June 18, 2000 - June 23, 2000

News - June 23,2000

BT Poised to Sell BTopenworld

By:mark @ 2:58:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

BTs ADSL arm BTopenworld looks as though it could go up for sale, The Register reports the following:

"BT has played down reports it is considering to float its broadband operation - BT Openworld - and embark on a round of costly media content acquisitions.

Marc Deschamps, BT Openworld's COO, told Reuters that BT would probably float Openworld and that the telco would consider buying content providers.

Deschamps is reported to have said that BT is prepared to be "very aggressive in making acquisitions".

But in a display of pantomime-like farce a BT spinmeister said today that there was nothing new in what Deschamps said.

Indeed, when the company was reorganised in April BT's boss, Sir Peter Bonfield, announced that the directory service, Yell, would be floated later this year.

Fielding questions from journalists eager to know if he had plans to sell off any more of BT's "family silver", Sir Peter neither ruled it in or out.

Instead, he gave the stock response that it all depended on the right market conditions, right business reasons, et cetera, et cetera."

As BTopenworlds CEO's have stated before, it could take sometime to break into profit with the cheaper services they are providing. Floating is always a good way to get a bulk of cash, however for a service that's barely out of its infancy then it could be a risk.

Big question, would or wouldn't this benefit the users?

IGClick Troubles

By:mark @ 2:49:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

You may remember the new unmetered ISP IGClick (see our unmetered listings) being announced not long ago. It was due to go live on the 19th June 2000, however 'Barry' (PQ Systems) says otherwise:

"I signed up (phoned up) to IGClick last week when I read your news article about them. They said that they were scheduled to go live on the 19th, as their web site STILL says. Well you guessed, I'm still waiting. I rang them this Monday and was told that they had some technical difficulties and the guy I spoke to promised to call me personally that evening to give me my log on details, predictably he didn't.

So I rang them on Tuesday and a different guy told me that the details would be given to me within 20 days of signup as per the contract, I pointed out to him that the contract makes no mention of 20 days and that I was told the 19th then Monday, "our mistake" was his reply. He said however that they hoped to have the problems sorted by Friday (today).

I've just called them again and now I'm be quoted 20 WORKING days, that's 4 weeks by my reckoning. So how can they advertise "going live 19th" and then change their T&C's?"

Seems to be a common trait among new unmetered ISPs, to delay their launch, we always advise caution and to wait until some other unsuspecting people have signed up first =).

RHA Update

By:zeon @ 9:04:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The E-Mail server is now back online, the webserver is still offline but it should only be a few more hours wait.

*Update*
We have just spoken to RHA and they told us that the authentication server should be backup hopefully before 2pm. They had to take it down to reconfigure it as they moved the servers away from the broken backbone link which is still being repaired by MCI WorldCom.

*Update - 2*
Just tried logging in (2:30pm) and RHA seems to be working fine again, I'd make use of it now before everybody else gets wind of it =) and thus engaged tones etc.

News - June 22,2000

Scotfree-uk.net Unmetered Update

By:mark @ 9:57:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

You may remember the recently announce unmetered package @ the http://www.scotfree-uk.net ISP and how it caused some annoyance among readers. After all, £39.99Per month for a service, which has more limits than most, is a little excessive.

Still that aside and Scotfree have posted us a private update for all our readers, just to let you know they aren't all bad:

"First of all we're not in it for the money, we're here for the Internet community. We don't want to restrict users we want to provide a top rate service. How many other isps will increase your web space or email addresses if you ask? We offer very reasonable connection rates, domain name registration and were one of the first UK ISP's to offer voice chat, courtesy of Internet class communications.

We also have a partnership with Phonefree and offer a web phone, which includes video chat etc. Also coming soon is our new Dynamic dns service where by users can turn their dialup PC's into home servers etc and have a permanent domain name pointing to their PC all the time, no matter how many times they disconnect and reconnect.

What we want is for members to tell us what they would like to see featured on Scotfree-uk, after all this service is for everyone and their views count.

We are not in it for the money, we thought it was about time that somebody gave or these big ISP's a run for their money by being totally flexible and listening to our members. We also support Linux and provide our own support too.

As for the Atlantic telecom deal, well the Crest box is smaller than a packet of 20 cigs, and Atlantic provide these free, one for each phone socket in the house. Our cutoff time has been removed, but we cannot 100% guarantee permanent connection as the network gets busy.

And remember, its not just for surfing, this deal includes normal voice communications anywhere within the UK."

