June 10, 2000 - June 18, 2000

News - June 18,2000

ISPreview Weekly Update

By:mark @ 8:36:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Ah good, there hasn't been much news this weekend so we've all been relaxing and letting our usual jobs float on by =). I honestly can't even believe I'm up this early; all I can remember from last night is England winning and then copious amounts of beer disappearing inside me. Still back to the subject and what's up with ISPr.

Well with the new ranking system live and under test (already fixed some bugs) we can now concentrate on more articles, reviews as well as news. On top of that I'm working on a slightly changed main page with larger text and versions for PocketPC/WinCE owners. The 1024*768 ISPr version is also underway and should appear in August.

At the moment I'm in the middle of London for a business meeting and then it's onto France (yes I'll keep updating via Laptop/PPC/GSM Phone), I'll be back in July when it's off to Greece for my vacation. As for new staff, well we've narrowed the list down to 7 and are running a few tests to determine whom we can take and whom we can't.

That's about it for this week, since there's no news and it's hot then I suggest you all go outside and enjoy it, England isn't like this for long =).

News - June 17,2000

RedHotAnt Upgrade Status

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

We just received our weekly http://www.redhotant.com status update and it contains some details on the impending terminal upgrade:

"Continuing our policy of service upgrades we are pleased to confirm that our line and modem capacity is to be increased by 40%. This upgrade should be up and running in the next 2-3 weeks. This should eliminate many connectivity issues which some users are experiencing, particularly at peak periods. In addition, with the assistance of the companies involved, we are steadily resolving a number of interconnect and switching problems.

If YOU are a user experiencing connection problems, bear with us, we are doing everything in our power to give you first-class second-to-none, surfing."

So to translate, for the beginning of July RHA should be back on their feet. Strangely enough, despite their mixed up and nonsense PR way of blaming the users, at least RHA are actually keeping us up-to-date and doing something.

Lets just hope they don't make the mistake of adding more users just as the system begins to work again, wonder if BTI heard that?

News - June 16,2000

BTopenworlds contention ratio

By:mark @ 6:37:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

One of our readers whom likes to go by the name of 'Ewok' (He's small, fury and makes silly noises? =]) has been in contact with BTopenworld about the contention ratio on their ADSL system. I think anybody considering ADSL will find this interesting:

"Contention on BT Openworld is operated within the network, not at the customers access point, therefore the old dial-up problem of contention on access ports is never seen. The contention on the bandwidth (operated at 50:1) means that the bandwidth on each "path" through the network is shared to provide 50 connections with the max available bandwidth (500Kpbs) all of the time. Because not every connection used bandwidth at a constant rate,all of the time, the path can therefore be shared by more than 50 connections so that the peaks and troughs of use cancel each other out.

The max number of connections on a path is calculated on an "average" basis so that the applied contention makes maximum use of the available bandwidth whilst optimising perceived bandwidth on each connection. The result is that during peak times, some variance in performance may result.

I do hope this is of some assistance to you.

If you have any further problems or enquiries, please do not hesitate to contact us by calling the ADSL Enquiries Helpdesk on 0800 9179189."

A strait yet perhaps confusing answer that tries to doll up the fact you're still sharing a tiny amount of bandwidth among 50 people. Ewok was kind enough to put his ideals to clear things up:

"Looks to me like what they are saying is at peak times you'll be looking at a small fraction of the speed you should be getting. Not good for downloaders. I cant see the speed being anything decent during peak times, we all know how BT loves to oversubscribe by about 200%. According to what they are saying the 50:1 ratio is nothing to do with your local area but the bandwidth on each path through the btopenworld network. So what it looks like is that ANYONE is likely to have 50 or very close to 50 other connections using the same 512k of bandwidth on whatever paths on their network you are using.

As far as I know adsl ping times are also not very good, usually about 70ms+ since BT recently introduced a new protocol which added another 30ms to ping times. Not good for gamers."

Certainly interesting but excuse me if there are any mistakes as I'm out of time and have to rush back into work. Feel free to post your thoughts and comments; perhaps by the time ADSL gets to rural parts it won't be so bad?

