A friend got his own cease and desist letter the other day. His ISP forwarded the notice from a copyright enforcement agency along with five pages of content intended both to stop those that know they’re sharing and help out parents (or others) who may not be aware of what all is going on with the computers attached to their cable modem.

Of course you’re a valued customer, and of course it wasn’t your fault, just stop it is the message.

It’s nothing like the major raid that shutdown a big piece of the eDonkey network this week, but it’s apparently scary enough.

bit torrent, c&d, cease and desist, copyright, copyright violation, edonkey, enforcement, filesharing, isp, letter, mpaa

Yes, there are some parts of the continental US not yet served by DSL or cable modems. That’s why I’m looking for a dial up ISP. Nationally we’ve got AOL and Earthlink, followed by budget operators NetZero, PeoplePC, and Netscape Online. But here’s the thing, and forgive my ignorance, why do all these services suggest you need to download and install software just to dial in?

I mean, hasn’t dial up networking been a standard feature of various releases of Mac OS and Windows since 1995 or so? Why the extra “dialer”?

Anyway, my search for a bare-bones ISP lead me to FreedomList’s ISP directory, and the list of providers offering service in New Hampshire. That’s where I found VT Rocket, which offers plans ranging from $2.90/month (for 30 hours) to $9.95/month (unlimited).

isp, dun, dial-up, dialer, dialup, modem, 56k, pots, legacy, networking in the sticks, rural, country