April 21, 2000 - April 27, 2000
News - April 27,2000
RedHotAnt Official Statement
By:mark @ 7:04:PM -
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Well RedHotAnt have just sent out an official update on all the problems being experienced, but get ready because the news isn't all good:
"Dear User,
Over the last 2 weeks a growing number of users have been experiencing problems in getting a connection to the RedHotAnt service. Some of this is due to interconnect problems between various telecom companies and some is to do with the loading on our current modem hardware.
At present RedHotAnt is officially running at a modem to user ratio of 7 to 1, which is better than most ISP's in the UK, the main problem is that there are a number of users who are "abusing rather than using" the system. We will track these people down and stop them from doing this.
We can not apologise enough for these problems and are working to our best endeavors to remedy the situation as soon as possible.
We upgraded to a T3 (45Mb) line as quickly as possible after experiencing the initial bandwidth problems and very slow access speeds when surfing the web.
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.
If you are one of the users, and you know who you are, abusing the system, then watch out, we will catch up with you and terminate your account.
Thank you all again for choosing RedHotAnt as your ISP and we hope we can resolve these current issues and continue to provide a quality service to you.
Best Regards
The RedHotAnt Management"
Spot the odd one out yet? ISPreview would like to know how even the system 'abusers' can abuse a service if nobody can login =)? We'd like to see the genius that can keep his or her connection going for extremely long periods of time without any drops hehe.
It's quite hard to believe that an ISP offering unrestricted 24/7 could call one of its users an 'abuser' if it previously didn't impose any restrictions. Much like 'Telewest' and 'GreatXscape' before it, neither is willing to admit exactly what constitutes an abuser.
We don't believe such a threat against these users is a sign of 'tactical judgement', rather more political error. However so long as they refund these specific users then there won't be much of an issue to be made. Our advice to those over using the service, limit it because ISPs in the past have ALWAYS clamped down.
On a side note, 10:1 was a good modem > user ration in the early 90's, some of the biggest ISPs have a 3:1 ratio so 7:1 is actually high for an unmetered ISP. Perhaps we should include these ratios in our reviews from now on? (if we can) - comments welcome.
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Excite Unmetered with TheFreeInternet
By:zeon @ 6:00:PM -
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Excite will offer its unmetered access through TheFreeInternet unmetered package which costs £50 setup and £20 annual renewal. This service only allows low bandwidth usage such as web browsing and things such as web radio or web video are not allowed on the service.
But the initial membership fee can be reimbursed with a £50 discount voucher for excite services.
Evan Rudowski the Managing Director of Excite Europe, said:
"Excite and the Free Internet Group have finally taken the lid off the Internet by providing an Internet access service with no monthly subscription fees and no metered call charges. This is the moment that UK Internet users have been waiting for and we are proud to spark the revolution.”
Source: Net4Nowt
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The Register Does ADSL
By:mark @ 3:09:PM -
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The Register have put up a detailed article on some of the things you really should know about 'BTopenworld' and 'ADSL', you can read it HERE:
"Okay, this is all fine and dandy, so why is everyone saying that BT has a year on its competitors? Surely, its competitors are launching at the same time, this July. You’ve just said so, haven't you?
Kind of. You see, we've been talking about BTopenworld, BT's mass-market Net business focused increasingly on broadband services. But it's being supplied by Ignite, BT's data-centric broadband IP business focused on corporate and wholesale markets.
Oh...
We know it's confusing but do try to keep up. All the service providers offering ADSL services this summer are using wholesale broadband products from Ignite (BT). It won't be until July 2001 that other telcos will be able to install their ADSL kit in the local exchanges (aka unbundling the local loop(ULL)) giving service providers and consumers a real choice of supplier. Many predict that this competition will drive down the cost of ADSL and other telecoms costs for consumers once ULL happens.."
This is a very good article indeed and credits to 'Tim' for doing it, also worth a mention is BTs contention ration of 50:1. So in basic terms you could have 50 users on a single ADSL line, if we assume BT do lines with a 2Mbit max transfer and allocate 512Kbps per user then that could be a serious problem for populated areas.
