December 14, 2000 - December 19, 2000

News - December 19,2000

Iomart Has Its Say On LLU

By:mark.j @ 4:52:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Energis wasn't the only Telco to have a go at BT today, Iomart (Madasafish backers) have also sent us a new press release with their view of the events, here it is in full:

news release - use immediate 19 December, 2000

iomart Represents New Entrant Telcos At Select Committee Hearing

iomart Group plc's (www.iomart.com) high profile in pursuing the unbundling of the local loop was maintained today (Tuesday, December 19) when they represented the UK's New Entrant telecommunications operators at the House of Commons Trade and Industry Select Committee.

Speaking afterwards, Phil Worms, iomart Director of Broadband Services, said: "The process is frustrating - BT is dragging its feet. Whilst recognising that some improvements have been made in the last few months, the regulator needs to ensure that at all time scales are enforced if we are to see unbundling of the loop in the early part of 2001."

iomart's Phil Worms was part of a four strong team called to give evidence to the Select Committee on behalf of iomart, Easynet, OnCue, Fibrenet, Atlantic and Versapoint.

Today's hearing in Portcullis House formed part of an ongoing investigation into the process behind unbundling of the local loop and the relationship between telecoms watchdog, OFTEL and incumbent, BT.

Among the issues under discussion were -
* Relationships with BT
* Bow-wave process allocations (first and second)
* Assessment of space
* Trial sites
* Distant location
* Transparency; Terms and conditions for Local Loop Unbundling

A submission by the six telcos accuses BT of foot-dragging over allowing rival operators access to install DSL equipment in local exchanges. The submission also criticises OFTEL for not being tough enough in its regulation of BT.

The submission states: "We believe that a range of operators using a range of technologies to provide a range of broadband services, both regionally and nationally, at competitive prices can best satisfy customers' unmet demand for the widest possible variety of services. This can only be achieved by having access to BT's exchanges and copper on a transparent and non-discriminatory basis on reasonable terms and conditions."

It continues: "We do not have transparent and non-discriminatory access and we do not yet have reasonable terms and conditions. Indeed, we do not even have access. If we compare BT's ease of access and its achievement of DSL installations at 615 exchanges to date, competitors are only just having sites handed over for the first kit installs at their trial sites, after starting in April 2000. This is a total of nine months pre-preparation for five sites.

"A direct UK comparison based on the current allocation to operators of space at BT's local exchanges would show that it would take the operators over 30 years to achieve parity with BT's own roll out."

The New Entrants argue that the most effective and positive response now is for OFTEL to focus all the powers at its disposal to ensure BT's competitors can enter the market secure in the knowledge the environment is fully transparent, non-discriminatory, and that the key supplier offers its copper and its local exchange buildings at cost-based prices.

The submission adds: "OFTEL must rigorously audit BT's behaviour and the resources and capabilities it has put in place to meet the reasonable demands of the industry (as expressed informally in January and in June 2000 and formally on September 12, 2000 and December 7, 2000).”

"Where difficulties arise which threaten the process, OFTEL should seek swiftly the fastest way to resolve this, whether by issuing a subject specific policy statement after consultation with interested parties or by relying on its existing powers to address such threats. OFTEL has not, in the past, acted as quickly as it might have.”

END

It looks like the rebellion against BT is now in full swing, although whether it will do any good is up to the government, Oftel and ultimately BT.

IGClick Withdraws ADSL

By:mark.j @ 3:35:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Several readers have written in to show us the following E-Mail from IGClick, an ISP that closed its unmetered service only days ago:

IG SYSTEMS

December 19, 2000

Dear Sir or Madam:
Re your account number - ************

From 01/01/2001 IG Systems will no longer be supporting ADSL. The company has decided to withdraw from offering the service until all ongoing technical problems have been resolved. As you are aware you have paid the installation fee and no rental on your service to date. Your service will be free until 31/01/2000. Your account will be held live until that date and we can make arrangements with another provider to service your account (BT currently have all your billing details).

We apologise for this course of action but until as a company we can provide the level of service that justifies our pricing policy, it is better to withdraw this service than to carry on with an inferior product that does not meet our customers' requirements

Sincerely,

Senior Administrator for ADSL

So there you have it, IGClick have not only closed their unmetered ISP offering, but have also become the first ever ISP to end their ADSL service. To tell you the truth we weren't surprised by this, they seemed to be such an incompetent bunch that it was almost bound to happen.

If one part of the system is bad then it's usually safe to assume the other side will have serious problems as well.

ISPr Hits 1,500,000 Unique Visitors

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

During the end of the summer this year (2000) we hit 1,000,000 unique visitors. Since then several months have passed and only days before Christmas we've managed to make 1,500,000 unique visitors (not impressions). It looks as though 2,000,000 is now in sight for Q2 2001.

Energis Scales Back LLU - BT Blamed

By:mark.j @ 3:24:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

According to ZDNet, Energis, the Telco and Network supplier, have made the decision to dramatically scale back their investment into broadband LLU. Apparently they've had enough of BT's delays and have decided to take this action:

Unbundling of the local loop -- in which other operators gain access to BT's telephone exchanges -- is now a legal requirement, ratified by the European Union's Council of Ministers on 5 December. It is widely seen as an essential part of opening up telecoms markets across Europe and concreting the government's vision of universal cheap broadband Internet services across the UK.

