September 26, 2000 - October 2, 2000

News - October 2,2000

Freeserve Saves on LLU Blunders

By:mark.j @ 9:04:AM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Who'd have thought that an ISP like Freeserve, that's pinned all its future hopes on FRIACO, could possibly save money due to BT's Local Loop delays? Well apparently they are:

BT footdragging over unbundling the local loop is saving Freeserve around £300,000 a month. That's how much extra subsidy the ISP would have to shell out, if it were able to satisfy customer demand for unmetered access.

Currently, Freeserve has 250,000 customers signed up - at £10 each per month. And it's losing a couple of pounds on each account. But CEO John Plutheroe says the company would have had 400,000 on its books if BT had got its act together.

BT inertia means that sign-ups are limited to only 2,000 a day, he told the Daily Mail.

Read the rest over @ The Register, but what the article actually means is Freeserve aren't 'Saving Money', they are just slowing a loss. What's worse is the article say's they are signing up 2,000 a day, when the service can barely stand, so we assume that's to get more cash.

Only this morning we've had 6 more Freeserve complaints and in the last week we've had 40+ extra ones on top of the current 30ish mark. The above news item just adds insult to injury, how can they justify making the service worse by adding more customers when it barely works anyway (works = bad choice of word).

This is a disgrace to ISP's and it's the reason we need a more 'general governing body' to step in. If an ISP isn't ready to understand the demands involved with unmetered then they shouldn't take it up in the first place. Shouldn’t this be illegal?

News - October 1,2000

ISPreview Weekly Update

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

Another week passes and yet another update, although there are several things to mention this week. For a start, don't worry if you see a banner appear at the top (under header) of the main page in the coming day/weeks. This is from the people helping to code in our reader review/article comments service and it'll be there for about a month.

We're still waiting for a quote from the people doing our automated ISP listings, they seem to be taking their time so that's hanging in the balance at the moment. We will be speaking to both coding groups doing the comments and list next week to finalise something.

That nasty new comments bug doesn't seem to have been squashed, although to be honest it's a lot of fun trying to fix it. Every new piece of code needs a field trial anyway, so where better than a large site? Our current plan is to cut out all the additions and put in the old templates (no not the old system, that's different).

At the same time we'll change the news comments layout to be more MOBILE compatible, so those with PalmTop computers can see them as well. This may or may not fix the problem, but we're fairly sure it's something to do with the code getting into a loop and not resolving half way through the post - testing will tell.

On top of that the new reviews layout is being worked out, although it'll be awhile being we have anything solid to show. Right now we're seeing what could be added, changed, re-formed or simply removed - all of which takes time.

Finally some of you on our private ISPreview Freecall list have been asking when the service will go live. Well we'll make the announcement hopefully next week and privately to those on the list. If you want to stay with BT then our friends @ Vispa will help bring you an offering with FRIACO as soon as they have it themselves, could be awhile.

Also our residential heavy user FRIACO offering (for BT again, mainly for ISDN users) will come online hopefully this month. Details will be penned out before then, it's not really our own offer like the other packages, you'd just signup through us for extra benefits etc.

That just about covers it, as you can see there's a load of work going on behind the scene's @ ISPreview =). At this rate, sometime near the end of the year - or early 2001, we'll have an automated ISP listings system, reader review comments and article comments system in-place. We'll try to make it so one login and pass works for everything as well.

As a final note, 935,000 unique readers since June 1999, wonder who will be our 1,000,000 Millionth visitor =) [roughly 3,000,000 pageviews].

Lineone Working Overtime Update

By:Ross14 @ 9:36:AM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

It seems that someone at Lineone or at the telecom side of things has forgot to press 'the switch' because Lineone customers on the unmetered package are still being able to access the net via the 0808 number that was supposed to be disconnected last night.

There has still been no official response from Lineone, or any support staff - our guess is that no-one works on a Sunday, so it looks like everyone who still uses the Lineone unmetered package will be getting their free access till Monday.

But, there have been alot of conspiracies over why the service is still active. Someone said that it was 'A Huge PR Stunt For Lineone' and another said 'April Fool.' We can only wonder why.

Still, some people are weary to access the service incase Lineone charge them back for dialling in through the 0808 number, something we very much doubt.

*UPDATE" The 0808 number has stopped working. It is now rejecting usernames and passwords. Seems like Lineone do work on Sundays.

Lineone Working Overtime!

By:Ross14 @ 12:58:AM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

As we have access to the Lineone 0808 service, we decided to see if they did actually pull-the-plug on the service at midnight tonight, just to see if they stuck to their word of midnight September 30th.

Well, it seems they haven't and we are happily surfing with Lineone at 00:55BST.

Some people are suggesting that Lineone's clocks are back one hour on GMT instead of BST, so the service will actually be pulled at 0100 hours.

But, we have to wonder, maybe the telecom company that is suppliying the 0808 number connection wants to milk some more money out of Lineone - conspiracy theory only mind you, becuase you have to remember, servers and modem racks aren't being turned off - the 0808 number was being disconnected!

