From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Kragen Sitaker) > Several ISPs have enacted policies to stop their customers from > sharing their network access with others, but this seems reprehensible > to me. I hope these policies become illegal.
When you sign up for service and you agree to terms that say, for instance, you can't share your network access, you're engaged in a process that spans at least 1,000 years in the Anglo-Saxon/Norman world. Unless the term itself is illegal -- that is a statute or a regulation bars ISPs from restricting free reuse by parties outside a home of bandwidth you purchase -- that contract is binding. Better than fight this kind of behavior, why not support ISPs that support sharing? A local ISP, Speakeasy, with national coverage, has opted into sharing: they want people to buy service, get a free wireless access point (as part of a current promo), and share it. Speakeasy provides both home and office connectivity for me, and I love them. They have technical folks who you can get on the phone, and who don't assume you're an idiot. They've worked hard for me when I've had network problems. They helped us switch from one office to another while maintaining connectivity over the July 4th weekend! (I don't get a bonus by merely referring people to Speakeasy, but I can get some free service if people sign up -- ask me for the referring URL so I don't seem like a prostitute in this forum by simply posting it.) -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Glenn Fleishman, Unsolicited Pundit: read my work at http://glennf.com freelance reporter for The New York Times, Macworld, InfoWorld, et al. Macintosh columnist, The Seattle Times http://seattletimes.com/ptech/ read all the wireless networking news at http://80211b.weblogger.com/ daily Web log musing on technology and my life http://blog.glennf.com/ -- general wireless list, a bawug thing <http://www.bawug.org/> [un]subscribe: http://lists.bawug.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
