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February 23, 2001 - March 1, 2001

News - March 1,2001

New E-Mail LoveBug Virus Warning

By:mark.j @ 10:21:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Be on the look out for yet another Lovebug E-Mail virus variant that's billed as being much more dangerous than the cheap clones of recent times:

This time, a modified version of the infamous Love Bug is doing the rounds, masquerading as an animated picture of someone's new baby.

Antivirus experts have pointed out that the newly discovered 'Myba' virus is really just a modified version of the Visual Basic script that made up the Love Bug code and is identical in many ways.

The virus arrives as an executable attachment on an email with the subject line: 'My Babypic'. The message body text reads: 'It's my animated baby picture!!!', and the attachment is MYBABYPIC.EXE.

The virus can apparently do a lot of damage to your system if given a chance and as usual we suggest not opening .VBS or .EXE attachments under ANY circumstance. More @ VNUNet.

MS Internet Explorer v6 / Outlook v6

By:mark.j @ 10:15:AM - Comments (4) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Just a bit of general news, but some readers may be interested to know the latest version of Microsoft Internet Explorer and MS Outlook v6 are due for public beta very soon. The new versions incorporate better E-Mail security from Trojan scripts and attachments and more web browser encryption/security.

Aside from that and a few other things nobodies likely to use, the new IE6 version contains:

-New Explorer Bars
-Support for Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) Standards
-New Internet Options: General tab / Security tab / Advanced tab etc.
-Internet Explorer Error Reporting
-High Encryption Support

You can find full details here:
http://www.activewin.com/articles/ie/ie6pbkb.shtml

The new version is likely to be made public in the next few days, although it's a pity they haven't tried to speed up the HTML loading.

News - February 28,2001

IC24 Extend 0800 - Yes Once Again

By:mark.j @ 6:26:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

IC24 seem to like playing with peoples minds as despite the time between extensions shortening, Net4Nowt have today reported that once again the off-peak access will be extended - another two weeks!

This news comes in the wake of a potential buy-out for the Mirror Group owned company.

Firms Say Security Hampers E-Commerce

By:mark.j @ 3:29:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

According to a new survey from Evidian, a subsidiary of Groupe Bull, which asked 40 technology companies what they thought to be the biggest hindrance to growth, two out five claim complex security to be the worst offender.

Ahead of server downtime and poor customer service, multiple password entry and excessive authorisation procedures through security seem to be what hamper things the most. While it is possible to go over the top on security, this does seem strange considering a lack of security is currently one of the biggest problems with e-commerce.

Tiny Reveals Unmetered ISP Details

By:mark.j @ 3:21:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Tiny has today announced the final details of its recently announced 24/7 unmetered package, which will replace a more expensive one currently running as well as the smaller packages:

From April 1 the ISP will offer the "T:Surf Plus" FRIACO (Flat Rate Internet Access Call Origination) service to UK punters. The company is buying the FRIACO service direct from BT.

The offer replaces Tiny Online's two existing offers, T:Surf Plus 600, with 600 minutes online offpeak for £4.99 a month, and T:Surf 1000, with 1000 minutes anytime for a monthly fee of £9.99.

Tiny's price is slightly higher than rival Freeserve's Anytime, which costs £12.99 per month, and is the same price as flat rate services from AOL and Breathe.

Full details of the services and any potential limits are not yet known, although more information should surface closer to the launch date. More @ The Register.

New Stuff @ ISP Review (Review/Article)

By:mark.j @ 2:56:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

To help round off this month we've put up a three page article on 'The Commercial Internet', which examines why more and more information sites are turning from free to commercial information resources etc.

We've also put up a review of the new unmetered ISP BigBlueSky, which many should find interesting. Both items are worth a read:

BigBlueSky Review:-
http://www.ispreview.co.uk/new/reviews/bbs.shtml

The Commercial Internet Article:-
http://www.ispreview.co.uk/articles/comnet

"The Internet as we know it is free, it's a global network of sites and services providing information without charge and one that's beginning to have a great overall impact. With the exception of getting online through the ISPs, 99% of the information we see is technical free and doesn't require us to make any payments, monthly or otherwise.

However the Internet as we know it is changing, while access and bandwidth continues to get cheaper, a new cost is about to arise. We're on the verge of seeing our beloved information paradox become a victim of its own design. Where once information was free, we could soon find a charge imposed on many of the things we read."

We hope you enjoy them and watch for more soon..

Update:-
We also updated the Top10 with 'Tiny Onlines' subscriber stats.

Unclean.. Unclean - Say The Chinese

By:mark.j @ 12:48:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

China has developed new 'filtering' software designed to help 'purify' the net of western filth [Ed: we just added that last bit =)]. Known as the Internet Police 110 software, its goal is to protect users from getting unhealthy information from foreign and domestic Web sites:

"It is designed to block information to cults, sex and violence on the Internet," according to an official. It can also monitor online traffic and delete or block any material from sources viewed as offensive.

Western news sites, along with those of human rights groups and Tibetan exiles, are often blocked by China. It has also been known to shut down cybercafes for being too near to schools (200 metres), and is cracking down on foreign investment in its online economy.