Energis' decision will come as a further blow to the unbundling process which has already seen five high profile operators withdraw completely. It also reflects an industry wide belief that BT is deliberately making it happen as slowly as possible. Energis' comments come as part of a select committee enquiry set up in response to complaints and lobbying earlier in the summer. E-minister Patricia Hewitt and Oftel boss David Edmonds have already been hauled over the coals by the select committee and Tuesday it was the turn of the rival operators.

Apparently the delays make it extremely difficult for operators such as Energis, Telewest and NTL etc. to draw up a realistic business plan. Getting from the ownership of the exchange to actually offering a service looks like something that could potentially take until 2002!

ADSL Installation Delays

By:mark.j @ 3:18:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Its one thing to wait a year or two for ADSL to be enabled in your area (know the feeling), but its another to realise that you could be waiting months to have it installed once signed up. At least that's according to UK.Internet, but then doesn't this always happen with new technologies, remember Home Highway?:

Although ADSL is only delivered over standard BT telephone lines and through ADSL-enabled BT exchanges, Zen is currently promoting the fact that its customers face a maximum 10-day wait for connection to ADSL services.

"BT tends to attract most of the traffic as customers believe ADSL and BT to be one and the same," said Fielding. "So, essentially, they've got more enquiries than anyone else. This has led them to say that they have a long waiting list and that it's the case with everyone; which it's not."

BT blames the delays on technical difficulties that have been experienced wherever ADSL has been launched. A spokesman agreed that ISPs with a more limited customer base than BT are able to offer a rapid connection time, but that customers for BTopenworld should also be connected within 10 to 15 working days. Since the delays affect BT engineers working on exchanges, they are likely to be as applicable to alternative ISPs as they are to BTopenworld.

BTOpenworld claims its backlog of 100,000 subscribers will be cleared by March 2001, which is quite an interesting 10-15 day waiting period =). Ultimately all ISPs have to use BT engineers for the installation, but the allocation for those engineers does differ, despite the fact they come from one source - BT.

If you’re waiting for ADSL then spare a thought for the millions that can’t even get it yet.

24/7FreeCall Refund Doubts

By:mark.j @ 3:03:PM - Comments (5) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The Register is reporting that despite yesterday’s announcement that the 1,000 kicked off the service would get a refund, many don't seem able to communicate with the ISP. One of TR's readers goes on..:

"I have e-mailed them to complain but haven't had any reply. I would like to call them but I can't because I am deaf. This is really unfair for me as there is no way for me to get in touch with them. I also can't find their fax number."

"Plus, it's as if they are 'blocking' my needs of communication. Without it, I can't communicate with people as I am deaf. As you can see, it made my life 'very' difficult," said Tony.

It's certainly sad to hear, although we cast doubt on TR's haste to report a failure without giving the ISP barely a day since the initial announcement. A good ISP will respond to E-Mails within 2-3 days, a poor ISP might take over a week, so technically TR are jumping the gun here with an unrealistic assessment.

Give 24/7FreeCall a couple more days before crying out that they've failed, even we can't always reply to E-Mails within 24 hours - some of us have to sleep you know =).

NTL Makes 1,000,000 In Time For X-Mas

By:mark.j @ 2:54:PM - Comments (3) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

It looks as though Cable operator NTL have made their 1,000,000 UK customers target in time for Christmas, or so reports netimperative.com:

Cable operator ntl has registered its one-millionth customer after reaching its year-end target of 500,000 digital subscribers ahead of schedule.

In addition, the company has signed on 514,000 users to its unmetered ISP ntlworld, which it claims attracts 12,000 new registrations each week. ntl also claims that its portal attracts 56m page impressions per month.

By the end of 2001, ntl said the majority of its digital subscribers will have a broadband cable modem installed in their homes.

Now lets just hope that money they've got after pulling out of the xDSL market is used on their networks as they claimed it would be.

ISP Reviews - An ISP For 2000

By:mark.j @ 12:05:PM - Comments (16) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Last year ClaraNET won our first award for being the best ISP in 1999 and even today remains the most highly rated of them all. This year the selection is much winder since we've reviewed and tested (not yet reviewed) many more ISPs.

The award nominations are rated in by us and the final decision is ours because how many of you can honestly say you've tested hundreds of ISPs =). Yet we do listen to what people have to say for obvious reasons, although we are a site that deals more with consumer troubles, so it's often hard to get a realistic view.

We choose our nominees by looking at issues such as stability, cost, performance, innovation, customer communication and support. Unlike many of the magazines, we DO NOT just rate an ISP due to speed. Thus in no particular order, here are this years nominees (ClaraNET excluded due to last years win):

WorldOnline
Despite some recent price changes, WorldOnline is still comparatively cheap, fast and stable.

Madasafish
Although expensive, their robust service, fast network and multiplayer combined with good customer support is a winner. They also have one of the longest cut offs at 4hour intervals!

Care4Free
An ISP where every call you make gives some money to charity, it's also very fast and extremely popular/stable.

CloudNine / MySurftime
In some ways a newer addition and highly priced, although support is almost unmatched and downloads/services are near excellent. Complimented by the fact they have no strictly imposed cut off on their unmetered products.

Demon Internet
Confusing and rather technical unmetered options, yet despite this Demon have remained a stable and honest choice for many people. Average speeds, but good support and services make it a worth while choice.

Nildram
A rather standard ISP with some unrealistically high prices, that said and they have remained stable with excellent speeds and some nice services/support.

Plus.NET
A very flexible ISP that got off to a bumpy started, however speeds are average and support is a little slow/difficult to find. That said and prices + services are good and they don't seem to impose a 2hour cut off anymore. Beware the annoying bandwidth limits on ALL services.

