said by Authority :

But WHY? If the total bandwidth used i less than someone else who doesn't use VPN at all what's the difference?

said by Loker :

because they do care about VPN

said by DSL Oberst :

The official reason was a) residential accounts had no guaranteed uptime - a person could be down weeks and that would be TOS-compliant, b) said VPN could thus be down for weeks (as in the case of a reprovisioning the phone line to a house) and c) that means that Earthlink could be held legally liable for all business losses incurred by not having VPN available on the account. Thus, Earthlink only supported VPN connections on business accounts, which had a guaranteed uptime of 98%.

said by NetFixer :



As has already been posted by quatrix , the Comcast TOS for it's residential HSI service does indeed contain a prohibition against using VPN for commercial purposes. The link posted was not directly to the Acceptable Use Policy, so perhaps that confused some readers. Here is the direct link to the Acceptable Use Policy.

And here, is the relevant section of that policy for the hyperlink impaired:

said by Comcast High-Speed Internet Acceptable Use Policy :

---

Prohibited Uses and Activities

Prohibited uses include, but are not limited to, using the Service, Customer Equipment, or the Comcast Equipment to:

ix. resell the Service or otherwise make available to anyone outside the Premises the ability to use the Service (i.e. wi-fi, or other methods of networking), in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, or on a bundled or unbundled basis. The Service is for personal and non-commercial use only and you agree not to use the Service for operation as an Internet service provider or for any business enterprise or purpose, or as an end-point on a non-Comcast local area network or wide area network;

---

Whether or not Comcast routinely and actively enforces this prohibition might be debated, but the prohibition itself is clear enough to anyone with a reasonable understanding of the English language.

said by deblin :

And I'm sorry, but that doesn't sound like a connection TO a VPN violates the AUP. It sounds like you can allow people to VPN _to_ you. Not vice versa. Show me proof that VPN'ing to work from a residential line is a violation of the TOS, then maybe I'll believe it. It doesn't make sense, and if it IS true (which I'm beginning to doubt), it's the most absurd policy I've heard in a while.

said by Authority :

If it's about bandwidth and not VPN one has to wonder why their TOS even mentions VPN at all? Wouldn't it be easier for them just to limit overall bandwidth regardless of application?

said by back on topic :

Guys lets get this back on topic. Comcast wont shut down vpn, they don't care or monitor vpn usage. Everyone here getting worked up thinking comcast will come knocking on their door cause the use vpn has missed the point. And is getting worked up over nothing.

What we have is the classic bandwidth case.

said by hobgoblin :

Its clearly not true.....

said by quatrix :

Even if "commercial use" didn't include VPN, VPN would be "an end-point on a non-Comcast local area network or wide area network".

said by quatrix :

And making you get a more expensive account to use VPN is about as much extortion as the water company shutting off my service for not paying the bill. They provide a service under their conditions, and you can pay for it or not.

said by Comcast :

Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, the Service is for personal and non-commercial use only and you agree not to use the Service for operation as an Internet service provider, a server site for ftp, telnet, rlogin, e-mail hosting, "web hosting" or other similar applications, for any business enterprise, or as an end-point on a non-Comcast local area network or wide area network.

said by DMS1 :

Before everyone gets on their high horses, I suspect that the term "commercial purposes", which the TOS explicitly outlaws, has a very particular meaning. I take it to mean "in connection with running a business". In other words, you cannot use a residential account as the internet connection for a business. I would argue that an individual connecting into their place of work via a VPN is just a form of personal use. A similar distinction arises with car insurance, where a typical policy prohibits using ones car for business while not prohibiting using it to get to and from work.