April 27, 2000 - May 3, 2000
News - May 3,2000
Further Help for WOLT Customers... + Possible DSL
By:zeon @ 9:09:PM -
- SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Screaming @ World On-Line
By:mark @ 6:13:PM -
- SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
The site we all know as 'The Scream', a kind of information source and watchdog for the 'Screaming.Net' ISP has made yet more headway. We think any such users of this ISP will find their latest press release very interesting:
"PRESS RELEASE
Screaming at World Online pays off
On-line user power causes telecom giant to re-think
World Online is sending out letters to previous customers of Localtel (which it acquired earlier this year). The letters offer former Localtel customers the chance to retain the free off-peak Internet calls which they enjoyed under Localtel*s screaming.net ISP.
WOL had previously offered these customers the choice of its Freedom 24 service, which gives 24hr free Internet connection, for an increased line rental of £14.99 per month, or a telephone-only service at the basic BT line rental of £9.25 per month with Internet calls charged at local rate.
Users of The Scream! (an independent user group for users of free-time ISPs) expressed the view in their discussion forums that not everybody was happy with this change to the service. The Scream! began as a forum for screaming.net customers, and many of its users had chosen screaming.net for its free-time off-peak Internet in return for transferring their telephones to Calls and Access provider Localtel. Although it was recognised that Freedom 24 was a reasonable option for those wanting 24/7 free-time Internet access, many people with full-time jobs were not interested in daytime surfing and were unwilling to pay the extra £68.88 per year demanded for Freedom 24 in order to maintain their current service. In fact, Trading Standards offices suggested World Online could well be acting illegally in charging a termination fee to customers who did not wish to accept such a change in terms.
The Scream! (http://www.thescream.f9.co.uk) mounted a campaign to keep the free off-peak access, and encouraged people to use the feedback page on WOL*s website to let the company know their opinions.
The pressure has borne fruit. The Scream! has seen a copy of a letter which is being sent out offering to retain the existing deal, letting users register their preference at the WOL website and continue screaming. Unfortunately for WOL, and the screamers, the change of heart might be too late. Many customers took the previous intractability of WOL as an instruction to vote with their feet and have arranged for their telephone lines to be transferred back to BT, having signed up for another free-time ISP.
WOL seems to be well aware of the need to placate its angry customers. Its customer services staff have begun to call people back to sort out continuing issues. A dedicated e-mail box has been set up to deal with the many outstanding billing problems which WOL and its customers are experiencing. And WOL Telecom managing director Derick Martin has suggested setting up a customer forum and is himself taking part in the discussions on The Scream! in order to improve communications."
So a good result so far, we didn't read it all as in places it's a little bulky but it's a good thing sites like 'The Scream!' exist.
PS"Sorry for the small font, but it was a BIG PR"
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Another RHA Update
By:mark @ 12:31:PM -
- SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
RedHotAnt have done a service update on their site yet again, some quite interesting news here:
"Please Note when signing up to RedHotAnt your account will not be activated until 2nd June 2000, This is to allow for structured upgrades to our system to further avoid users experiencing congestion problems.
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."
The feeling with most users from RHA is that this action should have been taken several weeks ago, instead of letting the service degrade more and more. Thanks to 'Glenn' for the news, the man with an interesting comment for everything =)
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ClaraNet Extend Trials
By:mark @ 12:26:PM -
- SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
As many of you will know, ClaraNet launched their new freecall packages on the 2nd of May. This should have meant that all trialists regardless of 'start dates' would have been instantly changed to the new 'limited' systems. However because Clara were a little late with their E-Mail, trialists times have been extended another week:
"You are receiving this email because you are currently a Claranet Customer on the FT Unlimited package which was launched about three months ago on a trial basis.
