RevK
Adrian Kennard (RevK) is CEO of UK ISP Andrews & Arnold and writes about networking, embedded hardware, and odd technical history.
What HN says
HN commenters say his blog is always worth reading, and recommend his ISP, AAISP, which builds its own network devices; his NTP server hardware is also noted.
Stats for nerds
72HN people shared it
45linked in comments
2Kstory points
Aug 2026last shared
Top posts on HN
- 1ADSL works over wet string (2017)20 people · 1K points · first shared 2017 · 153 comments on HN
- 2Unicode Dicks3 people · 536 points · first shared 2018 · 102 comments on HN
- 3Internet in a Box1 person · 102 points · first shared 2020 · 27 comments on HN
- 4CR+LF Has a Long History1 person · 102 points · first shared 2022 · 65 comments on HN
- 5KiCad 61 person · 68 points · first shared 2022 · 12 comments on HN
- 6Connecting an ASR33 Teletype to an ESP322 people · 60 points · first shared 2020 · 14 comments on HN
- 7Investigatory Powers Act – devil in the detail1 person · 49 points · first shared 2016 · 11 comments on HN
- 8ASR33 Consumables1 person · 17 points · first shared 2020 · 6 comments on HN
- 9RevK 's ramblings: How not to QR (NHS C19 app)7 people · 12 points · first shared 2020 · 1 comments on HN
- 10Bring back TheOatmeal.com1 person · 8 points · first shared 2014 · 6 comments on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
- tialaramexMay 2024
This is one reason why I spend considerably more money on a mere 40MBit DSL link to my preferred ISP rather than (since I live in a city where it's available) getting a fairly cheap gigabit link.
The ISP is basically somebody's personal mission, grown into a modestly successful business, specifically this guy: https://revk.uk/
I have only called them like twice since buying this place years ago, once to order a more modern DSL router, and once because my service died (electricity cable under a road literally exploded, turns out the nearby cabinet full of DSL hardware didn't like that). Each time I talked to somebody like a colleague, who understands different things than me but doesn't treat me like an idiot and expects the same in return.
We would both understand why "There's no place like ::1" is funny, and both know that "It's always DNS" is both true more often than you expect, and yet not so reliably true as to rule out all the other possible causes. When I called for the exploded DSL, they didn't waste my time asking me to try power cycling things, they were able to trace the actual problem, and quickly found out what I cared about and while I was disappointed [no Internet!] I understood what was happening and why, success.
The other reason I'm with them is that they don't do censorship. Lots of UK ISPs have "optional" censorship (you know to protect the precious children) and then of course a judge says well, you've got the technology so if I order you to take…
- ajbApr 2026
Check your local law. In some jurisdictions, you can charge interest, or penalties. You can be gentle about it - give fair warning, reminder that intrest is starting to accrue, etc. But customers don't generally want liabilities to increase, so will prefer to pay before extra costs are incurred.
Here is one company's experience (UK focused): https://www.revk.uk/2026/03/late-payments.html
It depends a lot on your relationship with the customer as well, I guess. Some may get butthurt about it, for others, your relationship is with a person in a different dept to the people organising the payments, you can send interest notices to the finance dept without worrying the person who wants your services.
- blutackJul 2025
RevK's blog has a lot of interesting posts on it.
https://www.revk.uk/
He also runs an excellent ISP in the UK called AAISP which I can highly recommend (https://www.aa.net.uk)
AAISP build their own core & customer networking devices/routers from scratch (not Linux based) in the UK. They are fascinating to use - a completely different evolutionary tree to any other networking kit I've used. Some unique features.
https://www.firebrick.co.uk/fb9000/
- BoorishBearsJan 2023
> but there is no chance of running data over the same circuit
Maybe true for top of the line fiber connections, but I honestly wouldn't underestimate the resilience of ADSL https://www.revk.uk/2017/12/its-official-adsl-works-over-wet-string.html
Edit: Actually here's an exact case where the phone line no longer functioned due to a break, but ADSL soldiered on: https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/9yzp5wr3
- scrollawayJan 2016
You should follow Adrian Kennard's blog: http://www.revk.uk/
He's the CEO of AAISP, arguably the best and most transparent ISP in the UK (also quite a small one).
On costs, there's also contracts with other ISPs (most lines are leased from other ISPs, not leased by the ISP itself), customer hardware (routers and other gadgets), marketing, support, subcontracts for personnel across the country, etc.
- EvanAndersonJul 2025
Piling-on to my own comment: Searching the site https://www.revk.uk for the keyword "firebrick" returns a ton of results detailing the development. It looks like it's exactly what it says on the tin-- a proprietary operating system with its own implementations of a ton of protocols.
I wish I had a reason to interview RevK about the Firebrick code. I think it would be an immensely interesting topic.