August 23, 2000 - August 26, 2000

News - August 26,2000

Freeserve up for grabs again

By:mark.j @ 10:26:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Here we go again, just a short one this time, but Freeserve is once again up for grabs by an anonymous bidder. Britain's biggest Internet service provider, is in talks with a major telecoms company about a possible joint venture to exploit super-fast broadband Web access, an industry sources claim.

Under the deal, the telecommunications firm might take an equity stake in Freeserve, which is four-fifths owned by electrical retailer Dixons Plc and has a market value of around 2.6 billion pounds. No more details are available at this time, please somebody buy it because this just goes on and on =) (ISPr's original £5 bid still stands =]).

ClaraNET on FRIACO & AnyTime 24/7

By:mark.j @ 10:11:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Over the last couple of days we've been reporting on the failure of several key ISPs (AV, EzeSurf etc.) and of course the latest FRIACO Hybrid fiasco (not going to work properly for rural areas). Today we've heard back from ClaraNET, who we asked about their AltaVista connection and FRIACO.

1) Do you have anymore news on the forthcoming 'Anytime' 24/7 unmetered package Clara plan to offer?

We're waiting for FRIACO (like a lot of people). Earliest possible date is October, worst case is January. We just don’t know.

2) How has the Failure of AltaVista to provide an unmetered service affected ClaraNet, as obviously you guys did the network?

It doesn’t affect Claranet's own packages at all. Obviously we are disappointed Alta Vista have decided to postpone their offer but it makes no difference to our customers either way.

3) What do you think about the latest FRIACO Hybrid that is now only economical for large cities and towns and thus puts rural areas into turmoil? Will it still be cheaper than BT Surftime for rural areas or don't you think ISPs will adopt it for such coverage, if at all?

We don’t yet have details of the offering our Telco’s will make us, though we are pressing them hard for information. I might be able to answer this question more fully in a week or so.

So as you can see ISPs wanting to adopt FRIACO are still very much in the dark, not something you want to do with those who are your key customers. Although even if they did want to adopt it the dates for any kind of launch seem to be slipping by a monthly factor every day.

Thanks to Steve for the mini interview, we'll have more ISPs and network (hopefully BT if we can speak to somebody with authority) feedback on the FRIACO subject next week.

RedHotAnt Update

By:mark.j @ 9:59:AM - Comments (32) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Well you may remember we first reported on the RedHotAnt update yesterday morning, now some hours later we can see how things have changed. First things first and many modem users love it, although the problems are not long gone.

For many who could originally get on in 5-10 attempts, they have now been landed with the 50-100+ retries that we all had to endure for several months. Not to mention that engage tones are far from gone, at peak times it's still difficult (no longer impossible) to get connected (30+ retries).

During off-peak hours engage tones remain present as well, although in reduced quantities. This is likely to improve dramatically when the children go back to school and some 30-40% of the network is freed up during the day. Sadly all is not well because while there are now fewer engage tone reports we are instead hearing of other errors:

"Only slight improvements in my opinion (Dorset - NTL, ne C&W).

5 or 6 attempts minimum and not for engaged tones but the usual "Sorry, there is a fault...." or "Sorry, there is a high demand ....". Don't quite sound right to me."

-----------------------------------------------------

"Well after saying how good it was to connect 128K first time.. i would like to take back that comment :P

its now 5:30pm and its busy! busy! busy! authentication errors, dead connects when i do finally manage to connect .. so uhm what exactly have they done?"

-----------------------------------------------------

"Improvement? Can you say 'Authentication error'? I get one on almost every connection attempt now."

Being a 128Kbps ISDN user I've had these same problems, authentication errors usually happen the most at peak times if you disconnect soon after logging on. This usually means you can't get connected again for 3-5mins or more.

Also there's the problem of TCP/IP dropping, sometimes one or both ISDN channels will just go dead for no reason and not recover (need to reconnect, thus authentication errors). Not to mention the "there is a fault.." message that many people are getting.

So lets not forget, RHA have not closed subscriptions and by comparison RHA is a long way from perfect. It's good compared to what it used to be, but when put against other ISPs it's still pretty poor. The question is, how long before they cock it up again? For now it’s reasonably quite, but don’t let your guard down.

AltaVista In More Trouble

By:mark.j @ 9:42:AM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Little white lies are one thing, but when you're in a position of notable power and influence those little white lies can do serious damage. It would appear that the MD of AltaVista has got into even more trouble, The Register reports:

Andy Mitchell, the forlorn MD of AltaVista UK and Ireland, has admitted that not only did he confuse and mislead his consumers here in Britain about his fictitious ISP, he also fooled his US bosses.

The result of this charade is that AltaVista's CEO, Rod Schrock, went on TV saying the service was being used by umpteen thousand happy punters.

Which TV station and when is not disclosed. But someone somewhere has a transcript - or the tape - of Schrock (unknowingly, so Mitchell says) giving misleading information about AltaVista's unmetered Net access service in the UK.

Mitchell writes: "I made the decision to delay the rollout and, subsequently, put on hold the service. I am remiss in not informing you (or my management) earlier about this situation. In fact, regrettably, during a television interview AltaVista's CEO erroneously referred to an estimated number of users expected to have been signed up for the service based on our capacity and projection for the service roll out at that time. He, too, understood that our service was operating."

This is damning stuff, not just for Mitchell but for Schrock too.

