Some Internet service providers allow connections to be shared, but they're few and far between: I mentioned in passing yesterday that Speakeasy Networks was the only ISP to encourage sharing access to anyone and everyone for any of their personal or business DSL and T-1 accounts. Dana Spiegel of NYCwireless wrote in to note that three New York providers allow sharing.

He also pointed to PersonalTelco's run-down on ISPs and their sharing policies, but the information is largely out of date, or includes ISPs as allowing sharing which have only confirmed this by phone or in email but not in their AUP. EFF had a list as well which they've intended to update for two years, and may happen soon. I don't take a statement from an ISP via email or by phone that sharing is permitted as legitimate: it has to be in the publicly posted terms of service.

NYCwireless lists Bway.Net, Cloud9.Net, and Ace DSL. I checked their terms of service to see how they word it. Bway.net explicitly allows it, but you have to notify them to be legit. Cloud9.Net doesn't really state you can share, and you can read their terms to state you can't. They say, in summary: The customer may permit a member of their immediate household to use the customer's account subject to the account holder's supervision and the customer agrees that Cloud 9 reserves the right to prevent other Internet users from accessing its network, either in part or in whole, for any reason. Ace's policies are even vaguer, making it a gray issue that you can share a connection. But they do say In conjunction with the terms of Section "III c.", above, I agree not to resell any of the Services provided hereunder or the passwords thereto; Speakeasy allows resale of any part of any connection.

Updates: Oregon's Easystreet allows noncommercial sharing of their DSL service. Their page clearly says its an experiment, and they're working with Personal Telco to see if this concept works.

Butler Networks of Tennessee specifically allows noncommercial wireless sharing, too. Their agreement is very specific, saying you can't accept money or trade services in exchange for offering wireless access via your account, but that's perfect for community networking and other free public hotspots.

You can help compile a newer list of sharing-friendly ISPs: email me if you're an ISP that specifically allows sharing in your usage agreement or if you work with such an ISP. Please include a link to the terms of service Web page for confirmation.