[an error occurred while processing this directive]

June 23, 2000 - June 30, 2000

News - June 30,2000

Altavista Live!

By:zeon @ 3:36:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
But if you want access you have to wait until you recieve an e-mail with a username and password in. These should be sent ot all the people who pre-registered. A couple of things we noticed after a brief scan of the site.

  • The e-mail system is web based 

  • There is no newsgroup access. 

  • To gain access to the service you will need to run something that they call a "MicroPortal".


  • Full Details HERE

    Don't try to pre-register, as it seems to give a 404 error.

    AltaVista, Where are you?

    By:mark @ 3:09:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
    Well its been over 48Hours since AltaVista announced it was going to launch its service in 48hours time. So far no press release or reasons for the delay have been released, but do we really care anymore?

    Waiting..

    ClaraNET AnyTime Update

    By:mark @ 9:11:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
    Obviously some people have been wondering about possible cut offs and when the new 24/7 AnyTime package would actually go live. Well so were we and as such we asked ClaraNET to Clarify =):

    1) Any word on possible cut offs?

    We haven't decided about the cut off time yet - I'll keep you posted.

    2) Is the AnyTime package dependant on the availability of the FRIACO system through BT and not Clara directly?

    And yes, we are dependant upon BT making the FRIACO system available.

    It would seem as though the rather rough launch date of 'Autumn' has a good reason behind it. Nobody is able to predict whether BT are going to get this one right, especially since they couldn't even get their own working first time =).

    With any luck we should know a lot more come the end of July.

    BTSurftime Confusion @ 128ISDN

    By:mark @ 9:05:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
    There's been more than just a small amount of confusion surrounding the issue of 128KBps ISDN Dual Channel support under BTSurftime. Every day an E-Mail comes in and goes out of our boxes and nor the ISP or even BT can give a firm and direct answer.

    So this is to all those who have been wondering why the Plus.NET +Biz account, or the BTConnect (BTClick Spin off) one etc., has said support for 128KBps, yet failed to deliver. Plus.NET tell us that BTSurftime will support 128KBps in the near future, BTConnect told us they already did.

    The BTSurftime website states that there won't be any 128KBps just yet, but there will be in the future. Then BTConnect told one of our readers (Kevin) that they didn't support 128KBps ISDN and BT told the same reader that they did support 128.

    The result? Total and utter confusion from all BT related groups, be they direct or not. Plus.NET are now sticking firm and saying they will not be supporting 128 until BTSurftime make it available. So the only confusion comes from any ISP or Networks such as BTConnect and BT themselves that are directly connected.

    No we don't know the answer and apparently neither do the technical support staff, what on earth is going on? Every single BT group such as BTConnect, BTInternet and BT themselves seem to have miss informed and badly managed support staff. How is a customer ever supposed to get the right answer if every new person they speak to tells them something different?

    News - June 29,2000

    RedHotAnt Respond to Hacking

    By:zeon @ 6:42:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
    RedHotAnt have sent this out to users informing them of the security breach reported by the Sunday Times:

    "Dear RedHotAnt User,

    We would like to bring your attention to the recent article
    in the Sunday Times of 25th June 2000 concerning a breach
    of our security. Yes, we were aware of this serious breach
    and are working closely with all the concerned parties.

    We have extracted all the necessary information of how and
    when the breach occurred, and in line with correct protocol
    have forwarded this information to the Kent County Constabulary.

    Due to the gravity of this situation we have stepped up all
    security matters and have taken the additional step of
    ordering a full security audit by an external group of
    security consultants who shall ensure on going monitoring
    and testing on all security matters.

    We are aware that there will always be a minority of users
    who find it a challenge to attempt to hack into ISP servers,
    however we would also assure you that all action to prevent
    this is being taken. As a result of our on going actions
    a number of attempts have been halted and appropriate action
    taken in each case.

    Please be assured that we at RedHotAnt take the protection
    of your personal data very seriously.

    RedHotAnt Abuse Response Team


    The security breach should not have happened in the first place and RedHotAnt have also been a little slow it releasing something official but luckily at least the hacker was kind enough to inform RHA that they had a security hole.

    NTL Booting CD Sharing Customers

    By:mark @ 4:31:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
    It's not as if NTL hasn't already been in one major publication today, but now it along with the likes of RHA, LibertySurf and Excite are all mentioned in a damning news item @ The Register:

    "Meanwhile, frustrated customers are sharing CDs around while they wait for their own registration packages to arrive. The trouble is, doing this will get them automatically booted off the system, according to technical types at NTL.