Freeserve Sell Out Update

By:mark @ 6:22:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

http://www.theregister.co.uk has posted an update on the Freeserve takeover bidding from T-Online's perspective:

"Deutsche Telekom's Internet unit, T-Online, has dampened the bid frenzy for UK ISP Freeserve by announcing a joint UK venture with One2One, a fellow DT subsidiary.

One2One would not confirm that the companies were in discussions over a new service, but told The Guardian: "It is not unusual for both parties to talk to each other about various projects."

T-Online must remain the favourite to buy Freeserve, so it could well be into clever negotiating mode here. To date, the world+dog has assumed the company will pay up to 6 billion to acquire Freeserve. This is a huge premium on what the British ISP was worth before Dixons announced it was to sell the company.

By playing tough, T-Online may be able to ratchet the price down to more realistic levels. After all, it is not as if Freeserve has too many places to go. Also, this is the right time to sell this Pan-UK company. Next year, it will be worth much less."

There now seem to be several groups involved in the bid and competition is fierce, why only today ISPr put a bid of £5 in.

With such a low investment we believe that a crappy service with engaged tones and cut off periods is possible. By doing this we can streamline ourselves into an effective point of competition against other unmetered ISPs =).

Why offer more when you can give less, seems to be the motto of the day.

AltaVista Battles On

By:mark @ 6:14:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Well we don't know about you but all this legal mumbojumbo (who invented that word?) from AltaVista and TheFreeInternet group has got us completely confused. Perhaps http://www.theregister.co.uk can shed a little light:

"Originally, news of Alta Vista's plans to offer cheap, unmetered access to the Net hit the headlines around the 4th or 5th of March. What's now clear is that the service could have gone live the week before, but for "technical" reasons it didn't.

If this is the case and AltaVista had concerns about TFIG, then why did it proceed with a major PR offensive when it was fully aware it couldn't deliver?

What's more, why did Alta Vista's top man in the UK, Andy Mitchell, tell The Register that Alta Vista had no telco or ISP in place to support the service?

Yet according to TFIG, both companies had already signed a contract to offer the service.

Equally, what reservations did Alta Vista have about TGIF? According to a letter published in the High Court claim, AltaVista had fears "regarding quality and technical issues". It appears to have rapidly lost faith in TFIG's staffing levels and technical expertise.

But is this the true reason why AltaVista pulled back form the deal? And if so, why weren't these issued raised during negotiations? Or are there other forces at work?

Interest in AltaVista - and its virtual silence following its deafening launch - has grown exactly because there are so many unanswered questions.

Speculation over the past months about AltaVista has ranged from those who suggested the e-outfit was about to ditch its plans to offer an ISP, to those who maintained the March launch was merely a publicity stunt aimed at boosting interest in a float.

More recently, of course, it has found its voice again with the announcement that it is to offer Net access based on the wholesale unmetered product, FRIACO, at the end of the month.

Except now, Alta Vista has the threat of legal action hanging over its June 30th launch."

It'll be interesting to see who wins, although most people are more worried about whether a shiny new ISP will arrive come the 30th June.

BTInternet & Surftime Update

By:mark @ 6:10:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Those of you annoyed at http://www.btinternet.com for not providing a 'change to surftime' system will find this VERY good news (maybe?):

"In early June we notified you about the introduction of our new BT Internet with SurfTime option. If you are interested in changing to this option we are pleased to announce the facility to change your account is now available online.

If your telephone service is supplied by BT this new option will give you the opportunity to pay for BT Internet monthly through your BT bill. You will also benefit from free surfing hours, 6pm - 8am weekdays and all weekend until 8am Monday morning, giving you up to 504 surfing hours a month for just £9.99.

BT SurfTime is subject to availability, so before you make your decision find out if it is available in your area. To check availability and place your order with BT for SurfTime visit the BT Internet Home page and select the BT Internet now with SurfTime button. Or alternatively click here now

http://www.btinternet.com/product/surftime.shtml

After you've placed your order with BT for SurfTime then come back to the BT Internet Home page to change your BT Internet account. To ensure you don't lose any of your existing account features by changing to BT Internet with SurfTime, e.g. your BT Internet email address you must change your account via the 'my account' button on the homepage and then select 'How do I change my payment plan?' alternatively click here now

http://register.btinternet.com/cgi-bin/chprodbegin"

Well it's good to know those on BTI no longer have to wait until the end of summer to change their accounts. But will it be worth it?