This trial has now come to an end. A new three month trial is starting from today and the following changes are being made to the account you are on:
- the name of the account is being changed to FreeTime Gamezone
- the 2 hour cutoff is being dropped
- the price is not changing
- the times of the day during which all calls are free is being changed to
6pm - 2am weekddays and all weekend
These changes take effect immediately - however because this mail is a little late we have decided to extend the original free dialup times for a further week - the new times will take effect from Tuesday 9th May."
Interesting, especially since we switched to the new 'FT Unlimited' and not gamerzone around a week ago, guess there mailing system isn't so hot. It's worth pointing out that if you did switch like we have to the new 'FT Unlimited' and didn't stay with the current one, then your next billing date is the date you actually start the new system and thus times.
Still at least we have a few more days where there are more connection hours, someday Clara will come up with a 24/7 we're sure of that =), perhaps this NEW '3month trial' will take us up to the 24/7 one, long time =(.
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E-Mail Remind Me
By:mark @ 10:50:AM -
- SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
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I made a promise sometime back that I'd give a mention to a special site, it's called http://www.emailremind.co.uk/home.htm and works much like a diary of contacts. You can have the system E-Mail you to remind of something you should be doing or have done, clever eh?
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Telewest (Surfunlimited) Update
By:mark @ 10:35:AM -
- SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
The Telewest Surfunlimited site has had a nice little status update that might explain some of the problems people have been having, SOME of the problems:
"2nd May, 2000 7:18PM
We are experiencing problems with a router in Croydon which will be affecting connectivity to the servers based there ( webcache server and the Blueyonder home page ). This will also be affecting certain UK and international sites where traffic is routed through Croydon.
A Network engineer has been informed and is currently working on the problem. We hope to have an update soon."
Quite a lot of people are routed through the 'Croydon' centre, hopefully fixing those issues might at least help to alleviate some of the SERIOUS problems Telewest are having with their unmetered ISP.
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Oftel On Telephone Bills
By:mark @ 10:28:AM -
- SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Thanks to Barrysworld for informing us that 'Oftel' have published an interesting report on the 'average residential customers telephone bill'. In case you have been living in a cave surrounded by only penguins, Oftel are the Telephone regulator/Watchdog, so they keep the likes of BT in check.
It makes for an interesting read if you can actually get the page to load and you can see it all HERE, enjoy.
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RedHotAnt Update
By:mark @ 10:17:AM -
- SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Just to re-cap, as many of you will know this is the 'make or break' week for RedHotAnt, if they can't sort their biggest problems now then customers will get even more fumed. As a reminder of their original quote:
"Again, to keep all our customers happy, we are upgrading our modem connectivity hardware between 2nd - 5th May 2000; we would have liked to have done this earlier but the hardware suppliers just could not deliver and install any quicker. This should resolve 90% of the connectivity problems users are seeing and we thank you for your patience while we perform this upgrade."
It's the 3rd now and so far we haven't noticed any improvement, personally we hope their modem rack also includes ISDN because we can barely get connected with that as well. However quite how this will resolve their more serious 'Technical Support' problems (barely anybody can get a reply or refund) and 'Login Authentication Drop-Outs' nobody knows.
In fact we can often get connected but it'll just stay in the 'authenticate' cycle before dropping us, this seems more a problem with their software rather than hardware. However with 2 and a half days to go, anything can happen and often does =).
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Site Updates
By:mark @ 10:11:AM -
- SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Not much in the way of news today or yesterday for that matter, so we took the time to get our monthly updates on-line. This months 'Worst ISP' is of course, RedHotAnt, while the 'ISP Of The Month' goes to Excite's 0800 service. Excite along with EzeSurf has now become one of the better unmetered ISPs in terms of service at least.
We've also added a new survey and put the old ones results up for all to see, the new one asks the question "What operating system do you use?". We could also use some reader help as we are trying to compile an article for each Operating system on how to get on the Internet with that specific O/S. They are basically simple 'Logon Guides', one for Windows9x and others for Mac O/S and BeOS etc.