Of course as yet nobody has found any software to 'filter' such online access and activity that couldn't be circumvented, it remains to be seen whether China's solution is the same – hot cakes if it isn’t.

Coming from a country with one of the highest rates of child prostitution and sharks that eat network cables, they seem more intent on blocking outside influences than to deal with their own. More @ The Register.

Barrysworld/EB Official Press Release

By:mark.j @ 10:05:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Following Ted's update yesterday regarding Electronic Boutiques take over of Barrysworld, today an official press release has been issued; still no details on exactly what they plan to do with BW:

Electronics Boutique, the UK’s largest retailer of computer software and video games, announced today the acquisition of the assets of the BarrysWorld on-line gaming service for a consideration of £400,000.

BarrysWorld was founded as a service for on-line gamers in early 1997 and was run wholly by enthusiasts. In April 2000 venture capital funding was received and the service was rapidly expanded with heavy investment in additional hosting capacity, staffing and marketing. Necessary further funding was not available and, in February of this year, the company entered into voluntary liquidation.

This acquisition is a further step in Electronics Boutique’s stated strategy to leverage the inherent strengths of its high street market leadership through measured expansion in other channels. The company is ideally positioned to promote the service through its 300 strong retail chain throughout the UK and also via its existing websites.

Electronics Boutique has adopted a measured approach to its investment in new media. This is a natural enhancement to this strategy and allows Electronics Boutique to extend its current consumer offering.

Through its experience and knowledge of the gaming industry Electronics Boutique can seamlessly adapt the Barrysworld business model into its own consumer solution.

John Steinbrecher, Chief Executive, said:

“This latest announcement further strengthens our position as the UK’s No 1 specialist for computer software and video games. On-line gaming compliments our existing business and we are delighted to be able to bring this additional service to our customers. Up until now customers who purchased products in our stores with on-line gaming capabilities had to go elsewhere to experience this element of play. Electronics Boutique will now be able to provide an all encompassing experience.”

EB have claimed they intend to run BW in a 'similar' way to how it was before, although this remains to be seen. EB Themselves isn’t exactly perfect, often getting game launch details incorrect (notoriously so) and being criticised by newspapers for employing too many children in shops. However we wish them the best of luck and hope BW continues to grow, as it should do.

EcosseTel Vroom2 Update – Still No 24/7

By:mark.j @ 9:47:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

EcosseTel haven't exactly been the best Telco in recent months and customers of their Vroom2 unmetered ISP remain sceptical about its future. Since it was first announced many months ago @ £49.99 per year for 24/7 unmetered under FRIACO, all have had to put up with on-peak 0845 and off-peak 0800. No sign of 24/7.

You can see some examples of the problems and criticism this ISP has faced by visiting our Vroom2 forum. Today Chris (Ex-The Matrix) sent us along the latest update from the ISP:

Dear EcosseTel Internet Customer

This email is to keep you updated with the progress of our setting up of the unmetered FRIACO internet access systems.

Firstly from March 1st, in response to many requests we are making available POP3 email boxes in addition to our web based IMAP system. The format will be your user name and the domain will be ecossetel.com for POP3 and ecossetel.net for IMAP. You will have the opportunity of using either or both. Five email POP3 boxes are available for Bcom Xtra customers and one for Vroom2 customers. The primary servers will be pop3.ecossetel.com and smtp.ecossetel.com. Our newsgroup server will remain at news2.randori.com. Access to these servers will be via either our 0845 638 9891 or 0800 053 1891 dial in numbers. Customers have been experiencing trouble accessing via our off peak 0800 number for the past few weeks due to hardware problems. With the installation of a new server these problems will be solved. We aim to have the system operational by March 1st.

FRIACO port installation is progressing, along with the upgrading of our 155Mb backbone. We are still waiting for confirmation of which cities will be on line immediately. The recent announcement that BT will offer carriers and ISPs Single Tandam FRIACO in the near future means that we will be able to offer FRIACO throughout the UK quicker than if we had to install ports in each local exchange which was what was originally intended. Please check our website at ecossetel.co.uk for the latest information.

Further information will follow in the near future.

Kind regards

T*** Man***
EcosseTel Internet Ltd

Of course many customers will see this as just another E-Mail trying to give hope and then taking many more months to deliver. Not only did the price rise by £20 recently and money get taken before users were offered a service, but why should they pay the 24/7 price and only get off-peak? It seems as if Vroom2 will have to compensate for this or risk fraud enquiries.

News - February 27,2001

Official: Barrysworld Bought By EB

By:mark.j @ 3:25:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

As was rumoured only recently, Barrysworld have indeed been brought out by Electronics Boutique and here's the full announcement:

BarrysWorld Reborn (again :) by TedTheDog
We always believed there was a future for online gaming and the fact that over 100 companies registered their interest with the liquidator only made our belief stronger.

Of course, by then it was a bit late for us…..

Well, for the first time in months, the BarrysWorld emotional Rollercoaster is finally pulling out of its headlong dive and starting to climb again. The assets of the company have been bought from the liquidator by Electronics Boutique (UK).

They intend to run BW as the service you already know, with a few fundamental changes to make it pay its way. Now, these are all changes we’ve been openly discussing since our liquidation announcement.