So serious that it makes similar problems with Cable-Modems seem minor in comparison. So those in urban areas might be wiser to get a business line with a contention of 20:1, thus rural areas are better off with the other.
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Complaints Information
By:mark @ 10:10:AM -
- SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
ISPreview is looking for a little help; we'd like to find out the websites for people such as 'Trading Standards'. We could also use some help in the investigation of what 'trading' laws current ISPs are breaking with their lack of services and support. We need OFFICIAL sources and not word of mouth for the laws, hopefully this will enable us to take a little more action in the future.
In the meantime, can all you ‘soon to launch’ unmetered ISPs do us a big favour – LOOK at the market before you leap in and suddenly become engulfed. If you offer a 24/7 service then people WILL connect for 24/7 and make full use of the system. Believe it or not the realities of an unmetered ISP are very rarely similar to a standard local call ISP, we are tired of seeing ISPs whose service goes down the drain and then complains that it’s ‘our’ (the customers) fault.
So before you launch your unmetered ISP, have lots of support staff and ALWAYS limit new subscriber numbers – NEVER add more until your service is ready. If ISPs would actual do this and or not just say it and then don’t, there wouldn’t be such problems as there are now. Post all the details in our 'comments'.
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Unofficial RHA Forum
By:zeon @ 6:59:AM -
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A group of users of RHA have setup an unofficial RedHotAnt support forum as the official one was pulled down. You can find it HERE
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News - April 26,2000
Breathe Problems
By:zeon @ 9:15:PM -
- SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Breathe have sent this e-mail out to explain the current problems:
"Dear breathe freely customer,
You may have been experiencing some incidence of engaged tones, or diminished connection speed when connecting to breathe freely. This is due to unprecedented levels of use of the service.
We are undertaking a number of measures to resolve these issues:
- We have delayed invitations for further sign-ups, to limit the
number of customers using the breathe freely service.
- We have already doubled the connection capacity (modems) available to breathe freely customers this afternoon, to minimise the number of engaged tones experienced.
- We are upgrading our connection to the internet backbone. This work will be undertaken in stages starting from Monday 1st May, with work due to be complete by Friday 5th May. This will enhance download speeds.
We hope you appreciate that this is a new concept in internet access,
and we are working very hard to resolve issues as soon as they are
raised. If you have any further comments on our service, please email
us at: comments@breathe.com
Regards
The breathe team"
Thanks to Ciaran for forwarding the e-mail to us.
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RedHotAnt Forum Pulled
By:mark @ 6:29:PM -
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As many know the RHA forum was about the only place you could truly listen to other RHA's user complaints and maybe even get a reply. We've now heard from three people and seen for ourselves that its been pulled =(.
The reason is because two or three abusive complainers bombarded it with rather indecent posts. Of course if RHA had invested in a proper support forum then they could have automatically stopped such posts, but no, instead they just pulled it. Thus leaving several thousand RHA users with nowhere to post their problems and get help.
RHA only have until next Monday to pull off a small miracle, ISPr will soon be taking bets as to whether they can accomplish such a feet.
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0800 Freedom to Launch in May
By:zeon @ 6:09:PM -
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Net4Nowt has reported that 0800 Freedom are sending e-mails out telling people who pre-registered how to access the service. The e-mail:
"0800freedom.com's TRULY free internet access service will be available for select customers to use beginning in May 2000.
As someone who has pre-registered, you are invited to be among the first to take advantage of this brand new service. Remember, 0800freedom.com offers Internet access with no subscription or admin fee, no on-line usage costs and no charges for customer service or technical support. It is totally free.
Act now
In order for us to e-mail you the installation software (and for you to then start surfing for FREE), we need to know now what login name and node name you would like so that we can construct your e-mail address (e.g. firstname@surname.0800freedom.com). We also need to know what password you would like to use to access the service.