    A spokeswoman for the company said: "Once you get your CD, it is registered exclusively to your telephone number and corresponding pin number. If you were to try and access your account from another telephone, your account would be shut down automatically. It is actually a breach of the terms and conditions."

    Our sources say that as many as 500 users have been kicked off the service in this way, with as many as 29 individual telephone accounts trying to access the Internet using the same CD and details. NTL was unable to confirm these figures.

    NTL is not the only company to be having trouble with free Internet services. The Advertising Standards Authority says that it has received over 60 individual complaints about unmetered Internet access advertisements. Other companies causing trouble include RedHotAnt, Liberty Surf and Excite.

    NTL says that it has been in correspondence with the ASA over the matter and has withdrawn the advertising campaign. NTL's spokeswoman also said that following comments made by the ASA in the press, it is writing to the organisation seeking clarification over whether or not an official investigation has been launched.
    "

    ISPreview doesn't agree with sharing peoples ISP accounts, especially on freecall ISPs, which are congested enough without people freely sharing one account among many. However in this case it's not their fault, you simply never expect that a single CD can be so unique to an individual customer.

    NTL simply didn't give customers a chance to explain and you can't blame the customers for sharing such a difficult to get hold of CD, in fact it'd be quite a good thing to do if it wasn't for the uniqueness.

    Daily Mail Hacks Away @ NTL

    By:mark @ 4:19:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
    Our friends @ Net4Nowt have managed to get their names in the papers again, this time it's the Daily Mail. There's an article about NTL and unmetered ISPs and how customers are getting a raw deal:

    "It says that the cable company NTL is being investigated by the Advertising Standards Agency, and will also be looking into other companies that have failed to offer what they promise their customers.

    As well as a quote from myself, there is also a comment from James Eisbisch of Internet analysts IDC who says that despite the enormous demand for unmetered Internet access, ISPs continue to underestimate the demand and customers suffer as a result.
    "

    Couldn't agree more, perhaps if more ISPs read yesterdays ARTICLE here @ ISPreview then they wouldn't make so many mistakes! Hopefully the ASA will take a look into the likes of RHA, among many more, whilst there at it - somebody should =).

    ClaraNET go 24/7 with AnyTime - !EXCLUSIVE!

    By:mark @ 4:03:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
    The popular ISP (Rated Top for 1999 by us) ClaraNET has sent out an official Press Release our way which contains details of their new 24/7 Unmetered Freecall service. Rumoured to be in the planning stage around early May and now official, the new service looks to be quite promising at a price of just £14.99Per Month:

    Leading independent ISP, Claranet has today announced its FreeTime AnyTime unmetered Internet access package.

    Available from Autumn 2000, FreeTime AnyTime gives unmetered access 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for a flat rate charge of just £14.99 per month including VAT.

    The new package also includes:

    · unlimited e-mail addresses
    · 24 hour support charged at local call rates
    · 50 Mb Web space
    · full access to on-line chat services ie ICQ & IRC
    · full access to gaming servers
    · access to over 45,000 newsgroups worldwide


    According to Nick Wells, marketing manager of Claranet, the launch of FreeTime AnyTime will bring Internet users an unbeatable combination - unmetered Internet access and the service and customer support that you would expect from an award winning ISP.

    "In the last few weeks, we have seen ISPs struggle to meet the demand for unmetered access - which in itself is a demonstration of the potential popularity of unmetered access among UK consumers," he said.

    "Claranet has been offering flat rate Internet access packages since August 1999 and so we understand the potential problems in terms of an initial rush of customers actually gaining access to the flat rate services that they want."

    "We have developed an extremely successful infrastructure, which we've been using for the last four years, that creates a buffer zone to help meet anticipated levels of demand. As a result, we will be restricting initial sign up numbers to 50,000 per month, to help us to gauge usage, and ensure that our customers can get first rate service."

    "We expect FreeTime AnyTime to quickly become one of our most popular accounts, and feel confident that we'll be able to maintain the consistently high levels of service people have come to expect from Claranet."

    Based on the introduction of FRIACO, FreeTime AnyTime will be available Autumn 2000, to register your interest, visit the Claranet web site http://www.clara.net .


    We already knew FRIACO was planned but with a price like this backed by such a solid ISP, it looks like ClaraNET might really blow others out of the water! Gone are the chat system and multiplayer limits of the old and in comes a 24/7 of exceptional quality. Finally that rubbish 'GamerZone' package might end up being eclipsed.