LineOne
Despite dropping its 24/7 unmetered package earlier in the year to much anger, LineOne has otherwise maintained an excellent performance level. Now fairly well priced/positioned and with average speeds, they are contenders, yet perhaps not quite winners.

Games-World.Net
Known as the most expensive ISP to offer unmetered this side of the galaxy, GWN remains a fast ISP with good services and some average support. Stability and multiplayer have always been a plus, although you simply can't ignore the impossible prices.

AOL (UK)
Its been around since the early days and has always stood strong with good stability and some average speeds, yet the prices remain excellent; especially the new unmetered option. Support has also been excellent, although overall quality seems to vary from place to place around the UK.

There you have the top 10 we've chosen as the nominees for our 2001 award, only one can win. Please do not E-Mail us with why this or that was not included, we will not reply to them, as our reasons have already been clearly stated. At present we are having a hard time choosing ourselves =).

Although we'll ultimately decide who wins, we'd like your comments (good and bad) on any ISP you're currently with that's listed above. We have a problem that by our nature most readers will likely have consumer problems and thus avoid good comments, so we'll bare that in mind if it happens.

BTOpenworlds Security Problem

By:mark.j @ 10:31:AM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

In the latest string of problems for BT's own ADSL provider, BTOpenworld, a serious security problem has been discovered and reported on by The Register:

Due to a serious security lapse, users signing up to BTOpenworld's ADSL service have been invited to send credit card details over an insecure internet connection.

A vulture-eyed Register reader, who tried to sign up to the telcom giant's domestic version of BTOpenworld, noticed he was invited to submit his credit card details over an insecure http connection. He had been trying to register for the home 500 service. He also discovered that orders for the broadband service submitted over the phone were input by BT's operators using the same insecure web page.

Unlike https (Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol), which uses Secure Socket Layer to encrypt traffic between a server and client devices, http uses no security protection. As a result users who registered for the service allowed their credit card details to be transmitted in the clear - making it relatively straightforward for crackers to obtain those details.

It's probably worth pointing out that even if the server wasn't secure, actually intercepting and obtaining the details remains a complex task reserved for only the best. The problem is there are a lot of people who can do it, yet thankfully the fatal flaw has now been plugged.

Port Scans ARE Legal

By:mark.j @ 10:25:AM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

It's long been wondered whether Port Scanning is illegal under some of the new cyber crime laws. The technique is most often used by hackers trying to find an 'open door' into your system, The Register has word that they are now officially legal:

Last week both sides agreed not to appeal the decision by judge Thomas Thrash, who found that the value of time spent investigating a port scan can not be considered damage. "The statute clearly states that the damage must be an impairment to the integrity and availability of the network," wrote the judge, who found that a port scan impaired neither.

"It says you can't create your own damages by investigating something that would not otherwise be a crime," says hacker defence attorney Jennifer Granick. "It's a good decision for computer security researchers."

A port scan is a remote probe of the services a computer is running. While it can be a precursor to an intrusion attempt, it does not in itself allow access to a remote system. Port-scanning programs are found in the virtual tool chests of both Internet outlaws and cyber security professionals.

It sounds like a fair judgement as otherwise you'd have thousands complaining of being port scanned, something that would ultimately divert the security forces from a real hack. You should only really be worried about port scans if you spend a lot of time online and chatting in a group via IRC or systems such as ICQ etc.

News - December 18,2000

BTs ISP Legal Action - Hyperlinks

By:mark.j @ 5:20:PM - Comments (4) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Moments after we credit BT with one thing, we have to take it away with another as according to UK.Internet, BT has once again jumped the gun. Although it still hasn't won the race to win the Hyperlinks patent back in 2006, they have already started legal action against some ISPs!:

BT has begun its battle to recover licence fees from ISPs after it emerged six months ago that the company owned a patent to one of the key elements of hyperlink technology.

The telco rediscovered the patent (number 4,873,662 which expires in 2006) about three years ago during a routine check and decided that it might be able to charge ISPs for their customer's use of hyperlinks.

BT hired intellectual property specialist Scipher to pursue its claim but has met with resistance from ISPs, although it has not been undeterred from starting legal action against Prodigy and AOL. The technology in question forms a key part of the construction of hyperlinks and, whether applied in HTML, WML or Java, forms the basis of the whole internet.

BT continues to ignore the VIDEO and documentary evidence from the Stanford Research Institute that pre-dates BT's own claim to 1968. One thing we're sure of, BT must not be allowed to get a hold of the hyperlinks patent.

BT Cuts £1,465 Bill To £190

By:mark.j @ 5:12:PM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

In the earlier days of BTSurftime there were a lot of issues with billing and in fact some still exist. The Register reported on one of the biggest @ £1,465, thankfully BT's Christmas spirit means its now been reduced to £190:

Remember Nick Everitt? He received a quarterly phone bill in September for £1,465 even though he was dialling a freephone Net access number. The bill, which was 467 pages, reduced his wife to tears.

However, in this season of goodwill to all men, BT has revised down the bill to just £190.

What about goodwill to all women as well? Hmm anyway, it's nice to see BT recognised the fault and rectified this, although we'd like to think it was more than just Christmas spirit.

24/7FreeCall Pledges Refunds

By:mark.j @ 3:03:PM - Comments (8) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Thanks in part to the publicity from The Register, it seems as thou 24/7FreeCall have now agreed to refund ALL of the 1,000 users kicked from their service:

In yet another U-turn, Sal Abdin, the head of 24/7 Freecall, told The Register that all those affected would received a refund - even though the ISP originally said it would not reimburse people.

