Sometime around 1996 or 1997, after I had moved out of home I had the opportunity to get high speed internet access through telus (the bctel). After the original install speedbumps (ie: them not actually installing the hardware to get internet access), there was maybe one problem every two years, even after I moved to this building originally.
Fast forward to today, exactly four days after service was installed here, and there’s an outage. Typical huh? There are other bitches as well, which I promise I will give to you.
Basically they “can’t” support the old network, which I was on and which was un-capped, so I was forced to change over to the “new” network where you pay for 1.5mbits, or 4, or whatever. The affordable option is of course the lowest package. Now, when I first moved into this building I got the Shaw wave, but when I found out I could get the un-capped service, I dropped the wave like a bad packet and went back on telus’s service. Now I’m restricted to 150k/s downloads, I’m not sure that’s such a good idea anymore, especially when the guy down the hall is getting 380k/s downloads, and paying the same price that I am.
Speed I could deal with, for a while anyway, cause you really aren’t going to be using it to it’s fullest potential all the time anyway. The big problem I have is that their DNS system big fat hair wookie dong. See, I can get a hostname (ami158nly0si.bc.hsia.telus.net) from my ip (66.183.92.89), but I can’t go the other way. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, but as I have paranoid security settings on my server, I get lovely messages like the following when I try to log in:
Sep 16 18:24:45 ufies sshd[23842]: warning: /etc/hosts.deny, line 15: host name/address mismatch: 66.183.92.89 != alix51o4y13q4.bc.hsia.telus.net
Sep 16 18:24:45 ufies sshd[23842]: refused connect from 66.183.92.89
This would be ok if my IP didn’t change constantly, or at all. Without even rebooting it’s changed already, and I refuse to have to log into someone else’s server to hop to mine every time Telus decides to renew my address, and reset the IP in my DNS tables. I did manage to hard code the IP in my firewall though, so hopefully that’ll take.
Anyway, after talking to Ken at telus tech support, and then his supervisor, who seemed to have a clue, I was told that “reverse dns lookups are not guaranteed for dynamic customers, [the low level of service that I’m on] but they are for static customers [add $10-$20 more a month].” So basically that, combined with the less speed for the same price thing, has caused me to call Shaw and schedule them in, as Yohimbe has no problems with his shaw cable connection, and his IPs look up just dandy. Actually I did this a couple of days ago when I realize I could pay the same amount (actually a little less with their intro offer, assuming I bought the modem) and get 2x+ the speed. Sorry Telus, unless Shaw has major issues, I’m having to leave you.
In other news, the house is still in the same place as it was before, with the cats discovering the joy of hardwood floors. When they jump at a scary noise or new squeak in the floors, they try to run away, and get even more scared when they find they aren’t going anywhere! They’ll get used to it though. The rest of the place is good too, with little things popping up here and there, as is to be expected with getting used to a new place.