Protential customer here, a few questions

Protential customer here, a few questions
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addp009 @ 6th Nov 03:55PM:
Protential customer here, a few questions

We've been going over the Roger's 60GB limit each month,and with growing data demands (VOIP phones, bigger youtube streams and etc), it seems logical to take a look at TekSavvy. I've been using Squid caching to try to save a few bits. With a 3 people at home, I'm getting about ~10% bit hits. It's a respectable percentage for such a small population, but it only translate to 6GB per month.

- I'm using PFsense as my gateway, and a quick google shows that no one has been able to get MLPPP working on it, so MLPPP is not an option at the moment.

- Static IP, $4 per month, which is great! I saw a few posting about MLPPP static IP users have access to a rate limited (1mbps) newsgroup. Does this apply to non MLPPP static IP users too? I don't see any info about this on the website.

- If in the future if I could support MLPPP, does it mean I pay $4 for static IP + $4 MLPPP? $8 in total?

- Is TCP port 25 outbound blocked? If it is, is there a Teksavvy smpt relay that I can use? I run a private email server that sends me alerts and etc.

- Are any other ports blocked?
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Angelo_ @ 6th Nov 04:03PM:
Re: Protential customer here, a few questions

you could always have something infront of pfsense...
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Omr @ 6th Nov 04:26PM:
Re: Protential customer here, a few questions

said by addp009 :

- I'm using PFsense as my gateway, and a quick google shows that no one has been able to get MLPPP working on it, so MLPPP is not an option at the moment.

- Static IP, $4 per month, which is great! I saw a few posting about MLPPP static IP users have access to a rate limited (1mbps) newsgroup. Does this apply to non MLPPP static IP users too? I don't see any info about this on the website.

- If in the future if I could support MLPPP, does it mean I pay $4 for static IP + $4 MLPPP? $8 in total?

- Is TCP port 25 outbound blocked? If it is, is there a Teksavvy smpt relay that I can use? I run a private email server that sends me alerts and etc.

- Are any other ports blocked?

About the technicals I'm guessing you can solve the details later on whether you go Linksys router route or something else develops that enables the pfsense method to work for you.

The $4 Includes:
- Static IP

- 1Mbps Usenet with I believe 3 connections (retention is being bumped up to 200days)

- MLPPP support, but the tiers must match (Unlimited bonded with Unlimited, Premium bonded with Premium)

All those three is included in the $4, a great deal if you ask me ;) .

About port 25 there was discussion about this earlier. I think the conclusion was port 25 is still available for Static IP users and you would have to request for it to be available to you if you are a Dynamic IP user. Others who know better if they could chime in?
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CoverIt @ 6th Nov 05:35PM:
Re: Protential customer here, a few questions

Port 25 is still available for static and I am pretty sure on dynamic as well but I wouldn't run a email server on dymamic.

BTW I myself ran Pfsense with load balancing between two TSI DSL lines. I dropped it and got a linksys router for mlppp and never looked back.

What are you using PFsense for and like someone said you can put MLPPP infront of it.
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AkFubar @ 6th Nov 04:43PM:
Re: Protential customer here, a few questions

The $4.00 includes access to the usenet as well as MLPPP. If you choose to go with MLPPP you need to tell TSI so they can assign you a special login (you will be routed through dedicated hardware for MLPPP I believe).
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addp009 @ 6th Nov 05:09PM:
Re: Protential customer here, a few questions

Oh, thanks! I was under the impression that static IP and MLPPP are 2 different add-ons. $4 is excellent value!

Can I switch between MLPPP and PPPoE(?) on the fly, without notifying Teksavvy? eg, when I spend some time to develop a solution for PFsense? I wouldn't want to be caught without internet!

Now that I think about it, if I have Usenet, traffic shaping by Bell, don't really affect me, unless skype call quality drops too.

I considered getting a /30 block or double natting. I don't really like the idea of double nat, and /30 block + static IP is getting kinda expensive.

The info about port 25 is great!
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addp009 @ 6th Nov 05:54PM:
Re: Protential customer here, a few questions

About port 25, yes that's why I'm only considering static IP.

I'm using PFSense for a LOT of things: snort, squid, ntop, vlan routing, firewalling, QoS, VPN. I'm not willing to give up all that just yet. :P

If I go MLPPP, it would be a single link anyway. So the purpose is just to avoid traffic shaping. With Usenet, hopefully I can avoid bit torrent. ;)
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Addp009's Site
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addp009 @ 6th Nov 05:57PM:
Re: Protential customer here, a few questions

I forgot to ask, what's the deal with Bell planning to charge other ISP for over usage (something like 60gb). Last I heard, it might happen in November. What's the latest on that, and what does it mean as a TekSavvy customer?
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Addp009's Site
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CoverIt @ 6th Nov 06:36PM:
Re: Protential customer here, a few questions

CRTC has told bell they cannot do it until the CRTC gives final approval. We are thinking 6 months or more down the road.
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addp009 @ 6th Nov 08:44PM:
Re: Protential customer here, a few questions

Are there any chance crtc might not approve this?
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HiVolt @ 6th Nov 10:18PM:
Re: Protential customer here, a few questions

said by addp009 :

Are there any chance crtc might not approve this?

It'll likely get approved, with some minor modifications, most lilkely to the extortionist rates Bell wants to charge.
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Martian3 @ 7th Nov 02:12PM:
Re: Protential customer here, a few questions

Hokay. Well...

First off, don't double-NAT. Ever. It's just a bad idea.

All you've mentioned is an email server, and you shouldn't need to double-NAT or have a larger subnet for that. Just set up the port forwarding on your router and you're good to go.

MLPPP works just peachy with pfsense -- as mentioned you can place your MLPPP device (Linksys WRT54GL is by far the most common) upstream of your pfsense box and it'll work just fine. Logically MLPPP works as a single connection that just happens to use two physical links.

MLPPP is an optional feature of PPPoE. You can enable it or disable it at will, as long as you have the feature enabled at Teksavvy's end.

And for now, there's no change in the usage tariffs. It might go through, or it might not -- it's really anyone's guess on how the CRTC is going to handle that aspect. Rocky, Marc and the folks at TSI will continue to fight hard, though. They've got something of a track record that way.

If you're not on a contract with Rogers, there's no reason not to make the switch. Worst case scenario is that the new usage rates go through -- in many cases it seems to still work out cheaper to stay with TSI even in that situation, but if not you can always switch back. There's no contracts with Teksavvy, so you can leave with no penalties if you don't think it's working out for you.
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addp009 @ 9th Nov 02:31AM:
Re: Protential customer here, a few questions

Thanks Martian!

I'll considered doing that.
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anon @ 9th Nov 08:25PM:
Re: Protential customer here, a few questions

said by CoverIt :

Port 25 is still available for static and I am pretty sure on dynamic as well

TekSavvy blocks NO ports (in ANY direction) for ANY customers.

but I wouldn't run a email server on dymamic.

Why not? I've been doing that for years and years and it works like a charm.

Ez-ipdate daemon on my linux router to update my free, dynamic hosting service.

For years...
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