I love DirecTV - my apt. complex doesn't allow dishes, so I put in an acrylic windowpane, mounted the dish on the pedestal from an old floor-standing fan, and never looked back. It does make an odd piece of furniture, though....

If you are looking at DSL, check out Speakeasy - thier TOS specifically allows residential users to run thier own servers... They are low cost and reliable. (and I'm not een an employee!)

has a legal notice you can have sent to the complex owner/managers.. It has to do with the definition of 'common area' - and you CAN'T attach the dish to the wall without the complex's say-so. Trouble is, on the side of my apt. that I need to point the dish, the parking lot comes almost all the way up to the building (I've been woken up by the sound of a car hitting the building before...) so there isn't really a place for the dish on that side - and they are quite adamant about not allowing renters to make capital improvements to the apartment buildings. Since the plastic window bit works fine, I didn't want to fight them about whether the space right next to my door is common area or not (and it might be - I share the door with another renter)

*grin*

I think other people have availed themselves of DirecTV's letter, though... After the complex sent out a threatening letter to all the renters a few months ago, I havenoticed at least 3 (well placed) dishes that remain up...