We don't have any sympathy for AV anymore, fair enough we can agree that AV couldn't economically justify the unmetered service, but the lies have gone too far. However lets not forget the Buzzline ISP, they never got off the ground either and still claimed their service was installed.

News - August 25,2000

ISPA Slams Oftel for Failing Consumers

By:mark.j @ 5:42:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Finally, somebody of true stature has stood up and chosen to confront the telephone watchdog Oftel over its handling of unmetered Internet access. The Register is reporting that the ISPA claims Oftel is ignorant when it comes to understanding the people they are trying to protect (us):

In a sharply worded statement issued today, ISPA "expressed its concern about recent comments by the telecoms regulator, Oftel, regarding BT's wholesale unmetered Internet plans".

The trade group also launched a personal attack on Oftel's DG, David Edmonds, saying that his confidence in FRIACO Hybrid (Flat Rate Internet Access Call Origination) - a wholesale unmetered Net access product from BT - was "misplaced".

Earlier this week the winged watchdog issued a statement in which it said the wholesale unmetered access package from BT currently on the table (FRIACO Hybrid) "provides a sound basis to promote competition in unmetered Internet access".

Oftel's understanding appeared to be vindicated when MCI Worldcom said it had signed up to the product. Laurence Blackall, ISPA Council member and President of ISP Concentric Network, disagrees.

He said: "Mr Edmonds is sadly misinformed if he believes that BT's delayed and diluted unmetered plans will allow full and fair competition in the UK Internet access market.

We would also urge Mr Edmonds to look very carefully at the reality of BT's activities in the field before making any further judgements about their willingness to allow true competition in this area."

No mention then that up to as much as 60-70% of the country might not even be able to offer the new FRIACO Hybrid. It's impossible to guess what'll happen now but one thing remains clear, until the local loop is unbundled BT will not be willing to lower charges to an acceptable level for ISPs - thus reflecting on consumers.

Well that's life, they can give you ADSL for £40 a month and many can now get cable modems for £33 per month, but they can't make unmetered cheaper than broadband - somehow this doesn't make sense (BT never do).

Ezesurf Update 5

By:Daniel @ 4:12:PM - Comments (85) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Here's a statement we have received from an employee at Ezesurf:

"The ezesurf.org/eezypeezy.net site will be updated quite soon with comments and stories from current and ex-staff memebers. Basically their side of everything from their interview to now. Hopefully this new page will be going live by Monday. I'm just waiting for responses from some of the ex-staff I contacted for stories.

At present neither the staff nor management of the Ezesurf office in Dundee have any real knowledge of what's going on with the Energis deal. The only person that probably does know is Matt Bryson himself, as he seems to be keeping his staff in the dark regarding virtually everything. The atmosphere in the office is one of frustration - answering phones to angry customers and not knowing what to tell them because you've not been told a thing. The only real piece of information we have is that the business bank account is close to empty and virtually closed, but on June 30th the account stood at
approximately £68,000 and was increasing steadily. I do not believe the Ezesurf/SurfSaver service can recover either way. Even if the service was to go back online, which i very much doubt will happen, who would take the chance of signing up with Ezesurf after recent events? In my opinion Ezesurf is dead. The call centre staff are telling you what they are told to tell you, whether they believe it or not. The American woman in the Dundee call centre, Keri, is as bad as Matt. She is a liar, and her visa is up for renewal. The 0800 registrations helpdesk number messages are a hoax, probably instigated by the staff of the Nottingham office, who were apparently ran out on by Matt after being given the bill for their services, or so I am told. Through the whole thing including 08004U we have been taxed 33%, not 23% which is normal for emergency tax. Plus the fact is most people shouldn't have been on emergency tax in the first place, as most people gave Matt their P45's when they started. The current total of over-paid tax has run beyond £1,000. But a visit or phone call to the Dundee Tax Office will reveal that there is no Ezesurf Ltd, and the only record of a Mr Matthew Bryson is of Dundee Network Solutions, Whitehall Street, Dundee. This was his original trading name which he used while running 08004U, which incidently was not a limited company for the most-part. The current manager of the Ezesurf office is trying her best, but with Matt in over-all charge
and a strange relationship where-by everything that Matt wants goes through Keri, an Accounts Administrator, instead of the manager of the office she is powerless to do anything practical in the office. But please remember, when phoning the Ezesurf office in Dundee - it's not the person on the end of the phone that's to blame. They just answer the phones, not rip people off."

Please remember that this could be a fake but this person runs the www.ezesurf.org website so we don't think it is.

RedHotAnt Upgrade Online!

By:zeon @ 2:43:PM - Comments (48) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

RedHotAnt have now got their act together and put the upgrade online:

"We are pleased to announce that our promised upgrade to improve RedHotAnt's overall capacity by 50% has been installed. Current RedHotAnt users will notice improved connectivity to our service, especially at peak times of the day. We appreciate the patience displayed by our users while we installed the above mentioned upgrade and look forward to continue to provide a great value for money ISP."

Has this improvement made any difference? Comments....

ISPreview Freecall Feedback

By:mark.j @ 11:59:AM - Comments (41) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Just a quick question we could do with some comments on, we're likely going to give ISPreview readers several unmetered options for any service we do in the future. However other than a base 24/7, Off-Peak and or 1p per minute offer, we might also integrate a SUPER USER option.

Basically this would be a service specifically for those who use the Internet virtually non-stop. No Cut-offs, limits of any kind and a user to modem ration of 1:1. It'd likely cost a lot more because it'd essentially be giving you your own direct port into BT's networks (as all ISPs have to do, no matter what, although not with 1:1 they don't).

