Need an ISP in TO

[James Knott]

Michael J. Pawlowsky wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I'm trying to find an ISP in Toronto for a friend. Not being from the
> area I figured one of the best places to ask is always the local LUG.
> Basically I would like them to have a fixed IP (for firewall reasons),
> no port restrictions and unlimited transfers would be nice.
> 
> Looking for a reliable (no down time) provider with a good reputation
> and fair prices.
> 
> All suggestions are greatfully appreciated.

I'm on Rogers.  While they only offer DHCP, the IP address is virtually
static and the host name is determined by the hardware MAC addresses, so
it never changes.  This means you can always use DNS, even if the IP
changes.  The reliability has been excellent and I get 5 Mb down and
800K up.  I suspect, no matter who you go with, you'll never find an ISP
that has "no down time", though some are obviously better than others.
In the telecom industry, the target is "five nines" or no more than
about 5 minutes per year of down time.  Achieving that requires a lot of
redunancy etc.

Incidententally, why do you need a static IP for a firewall?  If you're
basing rules on IP, rather than port, you're doing it wrong.
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