Proposal to UK ISPs

[HM2K]

Okay, so I took up Hardy's suggestion of emailing UK ISPs about 2 months ago when I was bored... This is what I sent:

Hi there,

I am a user on EFnet Chat Network and I have been encouraged by other users and opers of EFnet to enquire if any UK/EU ISPs would be interested in sponsoring me to run an IRCd (IRC Server) on EFnet, or if you would run and admin one yourself.

EFnet is the modern-day descendant of the original IRC network. Internet Relay Chat, or IRC, is a real-time chat system, connecting clients on many different servers. People can talk to eachother one on one, or in a more public environment in channels (think CB radios)… EFnet is a large irc network with approximately 50 servers connected together in a branching tree configuration. Further questions regarding EFnet can be found here: http://www.efnet.org/?module=docs&doc=24&type=html

We already have one UK IRC Server “efnet.demon.co.uk” (Which has been around since about 1997) and many more EU IRC Servers. But we would like to see many more UK/EU Servers linked to EFnet in the near future.

The EU application form is located here: http://efnet.info/?module=docs&doc=18&type=text If you have any further questions, don’t hesitate to contact me.

Thanks, I hope to hear from you in the near future.

I emailed a few well known ISPs (clara.net, energis.com, blueyonder.co.uk, ntl.com, nildram.net, plus.net, eclipse.net.uk, londonlink.net, zen.co.uk, tiscali.co.uk) with no (or little) responce. One responce follows:

Hi,

Thank you for your enquiry. Unfortunately at this time we are unable to sponsor such a venture.

Regards

Alex Simpson

I am think I should try approaching nocs and datacentres instead...

I was wondering if its was worth it, and/or if anyone else from the UK would be willing to give me a hand...

Cheers.

[munky]

make your inquiries more personal, not something that sounds like a mass mailing. tell them why you want to use their specific network, how it would benefit them and their users.

[HM2K]

Hmmm, true, however, that would take alot of research to find out why I would want their specific network... etc...

munky, got any good examples of how it would benefit them and their users? *grin*

Also I got a reply from heanet.ie:

Thank you for your mail.
HEAnet is not strictly speaking an ISP but the National Education and
Research Network for Ireland. Any services that we support or run need
to be evaluated with respect to the aims and requirements of our user
community.

In this case that means we are not in a position to help you with your
request.

Regards,

Ann Harding
--
HEAnet NOC Manager
+353 1 6609040
noc@heanet.ie

[Hardy]

Hmmm, true, however, that would take alot of research to find out why I would want their specific network... etc...

munky, got any good examples of how it would benefit them and their users? *grin*

Also I got a reply from heanet.ie:

Thank you for your mail.
HEAnet is not strictly speaking an ISP but the National Education and
Research Network for Ireland. Any services that we support or run need
to be evaluated with respect to the aims and requirements of our user
community.

In this case that means we are not in a position to help you with your
request.

Regards,

Ann Harding
--
HEAnet NOC Manager
+353 1 6609040
noc@heanet.ie

Well, finding a ISP willing to host a EFnet server is usually a lot of work, and also requires alot of research. However i have seen examples of sending a mail really works, just depends if you are lucky enough to send it to the right person.

Its no easy way to find someone, but i guess thats why there is only one UK server right now. Keep trying tho. But the best way to get in touch with someone is thru friends and fellow ircers.. Even a helldesk person knows the right person in NOC to ask

[HM2K]

Worth a try, I know a few people who are at dcs, i'll give them a word up and see what I can get back...

[Silence]

If you think this is hard work, try finding someone willing to host an .au ircd. I dare you...

[munky]

well, one obvious benefit is advertisement. if the irc links with the hosts name in it (he.net, servercentral.net, choopa.com, foxlink.net, easynews.com, etc, etc), then that name is seen by 100000 people every day (probably more like 10-50k, if you disclude bots/drones).

there is also the consideration for ISPs how it benefits their customers (that's why aol and charter ran ircds at one point). i'll leave it as an exercise to you to list them.

hell, there may even be some poor NOC admin at a large ISP just itching to link to EFnet, but has no idea how to go about it.

you should try to go as high up the chain as reasonably possible. if the CEO of the NOC/ISP supports the ircd, it will probably last longer than if you just go to a NOC monkey. actually calling may give better results than emailing.

[HM2K]

Yeah, perhaps, as it happens at the moment I am job hunting, I could kill 2 birds with one stone, heh.