As such the service would be charged at the same price as the ports (roughly), £30 (likely £25 or more) for up to 64Kbps ISDN, £60 or less for 128 (All monthly costs). It'd have to be CLI based because of this (limit of 24/7 access, out of our control) and is best described as a virtual leased line. You could stay on as long as your computer functions and YES it could be used by business.

Anyway please remember this would be an extra service among several others and it's just an option we're exploring for now. This is based on a recent outline we published in our 'Cost of Unmetered' article. We're just interested to see if people would actually like this option, if you are a real net user (over 6 hours a day) then it would be for you.

Personally we think the costs are a damn disgrace when compared with broadband options, but most people can't get broadband and it's all down to BT, cheers BT. Lets all say it together, CHEERS BT!

Enterprise.Net Drops Unmetered

By:mark.j @ 11:44:AM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Following on from LineOne, AltaVista, CallNet0800 and EzeSurf comes Enterprise.net, an ISP we didn't even know offered 0800 until just now. Thankfully it's not a large 24/7 package, no, it's just a weekend freecall 0800 Dialup, sadly it's also now dead:

ISP www.enterprise.net has dropped its 0800 service, stating:

To all Enterprise customers,

Due to technical, quality of service and associated cost implications we regret to inform you that the weekend 0800 service will be suspended as from midnight Friday the 25th August. We wish to apologise for the suspension of this service and we will endeavour to reinstate a comparable service as soon as conditions allow.

Yours,

Network Operations Centre
Enterprise plc

The interesting thing is Off-Peak access is still comparably cheap compared to the 24/7 option, even under BTSurftime. Most Off-Peak offering ISPs have no problems with that area of the service, it's the 24/7 ones you have to watch. Still another one bits the dust, for now at least.

New Review @ ISPreview

By:mark.j @ 11:37:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We've just thrown up a review of World Online, another unmetered ISP that seems to be proving itself against the odds stacked against it. We gave this one a silver award (8 out of 10):

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/reviews/wol/

FRIACO Hybrid Statement

By:mark.j @ 9:20:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Keep watching the screen, sometime later today one of the ISPs who've bet everything on the refined FRIACO system will be making a statement. This comes after news reached them and us along with the rest of the population, that the refined FRIACO system had a serious problem.

To sum things up, FRIACO would only be workable for large cities and towns, leaving rural areas in the dark. Such a statement has caused an unstoppable amount of anger among net users and ISPs awaiting the FRIACO Hybrid.

Considering most of the UK is rural, it certainly puts things in perspective, yet again BT is trying to give their system the advantage and Oftel appear to stand by that. We're going to try and get E-Mail through to BT and be talking with some other people about this today.

Stand by for an update..

Success for RIP Campaigners - or not

By:mark.j @ 9:02:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

After a large surge of anger and distrust found it's way pointing towards the government over RIP (Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act), they finally chose to back down. More specifically, on the part of RIP that allows employers to read employees E-Mails when they are away on holiday or just plain away - the Financial Times reports.

The newspaper said plans for the legislation before the introduction of the European Human Rights Act on October 2 had been shelved after lawyers warned that the public sector could have been in breach of the act. The DTI (Department of Trade and Industry) had agreed to a longer consultation period over the issue and the rules were now due to be introduced on October 24.

A leading private sector business group would warn on Friday that the rules could lead to a ban on employees sending personal e-mails. The Alliance for Electronic Business are now planning to issue a statement saying the proposed new rules would be "totally impracticable and indeed impossible" to comply with.

So there you have it, try to nock something down and the government just comes up with a way to make it even worse. Oh how much we adore politics. Why can't these people just see the world from our perspective, you know, we - the average humans.

EzeSurf Update - Good News

By:mark.j @ 8:39:AM - Comments (74) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

After yesterdays charade we're kinder hoping that today will bring a somewhat quieter mood. So lets kick the day off with some good news, although how good the news is will have to wait another day.

After Thursday saw EzeSurf being totally cut off by Energis over disagreements (Paying the bill is always good), Friday brings some more updated information. EzeSurf have apparently been planning for this and a new system is already being integrated.

The new system has been around since some two weeks ago and so spare a thought for the EzeSurf staff working flat out to get things live. The reader who updated us on this,nick, was also quoted as saying:

"The system Will be fully functional in around 48 hours when the dispute with Energis is sorted."

So if it's a new system then what do they have to wait on Energis for? Still lets not get into more concerns and issues. The wait is now on to see whether EzeSurf survives or dies, hopefully it survives. We'd like to see an ISP disprove the rule that any ISP operating at under £19.99 per month per user will eventually fail.

Update:
You may remember a long time ago that a then member of EzeSurf’s staff (name removed) launched a community website for EzeSurf customers: http://www.eezypeezy.net . Although it's not quite as up to date as yesterdays last post and the one from this morning above, we can't quote it all but it's well worth a visit. The first lines read:

"This website has been created by the staff of Ezesurf who remained after 08004U We regret that this course of action has to be taken

We have been promised the following if we do not upload this website.."

News - August 24,2000

EzeSurf Cut-Off - CONFIRMED + VisualDepth Update - Ezesurf Reply

By:mark.j @ 7:50:PM - Comments (52) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

*UPDATED*
Well take note that you heard it here first; we've just got word of clarity from an OFFICIAL Energis source:

We can confirm that Ezesurf is an existing Energis customer. The services provided are connectivity and web hosting.

