On Sun, 15 Feb 2004, Sean Donelan wrote:
"Most" ISPs prohibit any type of server on a DHCP connection?
Some cable providers do this due to some limitations in their network architecture, but I would be surprised if "most" (i.e. more than 50%) ISPs prohibit servers. Why do you think DynDNS type services are so popular? So people can run servers on DHCP addresses. Peer-to-Peer is a very popular server used on mostly dynamic addresses.
Just because they're using our services doesn't mean their AUP doesn't say they're not supposed to. Charter and Comcast, two pretty good-sized cable MSOs, at least up here in the northeast, both prohibit not only any type of server, but the connection of any LAN/WAN that they don't operate. I'm pretty sure Verizon DSL prohibits any servers, though I don't think they explicitly ban LANs. (I guess that means I've violated the AUP of every provider I've used at home. Whoops.) Forget about servers being prohibited, their AUPs even prohibit the use of those ever-so-popular NAT routers Linksys, D-Link, Netgear, and friends like to spew out. Does that stop people from buying and using them, though? Hell no. I think the statement that most ISPs, oriented towards home use, anyway, prohibit servers is accurate. However, it isn't necessarily /relevant/, because I don't think many of them actively enforce that policy. Tim Wilde -- Tim Wilde twilde@dyndns.org Systems Administrator Dynamic Network Services, Inc. http://www.dyndns.org/