Our biggest cost was staff closely followed by the cost of providing the gaming service itself. We used to have 35 full time staff and there’s no way in hell EB could afford to employ everyone again, it’s simply uneconomical.

Quite frankly I’m saddened that BW got to such a state whereby I could say something like that previous sentence and know it to be correct. Working for BarrysWorld wasn’t a job, it was a way of life. I appreciate that’s a cliché for some, but for us it was true. And now we won’t all be starting again and that’s a very sad but economic necessity. As to who is going to be working for EB running BW in the future I cant say, I simply don’t know yet. Our task was to help the liquidator sell the assets of the company first, and then it’s up to EB to recruit the staff they feel are required to run it. There will be perceived winners and losers in this, and that’s very very sad but, under the circumstances, completely unavoidable.

However, BarrysWorld now has a realistic chance to survive through this technology stock downturn.

Overall, the hobby venture Tony and I started out on all those years ago can continue. Better still, its now in a position to pay its way and grow. There is a downside in that a group of friends who worked together full time will no longer work together but its unavoidable now, and something we’ll have to face.

I don’t know if it makes a difference, but I do not work for EB or BW currently. I’m writing this as I believe that EB’s purchase of the assets of the company to be a very positive step for BarrysWorld and online gaming as a whole. I will be speaking to them about “our possible future together” soon, but right now I’m writing as the co-founder of BarrysWorld pleased to see it carry on, rather than as an employee of Electronics Boutique.

It's certainly good news to see Barrysworld saved, although we'll reserve our judgement until we see exactly what EB has planned for the online gaming empire. Commercial organisations have a habit of asking you to pay for things that might have otherwise been free.

C.U.T Summarise Unmetered Systems

By:mark.j @ 3:19:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The C.U.T (Campaign for Unmetered Telecommunications) have today posted a summary of all the unmetered systems on offer to ISPs and Telco’s, just as they promised.

The information isn't formed in a way that we can easily show you a sample of, so it's best to visit C.U.T directly:

http://www.unmetered.org.uk/news/news270201.htm

They seem to have mixed a couple of BTSurfport24 ISPs in with the FRIACO option (easy mistake), other than that it's technically correct.

Bright Future For Broadband Britain

By:mark.j @ 11:30:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

A new report from both the CBI and KPMG Consulting out today has painted a good picture for Britain’s future e-growth. It's one of only a few to do so in recent months, although many agree that by comparison, the UK isn't doing too badly:

Rigby Jones made a few comments toward the government and its rapidly slipping e-government dream. He called on it to regulate lightly until it could work out how the market was working (but then what would you expect from the DG of the CBI?), said that it must allow business to get involved with building infrastructures and warned that any government that hoped to stay in power over the next five years would have to get behind e-commerce and e-business, even lead the way. The government was going faster than a lot of industries but not fast enough.

Despite this, there was general agreement that the UK is not doing too bad at the moment - behind the States but certainly ahead of most European countries, including Germany. There is a risk that we could slip behind though.

And reiterating what the world+dog is saying, both the CBI and KPMG stressed the importance of a rapid roll-out of broadband. The demand is there and the need soon will be. The government, said Nigel Hickson of the CBI, is clearly aware of the problem. However, unlike everyone else, no direct blame was placed at the feet of BT. This probably has nothing to do with the fact that Sir Iain Vallance - BT's chairman and the man frequently blamed for BT constrictive behaviour - is president of the CBI.

The Registers item goes into a lot of detail and covers more than just the broadband aspect, although that's all we're interested in. It's good to see a more positive viewpoint for once, although coming from the CBI that's kind of what you'd expect.

Electronics Boutique To Buy Barrysworld

By:mark.j @ 10:10:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

News has been leaked by the Daily Telegraph that American/European computer and console games retail giant, Electronics Boutique, are in final discussions to buy barrysworld. We also know of two other groups, although only one which stands out, yet sadly we're not obliged to reveal that information:

A deal, which could be concluded as early as tonight, would represent a stark turnaround for the company, which went into voluntary liquidation on February 5 after it was unable to raise a second funding round. BarrysWorld, which allows people to play computer games over the internet, had raised £3m in investment last year from 3i, the venture capital company, and internet infrastructure giant Cisco.

The website claims to have attracted around 300,000 games players a month. It is understood that around 100 potential buyers registered an interest to acquire the company. Along with Electronics Boutique at least one other suitor is thought to be involved in discussions.

No official word from Barrysworld or EB, although more should be known by the end of the week. Quite what any kind of sale would mean depends on whose buying and the plans they have, we should know soon enough.

Boost Bandwidth With Bonding - ePipe

By:mark.j @ 10:01:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Some of you may remember the small news item we did during late January in which we mentioned the Stallion ePipe. In short the technology allowed you to properly bond not only ISDN connections, but also xDSL ones as well.