However, as of 12.00 Thursday 24 August 2000, we are no longer providing an 0800 service, which may affect access. We cannot comment on the reasons for the service non-provision at this time.

Please address any further enquiries to the Ezesurf press office."

http://www.ezesurf.co.uk

This basically means that there is no problem with Energis and Energis-Squared providing an 0800 freecall access service.

The two key statements above were written somewhat contradicting each other, so we asked for a clearer and more decisive response:

"We are no longer providing an 0800 freecall service for Ezesurf. We can provide an 0800 freecall service for other customers (Energis)."

In other words, EzeSurf hasn't paid the bill and is stalling for an update while they try to work out what to do. Clearly with a subscriber base of some 100,000 customers, EzeSurf is in trouble and hopefully they will issue that statement earlier.

Now here's the second problem, VisualDepth, the ISP we investigated and only a month ago formally accused of technically fraudulent behaviour by reselling EzeSurf accounts unofficially and for higher prices, has also died. As such the twist of events has forced ISPreview to reveal a second truth several weeks ahead of time.

After our investigation VisualDepth came clean and admitted to us that our allegations were 100% correct. We agreed to give them until the end of September to sort a new service and make a formal apology to us and EzeSurf/Clients. Obviously these latest events have changed things dramatically!

VisualDepth is obviously just as dead as EzeSurf because they have broken the law with their activities by doing exactly what we accused them of. We'll publish full details tomorrow and reveal everything; it's late now and today’s been one heck of a day! Remember you heard it here first.

Search our news (under headlines on the left) for 'Visual Depth' if you want to find Julys Concluded Investigation post.

Ezesurf Reply
We rang Ezesurf to get some comment on this news and they have admitted that:

Their 0808 number was cut-off by Energis.

Their director has been in talks with Energis today.

The man we spoke to didn't know whether they were cut-off because of a communication problems between the companies or for financial reasons.

A statement will appear on their official website in 48 hours on how they will rectify the situation.

BT Doubts & Debts - BIG NEWS<<

By:mark.j @ 6:53:PM - Comments (5) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Although you can find BTSurftime being used on nearly 40 UK ISPs, most of that usage comes from 4 select providers and its been that way since day one (Affinity provides most). However recent failures by big name ISPs (AltaVista) has caused a growing lack of confidence in Telco customers and officials.

However yesterday things escalated as it became apparent that a large portion of the country would NOT be able to make use of the new FRIACO Hybrid! ZDNet broke the news last night:

While it is true that WorldCom has signed a deal, a ZDNet investigation reveals that it is not quite how BT paints it, as it will only be suitable for large ISPs and for users who live in towns.

While industry wants a fully unmetered product that lets operators lease bandwidth from a user's house through to the main telephone exchange, Wednesday's deal combines elements of Friaco (which allows operators to lease bandwidth) with leased line contracts (in which operators lease individual lines). ZDNet has learned that under this system, it would only be cost effective for operators to lease lines in densely populated areas.

BT admits the deal is not pure Friaco and that it will only be suitable for urban areas. "Most ISPs want to roll out services in towns, that's where they want to cherrypick. They don't want to roll out in regions that are less densely populated... it is not economic to do that," says a BT spokesman.

So is the deal the same Friaco that industry has called for the past year? "Depends what you call Friaco," says the spokesman.

Analyst with research firm GartnerGroup Adam Daum confirms the deal will disadvantage users in rural communities and could be a marketing fiasco for ISPs. "It will only be suitable for major ISPs and will not be any good in rural areas," he says. "From a marketing point of view it is a disaster. Imagine announcing a service and then saying you can only have it if you live in these geographical areas."

OH MY GOD, This is the worst case of total BT incompetence to date, words can't describe how many angry E-Mails we're going to see being pointed at BT. Take broadband, it follows the same rout (towns first), but at least with ADSL you will eventually get it! Eventually. Quite how this will work out is not yet known, suffice to say we're not happy and will try to talk with BT ASAP.

However problems don't even there, one of the world's biggest rating agencies downgraded BTs credit worthiness on Thursday because of its rising debt, and warned it may cut it again if BT delays selling assets. Rising debt? Don't they mean smaller profits?

Standard & Poor's, whose ratings are crucial to a company's ability to sell debt, said it was lowering BT's key long-term rating by four notches to A from AA+, its second highest tier, with a negative outlook - it could be cut again.

"On the other hand, if BT is successful in pursuing its balance sheet strengthening strategy, the outlook would likely be revised to stable."

Perhaps the only good news today is that Oftel earlier pledged to support unmetered access to its fullest. Something not likely to instil confidence since people believed that was what they should have been doing since day one.

ISPreview will be contacting BT and several related FRIACO awaiting ISPs to get more details on this latest fiasco. Make no mistake; this is so bad it's almost funny.

AOL Nears Unmetered

By:mark.j @ 6:33:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

It's almost too hot to lift another finger, but somehow we find the energy in this searing heat to update. Anyway The Register has hinted that good old AOL could be nearer launching a true unmetered service:

On Tuesday MCI Worldcom - which one of AOL UK's network vendors - became the first telco to sign up to BT's wholesale unmetered Net access product, FRIACO Hybrid.

Erol Ziya, of the lobby group, Campaign for Unmetered Telecommunications (CUT), predicts that AOL UK will be offering a flat-fee unmetered service in as little as four weeks.