Without a cut off period the £39.99 cost is a little more bearable, right now we can't recommend or disapprove the ISP until it's been in the running for a little while. We'll leave you guys to make your own minds up on this one.

Vispa's Special Offer Domains

By:mark @ 7:01:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

http://www.vispa.net have passed us along some information for those of you with an account under them or the special version under us (ISPreview Online [above]):

"Domain Name Special Offer Prices!!!!

For one week only ending June 27th 2000, we have decided to drop the price of all .co.uk to just £15 Inc VAT, that's just £7.50 a year!!!!!

That's not all, we have now made it even easier and quicker to get the name you want by accepting orders by both Credit and Debit Cards. Details are all handled in a secure and quick manner.

We also set you up with both web and email forwarding for the same low
price, which means you could start giving out www.yourdomain.co.uk to your friends and email addresses like anything@yourdomain.co.uk which is so much more easier to remember and very professional.

If you debating to get a domain, maybe this offer will help you decide.

For more details visit http://www.vispa.net/tools/tools-domains.php3"

If you have an account under us then remember you can get the same deal because Vispa supply the network. Give them a bell.

*Update*
Fixed the above URL, was sent incorrectly.

Demon give Ultimatum to ADSL Trialists

By:Daniel @ 6:38:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Here's some more news from The Register:

"Demon's ADSL trialists are up in arms after being told yesterday that they had three days to sign up to the full broadband service - at more than £1,200 for the year - or face being disconnected.

Broadband users are so hacked off by the way they have been treated at the hands of Demon some have even threatened legal action against the ISP.

The trialists claim this is in breach of Demon's original terms and conditions.

So did BT forget to tell Demon about the end date of the trial? Did it tell Freeserve first to give it a head start? Or did Demon delay telling its own punters...for whatever reason.

Demon was asked to comment but failed to do so by press time

This is quite an ultimatum that Demon have given them and if we was given that ultimatum we would definitely say NO. Its a

NTL problem

By:Daniel @ 6:06:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Here's an explanation regarding yesterdays NTL outage:

"Yesterday at 3pm, one of NTL's linx routers went offline. The network then plunged into chaos as the overloaded system ground to a halt under the weight of the redirected traffic.

Mike Alexander, a project manager at NTL's Internet support section said that the service was never completely out, but that users may have had such slow service that it could have appeared non existent. "All services were affected," he said. "Some customers had extremely slow connections and there were problems with dialup."

The connection was back up and running as of 3am today."

Lets hope this doesn't happen again!

Source:The Register

Oftel warning to BT

By:Daniel @ 5:58:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Heres some Interesting news about BT Cellnet we found from The Register:

"BT Cellnet has been slapped by Oftel for preventing customers from altering their homepages on their WAP phones.

The underhand move by the BT subsidiary meant that users were stuck with its own offering WAP portal.

The mobile phone telco said it would provide people with a four-digit code to make the changes, after someone complained to the winged watchdog.

According to Mitsubishi Electric, which makes BT Cellnet's Geo WAP phone, it was ordered by BT to block consumers from changing homepages on their phones.

By the way, the number to unlock your phone is, unimaginatively, 0000. So don't bother calling BT Cellnet to find out - you'll save yourself a fortune and a load of time to boot."

We think that this is a good move by Oftel and BT should of put that option in the phone in the first place to avoid all this.

Source:The Register

NEW ISP: EzAccess

By:mark @ 9:35:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

In a world now dominated by news on FreeCall ISPs, it's a step back and yet a refreshing change at the same time to announce a new 0845 ISP. However this one is something special, take a look:

"In a partnership with http://www.instantname.co.uk and http://www.dogma-is.com , we have launched our own complimentary ISP for Businesses. It is a FREE quality Add-on Product for customers and non-customers of the webshosting companies. It provides FREE Access to the Internet using 0845 Local rate access either via V90 Modems or single, or Dual ISDN (at no extra cost)

The Service comprises of 200Mb CGI, PERL and iHTML enabled webspacve and also free unlimited email accounts in the form of you@ezaccess.co.uk . You also have access to 30,000 News Groups.

The ISP is called EzAccess Internet and uses the Windows2000 Server family as its core infrastructure. The Datacentre, in Denton, Manchester currently hosts over 80,000 UK and International domains for some of the biggst names in the business and it is for this reason that it can provide a FREE ISP to compliment its large portfolio of services, including Web design and Leased Lines.