Basically what we need are screenshots and simple descriptions from each stage of 'getting on-line' with any specific O/S. We can obviously do Win9x and perhaps BeOS, but not the rest as Linux comes in so many different forms and nobody has an up to date Mac system here =). Any help would be appreciated.
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News - May 2,2000
ISPreview Updates
By:mark @ 1:02:PM -
- SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
As you can no doubt see by now, we have made some slight layout and design changes again. For a start that space taking top-middle table has been taken out and replaced by a simple table layout, this was done as many readers felt it took up too much space, we agreed. We've also automated the 'Old Survey/Poll' output and put that on-line down to your right.
On top of all that there have been some other more minor layout changes, but no point in mentioning those, as they really are small. We hope these changes help to solve some of the concerns a few of you had, we certainly prefer it without that BIG middle table above the news =). Hehe now you can actually see the news at the top.
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C.U.T on ADSL & BT
By:mark @ 10:09:AM -
- SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
The Campaign for Unmetered Telecommunications(C.U.T) has posted a response article to BT's recently introduce 'openworld' and also about OFTEL and unbundling the local loop. It's an interesting read but nothing we didn't already know, just general info (click the above link):
"The release date is 29 June 2000. BTopenworld is not the first commercial broadband Internet service for home users in this country, as ntl: and Telewest have begun to roll out cable modems in their franchise areas, but BT has evidently changed tack and decided to offer the service widely and quickly.
Not clear at the moment is what other Internet Service Providers considering ADSL, such as Demon and Direct Connection, will do. At the moment anyone wanting to offer ADSL buys a wholesale broadband product from BT then adds their own services on top; will others be able to price their own services at an initial loss, as BTopenworld is doing?
On Friday 28 April, OFTEL announced that BT has formally agreed to accept a new condition on its license. This mandates unbundling of its local loop so that, by 1 July 2001, BT will be obliged to rent lines to other telecommunications operators and to give them access to install equipment in its exchanges. This will provide direct competition for BTopenworld, with organisations other than BT offering wholesale broadband products for anyone interested to take up."
As I always mention in conjunction with ADSL, nice idea but when are the rural muffins going to get our bands on some broadband lovin =)?
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Good Unmetered?
By:mark @ 9:47:AM -
- SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
If there are any users of 'TheFreeInternet' (Excite) out there, then could they please contact us and let us know how the service is. We haven't heard any complaints so far and would like to investigate their ISP for review and performance. In fact we have even heard some good reports, but only two and that's not enough. Leave your comments as usual.
On a side note, would you prefer it if we shrunk (height) the top blue box in the middle a bit. It does what we want however news always looks better when you can see it straight off.
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EzeSurf Support Problems Continue
By:mark @ 9:42:AM -
- SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Despite EzeSurf recently proclaiming that their support has now been upgraded and fixed, we are still hearing numerous complaints about not getting E-Mail (if it even works) replies and the inability to get through via phone. Seems to be a common trend with new unmetered ISPS, but what's most unacceptable is that almost all of them use 'Premium Rate' support numbers. So by offering you a poor service they make money, pretty clever eh?
You should never be charged for trying to sort out a serious problem that's stopping you from using the service; we disagree with this practice among ISPs. Hopefully Eze will finally be able to end this bad practice soon and get back to being a good all round ISP. In fact we were going to make them 'ISP of the month', however you have to be good all round for that so they just missed.
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News - May 1,2000
Vispa build for the future
By:Ross14 @ 5:24:PM -
- SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Vispa have been emailing members with their regularly monthly newsletter today, but there are a few paragraphs of information that might concern all internet users:
Vispa - The Future
We are well aware of your concerns over future Internet in the UK with the new buzz words floating around, however rest assured Vispa Internet will also be in a position to offer these new services to our members in the coming weeks.
We have already started to build a dedicated network to handle these new services such as Unmetered, ADSL and Satellite Connection services, as well as maintaining current packages, all been tailored for everyone's pockets. WAP based services are also in production for users who wish to make more use of new generation mobile phones.
