Datayard Open Internet Compliance Statement

All Internet service providers are required to post information regarding various issues so that consumers, both residential and business, can make informed choices about choosing an Internet service provider.

The FCC’s rules focus on four primary issues:

• Transparency. Fixed and mobile broadband providers must disclose the network management practices, performance characteristics, and terms and conditions of their broadband services;
• No blocking. Fixed broadband providers may not block lawful content, applications, services, or non-harmful devices; mobile broadband providers may not block lawful Web sites, or block applications that compete with their voice or video telephony services; and
• No unreasonable discrimination. Fixed broadband providers may not unreasonably discriminate in transmitting lawful network traffic.
• Reasonable network management. ISPs may engage in reasonable network management to maintain a high quality of service for broadband Internet access.

Network Practices

ISPs must disclose their network practices, specifically in the four general areas listed below. ISPs may not block lawful content, applications, services, or non-harmful devices, subject to reasonable network management. An ISP may not block consumers from accessing lawful Web sites, subject to reasonable network management; nor shall the ISP block applications that compete with the provider’s voice or video telephony services, subject to reasonable network management. ISPs may not unreasonably discriminate in transmitting lawful network traffic over a consumer’s broadband Internet access service, although, reasonable network management shall not constitute unreasonable discrimination. The FCC’s rules state that a network management practice is reasonable if it is appropriate and tailored to achieving a legitimate network management purpose, taking into account the particular network architecture and technology of the broadband Internet access service.

Congestion Management:

For access services, DataYard does not provide any kind of congestion management. A customer is able to completely saturate their line with all kinds of traffic on any port, and we will generally not intervene. The amount of bandwidth the customer is able to consume is determined by the amount of bandwidth they buy from us. For example, a residential user with a 6Mbps DSL line could use all 6Mbps. A business customer with a 300Mbps fiber connection can use all 300Mbps.

EXCEPTION #1: If the customer has asked us to manage their network we may, at the customer’s direct request, install access control lists and QoS to prioritize certain types of traffic. This is usually done to protect their network against attack, or improve the quality of certain services, like VoIP.

EXCEPTION #2: If we detect a denial-of-service attack in progress we may, at the discretion of our network administrators, de-peer with upstream carriers or block traffic to/from nefarious-looking IP addresses/blocks. This is usually only done when network performance is seriously degraded and immediate corrective action is required to restore performance for affected DataYard customers.

Application-Specific Behavior:

DataYard allows unrestricted transmission of all traffic types, over all ports, for all protocols, for all access customer connections.

EXCEPTION #1: If the customer has asked us to manage their network we may, at the customer’s direct request, install access control lists and QoS to prioritize certain types of traffic. This is usually done to protect their network against attack, or improve the quality of certain services, like VoIP.

EXCEPTION #2: If we detect a denial-of-service attack in progress we may, at the discretion of our network administrators, de-peer with upstream carriers or block traffic to/from nefarious-looking IP addresses/blocks. This is usually only done when network performance is seriously degraded and immediate corrective action is required to restore performance for affected DataYard customers.

Device Attachment Rules: DataYard generally owns, installs, and configures the customer premise equipment for network connections. For uniformity and ease of management, DataYard usually deploys Cisco devices on the customer premises. We have, however, worked with customers on a case-by-case basis to integrate our connections to their hardware.

By default, DataYard does not limit the kinds of devices that the customer can connect to their internal networks for the purpose of passing traffic over our internet connection. An exception to this is when the customer, at their request, asks us to limit devices on their network by MAC address.

Security:

The data passing over a customer’s network is generally unrestricted and unmonitored. However, for network management purposes, DataYard records and maintains a log file of network traffic data from the DataYard core showing protocol, port, and source and destination IP addresses for the last calendar day.

EXCEPTION #1: If DataYard notices a problem within its own infrastructure and confirms an attack against DataYard resources is in progress we generally block that offending customer’s traffic immediately and contact the customer for corrective action.