> What I don't understand is why more techno-freaks with radical
> ideals haven't started their own isp's and server networks. How
> expensive are these systems to set up?
They cost some money, but they aren't prohibitively expensive to start up. But if you run a radical ISP and the people who use your service contribute little to no cash, you can start to see why there aren't more of these projects around. Many of us are used to donating to stuff like Pacifica, but how many of you have *ever* donated money to a radical or independent ISP?
The other big hurdle is technical expertise. Running a radical ISP is not like coding web pages for a website. I helped start up a radical ISP several years ago and I never got to learn all of the complicated sysadmin stuff. Ironically, that project is now being criticized for its poor customer service, something I helped provide before I left.
A couple of us are talking about setting up a new ISP in Kansas City. We have the skills, people and some equipment, but there is the problem of money and time.
> When I changed to FreeBSD in '98 I went looking for an isp that ran
> the same OS and found one pretty easily. It's a little hard to explain
> how transparent this kind of connection is unless you have tried
> it.
>
> And another thing. I don't know why threatened servers keep their
> system logs in the first place. You can configure
> the logs to show what you need but would be useless for political
> surveillance purposes. Even if the isp keeps logs, there is no reason
> for a politically vulnerable subscriber like Indymedia to keep those
> kind of logs.
Indymedia websites don't keep logs. The logs they keep are erased on a regular basis. It's just not as simple as you put it with your questions. Some of us run projects that rely on software that keeps logs or stores IP information. It's not like you can go in and alter the programing easy to purge IPs.
I'm more inclined to minimize the storing of IPs as much as possible and adopt a policy of noncompliance when the FBI knocks. Which it did to us back in March.
Chuck0 Infoshop.org