In order to supply us with your chosen login, node name and password, visit http://www.0800freedom.co.uk/login/intro.htm and follow the very simple instructions.
What next?
Visit http://www.0800freedom.co.uk/login/intro.htm now. Once you've completed your details, we'll send you an e-mail during May which will invite you to start using the service. You will then be able to start surfing - absolutely FREE of charge.
PS: We will be prioritising the order in which our customers are activated according to the date when we receive your details - so the sooner you respond, the sooner you can get on-line."
Source: Net4Nowt
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Server Issues
By:mark @ 4:51:PM -
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We have a few problems right now due to changes on the server, however you will be glad to hear that two tiny ISPreview CGI scripts were responsible for the temp downtime of the ENTIRE network earlier =). Just to give you an idea of scale, that's several thousand websites dead for a few hours because of us and two tiny CGI's.
As such the offending systems (chat and quotes) are off-line and will return shortly when the servers are fixed on the new system. Considering nobody was using chat and the quotes take up about 3KB of memory, it's quite amazing they had such an affect (server ran out of memory for them). There's a good chance that when the swap is complete we may have more problems with similar systems, I take this time to say sorry in advance =)
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New @ ISPreview
By:mark @ 12:43:PM -
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BTopenworld
By:zeon @ 11:11:AM -
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Today, BT has unveiled its own ADSL ISP called openworld. People with ADSL enabled exchanges will be able to access BTopenworld for £39.99/month. The features of this service are:
1. 24 hour access at 512Kbps - when you're on your PC, you're online, and ready to download at ten times the speed of a standard modem.
2. Portal with unique video rich content - a constantly available source of news, information and entertainment, formatted to maximise the benefits of your broadband capability
3. Free email – accounts for all the family
4. Webspace for your own site - or sites.
5. Future proofing – the internet service of the future here now, with a service that will keep pace, no matter how fast technology moves. Evolving to meet your needs with faster speeds, new technologies plus regular new features and content.
6. Mobile access - wherever you are your personal content and e-mail is available to you, on the go.
The service will use a USB Modem to access ADSL and instillation is free if you signup before June 30th. After that date it will be £150.
More Information is available HERE
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Tiny Unmetered Pricing
By:zeon @ 8:07:AM -
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The Register has reported some more details on Tiny Online's unmetered access. It is to be called TinyConnect and will offer 24/7 for £25.99/month and off-peak for £6.99. The service will user a dialler box to route calls through. The £6.99 off-peak access will have a £10 minimum voice call spend but this won't apply to 24/7 users.
This offer seems quite expensive unless it offers incredible quality of service.
Source: The Register
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Surfsaver Update
By:zeon @ 7:01:AM -
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The latest update from the Surfsaver site:
"Problems we have been experiencing have now been resolved. We apologise for any inconvenience that this has caused to you. We thank you for your patience in this instance. If you are still experiencing difficulties please contact our Support department who will endeavor to rectify your problems.
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News - April 25,2000
Screaming/WOL Mail Problems - Explained
By:zeon @ 9:39:PM -
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Alex Hampson, a WOL employee has posted this over at The Scream:
"This is an apology to those POP3 Mail server users. The server crashed over the bank holiday weekend, this was due to an irresponsible user subscribing to what appears to be every known mailing list. The system could not cope with the resulting massive influx of mail which has had knock on effect on the other mail servers. We hope to have POP3 up and running as soon as possible. It was very unfortunate that this occured over a bank holiday as this has further exasperated the problem.
Alex Hampson"
Well it seems like someone was mail bombed and the server couldn't take it. No explanation on the where all the missing mail is yet.
Source: The Scream
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Server Upgrade
By:mark @ 8:46:PM -
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Well we have just fixed all the initial page design bugs and now I'm told the new servers will go on-line sometime in the next two or three hours. Not sure if downtime will be inflicted from this, however if it is then we hope it'll be brief =)
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ISPs Face Gov Billing
By:mark @ 8:33:PM -
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It's not as if ISPs, especially unmetered, have a hard enough time as it is gaining profit and improving their service. The market is as swamped as the car industry and staying alive is starting to prove quite difficult even for the big boys.
