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Comment by 8fingerlouie | Hacker News Reader

I'm so glad to be living in Europe.

When it comes to consumer internet services, the US is a 3rd world country, which is kinda odd considering most of the western world does their business there.

I just checked the terms on my 300/300 fiber connection, as well as my (backup, company paid) 25/5 ADSL.

They're almost identical:

* no spamming. * no racism/unethical behavior. * no portscanning. * no illegal downloads/uploads.

Besides that i can use it for whatever i like. They block port 25 though, and you can only get it opened by purchasing a commercial connection. It has a dynamic IP address that only changes when i reboot my modem, which happens once every 2 years or so, so practically static IP :)

The ADSL has all ports open and a staic IP.

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The telcos only enforce the server rule if you are causing problems like doing something illegal, torrenting, or maxing out your bandwidth 24/7. I’ve had multiple servers running over the years and never had any issues with Comcast or AT&T.

Generally they don’t care if it’s for personal use. I’ve heard of them shutting people down for something they saw as business related. They didn’t really get shut down, it was more like a friendly “We see what you’re doing and a business plan would allow you to do it for $30 more a month”.

With AT&T, I was able to call and get port 25 opened up so I could send email. to me it seems like they do it to prevent malware spamming from people's homes.

What ISP do you have that you can get upgrade to a business account with the same speeds for only $30 extra a month? AT&T would charge me $300/mo for the same speeds that I currently pay $80/mo for.

You are comparing the most expensive plan. This was probably 8 years ago so I’m thinking 10-15mbit. The business plan was the entry level one.

This is no different than the US. No one has 25 open, and the server clause is only enforced if you try to do something in the 'unethical behavior/illigal file transfer' department. But in America, a 35$ internet connection needs a leagal contract to help mitigate the lawsuits and grey areas.

>no racism/unethical behavior

That seems to have potential for abuse.

I don't think any ISP has any control (or terms) about it. It's just that law enforcement agencies can ask them for logs on that basis. Whether or not hate speech laws can/are abused is a different thing. But it's a general legislation problem, not a net neutrality one.

I don't know what the rest of the country looks like, but I have home Comcast in the US and have been self-hosting a server on port 80 with a similar more-or-less static IP as you've described for well-over a decade. Many of my friends have the same setup. It never even occurred to me that Comcast cared. All ports are open (maybe not 25, I haven't checked.)

I guess the terms of service allows them to shut someone down if they felt like it, but I wouldn't really worry about it. If you have a site that generates so much traffic they even took notice, I presume you'd want to be on a real hosted environment anyway.

I know a lot of ISPs in europe who block SMTP ports to prevent SPAM.

It's true but at least mine (free.fr) lets you enable it through the administration interface for no additional fee. It's disabled by default though, and it's probably better that way.

I'm so glad to be living in Europe.

Germany's third biggest city, I can only get 50/10 Mbit, maybe 100/20 - no fiber in sight. No static IP and no guarantees anyone will accept mail from this dialup subnet.

I guess, you are glad leaving in Germany. A country with a bad state in terms of Internet.

In Germany, with Unitymedia Buisness, I get symmetric 100Mbit/sec over coax (even in mid-size cities), a static IPv4 adresse and excellent customer service. Price tag: 35EUR/month.

In US, I have access to the same plan at same price point. But I have a semetric 1000Mbps for 85 USD. I can get a static IP but I see no need with DNS. Not sure how the customer service is, I haven't called in 2.5 years that I've had the link.

Seems like a similar price I saw on AT&T FTTP plans and Comcast’s cable internet plans for 100mbit.

Static IP might cost extra.

I pay AT&T $80 a month for symmetrical 1Gb FTTP with no data cap.

Italy (Milan): 1Gbps/200Mbps FTTH. About 30€/month.

I just checked, it's not available :P

From my experience, at least in Munich it's hit or miss which of the 2 cable company services your building - it's not even on the street level.

Also I'm not really complaining. Say what you will about Deutsche Telekom, but I've been a happy customer since 1998. Everytime I had a different ISP (mainly M-Net) I had more problems than uptime. This is more expensive, but I'm having less than one noticeable downtime every 2 years...

Canada. 100$/month for 150down/12 up residential. Never seen more than 50 down. Regular outages (for 30min every few days). If the US is third-world in terms of service, canada is an uncontacted amazon tribe.

In Canada. 100 CAD/month. 150 both up and down.

If you are in a major city, it might be time to check the other ISP in town. I'm glad I did.

I'm on Vancouver island. The provincial capital. There is only the one cable provider (shaw). No other landline options in my neighborhood.

Vermont. 60/6 for $100/mo. And I’m a lucky one. I have friends with 3mbit dsl and there are pockets of dialup

Not available, in Berlin.

No static IP is a good default for private customers, I think, due to privacy concerns. Static IP opt-in would be nice.

> They block port 25 though

They don't explicitly disallow it in their TOS, they just make it impossible by disabling the underlying tech.

And this > no racism/unethical behavior. * no portscanning. * no illegal downloads/uploads

"unethical" behavior is the most arbitrary, un-objective clause one can ever have. Your ISP may find your hosting an email server "unethical", and this clause allows them to ban you.

Europe is NOT superior in any way

unethical behavior is my (bad) translation. The original Danish wording is restricted to hate speech.

They also specifically disallow distribution/downloading of child pornography and leaks like "fappening", which i translated to "illegal downloads/uploads".

The list of things that are disallowed is very specifically worded in Danish, as legalese usually is. Furthermore it is also customary in Denmark to allow all traffic. in or outbound.

All "metadata" is logged for 5 years, mandated by law, so every IP i connect to is there along with port, duration, protocol (if available).

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