However we don't intend to rush in and make a huge mistake with these new services, as everyone in the industry is very much still on a learning curve, it simply would not be wise to act in such a manner, those who do will simply be rewarded with bags full of problems.
It don't pay to be first!!!...
...And it certainly doesn't. Some great words from Vispa there and they look as if there building up to offer some great services in the coming weeks.
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Server Upgrade Problems
By:mark @ 10:39:AM -
- SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Our server upgrade has been delayed because the server admin wanted us to do the move ourselves, we might as well change hoster if we are going to be asked to do that. Such a workload could take up to a month to complete and work on ISPreview directly takes priority. As such we won't be moving until the sites can all be moved over safely.
Hopefully the server admin can find a better way to 'upgrade' us without loosing all our file attributes and formats (Binary/ASCII) in the move. Re-doing such attributes for over a thousand files manually isn't likely to be possible right now. This has also put the potential launch of 'Hosting Review' on permanent hold; I can't possibly deal with such a workload at this time of the year.
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Shares with Ezesurf?
By:Daniel @ 12:14:AM -
- SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
I have just found this about Ezesurf on alt.internet.providers.uk.free
When you sign you pay for the SHARES and not internet access, as the 24/7 access is a free thing to shareholders. So if the service becomes slow and you can't connect you CAN'T ask for your money back, because the access was free, you just brought some shares.
However if you pay for internet access and you get slow speeds can't
connect etc, you can ask for your money back if they will not give you it you can go to Tranding Standards. Because the service you brought goes against the Sale of Goods Act 1979, as it is not merchantable quality and not fit for purpose. This is against the law and therefore you will get your money back from the company.
So really you buy shares (or web hosting if you go to eze surf) then they don't have to give a service and can also cut the free access at any time they want and you can't get your money back. As long as you have web hosting or the shares you have got what you paid for.
So if you have problems you cannot report them to trading standards. So far SurfSaver hasn't had any bad problems yet but be warned.
Source:alt.internet.providers.uk.free
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News - April 30,2000
Visual Depth Hosting
By:Daniel @ 11:48:PM -
- SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
We have just received this email from Visual Depth:
We have recently announced a whole new range of plans for Web Hosting, we offer state of the art equipment and very low prices. Please visit us at http://www.visualdepth.com and Click the link to Hosting for more information. Don't miss out on this opportunity, you may be paying more than you need to for your current Web Hosting.
TELEPHONE SUPPORT AND SALES
We have recently received a few complaints regarding our telephone lines, this is due to the recent announcement of our 0800 Service, which caused thousands of people to call our Sales Team and therefore made the lines very busy. We have now put in additional lines making sure that you are able to get through to Sales and Support. But if the lines are busy, please ring back later. The lines are open 7 days a Week for Sales and Tech. Support on 08707 415 115.
At least they are trying to sort there problems out as soon as possible.
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Freeserve Takeover
By:Daniel @ 11:05:PM -
- SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
There are some reports about at the moment regarding the possibility of a Freeserve takeover:
Britain's biggest internet company Freeserve is at the centre of takeover speculation after reports that it is being eyed by a potential German buyer. Shares in Freeserve, which are widely held by small private investors, are likely to rise on the report which suggests German internet company T-Online is preparing to make an offer.
T-Online is majority owned by Germany's Deutsche Telekom, which took its first significant step into the UK last year by taking over mobile phone business One2One.
We think if they takeover they will do good. It may have something to do with WAP for there one2one service
Source:Yahoo News
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Latest News from Visual Depth
By:zeon @ 4:51:PM -
- SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Visual Depth are now sending this e-mail to people subscribing to their service:
"VISUAL DEPTH 0800
You may already be aware that our 0800 Service has experienced some delays in the launch, this is due to a Credit Card overload on our system. We apologise for the delay and we are very eager to launch our service to provide truly unmetered access to the Internet.
