[RndTbl] [SkullSpace-Discuss] Re: [MBIX-Members] MBIX AGM May 4th, 2016

[Adam Thompson]

The short answer is: switch to an ISP that is an MBIX member, or 
pressure your ISP to peer at MBIX here in Winnipeg.
If you wanted to join MBIX without a physical connection of some sort, 
rent 1U of rack space at either GSC or Les.net's YWG2 datacenter, put in 
a cheap Mikrotik router, and run a tunnel over your Shaw connection.  
Obviously the benefits aren't as... obvious, when you do that, mostly 
thanks to latency and bandwidth asymmetry.

Most of the ISPs who are members at the moment are WISPs (Wireless ISPs).
A few things distinguish WISPs from traditional ISPs, in general 
(broadly speaking):
  1. usually noticeably more expensive than MTS or Shaw (for residential 
and/or cheap-ass business customers; as soon as you need upload speeds 
 >10Mbps, it's usually A LOT cheaper!)
  2. usually much more flexible than MTS or Shaw (many of them will do 
custom builds of just about anything you want or create custom packages 
to fit your needs)
  3. lower download speeds, but typically much higher upload speeds, 
than MTS or Shaw (symmetric bandwidth is usually available, at least on 
a best-effort, shared-spectrum basis)
  4. lower bandwidth caps than MTS or Shaw (depending on your package)
  5. can provide service where MTS and/or Shaw can't or won't at a 
reasonable price

Between the various ISPs listed at http://www.mbix.ca/peers/, all of 
Winnipeg is well-covered, all of the surrounding region, and a 
widely-varied smattering of areas covering pretty much the entire 
southern half of the province.

One important fallacy I'll address right now: professionally-installed 
wireless service is NOT any less reliable than wireline (DSL/Cable).  
Lots of people seem to think it's unreliable, and that's simply not true.

In the relatively rare case where your wireless link is unreliable, it's 
pretty much always because you're at the extreme edge of the service 
territory and you probably told the sales rep that you didn't care if 
the link wasn't very reliable.  And then  you probably had to convince 
the installer, too, so at that point it's your own damn fault.  Most 
people in that situation are just happy they can get something better 
than dial-up because of where they are.  Of course, some companies will 
be better than others, so YMMV.

-Adam



On 2016-04-15 16:10, Trevor Cordes wrote:
> On 2016-04-15 Adam Thompson wrote:
>> For the average end user using their ISPs nameserver, it's... well,
>> out-of-scope.  But MBIX isn't for individuals, it's for ISPs and
> Is there a way to leverage this (MBIX NS) for the average joe (me) who
> runs their own resolving/caching BIND on Shaw?