On Fri, Feb 10, 2012 at 1:19 PM, Eric J Esslinger <eesslinger@fpu-tn.com>wrote:
We're toying with the idea of a low bitrate 'lifeline' internet on our cable system, maybe even bundled with a certain level of cable service.
First question, if you happen to be doing something like this, what bit rates are you providing.
Well, a lifeline telephone is effectively 64kb/s, up and down. Makes me remember when I had my first ISDN line and was happy to get beyond dial-up rates.
Second question, though 'real' internet customers all get real IP's, what would you think of doing something like this with 'large scale' nat instead. Understand, we're only talking about basic internet, something like a 256k/96k (or similar) connect, not something that would be used by a serious user. (One thing we are looking at is some older dial up users we still have, most of which could go onto cable just fine but don't want to pay the price).
Force SMTP to something sane, block all the 139, etc. MS ports. Basic web, telnet, and ssh. Set it up like a coffee house. Use a proxy and make them register. It's not like they are chatting 911, ya know. If they have NAT issues, then they need a real account. If they can get to google, wikimedia, or what ever a high school student needs to research papers, then they have what they need for a life-line. Let chat protocols through, that's low bandwidth. I'm guessing that this is done as a favor to the customer that won't/can't pay for a real account. But let them know it's not a real account. This is just to give them a taste of real IP and not a solution to all their problems. Shove them a NATted DHCP address and if they can't figure that out then refer them to the local wizkid or a better plan with support. Let them know up front that this is a basic service and don't expect phone support. If you're a cable company then they can call and say the cable is out. -- Joe Hamelin, W7COM, Tulalip, WA, 360-474-7474