    No information on cut off hours, inactivity disconnections or any such details as yet, however more will likely surface in the coming weeks. So far things are looking up, ClaraNET might finally become one of the few GOOD unmetered ISPs.

    CIX Go Toll Free - Kinder

    By:mark @ 10:00:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
    Corrected
    CIX is one of the UKs BEST! Internet Service Provider and Networking groups, they are also one of the oldest. The only reason they aren't in our Top50 is simply because they don't advertise themselves well and end up being forgotten about.

    So it's no supprise that the first time we hear about their freecall service is when we hear it from a reader and not them directly. Take a look:

    • Toll Free Internet access off peak and Weekend

    • 2p per minute at peak rate
    • First 250 minutes of calls to local or national numbers each month are free

    • Save up to 50% off BT voice calls

    • Surf using the Number 1 Internet access provider in the UK*1

    • Talk using the best value voice network in the UK

    • Free Wap phone available per subscriber*2

    • Minimum charge of 30 seconds, there after billed by the second

    • Talk with thousands of other people in the CIX Conferencing system *3

    • 56.6kbps V.90, 64kbps ISDN and 128kbps dual channel ISDN dial-up access

    • Unlimited e-mail accounts

    • Unlimited number of user accounts

    • Unlimited Technical support for CIX products

    • Web based account / call log / bill information

    • No hidden extras, all prices include VAT


    Their T&C's for this package seem quite incorrect/out of date. So if you're wondering why we haven't covered them, there's your reason =).

    AOL Instant Message Block

    By:mark @ 9:28:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
    The Register is reporting on how AOL has blocked its Instant Messaging service from communicating with other similar systems such as ICQ etc.:

    "AOL has told federal regulators investigating its virtual monopoly in instant messaging that the reason it won't let competing systems interact with it is because of security concerns.

    AOL has told the FCC that it supports the idea of different systems working together but only when privacy and security issues have been sorted out. A complaint made by AOL's competitors said it was purposefully obstructing communication with other IM platforms.

    AOL doesn't deny it and goes so far as to accuse those companies of hacking into its servers in a bid of getting the platforms working together. Earlier this month, the Internet behemoth stated the same beliefs to a standards body trying to standardise instant messaging.
    "

    At first glance you'd think it was AOLs fault, however it would seem those behind such systems as ICQ have been getting complaints about it and passed those onto AOL who have taken action. However you can't help but notice that bit we've but in bold, what exactly does 'obstructing' mean in this case? Hmmm..

    Buzzline refunds update

    By:Daniel @ 1:02:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
    If anyone is having trouble getting a refund from Buzzline then the below quote from an ISPr reader will help you sort it out.

    "I signed up for Buzzline on 17th May but when it became clear they were not going to activate the account I asked them to cancel and send a refund, they duly replied saying it would be done A.S.A.P.. Since then I have contacted them on numerous occassions and keep receiving the same e-mail saying the refund should be done before the end of June.

    Last week I e-mailed Barclaycard telling them the situation and they have sent a form to be completed regarding the transaction, they have also temporarily suspended the disputed amount from any minimum payment or interest calculation for the next 21 days. The amount will be suspended for the duration of the dispute should I return the form.

    I will wait until around 4th July to see if Buzzline returns the money, after that the form will be sent to Barclaycard."


    Source: John

    News - June 28,2000

    Buzzline Refunds?

    By:zeon @ 5:57:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
    Catrina has e-mailed us to say that a refund still hasn't appeared from Buzzline. We would like to know if Buzzline has refunded anyone? The buzzline site still appears to be up.

    Yet another ADSL delay

    By:Daniel @ 2:38:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
    Not another delay!

    "It's depressing to think how many times we have written this headline but BT has done it again. ADSL will now be available in August - or maybe in September - but most likely whenever competitors threaten to impinge on the lazy giant's territory. Oh, and this time it's the fault of the ISPs... for failing to provide enough triallists.

    Every single ISP which has offered an ADSL trial service has been inundated with consumers who want the superfast Internet connection, and no one was surprised when they were. And now here is BT, saying it can't get enough people.

    We have lost count of the number of delays the service has suffered and even yesterday, while talking to a BT representative at the company stand at Networks Telecom, the prices are unconfirmed - even though they have been confirmed three times, at different rates, in the last year.

    The really maddening thing is that when BT finally does decide to release ADSL, consumers will lap it up and the company will steal the lion's share of the market. It knows this and is under no pressure to do anything but sit and wait."


    Well finally when we all thought ADSL was on the way they delay it again. We wonder if September is the new date or will they put it back again. Who knows!