The Lineone Discussion forums are buzzing with people lapping up the freephone net access, although it's past the midnight deadline.

We will have a better picture on the situation later in the morning.

News - September 30,2000

ic24 Extends Free Offer!

By:Ross14 @ 6:42:PM - Comments (5) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

ic24, the Free ISP from The Mirror Group has decided to extend it's Freephone evenings and weekends internet access until the end of the year!

So, that means you can surf worry-free without having to pay a single penny weekday evenings from 8pm-midnight and 9am-5pm every Saturday and Sunday.

Thanks to Adamski for the email.

RedHotAnt & ClaraNET Problems

By:mark.j @ 11:04:AM - Comments (3) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The authentication problems with RedHotAnt seemed to have been fixed last Monday, however since then it's re-occurred and happens on a regular basis again. Although in the past this has been an early warning sign of the ISP becoming congested again =(.

Also a warning to those using ClaraNET Freetime packages, the number: (Clara Prefix Removed) 08453505900 is causing dead DNS errors for ISDN users (since Friday evening). We suggest you use the second one: 08453505900 with the prefix in front to solve it until fixed. We don't know if this affects modem users as well.

Aside from those all the usually ISP problems we hear about are going on, slow speeds from Telewest’s SurfUnlimited, Freeserve engaged tones and slow speeds etc. etc.

TheFreeInternet Respond To ISPreview

By:mark.j @ 9:10:AM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Obviously unhappy with another ISP using the old 'System Abuse' trick to get rid of users, we decided to contact them about it. We had a lot of questions, as it didn't make sense that an ISP with so many limits could actually have such a problem.

The good news is TheFreeInternet just used a common language that confused people by the way its been used in the past, take a look:

Isn't it amazing just how loud people with a guilty conscience will shout?

TFI, along with several other ISPs launched their 0800 service to enable the UK population to enjoy the benefits of Internet access at an affordable cost. In order to ensure regular connection for all our Members at an acceptable speed, we adopted the policy of restricting certain "high bandwidth" activities: audio/video streaming, online gaming and "commercial" usage.

Commercial usage can best be described as "the setting up of an email address (es) or the hosting of a Website, whereby the Member seeks to elicit personal or business gain via the 0800 Service by the selling of goods or the provision of business-oriented services".

The purge at TFI has been directed at a minority of the Membership who are clearly in breach of the Terms & Conditions that, on joining, they accepted and agreed to abide by.

These so-called Members have signed-up using company credit cards, registered email addresses in the names of limited companies (@thefreeinternet.co.uk) and published Websites (using their free Webspace) that are, without doubt, utilised for business purposes.

Once identified, these people will have their Membership terminated and their accounts closed and, when commercial usage has been proven, we will take legal action to recover the cost of the telephone calls they have made through fraudulent use of our 0800 "domestic" service.

This action has nothing to do with the amount of time regular TFI users spend online - 6 hours + or not, as long as they use the service for personal home use they have no reason to fear.

By the way, thanks for at least giving us the benefit of the doubt by saying "Still if TFI can PROVE to everybody these users are using the system for business/commercial use then that's fine".

That's exactly what we intend to do.

Regards

Lister Park
---------------
Managing Director
------------- Free Internet Group Ltd --------------
http://www.thefreeinternet.net

Thanks very much to Lister for the prompt reply, as you can see it doesn't have anything to do with people using the service too much. But if you're using the system for business services as described above then you'd better watch out, nothing wrong about what they are doing.

News - September 29,2000

Surfing Rabbit - Questions

By:zeon @ 8:02:PM - Comments (4) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We submitted a few questions about some of the Surfing Rabbit charges. Here is the response we received:

Charges for 0870, 0800 and 0845?
Charges for 0870 numbers are at National Rates:
3.95p - Peak
1.95p - Off Peak
1.50p - Weekend

Calls to 0800 numbers are free.

Other 0845 numbers are charged at 2.45p - peak and 0.82p - off peak & weekend (all + VAT and per minute). These charges are much less than calls to 0870 numbers.

Charges for Mobile?
Charges for Direct Dialled landline to mobile 'phones are as follows:
20p per minute at all times - Cellnet & Vodaphone
18p per minute at all times - Orange & 1-2-1

The Cut-off time for Surfing Rabbit?
Cut-off for the ISP service is 2 hours.

BT ADSL For £20 Month

By:mark.j @ 5:56:PM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We had you going for a minute there didn't we, as if BT would really charge so little, as if anybody would charge so little! But then the interesting thing is it's actually 70% true:

As BT's roll out of ADSL continues to be slated, one firm is rolling out a fast Internet service for £20 a month.

Video Networks launches its Homechoice broadband service this week. It uses BT's ADSL technology but the videostream version rather than the IP version other ISPs are using.