Ezesurf Hacked

By:zeon @ 4:55:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Some reports that ezesurf had been hacked were floating around yesterday. It was hacked by a group calling themselves "noody
poo crew". Ezesurf have confirmed this with a post on their website:

"Welcome To Ezesurf

This Website Is Currently Unavailable, due to malicious damage caused to the server on the 15th June 2000.

Our technicians are working to resolve the situation and we hope to have normal service running shortly.

We apologise for any inconvenience that this may cause to our customers.

The Ezesurf Team"

Buggy Server & General Update

By:mark @ 9:12:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Sorry about the strange downtime with ISPr, there seems to be a bad link along the main backbone somewhere that keeps playing up and doing some really strange things. Maintenance is working on it but the problems are not frequent enough to pin down.

Also our VisualDepth investigation is almost concluded, we'll send the details to VD themselves first and give them time to put a proper response. Back to work for now...

BTOpenworld Update

By:mark @ 9:08:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

BT's ADSL arm BTopenworld has sent us a little status update on the progress of their services:

"BTopenworld latest rollout news

We will shortly be launching the multi-computer Ethernet product, so if you pre-ordered this we will be in contact soon to progress your order. The single-user USB launch will follow later in the summer. As you know BTopenworld is a revolutionary new way of accessing the Internet. We want to make sure that the service is a reliable and quality service so we are not going to connect more customers than the service can cope with.

Because you have pre-ordered you can rest assured that you are high up on the priority list to receive it and we will let you know when we can process your order.

During the trial our panel of trialists have been very impressed by the awesome speed BTopenworld delivers and they have highlighted how the content and applications have changed the way they use the internet . We're listening to their feedback and will be bringing you lots of video, audio and interactive content; useful services such as news, finance, weather and entertainment."

That's nice, but with such a high contention ratio the only service big city users are likely to see is that of the loading bar on IE or Netscape =). As for the rural crowd, face it guys, by the time we see ADSL the rest of the world will be living in space, no really! =)

News - June 15,2000

New VisualDepth Services

By:Daniel @ 6:39:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Visual Depth have announced that they shall launch a new unmetered package next to their exisiting one. The main advantage of this pakckage is that there are no cut-off periods, and unlimited email addresses, not forgetting a generous 100mb of webspace:

"We expect this to cost around £94.99 per year and £49.99 set up, monthly and quarterly subscriptions shall be available, however prices have not yet been decided for monthly and quarterly plans.

We will be closely monitoring the progress of this service and may then allow the plans to merge and therefore providing all customers with no cut off period. This will depend on performance of the service and how much abuse is caused. We are hoping that the extra fee will only attract people that actually need the no cut off period feature and not those who just want to abuse the network."

Source:Readers Email

RedHotAnt - Daily Telegraph

By:zeon @ 12:05:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The Telegraph has reported that Trading Standards are investigating RedHotAnt after they received a string of complaints about poor service levels. Here's the interesting bit of the article:

"Kevin Packwood, a director of RedHotAnt, blamed the problems on users who stayed connected to the service for too long. He said: "There is a novelty factor when people don't have to pay for calls. That will wear off." Mr Packwood said 5pc of RedHotAnt's members complained. The ISP is thought to have around 25,000 subscribers."

The full article can be found HERE

The same old story from RHA about the users using the service too much. They seem to forget about there cut-off. Hopefully now that trading standards are involved they might sit up and listen.

News - June 14,2000

Buzzline Refunds

By:mark @ 12:43:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The http://www.net4nowt.com crew have been in touch with Buzzline over complaints that subscribers have failed to receive any refunds. You may remember Buzzline as shutting up shop for a rather 'vague' reason last week, here's what they had to say:

"We are working through the many refunds we have undertaken to process as rapidly as possible.

The initial debit was an automated process, but refunds have to be manually keyed. This obviously takes longer.

