Template talk:ISP

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Contents

[edit] Documentation

N.B. This documentation conflicts with the Usage info on the Template page. I am striking it out to avoid confusion. -- Rob C. alias Alarob 20:49, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

This template is for an anonymous account that Domain Name Service (DNS) resolves to an ISP shared account. It should go at the top of the anonymous user's talk page.

Usage: {{ISP | ISPname | domainname}}

Parameter Req'd./Opt. Explanation
ISPname required The ISP provider; Wikilink to their page, if possible.
domainname optional The domain name to which address resolves in DNS

Example: {{ISP | [[Cox Communications]] | ga.at.cox.net}}

[edit] See also

[edit] Template wording

This template is unfriendly and the stuff in it about "IT staff" is pretentious. I made an attempt to tone it down but Netsnipe reverted [1]. I'd like to undo the reversion. Just because (per Netsnipe's edit summary) it's not a welcome template doesn't mean it should be written in a way that makes users feel unwelcome. Discussion is solicited. 75.62.6.237 05:46, 17 May 2007 (UTC)

I suggest you bring this up at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard since not many people would be reading this talk page. --  Netsnipe  ►  07:48, 17 May 2007 (UTC)
Thanks, will do. 75.62.6.237 04:18, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Usage clarification?

What situations is this template intended to address?

The current wording is:

This IP address, (IP address or hostname appears here), is registered to {{{1}}}, an Internet service provider through which thousands of individual users may connect to the Internet via proxy. This IP address may be reassigned to a different person when the current user disconnects.

"via proxy" implies an IP address that belongs to a HTTP proxy server, corporate firewall, or some other machine that may be used by many users at once. However, "reassigned to a different person when the current user disconnects" suggests behavior that's more typical of dial-up modems or (less frequently) DSL or cable modem users. An IP address belonging to a firewall or proxy server may represent several users simultaneously; a dialup modem address may represent different users over the course of hours or days; a DSL or cable address is more likely to change over a period of months.

If this template isn't intended to distinguish between these different kinds of "shared access" then we should make the wording less specific.

Reason at hand that I'm asking is that this template has been applied to User talk:168.103.242.198 and I'm trying to figure out whether it makes sense for that IP. Tim Pierce 14:58, 18 September 2007 (UTC)

Now that I have looked more closely at {{ISP}} and {{SharedIP}} I am even more confused why there are two templates at all. {{SharedIP}} is more clearly written and seems to be more general than {{ISP}}. If no one can clearly explain the difference between them I will suggest retiring this template in favor of {{SharedIP}}. Tim Pierce 21:30, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

The difference is that this template describes an ISP specifically, while SharedIP describes an IP that is shared for whatever reason. This template is more specific. For example, if the IP 74.36.156.2 belongs to AOL, and they gave AOL users temporary access to the internet from this IP, they would use this template. If however, that IP belonged to the company XYZ enterprises, they would use the SharedIP template. The difference depends often on physical location, and on who is paying for the internet service, a group or an individual. ----Shishire Maiga 18:17, 22 October 2007 (UTC)