Verizon (FiOS) (Off Topic?)

[Ben Scott]

On 1/18/06, Bill McGonigle <bill at bfccomputing.com> wrote:
> But I digress - if you cannot run any type of server, they're banning
> FTP, X, SIP, all P2P apps, NTP, Instant Messengers, video conferencing
> - need we go on?  Who would want to buy that?

  They're generally using the terminology to mean "hosting a service",
not "listen on a TCP/UDP port".  Of course, they always interpret any
grey areas in their favor for a given situation.

> What this really comes down to is they don't want to buy transit for
> your outbound traffic.  That's all.

  That's a big part of it.  However, they're also interested in not
supporting people who want to host services, be it the next eBay or
just a personal website.  By outright prohibiting it, they keep a
large can of worms closed.  While it's nice for us geeks to say,
"Well, allow it, but don't support it", that's not the way the real
world works.  If it's allowed, it generates support calls, which cost
money.  There are also legal ramifications -- generally speaking, if
one is offering a paid service, one is obligated to make sure it
works.  So they prohibit it, and nip all that in the bud.

  A lot of providers which nominally prohibit hosting are quite happy
to "look the other way", as long as you don't cause trouble.  Just
remember that you're doing so strictly at your own risk.

> The point of FIOS isn't to give you a fast connection, it's to install
> an infrastructure that the FCC doesn't make them share ...

  Indeed.  Apt observation.

-- Ben "NYNEX sucks" Scott