However 'The Register' has reported that the Government is drawing up plans to put what can only be described as a 'poll tax' for ISPs into action.
"ISPs could have to pay more than £200,000 per year to comply with the government's plans to intercept Web traffic.
Medium to large ISPs will be expected to incur annual costs of between £23,200 and £236,000 to run the planned interception devices if suggestions in the report commissioned by the Home Office go ahead.
The conclusions by consultants The Smith Group are the first indications of how much the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIP) Bill will cost the industry.
The Smith Group also recommended that small ISPs pay £9,400 to £11,800 per year for the interception service, while the upfront costs of setting up the systems – estimated at £210,000 to £500,000 – should come out of government coffers.
"The burden on industry to meet the obligations of the RIP Bill is not onerous," the report states.
A Home Office representative stressed that the findings were "intended to inform thinking and stimulate debate", and did not at this stage represent Government policy. "Nothing in the report is definitive," he said."
You can read the rest HERE and although it isn't 'official' policy, you and I would be better off without it. Such a 'tax' (as we call it) on ISPs would not help the consumers one bit and only kill more jobs off.
This is yet another example of how the Government started off by being in favour of technology, yet secretly seeks to undermine its very existence. Wonder how many MPs actually know much about modern day computer systems? It's also worth pointing out that there's a lot more on the surface of this than first meets the eye.
Look a little closer and you notice that our own government actually wants to physically monitor what we 'the users' do on-line. So much for privacy, hopefully such a thing will hopefully never become a reality.
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New Layout - LIVE
By:mark @ 7:25:PM -
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Ok so here's the layout we have been working on over the last week or so, it may not be perfect yet but nobody should have table layout issues anymore =). Not to mention that we ran out of time for doing the 'complaints' page so that'll be 100% completed tomorrow and not today. There's also a few other niggles that need fixing and tweaking, wasn't easy cramming everything in.
It'll take another couple of weeks to refine things, especially the code which needs shrinking a little more to save on space and improve loading. Also take note that our attention will focus to our own ISP project tomorrow, so things should go live fairly soon.
*Update*
For the tiny group that use Netscape, we have fixed most of the problems, although the central table is a little more diffecult. Can't really understand why it's left justified for you guys, however if it's not fixed this evening then we'll work it out tomorrow.
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Visual Depth Delay - Credit Overload!
By:zeon @ 6:32:PM -
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People who have signed up to the service have received this e-mail:
"Dear Customer,
We have received many complaints regarding our 0800 Internet Access Serviceas we have not sent out account details as yet and the service is not officially gone live.
This is due to a problem with the sign up process where Credit Card paying customers caused a huge overload when allowing sign up's in our system.
Please accept our apologies for any delay, however we are working very hard to sort out the problem and to make sure that you are able to access ourservice as soon as possible.
We cannot launch the service until the Credit Card payment system is cleared, at current some of the Credit Card details seem to be either
missing or incorrect. We may require you to send us your Credit Card details again, once we have resolved the problem.
We will keep you up to date on the progress of this problem, so please
expect to hear from us shortly. Should we need you to re-send us your Credit Card details we will notify you by e-mail.
Many Thanks,
The Visual Depth Internet Team
They can't take the credit! Although if they do ask for credit card details again, it’s best to give it over the phone. Thanks go to Mike for the info.
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Lineone\Quip
By:zeon @ 6:24:PM -
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The Matrix have managed to get a response from Quip regarding recent problems with the service. Here is a snip:
"However the current situation is temporary. We are investing in new capacity which will be on line in the next couple of weeks and will significantly enhance capacity at peak times. In the meantime we are being responsible about the number of new customers who currently have access to the service. All the customers who pre-registered when the service was initially promoted have now been invited to register. Those who subsequently registered will be invited to fully register as the new capacity becomes available. This monitoring of customer numbers will continue even with the additional capacity as will the 2 hour cut off."
