[tortech] WANTED: New ISP

[Mike Diamond]

Apparently there's a new chapter in the iStop fiasco. I'm beyond
frustrated.

Can anyone recommend a DSL ISP that offers the following:

- static IP
- routed subnet
- must not be a-holes

(sorry sir, you had me up until "a-holes")

Okay, just the first two are required...

[D'Arcy J.M. Cain]

On Thu, 29 Sep 2005 10:59:54 -0400
Mike Diamond <***@superatomic.com> wrote:
| Apparently there's a new chapter in the iStop fiasco. I'm beyond
| frustrated.
|
| Can anyone recommend a DSL ISP that offers the following:
|
| - static IP
| - routed subnet

We can help. http://www.Vex.Net/.

| - must not be a-holes

You'll have to be the judge. I can give you references either way. :-)

[Jim Mercer]

On Thu, Sep 29, 2005 at 10:59:54AM -0400, Mike Diamond wrote:
| Apparently there's a new chapter in the iStop fiasco. I'm beyond
| frustrated.
|
| Can anyone recommend a DSL ISP that offers the following:
|
| - static IP
| - routed subnet
| - must not be a-holes
|
| (sorry sir, you had me up until "a-holes")
|
| Okay, just the first two are required...

i've been quite happy for years with egate.

***@egate.net

[Reid Ellis]

So I checked out the web sites for egate, vex.net and Sentex, the
three DSL providers mentioned here.

vex.net <http://www.vex.net/hosting> only seems to provide DSL
bundled with a web hosting package at $68/month, no details provided
(like speed, caps, static IPs, etc).

egate <http://www.egate.net/connectivity/dsl.php> doesn't mention
prices at all. It mentions "your business", which makes it sound like
residential DSL is a no-go.

Sentex has an "October Special" <http://www.sentex.net/
dsl_promo.shtml>, offering "Residential ADSL" (at what speed?) for
$35/month. Their regular price <http://www.sentex.ca/residential/
highspeed.shtml> offers 3-5 Mbps service for $65/month (only $45 for
first 2 months), with a static IP costing another $20/month (see
bottom of <http://www.sentex.net/residential/sitehost.shtml>).


Of course, IGS <http://www.igs.net/services/> doesn't have a lot of
info on the web either. No prices or speeds to be seen. But from my
experience, their pricing is similar to iStop's, although I'm not
sure that wasn't just an "iStop Rescue Special" or something. (Hm,
I'm not sure of the exact amount; I'll have to go look for my VISA
statements..)

Since they fixed their issues with former-istop-static-IPs, I guess
I'll stay with them for now. Hey Mike, what's a "routed subnet" btw?

Reid

[Mike Diamond]

I wouldn't recommend it Reid. I'm sure what their solution to this
recent problem is, but it seems that us "Former iStop Customers" are
still somehow tied to iStop. I thought the multi-day outages (of which
I've had at least 3 this year) were gone once we were "with" IGS, but
that doesn't appear to be so. I'm 90% confident that this was somehow
iStop's fault - but there is my point - we are not yet weened from the
iStop teet.

A routed subnet is self descriptive. A subnet that is routed to your
assigned IP address. In other words, public IP address space that I can
use behind my connection's IP address, that will be reachable on the
Internet (one hopes). Suitable for hosting servers that you want the
Internet to access. Preferrably not all-at-once.

Reid Ellis wrote:
| Since they fixed their issues with former-istop-static-IPs, I guess
| I'll stay with them for now. Hey Mike, what's a "routed subnet" btw?

[Julian C. Dunn]

On Thu, 29 Sep 2005, Mike Diamond wrote:

| Apparently there's a new chapter in the iStop fiasco. I'm beyond
| frustrated.

Out of curiousity, what is the "new chapter"?

I'm a former iStop customer that bailed recently ... I've been
with egate for a few weeks and so far I'm quite happy.