Matt Peacock, a spokesman for AOL UK was more circumspect.

Asked whether AOL UK was on the verge of offering an unmetered package, Peacock said: "We will have to see".

"We've asked for a price from MCI Worldcom, but we have not got it yet," he said.

It'll certainly be interesting to see what the new FRIACO price structure will look like, those who read our Cost of Unmetered article knows that none of the current options are cheap. Although even the old FRIACO is still cheaper than BTSurftime under the right conditions.

Circumventing The RIP

By:mark.j @ 1:21:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Thanks to Paul for reminding us of an address we had planned to post, yet forgot. As many of you know, the first implementation of a RIP based system, E-Mail Monitoring, has already begun. It's not possible to circumvent rip unless you’re a hotshot lawyer, but it is possible to get around their E-Mail monitoring:

This paper aims to show that the envisaged powers for interception and for the seizure of encryption keys are technically inept. It also aims to offer honest computer and Internet users advice on the practical steps they can take to maintain their privacy, safety and security in the presence of the oppressive powers introduced by this legislation.

There are three areas of risk that will be covered separately:

*the interception of electronic mail;
*the seizure of information on a user’s computer;
*the seizure of encryption keys.

http://www.fipr.org/rip/RIPcountermeasures.htm

So any honest individual who doesn't want to be monitored now has a way of avoiding the system. Going around the system is not a criminal offence; it's a bit like going down the opposite road to the one a police car is on.

EzeSurf !NOT DEAD! - Yeah this is fun!

By:mark.j @ 12:11:PM - Comments (60) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

*Update 16:15*
When we rang Ezesurf they told us that the service should be online within 48 hours from this morning.

Wow EzeSurf really know how to [insert profanity] people off, mind you they have admitted it's their mistake this time as a comment poster states:

more info for you -

I have just got through on one of the numbers given out on the answering machine message (01382 603360) who has assured me that the 0808 down is due to a technical problem NOT withdrawal of the service.

I asked him why the recorder message says "taken out of operation" and he acknowledges that the statement is "badly worded".

He tells me that the 0845 dialup has now also been taken down in order to repair whatever problem has taken out the 0808 - anyone comment on this? Haven’t paid the bill perhaps :~)

He also says that they are hoping to have full service back "by the end of the day" and to watch www.ezesurf.co.uk - they WILL be posting an announcement shortly.

Like the rest of you, I’ll be watching carefully for developments. . .

Thanks to the poster for that, although they still don't know why the 0808 number is down so how can they expect to fix it? As such the rumour E-Mail below still stands, awaiting direct confirmation from Energis. Perhaps an English tutor well versed in business phrases could give them a lesson or two on how to avoid such things - just bad timing?

EzeSurf DEAD - !IT'S OFFICIAL!

By:mark.j @ 11:24:AM - Comments (14) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Since this news was posted the Ezesurf customer service line directly states they have withdrawn their services. EzeSurf is DEAD =(

You know the problem with rumours is it's usually impossible to know whether they are true or not. One side gives you a rumour and the other denies it, but that doesn't always mean it's false and vica versa. So please remember that the following is likely just a prank, but is supposed to come direct from Energis (Planet Online):

EzeSurf have entered receivership yesterday. Energis plc disconnected their telecommunications late yesterday evening due to non-payment, and I believe ourselves will be disconnecting www service today.

The good news is we know people inside Energis and will be working to find out the factual evidence. Comments on this post have been disabled so it can be permanently removed if incorrect, which we all hope it is. At present we believe the post to be fake because we had to correct 6 spelling mistakes and the mail footer wasn't correct for Energis, but standby for an update..

Update 1 - 11:09am:
More reports are coming in that one of their customer service numbers (before it went dead just moments ago) has been getting strait to the point and claiming EzeSurf are now officially dead. We can't confirm details because the number is now off-line.

Update 2 - 11:20am:
The Customer Services number is 0870 444 5555 and it states quite directly that the service has been withdrawn. They then advise you to ring 0115 924 7117 (engaged) or Head Office/Kerry Cool on 01382 603360 (engaged). We’ve now switched this news update to allow comments because EzeSurf are now saying themselves that THEY ARE DEAD!!

EzeSurf Update - Not Long Now

By:mark.j @ 9:57:AM - Comments (6) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

One of the oldest WORKING unmetered ISPs, EzeSurf, has failed to surface, it was expected to go live around 8pm Yesterday evening. We've been flooded with mails spitting out rumours on this or that, highlighting several chaos theories =):

1) EzeSurf paid Planet Online (Energis) for the network on a 6th monthly basis and not yearly (ex-internal rumour suggests this could be true). It's been sighted that the reason they have lasted longer than 6months is because the network gave them extra time to come up with the cash.

2) It could be a more serious/permanent problem because a responsible ISP would have given customers advanced notice, EzeSurf did not. But then when did they ever even try to communicate with their customers properly?

3) EzeSurf have run away with our money and are using the down time to make an escape to another country (our favourite =]).

Thankfully things don't look as bad as they seem, these upgrades can often over run especially when they are so deep into the system. We've just checked the forum and one of the members state:

"Apparently they have been (and will be) working on getting it done all day and probably tonight.

Oh, and I did ask if they were going to be getting new Support people hired and they said the new folks should be trained by the end of next week."

Well things are looking up, we hope, but why can't we get the theme tune to 2001 out of our heads!?