The Company has also scheduled an ADSL Business Roll-out by Sptember which will be aimed at the high-end business market providing speeds of upto 2Mbps.

For More info visit www.dogma-is.com"

200mb! WEB SPACE!, Full CGI and Perl, this isn't an ISP it's a hosting package built onto an ISP =). I have to say that as free (0845) ISPs go, this is likely to take the cake [Added to review list]. Perhaps only for those after hosting space, if you are then you won't be disappointed.

Oh and yes, you can also register a domain if needed, making it an exceptionally worthwhile package. It's sometimes amazing to think that even the UK's top hosting companies can be eclipsed by a FREE ISP such as this. Now if only unmetered ISPs offered as much.

CallNet0800 Problems Update

By:mark @ 9:25:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

For all those having problems with CallNet0800, http://www.net4nowt.com have managed to get a reply out of them as to what is happening:

"We have recently received an e-mail message from you regarding the CallNet0800 level of service. You as a customer may have experienced a range of problems, such as difficulty accessing the CallNet0800 Newsgroup Service or a series of engaged/busy tones making it extremely difficult for you to establish a connection.

We apologise unreservedly for this current service level. This is due to a general constraint on our ability to increase our capacity. In short, despite our best efforts there are simply not enough telephony circuits currently available to support the dramatic growth of our business. Unfortunately, this situation is unlikely to improve in the immediate future.

As a short-term measure we have cancelled all outstanding customer activations and have removed some 'value added services' from the programme in an attempt to reduce the load on the system. The on-line registration form is no longer available. It is no longer in our company's interest to add further customers to our database at this time. Adding additional users at this time would simply degrade the performance of the service to unacceptable levels.

We understand that this situation may be unacceptable to you. We would suggest that since a solution is unlikely to be immediate and to save you from further frustration, that we suspend your application and if applicable fully refund your account at this instance? If you would like to take this option please e-mail the following details: First Name, Last Name, Postcode and User Name (If known) to accountcancellations@callnet0800.com

Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused. We are deeply sorry that we could not satisfy your Internet and telephony needs on this occasion.

Kind Regards
CallNet0800 Support Team"

We happen to know there is a large amount of people who have problems getting their boxes, so at least this gives you a way out of sorts. Bit late for those of us who actually got the dialler, but didn't want it anyway =). Maybe we should give it away hehe?

News - June 21,2000

RHA Update

By:zeon @ 10:21:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The current situation is that all of RHA except the dialup and dns is down. The is because a problem with RHA connecting to the backbone, which means their servers have been cut off from the internet. If anyone has any more details from their support on when they are likely to be backup please post them in the comments.

*Update*
RHA website, mail and news is still offline. The word is that it might be backup today (Thur).

C&W Threaten to Cut ISP Users

By:mark @ 11:25:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Catrina has informed us that C&W (Cable & Wireless) have been threatening to cut users from their service if they remain idle. Nothing too special about this, however users who are using the service, but only for E-Mail (still using it you see) have also been threatened:

"Dear Cable & Wireless Internet customer,

In order to provide the best possible service to our customers, we regularly remove inactive accounts from our Internet platform. As you may be aware, your account hasn't been used for more than 90 days and so, in accordance with our terms and conditions, we are planning to cancel your service.

After your account is removed from our platform, you will no longer be able to use our Internet service to go online and you will lose your email address, webspace and any mail in your mailbox. The planned date for termination of your service is 29 June 2000.

Obviously we hope you will choose to stay with us. If you wish to keep your account, simply reply to this email by 29 June or call FreeCall 0800 092 9001 Monday to Friday 9am to 5.30pm.

Thank you for your time,

Yours faithfully,

Janet Somerville"

C&W, otherwise known under the management of NTL, has a history of slightly 'iffy' support to say the least. Hmm and what's this craze of using 'Dear CUSTOMER' just before you attempt to cut somebody's head off? How about 'ATTENTION' instead?.. tad off track now.

eBAY Commercialise Auctions

By:mark @ 11:08:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We're posting this because it's quite an unfortunate thing to ask people to do. The UK/US's biggest Online auction site eBAY has announced that it is to !CHARGE! people a fee (depening on cost of item) to list their goods for sale:

"When eBay UK launched in October 1999 we were pleased to waive listing fees for UK members who listed their items in pound sterling until July 4th 2000. The UK site has since seen incredible expansion and as the site grows in popularity we need to ensure that we maintain a consistent high quality of items for sale.