    Source: The Register

    Altavista's ISP

    By:Daniel @ 2:29:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
    Well finally they are going to launch!

    "The countdown to the launch of AltaVista's all-you-can-eat Net access service has begun.

    In less than 48 hours the most hyped yet-to-be-launched ISP in Britain will finally flick the switch and open for business.

    Oh, the suspense. It's been four months, don't you know, since AltaVista first made its announcement. Frankly, the wait has been unbearable."


    Although they say they are going to launch it may take sometime for customers to be activated (e.g Visual Depth). But lets keep our fingers crossed that this ISP may be the start of a Trouble free unmetered ISP.

    Source: The Register

    New Stuff @ ISPreview

    By:mark @ 2:17:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
    We've just thrown up a new article here @ ISPreview and this ones for any new freecall ISPs thinking of starting up in the near future. It gives advise on what most new freecall ISPs are doing wrong and how they could correct the mistakes and make a better start themselves.

    Advise for new ISPs
    "If we had a pound for the number of times an ISP had asked us for advise about starting a freecall service then, well, we'd have £16 =). However 16 ISPs asking for advise is not a number that can simply be shoved aside and forgotten about. As such we decided to put this little gem together, the idea being to teach ISPs just how to start a good service with minimum of fuss."

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

    *Update*
    On page two I said 40 Modems to 1 User, sorry it's the other way around =) - corrected.

    Your Help

    By:mark @ 11:20:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
    We could do with some help from our readers in tracking down a CGI or PHP3/4 system that can do one of the following:

    -Petition System (Grabs E-Mails, displays stats, saves to file etc.).
    -Competition System (Asks questions, takes users details [E-Mail, name, address etc.] and stores to file).
    -Reader Reviews System (Allows a reader to add their own comment directly into the page at the end of a review.)


    So far we haven't been able to find a system for doing petitions and reader reviews, we've seen them around the web, however people haven't replied to our calls for information. Thus we have been unable to find out where they come from, so if anybody has any suggestions (URLs) then let us know.

    Thanks.

    AOL Information Slips

    By:mark @ 9:43:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
    Well no not really but even our inside source doesn't know the full details, however last we heard, AOL were looking at a £9.99 Per Month figure for 24/7. They are currently trying to work out how much usage the service would get and whether it would bring them to their knees or not (can you say, "Cut offs"?).

    After all AOL is a 'Millions' subscriber ISP, so if only a few hundred thousand took up the offer then there'd be problems. But perhaps they are over valuing themselves? Most REAL net users look upon AOL as the Satan of the online world.

    Even if they give us a good 24/7 to beat all others, how many would actually use it (next to the unaware) and risk the notable ridicule and backlash of using them =)? Destiny says, wait a few more days and find out!

    News - June 27,2000

    RHA Taking The P@#S

    By:mark @ 9:33:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
    Now enough is enough and once again RedHotAnt have managed to lift the lid on stupidity to all new levels. It's bad enough that they blame their users for the bad service and support, but now they've snuck a little extra something under our noses.

    You may remember this from back during the middle of May:

    "We will only be accepting 25,000 new sign-ups until 2nd June 2000, after this time we will not be accepting new subscriptions to RedHotAnt until further notice."

    As we know RedHotAnt has been pretty poor even AFTER big upgrades and they have failed to deliver the desired service for any length of time (with odd exceptions). Always taking the option of over subscribing the service one step too far, so imagine our utter surprise to see this:

    "Please Note when signing up to RedHotAnt your account will not be activated until 2nd July 2000, This is to allow for structured upgrades to our system to avoid users experiencing congestion problems.

    We will only be accepting 25,000 new sign-ups until 2nd July 2000, after this time we will not be accepting new subscriptions to RedHotAnt until further notice.
    "

    Several RHA subscribers have pointed this out to us admits tearing their hair out in utter disbelief. They've replaced June with July for yet another month and before the service is even back on its feet! At current RHA plan to update the servers/terminals by the end of this week, just in time for July 2nd.

    So without even telling anybody PROPERLY, they are going to make EXACTLY the same mistakes as happened in May > June. Truth be told, they could upgrade and we might all never see an engage tone AGAIN! Of course giving their past we really can't see this happening. If they fail to deliver then we could see a massive public outcry and hope action will finally be taken.

    Complaints Page Update

    By:mark @ 6:16:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
    As promised earlier in the morning our complaints page has now been updated with all the latest happenings:

    http://www.ispreview.co.uk/new/complain/complain.shtml

    Other than what we previously mentioned, TheFreeInternet's list has been erased as no complaints on them have been seen in awhile. Not to mention we have seen every indication that they are finally getting a bit better.