VIRUS WARNING - Pokemon Strike Back

By:mark.j @ 9:41:AM - Comments (6) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The latest ILOVEYOU clone virus to surface is apparently making use of those annoying Pokemon cartoons; it's using the image of cuddly Pikachu to promote its devastation. Should certainly make a good test for the recent patch Microsoft put out to try and prevent such viruses from taking hold.

Officials at Nintendo Co, the video game company that owns the copyright to the wildly popular Pokemon characters, of which the cuddly yellow Pikachu is one, were unavailable for comment.

The virus strikes when users open an attachment to his or her e-mail, sending it into their computer and in some cases making it unusable. It simultaneously sends e-mails to everyone in the user's address book, giving it the potential to spread quickly.

When users open an attachment, an image of a pensive Pikachu appears on the screen with the ungrammatical message: "Between millions of people around the world I found you. Don't forget to remember this day every time MY FRIEND.". Hmm now wait a moment, if memory serves Pikachu can only say his own name, evidence enough?

The virus initially appears as an e-mail with the title "Pikachu Pokemon" and the English message "Pikachu is your friend". So there you have it, unless you’re in some kind of insane Pokemon focus group (heheheh) then watch out for such mails.

Isle-of-Man Unmetered

By:mark.j @ 9:28:AM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

ISPreview usually tends to cover UK mainland only (Scotland, England, Wales) ISPs, however today we're going to expand and try to cover Irish and other marginally local regions such as the Isle-of-Man. The good news for those on the Isle-of-Man (sorry about the dashes, just like it that way hehe) is that they can now get unmetered access as well:

Manxnet Click Freedom is Manx Telecom's new unmetered Internet access package, that gives you complete freedom to use the internet 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. For a fixed monthly fee.

Manxnet Click Freedom is designed to run alongside Manx Telecoms new Unmetered Internet Access rental package and gives you the peace of mind that no matter how long you stay connected to the Internet, you will be charged the same amount of money each month.

Please feel free to take a look around this site and find out more about prices, availability and flexibility and then sign up via our online form for unmetered internet access 24/7.

There are apparently four or five such ISPs on the IOM involved in this scheme, you can find this one here:

http://www.manx.net/click/freedom.htm

UK Has Poor Internet Security

By:mark.j @ 9:17:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We've been shouting it for ages and as usual the corporate heads just don't seem to listen, security in the UK is diabolical. Now a security survey conducted by Secure Computing Magazine has highlighted the issue.

Recent break-ins and computer glitches at Internet banks of Egg, Barclays and Swiss UBS should not surprise anyone, because Internet security has deteriorated over the past year, according to a survey. Although it doesn't mention company names, British companies fail when it comes to storing information safely on their computer networks.

"Security is at least as bad as last year, and in some areas it's worse," said editor-in-chief - Paul Robinson.

The annual survey isn't due to be out until next month but initial reports state that the UK has failed to improve from last year's. 73% of quizzed companies said they had been hit by viruses and 61% percent by email-related security breaches. The report doesn't seem to factor in any of the 'personal detail' breachs that we've reported on from many ISPs.

Most of the problems come from communications. Some high-profile crises have already shown that the new millennium is not immune to computer viruses or hacking. It'd certainly be foolish to think so and as the Internet expands the problem will only grow.

This spring the "Love Bug" infected tens of thousands of computers around the world, after a young computer school drop-out from the Philippines added a virus to an email, causing billions of dollars in damages.

While the "ILOVEYOU" virus was destroying files on local computers, a deviant of the Love Bug that was discovered last week that tried straightforward thievery. It was designed to steal PIN codes from customers of Switzerland's UBS e-bank =).

More recently on Wednesday, British police arrested three men in an investigation into attempted robberies of Internet banks, including Egg Plc. Although not trying to break into computers, the men apparently used the Internet to disguise their identity when applying for loans and overdrafts on savings accounts.

In another incident three weeks ago, Barclays was hit by computer glitches that allowed Internet customers logging on at the same moment to view each other's bank accounts. This whole slew of problems is made worse by the fact that companies regard security as 'a cost' rather than 'need'.

Perhaps some of this could be solved by more extensive use of 128Bit / 256Bit encryption on any confidential details. In a twist to fate further news comes from the RIP system, which will soon be monitoring all British ISPs, a law that can help track such unlawful individuals (problem – it can be bypassed =]).

BT Website Security Hole

By:mark.j @ 8:58:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

You see, even the big people can get it wrong as once again BT proves unheard levels of negligence. This time a particular part of the BT site can be accessed no matter what password you put for a login!:

The Insight Interactive portion of the BT.com Web site has a gaping hole in its security.

Any registered user's details can be accessed by entering their user name and password. The trouble is, the same password works whichever username you use.

And no, we are not going to tell you what the password is. Or how the user names work.

Details recorded on the site are work related: job title and work address, rather than any home details. So while no one's personal life has been compromised, it is still rather embarrassing for BT.

No one at BT could be reached for comment by the close of play today, nor could anyone tell us what the "Insight Interactive" project was or is.

Sounds like the kind of quality authentication 08004u had before it hit the ground, perhaps they've invested in the same software =). Either way you can read more on this @ The Register.

News - August 23,2000

Ezesurf Rumours

By:Daniel @ 11:47:PM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Heres some more ezesurf rumours:

"Network cable was bought, and the staff had to network the office themselves. Telephones have been installed in the office for customer support, but are not yet active.

