Mikrotec Internet Services
Disclosure of Broadband Internet Access Service Network Management Practices, Performance and Commercial Terms
This disclosure applies solely to the broadband services offered by Mikrotec Internet Services (MIS) on a standardized basis to residential customers, small businesses and other end-user customers. This disclosure does not apply to any other broadband service (e.g., specialized or enterprise services) or to any dial-up Internet access service. MIS may revise this disclosure from time to time without notice by posting a new version of this disclosure on the MIS website at http://www.mikrotec.com/legal_open_internet.html. Accordingly, users of MIS’s Internet access services should consult this document regularly to ensure that they remain aware of changes to the practices described in this disclosure. In the event of a conflict between any subscriber agreement or the Acceptable Use Policy and this disclosure, the terms of the subscriber agreement or Acceptable Use Policy shall govern. This disclosure does not create enforceable rights in the subscriber or any third party edge provider.
Mikrotec Internet Services (MIS) operates a robust and modern ip based network, which spans Central and Eastern Kentucky. MIS provides a variety of services over this network including Broadband Internet Access, Frame Relay, ATM, Ethernet and Data Center Services. MIS is also providers provider and provides back end engineering, routing, and network services to several other ISP's within its coverage territory. MIS does not currently provide ip based voice service to its customers.
MIS utilizes a 10Gig core network to transport all broadband services to the rest of the world. No prioritization or discrimination of forwarding traffic is performed, either within a service type or between service categories.
MIS utilizes 1Gig distribution switches to transport broadband services. No prioritization or discrimination of forwarding traffic is performed, either within a service type or between service categories.
MIS operates 2 access networks with only 1 service type, Broadband Internet Access. Both access networks are connections to other networks which allow us to re-sell the other providers DSL service.
An ADSL network which utilizes Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) for the last mile loop and PPPoE for authentication.
This is the AT&T network and is connected to the MIS Lexington location via an ATM host circuit.
This network transports strictly broadband internet and performs no prioritization or discrimination of forwarding traffic.
Available bandwidth packages range from 1.5Mbit to 3Mbit download speeds.
An ADSL network which utilizes ATM and for the last mile loop and an always on Private Virtual Circuit (PVC) connection.
This is the Windstream network and is connected to the MIS Lexington location via an ATM host circuit.
This network transports strictly broadband internet and performs no prioritization or discrimination of forwarding traffic.
Available bandwidth packages range from 1.5Mbps to 12Mbps download speeds.
MIS does not discriminate, prioritize or block any legitimate forwarding traffic at our network edge locations (other than as described in our AUP and Security section).
MIS, as much as reasonably possible, designs and operates its network based on the following guiding principles:
Where at all feasible, sufficient external bandwidth must be secured to allow the largest edge location to fail or the largest inter-site link to fail and still not suffer congestion during normal peak load utilization.
Maintaining the security of the network is a top priority and, to this end, we implement commonly accepted security best practices subject to cost and technical considerations.
While MIS does not currently utilize any form of congestion management. MIS may in the future use various tools and techniques to manage its network, deliver its service, and ensure compliance with the Acceptable Use Policy available at https://istore.mikrotec.com/aup/aup_iagree.html. These tools and techniques may be dynamic, like the network and its usage, and may change frequently. For example, these network management activities may include identifying spam and preventing its delivery to customer email accounts, detecting malicious Internet traffic and preventing the distribution of viruses or other harmful code or content and using other tools and techniques that MIS may implement in order to meet its goal of delivering a high quality broadband Internet experience to its customers.
MIS does not currently have any policy in place the would prefer one type of Broadband Internet traffic, protocol, provider, service, application, or site over another. Subject to the AUP and the security practices listed below, the customer is free to choose any device type, protocol, service, provider, application, etc., without experiencing any type of service degradation or slow down. MIS reserves the right (but does not undertake the responsibility) to block or degrade content, applications and services that are unlawful, that may violate the rights of third parties (e.g., copyright infringement) or that may pose a harm to our network or other customers.
MIS does not restrict what types of devices are eligible to connect to our network, however we can only provide direct end user support for devices for which we are familiar. At each DSL modem we provide a single ethernet port for Broadband Internet and if a customer wishes to use multiple devices, the customer will need to provide their own router, which will provide NAT. For residential service, each DSL customer is assigned a single public IPv4 address. For commercial service, multiple IPs are available if needed. MIS reserves the right (but does not undertake the responsibility) to prohibit devices that may pose a harm to our network or other customers.
In an effort to maintain the security of the MIS network and our subscribers as well as to abide by good Internet Citizenship, MIS utilizes the following listed security practices, which affect forwarded traffic delivered to our subscribers. In addition to this list, MIS utilizes multiple other mechanisms to promote the Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability of the MIS network; however, only those having a direct bearing on customer forwarded traffic are listed here.
In order to assist in the world wide fight against unsolicited commercial email (SPAM), commonly accepted network practices dictate that ISP's block outbound traffic destined for the SMTP service (port 25). This doesn't preclude a customer from being able to run a mail server at their site, but does require a simple change to the normal configuration, i.e. using our mail server as a smart relay host.
DHCP broadcast requests destined to UDP port 67 (attempting to connect to a DHCP server) are not permitted to terminate to a subscriber end point.
Traffic entering our access network sourced from RFC1918 address space is denied.
