Not paid hosting, but it might cost a lot!

[Seanie]

Anybody know if you can get TM Net SDSL to a residential address? Are there any other high upload-bandwidth Internet connections (besides dialup and GPRS!) available to residential addresses in out-of-town Malaysia?

[mylinear]

These are not SDSL, but there are higher 2MB and 4MB ADSL packages available.

Streamyx | Get Streamyx | Packages | Standard

Call TM for more details. Also try Jaring which has wired and wireless packages.

[Seanie]

Thanks for the quick answer - but it's upstream bandwidth that I need. Even though the download goes up and up on those ADSL packages, the upstream stays more or less the same. jaring were very helpful when I emailed them - but had nothing in the wild west of Port Dickson. They were offering channel bonded ADSL, for higher and higher bandwidth, but still not much upstream bandwidth.

I've even considered enlisting friends and relatives locally to serve content from their home Streamyx connections using round-robin DNS - but it would be a bit of an administrative headache, and a monumental waste of download bandwidth. I'd have to go into the pirate DVD business!

I could pay for colocation, but monthly prices make SDSL and my aircon bill look attractive!

Maybe you're right though, maybe I should call. TM were so good recently at responding to emailed complaints of local open relay scanners, I thought I'd push my luck!

[mylinear]

Are you able to say what you want to do with the SDSL? Are you not able to host this at a data center?

[Seanie]

I am able to say! I have a couple of web / craft apps that I want to put online, but since they serve content directly, rather than through webserver software, I'd need a dedicated server for them. That could go in a datacentre, but I'd have to have dedicated hardware, or rewrite! Co-location prices already make SDSL look economically attractive. One of the applications requires some dirty (not absolutely, but dirty for a clean-room) mechanical hardware to be attached to the server with some better-than ADSL bandwidth requirements, so even if I could find some co-location that offered that kind of service, I expect it would be expensive - it needs at least hourly physical attention, and it is dusty. As it is, a few minutes with a hoover and mop at home, and my wife is happy that it's not dirty enough to make spending a fortune on a factory necessary.

[Seanie]

Doh! Double post!

[mylinear]

Not quite sure I fully understand. But if you require external hardware / machinery attached to a server, I don't even know if data centers here provide such facility. Especially if it produces pollutants. Sounds like some factory-type of machinery or crafting / carving kind of tool initiated or controlled remotely via a customized application. And I don't think DC's here provide much support for such systems especially if hourly supervision is needed. Even if so, it would cost a bomb.

I am sure I have seen SDSL packages by TM for business premises, but I can't seem to find those. It was something like 1.5MB up/down I think. Maybe get a few phone lines and get Streamyx on each and somehow share or distribute the traffic?

[Seanie]

That's pretty much where I'm up to. I hadn't actually considered multiple phone lines, multiple Streamyx. I wonder if they'd even allow that at a residential address. I'd either have to pay for someone to channel bond for me in that case, or resign myself to no one user ever getting better than 384kbit/s (512?) downloads from my sites. I'll phone TM today and see if I can get someone to answer the SDSL / residential question.

I thought it was an unoccupied niche - maybe there's a reason nobody does this!

[mylinear]

Multiple phone lines at a residential place is allowed. In fact, TM used to have an offer of RM10 monthly for a second phone line. I guess it applies to a third or fourth as well. Need to check that. I also don't see why they would bother if you get more than one Streamyx account as each one is tied to a phone line. You could even get Streamyx on one or two and Jaring on one or two. But no idea on how you would consolidate the connections to achieve your purpose.

Having said that, please check TM TOS. I believe I've seen it stated somewhere that you are not allowed to run servers on residential Streamyx conection. So please check that out carefully. This is probably why SDSL for residential purposes are not offered upfront. Home users normally required more download bandwidth rather than upload.

[Seanie]

Good point about the Terms and Conditions. I hadn't actually checked - except for sharing or sub-letting the service, which was one of the first things I checked when I got Streamyx - wanted to start my own ISP! In the Prohibited Use section, there's no mention of running servers at home, but then they'd be on difficult ground if they did prohibit that - where got modern day software that doesn't also at some time act as a server? They wouldn't need to ask the P2P users to stop so nicely, they could just T&C them. I live in fear of them blocking ports 25 and 80, but you won't catch me being heavily critical of TM while they allow incoming traffic on those ports!

It would be madness of them to block home servers - I think one of the next big things will be WAN accessibility of home services. Lots of people already have access to their home security systems from the Internet, even some babycams offer Internet access. Even residential IP phones require a home server of some sort. It is worth a caution though, for those of us considering home servers - you never know how the policy might change!

According to 1300 88 9515 just now, SDSL to a residential address is fine from TM's point of view. As for the practicalities of getting the physical installation, they direct me to my local TM Point. Maybe tomorrow I'll know for sure.