We are doing all we can to keep the wait as short as possible."

Customers are supposed to now receive a refund by early July at the latest, although we'd say late July just to be safe =).

Readers Top 50 - Online

By:mark @ 12:36:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Wow after three weeks of near solid work we've finally got a new 'Readers Top List' up, this time it's 50 and not 20. The system has had some layout changes and extra features to make it simpler to use:

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/top50/top50.shtml

Some of the things added/changed:
-IP Protection (No more cheater/clone votes).
-ISPs now ranked by rating and NOT votes!
-More ordered layout.
-50ISPs Listed to vote on instead of 20!
-Editors Web Based Interface (only needed by me).
-Integrated Voting/Rating into the main page.
-Remote voting/stick code on a remote site and vote from there (Can be done but we won't use it).
-Last place status and up/down arrow (shows where an ISP was in the ranks before newest vote).

We hope you all appreciate the work we put into getting this new system online and enjoy using it as much as we did getting it to work =).

AltaVista Teams With ClaraNet

By:mark @ 9:42:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We didn't notice this one until our good friends @ http://www.barrysworld.com posted the news. Apparently AA has teamed up with ClaraNet in order to bring their 24/7 unmetered package to light.

"AltaVista`s unmetered internet access service has moved a few steps closer with the news that they are scheduled to launch the service on the 30th of June for a annual fee of £51 (+VAT). They`ve teamed up with ClaraNet to provide the connectivity and hope that as a result of this announcement, 50% of the UK population will be online within six months."

You can pre-signup HERE, quite how Clara can or are helping AA is not yet known but we should find out soon.

Obviously some people are going to be worried that this will put a serious hole in Clara's performance, however both AA and CN were looking at FRIACO, so it's unlikely this will have such a huge impact on their systems directly.

The real question now is, what kind of packages are Clara themselves going to introduce? Here's hoping for a cheaper GamerZone with more extended hours =). I'd pay £50 a month if it meant not cut-offs and 128Kbps ISDN hehe, but I tell you that enough these days.

System Upgrade - Update

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

The upgrade went well, although I'm going to have to wait until the VOS32 fan from http://www.overclockers.co.uk arrives before I can go higher. At the moment I've got my Athlon to 935Mhz Stable, any higher and stability is somewhat iffy.

Also our friends at http://www.ninjamicros.com (people that make the O/C card) have found that over 1,000Mhz seems to cause a serious drop in performance. So far it looks like 990Mhz is the best you can get on the 750, but that's pretty damn sweet at any rate.

In the process I also purchased four micro fans for the Ram heatsinks on my GeForce2 and one BIG for the main CPU to replace the lousy excuse already there. If you're not following any of this tech speak then just ignore it. This is a general update that only the real techys are going to understand =).

Anyway now my GeForce2 has a core of 210Mhz (Memory is the bottleneck on the GF2, not CPU, remember that!) and Ram to 370Mhz, I can tell you this is one fast beast. Any drawbacks to all this? Yes, it's bloody noisy with so many fans!

News - June 13,2000

ConnectFREE Update

By:mark @ 7:17:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

http://www.net4nowt.com have an update on the price structure for http://www.connectfree.co.uk :

"We have now more information on the prices for their off-peak package. They will be using the BT Surftime package and will cost a total of £9.99 per month. £5.99 will be charged to BT telephone bill and the remaining £4 will be paid using your credit card."

So that makes five BTSurftime ISPs that have actually gone ahead, however we are still waiting to see whether any offer anything we haven't seen before. So far they've just offered the same but with more restrictions and a higher price, not good, not good at all (bar evening and weekend packages, they are ok).

PlanetInferno Investigate Unmetered

By:mark @ 6:59:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Ben from over @ http://www.planetinferno.co.uk (Place to go if you want Ezesurf news or other..) has added an interesting and short summary of the more well known unmetered ISP packages. Somewhat similar to what we've already done, but a fresh and unique view none the less, give it a look.

System Upgrade

By:mark @ 6:52:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Looks like my new Athlon CPU has arrived so I'll be replacing and overclocking it to 1,000Mhz+ (1Ghz). In case you're wondering it's an Athlon750 with an 800Mhz core, my current K7-650Mhz (750Core) reaches 850 with a 220Mhz FSB (110Single Channel).