"They will be refunded," he said. "There's no argument, If people drop us an email - that would help speed up things for us," he added.

Sal Abdin's apparent change of heart is to be welcomed - not only for the poor sods who had £19.99 deducted from their bank accounts days before being kicked off the service. But spare a thought for those who had money deducted after they were kicked off.

Six months ago paying £20 per month for a service was considered expensive, yet today it's a lot more realistic in the wake of BTSurftime ISPs that charge far in excess of even that. That said and it's still a lot of money for consumers to pay, so there should never have been any question of a refund for those who were kicked.

Thankfully and rather unlike many other ISPs, they have at least now offered one; better late than never.

UPDATE: SkyStorm = StarSpeeder

By:mark.j @ 11:24:AM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Being our typical ISPreview selves, we decided to delve a little deeper into the new Satellite ISP SkyStorm(below). It turns out that they are just a reseller for http://www.starspeeder.co.uk (the satellites name as well), however StarSpeeder themselves are just a more direct reseller as well.

The StarSpeeder page reads very much the same as SkyStorms (the site is 99% off-line at present):

Starspeeder is a new way of downloading information from the internet.
Download speeds up to 400kb/s.
No need to change your current ISP, you can use which ever service provider you want.
Using a satellite located at 45' East of South, Starspeeder is the latest way in which to receive internet downstream via satellite.

Unlike other satellite internet providers, you don't need a proxy server, instead you build up a connection to your satellite provider using Virtual Private Network. (Available on Windows CD)

This means that you can use your existing Internet Service Provider for the uplink and Starspeeder for your downlink, at speeds of up to 400kb/s.

Apparently the prices are cheaper than SkyStorm, although SkyStorm do seem more polished. That said and it's always better to deal with the most direct avenue, we also found the support didn't really known as much about the service as we thought they might.

Ultimately they have to wait for the key players before doing anything, we'll be taking a closer look over the coming days/weeks.

Another New Satellite ISP Set To Launch

By:mark.j @ 11:05:AM - Comments (4) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

It looks like the Net4Nowt crew have come up with an interesting item on yet another new broadband satellite ISP called SkyStorm. Following on from the HSI Satellite ISP Activator, SkyStorm uses the same dial-up and downstream method.

It still works on a modem - but only for the data requests. The ISP doesn't send the information back down the phone line - instead sends it up to our SatMedia center - which beams that info straight up to our StarSpeeder satellite. This then sends the information straight back down to you, through a satellite dish and a satellite modem, a simple board that just slots into your computer.

And the whole process takes less than half a second!

For only £16 a month, download speeds of up to 400Kb/s are achievable - much faster than a conventional modem.

In plain English, you connect with a modem and then any data you request through that modem (web pages, files etc.) is sent via satellite and to your DVB PCI Card. However please note that as with all satellite systems it's saying 'download speeds of up to 400Kb/s', notice the 'UP TO' part.

It's still hard to say exactly how well it'll perform and if that performance is enough to beat Activators new service.

As described in the 'learn more' section, a DVB card for your PC, a dish and an LNB is required. This costs £199 - a one off payment. Included in the bundle is the card, with simple to follow instructions, the dish and the LNB, with advice for mounting it.

Once you've got that, off you go!

So, in three simple steps:

* Order the hardware bundle from our 'subscribe' section, on the left;
* Once you've received the hardware bundle, install the card and dish;
* Go back to the 'subscribe' section, and sign up for the service!

And that's it! Once you have received the hardware bundle, and installed both the card and the dish, all you need to do is subscribe. This will be done in a matter of seconds, and then you are ready to use it!

Preferring to install our own hardware, ISPreview has had enough of all this Satellite stuff and is going to sign up. We also need to do it for our new Broadband section, we have a person on ADSL, one on C-Modem and now need a satellite guy - guess that's me.

No satellite ISP should be used by newcomers as it will undoubtedly required a certain level of technical knowledge whatever they say. We'll post a full report in the Broadband section when it goes online in the New Year. The things we do =), at least if you move house the satellite can move with you.

The NTL & Telewest Effect

By:mark.j @ 10:50:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

An interesting article @ ZDNet suggests that last weeks pull out of the xDSL market by NTL and Telewest could have interesting repercussions.

David Edmonds, director general of telecoms at Oftel, has argued that the charges are fair and would foster competition, but the withdrawal of ntl and Telewest may encourage others to do the same, according to Tony Lock of analyst company Bloor Research. "[Without ntl and Telewest] the whole process [of unbundling the local loop] would become even more shaky," said Lock. "It would be left to BT to complete at its own pace."

But Lock suggested ntl and Telewest would not stay out of the process permanently. Oftel is under pressure from the British and European parliaments to speed up local loop unbundling, and the firms may be relying on this and the threat of withdrawal to get a better deal. "As a bargaining move, it would be quite shrewd," he said, adding that he ultimately expected ntl and Telewest to be involved in the local loop.

Most of it we've already heard before, but it's worth pointing out that NTL and Telewest are NOT the first people to pull out of the process. In fact quite a few large operators pulled out in the first round and most have not surfaced for the more important second round either!

That said and ZDNet are wrong in some respects because NTL and Telewest may be big, yet they fail to realise that they aren't the only large operators involved. That said and both Telewest and NTL would be wiser to expand existing Cable Modem services rather than invest in xDSL.

Cable Modems are lowering in price on an almost weekly basis, for the covered areas it's almost certainly a better choice than ADSL.

