St. Louis area ISPs that are Linux-Friendly:

Dial-up:

• Access-4-Free - They are shutting down on 1 June 2005 and sending their customers to EarthLink (yuck), see NoMoreAccess4Free.
• http://www.panix.com
• http://www.eskimo.com

	setup	< 10 hrs/mo	between 10 & 20	> 20 hrs/mo
access4free	$5	free	$1.00/hr/mo	$10.00/mo
panix	----	$32.50/mo	$32.50/mo	$32.50/mo
eskimo	----	$22.00/mo	$22.00/mo	$22.00/mo

The speeds are 56kbps for each. Great for a fall-back dial-up plan.

You can obtain a basic Panix dial-up for about $10 (limited shell, dial.) Panix probably has a plan for $32.50 that gives you a full shell, a loaded quota, a static IP, unlimited number of boxes/aliases, whatever.

Hi-Speed or Broadband:

• Brick Networks http://www.brick.net/
• Static IP for additional cost, inbound unblock for yet another additional cost
• What is the "inbound unblock"? Can't seem to find it on their site unless it is in the agreement fine print somewhere.
• You have a static IP, but their routers will not pass TCP/IP setup packets through to your static IP unless you get the $10/mo additional Business Class service. I only found out about it when I asked about running a server on my extra-price static IP. What you're really getting is Business Class response services (e.g. paging an operator for an outage), and they distinguish those customers (that share the same level of service as their business customers) from their regular ADSL customers by using static IPs. That's all.
• 1.5Mbps down Static IP service is $49/mo. They call that their "Elite Service customers", I believe. To run servers, you need the true Business Class service for $60/mo.
• When I signed up about 2 years ago, they waived the setup and starter kit fees, since I already had the Speedstream 5660 from valuenet, and it is still a rock solid device. I set it up in bridge mode four years ago and have had zero problems.

• http://covad.com/
• I've been using Covad for almost two years and have been very pleased. "Business class" tech support. Not the cheapest, though. I also need to say that my 1.5mbps ADSL loads web pages noticeably faster than the same speed ADSL line from places like Earthlink and AOL. Just a subjective observation. -- ArtZ
• I switched away from Valunet about 2 years ago, back when they were being spam blacklisted. I moved to Covad. Now, before you roll your eyes..... Yes they are a nation-wide reseller... Having said that, I've had only one outage in that two years. And that was for a over-zelous backhoe operator at the C.O., not from poor network admin. Covad also have a person on the other end of the phone - 24x7x365.. and they -are- cluey. I also have a static subnet, all aliased to a single interface... no MAC-IP conflicts. The -only- bad thing I can say about Covad, is that although they have a static subnets, it is negotiated via PPPoE in there modem. On the upside to that - I have admin access to said modem. Still a great service though. -- EricWilson

• http://www.speakeasy.net/
• I've had excellent luck with Speakeasy. They have excellent service and excellent customer service. Their niche market is tech people. They cater to people that hang servers off of DSL. For a static ip, service is $50 but you get better upload speed than valuenet offered(assuming you didn't upgraded it).
• shameless plug: If you decide to give speakeasy a shot, sign up through my url(they give kickbacks of $25) and I'll float you half of the kickback. http://www.speakeasy.net/refer/259932 -- MikeShoemaker

Bring-yer-own access:

• KSPEI - http://www.kspei.com/
• provides UML hosting
• locally-owned and operated (Fairview Heights, IL)
• Definitely Linux-friendly