------------------------------
How does this benefit me?
------------------------------

This benefits both buyers and sellers. As a result of introducing a listing fee, sellers will be more likely to list quality items. This means more buyers will be attracted to eBay UK, and this therefore will result in a more vibrant market place."

Having used eBAY a lot before to sell high quality computer hardware, I can confidently say that I'll be using the likes of QXL among others from now on. So charging a fee is going to get 'MORE' people to list items? Well we'll see won't we.

Another case of the common 'business practice' known only as, "Get people onto your service and THEN add or increase the costs".

BT Hyperlinks Update

By:mark @ 10:26:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

It's fare to say that even our 'comments section' was packed full of interesting details on this whole BT Hyperlinks ownership bid. However by far the most interesting came from http://www.theregister.co.uk this morning:

"Phil Randal said: "My first exposure to the hyperlinking/hypertext concepts came from Ted Nelson's seminal book Computer Lib published in 1974."

Steven C Den Beste said: "The entire concept was described by Ted Nelson in the book Dream Machines, which was published at least five years before BT's claimed work. In fact, Ted Nelson invented the word 'hypertext' as part of that discussion, which was precisely about the entire concept of non-linear texts."

Raymond Rodgers of Vancouver University wrote: "Interesting. In 1952 I wrote of computers (then the size of busses) 'they will shrink, and link, and help us to think" - and then spelled it out in a 1971 book.

"So they should pass some of the money on to me?" he said."

Of course how many of these people actually put a patent on such ideas? Well none, so the disagreements continue. As our own readers were keen to point out, the Internet is a free place and should not in any way be commercialised by allowing BT in the door, we agree.

News - June 20,2000

RHA Down...

By:zeon @ 8:47:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Some RHA users have contacted us about various problems again mainly that they can get on but have no send/receive activity. Whether this is a DNS problem or a backbone problem isn't clear but as their website is down its more likely to be the latter. Please post any comments.

*Update*
From a post on the comments.
Just spoke to one of their customer support people. Problem is caused by a 'malfunction' (their word) at UUNET which is essentially 'knocked them off the internet' (their words again). Also affecting other ISPs across Europe and the States as mentioned above by others. They will be back on when UUNET problems are resolved, 'hopefully today'.

Scotfree Unmetered

By:mark @ 7:13:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

You may remember us reporting on how Scotfree planned to go unmetered sometime back (quite awhile actually), well today http://www.net4nowt.com was able to get more details:

"For a monthly payment of £39.99 users will receive 24/7 unmetered access. Users will be provided with a box to re-route calls through Atlantic Telecom.

There is a 3-hour cut-off period, although this may change depending network congestion. ISDN is not yet supported.

As well as unmetered access to the Internet, customers can also receive cheaper voice calls but the service is only open to BT customers."

Just as N4N mentioned, THE PRICE! So there's no ISDN, a 3hour cut off, an ugly dialler box (callnet0800 anyone?) and they have a promise to limit or increase the cut off depending on network congestion. Well if that isn't value them I'm an English bloke updating a site about ISPs.. hmmm.

You know some people have sold ADSL and Cable Modem services for less.

*UPDATE*
Thanks to Peter for pointing this out.
The price also includes voice calls made through dialler box. So you get unmetered Internet and Voice for £39.00 month.

Spoof emails from AOL

By:Daniel @ 5:48:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We have found this intresting piece of news which has discovered another security issue on the Net.

"AOL has launched an urgent investigation into why people are receiving spoof emails allegedly sent from its CEO, Steve Case.

Two emails have been discovered by The Register so far. One claims to include details about an "upgrade to fix all the bugs in your version of AOL".

The other advises that "p***s enlargement and strengthening is possible".

In both cases the emails were sent from stevecase@aol.com - the same address that is given on Case's personal home page.

A message on the site reads: "The web site you are trying to access either does not exist, expired due to inactivity, or has been terminated for violating our policies."

On 1 April, an email sent from the address of stevecase@aol.com, said: "We have recently come up with a new upgrade to fix all the bugs in your version of AOL. This is optional and only valid for a few members so we sent this out in email. Don't worry though the download is fast and simple."

The download link originated somewhere deep within fortunecity.com.

A week later "Donna" from the "Office of the Chairman" used the same stevecase@aol.com address to reply to a rather bemused Net user.

"The letter in question is not legitimate," she said. "None of the statements are [sic] credible and we would urge you not to comply with its instructions in any way."

In light of AOL's recent security blunders it is somewhat worrying that it cannot protect the integrity of its CEO's own email address.