Freeserve Halves Losses

By:mark.j @ 10:40:AM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

It seems as thou Freeserve is now truly on the road to recovery, not only are they starting to upgrade the servers, but they've also announced that operating losses had halved in the second quarter.

Freeserves chief executive John Pluthero said the company's operating performance, second quarter losses before interest and tax of 9.5 million pounds - down from 18.8 million in the first quarter, demonstrated strong progress.

"During the quarter we increased our average weekly advertising and e-commerce revenues by more than 50 percent over the first quarter and our customers increased their average daily use of the Internet by a further 22% on the previous quarter," he said in a statement.

"The combination of Freeserve with Wanadoo will create new opportunities and further accelerate the development of our business". Freeserve claims gross sign-ups totalled 482,000 or 40,000 per week in the 12 weeks ended November 11, compared with 38,000 a week in the first quarter.

Active registered accounts rose 87,000 to 2.091 million, and the company's four - weekly churn rate dropped on average to 6.4% from 6.9%. So things are indeed starting to look up for Freeserve and this is likely to encourage new investment and a potential rise in shares. We have a small sum invested in Freeserve just to see exactly what happens to it, we'll write a report on the ‘changes vs share price effect’ next year.

Telewests BlueYonder Upgrade Progress

By:mark.j @ 10:12:AM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

As sent to us by several readers, there was apparently an upgrade report from a Telewest tech guy posted in the support groups:

Upgrades to the Linx routers are still ongoing. There have been numerous upgrades to them both over the past few weeks, which will have helped, but until the final batch of upgrades have been completed, the full potential can not be realised.

In brief, the upgrades performed to the Linx Primary router over the past few weeks/months are: Upgrade of FRE2 cards to FRE4 cards, these have more memory and faster processing capabilities. The router now has 3 FRE4 cards.

Upgrade of Linx Peering from 100baseT to GigEthernet.

Removal of NS2 and other web servers from Linx Primary to other routers.

Upgrades still to be performed:

Removal of Peering News server from Linx Primary.

Upgrade of STM1 link between Linx Primary and HSI GSR to GigEthernet

Upgrades performed on Linx Backup:

Upgrade of VIP2 modules to VIP4 modules, this is similar to the FRE4 upgrades performed on the Linx Primary.

Installation of GigEthernet peering between Linx Backup and the HSI GSR Provisioning of GigEthernet to the Linx Peering cloud, ready to replace the existing 100baseT connection when this is needed.

Upgrades still to be performed:

Upgrade of RSP4 to RSP8 (Route/Switch Processor) The RSP8 increases switching performance more than 40 percent compared to the RSP4.

Installation of a further VIP4 module, to allow connection to the Peering News Server at GigEthernet

All the remaining upgrades are linked to each other. For example installation of the RSP8 in preparation for the installation of the VIP4 and the GigEthernet to the news server. This then allows the news server to be removed from Linx Primary and then for GigEthernet peering between Linx Primary and the HSI GSR.

The HSI network will then be fully connected to the Linx peering cloud via GigEthernet. The Peering News server will also be fully connected into the Linx Peering cloud at GigEthernet. We hope to have upgraded the RSP4 this coming week, as well as installing the Gig interface to the news server (dependant on the delivery of a VIP4 module) The GigEthernet between Linx Primary and the HSI GSR, will either be completed at the very end of this week or the first week in January, although we will do are very best to ensure it is completed this coming week.

- Steve Brocklebank

This will obviously make a lot more sense to those who follow the service closer, either way very few upgrades are ever bad, so consider this to be good =).

News - December 17,2000

ISP Review Weekly Update

By:mark.j @ 10:37:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Well here we are again and for the last ISP Review Weekly Update until after Christmas (the following Sunday [31st]). As such it's worth pointing out that even technology journalists have to be given a break once in awhile =). Thus we'll be on half vacation from the 22nd Dec (Friday Evening) to 1st Jan 2001(Monday/New Year).

During the time between this coming Friday evening (22nd) and the following Wednesday (full leave) there will be no updates at all. We may do a few news posts, but we will NOT answer mails or doing ANYTHING else. We will only reply to mails sent after or before this period.

Aside from that and you can't of help but notice that our first week of content went rather well and we still have another to go =). Next week we hope to have more interviews done, another review or two and an extra article on the side.

We were clearly too late to get the new automated ISP listings ready and everything has now been put on hold until the New Year, which is only two weeks away. Most of my staff have already vanished for one reason or another and so it's never an easy job to do everything yourself, but I'm used to it =).

As such I'll wish you all a happy Christmas and say, "keep a look out for next weeks new content". We may also be adding some new features to the forum and I'll try to get the broadband section a little more complete. Right now we lack the graphics to build the main index page, but it's slowly coming together.

More NTL Cable Modem Problems

By:mark.j @ 10:14:AM - Comments (3) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

NTL seem to be quite well known for having troubles with their Cable Modem service, so it comes as no surprise that CableNews is now reporting a fresh spate of new problems:

Surrey and Hampshire
Camberley, Farnborough, Guildford and Woking are the four areas in this franchise experiencing a shortage of IP addresses; in essence, ntl have signed up too many people to the service in too short a time - and have run out of available IP addresses. The addition of another subnet in the Woking area recently had helped, but this too is now full.

South Central
Users in this franchise are experiencing difficulties related to a "network break between Andover and Bristol". Both the Andover and Salisbury areas are experiencing DHCP and connectivity problems. ntl Newsgroup Technical Support provided a suggested fix for the connectivity problem in the Andover area by means of a frequency change; however this was unsuccessful and the outage continues.