However thanks to this new motherboard, huge VOS heatsink+fan and a lower cache setting on the 750, 1,000Mhz+ has already been proven to work with this level of chip. Be warned, this is what happens when you try to keep up with technology and sustain a mild addiction =) hehe.

IGClick Unmetered ISP

By:Ross14 @ 4:04:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

It's been a busy week no doubt with more unmetered net access providers, and there's another one to add to the list!

IGClick from IG Systems is going live on the 19th June. For £30 per year and a one-off subscription fee of £50, IGClick will provide you with 24/7 unmetered net access, as many e-mail addresses as you need and an unlimited file transfer size facility, a telephone help Line available 24 hours, 7 days a week charged at local rates, 25mb of webspace, and, wait for it, 128k ISDN connection support!

Subscription to the service is limited to 200,000 members.

You can pay via debit/credit card or if you prefer direct debit. But they do not have online sign-up facilities, so to register you can ring 0845 601 2583 or download a direct debit form from their site.

Source: Net4Nowt

Freechariot Unmetered

By:mark @ 9:44:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Yet again our friends at the http://www.net4nowt.com crew have seized the information on another unmetered ISP http://www.freechariotnet.net , accept there's a catch, you have to change Telco for 24/7 =(:

"There is a registration fee of £15 and the first month line rental of £12.99. This comes to £27.99 plus VAT (£32.89). After a year the registration fee is refunded to spend on-line. The telephone calls are also 15% cheaper than normal BT rates.

Freechariot, a subsidiary of Desyntec Limited, also impose a 90-minute cut-off period. The first 5,000 members also receive 6,000 share points, which are projected to be worth £600 after conversion to shares."

90minutes, that's 1hour 30mins to your average Joe surfer =). However amongst the sea of freecall ISPs that DON'T ask you to move Telcos and offer better deals, how will FC fair we wonder?

TheFreeInternet On The UP?

By:mark @ 9:39:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

In a turn up for the books the http://www.net4nowt.com crew have been reporting that http://www.thefreeinternet.net (Excite 0800) seems to be improving. We've also heard from several people along the same lines, that despite their drastically limited services, things are indeed getting better:

TFI Managing Director Christopher Whalen said: "Unlike other UK Internet Service Providers offering 0800 access, we are not limiting the uptake of members. Our chief technology partner, Cisco Systems, have installed new access paths and other systems that will give us the most modern ISP platform in the UK with sufficient capacity to host over three million users. Even at this large level of users, we will still have a very low number of registered users per network modem, giving our members a highly reliable, fast Internet connection".

Good news all round then? Well perhaps not, you still can't download large files, play multiplayer games, watch or listen to streaming audio/video and avoid that nasty 1hour cut off among other things.

But at least Excite offer a good general speed of service thanks to their limits and perhaps those 'millions of subscribers' will take the burden off ISPs like RedHotAnt for awhile =)

Plus.Net Update

By:mark @ 9:32:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Hopefully this should be the last update on http://www.plus.net and the next will be one saying 'they have launched'. Subscribers have STILL failed to receive their activation E-Mails as BT have been unable to get the much needed hardware to PN.

No dates have been set and what's more, BT deals with new Surftime registrants on the 27th of every month, so how can you get online until then we ask? Also there is a 2hour cut off on EVERY account (bar 0845) and yes you do have a 250mb a day transfer limit/500 business.

Also 128Kbps ISDN won't be supported on the +Biz package until BT decide it's time to get their heads of out their A@#&&. Not to mention no streaming audio or video will be allowed, as so many have already commented, if this is the shape of BTSurftime ISPs then what's the point?

Vispa Update

By:mark @ 9:27:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

You may remember the Vispa ISP as announcing to us their intention to go unmetered some time back. They also planned to offer ADSL services in the near future. Whilst talking on a slightly different subject matter they snuck in a sly update:

"Unmetered is going fine, really we could release now as phone lines, backbone, server upgrades have all taken place and completed, however we recent changes from Oftel we now feel there is the chance to lower prices for customers and are waiting for a couple of weeks to see what's going to happen. What I can tell you is that we have no plans to use a Surftime system after many meeting with BT. We just don't feel that this is the best future proofing method for ourselves or users.