Ezesurf's dialup line appears to be down. On contacting Energis we were told that the problem was between Energis and their client (presumably Ezesurf), and that no further information could be given out. Notice: the number goes dead after the 2nd '9' when dialling from a phone"

Ezesurf are still down although they said they would be backup at 8pm. Everything above could potentially be false - it's rumours unless you can physically prove otherwise.

Madasafish GOING LIVE!

By:mark.j @ 7:54:PM - Comments (4) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The now unmetered ISP Madasafish has FINALLY started contacting customers about it's unmetered package. Around one month late, it's hoped the service will be better than recent failures by other ISPs - thanks to Carl for the update:

Recently you registered with Madasafish for our new unmetered Internet access service. We are proud to announce that this service has now been launched as Madasafish TimeZone and is now available to you.

There are two TimeZones for you to choose from:

- TimeZone Total, which gives you unmetered access 24 hours a day, every day for £27.99 per month

- TimeZone Lite, which gives you unmetered access evenings and weekends* for £11.99 per month

These services will be available in limited quantities on a first come first served basis however, as you have pre-registered with us, you can be one of the first to receive it.

To receive this service you must be registered as a Madasafish member already, so if you don't already have your user name and password, sign-up today at http://signup.madasafish.com/

We will be calling you in the next few days to sign you up for TimeZone however you can help us by replying to this email and suggesting a suitable time and phone number (daytime/early evening if possible) for us to contact you on. We will then call you and arrange to set you up as a TimeZone user.

In the meantime, please read our Conditions of Use for the Madasafish TimeZone service, which can be found at http://www.madasafish.com/terms_timezone.htm

Cheers

Forrest Duncan
Madasafish Product Manager

Madasafish - Freedom for the net generation

* TimeZone Lite gives access at all times except 0800-1800, Monday to
Friday.

If memory serves they were using BTSurftime, although that could have changed since it's been awhile since we looked.

Foxglove.co.uk

By:Daniel @ 4:47:PM - Comments (4) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We were doing some browsing and came across http://www.foxglove.co.uk/. At first we thought this must be a scam then we found it was just a joke site. If you think your ISP is bad then check out this FAKE ISP's service status page. It's well worth the read.

A quote from their FAKE service status:

"05/01/00
Today the shopkeeper noticed the wires connecting all the equipment and leading out of his shop and unplugged it all, so we're back to square one. As soon as we can get the stuff out of the shop, we'll be up and running. Apologies."

"6/03/00
Yes we're working on all those sudden disconnections. It's going to take a while. The problem lies with the power supply. When Mark bought all the equipment, he didn't get enough power leads, so we had to borrow one from Jeff's mum. They're exactly the same as the leads that go into electric kettles, and our network centre also doubles as Jeff's mum's kitchen (actually it is her kitchen, but she's a very tolerant mother), so we just plugged in the one from her kettle. It's only a problem when she wants to make a cup of tea. For now, our advice is not to connect to our service between 8 to 8.30, just after 11, between 1 and 2, 3.30 to 4, 6 in the evening, 8, and 10 to 10.30. The really safe period is when Eastenders is on the telly. If you're doing an important download, that's the ideal time."

Please Note: This is a joke site and not a real ISP.

Janet Lift Ban

By:Daniel @ 4:45:PM - Comments (6) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Thanks to Andrew Bullock for this news taken from RHA:

"After close cooperation between JANET and RedHotAnt the block on many .ac.uk sites was lifted on Friday 18th August 2000.

The JANET network, linking universities, government and research sites in the UK utilise an excellent computer security incident and advisory coordination service called CERT.

RedHotAnt users were temporarily barred from utilising these very informative sites due to attempts from a small minority of users to breach JANET's security defence."

Well people who wanted to check out college/university websites on RHA can now do that again.

New Article @ ISPreview

By:mark.j @ 4:00:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Can't seem to logon to the net using Ezesurf, unusual since it's not even peak hours and RedHotAnt is engaged as always. As such I'm now on an 0845 ClaraNet connection (so much for unmetered), let’s hope the Ezesurf engage tones this afternoon are just temporary. Haven't been able to contact them recently.

Anyway, after quite a while of work we've put up a detailed five page article titled the Cost of Unmetered. For once it's an article that takes the side of the ISP (no not RedHotant hehe) and shows just exactly how much they have to pay in order to offer a good service. But who should we blame for this? BT? Oftel? Consumers? ISP's? Read and decide for yourselves:

"Blame ended up being focused on BT for not providing a suitable service and Oftel for their lack of push in getting BT to do so. While both issues are correct the ISPs themselves are just as responsible for their inability to predict the market. Before long the mass media finally started to pay attention to the situation and of course blew things out of all proportion, now ISPreview sets the record straight."

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/articles/costs/

Ezesurf Down

By:Daniel @ 3:54:PM - Comments (11) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

It seems as though ezesurf is down at the moment. Here's a comment from our forums:

"I just spoke with the technical service guy about 10 minutes ago. They said that they are fixing their server. The 0845 number crashed today and something else crashed yesterday. The phone was off the hook yesterday and today it's been VERY busy for them.

They are also upgrading servers like Besty said. I was told they are upgrading a few servers."

Catrina Said in an email:

"I have just phoned their tech support they say it should be back in a couple of hours? let us pray?"

Lets hope it does come back, we don't want a repeat performance of 08004U.