    RedHotAnt and BTInternet complaints have shown no let up and Freeserve now enters the list. People are reporting that their modem connection speeds on the Surftime system can often be significantly less than under the 0845 one. Others such as CallNet0800 (and associates) and X-Stream haven't budged in ages and show no obvious improvement signs.

    Like I've already commented to one person today, there will always be those who somehow manage to escape even ISPs such as RHA without ANY problems. It's never easy to understand why, but everybody's circumstances are different.

    ISPreview Online Domain Offer

    By:mark @ 9:38:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
    Just a quick update to all those on our ISPreview Online ISP service, the £10 for a domain offer on your web space ends today. So if you want a domain for far cheaper than usual, pop on over and give a mail to the sales team.

    On top of that I've been asked twice now about the unmetered service for ISPr Online. The systems are now in place to deal with the predicted bandwidth usage (a lot!) and so technically we could be ready to run in 3-4days. The problem is choosing which system to use and the entire marketing involved etc. with that.

    Hopefully we should have something more concrete information for July (I'll be in Greece so Richard will get sent any details), but the system is most likely to adopt the FRIACO standard. BT have been pushing their Surftime but at the moment we aren't to keen =)

    *Update*
    http://www.redhotant.com users don't seem to be able to visit the URL, I know because I tried myself, this is a problem at their end because it works fine from other ISPs.

    General Complaints Update

    By:mark @ 9:18:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
    Sorry for the lack of updating on the complaints page, for some reason I haven't been able to retrieve my complaints POP3 mail since Thursday last week. Seems to be working now, so expect an update soon.

    To do a quick summary, it seems a lot of people have complained about EzeSurf having engaged tones and DNS timeouts creeping back in (sometimes dead on connection) - peak hours specifically. Strange for EzeSurf as we've never seen an engaged tone complaint, even we had quite a few with them last night (engaged tones).

    I can safely say that ALL of the other complaints are for BTInternet, RedHotAnt and CallNet0800; that's just a quick glance as well =). On a side note, could Keri from EzeSurf mail me, as I haven't been able to reply to her for around two weeks since ezesurf.ltd.uk addresses now return errors.

    Freeserve Update

    By:mark @ 9:11:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
    Sorry about the 'Freeserve just can't TAKE IT!' article yesterday, it seems to have been cloned from Reuters, then The Register, then us and finally out to everybody. The fact is both TR and Reuters seem to have got RedHotAnt confused with Freeserve.

    I had suspicions myself, however at the same time we've been getting a lot of complaints about FS and so it seemed correct. We're only human but will do our best to make sure such mistakes don't happen again.

    News - June 26,2000

    BTs Double Standards

    By:mark @ 7:23:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
    We're all very aware that BT doesn't exactly like to give other companies the upper hand, and why should they; it's their network so they can do what they want, right? Well no not really, but after having talked with one of the top dogs at a well-known ISP (name removed) we've uncovered some shading dealings.

    Not many people have the full facts and in a way we already know, but quite a few ISPs are being put on the back burner for no reason at all. For example, do you think it was just an accident that BTInternets Surftime option went online several weeks ahead of say; Plus.Net?

    BT stated this was a problem with the supply of some hardware and thus the first ISP to use BTSurftime was BTInternet. Fare enough, you can't dismiss a company for such a small bit of 'rule bending', but there's more.

    Lets take a look at ADSL, BT have delayed the launch of all third party suppliers of their ADSL system until July26th; however BTopenworld will go online come the 29th June. Stranger still, third party suppliers have only been allowed to take on four new subscribers a day.

    BT have so far refused to give ISPs a reason for the subscription limit, it's unconfirmed but you can bet your bottom dollar BTopenworld isn't so limited. As for the launch date, again, little or no reason has been given to third party ISPs.

    Some ISPs we've spoken to are quite angry to say the least, these kind of double standards don't seem fare, but then such things rarely are. What do you think? Comments please..

    RIP Bill Update

    By:Daniel @ 6:13:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
    Here's some news we are pleased to hear:

    "The UK Home Office is to back down on part of the controversial Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIP) Bill which requires internet companies to foot the costs for intelligence services to monitor their email. Under the Bill, internet service providers (ISPs) would have to pick up the costs to install "black boxes" in their servers to monitor internet traffic.

    However, according to a report in the Independent on Sunday, cabinet ministers are now considering an amendment to the Bill that would"


    So basically they will still introduce a monitoring system but not charge the ISP's for it. So now ISP's won't have no need to put your monthly subscription up.