The Credit Card overload was due to 350,000 people subscribing to our services within the space of a few days. Because of this amount, the system then crashed. At current we have technical support representatives working on the problem along with our Credit Card Company.
All Orders should be cleared during the week, allowing us to launch the service on Friday. This launch date will not be changed and if your Credit Card order should have cleared before then. If you would like to be guaranteed use of the service on Friday, then please e-mail Support@visualdepth.com and cancel your Credit Card order and ask that you can change your payment method to Cheque. Our support team will then send you the relevant details. This will guarantee you access to our service on Friday, as soon as we receive your cheque you will be a complete paying customer (We wont wait for your cheque to clear).
If you have already subscribed by Cheque, then please send your cheque to us as soon as possible. If you have already sent us your cheque, then you will be provided with account details before Friday.
Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions either by e-mail Support@visualdepth.com or by telephone on 08707 415 115 (Lines Open 7 days a Week)
Again, we are very sorry for the delay in the launch of the service."
Will they make this launch they seem to have missed the last date!
Thanks to Charles for forwarding the e-mail to us.
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Zdnet's Broadband Access Guide
By:Daniel @ 10:40:AM -
- SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
We have found that Zdnet have made a guide to broadband access. It shows you the companies that are offering broadband access in your area.
Click HERE to go to Zdnets broadband access guide.
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Cableinet Update
By:Daniel @ 10:25:AM -
- SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Just to update you on Cable Internet.
They have had 122 announcements from the 23rd of March to 30th April(today)ranging from name servers problems to DNS problems and mail problems. You name the problem and we bet Cable Internet have had it.
Although the speeds are improving they are having problem after problem. We have found no engaged tones while using Cable Internet at the moment.
Also:
We just found this off the newsgroups. We have emailed him about this and asked him to reply back about this.
My daughter had accidentally sent an email to @blueyonder.com and she was not alone. Mike runs a web design and PR company and registered blueyonder.com and other similar ones several years ago. He spent a lot of his Easter weekend replying to misaddressed emails.
Telewest have allegedly offered to buy the domain from him for a paltry sum and half a paltry sum if he doesnt relinquish the related domains as well
We have a funny feeing this will turn into a court case if he refuses to sell it.
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BTopenworld Facts
By:Daniel @ 10:11:AM -
- SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
We have just found some intresting facts about BT Openworld at Zdnet. Here's a snip:
BT plays down the analyst's claims. As a retail operation BTopenworld is "outside of Oftel's loop" according to Andy Green, chief executive of BTopenworld.
The wholesale price for ADSL is £35 per customer per month but BT admits there is an extra cost. "That £35 doesn't include the fat pipe which connects from the exchange to the ISP," says a BT spokesman, although he was unable to give firm details of the actual price being paid by BTopenworld.
Johnson disputes this. "It is not competitive with France Telecom. The prices BT is charging are higher," he says. Speeds are also slower than other operators and BT admits users may find they are only get half the promised 512Kbit/s data stream.
"As more people use it the data rate does get reduced," says BTopenworld engineer Bob Foster. He claims rates could fall as low as 256Kbit/s during busy periods."
So BT will have a monopoly on ADSL until the unbundling of the local loop in 2001.
Everyone will suffer slower speeds on the 50:1 ratio. So 512Kbits/s will be cut in half to 256Kbit/s.
We think that BT should have told everyone in the press release when they announced the ADSL prices.
You can find the full Zdnet article HERE
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Ezesurf Update
By:Daniel @ 9:58:AM -
- SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Planet Inferno have got an update on the ezesurf phone support problem:
We here at Ezesurf are aware of the phone situation and we are in the middle of rectifying the problem. We have a new phone line system which implements today, and we hope that this should begin to make a marked increase in telephone support availability.
We think that when they finally get there support sorted out they should finally become a much better ISP and we shouldn't hear much more complaints about them.