As a consequence the Internet service is a lot slower than the 512kbps achievable with traditional ADSL. It has a bandwidth of 115kbps up and downstream but users will also get access to video-on-demand services. These operate on a pay-per-view basis, ranging from £1.49 to £3.49 per film. There is also a pop video and TV archive which users can subscribe to from £6 a month.

Video is still far from perfect @ normal ADSL speeds, so god knows how they can justify charging so much for video that's likely to be very poor. Either way it's cheaper than normal ADSL AND Dual Channel 128Kbps ISDN because it's unmetered, so perhaps it is a viable choice?

Sadly it's not much good to anybody anyway as you can only get it in London, still signup HERE > http://www.homechoice.co.uk/ if you fancy it. Read the rest @ ZDNet.

Freeserve Places Its Bet

By:mark.j @ 5:46:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The UK's biggest ISP, Freeserve, has placed all its cards on the table in the hope that future unmetered take up will see them breaking out of debt come next year:

The UK’s largest internet service provider has admitted that it is subsidising the cost of about £2-£3 a month for each of its 250,000 users which currently subscribe to its unlimited access plan. Its pre-tax losses in the first financial quarter to August 19 totalled £17.8m – more than triple the previous quarter.

However, the move to unmetered has nearly doubled the time customers are spending online and has boosted the number of Freeserve pages viewed per month by one-fifth. The company believes this will lead to strong advertising revenues and greater internet usage by its customers.

Frank Keeling, COO of Freeserve, said churn rate is declining and the Freeserve portal is becoming stickier: “Our usage has gone through the roof. We are now up to 1bn minutes a month, with the average Freeserve customer accessing 70% more pages than they were a year ago.”

The article, which can be found over @ NetImperative, shows that Freeserve really is pinning all their hopes on FRIACO - or as they put it:

"The big issue for us is FRIACO. When this is rolled out, we will have a sustainable business model. Currently, we do subsidise the costs. When this comes through, we will do a gradual rollout of a flat offering, and we will be able to break a small margin on the pricing."

As usual it's a gamble and one Freeserve hopes their assets can sustain, still with FRIACO's availability in BT's hands who knows what might happen?

BT Talk21 E-Mails WIDE OPEN

By:mark.j @ 1:02:PM - Comments (7) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

BT's Talk21 service provides free E-Mail accounts to thousands of people the UK over, it's in Internet Telephones, Internet Set-Top-Boxes and used by many free ISPs. But be warned, the system is apparently easier to hack than a tree:

Security at BT's free online email service Talk21 was breached Thursday when a user gained access to numerous accounts. The individual who uncovered the problem claims that the service remains wide open.

John Heaton gained access to talk21 accounts through a software package used to gather information concerning visitors to his site. The fault occurred when someone who was visiting his Web site also had his or her email open.

Heaton is the owner of Hotelkeeper.net and uses the software package to discover where visitors to his site have browsed from. He says that the package allowed him to view a visitors talk21 account and to alter account information. He uncovered the security hole after sending out an email inviting people to his Web site.

The full article can be found over @ ZDNet for anybody worried about the security of his or her details and E-Mails. Even the biggest companies have security problems; you can never be 100% secure or safe.

Law Against Viruses

By:mark.j @ 12:54:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

A report conducted by a leading security expert claims that while the idea of having laws to prevent Viruses from being made in the first place is good, it wouldn't actually help stop their production:

Sarah Gordon, virus expert at IBM's research centre, said that despite calls from the antivirus industry and users for tougher legislation covering the writing and distribution of viruses, this is not the answer and could even do more harm than good.

Speaking at the Virus Bulletin Conference in Orlando, Florida, Gordon said: "Given the purported high cost to businesses of virus infections, it is not surprising that some people have looked to the law for help in dealing with this problem.

"In fact, laws are not non-existent or new, for example, the UK's 1990 Computer Misuse Act. However, legal intervention shows no positive correlation with the number of viruses in the wild."

There are now heavy laws in place to prevent software piracy as well, yet it hasn't helped slow that down. More likely that laws forbidding virus writing would actually spur them on even further. The article, which can be found @ VNUNet, goes on to explain the good and bad points of having such a law.

One thing the article doesn’t look at is the AntiVirus software industry, despite the fact they are behind the push for better laws, if everything went as planned thousands could potentially be out of work =). But these things rarely do go as planned and they know very well it wouldn’t make a bit of difference.

Top10 Updated

By:mark.j @ 10:06:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Our ISP Top 10 page has been updated with a second Top10 list. This time it shows the Top10 ISPs by subscriber numbers and is based on up-to-date information given to us by the ISPs. Several people wanted it so we added it.

TheFreeInternet Hit Back ABUSERS

By:mark.j @ 9:51:AM - Comments (8) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Oh no, it couldn't have been long before another ISP pulled the old service abusers trick out of the hat, this time it's TheFreeInternet - http://www.thefreeinternet.net (TFI):

Dear Member,

Recently, we have experienced a growing trend in the blatant abuse of the FreeInternet.Net's 0800 service by a minority of the membership who utilising the service for commercial purposes.

