Re: AAISP?

On Thu, 4 May 2006 21:12:22 UTC, Nicholas Thomas
<ku.gro.snagap-erihskroy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Surprised no-one has jumped in already, but here's my 2p worth..

Browsing around, I came across AAISP, who seem to be the "kind of" ISP I
would go for. In particular, I'm looking at their "Max 2" and "Max 3"
Premium packages, and considering Max 1 Premium - depending on the
extent to which I can curb my partner's P2P usage (which is the *only*
program using significant bandwidth in the 'peak hours', as far as I can
tell). Prior to doing anything else, I've set my router's QoS to keep
that at 10% of maximum bandwidth, and told my firewall to drop any of
the packets in question at peak hours. Naughty me ;)

The only difference with Premium (as opposed to non-Premium) is the
nominal 800K rather than 400K upload speed - but presumably you want
that and are prepared to pay the 'premium'...

Next, does anyone have any experience with AAISP & their service, etc?

Satisfied customer for four years.

Reading their website, it sounds almost too good to be true... and I'm
well aware of what that often means... specifically, I'm interested in
the level of know-how of the tech guys

Excellent when I've talked to, or emailed them. You get a real tech
person as soon as you ask for support.

the robustness (or lack
thereof!) of their network

Pretty good...they are very open about things too. New stuff tends to
get rolled out on Sundays but has never been a serious problem. Support
is 'office hours', but in practice someone always seems to get out there
and fix anything. The mail servers run a bit slow on occasions, but I
just run my own. They make that easy, and provide free secondary MX. I
also run my own DNS, and again they provide free secondary.

amount of faffing about I'm likely to expect
from accounts, etc...

Never, ever had a problem there.

Thirdly, and somewhat more generally, I notice that they've got native
IPv6 connections available, which is something I would really like to
have a play with :D. The downside, of course, is that I know almost
nothing about IPv6, except that I'd end up with a /48 block (corr!) if I
went for it. So:-

1. I assume it's a dual-stack connection?

They provide tunnelling too. Not that I know much about it.

2. Currently my router only supports IPv4. Being poor again right now,
I'd probably settle for setting up a PPPoE forward on my current router
to a PC Engines WRAP that I've got, and set it up as an IPv4/IPv6
router. That's all, obviously, "non-trivial", and could take a while for
me to work out. In the meantime, would I still be able to use the IPv4
Internet with just the IPv4 router?

Can't see why not. They give you a free router on loan as long as you're
with them, or you can buy it.

3. Just how easy is IPv6 to set up? This is a mixed Linux/Windows XP
(SP2, I *think*)/Windows 2000 (no idea as to SP) network. Presumably,
each PC would have two addresses for each interface - one ipv6, one
ipv4? So incompatible PC's (like the 2000 one, AFAICT) would just have
the single ipv4, and function perfectly well on the ipv4 backbone?

People seem to get good advice on their newsgroup about this. I'm just
changing my firewall to a BSD system, and intend to have a go myself
then.

4. Is there actually any benefit (except for a slightly geeky feeling of
power at having so many IPv6 addresses at one's disposal) to getting
IPv6 at this point in time?

Probably not! Nice to boast about at work though (well, I will...)

AAISP are *great* at chasing BT when there is a problem. They don't tell
you to reboot, or reinstall Windows. They are operating system
neutral...one of their 'aliases' is http://sod.ms ...! I once had a loss
of servuce at 0500; I reported in at about 0850 and went to work. I
returned early at 1500 and was just back onlie. Apparently BT closed the
fault at lunchtime with the reason 'customer router' (it wasn't). AAISP
didn't worry about telling me, they just reopened the fault and shouted
more.
--
[ 7'ism - a condition by which the sufferer experiences an inability
to give concise answers, express reasoned argument or opinion.
Usually accompanied by silly noises and gestures - incurable, early
euthanasia recommended. ]
.

Relevant Pages

  • AAISP?
    ... IPv6 connections available, which is something I would really like to ... nothing about IPv6, except that I'd end up with a /48 block if I ... Currently my router only supports IPv4. ... would I still be able to use the IPv4 ...
    (uk.telecom.broadband)
  • Re: Fast downloads, slow browsing
    ... That article shows you what a normal IPV4 configuration should look like. ... With Windows XP, Microsoft added IPV6, which is more complex and offers much ... Your computer, and the subnet created by the router, appears to be on ... problem was a defective modem. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.network_web)
  • Re: Has my router failed?
    ... but it's not on the router. ... This is IPv6, not the IPv4 ... Network time protocol listening four different ways on IPv4. ...
    (comp.os.linux.networking)
  • Re: AAISP?
    ... First question - the P2P program she uses seems to open ports between ... nothing about IPv6, except that I'd end up with a /48 block if I ... I'd probably settle for setting up a PPPoE forward on my current router ... would I still be able to use the IPv4 ...
    (uk.telecom.broadband)
  • RE: Transfer a sending packet to upper TCP/IP protocol layer in IM
    ... He's building a gateway across an IPV4 segment. ... AFAIK, all systems that support IPv6 provide this feature anyway, so that I ... the destination NIC of IPv6 packet is the same as the destination NIC of my ... was assuming that tcpip stack can rebuild the L2 header for the encapped IPv4 ...
    (microsoft.public.development.device.drivers)