- Julian

[ Julian C. Dunn <***@aquezada.com> * "You can throw confetti, ]
[ WWW: www.aquezada.com/staff/julian * but you're still going ]
[ PGP: 91B3 7A9D 683C 7C16 715F * through the motions, baby" ]
[ 442C 6065 D533 FDC2 05B9 * - Aimee Mann ]

[Reid Ellis]

iStop moved users over to igs.net in the summer. As of a couple of
days ago, many former iStop users with static IP addresses (not all,
apparently) were unable to access the internet outside igs.net.

I phoned this morning and they gave me a new, temporary IP address
and now I'm good to go. But this just reeks of incompetence.

Reid

On Sep 29, 2005, at 11:25, Julian C. Dunn wrote:
| On Thu, 29 Sep 2005, Mike Diamond wrote:
|> Apparently there's a new chapter in the iStop fiasco. I'm beyond
|> frustrated.
|
| Out of curiousity, what is the "new chapter"?
|
| I'm a former iStop customer that bailed recently ... I've been
| with egate for a few weeks and so far I'm quite happy.
|
| - Julian

[Mike Diamond]

Reid's explanation is correct.

For whatever reason, routing has stopped working for certain iStop
netblocks.

I dug for further info from one of their support guys. Although I
didn't get any further on the "why did this happen" question, I was able
to glean that the reason it's taking so long is because they're unable
to get in touch with Mr. Doncaster.

If I ever meet that guy I'm gonna kick him in the balls.

BTW, thanks all for the suggestions.



Reid Ellis wrote:
| iStop moved users over to igs.net in the summer. As of a couple of
| days ago, many former iStop users with static IP addresses (not all,
| apparently) were unable to access the internet outside igs.net.
|
| I phoned this morning and they gave me a new, temporary IP address
| and now I'm good to go. But this just reeks of incompetence.
|
| Reid
|
| On Sep 29, 2005, at 11:25, Julian C. Dunn wrote:
|
|>On Thu, 29 Sep 2005, Mike Diamond wrote:
|>
|>>Apparently there's a new chapter in the iStop fiasco. I'm beyond
|>>frustrated.
|>
|>Out of curiousity, what is the "new chapter"?
|>
|>I'm a former iStop customer that bailed recently ... I've been
|>with egate for a few weeks and so far I'm quite happy.
|>
|>- Julian
|
| _______________________________________________
| tortech mailing list
| http://lists.samurai.com/mailman/listinfo/tortech

[Bryan Fullerton]

On 29-Sep-05, at 11:45 AM, Mike Diamond wrote:

| I dug for further info from one of their support guys. Although I
| didn't get any further on the "why did this happen" question, I was
| able
| to glean that the reason it's taking so long is because they're unable
| to get in touch with Mr. Doncaster.

$5 says he started advertising the block again from a different AS by
accident.

Bryan

[Bryan Fullerton]

On 29-Sep-05, at 12:15 PM, Bryan Fullerton wrote:

|
| On 29-Sep-05, at 11:45 AM, Mike Diamond wrote:
|
|
|> I dug for further info from one of their support guys. Although I
|> didn't get any further on the "why did this happen" question, I
|> was able
|> to glean that the reason it's taking so long is because they're
|> unable
|> to get in touch with Mr. Doncaster.
|>
|
| $5 says he started advertising the block again from a different AS
| by accident.

Ah, I lose my $5, looks like the iStop routes are busted because THT
has finally stopped routing packets. Why the iStop routes are only
being advertised from THT is still a good question, Cybersurf has
their own network and AS.

Bryan

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Thu, Sep 29, 2005 at 11:25:00AM -0400, Julian C. Dunn wrote:
| Out of curiousity, what is the "new chapter"?
|
| I'm a former iStop customer that bailed recently ... I've been
| with egate for a few weeks and so far I'm quite happy.