Full Text of the E-Mail is available @ The Matrix
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ISPreview Weekly Update
By:mark @ 12:53:PM -
- SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Obviously in being the Easter weekend our weekly update ended up slightly astray, so instead we'll do a shorter one now. The biggest news is that the new main page layout and sub pages will hopefully go on-line this evening. As always we use the initial week(s) of new layouts to let you 'our readers' have their say about what could be changed (usually nothing).
The bad news is that unlike what has been previously said, 'ISPreview On-line' won't be launched on the same day. This is because we have pushed the schedule forwards a week and as yet need to sort out a few points with Vispa, there hasn't been enough time to do so. The good news is that once the new design is live, we can finally get back to them and sort the issues out.
Another thing to note is our 'header', for some reason the sys admin has added a little 'GMT' bit on the end and that’s thrown the layout somewhat. We'd like to have that fixed before the new layout goes live as.. well.. you'll see. With the new layout comes a 'complaints' page and a page specifically for ISPs to submit their details to us for review/listing. Each new section is also accompanied by its own E-Mail address so we can better order and track ISPs that need reviewing.
That covers it so far, not much news today so it's an excellent time to bring on-line the new design - sorry 'layout' is a better word =).
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News - April 24,2000
N4N Chat with Visual Depth
By:zeon @ 7:04:PM -
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Daniel has done a brief summary of the N4N Chat with Visual depth it can be found HERE. We hope to get a review done soon after they launch.
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RedHotAnt Update
By:mark @ 9:56:AM -
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You can blame one of our readers (David) for making me work when I said I wouldn't.. arrgggg. Anyway David (hehe) was kind enough to forward an E-Mail reply he got from RHA that explains what they are planning to do about the current spate of problems:
"Dear Mr xxxxxx,
There will be a vast improvement in the service in the next week as upgrades are installed.
We refer you to our Terms and Conditions and therefore cannot refund
your subscription.
However, we are sparing no energy in resolving all the current connection issues by putting pressure on various UK telecoms companies. We are looking into each users query one by one to get a pattern of the problem areas within the UK. We are achieving some success but it is taking time. From current feedback from our customers there is evidence of the improvement and we hope it is not too long before your connection issues have been
resolved.
Regards,
Tech Support."
Now lets give RHA some credit here, how many of the new unmetered ISPs have been so quick to react to consumer problems. Even some of the biggest ones took several weeks, however it didn't take long for RHA to get that T3 Line installed did it =).
We won't say anymore as the review is nearly done and all the info will be in that. It's also worth mentioning that while it's not yet official, there does indeed seem to be a 3hr cut in place - although it's not affecting everybody (Much like BTI etc.). However 3Hours is pretty reasonable if you ask us, 4 would be the best but 3 is ok.
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Back to Work - NOT
By:mark @ 9:47:AM -
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Don't expect me to be even so much as lifting a figure to answer important E-Mails this holiday weekend =), some of us need time off you know hehe. I'll be back tomorrow midday but until then I'm not doing any work, hah make me! =)
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News - April 23,2000
Vispa Internet - The Future.
By:Ross14 @ 9:45:PM -
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We have just received the Official Press Release from Vispa tailoring their future unmetered offers. There's not alot of information on prices or launch dates but we have posted most of the email below.
"After much debate and many weeks of waiting, we are now ready to introduce to the public the future of Internet Access from Vispa Internet Limited.
So what do we have planned?
After waiting a number of weeks instead of jumping right in and making a mess of it, we have listened carefully to our current users, worked on many hours of market research and watched our competition carefully. All this information has been developed into services which we are ready to start to roll out in the form of NEW Unmetered and Broadband solutions in many forms, as well as making sure that current low net usage users still are not out of pocket by continuing to offer 0845 as well.
How we going to ensure a quality service?
We know that only way to maintain a high level of service is to limit the amount of users that can signup. We are doing this by the use of "capping levels", only allowing more users to join when we have upgraded to take new users onboard.
