[conspire] suggestions for web based email

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Paul Zander (paulz at ieee.org):

> Ruben,
> So how do you get your Internet connection?

I'll note in passing Ruben's assumption that he gets to decide
definitively what is 'an affordable option' and what is not.  
_Or_, to interpret the remark the other way, the assumption that
other people 3000 miles away across the Internet benefit from hearing
him voice his discontents about relative pricing in Brooklyn, NY.
Either way, it's not much of a conversation opener.

But I shouldn't be too critical about the latter interpretation because
I'm about to indulge an at least vaguely similar sort of
self-indulgence.  Here's what I pay, twice a year, for the next six
months of Raw Bandwidth Communications aDSL service _including_ a
255.255.255.248 aka /29 static IP allocation:

Residential DSL 384K-1.5M/128-384K monthly w/ circuit    $269.70
3-bit subnet for routing                                   90.00
Public access services account paid-in-advance discount   <35.97>
                                                          ------
Total                                                    $323.73
                                                          ======

(I'm pretty sure I've posted the above information here before.)

That was my payment in advance for July through December 2018 service,
equalling $53.95/month pro rata.  Without the $90 surcharge for five 
assignable static IP addresses (de-facto necessary for anyone hosting
Internet servers), Raw Bandwidth would charge $38.95/month pro rata 
for this grade of service (i.e., a single dynamically assigned IP;
what most people do).

Discussions of relative merits of ISPs tend to devolve into noise for a
number of reasons:  1. It's difficult to take into account locality 
dependence (what's available depends greatly on where you are), and most
commenters don't even try.  2. Further to the prior point, the ISP 
discussion has a magnetic attraction for those merely wishing to push their 
favourites without even the least effort to explain why that one and why 
criteria other than the speaker's don't matter (or don't exist).  3. Moen's 
Law of Bicycles (http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/lexicon.html#moenslaw-bicycles) 
guarantees that the loudest voices will applaud whatever's cheapest
because that's the only criterion they value and understand.

ISTR that Ruben says he has only variously undesirable alternative
choices in Brooklyn.  So, he has to either stick with what he has or
move, and he's not going to move.  I sympathise.  My own problem
is that although Raw Bandwidth is a superior vendor in all the ways I
value, the fundamental problem is that Chez Moen's at pretty much the
maximum distance from the telco central office in downtown Menlo Park,
about two miles away, so effective bandwidth is a bit subpar for aDSL.
I can either stick with what I have or move, and I'm not going to move.
(The only lateral move would be to move my Internet operations onto 
Comcast cable, but I regard them as spawn of the devil and also 
technically incompetent and providing terrible customer service, so no.)

FWIW, I'm relatively price-insensitive, i.e., a competitor would have to 
be a _lot_ cheaper to attract me, because I doubt any are going to be 
a lot better in other ways, as Mike Durkin's company (Raw Bandwidth) 
in my experience consistently offers the best service available in 
the local aDSL CLEC market, particularly given where I am in West Menlo
Park.  I happen to value a DSL provider not sucking, and unlike many
customers can recognise the difference.

Other lateral moves could be discussed such as MiFi that I consider 
technically inapplicable and also of doubtful cost-effectiveness for a
household use-case unless you're desperate and lack alternatives.