In the event of malicious activity, MIS may implement a temporary block at the network level restricting traffic, which may be harmful to the network as a whole. If such activity is necessary, the affected customer(s) would be contacted and worked with in an effort to remove the underlying threat.
MIS collects performance characteristics in the aggregate at this level (link level utilization), which allows us to proactively plan in advance proper network scaling.
If needed, when working with a subscriber to troubleshoot a problem, properly trained staff within MIS may perform real time traffic analysis of subscriber traffic.
In the event of malicious activity, MIS may implement a temporary block at this network level restricting traffic, which may be harmful to the network as a whole. If such activity is necessary, the affected customer(s) would be contacted and worked with in an effort to remove the underlying threat.
MIS collects performance characteristics in the aggregate at this level (link level utilization), which allows us to proactively plan in advance proper network scaling.
If needed, when working with a subscriber to troubleshoot a problem, properly trained staff within MIS may perform real time traffic analysis of subscriber traffic.
In the event of malicious activity, MIS may implement a temporary block at this network level restricting traffic, which may be harmful to the network as a whole. If such activity is necessary, the affected customer(s) would be contacted and worked with in an effort to remove the underlying threat.
MIS collects performance characteristics in the aggregate at this level (link level utilization), which allows us to proactively plan in advance proper network scaling.
If needed, when working with a subscriber to troubleshoot a problem, properly trained staff within MIS may perform real time traffic analysis of subscriber traffic.
In the event of malicious activity, MIS may implement a temporary block at this network level restricting traffic, which may be harmful to the network as a whole. If such activity is necessary, the affected customer(s) would be contacted and worked with in an effort to remove the underlying threat.
MIS collects performance characteristics in the aggregate at this level (link level utilization), which allows us to proactively plan in advance proper network scaling.
MIS collects netflow data on all external traffic flows to better understand network attacks.
If needed, when working with a subscriber to troubleshoot a problem, properly trained staff within MIS may perform real time traffic analysis of subscriber traffic.
Traffic entering our network edge from the external side, sourced from an IP address within one of our network ranges is denied.
Traffic traversing our network edge sourced from RFC1918 address space is denied.
Traffic traversing our network edge sourced from loopback, link local or ‘this’ address (as defined in RFC 3330) is denied.
MIS provides an ADSL2+ service. Data rates are available from 1.5Mbps to 12Mbps depending on service needs. Our DSL service is based on a “best effort” technology. That means that all advertised speeds are an “up to” rating and not a committed information rate.
The "actual" speed that a customer will experience while using the Internet depends upon a variety of conditions, many of which are beyond the control of an ISP such as MIS. These conditions include:
Performance of a customer's computer, including its age, processing capability, its operating system, the number of applications running simultaneously, and the presence of any adware and viruses.
Type of connection between a customer's computer and modem. For example, wireless connections may be slower than direct connections into a router or modem. Wireless connections also may be subject to greater fluctuations, interference and congestion. MIS does not recommend wireless modem connections for use with its higher speed tiers as many wireless connections do not perform at the speeds delivered by these tiers.
The distance packets travel (round trip time of packets) between a customer's computer and its final destination on the Internet, including the number and quality of the networks of various operators in the transmission path. The Internet is a "network of networks." A customer's connection may traverse the networks of multiple providers before reaching its destination, and the limitations of those networks will most likely affect the overall speed of that Internet connection.
Congestion or high usage levels at the website or destination limit speed. If a large number of visitors are accessing a site or particular destination at the same time, your connection will be affected if the site or destination does not have sufficient capacity to serve all of the visitors efficiently.
Gating of speeds or access by the website or destination limit speed. In order to control traffic or performance, many websites limit the speeds at which a visitor can download from their site. Those limitations will carry through to a customer's connection.
For these reasons, MIS, like all other ISPs, advertises speeds as "up to" a particular level, and does not guarantee them.
The customer premise is supplied one 10/100 meg ethernet port.
Customers are encouraged to utilize external speed test sites and to report any inconstancies they notice.
MIS does not currently offer any specialized network services that would negatively impact the last mile capacity or the performance of broadband internet access service.
Please call us at 877-TEAM-MIS (877-832-6647) for current pricing.
MIS reserves the right to inspect and analyze network traffic to assist in troubleshooting or service recovery to evaluate our services, to provide our services and to detect unauthorized activity. Aggregate and specific analysis information may be shared with third parties to assist in said troubleshooting, service recovery, evaluation, provision or detection, however no personally identifiable information would be included except to the extent authorized by the customer, required by law or regulation, allowed by the privacy provisions of the AUP or allowed by 47 USC 551
All subscribers are required to abide by our Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) available at http://www.mikrotec.com/aup/aup_iagree.html. In the event of a conflict between the Network Management Practices described in this document and the TOA or the AUP, the terms of the TOA or AUP shall govern. Section 1 of the AUP contains additional privacy policies.
All service concerns should initially be addressed to the billing office at 877.TEAM.MIS (877.832.6647). Our customer support staff will take ownership of the issue and work with internal resources to resolve any problems.
All complaints should be addressed to abuse@mikrotec.com. Customers found to be acting in violation of the AUP will receive two warnings and service may be disrupted or discontinued upon the third complaint.
Customer information will only be released upon receipt of a bona fide subpoena or other legal requirement.