EDIT: See my latest post regarding Acanac. (April 13, 08)
Apparently I’m a part of the very lucky minority of independent ISP customers (TSI) who still remains unaffected by Bell Canada’s contentious traffic shaping policy. (wTwNjzVFVU)
It’s been three days since Bell’s published traffic shpaing implementation date of April 7th but I have to wonder how long I’ll remain off the leash.
There is an ISP called Acanac that may just have the solution to Bell’s hostile policies. They offer a service which gives you a Linux-based “virtual PC” that is hooked up directly to the Internet backbone. It doesn’t touch one wire of Bell’s network so it remains unaffected by Bell’s traffic shaping policies.
Acanac’s intention is to offer a PVR-style service for PC users where content is obtained from the Internet, stored on Acanac’s servers and accessed/maintained by subscribers via their Online PC VPS system.
Here are the user plan details:
| Standard VPS PC | Extereme VPS PC | |
 Price |
$23.95 | $39.95 |
| Speed |
10Mbps/10Mbps | 20Mbps/20Mbps |
| IP’s |
1 Static | 1 Static |
| Bandwith Traffic |
500GB | 1000GB |
| Hard Drive Space |
100GB | 200GB |
| Ram |
750MB | 1500MB |
| Root |
Yes | Yes |
| Term | Standard | Extreme |
| 1 Month |
$35.95/month | $51.95/month |
| 3 Months |
$31.95/month | $47.95/month |
| 6 Months |
$27.95/month | $43.95/month |
| 12 Months |
$23.95 /month | $39.95/month |
Note that you get SSH root access to your virtual PCs. This means you can install almost any software you want and aren’t limited to the basic set of applications that are offered with each account. You just have to make sure whatever software you install can operate within the 750MB RAM constraint.
The price for of $23.95/month for the 12-month Standard plan isn’t bad either. On average I spend about that much a month on just comic books.
Although Acanac intends that subscribers use this service in a PVR-like manner where content stays on their servers, theoretically, even throttled Bell Sympatico users could take advantage of this service since users would perform direct downloading from Acanac’s servers without the use of p2p’s protocols and number of active connections; which is the criteria upon which traffic shaping is based.
I primarily use bittorrent for downloading unlicensed anime series and TV shows that I’ve missed. I’m a big proponent of the concept of being able to watch what I want, when I want— and now ‘where I want’ now that I have the iPod Touch. 
I’d be willing to try service out for 3 or even 6 months since it suits my usage pattern perfectly.
Screw you, Bell! May you continue to hemorrhage customers.
Tags: acanac, bell canada sucks, net neutrality, online vps, sympatico, throttling, virtual pc
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