However I can confirm that we will be launching on June 29th our Business ASDL solutions (BT switches on Home services a little later for all ISP's). These are based on BT's S500, S1000 and S2000 models. I not sure if you aware but Business ADSL models allow more than one computer to be connected to same connection, eg: business LAN or people at home who connect more than one PC, while home system allows only one connection via a USB external box. Our Business models are priced at very agreesive and we know that on the cheaper end of 512k model (S500) that we will be cheaper than BT by £15 a month."

Another ISP that intends to use the FRIACO system? Possibly. If Vispa can't make a better service than 24/7Freecall did yesterday, nobody can. All those signed up under our own 'ISPr Online' should be given the choice of upgrading to an enhanced unmetered package based on FRIACO (we work with Vispa remember).

Perhaps the biggest news here is offering ADSL £15 cheaper then BT! That's REALLY cheap considering BT offers the cheapest package directly anyway. Still we'll wait and see what happens, if it is indeed that cheap then standard freecall ISPs will be in for serious competition.

News - June 12,2000

WOL + BT Interconnect Problems

By:zeon @ 8:44:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

After Speaking with World Online’s IT Department I have put this together:

Explanation of Problems With WOL

Basically the problem lies with the switches on the exchange. Problems are created when switches are overloaded with numbers that have to be routed to a certain area for example COLT that is in London. At an exchange in reading there might be 10,000 calls going trying to get through to COLT at anyone time. Once the switch reaches a capacity which is set by BT (explained later) the switch starts call gapping that means it will let n in n calls through at any one time. Call gapping also stays on until the BT engineers decide to turn it off so once its switched on it will still only let n in n calls through at 3:00am.

BT can also dynamically allocate the amount of calls going through one switch for example the reading switch will let 10,000 calls through and the Coventry switch lets 20,000 calls through. If the reading switch kept reaching its limited but the Coventry switch was under capacity BT can then allow 15,000 through on each switch, which solves the problem. This is why some of you might have problems one day but not the next.

To solve this BT are gradually going through and installing an IP network which will only carry IP traffic rather than voice which means connections will be first time as call gapping will disappear and extra capacity can be switched to switches which aren't totally IP yet. Hopefully this can be all done soon. This problem currently effects all ISP's even those with mulitple connection points such as energis but on a smaller scale to the WOL problem.

Note: We think this is correct but if you spot any errors or corrections that need to be made please post them in the comments.

NTL Unmetered Fiasco

By:Ross14 @ 7:16:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Are you still waiting for your ntlworld CD-Rom? Then read on as you may be in for some even more bad news:

"Frustrated NTL customers may have to wait until September before being connected to the telco's unmetered internet service, NTL executive Jerry Roest revealed today.

In an interview with BBC Breakfast News this morning, Roest, managing director of NTL's product development, said it would take the company between two and three months to clear the backlog of registrations for its ntlworld service, launched on 17 April.

ntlworld offers NTL cable customers unmetered internet access included in the price of phone rental. Non-NTL customers signing up to the service must buy a line adaptor for £10 and spend at least £10 a month on non-internet calls.

Many subscribers, however, are still waiting for the registration software to arrive and some existing NTL customers are furious that new customers have received software ahead of them.

NTL - whose slogan is 'technology, tamed' - said it has had more than 600,000 registrations for the service, has prioritised existing customers, and is currently working on adding new customers on an area-by-area basis to ensure its network and helpdesk can cope.

The company also said those waiting for the registration software would receive a letter this week telling them when they will get the software - to the nearest month."

So there you have it. NTL are being adamant about this, so you're just gonna have to wait. And to end on an even lower note, NTL say that there will be no goodwill gestures, or compensation (in any form) whatsoever. =(

Source: Vnunet

RedHotAnt Engaged Tones Update

By:mark @ 3:19:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

http://www.redhotant.com have been in contact with us directly today in order to help explain some of their recent problems in more detail:

"Sir,

There is a physical PRI interconnect issue between all the BT interconnecting telecom companies at present.