    Source: The Register

    Demon Cave in on ADSL Trial

    By:mark @ 5:53:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
    You may remember Demon Internet was threatening to throw ADSL trialists from its service unless they joined the full package and paid the fee. Sounds fair enough, but then they had been offered a free period AFTER the trial.

    As such a huge uproar started, spreading to various Internet news site such as ours, the combined force was able to make Demon reconsider - The Register reports:

    "The move - announced today - is an embarrassing U-turn by the ISP which has been slammed for the way it has handled the completion of its broadband trial.

    Last week it issued an ultimatum to its 500 trialists informing them that they could only get the three months free if they signed up to a full year of broadband access at cost of more than £1200.

    If trialists failed to take up the offer by last Friday their service would be disconnected at the end of this week, the ISP said.

    Now, the trialists appear to have won their battle and have been given three months free broadband access with no obligation to sign up to a service at the end of September.

    Although Demon's trialists are chuffed to bits by this change of heart, many will be questioning why they had to pressure the ISP in the first place, when the freebie offer was one of the conditions of taking part in the trial.

    Lucy Robb, a spokeswoman for Demon, denied the ISP had backed down and said: "We want to keep our customers happy."
    "

    So you backed down then didn't you =), good news and once again victory for the consumers over the might of an ISP. But should it of happened in the first place? NO!

    New Chat System = LIVE

    By:mark @ 5:29:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
    We've just added in our recently purchased IRC Chat system, it uses Java (as usual) and isn't perfect for Netscape, but will run without problems. The system's very fast and it'll take you onto our IRC channel where you may often find some strange people discussing ISPs =).

    All you have to do is click that link above the news and your away, please remember that we can't completely control what you might see or hear in this chat room. We'll try to have somebody on there as often as possible.

    There also seems to be a bug with the 'window' JS we are using to open the chat, it reloads ISPreview in the background and we're not 100% sure how to stop it. Sometimes it reloads, sometimes it works as it should.. arrg programming pi#@es me off =)

    If you use another program to access IRC the channel is on irc.esper.net #ispreview. A guide on how to use MIRC on esper can be found HERE authored by Ian Upham.

    New 2.4mbps Connection Standard Looming?

    By:mark @ 9:28:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
    Many people don't realise it but there are quite a few systems similar to the likes of ADSL and Cable Modems floating around. Everything from Powerline to a second generation of ISDN has been touted over the years, yet very few ever actually make it.

    This is mostly due to the big governing bodies around the world (BT, Oftel etc.) that have to choose which standard can be offered to the public and why. For example, Cable Modems and ADSL are between 5 and 10 years old, they aren't anything new in the slightest.

    The fact is it can take up to a quarter of a generation before a new standard is accepted, and even then it'll be a good few years before active service commences and more still before everybody has access. Well our friends from The Matrix seem to have uncovered a system that's already passed at least one set of tests.

    Information is somewhat sparse at the moment, it's based on technology known as 'WipLL' and has been dubbed 'Highspeed Data'. Running at speeds of UP TO 2.4Mbps (MegaBits), both upstream and downstream, it looks like Highspeed Data could be one to watch.

    The service is being touted by BT rival Atlantic Telecom and more information can be found HERE. Under the present system it could take years before we see it and there are already systems under development that can transfer at speeds EXCEEDING 10Mbps over an ISDN HomeHighway style (ADSL similar) line.

    However if Oftel's plans to UN-Bundle the local loop go ahead, then systems such as Highspeed Data may well get the boost they need to flourish! Comments please..

    Freeserve Bid's Closed

    By:mark @ 9:08:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
    Perhaps not completely unrelated to T-Online's recent pull out of the Freeserve bid, it would seem the ISP is not expecting anymore 'rushed' bids in the near future.

    Apparently after a private meeting that was held recently, it was agreed that the remaining parties would not be making any further offers in the coming weeks.

    Offers for smaller portions in the company rather than the entire group were not ruled out. This comes at a time when Freeserve also reported a sevenfold increase in turnover to 19.6 million pounds, but a wider pre-tax loss of 19.7 million pounds compared with 1.5 million the previous year.

    On top of that active registered accounts increased 64 percent to 1.934 million on the previous year-end, while Freeserve page impressions leapt 137 percent on the previous year to 151.5 million in May 2000. Some strange goings on indeed, we wonder what's really happening behind closed doors.

