Here's a summary of what we do -- it's long, and that's because we have not yet found a good way to describe the co-op in brief terms, alas. We are vast; we contain multitudes.
The Co-op:
We currently offer colocation, dedicated DSL, from 128Kbps to 512Kbps
all with fixed or burstable bandwidth of your choosing (instead of
the X megabytes per month model), and frac/full T1 access. Our
connectivity is over a router colocated with Level3 with a 10Mbit crossover
ethernet connection to their Chicago core routers. Everything is geared
to grow to ensure that we don't oversell our connection... ever (this and
similar issues with other area ISPs is why we started the co-op). As a
member, the co-op will secondary DNS for you (and even front DNS as
primary for you if you don't want your system's nameservice visited by
the outside world), delegate a subdomain to you if you don't have a
domain, and give you control of your inverse DNS records (via the method
described in rfc2317, which is really easy to implement and requires no
special software).
We never have less bandwidth to our upstream (Level3) than the aggregate total of our entire membership at burst. I.e., we never oversell, not even a little.
We're a real (Illinois incorporated not-for-profit, federal 501(c)(12) tax-exempt organization) co-op, so pricing is falling regularly as our consolidated buying power and membership grows. That userbase is mostly computer (tech, law, and security) professionals at present, plus some companies: including a law firm, a non-profit web site (a very busy one, indeed), and web hosting providers.
DNS:
We'll secondary your DNS zones. In fact, you can tell the world we're
primary if you want, just so long as you run your own mini DNS server from
which our server can refresh your zones.
You can control your own INVERSE DNS (number -> name) translation. If you're
already running a name server, pick one of your domains, and set up
entries for each of your IPs; so if you have xxx.xxx.xxx.32/29 you could
set up in your mydomain.com zone:
33 IN PTR mypc.mydomain.com.
34 IN PTR mymac.mydomain.com.
35 IN PTR myymp.mydomain.com.
36 IN PTR mycisco.mydomain.com.
...we'll do the rest.
If you have no domain, you CAN HAVE one from us! We're happy to delegate subdomains based on your login. So, if your login is "plonk" -- you can have *.plonk.ispfh.org to play with (Thus, the above inverses would resolve to something like mypc.plonk.ispfh.org.). Mail will be MX'd under your control, CNAMES yours to decide, number of names at your reasonable discretion, etc. Of course, you do have to have a nameserver someplace to handle it, even a mini one; see above.
ISPFH will also accomodate non-ISPFH-network nameservers for your domains, eiher to feed them info (as a master server, though the zone still needs to be mastered on a machine under your control) or to get your zone info from them (instead of from a machine on your ISPFH network).
If you want your own .com, .net or .org domain, you should plan on running a name server on your systems, or you can purchase name service from any of hundreds of providers around the world- but not from ISPFH; we'll secondary and even act as remote, but we'll have to read it from you. You can use a simple freeware NT or *NIX domain name service program if you want to be "primary" but hidden from the world.
E-Mail:
If you prefer not to run yourlogin.ispfh.org as a subdomain, ISPFH can at
your direction MX yourlogin.ispfh.org to a mail server of your choosing.
ISPFH will not, however, directly handle, MX, or forward your mail. You
should probably be happy about that.
Pricing is about $0.32/kilobit/sec plus fixed costs of connectivity, plus general overhead. The latter two costs go down with each new member, while the former goes down with every connectivity milestone we pass with our upstream (Level3). All connectivity is dedicated; all is made with the assurance that to the first hop out of our control, there is always sufficient bandwidth to handle the entire membership at full burst.
So, for example, right now, a colocated server taking up 1 RU (1.75" - for example a Sun NetraT1) with 256Kb/s of bandwidth for its dedicated use and a /27 subnet (32 IPs, 30 usable) would cost the member approx $150/mo and function as if it were on a dedicated Frac. T1 of its own. 256k/sec at full usage represents 66,355 Megabytes per month (66GB), for those of you used to the "bytes per month" pricing model. 128Kbps burstable to 256k DSL with a /29 subnet (8 IPs, 5 hosts + router) is about $114/mo. and falling as a result of new membership. There is no cost for larger netblocks; one must merely demonstrate need and the levels of usage called for by ARIN.
Our membership (one time buy-in) is $400 + $100 for the first 6 months (whatever kind of connection you get), or $1000 once. The buy-in is a one-time thing. The membership entitles you to a vote (if an individual, not a business subscription) and a refund of any excess at the year's end that is not rolled into infrastructure improvements, and the right to get whatever level of connection you want on one pipe (more -- like if you want two T1s instead of one -- and you'd cover the materials cost of the extra WIC card). You become a part owner, so if the co-op ever dissolves, you would receive part of the liquidation.
Membership is not always open, and once the currently-being-filled DSL capacity is spoken for, we'll begin a short waitlist for new members until we have about 40% commitment on a new pipe. This helps save existing membership from bearing the costs of unused DSL capacity (which is the greater part of the overhead right now).
Once you know what you want, you can join by sending the membership fee (all at once or the first $400) to:
The ISPFH CoOp P.O. Box 87430 Chicago, IL 60680-9998 attn: Membership
If that has not scared you away...
-Mike Scher, ISPFH Co-op President, 1999-present