[mdlug] OT: Comcast rant

[Michael Corral]

2009-02-21, Monsieur Michael a ecrit:
> I was able to ssh into my home computer, and finally through a nice
> tunnel was able to listen to the media at my house over a daap beacon. I was
> in heaven.
>
> It appears that Comcast didn't want to keep me happy. I no longer have
> access to my computer from outside.

That's because you were violating Comcast's Terms of Service (TOS):
http://www.comcast.net/terms/subscriber/

Go down to Section 7 (Use Of Services), part b (Prohibited Uses of HSI)
[HSI = High-Speed Internet]:

"You agree not to use HSI for operation as an Internet service provider,
a server site for ftp, telnet, rlogin, e-mail hosting, 'Web hosting' or
other similar applications..."

Also, from their Acceptable Use Policy, Section I. (Prohibited Uses and
Activities), under "Technical restrictions":
http://www.comcast.net/terms/use/#prohibited

"use or run dedicated, stand-alone equipment or servers from the
Premises that provide network content or any other services to anyone
outside of your Premises local area network ("Premises LAN"),
also commonly referred to as public services or servers. Examples of
prohibited equipment and servers include, but are not limited to, e-mail,
Web hosting, file sharing, and proxy services and servers;"

Running an ssh server falls under that "similar applications" category
(not to mention the streaming media). You *did* read Comcast's TOS
when you signed up for them, right? Because you're bound by those terms
when you do sign up. The fact that you were able to get away with it for
a while just means they hadn't caught up to you yet. It was probably
your bandwidth usage from the streaming media that tipped them off. :)

I don't like the policy any more than you do, but that's the way it is.
I do think that if you pay extra for a static IP then they allow you to
run that kind of stuff. Check with Comcast.

Michael