The directors are determined to stamp out this unethical use of the 0800 service to enable us to continue to provide Internet access for our all our members at the most economical rate available in the UK.

We are resolute in our belief that this flagrant abuse of the 0800 service is a clear breach of the Terms & Conditions and merits termination of those members accounts without further warning.

Therefore, with immediate effect, any evidence of commercial usage by a member of TheFreeInternet.Net will result in instant termination of the individuals account.

No refunds will be forthcoming and, criminal prosecutions for theft in lieu of charges for telephone airtime obtained fraudulently may be instigated where commercial usage is established.

Free Internet Group Limited is determined that the seflish actions of the few will not affect the ability of the majority of the members of TFI to connect to their chosen ISP on a regular and uninterrupted basis.
--
Regards

Technical Support
--
http://www.thefreeinternet.net
------------------------------
The Free Internet Group Ltd.

Now while we agree that residential unmetered services should not be used by businesses, there are several issues here. Firstly doesn't TFI have a very quick cut-off time anyway? Very few ISPs with such cut-off times should have any real problem with system abusers; clearly TFI is an exception.

Secondly the last people to do this (Breathe) and cry 'commercial use' penalised residential users without actually having any real evidence to prove otherwise. Or in other words, residential users that use the net a lot end up being labelled 'commercially exploiting the service/business users', when they just use the net more than others.

We certainly don't agree with that at all and it's the only way ISPs can do it without saying their service is rubbish and can't handle the pressure. Still if TFI can PROVE to everybody these users are using the system for business/commercial use then that's fine.

By the way, what on earth is commercial use, as they don't actually refer to business? If I'm buying a product from a website (e.g. PCWorld), does that class me as a system abuser =)?

FreeChariots New Service Update

By:mark.j @ 9:34:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The ISP Freechariot have sent us an updated service Press Release with details of their new offers:

FREECHARIOT – IMPROVEMENT OF OFFERS.

We are happy to inform you that Freechariot have been able to secure better terms with our telephone company. Due to this, we are now in a better position to offer two additional products that will help cover most of the market place.

We want to show that not only can unmetered internet service provision flourish in the UK, but that the UK can catch-up with the US and surpass that market in a couple of years.

FULL OFFER PORTFOLIO:

1. Free 24/7 unmetered Internet service, which includes free, unmetered phone calls.

Ø Customer type: BT customers with analogue lines who makes phone calls and will appreciate a little cost saving compared to BT basic rates.

Ø Requirement: To transfer their phone line(s) to freechariot Telco and spend £8.99 on national and international calls per month.

Ø Registration: One off fee of £15.00 plus vat

Ø Cost: Only monthly phone line rental £12.99 plus vat - no charges at all for the internet calls.

2. Independent 0800 unmetered deal (New) - Built around the FRIACO model. This is a 24/7 unmetered service and will only be offered to the first 5,000 subscribers.

Ø Customer type: Those independent users who do not make phone calls or want to transfer phone lines. Includes cable users and ISDN users.

Ø Requirement: Be part of the first 5,000 subscribers.

Ø Registration: No registration fee.

Ø Cost: £15.00 plus vat per month

3. Pay as you surf – (New) - For those who want to control Internet use and want independence no ties use.

Ø Customer type: Anyone including those who are business visitors to the UK

Ø Requirement: Register credit or debit card when registering.

Ø Registration: £5 plus vat – one off fee.

Ø Cost: An unbeatable 0.9p per minute.

We also want to take this opportunity to thank those who have been the advocates and supporters of unmetered Internet access in the UK such as CUT, Daily Telegraph, Net4nowt, The Register and ISP Review amongst others. Our continuing appreciation also goes to our members for their support.

Thank you

Best Regards

Keith Ajagun
Good is redundant in "Customer Services"
Freechariot - The best ride Freecall ISP
No call charges to the WWW
Free phone calls as well.
Phone: +44 (0)702 1108989
Fax: +44 (0)870 7419110
Email: keith@freechariot.co.uk
URL: http://www.freechariot.co.uk

No information about cut-offs or additional services such as E-Mail and web space, but we don't doubt you can find them at their website.

News - September 28,2000

Blueyonder Update

By:Daniel @ 11:39:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

As I am a blueyonder user I must admit they can be slow at times but they mailed the following email about a few months ago:

LINX Upgrade.

We will be upgrading the primary LINX Router and installing additional fibre links between core equipment. What's does that mean to you? This upgrade will assist you in accessing U.K.-based web sites in a shorter period of time. This work will be completed
by mid-October 2000.

We will be upgrading our LINX back up router to a full STM1 (155mb); this is to ensure our back up solutions mirror the primary solution, in case of failure. That way, you will not have endure slow web surfing even if our primary server has a temporary outage.
This work will be completed by the end of September 2000.