Does this answer the question? :)

***@debdev1:~$ traceroute els.tor.istop.com
traceroute to els.tor.istop.com (66.11.182.149), 30 hops max, 38 byte packets
1 t1gw (204.50.190.89) 0.408 ms 0.591 ms 0.375 ms
2 A-s8-0-0-22-S1.gw6.tor1.rogerstelecom.net (206.186.238.137) 51.951 ms 24.420 ms 122.630 ms
3 g5-0-104-S1.bb1.tor1.rogerstelecom.net (204.50.251.65) 140.610 ms 113.157 ms 311.876 ms
4 p13-3.core01.yyz01.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.10.185) 516.600 ms 328.535 ms 124.213 ms
5 g7-ba22.b011027-0.yyz02.atlas.cogentco.com (66.28.65.214) 108.650 ms 128.399 ms 122.884 ms
6 ge-2-0.bb3.tor.tht.net (38.112.12.90) 169.501 ms 172.128 ms 175.903 ms
7 core1.tor.151.net (216.126.66.163) 180.296 ms 146.595 ms 239.236 ms
8 bb3.tor.151.net (216.126.66.164) 165.378 ms 129.477 ms 131.840 ms
9 core1.tor.151.net (216.126.66.163) 155.415 ms 162.760 ms 56.189 ms
10 bb3.tor.151.net (216.126.66.164) 44.985 ms 54.276 ms 71.359 ms
11 core1.tor.151.net (216.126.66.163) 187.010 ms 68.852 ms 49.621 ms
12 bb3.tor.151.net (216.126.66.164) 56.955 ms 80.439 ms 63.830 ms
13 core1.tor.151.net (216.126.66.163) 59.821 ms 47.756 ms 59.114 ms
14 bb3.tor.151.net (216.126.66.164) 49.601 ms 48.760 ms 51.058 ms
15 core1.tor.151.net (216.126.66.163) 48.956 ms 54.811 ms 51.331 ms
16 bb3.tor.151.net (216.126.66.164) 58.787 ms 53.340 ms 49.085 ms
17 core1.tor.151.net (216.126.66.163) 89.141 ms 60.518 ms 46.183 ms
18 bb3.tor.151.net (216.126.66.164) 52.558 ms 46.299 ms 52.987 ms
19 core1.tor.151.net (216.126.66.163) 47.118 ms 58.360 ms 56.937 ms
20 bb3.tor.151.net (216.126.66.164) 52.469 ms 46.280 ms 57.364 ms
21 core1.tor.151.net (216.126.66.163) 48.990 ms 50.601 ms 49.992 ms
22 bb3.tor.151.net (216.126.66.164) 49.690 ms 53.317 ms 51.717 ms
23 core1.tor.151.net (216.126.66.163) 46.472 ms 51.714 ms 49.308 ms
24 bb3.tor.151.net (216.126.66.164) 81.649 ms 83.562 ms 51.088 ms
25 core1.tor.151.net (216.126.66.163) 49.323 ms 49.038 ms 52.592 ms
26 bb3.tor.151.net (216.126.66.164) 51.203 ms 54.033 ms 52.430 ms
27 core1.tor.151.net (216.126.66.163) 53.947 ms 51.813 ms 53.396 ms
28 bb3.tor.151.net (216.126.66.164) 56.858 ms 55.259 ms 55.028 ms
29 core1.tor.151.net (216.126.66.163) 56.758 ms 52.130 ms 49.884 ms
30 bb3.tor.151.net (216.126.66.164) 51.740 ms 48.606 ms 111.963 ms

Someone has routing screwed up and amazingly is managing to take days to get it fixed.

Lennart Sorensen

[Bryan Fullerton]

On 29-Sep-05, at 12:35 PM, Lennart Sorensen wrote:

| ***@debdev1:~$ traceroute els.tor.istop.com
| traceroute to els.tor.istop.com (66.11.182.149), 30 hops max, 38
| byte packets
| 1 t1gw (204.50.190.89) 0.408 ms 0.591 ms 0.375 ms
| 2 A-s8-0-0-22-S1.gw6.tor1.rogerstelecom.net (206.186.238.137)
| 51.951 ms 24.420 ms 122.630 ms
| 3 g5-0-104-S1.bb1.tor1.rogerstelecom.net (204.50.251.65) 140.610
| ms 113.157 ms 311.876 ms
| 4 p13-3.core01.yyz01.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.10.185) 516.600
| ms 328.535 ms 124.213 ms
| 5 g7-ba22.b011027-0.yyz02.atlas.cogentco.com (66.28.65.214)
| 108.650 ms 128.399 ms 122.884 ms
| 6 ge-2-0.bb3.tor.tht.net (38.112.12.90) 169.501 ms 172.128 ms
| 175.903 ms
| 7 core1.tor.151.net (216.126.66.163) 180.296 ms 146.595 ms
| 239.236 ms
| 8 bb3.tor.151.net (216.126.66.164) 165.378 ms 129.477 ms
| 131.840 ms

From route-server.cerf.net:

route-server>show ip bgp 66.11.182.149
BGP routing table entry for 66.11.176.0/20, version 5973421
Paths: (1 available, best #1, table Default-IP-Routing-Table)
Not advertised to any peer
17233 7018 174 10678, (received & used)
12.129.192.2 from 12.129.192.2 (12.129.192.2)
Origin IGP, localpref 100, valid, external, best
Community: 7018:5000 17233:666 17233:1001 17233:7018

Looks (heh) like iStop's network is being advertised from
Trends^wTHT^wLook.ca, so likely the problem needs to be figured out
there. No idea if this routing is new or has been like this all
along. I wonder who's actually operating AS10678 now, I'm out of the
loop on Toronto ISP gossip these days.

Bryan

[Joe Abley]

On 29-Sep-2005, at 10:59, Mike Diamond wrote:

| Apparently there's a new chapter in the iStop fiasco. I'm beyond
| frustrated.
|
| Can anyone recommend a DSL ISP that offers the following:
|
| - static IP
| - routed subnet

I have been a Sentex customer for several years. I'm fairly sure the
service I buy from them is a special, so I can't comment on the two
requirements above (although a glance around www.sentex.ca would
probably reveal answers), but:

| - must not be a-holes

I can most definitely attest to this one. Anybody you can mail at 2am
EST from Taipei asking whether they could re-route your home net
through cogent rather than through GT temporarily to work around a
peering problem in Tokyo, and have an answer and a resolution to the
routing issue within ten minutes, deserves strong recommendation.

Sentex is the best ISP I have ever been connected to.


Joe

[Julian C. Dunn]

On Sun, 2 Oct 2005, Reid Ellis wrote:

| egate <http://www.egate.net/connectivity/dsl.php> doesn't mention
| prices at all. It mentions "your business", which makes it sound like
| residential DSL is a no-go.

You could just e-mail ***@egate.net ... the owner is Paul Andersen, who's
well-known in the Toronto ISP community (sat on the board of ICANN, etc).
Chances are he'll respond directly to you.

Another DSL provider I looked at is ody.ca ... another small company based
out of London. I admit that I am a bit nervous about small DSL provider
firms given Ralph Doncaster's (iStop) past behaviour, but the owner, Brad
Groshok, wrote me right back. I Googled for him just to make sure and I
couldn't find anyone complaining about any weird BGP tactics (or
personality problems), so I rested a little easier. Ultimately I went with
egate because I know Paul personally.

- Julian

[ Julian C. Dunn <***@aquezada.com> * "You can throw confetti, ]
[ WWW: www.aquezada.com/staff/julian * but you're still going ]
[ PGP: 91B3 7A9D 683C 7C16 715F * through the motions, baby" ]
[ 442C 6065 D533 FDC2 05B9 * - Aimee Mann ]

[Joe Abley]

On 3-Oct-2005, at 11:23, Julian C. Dunn wrote:

| Another DSL provider I looked at is ody.ca ... another small
| company based
| out of London.

I have a friend a few streets away (in London) who uses ody.ca, and
he likes them, for what that's worth. He's been a customer for at
least a year or so, I think.

They have an honest-looking outage log on their front page. That's
usually a good sign of people trying hard to do the right thing, in
my experience.

They don't seem to peer at the TorIX, which means traffic to local
content is probably going to loop through the US. You may or may not
care about that.


Joe