Caveat Emptor
I tried to switch to Verizon DSL because it’s significantly cheaper than Comcast. However, there are no open ports. No port 80. No port 8080. Nothing. Port scan reveals that there are two ports open: 2420 (dslremote-mgmt) and 6363, which is some flavor of telnet.
What do I use port 80 for? WebDAV to share my iCals and files. I also keep an eye on my headless Mac Mini using a PHP script and a cronjob that takes a screenshot. I also SSH in to test connectivity from a different IP address, as well as to fix issues on my wife’s iBook (when she’s home) and run software updates. Sound valid? I think so.
Verizon lost a customer because they think I’m not a good enough person to manage my own computer. Because they’re too lazy or stupid to monitor machines connected to their network for proper service. And because they think their customers are children, dutifully consuming information and contributing nothing back. “Why would a residential customer need their inbound ports?” they ask. They don’t think that someone could be using the ‘inter’ part of the Internet.
If this isn’t a good argument for nationalization (or at least demonopolization) of the Internet, I don’t know what is. I pay them to give me an IP address and bandwidth. Period. What I do with the bandwidth is none of their damn business. (Unless it’s illegal. In which case, it is their business, because it’s the governments business. But only if they get a warrant.)
At the very least, why don’t they offer a la carte services. Pick the bandwidth you use, pick the ports you need opened, and pay based on that. Heck, they could even offer static IPs as a monthly fee. That way, people could get very, very low end service (no open ports, 1GB/month bandwidth) for $10/month. Want a port open? $0.99/month. Five ports for $3.99. All ports for $20/month. Need more bandwidth? $1 per GB per month. Symmetrical speeds? $20/month. Static IP? $10/month. And make it configurable over the Internet, so I don’t have to deal with your tech support troglodytes to do manage my connection. I know that these things aren’t expensive to set up, and any company who offered them would make a lot of profit on them.
So if anyone can find me a decent DSL provider that doesn’t cost more than $55/month and doesn’t treat me like a child, please post it in the comments. DSL Reports says the only other option is Earthlink, who blocks port 25 because of idiots are unkowingly running spambots.