Today Stallion have kindly sent us a mini press release, which we thought you might find interesting, the technology should also work in the UK - or so we're told:

Boosting Bandwidth through Bonding: Stallion ePipe

The market for business-grade Internet and Intranet bandwidth is highly competitive. To compete effectively, ISPs must continually seek innovative solutions to make the most of efficient use of a pricey resource.

http://www.isp-planet.com/technology/epipe_stallion.html

Stallion Whitepaper on end-to-end bonding

Stallion has developed new ground-breaking technology which delivers site to site VPN tunnels at speeds which scale to 512 Kb/sec using low-cost dial-up analog or ISDN Internet connections whilst eliminating the shortcomings of prior connection aggregation schemes. The new solution provides secure, scalable bandwidth over an arbitrary number of Internet connections and does not require special provisioning by an Internet Service Provider (ISP).

http://www.stallion.com/html/products/e2b-lastmile.html

Stallion Technologies offers a unique internet security and VPN appliance family based on the 5307 and 5407 micro-processors and the OpenBSD 2.7 OS. The ePipe family provides an internet firewall, internet sharing, IPSec site-to-site VPN gateway, remote access PPTP VPN server and bandwidth aggregation device all in one package.

http://www.motorola.com/SPS/HPESD/prod/coldfire/custprod.html

Stallion's ePipe is a deceptively simple way to set up a VPN between offices or home and office. The ePipe is available in several models, but the two main variations are in the types of modems and network connections supported. Within each of these categories are models that support varying numbers of modems and lines. The ePipes that I use are model 2148, designed for use with analogue and ISDN modems.

http://www.cbizmag.com/Content/11-06-00/helpdesk.htm

Vodafone Adds Voice Command E-Mail

By:mark.j @ 9:55:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Yesterday Vodafone announced that it would be the first UK network to enable voice accessible Internet email accounts. As well as being able to access your Internet email through a single telephone number - wherever you are, the technology is also speech orientated.

You can now listen, reply, forward or delete emails using just voice commands. Those with a WAP phone and on any mobile network, can also WAP enable their Internet email account(s), using Vodafone WAP Email. Paul Donovan, Managing Director Commercial, Vodafone UK - had this to say:

"Over 14 million people in the UK use an Internet email service. These new services will revolutionise email communication, giving customers the freedom to choose when, where and how they want to access and respond to their emails. The introduction of Vodafone Voice and WAP Email are just two in a series of innovative services which we will deliver, that will truly add value to customers communications and make their lives easier"

Both of the new technologies are scheduled to make an appearance for the 5th March 2001 and while interesting, it still won't make typing the E-Mails any easier. More @ Vodafones website.

News - February 26,2001

Firms Bypass BT For Wireless Solution

By:mark.j @ 3:41:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Businesses and ISPs unhappy with the slow rate of LLU (Local Loop Unbundling) are beginning to investigate newer wireless technologies as a possible alternative. Tele2 have already proved a great success, although a new system could soon go live that's vastly more powerful:

Cumbria-based PAV Data Systems is conducting final tests on infrared optical wireless access technology, which it said would deliver 622Mbit/s of broadband capacity from a location such as an office block or apartment directly to a service provider's existing backbone network up to a range of one kilometre.

"There's a huge demand for broadband Internet access among UK businesses," said Richard Redgrave, marketing director for PAV. "Slow unbundling has frustrated service providers and we hope to enable them to provide the reliable broadband that businesses need." Redgrave added that the system does not require government radio licences to operate.

However, analysts said there were a number of issues surrounding the technology that might trouble users. Tim Johnson, a consultant at analyst firm Ovum, said, "The bandwidth may be great, but issues remain about safety, reliability and range. I certainly wouldn't advise IT managers to rush out and buy into it without taking a very close look." On the issue of safety and infrared signals, the company said that the technology conforms to strict government safety regulations.

At present PAV DS are planning to finalise and ship the product sometime during Q2-2001, while extremely fast, it's unlikely to be offered at a consumer level. More @ ZDNet.

Commercialised Internet Draws Near

By:mark.j @ 3:28:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Following last years down term in the online advertising market and despite promises that it'll grow again by 78% this year, many are still turning their backs on the advertising methods of old. Some web sites have already done away with banners and replaced them with light monthly subscription charges.

Today Microsoft became another major portal to announce a similar change, although theirs is easily likely to be the most controversial - according to The Guardian:

Microsoft plans to develop extra services on MSN and then charge users up to £60 per year for using the site. Neil Holloway, managing director of Microsoft UK, said www.MSN.com and www.MSN.co.uk received more than 8.5m unique visits in December, making them Britain's most visited sites ahead of rivals such as Yahoo and Freeserve.

MSN receives 200m visits every month on a worldwide basis. Even so, it is thought to be unable to transform those visits into a profit from advertising and sponsorship revenues alone.

Demanding that users pay to receive the service would make it profitable almost immediately if surfers were prepared to pay. Subscription models for online content sites have not met with much success. The Wall Street Journal and several pornography sites are among the few exceptions.

Typically Microsoft are trying to introduce an economical pricing structure that simple won't work, primarily because they aren't the only portal site doing what they do. At most people might pay a few pence per month, but asking for pounds is just short of ludicrous and would most definitely kill MSN given the current climate.

This is a very worrying time for the Internet, with advertising revenues dropping on a global scale, it might not be long before we all pay something to visit our favourite sites. Perhaps the solution is to modernise the industry to do more than just advertising banners, yet so few seem to have thought of that.