A spokeswoman for AOL in Britain denied the emails had been sent by Case and added that the Webco took "all security issues very seriously".

And she denied outright that AOL's system had been infiltrated, abused or hacked in anyway."

If you do get any emails with an attachment even if it seems like a trustworthy source its best to scan them for virus's just in case.

Source:The Register

AOL TV

By:Daniel @ 5:33:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

AOL is to sell set-top boxes so people can surf the internet from their TV.

Unfortunately it won't be available in the UK. But if its a success in America then we're sure they will launch it over here.

The interactive TV will allow sending of emails, instant messaging and chat.

The package includes a Philips Electronics set-top box, and a wireless keyboard or universal remote control.

When or if this product does launch in the UK people who do not own a computer and want to surf the net won't have to buy a computer just a set-top box.

Source:The Register

Callnet stops PAYS ports....

By:Ashley @ 2:26:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

News Item Remove

We reported on it well over a month ago.

BT Patents HYPERLINKS?!

By:mark @ 12:16:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We didn't notice this one yesterday, but an article over @ http://www.theregister.co.uk says that BT claims it owns the patent to hyperlinks. What the? Makes no sense but..:

"British Telecommunications (BT) claims it owns the patent to hyperlinks and wants ISPs in the US to cough up hard cash for the privilege of using them.

The monster telco believes a patent filed in 1976 - and granted in 1989 - proves it owns the intellectual property rights to those natty little devices that link Web content together.

The patent was lodged following work on text-based online information systems Viewdata and Prestel by the General Post Office (GPO) before it was split into the Post Office and BT.

BT believes it has a good case and has employed intellectual property experts, Scipher PLC, to fight its corner.

Dr Ken Gray, chairman of Scipher, told AFX: "On behalf of BT we are attempting to licence (hyperlink technology), and inviting licences to be taken out by ISPs in the States.""

None of this is really making much sense but what is clear is that BT do have a good case and that could make them billions! Technically that means we might all have to pay BT for the privilege of using/having a hyperlink? BT says, "not so":

"He said the company was only going to pursue ISPs and not individual users."

Well thank god for that, personally I just don't want BT to expand their commercialistic ideals the world over, but that's my own personal objection.

NTL Sort Out The Shortages

By:mark @ 11:00:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

NTL seem to be getting their act together as 'Dan' (one of our readers) was kind enough to point out. They sent him this very interesting update:

"Dear ntlworld customer,

I can now give you an update on when you will get free internet access from ntl. Our current schedule means that you should have to wait no later than 31.8.00, but network upgrades we are delivering now and over the coming weeks make me very hopeful that we will bring this date forward.

We continue to have some areas of the country, such as yours, where we need to increase our network capacity still further in order to make ntlworld available to absolutely everyone who has expressed an interest. We continue to send out up to 100,000 registration discs each month and are committed to bringing a truly free and high quality internet service to you and everyone in the UK who wants it.

It's only natural to want the best, and when the best things in life are free, everybody wants to be involved. Like wanting to see the latest blockbuster movie or drive the newest model of a car, it's often the case that sometimes there's a queue. In some neighbourhoods like yours, where demand has been very high, we have had to bring on customers to ntlworld on a week by week basis. This allows us to ensure that ntlworld, unlike some internet service providers, is a free, reliable, quality service for all users, anytime of day or night, any day of the week. A recent award for ntlworld from Practical Internet Magazine bears this out. As the service fast becomes the UK's leading internet service provider we will make sure it remains first class for you.

I will update you on our progress until you have a disc. In the meantime, I would ask for your co-operation in helping us to help you by contacting us only if you have another enquiry regarding our services, as our Customer Services team is unable to alter your disc delivery date. If, however, you do need to contact us regarding ntlworld disc dispatch please call the
helpline on 0800 952 4343.

I am truly sorry I cannot currently commit to get this service to you any sooner. Please bear with us and we will do everything humanly and technically possible to get you the benefits and savings of this pioneering new free service as soon as we can.

Yours sincerely,

Robin Melvin
Head of Communications"

So finally the sordid affair of actually getting your NTL software could finally be coming to an end. Wonder if all the extra subscribers will bog down the system more than it already is?