We have plans to further increase dial-up capacity, we already have the hardware installed and waiting to go, we are just awaiting the PRI's from WorldCom. They tell us these additional lines will be live within the next 3-4 weeks, that's the best they can do.

At present we are running at no more than a modem to user ratio of 9 to 1, this is more than comparable to some other leading ISP's.

Regards"

To sum things up, it sounds like an early July date for their modem upgrades (adding of new terminals), but nothing more specific. Hopefully this should clean up all those nasty engaged tones once and for all, hopefully.

Also their 9:1 (modem:people) ratio is indeed more than comparable to some leading ISPs, however most 24/7 freecall ISPs are operating on a ration closer to 5:1. FreeCall ISPs are used some 75% more then standard ones for obvious reasons.

Perhaps the biggest reason for there being so many engage tones is some selfish individuals whom are giving their account details to friends. We'd like to see RHA implement CLI blocking so that only one phone number can be used, freecall ISPs simply aren't ready for anything more (too greater demand).

*Update*
PRI is a large connection similar to T1 (but alot bigger) with alot of calls going to/from it.

Telia Goes Unmetered - Updated

By:mark @ 1:43:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

http://www.theregister.co.uk is reporting that little know ISP 'Telia' has announced an unmetered package based on the FRIACO foundation:

"Telia is to offer unlimited flat-fee Net access in the UK.

The Scandinavian telco has teamed up with a British VISP to offer the service for £24.70 a month.

24/7 FreeCall makes no apologies for the cost of the service and claims that if people want a reliable service they must be prepared to pay for it.

Gary Allsopp, Chairman of 24-7 Freecall, said: "Our focus is on creating a tailored service for a limited number of people who are interested in new technologies and want the peace of mind of complete reliability.

"We are not the cheapest, however, as users of unmetered services are discovering, if an ISP is making a loss on free calls it will be unable to invest in an adequate technological infrastructure.

"Ultimately, you get what you pay for," he said.

The service provider said it will adopt the unmetered wholesale Net access product, FRIACO, when that becomes available.

Telia has invested more than £2 million in its Net access platform and 24/7 Freecall claims to offer one of Europes lowest contention ratios for an ISP.

This means that users will have "no difficulty in assessing the service even during busy times of the day", it boasts. We shall see."

Yes we shall indeed, it'll be interesting to see whether these new FRIACO based ISPs are a step in the right direction or will still contain those nasty cut-off periods and 64Kbps ISDN limits.

This news item has been updated with a fixed press release.

General Update

By:mark @ 9:43:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Since there isn't any news so far today I'll take this time to let you know I'll be away from the 4th July > 12th. I'm off to Greece where several others and myself plan to commandeer a flotilla (renting sailing boat) for a cruise around Greece.

We will of course be packing the obligatory Counter-Strike Satellite connected laptop (MUST HAVE!) for on-line play =). No not really, but we can dream. Hopefully the new staff and the current ones will be able to cover and I'll make sure to leave a few articles to go up whilst I'm away.

Back to work for now and if you happen to be in Greece at 'Spartia' then watch out for some crazed fools sinking yet another catamaran =).

News - June 11,2000

Complaints Updated

By:mark @ 11:33:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Looks like we forgot to upload one of the updates last week, so its been a little still since then. However we've just updated and uploaded an even newer version:

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

New in this week is VisualDepth, whom last week disabled their technical support because too many were calling them about none technical support issues. However this has left those who paid VD money without the ability to finalise their accounts, most complaints centred on that.

RedHotAnt has broken the complaints record; last week alone brought 50 unique complaints and pushed its number up to 66 total! Thus it's now the most complained about ISP. As a final note we'd like to ask people to view our complaints page and let us know if any of the problems for their respective ISP(s) have been resolved.

We are aware that 'TheFreeInternet' may have resolved some of its problems and that EzeSurf is fixing their phone lines, but are any of your problems resolved?

Ping Tutorial

By:Daniel @ 11:23:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Thanks to Maniac for this email.