It wasn't exactly a surprise that this would happen following the simply amazing price cuts NTL enlisted. Of course as with so many ISPs, it's all about the numbers and money, never the people that use it. Work to help fix the problems is due to start on the 19th December, although this is likely to be a long-winded issue.

News - December 16,2000

Breathe Set To Shut Down

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

Previously unmetered ISP Breathe.NET still hasn't found a buyer and according to VNUNet, is very near to being closed altogether:

Internet service provider Breathe has called in administrators and will shut down within days if it cannot find a buyer.

The news follows the abrupt termination of Breathe's unmetered internet service last week, which had 50,000 subscribers who had paid a one-off charge of £50 for the service.

A Breathe spokesman said: "We have gone into administration. Up until confirmation of [Breathe] being bought, nothing is being said."

An announcement is expected on Monday, although it's looking increasingly like a buyer will not be found in time. Interestingly Breathe.NET still deny they are even looking for one and refuse to talk directly to the press, but the facts speak for themselves.

Telewests C-Modem Rollout Continues

By:mark.j @ 5:15:PM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

According to CableNews, the rollout of Cable Modems from Telewest BlueYonder service (recently reviewed and rated highly) is continuing well:

Telewest's broadband cable modem service 'Blueyonder' is now available in most franchise areas, with remaining areas scheduled to come online by end-2000.

The service has recently been made available in Cable London, Yorkshire and Birmingham areas. This leaves London South (towns as listed by Blueyonder in this area include Croydon, Kingston, Merton, Richmond and Sutton) and Langley (Chiswick, Ealing, Heathrow, Maidenhead, Ruislip, Slough and Uxbridge) - both of these areas are scheduled for rollout during December.

If you can get a Cable Modem in your area then it’s a better deal than ADSL, unless of course it’s via NTL as we keep hearing bad things about their service.

IC24 Extend Offer

By:rich.p @ 2:01:PM - Comments (10) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

In what is becoming a very rare occurrence IC24 have extended their offer until the end of January:

"We've extended our great free online time offer until Jan 31 2001. We've made a few changes though - from Jan 1st 2001 our free online time runs from 8.00pm to midnight every night of the week - Monday to Sunday. That means that every night in January between 8.00pm and midnight surfing the net is free. You will need to use our freephone 0800 number and full details of how to get your free time are on the site, www.ic24.net.

So that's another 124 free hours. How long will they continue...

Update - Mark
We actually posted this some time back, however will leave it online as a reminder.

News - December 15,2000

BTInternet Grows

By:mark.j @ 4:02:PM - Comments (10) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Not long after the announcement that BTInternet were to introduce a FRIACO based £14.99 per month 24/7 (AOL style) unmetered package, they also announced their current stats:

BT said on Friday the unmetered Internet access service provided by its BTinternet unit now had 500,000 customers, with another 20,000 joining each week.

BT, which unveiled its strategy for maintaining leadership in the UK Internet market, said BTinternet had 800,000 customers overall, up from 180,000 in January.

Seems like a good time for BTInternet, although they are one ISP that we always receive a complaint about every single week no matter what. Typically the usual worries, that BT will introduce this service and its networks will be unprepared, have now started to surface. Of course knowing BTI's history, such worries are not without reason.

BTInternet Launch New 24/7 Unmetered Option

By:mark.j @ 3:48:PM - Comments (8) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

In what could be the most dramatic of all things for a BT Subsidiary to do, BTInternet have turned their backs on Surftime and chosen to adopt FRIACO. The new FRIACO based package will cost £14.99 per month for 24/7 unmetered access and will be available from January 2001.

This is without a doubt an admission by stealth that even BT knows its Surftime product is a big pile of [insert profanity]. Otherwise they would never have adopted FRIACO, which is not technically their own technology design.

Supposedly the usual cut off and package restrictions will apply, so don't expect those 2 hour cut offs to vanish. That said and you can find more here:
http://www.btinternet.com/anytime/faqs.html

Q1. Do I have to be a BT customer to get BTinternet Anytime?
A1. Initially BTinternet Anytime access will be provided via an 0800 Freefone number, which is available to all customers. In April 2001 BTinternet Anytime will be converted to a new number range provided by BT and based on their Flat Rate Internet Call Origin (FRIACO) scheme, for which customers will need to use a BT line.

Q2. Can I use my ISDN2 line to connect to the internet if I'm on the BTinternet Anytime option?
A2. You will be able to connect on ISDN2 at 64kbps but if you want to connect at 128kbps you will have to use the BTinternet local call rate dialler (available for download from the BTinternet home page) and pay two local call charges.

Q3. Is BTinternet Anytime the same as BT's SurfTime Anytime package?
A3. No. BTinternet Anytime is not a BT SurfTime product. BTinternet Anytime will be available exclusively from BTinternet. Our range of BTinternet for BT's Surf packages offer unlimited evening and weekend internet call access only.

This has been rather a pleasant, if not entertaining, pre-Christmas announcement by BTInternet. One that we're sure will have rival Telco's and ISPs up in arms with laughter or anger.

New Reviews @ ISP Review

By:mark.j @ 3:36:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Today is a special day for us because we've just finished two of our first ever broadband ISP reviews. The broadband section itself will not be completed until the New Year, although that doesn't stop us rounding off this week with these little gems:

Telewests BlueYonder Cable Modem ISP:
http://ispreview.co.uk/broadband/by

Demon Internets ADSL ISP:
http://ispreview.co.uk/broadband/demon

As usual we've kept the reviews simple and avoided all that confusing jargon that tends to go with these new services. More broadband reviews will follow for NTL and the other xDSL standards into the New Year.