MS WindowsME GOLD

By:mark @ 10:08:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Although not directly related to ISPs, I am an official Microsoft Beta tester (they never listen to good suggestions you know, NEVER!) and am glad to hear that the next consumer version of 'MS Windows' (following on from 98SE) has finally gone GOLD:

"REDMOND, Wash. -- June 19, 2000 - Microsoft Corp. today announced that the development of the Microsoft® Windows® Millennium Edition (Windows Me) consumer operating system is complete and the product has been released to manufacturing. Windows Me is the latest version of the Microsoft operating system designed specifically for the home user. It improves the home computing experience by delivering enhancements in the areas of PC health, digital media, home networking and the online experience. Consumers will be able to purchase retail versions of Windows Me on Thursday, Sept. 14, 2000.

"By focusing principally on the needs of the home user, we were able to create a more simplified PC experience for first-time users while enhancing existing users' experiences by enabling new home-computing scenarios," said Paul Maritz, group vice president of the Platforms Strategy and Developer Group at Microsoft. "Windows Me supports our goal to evolve the Windows-based PC to continue to provide a rich and exciting user experience in the connected home.""

Some helpful advise from the man 'IN THE KNOW', WindowsME has some snazzy new graphical effects, but to be honest it's not much over 98SE =(. In fact it's a little like the 'Plus' pack was to Win95 all those years ago.

The slogan of 'It Just Works' could also mean 'It Might Work' or even 'It Barely Works', the O/S itself isn't really anything special unless you're a gamer. Win98SE/ME still benchmarks as the fastest gaming O/S on the market against MacO/S, BeOS, Linux etc.

As for stability, they haven't refined the memory management at all, so I'm sorry but it's still going to crash. All they did was fix up the DLL system a bit; it actually makes matters worse in some cases.

New LoveBug Strikes

By:mark @ 9:52:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Yahoo News has reported that a new LoveBUG E-Mail Virus derivative has struck around several parts of the world. Thankfully there's some good news:

"A new virus swept around the globe on Monday, infecting personal computers in Asia, Europe and the Americas, but lessons learned from the destructive "Love Bug" virus of early May limited the damage of the new software threat, experts said.

The Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT), a U.S. government funded computer security clearinghouse at Carnegie Mellon University, said the new software worm goes by the name "life_stages" and preys on users of Microsoft Internet Explorer browser software.

The virus, which is spread via e-mail, uses subject names like "Funny," "Jokes," and "Life Stages text" to entice users in to open a software attachment. Once opened, the virus automatically e- mails a copy of itself to random e-mail addresses in the user's global address book, as well as copying itself to computers linked to the PC via company networks.

An official at Symantec Corp.'s anti-virus research laboratory said that while the virus has the potential to be difficult and cause damage to computer networks, it was not as widespread as previous worms.

"It is like 'Love Bug' and 'Melissa' in terms of distribution though e-mail, but it hasn't gotten as wild and it is not going to delete your hard drive," said Patrick Martin, a product manager for Symantec anti-virus research centre. Earlier viruses had erased data on infected computer hard drives."

Well it's good to know that it's no great threat, perhaps the software developers for E-Mail apps will now take note a FIX THINGS.

Breathe Stop Subscriptions

By:mark @ 9:48:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

http://www.thematrix.org.uk has reported that Breathe (a fairly good freecall ISP) have stopped accepting new subscriptions for their £50PA service. Apparently their services are full for that package and they intend to launch some newer ones in the near future.

Good luck to them as Breathe.Net got off to a bad start, yet managed to recover quite well.

BT Refuse to Join a Meeting

By:zeon @ 8:08:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Derick Martin, World Online's MD has posted on The Scream! explaining how he tried to arrange a meeting between WOL, BT, COLT and I-WAY but BT said they will only meet with WOL:

"I am making this post to you as a plea of help from a respected user forum.

As you are all aware over the last few weeks we have again suffered from network problems.

Last week I asked BT to join in a all party meeting with Colt and I-way so that we could sit and discuss the issue and hopefully find a resolution to your problems.

Today, 19th June I received a call from our BT account manager stating that BT would not meet with the other parties, and would only discuss this with me, I clearly stated to BT that resolution would not be forthcoming unless all parties meet and were committed to the problem.

Due to the fact that the issue will go round and around unless they all meet, This way one party does not have the opportunity to shift blame.

The question is:

Why don't BT wish to discuss the call gapping issue with our suppliers ?

What is BT trying to hide?

How can we resolve this issue if they don't cooperate, Or maybe they just wait until you have had enough of the problem and return to BT instead.

Both I-way and Colt welcomed the opportunity to meet and discuss your problems.

The only way World online are going to be taken seriously by BT, and this issue resolved is by the backing of you our consumers.