Mae East Router Move

Due to necessary expansion at our Mae East facility in the U.S., we are moving and upgrading our Mae East router. This work will improve the current slow throughput levels at Mae East and on our Transit Routes. This means you will be able to access web sites hosted in the U.S more quickly. This work will be completed by 6th October 2000.

Our engineering team will continue to work on US connectivity and plan further service improvement by the end of the year. We will continue to keep you updated on progress
of these improvements.

Additional UK Network Improvements

We are upgrading all core Internet Routers to improve all network issues that are currently being experienced, this will enhance the overall speeds at which you can surf the Internet. We expect this to be completed by mid November 2000.

I get my Cable modem on monday so I'll see what it's like and post some news about it.

08002go.com Update No. 4

By:Ross14 @ 8:06:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Yet again we have an 08002go Update. Controversy surrounds this ISP like mist, so with no further ado, here is an offical response from 08002go:

The message you have all been waiting for,

We at 08002go.com have noticed all week , as we are sure you have, that the server on which we host our website has had a whole host of problems.

As you have been informed, this is not the server system that we will be using on our launch for obvious reasons. One of the main things we have learned, however this week is that our launch server must not have any of these inherent problems. As we have said many times, we will not launch with a poor service just for Capital Gain (something which 80% of you have been experiencing with your present ISP’s ).

Our site will be leaving the old server for good next week, when it will be put permanently on our new server system .

This period, for all its problems, will have given us a good interval to test out our new server and other technology to make sure we iron out most (if not all) of any technical difficulties that may arise.

Now for the answer to the ‘Million Dollar’ question you have all been asking us:

THE LAUNCH DATE IS 27th NOVEMBER 2000

Without giving any promises, if we can go "live" earlier, we will do so and YES before you ask we will tell you.

For those of you who have to leave their current ISP’s soon because they are no longer able to offer you an Unmetered Service, and you cannot wait for our launch date, may we wish you all the success in the world with your new found ISP.

For all our members, that have pre-registered, and can stay with us, you will not be disappointed.

I am sure you will all have a lot of questions regarding this letter so please feel free to post your concerns and we will answer you all.

Regards info@08002go.com

You can find out more and ask your own questions by going to the 08002go Discussion Forum @ http://pub26.ezboard.com/f08002gofrm12.

RedHotAnt Problems

By:mark.j @ 5:17:PM - Comments (5) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

A boost in RHA complaints has occurred over the last few days, however we already informed them about it a couple of days ago. Just to assure you everything is ok and the authentication problem is now known about, RHA have updated the status page:

28th September 2000 14:59
There is currently an authentication issue, this is causing some users problems connecting.

Engineers are currently working on this, and it will be resolved as soon as possible.

The problem seems to affect just about everybody so lets hope it's resolved soon.

Freeserve Switches BTSurftime to FRIACO

By:mark.j @ 4:47:PM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Today’s main headlines seem to be dominated by the UK's number one ISP, Freeserve, and it's forthcoming products and share drops. Here's yet another piece to the puzzle, as they now claim that a FRIACO system will be in place by December, replacing the problematic BTSurftime one:

In a statement today, CE John Pluthero, said: "...we are strongly positioned for the introduction of Flat Rate Internet Access Call Origination (FRIACO)."

But spokesman Paul Barker told The Reg that the timing depended upon "BT making it available for us".

For Freeserve, though FRIACO can't come soon enough. It is currently subsidising its existing 250,000 unmetered users to the tune of £500,000 a month, although Barker claims this situation is improving "day by day, month by month".

FRIACO is already implemented in more than half of British exchanges, right now it's the BT > Telco/ISP stuff that needs to be sorted and is causing the delays. You can find more over @ The Register and we'll soon know whether BT has missed yet another ISP supply deadline at the beginning of October.

Colt Give BT & Oftel a Kicking

By:mark.j @ 4:41:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

What, you didn't seriously think a day would go bye without yet another Telco or ISP laying into BT or Oftel, did you? This time the Independent newspaper has reported on how it's Colt Telecom's turn to do the kicking:

Colt Telecom has become the latest telco to put on its 18-hole Dr Martens and give BT and Oftel a good kicking over the issue of local loop unbundling.

CE, Paul Chisholm, claims Oftel and BT have simply got it wrong.

He told the Independent: "The UK process that was set up between BT and Oftel doesn't work."

"Are we annoyed?"

"Absolutely," he said, answering his own question.

In what now seems to be a daily event similar to some turgid Aussie soap, telcos and interested parties are queuing up to lay into the incumbent operator and the seemingly incompetent regulator.

A finer cut version of the article can be found over @ The Register and yet another Telco joins the ever-growing list of angry businesses against BT and Oftel. Not good news after BT's earlier run in with AOL in which they insult the mighty ISP claiming AOL stood for 'Any Old Lies', funny stuff.

Telewest SurfUnlimited Hits The Brick

By:mark.j @ 4:34:PM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Most users of SurfUnlimited know there have been problems and we do get the odd complaint or two a week, but rarely anything to shout about. However recently these have increased and we're wondering if this is a problem shared globally as we hear mixed views.

