4 ms·

It's easy to move your VPN to an arbitrary VPS anywhere in the world, but there's only a handful of residential ISPs available in any given area, and they are a

It's easy to move your VPN to an arbitrary VPS anywhere in the world, but there's only a handful of residential ISPs available in any given area, and they are almost univerally scummy.

thinkMOAR 9y ago
scummy often by law, if it was up to many ISPs, like in the early days of the internet, they only cared if you paid your monthly bill.
Aaargh20318 9y ago
> there's only a handful of residential ISPs available in any given area Depends on where you live, I haven't exactly counted them but I have at least 20 options. Worst-case you can start your own ISP.
Tijdreiziger 9y ago
> and they are almost univerally scummy Source? I do not think most of the ISPs in my area are particularly scummy. They provide reliable plain internet service with no data caps (and also TV/phone service if you so desire) for a reasonable monthly fee, and in my experience, most of them hire enough customer service workers on their support phone. All of them also resisted internet filtering until the legal system forced them to do so. What more is there to ask of an ISP?
- jstanley 9y ago
  Good for you. In my area none of them provide reliable internet service, most of them enforce some censorship and have poor customer service, and all of them perform the legally-mandated surveillance.
- gspetr 9y ago
  > What more is there to ask? Taking care of insecure IoT devices would be a start: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15946095 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15946095
kalleboo 9y ago
> there's only a handful of residential ISPs available Where I live the nationwide fiber network has around 100 ISPs available of varying reputation. Wikipedia says that PPPoE "offers encryption" but now I'm curious if this is effective, and actually used by anyone...
- mseebach 9y ago
  Having the wire, especially if it's fibre, between your home and ISP encrypted is probably of extremely limited value. Your ISP has access to the (unencrypted) endpoint anyway, and any adversary with the resources to actually tap your fibre probably have higher value and more easily accessible means of spying on you anyway.

It's easy to move your VPN to an arbitrary VPS anywhere in the world, but there's only a handful of residential ISPs available in any given area, and they are almost univerally scummy.

thinkMOAR 9y ago

scummy often by law, if it was up to many ISPs, like in the early days of the internet, they only cared if you paid your monthly bill.

Aaargh20318 9y ago

> there's only a handful of residential ISPs available in any given area Depends on where you live, I haven't exactly counted them but I have at least 20 options. Worst-case you can start your own ISP.

Tijdreiziger 9y ago

> and they are almost univerally scummy Source? I do not think most of the ISPs in my area are particularly scummy. They provide reliable plain internet service with no data caps (and also TV/phone service if you so desire) for a reasonable monthly fee, and in my experience, most of them hire enough customer service workers on their support phone. All of them also resisted internet filtering until the legal system forced them to do so. What more is there to ask of an ISP?

jstanley 9y ago
Good for you. In my area none of them provide reliable internet service, most of them enforce some censorship and have poor customer service, and all of them perform the legally-mandated surveillance.
gspetr 9y ago
> What more is there to ask? Taking care of insecure IoT devices would be a start: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15946095 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15946095

kalleboo 9y ago

> there's only a handful of residential ISPs available Where I live the nationwide fiber network has around 100 ISPs available of varying reputation. Wikipedia says that PPPoE "offers encryption" but now I'm curious if this is effective, and actually used by anyone...

mseebach 9y ago
Having the wire, especially if it's fibre, between your home and ISP encrypted is probably of extremely limited value. Your ISP has access to the (unencrypted) endpoint anyway, and any adversary with the resources to actually tap your fibre probably have higher value and more easily accessible means of spying on you anyway.