"I've updated my ping tutorial at www.planetmaniac.co.uk with more tweaks that tweak the new Half-Life netcode. The updated tutorial now includes more tweaks such as stringing init strings together and capping your modems connection speed to maximize your modems throughput, and therefore getting a better ping. This method is used by the internet gaming modem.

The tutorial helps tweak ANY connection. e.g the ping tutorial will tweak 56 modems, ISDN, cable modems etc. As far as I know this ping guide is the ONLY guide that REALLY makes a difference, and there are quotes on PlanetManiac to back this up."

Its a very good tutorial and we recommend you read it.

ISPreview Weekly Update

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

Ah yes another Sunday and a hot one at that, guess it means time for a swim in the pool and a bathe in the sun. Still before all that we'd better let you know what's going on here @ ISPreview.

Next to issues such as the VD investigation and the adding of new staff, ISPreview has been pretty occupied. We are getting ready to launch the new 'Readers Top50' section with a fixed up voting system and also changing the design of various pages.

However the thing that's taking the most time to complete is easily the 'larger font' version of ISPreview for those in ULTRA-RES (love it!). We also have several different ISPr formats for WAP, PocketPC, AvantGO and some others in the works.

The real problem with all of the above has to be time, I simply don't have enough to spare and thus can only do small degrees of work a day. Everybody needs me to be doing this or that and there's never enough time to do it all, so please excuse me if I can't reply to all E-Mails etc.

That aside and I'm off for a damn fine game of CounterStrike, the new HL patch has made the game ten times better!

NTL Aim For Freeserve

By:mark @ 10:00:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

In the on-going saga of 'who will takeover Freeserve', Yahoo news has updated on the situation from NTLs perspective:

"NTL, one of the country's largest cable television operators, is the favourite to bid for Britain's largest Internet Service Provider, Freeserve, the Sunday Telegraph said.

British retail giant Dixons plans to sell its 80 percent stake in the ISP for about 6 billion pounds.

"A takeover by NTL would give Freeserve a lifeline by providing it with broadband technology," the newspaper quoted an industry analyst as saying. "The idea is to package Internet entertainment and telephony all in one bundle."

Europe's largest ISP, T-Online, is seen as most likely to win the race for Freeserve, backed by its parent company, Deutsche Telekom AG, which is armed with about $94 billion to make acquisitions."

NTL are a company situated inside a micro-universal paradox, we can never work out whether they are good or bad. When somebody complains we get a ton more like it, but we also see an equal amount backing the company.

Still, so long as whoever wins manages to give us better services then that's fine by us.

IHG Update

By:mark @ 9:53:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

I noticed this myself yesterday when talking on the phone to the team behind IHG (Internet Hyper Gate) about another issue, however http://www.net4nowt.com have been the first to actually report on it.

Lets avoid the quotes and just do an update; we originally gave the exclusive on IHG and how they planned to offer UK wide cheap satellite access. Thousands signed up and there was a scandal over their signup security system.

Then a couple of months back the IHG project changed, they decided that to supply cheap satellite (mostly free) access to urban and rural areas would make the service slower than a 336 modem =(. As such they will now offer CABLE MODEM access to urban areas (like Telewest) and satellite to rural ones.

No dates have been set, although we were told that the system could potentially make it into action come Christmas 2000, yet they pointed closer into 2001 as more reliable. We look forward to IHG, although for we rural goers, it just seems to be yet another delayed service =(.

News - June 10,2000

Are AOL going unmetered?

By:Ross14 @ 11:29:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Thanks to "Brian" for emailing us some information about AOL's unmetered plans.

From the 26th June, AOL are to ditch the 1p per min "off-peak all the time" plan and in it's place, offer a £9.99 24/7 0800 package.

There is no official confirmation of this yet, but we are awaiting the confirmation via an AOL press release.

Cableinet Update

By:Daniel @ 8:24:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Cable Internet as you know have had a problem but they have just posted this update:

"The splicing team are also continuing to affect a repair to the damaged cable and we have been told that it should be fixed within two hours."

Finally they are sorting it out...but even if its fixed tonight it still won't be back to how it was till tomorrow because the router has to re-learn all its routes.