Service features will not drop, everyone will still get access to features such as Game Servers, IRC Servers, 51,000+ Newsgroups, Frontpage Extensions and more as well as taking advantage of the new features and partnerships we are putting in place."
For more and continuing details visit http://www.vispa.net/thefuture.html
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ISPr hits 200,000!
By:Ross14 @ 8:46:PM -
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Yes, well ISPr has now had 200,000 hits and the counter is still rolling! It has only been about 5 weeks since we hit 100,000 and you might also be suprised to learn that in 13 days we have had 121,706 page views!
Thanks to Every Reader!
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RedHotAnt 3 Hour Cut Off
By:zeon @ 6:00:PM -
- SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
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Some users are concerned that RHA has introduced a 3-hour cut off. There is no official conformation of this but we are investigating it.
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News - April 22,2000
Screaming/WOL Mail Problems
By:zeon @ 7:17:PM -
- SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
It appears that mail is getting delayed or lost on the screaming.net mail server. If you use mail0/pop3.screaming.net loads of mail seems to be going missing or getting delayed for days. People using mail1.screaming.net say some messages are getting delayed. If anyone is on mail2.screaming.net and is also getting problems please let us know. The only server that we know is working is the new mail3.screaming.net installed for freedom 24.
Well as yet there isn't a status post on the WOL website. Not surprised really because they don't seem to ever keep there users informed of what is going on.
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Cableinet Problems
By:Daniel @ 2:25:PM -
- SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Cable Internet had a big problem this morning where you could dial in but do NOTHING on the internet. Here is what they posted about it when they restored it.
"At around 11:30 this morning our name servers stopped functioning, affecting most services.
The name servers resolve any of your requests e.g. for news.cableinet.co.uk and convert them into IP addresses so that your connection can talk to the server at the other end, in this case converting the request into 193.38.113.6.
This affected external internet access also."
Problem after problem. Lets hope they can sort it out because i'm beginning to get fed up of them.
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HAPPY EASTER!
By:mark @ 8:27:AM -
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Well I've stopped work for the weekend, as have so many people today because it's Easter. You know the time when that darn bunny hops and skips around the lush green knolls of England and delivers chocolate Easter eggs to us all. Of course the reality is much more harsh, Englands current compliment of grassy knolls is closer to green sludge right out of ghost buster and that bunny is up to no good. Ever since the boom of rather bad rave music in the early '90s our Easter bunny has been up to no good.
Last reports have the little nipper placed firmly up against a street light after getting a bit to drunk in a local pub, what is the world coming to? Apparently the Easter bunny has also been involved in the porn industry (no don't even try) and has become a prostitute for inner London area. We even hear news that poor old 'Mr Bunny' has been abusing his power in order to gain access to the US Governments secret supply of SUPER EGGS, which he then eats - HIMSELF!
It's a sad.. sad world where Easter bunny’s are allowed to be corrupt by the evils of society, especially when for some of us, it's a daily affair =). So happy EASTER! all and make sure you enjoy yourselves because Tuesday isn't far off!! ahh!
PS"We're fairly sure this news has nothing to do with unmetered ISPs hehe"
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News - April 21,2000
Ezesurf/Surfsaver Update
By:zeon @ 3:10:PM -
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This may explain some of the problems with Surfsaver. This is the message posted on the frontpage of the Surfsaver site:
"We are currently experiencing some problems with our service. This is due to our server presently being overhauled. We are assured that work is being carried out as quickly as is possible and normal service will resume in a short period of time. We apologise for any inconvenience that this has, and is, causing to you. Some of the difficulties you may be experiencing are:
1. Password recognition problems.
2. Account recognition problems.
3. Cannot log on.
We thank you for your patience in this instance. If you think the difficulties you have are not related to the above then please contact our Support department who will endeavor to rectify your problems."
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Breath Net Signups
By:mark @ 10:25:AM -
- SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Why do I have a sneaking suspicion one of our editors has already reported this? Anyway BreathNet have supposedly started accepting new signups to their unmetered service HERE. It's also worth mentioning this:
"If you use the service or if your computer is connected to the service continuously for more than 6 hours the service will be disconnected immediately.