Quick Site Update

By:mark.j @ 2:36:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Just a quick update to say we made some changes in the ISP Top 10 today, we've also update the complaints page with a bit of interactivity and the latest number of complaints for Freeserve and PlusNET. On top of all that the unmetered ISP list has been updated with roughly seven new ISP additions and some other bits.

Breathe Preps New Unmetered Package

By:mark.j @ 12:52:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

During the end of last week we heard news that Breathe, the ISP that almost died before being brought out by GUS, was to make a comeback. Today the ISP has confirmed this and also announced a new unmetered package!:

Having hit the headlines in December as another dotcom teetering on the brink, Breathe has used the new funds from GUS to maintain its business and is now preparing to launch a new £15 per month unlimited access service.

CEO Shaun Gardener revealed the closely-kept secret to the Sunday Telegraph over the weekend, as part of a wider profile about the company. A spokesperson admitted: “Even we didn’t know about it.”

But Gardner today said: "In line with other major players in the market, Breathe intends to launch an unmetered ISP package based around FRIACO (Flat Rate Internet Access Call Origination), utilising existing supplier relationships."

The package would seem to be positioning itself against all the others such as BTInternet, SniffOut, AOL, Freeserve, LineOne and Tiny Online etc. While the prices may be similar, we've already seen that service quality and cut offs still vary dramatically from ISP to ISP, despite the similar price line.

Breathe's new package may be a little late and similar to the rest, but if they can offer services above the others then it'll be a winner. The question is, would you trust them now they've got the economics right? Definite signs the UK ISP industry is slowly starting to stabilise with some realistic economics. More @ netimperative.com.

Net Industry Fails To Protect Children

By:mark.j @ 10:59:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

In an announcement by the ISPA (Internet Service Provider Association), it was agreed that the Internet industry has failed to protect children from Net paedophiles:

ISPA, was one of the key bodies that helped launch the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) in 1996, with the purpose of making the Web a safe place for children to surf. But Nick Lansman, secretary general of ISPA, now says the industry is powerless to deal with the growing problem of paedophiles abusing children through Internet chatrooms.

Lansman agreed that the industry is impotent on the issue: "The industry is unable to deal with this," he said. "We need the laws to be tightened up and I must concede that statutory regulation is something that needs to be looked at."

He refused to be drawn on the issue of whether the industry should manage chatrooms put up by "responsible" organisations, but said the industry must work with the government and the police to protect children online.

The problem of Net paedophiles is a big one, but it's by no means an easy one to solve. ISPs agree that there is a problem, but remain adamant that they cannot be held responsible for content held on the vastness of the Internet. To put the burden of a worldwide network on any one ISPs shoulders would be ridiculous.

Most agree that sticking to the self-regulatory "notice and take down" model is successful and that what needs to be improved are the outside detection systems and methods. More @ ZDNet.

Assimilating Your Browser - The E-Way

By:mark.j @ 10:42:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

There's a strange alien species in the popular StarTrek franchise, known as 'The Borg', they like nothing better that to take over other alien races and 'assimilate' them into their collective.

However in the real world the closest threat to the Borg would probably be e-commerce/online businesses. With the slow down in online advertising, companies have begun using increasingly 'hacker like' tactics in order to raise page impressions:

Unsuspecting consumers who install software, open attachments or merely visit certain Web sites can find themselves tethered to an unwanted start page every time they log onto the Net. Security experts say the practice is on the rise, but few people are technically savvy enough to understand what's actually going on when browser settings are switched.

"This is crossing the line when you start messing with people's home page preferences. At minimum, it's pretty rude," said Richard Smith, chief technology officer at the Privacy Foundation.

Pressed by tightening competition and a slowdown in online advertising dollars, some Web companies are stepping up efforts to boost traffic figures by any means necessary. Tactics pioneered in the online porn industry, such as launching pop-up windows and disabling a browser's "back" button, are finding increasing favour among mainstream sites.

We think our readers would agree that changing the readers physical browser settings automatically isn't only worrying, but totally out of order. In fact some sites can even change the background image of your browser’s interface, but the worrying thing is just how far some may take this.

Popup ad's are one thing, but the lengths to which business are going to get visitors is a troubling thing for Internet credibility. More @ ZDNet.

Websites Responsible For Terrorist Information

By:mark.j @ 10:28:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

It looks as though the Home Secretary, Jack Straw (Frost?), has made yet more additions to the updated Terrorist Act 2000. Today he plans to begin a push that'll mean websites holding information 'USEFUL' to terrorists will be held responsible for it and punished as such:

Section 58 of The Terrorist Act 2000, which received Royal Assent in July 2000, states that ‘a person commits an offence if he collects or makes a record of information of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism or possesses a document or record containing information of that kind’. This explicitly covers electronic information.

The section has yet to receive a Commencement Order from the Home Secretary – meaning that it is not yet legally in force. “At the moment, it’s not possible to say if or when the section will get a Commencement Order,” said a spokesperson for solicitors Wragge & Co. “It could be next week or several months,” she added.

The Act contains a clause stating it is a defence for a person charged under the act to claim a reasonable excuse for possessing such material. According to Wragge & Co, this means that ISPs would be unlikely to be prosecuted under the act for unwittingly caching or distributing Web pages that contain bomb-making instructions, for example.