Please mail your comments on the problems and issues you are experiencing with Call gapping to our BT account manager:

denis.langan@bt.com

Please send me a copy for OFTEL:
derick.martin@uk.worldonline.com

Or call your local BT service center to complain

Derick Martin"

The full thread can be found HERE

News - June 19,2000

Visual Depth hit with virus?

By:Ashley @ 9:18:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The guys over at Net4Nowt have brought to our attention that Visual Depth, the unmetered ISP, have been hit by the KAK worm.

If this is the case, any emails which they send could be infected by the worm, resulting in you "catching" the worm also. We therefore suggest that if you are a Visual Depth customer who receives emails from them, install a good anti virus program such as Norton Antivirus 2000 which will scan your emails for the file and eliminate it before it can affect you.

Please note that this worm does not need to be an attachment, it could be in the email itself.

I would like to take this oppurtunity to hope that the worm does not affect you, and to hope that Visual Depth can solve this problem with the least amount of hassle as possible.

Plus Net Go Live....

By:Ashley @ 8:19:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Firstly, I would like to apologise for the recent lack of updates made by myself, Ashley. This was due to my major GCSE exams at school, and as you probably know they are very time consuming, leaving no time for this site. However i have now passed through the exams, and have 11 weeks off school now, so I will update much more. Any way, back to the ISP news ;-)

It appears that Plus Net has gone live, and have accepted users, thanks to an email by Mark Ive, a visitor of ISP Review. They offer 4 packages for users, which include support for BT Surftime.

Plus Net seems promising, with a lot of nice features to seperate them from the bunch, including unlimited webspace for your free .co.uk along with a lot more.

I suggest you visit Plus Net now at www.plus.net

RedHotAnt Falling Down Again

By:mark @ 5:31:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Trying to judge what http://www.redhotant.com will do next is a little like throwing a feather on a windy day and predicting where it'll hit the ground, useless. Ever since Trading Standards stepped in, the RedHotAnt services have actually been quite good and many of its users were surprised (Since Friday ish).

Then since this morning (late Sunday to be exact) it's been starting to get worse again. Back to the foray of engaged tones? Who can say, but they still have this week and the next to make the changes, at least that's according to their last statement.

Although we'd certainly like to know why it was so much easier to connect on Sunday at peak usage times than it was today at the least used periods. Makes very little sense, but some helpful advise to ISDN users is to turn 128Multilink off because you get connected quicker then.

New Stuff @ ISPreview

By:mark @ 5:25:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We've just thrown up two new Internet Service Provider reviews, one of which has been in the pipe for so long it caused a blockage =):

CallNet0800:
http://www.ispreview.co.uk/reviews/callnet0800/

Dabsol:
http://www.ispreview.co.uk/reviews/dabsol/

Hope you enjoy the read, we'll get back to work on even more now.

Visual Depth Mailing List

By:zeon @ 3:50:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Simon has created a VD Mailing list. Here are the instructions on how to subscribe:

"I have created a mailing list for all bona fide Visual Depth subscribers that wish to share their experiences especially in the light of the new offer of 'no-cutoff' to new subscribers almost exactly the same offer made to original subscribers and later broken.

To subscribe send an email to listserv@objectivesw.co.uk with subscribe visualdepth_users in the body of the email.

Simon"

Demon ADSL Update

By:mark @ 1:34:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We already told people not long ago about Demon Internet Unmetered and their ADSL packages, still today http://www.theregister.co.uk has put in their 60cents:

"Demon Internet is to start offering broadband ADSL Net access from next month, the company formally announced today.

Prices for the always-on service start at £49.99 a month - a tenner more than the equivalent product form BTopenworld.

Installation costs start at £150.

Despite this price difference (it's staggering to think that BT is actually cheaper than its competitors for once) Demon is confident its service will attract users.

A spokeswoman for Demon was unconcerned about the price differential. We wouldn't have announced these prices if we thought they weren't competitive, she said in a round-about way."

Well with ISPs such as http://www.BTopenworld.com and http://www.vispa.net standing to undercut by £10-£20, we'd have to question that last bit of their statement. Still good luck to them all, the more use ADSL gets the further it'll spread and it might just make our HQ before the turn of the year 3000.

AOL Merger Investigated

By:mark @ 9:59:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Yahoo News is reporting that the European Commission is to launch an investigation into the AOL > Time Warner merger:

"The European Commission will launch a four month anti-trust investigation into the $124 billion (78 billion pounds) merger between Internet group America Online Inc and media giant Time Warner, The Times reported on Monday.