On reader complaints:

Anyway, just got off with their technical support yet again on day 3 of this fiasco and they still can't help. They admit that it's because a lot of new subscribers have joined very recently. It's now having an impact on the whole service. It takes me a minimum of 20-30 dial attempts to get on, and once on, the server can be slow. Their local networks are congested.

If you too are suffering from this then let us know through the usual complaint channels and also by posting a comment. Likewise if the service is actually fine then post a comment the same, thanks.

BT & AOL Do Battle

By:mark.j @ 1:10:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

That's what we like to see, two mighty forces drawing their swords in public and doing battle, especially when it's over unmetered access. This time it was at the Labour party conference in Brighton, where during a fringe meeting AOL and BT came to blows:

E-minister Patricia Hewitt headlined the meeting, organised by the BBC, telling delegates about the progress of unmetered internet rollout in the UK.

Later, speaking from the floor, AOL's head of corporate communications Matt Peacock praised Hewitt for her support for unmetered access, but then said BT had caused numerous delays to its introduction.

"Eighteen months ago AOL went to BT for an unmetered package," he said. "They threw us out of their office, almost literally."

The article, which can be read over @ VNUNet, goes on to state how the argument escalated from there. It's actually more fun than anything and goes to show that the Government actually praise Oftel and BT for their work, unusual considering recent comments. However the bit we like most is:

"I don't want to get involved in an argument with AOL," he said - before adding that AOL could stand for 'Any Old Lies'.

It's not easy to see exactly whose telling the truth, but what it does show is that high ranking government officials and business men can often behave just like children.

ISPreview Site Update

By:mark.j @ 12:56:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Sorry about this morning’s downtime, the server was actually fine but a link between the domain people and the backbone failed. You could locate the domain name, but could not completely resolve it; obviously this has now been fixed. The same problem occurred on Friday last week, it’s very difficult to track but should now be gone for good.

Freeserve Problems Due to Fuel Crisis?

By:mark.j @ 12:53:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We've had a mountain of complaints about Freeserve and today there's some good news, an explanation for the problems and predicted fix date:

Users of Freeserve’s unmetered access packages have been revealed as unlikely sufferers of the recent fuel crisis after plans by the ISP to increase efficiency were hit by a lack of fuel for engineers’ vehicles.

The UK’s biggest portal said in August it was working on a project with its telecoms provider Energis to improve the efficiency of the system, which had been criticised by users for slow download speeds, repeated disconnections, and frustrations in attempting to log back on to the service.

However, the company has confirmed that the plan, which involved the installation of a number of new modems in key areas, has been delayed because engineers could not get enough fuel to carry out the installations.

A quick trip over to Freeserve and the service status page confirms this article @ NetImperative, they hope to have things back online for Saturday evening at the latest, they hope.

News - September 27,2000

ADSL "Not Viable" For Third Party Telco's

By:mark.j @ 7:17:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

A new report on the feasibility of ADSL outside of BT exchanges today revealed that third party Telco's would not have the strength to push such a product themselves:

Only BT will be able to afford to roll out ADSL even after the local loop is unbundled, according to a study from research firm Ovum.

The findings will come as a blow to those who regard post-unbundled Internet services as a means to finally end the stranglehold BT has on the UK telecoms market. Ovum's research compared the four main broadband technologies -- DSL, fixed wireless, cable and fibre -- and concludes ADSL will not be a viable alternative for rival telcos.

"ADSL, for those who don't own the local loop, is not as cheap as people think," says Ovum analyst Yum Petkovic. As well as having to pay costs in order to get equipment installed in BT's local exchanges -- for example, every company must pay the telco to undertake a survey of the exchanges it wishes to use -- rival telcos will also continue to pay BT rent for the use of the local copper. "ADSL is not a viable long term alternative," she says.

The article, which can be found @ ZDNet, is correct and has already been the reason several leading Telco's have pulled out of LLU bidding. However yesterday’s announcement by Redstone seems to add light to an otherwise grey area. They have a new and faster method (SDSL) that can avoid the problem areas of an exchange and thus keep the price low!

This isn't likely to help other Telco's only in the running for LLU so they can have a slice of broadband. However it doesn't effect Telco's buying into the LLU for basic calling options.

The Hole In RIP & Carnivore

By:mark.j @ 7:05:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

RIP isn't just about E-Mail privacy, but for the moment that's the primary focus. We already know of a more technical way around RIP monitoring, however a similar system in the USA (Carnivore) has just been hacked open. It's now believed similar methods could be employed on the UK counterpart (RIP) to bypass it:

Until now, only the FBI knew how the product worked. But its attempts at secrecy have backfired, after a company called Network Ice released the source code for a rival product, altivore.c (www.networkice.com/altivore).