However, in this day in age, as I have found with most companys while job hunting, they ask you to email them details anyway... most of the good companys respond to your emails quite well, which is the kind of people we are going to want hooked up to efnet...

Btw, Silence, I supose getting an .au ircd would be harder, but I bet you could find one, there are a lot of .au people on irc (some of my friends), also it would be nice to have US, EU/UK -AND- AU servers...

[sealie]

FYI, there was someone msging me about this yesterday and actually considered to link with EFnet. As there is no decision made yet I don't want to tell the name of the ISP yet. They were awaiting more transit connections within short time and was gonna reconsider linking after the new pending uplinks were up and ready to go. I believe he also talked with Manic about various infrastructure issues.

And yes, asking someone to sponsor a server to EFnet requires alot of work, luck and good people to help them out. This person who msgd me had experience from IRCnet which is a good thing, but had no experience with EFnet or servers whatsoever. I guess all we can do is wait, and cross our fingers.

Good thought, HM2K. I hope more ISP's will reply

Cheers,

Vidar

[zero]

try emailing some universities that have computer science departments as well.. maybe they'll accept if you tell them it'll help the students communicate easier between them or even for publicity. It's worth a try.

[HM2K]

Sounds interesting Sealie, let me know if you need a hand, i'm usually around.

I'd definatly like to see a population of 2-3 UK based EFnet IRC servers.

I'm hoping this is just the start of good things to come.

zero, I won't be emailing UK uni's as they won't be interested. They all link back via JAnet and I'm fairly sure they want as little to do with IRC as possible.

However, from looking at sf.net the University of Kent has spare bandwidth to throw around for mirrors (http://www.mirrorservice.org/help/introduction.html), but I can see that it may actually benifit them to do that, but I can't see why they would want to run an IRCD.

PS. If you are reading this and own an ISP in the UK, please get in touch, if you are at all interested. Thanks.

[lyness]

Some UK unis would be interested, i know for a fact that Durham University has its own ircd for its own users on campus so perhaps they are worth a try, maybe youll get the right lecturer who wants to expand or have a student who want to link to it as a project. If you can find the right uni then i dont think itll be a problem. if i remember i know a couple of people at University of Kent both students and staff so i might ask around, if not when i get to uni in sept i might see if i can find the right person to ask. you could also try the smaller isp's theres a new swedish one (http://www.bethere.co.uk), might be worth them doing it to get some almost free advertising amongst efnet users. but it all boils down to who gets the request and how open they are to irc, i guess, but good luck with the search

[HM2K]

I don't know whether they would.

I asked Kent Uni, who seem to have bags of spare bandwidth to waste, due to them running mirror.ac.uk which hosts sf.net stuff along with more linux and freebsd ports etc.

They wern't interested, or I didn't get a responce.

I'm thinking of sending out an email to some or all companies on the following list: http://www.adslguide.org.uk/isps/summarylist.asp

Feel free to do the same, and point them to this thread. Maybe that way we'll at least generate some interest.

On a positive note, I did speak to dan of kewlio.net, who already hosts services for undernet and quakenet, as far as I recall, he basically said, not right now, but he'd think about it. So who knows.

Thanks.

[Hardy]

I don't know whether they would.

I asked Kent Uni, who seem to have bags of spare bandwidth to waste, due to them running mirror.ac.uk which hosts sf.net stuff along with more linux and freebsd ports etc.

They wern't interested, or I didn't get a responce.

I'm thinking of sending out an email to some or all companies on the following list: http://www.adslguide.org.uk/isps/summarylist.asp

Feel free to do the same, and point them to this thread. Maybe that way we'll at least generate some interest.

On a positive note, I did speak to dan of kewlio.net, who already hosts services for undernet and quakenet, as far as I recall, he basically said, not right now, but he'd think about it. So who knows.

Thanks.

Well, this thread might also be a bit outdated now, as efnet have gatherd a shitload of servers without loosing any the last year... So how much need there would be for a europe server in .uk these days im not sure of. My personal opinion is that US is also pretty good coverd and if anything perhaps one more in canada and servers in southern parts of europe and/or asia would be a good contribution..

[HM2K]

I just feel that one UK EFnet server isn't sufficient, even though demon has been around since the dawn of time, however when/if ever it has a problem, it means trying to find a EU server as a backup.

I'd much rather have the option of connecting to an additional low latency UK server, and i'm sure my fellow UK lusers would agree.

Besides, the more the merrier.

It has now been over a year since I originally posted this thread, yet I have not really had any major interest. Maybe we never will, however there's no harm in trying.