Source:Planet Inferno
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ISPreview Weekly Update
By:mark @ 9:40:AM -
- SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Next weeks 'May' so we will finally be well and truly into spring, still that won't stop the ISPr team from working. Right now focus has shifted onto doing more reviews, articles and updating all the other sections of the site. Not to mention our own ISP will go on-line shortly, just awaiting the system admins to sort some things.
Next to that there's not much more you can expect other than minor changes, we still aren't 100% happy with the design so it will likely change again in the future. The main problem is the cross-browser compatibility causing our design options to be limited. It's likely that there will be a TOTAL redesign in the future, but not soon.
That's about it really, any other changes are internal and to do with staff so you won't need to know about those. Also we should be FINALLY moving servers on Monday, quite what effect this will have is not yet known - hopefully none. Now I'm off to the beach, see you all next week..
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BT Internet News Server Problems
By:zeon @ 8:49:AM -
- SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
BT Internet have posted this on their status page:
"29th April 15:50
We are currently investigating a problem with the BT Internet news server and you may be experiencing difficulties accessing news groups. Please bear with us as we endeavour to resolve this problem as quickly as possible.
We currently have all the available hardware and software engineers onsite dealing with the problem. They are investigating a possible communication problem between the news servers and their filers.
Although everything possible is being carried out at the moment we cannot offer a timescale for the resolution of the fault.
We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause."
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Barrysworld To Receive Finance from 3i & Cisco
By:zeon @ 7:30:AM -
- SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Barrysworld, The well known gaming ISP/Community has announced that they will receive about £3m in funding over the coming year. 3i is to put 2m in and to boost the speed of the Barrysworld network Cisco System are to give them a substantial loan to buy new Cisco equipment. The new equipment will go live in July 2000.
Adrian Brownlow, Managing Director at BarrysWorld said:
"BarrysWorld was formed in 1998, making us one of the originators of online entertainment. At the core of our offer is a site created by gamers for gamers – we epitomise gaming as ‘lifestyle’ and we want to maintain this reputation. BarrysWorld has a heritage unmatched by any other in the arena of online gaming and it is this credibility as an online brand that has attracted significant investor interest. However, we have waited to secure the proactive partners we felt would work most effectively with us to build the success of the brand. Both Cisco and 3i are totally in tune with our brand direction and will provide us with the business support and infrastructure we need to increase our existing revenue streams and consolidate our already considerable success."
Hopefully this will mean an even better gaming experience from BarrysWorld over the coming year!
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News - April 29,2000
Breathe Suffocates
By:mark @ 9:24:AM -
- SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
While our E-Mail systems may be down this morning, that hasn't stopped us starting to see a steady stream of complaints against 'Breathe', another recently opened unmetere ISP. From what we understand there are problems with E-Mail, http, Newsgroups and downloads which seem happy to go at diabolical speeds =(.
Just about EVERY unmetered ISP gets off to a bad start, so those expecting the likes of 'Visual Depth' to not have problems (they said they won't), then think again. As we always say, lets hope Breathe fixes these problems before we have to deal with more complaints. If there's one thing ALL (even the best) of these unmetered systems need, it's good technical support and service.
It’s a sad fact when you can’t recommend ANY of the free ISPs because so far we can’t find any that pickup their phones or answer E-Mails quickly. Hopefully if EzeSurf have sorted their problems out with the phone/E-Mail (we know E-Mail isn’t working) then we can recommend them again.
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News - April 28,2000
World Online/Localtel To Give Off-Peak Option!
By:zeon @ 10:57:PM -
- SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
After the announcement that WOL/Screaming.net was to go 24/7 and the line rental was to increase by £5. Lots of customers were unhappy and because of all the feedback that they got about this WOL/Localtel have decided to give existing customers a chance to keep the normal line rental and still have the off-peak free internet calls.