Telcos Take Legal Action Against BT

By:zeon @ 12:21:PM - Comments (5) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

According to this report on Silicon.com, five of the UK's biggest telcos are to take legal action against BT over the introduction of FRIACO:

"Five of the UK's biggest telecoms companies are discussing landmark legal action against BT this week for failing to deliver wholesale, unmetered internet access.

Sources told silicon.com this week that the telcos - which are thought to include Colt, Cable and Wireless, Energis, Thus and Telinco - have reached a stalemate in their negotiations with BT over flat rate net access on the local loop - a service called Friaco.

"A group of telcos intend to bring a court case against BT," one source said, adding: "It is abusing its dominant position."

Another source said the telcos have grown increasingly frustrated with BT's plans to include a per minute charge between the local and regional exchange on top of the flat rate charge to the end user."

Read the Full Article HERE

WorldCom signed up to FRIACO yesterday but it doesn't look like the other five will unless there is a dramatic change to FRIACO.

BT Give Local Exchange Access To Operator

By:mark.j @ 10:07:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Every now and again we like to dabble in the Financial Times to see if there's any Internet related news; today we found some and became rather confused.

British Telecommunications Plc, the U.K.'s biggest phone company, signed an agreement to offer unmetered Internet access in the U.K., which should boost confidence in flat-rate Internet services, the Financial Times reported, citing the company.

The agreement between British Telecom and WorldCom Inc., a telephone service provider, which has yet to be completed, is expected to include British Telecom's first unmetered charges to telecommunications operators to carry Internet calls from local to regional exchanges.

Flat-rate Internet services have suffered much criticism for their poor quality or limited access, the paper said. Yesterday AltaVista Co. put its offer of unmetered access on hold after failing to sign an agreement with British Telecom.

The U.K.'s largest Internet service provider, Freeserve Plc, has seen its costs soar since introducing unmetered access and Breathe.com has had to eject some of its clients after usage more than doubled, the paper said.

What exactly is this agreement? It sounds like some sort of local loop unbundling related deal rather than anything else. Seeming to suggest that finally third party Telco's can be in-charge of local and regional exchanges rather than just BT. Full details are not yet known, but it could be the first step towards cheaper net access, we'll see.

!UPDATE!
Finally, we've just been informed that this is the first signing of a completed Hybrid FRIACO (FRIACO2) system! It is indeed an agreement that will hopefully see prices drop in the very near future. Finally those ISPs waiting for FRIACO can get ready for launch time, lets just hope it's better than Surftime!

Unmetered Trouble - ISPr's Side

By:mark.j @ 9:40:AM - Comments (7) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

You've all no doubt read varying accounts of the AltaVista story from yesterday. BT blamed AV and credited Oftel, AV blamed BT and Oftel for not coming up with a more viable solution, Oftel blamed AV and stuck by BT and ISPreview blamed them all! =).

This has obviously caused the mass media to spiral into a frenzy by predicting doomsday accounts of what might happen to UK unmetered access. This has caused us to lengthen our Cost of unmetered article, which should go live later today.

As we told the BBC yesterday, some unmetered ISPs (LineOne, CallNet0800 etc.) like AltaVista are bound to fail because they offer the impossible. We'll leave the details until the full article, however this does deserve to be cleared up.

No unmetered ISP is perfect and this is due mostly to BT and Oftel for failing to come up with a more cost effective alternative to Surftime that doesn't bankrupt ISPs. However despite that the ISP is also responsible for offering the service at a rate people can easily afford.

So the second problem we have is ISPs failing to meet the demand, it's not that they don't understand demand, but they can't live with low profits either. This causes user to modem ratios to climb and service levels to drop, aka RedHotAnt. However that's not to say that all unmetered ISPs are the same.

Why does nobody ever credit the ones, that at the very least, do offer a working connection to the net: 24-7Freecall, Plus.NET, EzeSurf, Breath.Net, ClaraNET, FreeChariot, World Online (Screaming.Net) and PurpleNet. Ok so not all of them are perfect, but by comparison to AV, RHA, BTI, SurfUnlimited etc. they are very good quality.

So please, mass media, just because a few fail to make the grade don't shoot down the entire industry and claim it's a doomsday ride! So far only 08004u, CallNet0800, LineOne and AltaVista (one more, forget the name) have hit the ground, but that's barely any of a greater population.

The problem is mass media only cares about the big players, but in the world of unmetered the big players are the ones that offer the working services and have fewer subscribers. Moral of this update, don't knock what you don't understand.. mmmkay =).

Freeserve Halt Unmetered Subscriptions

By:mark.j @ 9:10:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

When people started E-Mailing us yesterday claiming they could no longer signup to the Freeserve unmetered package, we put it down to the recent troubles and didn't really associate it with mass news. Still The Register has and claims:

Freeserve is actively trying to discourage people from signing up to its narrowband Net access service, The Register can reveal.

Britain's leading ISP has removed links from its portal to its unmetered products in a bid to cap registrations while it upgrades its systems.

A spokesman for Freeserve denied that there was a major problem and insisted that Freeserve was committed to unmetered Net access.

Links to the service will resume in three weeks.

We'd have to agree with Freeserve on this, it's an extremely wise move to put registrations on hold until service issues are resolved. Take note RedHotAnt and the poor people you're allowing to signup and join a terrible service, appalling behaviour.

Totalise Unmetered Packages

By:mark.j @ 8:59:AM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

UPDATE: This item has been removed, it was first published on the 10th August and is not an exclusive like Net4Nowt claim.