Some of what you are about to read will sound familiar. I believe I have
said some of it before. But it bears repeating given the impending
market survey. Again, as always, people are free to reply to me via
private email and all such correspondence is kept confidential.

I think I've been on the trial for about 18 months. I could check my
records, but it's over 3 feet to the filing cabinet and the cat does not
want to move off my lap. The trial was initially 6 months and has been
extended more than once. During this long time period, expectations
have been set. The service has been excellent with very little downtime.
 The actual number of incidents where I could no access the Internet
would be in the range of 6-12 times [I'm guessing]. That's an amazing
record compared to dial-up modems where cut-offs two or three times a
night are not rare.

The advantage of a permanent connection is not always obvious to the
uninitiated. It's never having to dial up. It's being able to connect to
your box from anywhere in the world. It's being a part of the Internet
and not just joining it for a brief period of time. All of this fuzzy,
feel-good crap which is a psychological subjective factor, but it is there
nonetheless. That's a factor which must not be underestimated.

The NEC modems set the standard by which the service is now being
judged. That must surely be obvious to anyone on this list. Witness
the comments and feedback which has arisen only since the modems
were swapped. Clearly that must speak volumes. Compare the market
surveys before and after the modem swap. That will tell Telecom
everything they need to know about how the customers feel about the
existing system.

The NECs were extremely reliable, provided excellent service, and never
missed a beat [perhaps a slight exaggeration but pertinent to my point].
 
Of most import, they provided a static and public IP address to the
world. Your box had a public address. That was great! You could tell
people where to find you. Static is *the* thing to have on the Internet.
Sure, it's a trivial thing and not all that much of a big deal. But it means
that people can learn and experiment with things they were otherwise
unable to use. The concepts and aspects of DNS, www, and sendmail
which I've studied during the trial could not possibly have been done
without that static connection. Enough said on statics. We all agree
they are the way to go. Static *and* public.

The other great thing about the NEC modem was that it gave you
everything and protected you from nothing. In other words, there was no
firewall, no pinholes between you and big bad internet. Anyone that
wanted to probe, exploit, and attack you was free to do so. And that's
what we want. Well, maybe not everyone, but I know how to run a
firewall (again, I learned this during the trial) and want to run my own
firewall. If a modem is to contain firewall/pinholes, so be it. But allow
the pinhole restrictions to be totally removed. Let everything through.
We are all adults here. We are responsible for our own actions. Let us
be the masters of our own domain (a very apt pun intended).

And finally, like it or not, the trial set expectations in term of price.
It was a great deal. Sure we knew/expected it would be more expensive
after the trial ended. But again, expectations have been set and these
have not been met now that the commercial launch is about to be made.

Please, there are very few new points to make about the ADSL service.
They've all be said before. Flames are useless. Reasoned feedback is
what this list should be about. Problem resolution. If you feel the need
to flame, try nz.comp where you will be most welcome. I certainly don't
want to deal with it here.

cheers. And thanks for coming to the list.

--
Dan Langille - DVL Software Limited
The FreeBSD Diary     - http://www.FreeBSDDiary.org/freebsd/
NZ FreeBSD User Group - http://www.nzfug.nz.freebsd.org/
The Racing System     - http://www.racingsystem.com/racingsystem.htm
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