If approved this act would have a dramatic impact on the Internet, for the most part it'd be good, but the 'broad' coverage the new amendment has is cause for concern. Stating information 'Useful' to terrorists could mean just about anything in the right circumstances. More @ netimperative.com.

News - February 25,2001

ISP Review Weekly Update

By:mark.j @ 10:27:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Despite the odd interesting news item, it's been a fairly slow week for ISP news and we've all been busy dealing with internal matters. At present I'm sitting here typing and making an occasional glance across the now snow covered landscape.

One of my cats is also trying to catch dust particles in the bright sunlit rays falling from the window, while I'm typing away to all of you. Still, back to ISPreview and the usual ISP bits and bobs of the world.

Most of what we're doing internally isn't likely to be noticed by any of you and so doesn't need mentioning. However we are putting together some new forums to cover all the popular broadband ISPs and unmetered ones. We've also got 3-4 new ISP reviews in the works and a nice article to help finish up the month, some of which will go live next week.

Along with all that we've made more compatibility tweaks to ISPrs design for other browsers, so it should now look quite respectable under Netscape v6 and Opera5. Generally we're in research mode, developing design docs for the final systems in our two-year expansion plan.

Overall you should expect ISP Review to change quite a lot in the coming weeks as we test a few things out and introduce new content. Most of which I'll keep under my hat until we know things are working, although we're going to do the 0845 listings from next week - finally.

News - February 24,2001

08002Go Delays Launch Due To Demand

By:mark.j @ 10:38:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The future unmetered ISP, 08002Go, have once again issued a statement on their auto-scrolling update system and it's not good news. Thanks to Darren (PSN) for converting the data to text:

As you all know, we have been perfecting our Friaco at www.08002go.com with you in mind for some time now.

We want it right for you, as we see no point in offering anything less than a great service for you all to enjoy.

i.e. 24/7 for £5.83 per month without tying you to a twelve-month contract, but just month by month. What we never imagined was the number of you who want to join us, and while we are exceedingly grateful to you all for your phenomenal support, this has caused us a delay in getting your registration details to you.

Please be assured, if you have pre registered with us you will be connected, but to ease this slight problem, we have taken the following steps and invested in a streamline system that will speed things up but this will take time to install.

To be perfectly honest, the full-improved system will take about six weeks to link.

Although this may seem a long time, in terms of the benefits we will offer you in service and price, along with no more nightmare telephone charges, this delay will seem nothing.

To all who have not yet pre-registered, please do so as once the allocation is full, we cannot take on any more new customers.

To all that cannot wait six weeks, thanks for your support, but we can assure you all that it will be 'live' to everyone within this period.

No more delays we promise!

08002Go are notorious for causing delays to the launch of their service and many, including us, question the economics surrounding it. They haven't exactly been honest with pre-subscription numbers either, although everybody would like to see them and BigBlueSky succeed because it would set a new economic precedent. We'll know by 2002.

Breathe Coming Back From The Dead

By:mark.j @ 10:24:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The now Great Universal Stores owned ISP, Breathe, is expected to make a come back into the ISP market within the next few weeks:

The word among the metropolitan elite busily SMSing one another is that trendy ISP, breathe.com, is back six weeks after being bought by Great Universal Stores (GUS) for £1.4 million.

Although the ISP ditched its unmetered Net access service it has still been offering a pay-as-you-go service to its punters. And by all accounts, its user base has been growing despite all the upheaval of the last couple of months.

However, since breathe acquired a new parent company it's been effectively grounded. El Reg understands it's about to come out and play again.

Well we guess only the metropolitan elite could find an ISP responsible for cutting thousands of its users, trendy. That said and The Register gives little detail about just what we can expect from the refurbished ISP, if anything.

NGUK Gives PCGamerUK Some Servers

By:mark.j @ 9:56:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The unmetered gaming ISP NetGamesUK today issued a press release stating that five new and dedicated gaming servers will be passed onto PCGamerUK (Magazine):

NGUK TO PROVIDE FIVE DEDICATED SERVERS TO BEST SELLING UK PC GAMES MAGAZINE

http://www.noblepr.co.uk/Press_Releases/netgames_uk/pc_gamer.htm

The UK's first Gaming Internet Service Provider (gISP), Netgames UK Ltd (www.nguk.net) today announced that they are to provide five new dedicated public game servers to Future Publishing's PC Gamer, the UK's best selling PC games magazine.

NTL Halts C-Modem Access In Some Areas

By:mark.j @ 9:51:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Due to on-going technical problems with some of the areas currently Cable Modem enabled, NTL has chosen to halt the broadband service in such specific regions:

ntl has halted sales of the cable modem service in certain areas of the country, saying that the service may not be available again until July. No official reason has been given for the withdrawal, but it is widely believed to be due to ongoing technical problems in these franchises. According to sales staff at ntl, no new customers will be taken in the affected areas while upgrades are carried out.

The news is likely to come as a blow to customers and you can see the full news item @ CableNews. You should also visit the AVALIBILITY page for NTL, which was updated on the 22nd. Despite all this it's widely recognised that NTL needed to take some action before things got worse.