ISPreview has been sent a draft letter that will go out soon to all WOL/Localtel customers. Some of the main points are:
"We have decided to give customers the option of retaining the original £27.77 a quarter line rental with free-off peak only access"
----
"What do you have to do if you want Freedom 24?
If you want Freedom 24 you don’t have to do anything. The free access that is now on your line will stay in place and the increased line rental will be reflected in your July or subsequent bill."
----
"We have now decided that any customer who uses OCM regularly (at least two times a month) will continue to have Call Diversion on their line free of charge for as long as they are using OCM."
The full text of the draft letter can be found HERE
This is only a draft letter and the letter may change so it is advisable to only take action when you actually recieve the letter.
This kind of action is what we like to see from ISP's/Teleco's. Responding to feedback from customers is only a good thing. WOL/Localtel seem to be getting there act together now and listening to the customer.
Some initial customer reaction can be seen over at The
Scream.
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Unmetered Can't Last
By:mark @ 7:01:PM -
- SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Thanks to several readers for informing us that http://www.forrester.co.uk/ has published an interesting article/report into the probable future of unmetered net access. Or as they would have it, not so probable at all:
"UNLIMITED INTERNET ACCESS CAN'T LAST
Flat-rate service is a great customer acquisition tool for ISP latecomers since it offers cheap Net access to users. However, Forrester believes unmetered access is an unsustainable business model. Here's why:
* Price wars lead to little loyalty. Price-based competition creates a viscous circle for ISPs, as customer acquisition costs and churn skyrocket and differentiation evaporates. Unfaithful flat-rate users will keep looking for an ever better deal and force free ISPs to offer more and more free incentives, pushing them deeper into the red.
* Profits are too far away. Free ISPs already lose. And flat-rate access will destroy their business model, which was built around call revenue sharing with telcos. Freeserve stands to lose 50% of its revenues with flat rates. And ISPs can't expect eCommerce and advertising revenues to plug the massive black hole in revenue. They will be forced to cut their losses by giving up their unmetered and free Internet offerings.
* Devices and technologies proliferate. Flat-rate PC-based access won't travel to mobile devices and access via broadband technologies like ADSL and LMDS. The high costs of supporting multiple Net devices will force ISPs to make heavy investments in infrastructure."
The article certainly makes for an interesting read although lacks complete explanations and detail for most of the findings. We have already forecast in a previous article around 80% of what this one says (Death of the FREE ISP), although they do take a different viewpoint.
The basic fact is there are now nearly 50 ISPs offering some form of unmetered net access, once they are all on-line we will most likely see more. With so many ISPs needing so many people, there simply won't be enough people to go around and thus money. Not to mention ISP that can't keep up will die and you end up in a rather nasty circle.
However unlike 'Forrester' ISPr doesn't believe unmetered net access will die, it will waver (does now hehe) but will never die. The UK is simply following the same motions that the USA has used before it, albeit in somewhat of a different fashion. The next two years will be highly competitive but the consumers will always emerge better off.
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BTopenworld letter
By:mark @ 6:50:PM -
- SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
All those who signed up for 'BTopenworld' should by now have received an important letter regarding their recent breach in security, if not then here you go:
"Dear Sir/Madam
Re : Your BTopenworld registration
For a short period yesterday a hidden area of the BTopenworld site holding the details that you registered was accessed by a limited number of unauthorised persons. I am writing to apologise to you for this breach in security.
I would like to assure you that as soon as the problem was identified, we took immediate steps to secure the site.
We are writing to those people identified as having accessed this hidden area to get written confirmation that they have not copied, used or passed your details to any other person and will delete or destroy all copies of this information.
I can confirm that we are undertaking a full and thorough investigation to ensure that breaches of this nature do not happen again.
Once again our sincere apologies.
Yours faithfully
Robert Salvoni
General Manager BTopenworld"
We'd quite like to know how they plan on hunting down the exact people involved, as there's only so much you can learn from IP/Server logs. Still at least they have responded and said sorry, which is more than could be said for some. We doubt a simple apology will go anyway to satisfying those users who may end up having to block yet more masses of junk mail from their box as their details are commercially exploited yet again.
