Looking For A New ISP

I’ve just about had it with my current Internet Service Provider, Zhonka Broadband. They used to be a great company but in the last month or so we have experienced something like ten or twenty instances where their DNS has crapped out, leaving me with no email. Worse, they never answer their support line, and the voice mailbox is always full, presumably with other customers’ complaints. So fuck ’em, I’m pretty much done.
Anyone have any suggestions? I’d like to stay with DSL (no FiOS in my area, and local cable Internet provider Comcast is an evil ISP), host my Web and possibly mail servers out of my home on static IPs, and work with a company that has a reasonable idea of what constitutes acceptable use of their pipes. I don’t torrent or operate a TOR proxy or anything; I just don’t want my bandwidth throttled or my service cut off because I did something in violation of line 8,729 of their Terms of Service contract.
So please, offer me up your gems of wisdom, O Gentle Reader. Quickly, while my service is still up.
One Response to “Looking For A New ISP”
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July 13th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
As a former ISP employee I do not think my previous employer, Semaphore Corporation, would be a good fit for you. They are focused on small businesses with Enterprise Networks and their pricing reflects that market. Semaphore did resell bandwidth to two other ISP’s, Cypress and ZipCon. ZipCon seemed to be getting out of the DSL business but I received new circuit orders from Cypress only a few weeks before I was laid off. I don’t know about Cypress’ customer service practices but they were easy to work with as a supplier.
As for carriers, I have worked with Qwest and Covad. In general, I have preferred working with Qwest since their customer service is sourced out of the United States. Also, the Qwest circuits rarely ever failed. Covad sources out of a back room in New Delhi and coordinating repairs often got problematic.
If nothing else, you might look into a Generic DSL connection from your telephone carrier then set up DNS services through Google.
Joe