It reported EU competition officials were expected to tell the two U.S. groups on Monday they had opened a "second stage" anti-trust inquiry, despite possible competition remedies submitted by the two.

The Times said news of the inquiry, set to last until October, could have repercussions in Europe and the United States.

It would be a blow to British music group EMI which is forming a joint venture with Time Warner, a deal which the EU has already decided to investigate, the Times said.

It added the Commission was expected to say it would use AOL and Time Warner for studying the implications of tie-ups between Internet and media groups."

Let this be a lesson to businesses of 'Microsoft' or similar size, no matter what people say, when you get that big you can't be allowed to grow anymore. It's a good thing in some cases and a bad one in others, I'd move to England and give us all your customs =).

BT ADSL Openworld - Update2

By:mark @ 9:33:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Following on from our last http://www.btopenworld.com update, Ewok has once again been in contact with us. This time it's to do with the low game pings on ADSL compared to ISDN:

"Just got some more info from BT on ADSL, and the reasons for ADSL ping times being lower than ISDN. It turns out not to be some new protocol they have added, at least according to the reply I received:

"There is no new protocol for ADSL, a reason the ping times can be "bad" is because the ADSL connect is through a network. If you can imagine the service as a WAN, basically it is taking more "hops" to reach its destination than a standard internet connection."

Which I find a tad strange since I used to see people with 20 ping on adsl, now all I seem to see is 70."

Hmm the Internet could be described as a WAN (Wide Area Network), kinder clever and political statement if you ask us. Actually BT's statement is quite amusing:

"reason the ping times can be "bad" is because the ADSL connect is through a network"

Really? Like wow! Tell us something we don't know =). That combined with the WAN could almost be said for modems, ISDN and Cable Modems alike.

News - June 18,2000

General Page Updates

By:mark @ 11:55:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The Unmetered (FreeCall) ISP list has been updated with the last couple of weeks new and changed ISPs:

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/list.shtml

We've also updated the complaints page as usual and that has resulted in several interesting changes. For a start BTInternet is now the 'Most complained about ISP', then RedHotAnts complaints have been reset to 0 again after the recent changes.

We also reset EzeSurfs 'DNS Timeout' complaints to 0 as they seem to have disabled server side ISDN Compression which was guessed as being the big cause of problems.

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

Lastly, we'd like your help in trying to find out whether TheFreeInternet (Excite0800) and or LibertySurf have improved over the last two weeks. Please post comments on whether they have improved or not.

Demon Unmetered Details

By:mark @ 10:18:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Well good old Demon Internet have today sent us exclusive information on their forthcoming unmetered package:

"The full details follow, but the changes fall into three groups:

(a) Standard dial-up

There will be an additional phone number to reach Demon. This will
provide significantly reduced BT charges for daytime and evening
calling. NO extra payment will be required to make use of this
number, nor will any special registrations be required.

(b) Demon Premier Connect

There will be another phone number charged at an even cheaper BT
"Surftime" call tariff. This will be available for everyone to use
during the evening and at the weekends. NO extra payment will be
required to make use of this number, nor will any special
registrations be required.

If you make a fixed extra payment to BT then you can get a 100%
discount on Surftime calls. This would mean that your access through
BT to Demon would be "free" at these times, or, to use another
common term "unmetered".

(c) Demon Premier Connect Plus

In return for an extra monthly payment to Demon the Surftime numbers
can be used throughout the working day as well as during evenings
and weekends. Again, if you make a fixed extra payment to BT you can
get a 100% discount on some or all of your Surftime calls so that
they become "free".

** Please note that these new methods of access are initially only **
** available to users of BT telephone lines; but may also become **
** available through other telephone providers in the future. **

Demon wished to let its customers know about these new prices just as
soon as they were finalised. However, significant software and hardware
upgrades need to be put in place by both Demon and BT to allow us to
continue to offer our normal standard of service and performance for all
of our dial-up customers. This work is already in progress and is
scheduled to be completed during August 2000, following which we will
launch these new dial-up options.

BT also have some work to do on their own to be able to provide these
tariffs to all of their customers. Although they are already available
in some parts of the UK, they say that the entire country will not be
covered until December 2000."

Hmmm have Demon been wise in choosing BTSurftime now that FRIACO is on its way? It's difficult to say but either they haven't done market research or the project is too far along to turn back now. Either way they believe they can undercut the BTS prices so we'll wait and see.