News - February 23,2001

Employee Monitoring E-Mail Code Delayed

By:mark.j @ 3:18:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The controversial new business employee E-Mail monitoring code has been delayed due to recently highlighted contradictions with existing laws:

Last October, the commission launched a public consultation with a view to publishing a final version early this spring. However, following the Kournikova virus this month and suggestions that monitoring staff emails to prevent similar incidents could contravene rights to privacy under the law, assistant commissioner David Smith said the policy was being revised. "That is something that we did not take into account in the original draft," said Smith.

A draft document is available on the commission Web site but contains no guidance on the use of software filtering tools.

Because some email filters analyse the data contained in attachments and the subject and body of emails, there is a chance that individuals' rights to privacy would be contravened, admitted Smith. "The final code will have to address what happens when filtering software is employed and emails are looked at in this way," he said.

Any such changes are also likely to effect areas of R.I.P more focused on the consumer issues, as they're just as relevant. More @ ZDNet.

AOL France - A Warning To the UK

By:mark.j @ 3:06:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

British AOL users should be on their guard after the French base of AOL chose to impose a 30min cut off on their unmetered package, a package not dissimilar to the UKs:

A court upheld a complaint by the consumer group UCF, acting on behalf of two Net users, which claimed that AOL France's decision to impose restrictions on the service was contrary to the ISP's ads.

AOL France was forced to impose 30 minute timeouts when its offer for flat rate unmetered access attracted too many users.

UCF claimed this was a breach of contract.

This of course raises concern that AOL could impose similar restrictions on their unmetered service in the UK if it fell foul of the same problem. Of course an intelligent ISP would have already worked out the proper economics, certainly going from no cut off to a 30mins one is quite undesirable.

On the same note many of our readers would like to see 'Conny' from the UK AOL ad's locked up and her makeup removed for all time. Apparently she causes some people to cringe so much they end up unconscious. More @ The Register.

BTI Hits One Million

By:rich.p @ 1:08:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

According to this latest press release from BT Internet. They now have One Million Customers:

BTinternet hits one million customers with increased market share

BTinternet, BTopenworld's narrowband Internet access offering, today
celebrated its one millionth customer registration as new research reveals that it continues to be the second most used Internet service provider in the country.

In the latest NOP Bi-Annual Internet User Profile, BTinternet continued to enjoy the second highest usage rates in the country, running ahead of AOL. It is also the only top-three* provider to have increased market share during the period June to December 2000. In addition, the study highlightsthat BT continues to be the second most recognised service provider in Great Britain, with 93 per cent awareness.

These key findings reinforce BTinternet's own growth figures, which show that the service provider has successfully doubled its customer base in the last six months, with the signing of its one-millionth registered customer today. This gives BTinternet a total of 1.3 million Internet access customers**, which includes 300,000 active unregistered customers and underpins its number two market position. The rise in BTinternet's customer acquisition rate, now averaging at more than 29,000 new customers per week, helped ensure the portal reached this milestone a month ahead of forecasts. Significantly, BTinternet's registered customer base remains weighted toward
high-quality unmetered access customers, with more than 60 per cent of
registered customers subscribing to one of BTinternet's unmetered access packages. This weighting maintains BTinternet's position as the UK market leader in unmetered Internet access packages.

Duncan Ingram, senior vice president of BTopenworld, said: "Hitting our one millionth customer registration is a major milestone for us. On top of that, finding out that BTinternet was the only top-three ISP to grow its market share in the last six months confirms that our breed of ISP, which marries solid content with reliability, is hitting the right note amongst UK consumers."

"With the launch of BTinternet Anytime, our new unmetered 24/7 Internet access package, I'm confident we'll see an even higher demand for our services in the following months."

BTinternet was dramatically revamped at the beginning of September to come under the BTopenworld brand and to deliver customers the pick of online brands in news, shopping and entertainment. Another contributing factor is BTinternet's new network of high-quality,
third-party distribution partners. In the last six months, BTinternet has established distribution deals with many leading UK retailers including Iceland, Nationwide, HMV, Rymans, Northern Electric and, most recently, Toys'R'Us. Combined with the BT Shop fronts, BTinternet CDs are now actively distributed in more than 2,000 retail outlets across the country.

* The top three is as defined by the NOP Bi-Annual Internet User Profile based on ISPs used from home most often
** In addition to the 1 million registered BTinternet customers, there are 300,000 unregistered paying customers using the BTinternet ISP.

BTInternet have certainly had their fair share of problems recently. Our own experience is that dial up is now fairly reliable and there are no bandwidth problems. The area BTI fall down on is the ability to provide reliable news, e-mail and webspace. This of course varies between location and DLEs, nobody ever has the same set of problems.

Proposed 'Hate E-Mail Ban' To Be Opposed

By:mark.j @ 10:45:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

For many of the reasons we highlighted in yesterdays news item for the same subject, today experts have explained that it could be very hard for the police to identify the sender of an anonymous email or SMS - exactly what we said:

Home secretary Jack Straw intends to make it a criminal offence to send hate mail by electronic means, in the same way as it is illegal to send threats in a traditional letter. Those found guilty could be sentenced to six months imprisonment or fined £5,000.