National UK ISP Routing Problem

By:mark.j @ 10:43:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Chances are many of you might well have been effected over the last few weeks/days by a routing problem with BT. Depending which ISP your with or what service you use (ISDN or Modem), the problem itself will vary.

Most likely is that you're able to dial the number for your ISP, but the server wouldn't connect or you'd get an authentication error. This problem has been affecting even the most stable of ISPs and was recently identified as an issue with BT's routing.

In fact if you go looking at the service status page for ISPs that have one, then you'll notice the honest ISPs have almost all experienced it. Otherwise excellent Madasafish says:

Thursday 14th December 2000

Madasafish

Some members may be experiencing difficulties with their madasafish dial up access. This has been identified as a BT routing issue. BT have informed us, problems with dial up access are likely to persist until Tuesday 19th December 2000. We hope to have normal service resumed by this time and apologise for any inconvenience caused.

This problem should NOT be underestimated, it's affecting a lot of ISPs and some people may have been unable to login for a full week. Obviously we've been seeing a lot of these complaints and it's made it very difficult to see the real ones from the BT ones.

We have very little detail on the problem itself, but as Madasafish state, it should be fixed by December 19th. Expect your ISP to return to normal around the 19/20th, if not then it probably has other problems or BT have delayed.

Government To Subsidise Broadband

By:mark.j @ 10:27:AM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

According to the media site Business2, the government is set to offer public subsidies and tax incentives to encourage the extension of broadband net access in rural and deprived areas. This is excellent news for those of us who live outside of the more built up areas:

Ministers believe that if the government is to fulfil its stated intentions of promoting business use of Internet in SMEs (Small to Medium sized Enterprises), public money may have to be spent.
"In the short to medium term, there is unlikely to be enough commercial demand for high-speed Internet access in some parts of the country."

"Therefore, there is likely to be a need for public sector intervention", said Ms. Hewitt at a Commons select committee yesterday (Wednesday 13 Dec). Ms Hewitt said that tax incentives will be discussed with the Treasury, but suggested also that European regional assistance could be used. Ms Hewitt cited the example of the Welsh Development Agency using European money to subsidise the upgrading of 10 rural phone exchanges to provide ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Lines ).

To compound the government's problems with empowering "Broadband Britain", the £5.5 million pound Internet Mentoring Initiative has failed to meet this year's target of one million UK businesses trading online by the end of the year. Ms. Hewitt admitted yesterday that the project was falling short of its targets yesterday (Wednesday Dec 15), with only 500,000 businesses trading online.

Of course the down side to all this is that the government first has to agree and typically they won't like spending more money. However if it all works out then the provision of ADSL services may come around quicker than previous thought. Of course BT still have to install ADSL and that's taking them long enough.

BT Goes After Hyperlinks

By:mark.j @ 10:04:AM - Comments (8) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

It looks as though BT has failed to settle the whole issue of who owns Hyperlinks outside of court and as such are now taking action:

BT - which owns the patent to hypertext links - has begun its legal fight to claim back millions of dollars in licensing revenue from US ISPs. Intellectual property attorneys, Kenyon & Kenyon yesterday filed a case on behalf of BT against Prodigy Communications Corp in New York State.

The legal challenge asserts BT's patented claim to hypertext links or the "hidden page" as it was described in the original patent. If BT wins this test case it would open the doors to a massive claim from BT for revenues.

A spokesman for BT said that the case against Prodigy did not exclude action against other ISPs.

This case has opened up a whole new set of windows on the law of ownership, personally we believe that no company should profit from such a thing as Hyperlinks. It's exactly like saying you own the Moon or the Earth; nobody should actually own it.

BT never filed the original patent, but as it comes to expire they wish to take it over and thus have to prove it was their idea. However video evidence and research docs from another group are being used to counter this, claiming they were invented long before BT.

The squabbling goes on, but ultimately nobody should stand to profit from Hyperlinks - the law needs to be changed for the Internet.

C.U.T Give Christmas Advise

By:mark.j @ 9:52:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Christmas, better known to some as 'The Day You Went Broke' - 'Again', is also a time for buying new computer systems with pre-installed net access. Now realistically no market understanding PC Kit developer will be putting unmetered access with PCs because it's too unstable.

That said and you can exclude Freeserve as somehow they manage to get their service onto everything. Keeping this in mind and C.U.T (Campaign for Unmetered Telecommunications) have got some advise for you:

You may have friends or relatives who are due to find a PC in their stocking for their first time; you may even be expecting one yourself. Doubtless most of these machines will be intended for Internet access; given that, what do we advise?

Unfortunately Christmas is a non-negotiable deadline; it would be useful if it could be delayed as sustainable unmetered services, usually based on Single Tandem FRIACO, will probably start to appear en masse in the first few months of 2001. So most, if not all, PCs sold this Christmas will have metered Internet access packages pre-installed.

Given that, there are several things you can do to help..

What? We didn't post anymore? Nope, you'll just have to go and read it all yourselves @ C.U.T. To be realistic you're never going to find a commercial unmetered package pre-bundled anyway, they didn't do it with 0845 (pre-trials excluded), so why should they now?