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Blooper of the day
By:mark @ 10:18:AM -
- SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Hehe we just had to post this for a bit of fun, but some poor Turkish nut has been acquitted from a legal trial, ah but it's not that simple:
"A Turkish court has acquitted an Internet user of charges that he had "incited hatred" by e-mailing himself, a lawyer has said."
Yeah so how many people E-Mail themselves hate mail =)? very strange indeed and you can read the rest HERE. Not really sure why he did it when he could have just gone onto the newsgroups and got it for free.
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BT On Local Loop Licence Change
By:mark @ 10:12:AM -
- SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
We have read an interesting article over @ Yahoo News about BT and the Local Loop situation:
"The telecommunications regulator OFTEL said BT had accepted a new condition in its licence to provide unbundled local loops, clearing the way for local competition for broadband services."
You can read the rest HERE and the big question this presents is, "will other Telco's be able to offer broadband sooner than 2001 due to this latest change?". Only time will tell, most of us still wont even have Broadband by 2001 whether it's BT or not =)
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PlanetInferno - EzeSurf news, kinder =)
By:mark @ 9:55:AM -
- SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
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As a favour from one site to another we'd like to point out http://www.planetinferno.co.uk/ to you as a source for the latest news on the EzeSurf ISP. They also do the odd ISP review now and then, not to mention an article here and there on this, that or the other =). Right now they have a review up of IC24, which reminds me, where did ours go hehe?
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Visual Depth are GO
By:mark @ 9:37:AM -
- SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Most of you already know this from 'unofficial' sources like previous ISPr or Net4Nowt posts anyway, but here's the 'Official statement':
"We are pleased to announce that we are now accepting new customers for our 0800 unmetered Internet Dial Up Service.
Our service will give you completely unmetered Internet Access 24 hours, 7 days a week. Along with 20MB of Web Space and 5 E-Mail Accounts. All of this for only £74.99 per year, subject to a £24.99 set up fee.
The service has almost reached its limit, so please sign up as soon as possible to avoid disappointment. Ordering your account could not be easier, simply go to our web site at http://www.visualdepth.com and follow the link from the homepage or telephone our direct sales line on 08707 415 115 (lines open until 9pm this evening, lines may be busy at times, but please keep trying). Additionally you may fax us your details on 08707 415 125.
You may pay by Credit Card or Cheque, due to the amount of new customers we are currently receiving, we would advise on paying by Cheque as your account will be activated faster.
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us on any of the contacts above or by e-mail at news@visualdepth.com
Thanks for your Interest in our Services,
The Visual Depth Internet Team
http://www.visualdepth.com"
We won't be reviewing 'Visual Depth' until they send us the needed account, we will no longer pay for something just so we can review it - far to costly now. However if Visual Depth do manage to go live without any real problems then they'll be the first =).
However we have a strange feeling they'll just be another 'all mouth and no fact' ISP where a lot of problems arise and then we get all the usual excuses.
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News - April 27,2000
BTopenworld Security Breach
By:mark @ 7:07:PM -
- SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
The Register has just reported that yet another ISP, this time BT and its ADSL 'Openworld', have fallen foul of a security breach. You can read the full article HERE, but here's a quote:
"BTopenworld has suffered a security leak of biblical proportions after the details of tens, nay, hundreds of thousands of customers were published willy-nilly on its Web site.
Our source at the Times said he downloaded 3MBs of personal data onto his desktop before BT finally plugged the security hole and ripped down the sign-up page.
The files contained names, addresses, e-mail addresses, salary details etc from consumers and business people interested in BT's ADSL products.
Not particularly inspiring, is it."
Nope it certainly isn't, yet another example that proves our recent article on 'ISP Signup Security' to be accurate. This goes as yet another warning to forthcoming ISPs, use better signup security!
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