    News - June 25,2000

    T-Online pull-out of Freeserve Bid

    By:Ross14 @ 7:31:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
    Not really much news today, so we thought we might update you all on status of the Freeserve Takeover.

    It seems that T-Online, the German ISP owned by Deutsche Telekom, has ended talks to buy Freeserve.

    The only other contenders that have shown an interest are NTL and Telewest. So, who will buy Freeserve.....?

    You can read more by going HERE

    Source: The Register

    ISPreview Weekly Update

    By:mark @ 1:06:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
    Well this week we had our general meeting, it lasted just over an hour and some interesting ideas came about from it. There's so much here that I think it might be best to just stick to the relevant details. What you have to remember is that this is a LONG TERM plan for up until the end of 2000 and in some cases, exceeding it.

    Future/Possible additions to ISPreview:
    -New Chat System (already purchased, going live soon).
    -Automated competition system (Shouldn't be long now).
    -Mailbag, we publish reader's letters on a specific page (like a magazine).
    -Voicemail/Fax system for help/advise.
    -Automated Petition System (for whatever..).
    -New Article and Review Layouts (coming very soon).
    -Printable Articles and Reviews (comes with new layout).
    -1024*768, PocketPC, AvantGO etc. ISPreview versions.
    -ISP Service status page (Listing all the service status pages for all the ISPs that have them), special way of viewing them as well.
    -Reader ISP reviews.
    -General article/review comments system (could go with the above reader reviews).
    -New Staff (two).
    -Design changes (lots of bits and bobs suggested).


    If we haven't left a bracketed comment saying that such a system listed is already under production, then it's still in research state. In other words, some of what's listed down there isn't possible because we can't find what we need to do it with properly - but we will.

    The new chat system should be online next week before I go to Greece and I'm pretty sure you'll like the speed and interface. Also I can announce that our new staff members consist of two people, Sarah and Malcom, both will soon be contacted. Please don't contact us about anything listed until after its actually happened.

    Finally I'd like to thank all those who made the suggestions since our last set of changes a month ago. We're doing everything we can to get you what you want and hope it's worth it, just remember that we do have some practical limits =) - time for one.

    More next week..

    IGClick Responds

    By:mark @ 9:55:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
    Thanks to Keiron @ http://www.igclick.co.uk (new unmetered ISP) for updating us on the reason some of you haven't been able to go live on their service yet:

    "Dear Sir,

    IGClick did launch on Monday 19th June 2000, all customers we told that there is a 20 working day lead-time on the Direct Access to the Internet product. Customers were also told that they are not charged for the service until they can actually go-online.

    As was said in our initial press release and on our web-site IGClick will be taking on an initial 3000 users, should a customer not fall in to the initial 3000 then they will have to wait until IGClick has expanded its capabilities.

    As a partner in the IGClick Project, I would not want to take on more users than we can cope with. At this point the service is now filled to capacity of 3000 users.
    "

    We'd point out that had they told this to their customers individually then such a level of confusion might not have occurred. Perhaps it's wiser to STOP registrations when you can't take on anymore. Still at least IGClick have got the right idea and so far we haven't had any 'Service Complaints' - keep it up.

    RedHotAnt Hacked (Sunday Times)

    By:mark @ 9:47:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
    You may remember good old http://www.redhotant.com being hacked not long ago, well apparently there could have been a much more SERIOUS incident, thanks to Kevin for this:

    "June 25 2000 BRITAIN

    Hacker taps into 24,000 credit cards

    Maurice Chittenden

    A COMPUTER hacker has breached the security of a pioneering internet service provider to obtain the names, addresses, passwords and credit card details of more than 24,000 people.

    The victims include scientists at the top-secret Defence Evaluation and Research Agency, senior officials in the government, BBC bosses and executives at companies such as Shell, Barclaycard and Halifax.

    The hacker, an information technology consultant, says that he targeted Redhotant to expose security lapses.

    The Kent-based company is at the forefront of a new style of internet provision: subscribers pay as little as £30 a year for unlimited access to the web with no additional phone charges. It aims to attract half a million users in Britain, but its critics say it is failing to cope with demand.

    Trading standards officers are investigating complaints that people have had difficulty getting online, although the company claims to have a line for every nine customers.

    The company, which has taken up to £1.5m in subscriptions, says it plans to double capacity. Last week it was offline for several days and blamed a technical hitch after a thunderstorm.

    The consultant who obtained the details of Redhotant's subscribers broke the data protection law but says he did it only out of public interest to highlight lack of security.

    He used a proxy, a device normally used for disguising the identity of a user, as an intermediary to search the site for files.