However, according to industry experts, it is very easy to send both emails and text messages in such as way that it would be almost impossible for the police to identify the sender.

Brian Gladman, ex-ministry of defence computer security expert and cryptographer, says that the technology exists to send anonymously. "It's quite easy to trace an email, but anyone wanting to hide their identity can mail it through any one of a number of remailers," he says.

The new proposals also bring into questions some other aspects, such as regulation and how such monitoring and systems could be managed. Unless you could monitor or force every network in the world to give up technically confidential information, then this system simply wouldn't be possible. More @ ZDNet.

Nokia Predicts Mobile Multimedia Boom

By:mark.j @ 10:39:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Nokia, the world's leading cellphone maker, said on Thursday that music, video, and picture messaging would replace popular text messages as a major source of revenue for mobile operators pressed to deliver on huge investments they are making in the wireless Internet.

"Multi-media messaging will give immediate returns for operators in terms of revenues," Niklas Savander, vice president of Mobile Internet Applications at Nokia claimed at the GSM World Congress, a trade fair in Cannes.

"We think it will take off like SMS (short messaging service) did," he said, adding he expected the service to be fully up-and-running by the end of this year in Europe.

The new service will offer mobile operators a way to exploit their new high-speed networks and generate revenues quickly, amid concerns that third-generation technology will take longer to develop than previously anticipated.

However it's not the ability to have video links, listen to music and the sending of photos instead of text messages that's worrying people. In fact most would relish to chance to do such a thing, no, instead it's the fact that each of these will mean higher costs.

Many are worried the new technologies will see mobile prices and service costs rise, although it's inevitable really.

Wireless Internet Not Being Used

By:mark.j @ 10:31:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

There seems no stopping the flow of 'wireless' related news items today. This time another online survey of some 3,189 residents from the US, UK, Germany, Finland and Japan has found that most consumers don't seem too impressed with wireless Internet.

The survey, carried out by consulting company Accenture, claims that adoption rates have been slow, even among the most wired people. Apparently online 15% of consumers who owned a cell phone or other portable device were using it to connect to the Internet.

There were big differences from country to country. The survey found that 72% of Japanese cell phone owners were using their devices to connect to the Internet, compared with just 6% in the United States.

Less than 1% of those surveyed were shopping online with their wireless devices, one of the biggest expected uses for the Web-enabled gadgets. Most of those surveyed said they liked the idea of a wireless Web, but in practice they found it was easier to access the Internet from a personal computer.

Often, they objected to the cost of the wireless service or found that the small screens on most wireless devices made it difficult to read text. Some said the service were too slow.

"Obviously, it is still much more convenient (to access the Internet) from a computer keyboard, and that is what comes out in the survey," said John Beck, an associate partner at Accenture's Institute for Strategic Change.

Despite what the report claims, it can actually be very easy to get online wirelessly, the simple fact of the matter is operators and mobile manufacturers don't offer full instructions to do it. Very few of us like to hunt around for the proper software and instructions. We'll show everybody how easy it is in our next article.

EU Businesses Reject 3G Wireless

By:mark.j @ 10:20:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

In a report out today by Gartner, European businesses are reported to have seriously rejected the newer broadband 3G wireless (GPRS, UTMS etc.) technologies due to the high price:

The report found that while 82 per cent of European companies see mobile devices and applications as very important to their business, only 24 per cent are willing to pay an increase for third generation (3G) communications.

"This is bad news for European 3G mobile operators who have paid high premiums for licenses," said Gartner analyst Nick Jones. "While European chief information officers would like the high data rates promised by 3G systems, they are not willing to pay extra for them," he added.

Gartner predicts that by 2003 every ebusiness initiative will have some element delivered across a mobile channel. "When m-business takes off a significant minority of organisations risk being left behind," he warned.

So despite the businesses being aware of the potential advantages, the high prices look set to put many off adopting technologies. The operators have little choice but to charge higher rates due to the extreme cost incurred from buying the licenses in the first place. Analysts warned the governments in the EU and UK about this long ago, typically they didn't listen. More @ VNUNet.

Lone Shark Takes Out Chinese Network

By:mark.j @ 10:12:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Now don't miss-read that subject title, otherwise you could be smiling and be unable to read the rest of this entertaining item. Not a month after the last serious network breaks with a cable connecting China to the US, today the trans-Pacific connection was severed.

However it might surprise you to know that the culprit is none other than a hungry Shark, poor little fella:

Marine experts were uncertain why a shark would want to attack a cable, as it does not form part of a sea creature's diet. Nor did it look remotely tasty.

"We have known some sharks to eat tyres before," said Dr Brenda Kemp. "However, we think that is because the sharks confuse the tyres with small seals."

"All this talk about the Information Revolution can be brought to its knees by a shark," said Steve Yap, a representative for internet research firm Iamasia, which is based in Hong Kong.

Whatever the reason our friendly fish had for biting off a few gigabytes more than it could chew, the item shows how incredible easy it is to take out a vast portion of a major countries communications. Now all we need to do is train super sharks (Deep Blue Sea) and send them off to eat cable, the ultimate super-weapon - OR NOT. More @ VNUNet.