This may not sound like much, but the systems are so similar that it presents an obvious problem for the USA's Carnivore system and possibly RIP:

The UK's equivalent of Carnivore (USA Online Monitoring System) is a black box that, under the RIP Bill, will be placed at ISP premises to monitor emails. It is unclear whether it will be a mandatory device, which will leave the public suspicious of what it does, or an open source device that meets a defined technical description.

Security analyst Peter Williams, of DataCheck Consultants, said that if the technology can be developed in the US there is no reason why it could not be used to scupper the RIP in the UK. "The government didn't really think through the technology for this," he said.

Whether this is good news for the end user or not is debateable, likewise for RIP itself, we'll just have to wait and see. Checkout the rest over @ VNUNet.

Net4Nowt IP Telephone

By:mark.j @ 6:48:PM - Comments (3) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Our friends @ Net4Nowt have launch yet another product today, this time it's a phone that can voice call anywhere in the world using the net for lower prices.

The Net4nowt IP Telephone has been launched today.

Available from http://www.n4n.net the Internet Protocol Telephone enables users to make telephone calls from their PC to anywhere in the world at highly competitive prices. For example, calls to Australia are 2p and Germany 1p per minute.

Such systems are far from new and have been around for years, yet few have managed to infiltrate the UK marketplace with any real ferocity.

Redstone Acquire DIALnet

By:mark.j @ 6:40:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Redstone Telecom, who recently announced an innovative way of bringing SDSL broadband (similar to ADSL, kinder) to UK homes, has today stepped up its pace by acquiring ISP DIALnet plc.:

The acquisition, worth £1.5m in cash, is touted as a push into the broadband market. DIALnet provides internet connectivity via leased line, ADSL, SDSL, cable modems, satellite, and radio to education and government sectors. According to Redstone, DIALnet will also bring with it a ten-year contract for the supply of networking services to the public sector, as well as the learnall.net portal, for delivering learning resources into the education sector and homes.

Things are now starting to look extremely positive for Redstone and hopefully any consumers who live in areas soon to be covered by them. Find the rest over @ NetImperative.

1/3 UK Households Online

By:mark.j @ 6:35:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

More Internet statistics today as the net research company Net Value published a report claiming that nearly a third of all UK households are net connected:

Net Value found that 31.2% of households are connected, up by more than 18% on similar figures recorded in March.

The study also found that, in August, travel sites unsurprisingly benefited from a poor British summer with the number of visits to travel sites increasing by 6.5% compared with July.

Lastminute.com, the supposedly troubled late-booking pioneer, was again the most visited travel site with more than 830,000 unique visitors, though Thomas Cook’s thomascook.com closely followed with 809,000 visitors. The two are well ahead of next placed competitor Expedia.co.uk, which claimed 366,000 unique visitors.

You can find the rest over @ NetImperative and British Internet usage continues to rise at a phenomenal rate. But can BT's networks cope with the increase in demand?

Surfing Rabbit Update!

By:zeon @ 5:41:PM - Comments (6) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We have had a chance to do a bit of research about Surfing Rabbit after we posted their Inintial Press Release. The service is run through TelecomGB in a similar way to what NTLWorld does with BT customers. When you signup you will be sent an adaptor, which you plug into the telephone socket. This routes the calls away from BT and onto their network.

We have been told that they own the hardware for Internet service so it will be possible to upgrade. The current speed of the ISP is 155MB/s, which should be enough to take a large amount of customers. The deal is very good as they offer unmetered local calls and Internet access for £9.99 + VAT as well as having national rate prices 50% lower than BT at peak rate.

All we can say is how good the deal is. There seems to have been a lot of careful planning surrounding the service it also obviously relies on you routing nearly all of the calls through the adaptor. Anyone who has any questions about the service should either look at the Surfing Rabbit website or give us an e-mail and we'll try and get an answer.

Free Set-Top Boxes! FOR ALL!

By:Ross14 @ 5:27:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

A UK company is claiming today that it will try and stop the digital divide by providing every house in the U.K with a free set-top box so that Digital TV, the Net and more can be accessed from home.

Dubbed Freebox, the company has set-out plans to make it's fortune through advertising and e-commerce solutions. As well as supporting Internet access and Digital TV, its device also allows email and video email and will play DVDs, CDs and MP3 files.

Zdnet has more:

Consumers without credit cards or bank accounts will be able to take advantage of e-commerce through the Freebox. "We're planning to introduce Internet charge cards, similar to phone cards. People will buy them from local shops, and use them to buy goods over the Web. This eliminates fraud, and also lets people without credit cards spend online," a spokesman explains.

Freebox hopes to start distributing boxes to UK households before Christmas 2000. Forty thousand models will be available this year, and the company plans to manufacture 500,000 per month from January 2001. The company has also promised to give Freeboxes away to schools, at a ratio of one per every 250 pupils.

Freeboxes will be compatible with high-speed data networks. Until ADSL is available, the company plans to distribute shopping DVDs to its users. These will provide a virtual 3D shopping experience. Customers will be able to browse the contents of the DVD and then go online when they're ready to buy an item.