    Among them he found the customer database. Only those connected to the company's internal network are supposed to access it. The hacker got around this by typing in: "referrer: the intranet site".

    He said: "It was child's play. I didn't actually need to hack in the normal sense because I didn't need any passwords. It was like rooting around in bins for a key and then finding there was a wide-open side entrance.

    "Redhotant's biggest mistake was keeping its own records on the same disk and machine as all its services."

    He added: "I sent them a couple of e-mails alerting them to the problem but they ignored it. The lesson is simple. Don't put anything on a website that you wouldn't put on a billboard."

    Redhotant is part of the Jak internet group, which operates from offices near the Channel Tunnel in Kent.

    Kevin Packwood, a director, said he was unaware of the security breach. He said: "I would be very surprised if somebody could get that far. Our security measures should have been able to see it happening and alarms would have sounded."
    "

    At this point I'd like to refer you all to our 'Signup Security' article which is of deep relevance to what you've just read. We warned people such as RHA a long time ago, yet typically nobody listens - "the only voices they hear are there own".

    True or not, it might be wise to have all your CC numbers changed or cards cancelled. We'll just sit back and wait for the next ISP with minimal security to be hacked, time to LISTEN and take stock guys! Even simple CGI form encryption systems would have done a better job.

    News - June 24,2000

    BTConnect Surftime

    By:mark @ 8:00:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
    Now don't go confusing that headline too much, what it actually means is that the business end of BTClick (BTConnect) recently announced details of its Surftime package. In being a business ISP it is obviously taking advantage of the special business Surftime offer, so 128Kbps ISDN is supported.

    At a total cost of £31 per month (including Surftime) you get 24/7 unmetered Internet access, 20 email addresses, 20MB web space, Free Domain Name and quite a bit more. It may not be as impressive as Plus.Net's +Biz Surftime offer up front, however there are advantages.

    For a start the T&C's do NOT state any daily bandwidth limits and there are NO cut offs with the service. It's worth pointing out that BTSurftime currently hasn't started the 128Kbps feature, although you'll get it the moment it comes online.

    BTConnect is the fourth ISP alongside the likes of Plus.Net and Freeserve to offer a UNIQUE BTS package. Just remember that BT reserve the rights to impose limits on the ISP if people use the services too much (24/7 LIVE connection etc.)

    We can neither recommend nor disapprove BTConnect, however if anybody finds out that it does have problems then please let us know. I can't see us ever reviewing any BTS supporting ISPs unless the general system shapes up, thus we can justify spending money on a review.

    Late Weekly Update

    By:mark @ 9:46:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
    Well it's Saturday so you can expect the usual slow news, anyway, just wanted to let you know that the 'Sunday Weekly Update' will be a little later (afternoon).

    This is because we have a general meeting to discuss ISPr related things and expansion, I'd prefer to leave the update until later and that way I can tell you what the future holds for us.

    News - June 23,2000

    RedHotAnt Press Release

    By:mark @ 6:29:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
    http://www.redhotant.com have just sent us an official responce to all the problems of late:

    "Just when the Technical team at RedHotAnt (RHA) thought that things were getting better and that the system was stabilising due to the enormous loading by their user base (which is currently offering unmetered access to the Net) – things got worse.

    MCI (the main telco provider for the RHA network) has experienced a complete failure with its leased line commitment to RHA from its base in Feltham to the RHA server farm in Cheriton, Kent. This has meant that although RHA users could surf the net, none could pick up their e-mails nor access any of the thousands of web sites hosted by the RHA servers.

    Despite RHA having a SLA (Service Level Agreement), providing for an 8-hour response from MCI, the line was disrupted at 17.36hrs on Tuesday 20th June and to date has still not been rectified by MCI engineers.

    “We find this state of affairs appalling” quoted Bob Garrioch, a director of the Company, “Our users are quite rightly furious. The unfortunate thing for us though is that although this is completely outwith our control and directly arrtibutable to MCI, our users don’t see it that way. For them it’s us that is at fault. Since MCI were not able to fix the problem within the first 36 hours, and could not give us any guarantees when it would be fixed, we have had no alternative but to physically relocate our entire server farm from the South Coast to London. We have quite literally had every one of our engineers up for the last 48 hours to accomplish this – and amazing feat.”

    RHA came back on line at 02.29hrs on Friday 23rd June.

    Their engineering team has also been busy expanding the system by another scheduled 40% increase and this is due to come on line next week.
    "

    No comments from me, too tired of commenting on rha day in - day out.

    [an error occurred while processing this directive]