[SGVLUG] SBC (Residential) Static-IP DSL Plans??

[sean at seanodonnell.com]

Thanks for all of your input everyone!

I made some follow-ups to Claude's below...

Quoting Claude Felizardo <cafelizardo at gmail.com>:

> my response intermixed below...
>
> On 2/9/06, sean at seanodonnell.com <sean at seanodonnell.com> wrote:
>> Hi All,
>>
>> I'm considering getting a static-ip DSL plan from SBC, but before I do so, I
>> wanted to hear if anyone else has had a similar plan from SBC, and how their
>> experience was.
>
> I've had a Pacbell/SBC static DSL since 1999 and have been extremely
> happy with them.   Other than power outages and reconfiguring of my
> equipment, I can count the number of connection issues on one hand.
> Currently my router shows 18131 hours or 25+ months of continuous of
> up time with the modem.  (The router has been on for 20387 hours or 28
> months.)
>
>> I was considering the following plan:
>>
>> ---
>>
>> SBC Yahoo!(r) DSL Pro-S Package
>> 1.5 to 3.0 Mbps (down)
>> 384 to 512 Kbps (up)
>> 5 Static IPs
>> One year
>> $49.99/mo
>> https://swot.sbc.com/swot/productDetail.do?offerId=78077
>
> have you checked with DSLReports to see long the cable run is from the
> CO?   Be aware that for a given plan, they will only guarantee the
> lower speed and then cap your max speed.   So if you have a long cable
> run or there are lots of taps and load coils along the way, this may
> affect your max speed.
>
> I'm at 5800 ft and have the 1500/384 plan.  I typically get 1200 down
> and around 288 up.  If I wanted to pay more, I might be able to get
> faster uploads but it was unlikely that I'd get close to the 3000 up
> which was the next level plan at the time.  Then again, their
> equipment and test tools have gotten better since then.  I too have
> the original Alcatel 1000 modem  When my sister got DSL, I was jealous
> that her modem included not only a router but built-in wireless!
>

Yea, I really hated DSL back when I had it years back. The most I could 
get for
the price I pay for cable now, was 1.5mbps. I find my $49.99 6mbps/1.5mbps
cable line from Time Warner to be really nice and fast (despite the cable-flux
myth), so it will be a bit slower for my downloads. =/

>
>> ---
>>
>> The reason I'm considering getting this sort of ISP service, is 
>> because I want
>> to save money on hosting my (low traffic) web sites, and basically 
>> consolidate
>> my web hosting and ISP expenses.
>>
>> I currently have a reseller hosting account @ Kionic, but during the 
>> holidays,
>> they had a nasty server disaster and were unable to recover the email,
>> databases, or html/php files for any of the sites that I have hosted there.
>> Needless to say, I will no longer be using their service, as soon as 
>> I can find
>> an alternative.
>
> Don't you make your own backups of scripts and stuff?   Or is that not
> available?

Yea, I had a remote backup system running for my database and files, so 
the only
loss was my email, which I generally delete after 15 days anyhow, so no big
loss.

>
> I'd think a big advantage of a hosting account is that they are
> responsible for replacing equipment.  They also should have spares on
> hand, UPS's, possibly redundant Internet connections, etc.  So was
> this a one time screw up or they aren't prepared for these kinds of
> problems?

This was a 1-time problem. Their backup system was working incorrectly
(un-noticed), and was only backing-up accounts that had sub-domains created.

>
>> I'd prefer to have a dedicated server or co-location plan, but that 
>> is much more
>> pricey than it's worth (for these sites).
>>
>> I need a dedicated server to run a spider/web crawler application 
>> that I have
>> developed using PHP5, and shared/virtual hosting plans would not allow this
>> type of activity.
>>
>> If I switch to this DSL service, and host my web sites from home, I 
>> will save
>> approx: $600/year, as my current Cable ISP is $60/mo, and my 
>> reseller hosting
>> account is approx: $50/mo.
>
> Do you have an air conditioned location in the home where people won't
> care about
> the noise of the fans running 24/7?

yea, I have a few 3U rackmount servers running here that I made and have been
using as a development/staging environment for the last 3 years. I have the
Antec TruePower silent PSU/fans, so noise is really no issue.

>
> Also, check with your electric company to see what the chances are of
> rolling blackouts.  I'm fairly close to the CO and fire station that
> I'm guessing that's why I'm not on the rotation list with SCE.  It was
> a failed transformer on our street that took me out a few years ago.

I have my own APC Battery-Backup UPS that has worked great thru all these
rolling blackouts. It lasts about 15 minutes, which is generally sufficient.

>
>
>> Now, we all know, running a web server from your house is pretty
>> unorthodox/ghetto, but it has and can be done (for low traffic / 
>> non-critical
>> sites).
>
> I do it but it's all personal stuff, no public websites.  I use non
> standard/advertised ports.  oh, yeah, check with them to see what the
> CURRENT acceptable use policies say regarding web hosting.  will they
> block port 80?  What about smtp?

This particular plan is intended for users who need to run such services, so
that won't be a problem. I too run most services on different (high) ports,
especially SSH, and FTP services. =)

>
>
>> I know the bandwidth is pretty shallow, but I've been getting about 12,000
>> hits/month to my home server already (using dyndns), on the same bandwidth
>> ratio, and have not had a problem.
>
> How much do people download from your site each time?  If its a a few
> short files that's one thing, if its reasonably large images and
> charts that might slow things down.   I've got a 1.5/384 account and
> when I was doing online gaming with some friends, I was only able to
> host the game if there were 1 or 2 other players, sometimes 3
> depending on where they were but if we wanted a 4+ player game, we
> generally had to have someone with a cable modem with higher upload
> host the game.
>

These are low-traffic, low-bandwidth, personal/project web sites. Mainly just
text+grfx, nothing intensive.

>
>
>> SBC doesn't mention Linux anywhere in their support docs and faq, but I have
>> found some useful information from other Linux users who had the 
>> same plan, by
>> searching thru google.
>
> Yeah, that can be a problem.  When I first set it up, I used windows
> and as soon as they left, i plugged the modem into my firewall.   For
> subsequent problems, as long as I was able to satisfy myself that the
> problem was past the gateway and in their network, then that was
> usually enough.  I'd tell them I can ping the gateway but DNS wasn't
> responding, etc.
>
>
>> Does anyone here have any experience setting up a DNS server using 
>> this type > of SBC DSL Plan?
>
> Nope.  I use dyndns.org to point to my IP.     If I ever finish
> rebuilding my server at home, i may want to register my own domain and
> do something similar.
>
> claude
>
>
>> Sean O'Donnell
>> South Pasadena, CA (USA)
>> sean at seanodonnell.com
>

Cheers!