After I hung up, 5 minutes
later I had it fixed. Turns out the Modem/router was in the wrong mode. There
are ~5 modes it can be in, my ISP required bridging mode, but there was at
least 2 different kinds of bridging, once I switched my bridging to the
"other" kind, the modem immediately started working.
Aim for the small isps if you can, generally better service, and better
support even though it may cost a bit more(I pay ~$200/mo for my 1Mbit
DSL service with 4 IPs). Drill the ISP's support and admin staff(in some
cases support and admin is the same person), depending on their responses
would determine my willingness to use them.
hopefully theres an isp like netquest.net or theriver running in your
area.
nate
(used to run a small DSL/dialup isp, still do, sorta, with about 30
accounts left and dialup farmed out to a 3rd party)
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