Finishing off, users will not be restricted to what sites they can access, the whole net will be accessable. Also, you must pay a refundable £10 deposit for the box.

It definetely does sound like an "all-in-one" electronics, communications and tv system! We definetely like the idea of it being able to play DVD's.

BT Stiffs 75% of UK over Broadband

By:mark.j @ 10:18:AM - Comments (18) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

This morning The Times newspaper has reported on possibly one of the biggest story’s today, that BT could well leave 75% of UK exchanges in a no-broadband zone despite previous claims.

40% of Britain's population (75% of exchanges), 23 million people, will be excluded from a high-speed Internet revolution under plans being drawn up by British Telecommunications. A document leaked to the paper by a source close to BT claimed there would be huge "deadzones" throughout Britain, where the introduction of broadband equipment was thought to be "commercially and technically unviable".

BT were quick to respond to such allegations this morning, claiming the report was "pessimistic". The Times goes on to say that the spokesman admitted BT planned to limit its rollout of digital subscriber lines (DSL). Apparently telephone exchanges covering 75% of the population would be delayed until 2002!

Businesses and consumers in Cornwall, Wales, the North East, North West, Scotland and Northern Ireland, are set to lose the most under BT's plans, the newspaper claimed. To be fair, you can understand that some areas of the UK simply don't need ADSL, so why even bother installing it? It's a confusing matter to say the least.

CMA Take a Shot @ Oftel

By:mark.j @ 9:59:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Next up in the long queue of those taking shots at Oftel over its handling of LLU (Local Loop Unbundling) and Broadband (ADSL) is the CMA (Communications Management Association):

According to a report from the Communications Management Association (CMA), formerly the Telecommunications Managers Association, more than two-thirds of senior communications professionals in the UK regard Oftel as having failed to deliver competition in all parts of the UK.

Oftel is also criticised for its handling of BT's ADSL rollout in the report, which will be published at the end of October.

CMA chairman John Wright said: "Oftel hasn't responded in the way we would have liked over the past two years. The UK needs more effective regulation and Oftel hasn't encouraged proper competition or taken a firmer hand with BT."

The full article, which can be found @ VNUNet, does a good job of showing the growing dissatisfaction with Oftel as a Telco regulator. Consumers, businesses and even the government look to them when trying to encourage competition and they don't seem to be delivering as planned.

However if anything were to be done about them, then it'd likely be at least another year or two so as to avoid further delays with LLU and broadband coverage issues.

IGClick Starting to Crack?

By:mark.j @ 9:43:AM - Comments (8) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We've had three reports in so many hours from people having problems with IGClick, the unmetered ISP that keeps boasting about its quality. Could this be a sign of forthcoming problems or just a short-term issue? Have a look at what one complaint had to say:

It is starting to appear as if IGClick has taken too many people on board. With the recent demise of Callnet0800, EzeSurf and (soon) Lineone, many people have signed up to IGClick. The deterioration in quality of service has become very noticeable in the last week or so. Dead connections, failed authentication and random drops are only part of the problem, but what has to be the worst is e-mail. E-mail has been intermittent since the weekend and mostly unavailable since Tuesday.

Not looking good. What makes matters worse is that they flatly denied any problems when I phoned on Tuesday afternoon and their service status page hadn't been updated since the 14th September, despite all the problems mentioned earlier, and has only just been done.

The above reader also mentioned in a supposed IGClick staff quote that the E-Mail would be back online @ lunchtime 27th September 2000. Is it a sign of problems to come or have IGClick already got the more serious problems licked? Give a comment if you use them so we know.

News - September 26,2000

UK.Internet Test Unmetered ISPs

By:mark.j @ 6:15:PM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The good old team @ UK.Internet have personally informed us of a new article they have where some of the top unmetered ISPs have been given heavy testing session:

Online and unmetered: it's the service everyone wants, but which companies do it right? uk.internet.com puts nine of the biggest names on the market through some intensive testing. There may be no such a thing as a free lunch, but, if the hype is to be believed, free unmetered internet access is sweeping across the UK. In this exclusive research, the first independent test of its kind, uk.internet.com has commissioned leading internet industry experts from theITlabs.com to cut through this hype and evaluate the services offered by the main players in the red hot British unmetered net access market.

Because almost everyone wants something for nothing and almost everyone wants to surf the internet, companies promising unmetered services have the potential to dominate the UK ISP market. But only if they are able to deliver what they are promising.

We can't be sure when the tests were done, but the access times graph shows 24-7Freecall and RedHotAnt as having the biggest problems with engage tones =).

Either way this is most certainly an article you'll want to look at, they test the following ISPS:
-24-7 Freecall
-BT Connect incorporating BT Surftime
-Demon Internet based on BT Surftime
-Excite - The Free Internet (TFI)
-Freeserve Time
-NTL World
-RedHotAnt
-Telewest SurfUnlimited