News - December 14,2000

Trade & Industry vs Oftel & LLU

By:mark.j @ 5:40:PM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Here we go again, ZDNet are the first to catch on to the latest in a never ending hit back at Oftel for being too slow to start unbundling the local loop:

Unbundling is rapidly becoming an albatross round Oftel's neck as it tries to push forward the complicated procedures necessary to allow other operators access to BT's telephone lines. In an interview with ZDNet News, director general David Edmonds admitted it should have been started up to two years earlier. High profile companies like Telewest, ntl, WorldCom and KPNQwest are abandoning the process blaming slow rollout and high cost.

MP Martin O'Neill, head of the Select Committee, has some strong words for the watchdog: "I found they were complacent and I found that appalling. In many cases they were reactive rather than proactive," he says. It is not just over the issue of unbundling that Oftel has let consumers down says O'Neil.

"The price of making a phone call from a callbox has doubled and they didn't seem bothered about it. It is a well-kept secret where they hide out and people don't turn to Oftel with complaints very often," he says.

The last point is worth noting, when it happened nobody seemed to even bat an eyelid, yet the change is quite significant.

How Not To Regulate Broadband

By:mark.j @ 5:32:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

What kind of new regulation body sets out to regulate something in its white paper proposal and then realises it can't, Ofcom of course. According to The Register there has to be something to regulate before its even worth doing, confused? Yep, so were we:

If Britain can develop an extensive and highly competitive broadband market, then this will force changes on the communications market, which Ofcom can then regulate. If it cannot, then OFCOM’s raison d’etre is pulled away from beneath its feet.

Ofcom was set up to deal with the problems of 'convergence', i.e. what to do as the boundaries between communications technologies start to blur. But there's a snag; if there is no widespread introduction of broadband services, there is no meaningful convergence.

If there is no convergence, there are no convergence problems to be solved. And if there are no convergence problems, there is no need for a converged regulator.

Except yet more Ofcom headlines and news as the weeks wear on, such big changes require equally strong sceptics.

IGClick ADSL Update

By:mark.j @ 5:23:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

One reader (Colin) claims he is still able to use the ADSL service from IGClick and that peoples connection problems are unrelated to the recent unmetered closure:

The problem that a few user are having is to do with the configuration of there adls routers. It appears for some reason every so often that either IG/BT decide to change the config on these routers for some unknown reason, which leaves these people without an adsl service.

Sadly no mention of how to fix this and since IGClick still can't be raised we have no solution or work around.

AboveNET & Iomart Join Forces

By:mark.j @ 10:52:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Iomart (Madasafish) have just sent us a new press release on how they have joined forces with AboveNet. This new joining is supposed to bring around a best-of-breed and high performance Internet service company:

media release - use immediate 14 December 2000

Metromedia Fiber Network subsidiary AboveNet and iomart Group plc join forces to provide high performance managed Internet services

Metromedia Fiber Network, Inc. (NASDAQ:MFNX) (MFN), through its subsidiary AboveNet Communications, and iomart Group plc, the Glasgow based integrated telecommunications and internet services company, have announced that they will work together to provide a best-of-breed combination of high performance Internet connectivity and managed Internet hosting services.

The two companies will provide a complete connectivity and hosting solution to iomart customers across the UK to tap into an extended range of complementary hardware and support services.

MFN already provides high performance connectivity and co-location services to iomart via its fast, highly reliable IP backbone and maximum resilience ISX data centre. iomart, who are positioning themselves to become a major player in the UK broadband market, will be reinforcing their web hosting operation and offering unified messaging to customers. This agreement also offers iomart customers further opportunity to reach the high capacity, high performance AboveNet backbone, initially via London.

Explained Ian Taylor Senior Vice-President and Group General Manager of Metromedia Fiber Network (MFN) Europe: "Our success to date has been based on a very clear focus and ability to deliver. Key to fulfilling the requirements of today's and tomorrow's competitive hosting market is a best-of-breed approach where effective alliances provide competitive advantage. iomart is a new breed of company committed to providing its customers with the best services available, and their knowledge and experience in the UK market is of the highest order."

Added Angus MacSween, CEO iomart Group plc: "Our business customers need to have the peace of mind that their e-commerce and online applications are up and running all the time. Our private users want quick, reliable and easy access to the Internet - not the World Wide Wait. Teaming up with AboveNet allows us to offer our users the broader services they are demanding, based on probably the best performing, most scaleable Internet network available today."

Across the globe, Internet infrastructure is under an immense strain. While e-businesses demand better performance from their network providers with access to bandwidth on demand and 100% availability around the clock, home and small business users are also calling for faster and cheaper connections to the Internet. At the same time, companies are feeling the strain of IT skills shortages, financial constraints and an inability to move fast enough. By joining forces the two companies will take the weight off the strain and provide customers with the best service available.

- ends -
Further information from:
http://www.above.net/
http://www.iomart.com/

LineOne In Talks With Tiscali

By:mark.j @ 10:45:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

These days it seems as though there's never an ISP auction where you can't find Italian ISP/Telco Tiscali. So when LineOne put itself up for sale in the bidding room, Tiscali was there among several others.

Other interested parties were thought to include T-Online of Germany, who have already shown an interest in making UK acquisitions. LineOne, which is expected to fetch around £340 million (down from £500Mill we might add), was put up for sale last month by co-owners BT and United News & Media.

On Wednesday, industry sources told Reuters Tiscali had started circling LineOne and was said to be in preliminary talks with the company. "Tiscali and LineOne are in preliminary talks, but there's no proposal on the table yet," one source told Reuters.

So could we see a new owner for LineOne by Christmas? Quite possibly, although one thing is certain, it'll be a European owner from outside of the UK.