You must not leave your computer connected to the service if you are not using it. In such an event we may disconnect the service if such inactivity occurs for more than 1 hour.
Any re-connection to access the service following any disconnection will take at least 10 minutes."
Now the mere fact you can stay connected for 6hours actually cancels out the having to wait 10minutes part, although 10minutes is still quite a while for those who often use 're-diallers' where standard 2hr cuts are better. Thanks to 'Fertile' for letting us know and a brief word of warning, it's always best to leave new unmetered ISPs for two weeks before signing up.
Most problems seem to arise during the initial weeks to launch and so it's an excellent measure of what the ISP could be like in the future. Watch how quickly their support reacts to problems (we'll keep you informed) and how well their services do.
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BTSurftime2 ISDN Issue
By:mark @ 10:18:AM -
- SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
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Just a quick bit of news, but after talking with a BTS rep about Surftime2 and its good/bad areas, we found out some slightly worrying news. Any ISP that uses BTSurftime2 (quite a lot will) are likely to limit ISDN users to 64Kbps, so no 128Kbps or multilink will work as we understand it. Not to mention that BTS is linked into BTs own network and while their network might be good, multiplayer fans beware =).
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EzeSurf Pitch Down
By:mark @ 10:12:AM -
- SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Troubles brew further on the EzeSurf newsgroups, the ISP itself is usually quite good until three days ago when a new trend appeared. Up until recently it was only new subscribers that were having trouble, mainly because nobody is picking up the phones at Eze's end or answering E-Mails/Support newsgroup posts.
Now the problem has escalated as we have received three complaints from current (some old) eze subscribers who say their connection has simply vanished and they can no longer login. There has still been no official explanation for the issues but we'll give them another week to resolve things. It's probably wise not to recommend Eze to friends until the problems are resolved, so far the connection issues have not affected us =).
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Business ISP from Iomart
By:mark @ 9:59:AM -
- SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Net4Nowt have been reporting on a new business ISP not unlike 'Business Internet' in its ideals and targeted audience:
"A new ISP has been launched aimed specifically at busy upcoming businesses.
Winbiz will assist SME businesspeople get over the initial obstacle faced by many new businesses – getting their web site content right.
The new business ISP from Iomart, is committed to making the online transition as straightforward and pain-free as possible.
Advises Winbiz spokesperson, Ewan Simpson: “Your web site is your showroom on the Internet so it requires the same attention to detail as opening up new premises on the high street. It’s vital to bear in mind the kind of customer you hope to attract to your site and how you can meet their demands.”
The new service is the first time a telecoms company has ventured into the e-commerce market, giving users a seamless, one stop route onto the World Wide Web."
Ah but where's the unmetered? =)
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RedHotAnt Respond
By:mark @ 9:54:AM -
- SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
RHA have just recently sent out a member E-Mail with some very important information in, we think it worth mentioning:
"We are aware that a number of users are still experiencing log-on problems. As promised, our T3 - 45MB link has now been installed, dramatically increasing the bandwidth available to RHA users.
However, with such an upgrade, extensive re-configuration was required and nagging teething problems eliminated. I am presently connected to RHA from home after 7 attempts but my PC is setup to keep re-dialing until logon is achieved.(See note at the end of the newsletter on how to achieve this).
We appreciate that you need first-time connectivity and are doing our very best to achieve this. These teething problems WILL be resolved.
In order for me to concentrate my efforts on bringing you a top quality Internet service, ISN have appointed a new editor, introducing to you Keith Butler.
Keith has almost 15 years experience of the computer market encompassing hardware, software and Internet issues,
May I take this opportunity to thank all those ISN members who have contributed and helped to make this newsletter both interesting and informative."
The rest of the E-Mail tends to comprise of the usual commercial dribble and information we've already reported on countless times. It's at least good to know that one ISP is doing its best to communicate with customers; our review of RHA will be done shortly.
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