From: Michel Py
[mailto:michel(_at_)arneill-py(_dot_)sacramento(_dot_)ca(_dot_)us]
Unfortunately some protocol purity zealots still have to realize
that Linksys, Netgear, Belkin and consorts don't sell NAT boxes
because they think NAT is good, they sell NAT boxes because
consumers want to buy them.
I do not think consumers in general want to buy NAT boxes, but
they are forced to do so by ISP's who do not give them a choice.
When not even those of us who can differentiate between different
Internet connections by other means then "speed" can manage to get
a proper Internet connection (e.g. with multiple fixed addresses),
how can we expect regular users to ask for such "advanced" features?
Myself, I am stuck with a telco-ISP that do not even provide
the option to buy extra IP-addresses (or fixed addresses). This
means I am forced to run a NAT at home, and do the tricks to
make applications work in this environment (including making
servers work, which of course "is not allowed", but why should I
care).
At several occasions, friends have asked me why some of their
communications applications do not work although they have "a
premium Internet connection", which meant they had purchased
the highest "speed" available. Unfortunately, they have all
been fooled by the ISPs that the only difference between different
Internet connections is the maximal throughput, and they have
ended up in a crappy NETed home environment.
But why should ISPs be honest and explain to regular users
that there could be better alternatives and that what they are
currently selling is a restricted Internet connection? For ISPs,
these restricted connections means users have problems running
some applications, which reduces the traffic they generate, but
the problems users have are not attributed to limitations in what
the ISP provides. Only some ISP's openly declare the details of
the Internet connections they provide, such as whether IP addresses
are fixed or dynamic, if one can get multiple addresses, if IPv6
can be provided, etc. However, some do, and therefore I still
believe there is hope, but it is hard for regular users to
understand what different alternatives would mean (especially
when ISPs are not honest with these matters).
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