Accessibility (Re: Internet recommendations)

[Omer Zak]

Hello Geoff,
I understand that you have an accessibility problem with the services
provided by the infrastructure/ISP who provide the routers.

You should complain at the Commission for Equal Rights of Persons with
Disabilities:
http://www.justice.gov.il/Units/NetzivutShivyon/Pages/default.aspx
(English:
http://www.justice.gov.il/En/Units/CommissionEqualRightsPersonsDisabilities/Pages/About-the-Commission-for-Equal-Rights-of-Persons-With-Disablities.aspx)

Hopefully they'll help get the service providers to provide you with an
accessible but secure router.

--- Omer Zak


On Sun, 2017-07-16 at 21:30 +0100, Geoff Shang wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> This could get a bit lengthy, so please bare with me.  Also, there is a 
> direct connection to Linux if you read far enough.
> 
> We are moving house in two weeks and have the opportunity to change ISP 
> and infrastructure providers.  I'm hoping you all can help us decide who 
> to go with.
> 
> Our preference is for a high-quality Internet service, and we have been 
> prepared to pay for it.  Up until two years ago, we were happily using 
> Bezeqint's Gamers' package, over Bezeq NGN.  But then we started running 
> into a problem.
> 
> My wife and I are both blind.  When we got our service reconnected in 
> November 2015, after being out of the country for six months, we 
> discovered that the Bezeq routers now have a CAPTCHA in addition to the 
> username and password.  Moreover, this CAPTCHA has no audio challenge, 
> only visual ones.
> 
> This of course makes it difficult to get into the router to administer it, 
> and while there are solutions that can help a blind person solve these 
> challenges, you of course need to be connected to the Internet to use 
> them, which limits their usefulness in this case.
> 
> When we moved in earli 2016, we tried getting our infrastructure from 
> Bezeqint instead of Bezeq, the point being that the people you pay for 
> the infrastructure provide the router.  Unfortunately, they also had a 
> CAPTCHA challenge on their login page, so this did not help particularly.
> 
> Late last year, we tried switching to 012.  To be honest, I can't remember 
> if they have a CAPTCHA or not.  I have found the Internet in this 
> apartment less than satisfactory, but I'm not 100% sure if this is due to 
> the ISP, the phone line or the poor wi-fi performance in this apartment.
> 
> One thing that I'm sure does contribute to poor performance, both now and 
> previously, is bad router firmware.  I've seen problems caused by on-board 
> DHCP and DNS resolvers, and I've lost count of the number of times I've 
> cleared up some issue we've been having by rebooting the router.
> 
> So I bought myself an EdgeRouter PoE from Ubiquiti Networks 
> (https://www.ubnt.com/edgemax/edgerouter-poe/).  This device runs a 
> modified Debian Linux distribution.  I've not yet set it up, but I'm 
> looking to do so once we move.
> 
> To use this of course, I will either need to use some kind of modem device 
> only (no routing necessary) or put an ISP-supplied router in bridged mode.
> 
> As the infrastructure provider also provides the router/modem, I'm also 
> looking at other connectivity options.
> 
> I see that the Electricity company is now offering a fibre-to-the-home 
> service called Unlimited (unlimited.net.il).  At least according to the 
> English language pages, which may well not be up to date, they only seem 
> to have a handful of ISPs, none of which I've had anything to do with. 
> Furthermore, I don't know anything about their reputation (it's difficult 
> to find much in English), and I obviously don't know anything about their 
> end equipment, whether it can play nice with an EdgeRouter PoE and whether 
> or not it has a CAPTCHA.
> 
> I've also heard rumours of Bezeq providing a fibre-to-the-home solution as 
> well, but I don't know how true this is and I also don't know if equipment 
> for this would also suffer from a CAPTCHA that I've never figured out how 
> to disable.
> 
> I'm not particularly interested in going back to Hot cable unless someone 
> can make a very good case for them
> 
> If you've read this far, I thank you.
> 
> As you can see, I have a number of concerns, some of which might be 
> difficult to explain to an ISP or carrier sales rep.
> 
> My requirements are, therefore, in no particular order:
> 
> * Fast
> * Reliable
> * Usable with third-party routers
> * Able to be managed without a visual CAPTCHA.
> 
> Obviously, some of this is relevant to ISPs as well as carriers, so any 
> thoughts on the best ISPs would also be welcome.  I'm more interested in 
> quality and capacity than the usual bells and whistles the big ISPs have 
> that no-one ueses anyway.
> 
> If you have any thoughts on any of this, I'd be most grateful to hear 
> them.  As we move in two weeks, we will need to place orders soon.

-- 
"Kosher" Cellphones (cellphones with blocked SMS, video and Internet)
are a menace to the deaf.  They must be outlawed!
(See also: http://www.zak.co.il/tddpirate/2006/04/21/the-grave-danger-to-the-deaf-from-kosher-cellphones/ and http://www.zak.co.il/tddpirate/2007/02/04/rabbi-eliashiv-declared-war-on-the-deaf/)
My own blog is at http://www.zak.co.il/tddpirate/

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