April 9, 2000 - April 16, 2000

News - April 16,2000

ClaraNet Ports

By:mark @ 10:35:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Some of you were wondering exactly what a 'port' is, well we are still waiting for Clara to tell us which 'ports' are blocked (have yet to check my mail) but this 'comments' explanation will help to explain:

Name:Richard
E-Mail:web@xxxxxxx
Comment: All open TCP/IP services (as opposed to closed proprietary services) run on well-known port numbers (or number ranges). If Claranet have posted a list of the open port numbers, they have posted an *exact* list of the available services. *That's* what they mean by posting a list of the open ports. Ignoring the fact that (largely due to this kind of restriction on accounts) it is now possible to tunnel almost any protocol over any other, therefore if 4 ports (SMTP, POP3, HTTP and NNTP) or more are open, it would be possible to use almost any (open) TCP/IP service on the account.

So really what they mean is that Clara's new £9.99 package uses a complete 'port' block for specific transfers. Example, this may actually mean that you aren't blocked from large FTP downloads as their 'FTP' port would still be active.

Yet services such as ICQ, Streaming Video and Audio WOULD be blocked from use, it's hard for us to understand why ICQ and other similar mediums have this as they take up next to no transfer bytes at all. ICQ and programs like it are a modern day essential, yet we understand some, if not all, will not work under the £9.99 package.

The worst part of all this is that there are thousands of Internet apps that make use of other systems 'ports' in order to conduct a totally different service. You may find some programs that need to communicate or send on-line reg details (one or two multiplayer games) before use will not work at all. I guess we'll just have to wait and see before we know the full effect.

News - April 15,2000

ClaraNet Responds

By:mark @ 3:58:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We have been talking with ClaraNet for sometime to try and put your views 'the customer/readers and consumer' across to them about the new packages on offer. Today we finally got the responses we have been pushing for. In order to help you understand better what is being said, as lots has gone on, I'll try to explain the situation(s):

1) People were quite worried about the new £9.99 package due ONLY to its serious limitations. In initial E-Mails Clara was basically telling us there were none:

"Now you see we have a serious communication problem =), then just why do you have restrictions and what are those restrictions their to stop? I mean if you're not stopping E-Mail, web and Newsgroups (this covers many other areas) and now you say you're NOT stopping downloads, then just what are you stopping? How can consumers possibly know what you're talking about if you don't tell them clearly?"

Clara Answers:
"We have actually posted a complete list of all the ports which will be available on the FT Unlimited package to our local newsgroups. It didnt make sense to include this list in the original announcement because the majority of people getting it would not have understood what a port was."

Hands up who managed to follow where the word 'port' came from and just what relevance this has to our question =)? We understand a 'port' to be several things but it doesn't seem relevant to our question, what on earth are they on about (irony of "a serious communication problem") =)? So what are the limits?

2) We asked Clara why the new FTUnlim package had all the extra limits, where as people could join BTI and get a lot less restrictions:

Clara Answers:
"If there really was a low cost (say 10 quid) completely unmetered service which offered Claranet's quality ie. high availability, low pings, fast downloads at any time of day, good newsfeed, reliable email and so on, two things would happen:

1. nobody would be complaining about Claranet's costs they would just leave and join this new service
2. the new service would not survive long because the subscription would not cover the cost of the phone calls

At Claranet we offer a high quality service and this is why we have attracted so many gamers. I run the technical infrastructure and I'm a gamer myself so this is not a coincidence.

The reason it is impossible to have low cost unmetered access and high quality (for longer than a few months) is the way the telephone service in this country is regulated."

Some of what they say is true (telephone service), although that is steadily changing, yet the big arrogance that can be seen is the evasion of the facts. That being, ISPs like CallNet0800, EzeSurf, LineOne and now even RedHotAnt to name a few of many offer exactly what Clara appear to believe is not possible.

We aren't even asking them to change their £9.99 package because it's new and not something your being forced onto. However The GameZone is one that is hugely expensive and the only reason we use it over EzeSurf (example) is simply because there are no cut offs. It doesn't even have 24/7 but we still use it, the new cuts are just too much.

3) We were concerned over the fact that users wouldn't be given a choice to stay with the current FreeTime Unlimited and instead be moved to the same price but more limited GameZone:

Clara Answers:
"The existing FT Unlimited account is changing it's name to FT Gamezone, the 2 hour cutoff is being dropped and the unmetered access time shortened to 2am. So if you are on that account, after may 2nd, you will be on FTGZ.

Obviously we don’t like having to reduce the time available and it is disappointing for those people who are used to using it after 2am, however anyone offering more for less (and with the same quality) will find that they cant sustain it."

Oh dear, way to go and shoot yourselves in the foot on that one =), we recognised the account was on trial but the key point is that it was already a risk with such a high price. There never was a two hour cut off despite the 'official line', so it’s effectively the same, yet 6hours less. We also point you to No.2 for the ‘sustained services’.

Having looked at the comments to a previous news item (13 in all [unlucky]) HERE and then also visiting the various Clara Newsgroups, there seem to be quite a few upset customers. Clara's general line is that if they add more services then they loose the quality, which is partly true, but then modern ISPs are investing thousands in upgrading and so far it's paid off for them.

The real tragedy of all this is that Clara have failed to listen to the majority of their users on the subject and fail to communicate their ideals effectively.

Our advice would be to take the £50pm you pay them for GamerZone/Old FTUnlimited, put it into an annual bag of £600 and use it wisely. With that you could buy a couple of EzeSurf accounts for 128Kbps and TOP QUALITY SPEEDs, a RedHotAnt for less cut offs and save the rest for when Clara introduce a proper package. Well at least that's what we have done and you know what, it kicks ass!

All you have to do is contrast what 50pm/600an could get you in multitude from other ISPs and the problem is obvious. We will be cancelling our account at the beginning of May if there are no changes and using all our other 24/7 providers a lot more. We spend less of my 5 other unmetered providers in a month then I do on Clara's.

Please post your comments, no 'shoot the messenger' types though =).

BTI April News E-Mail

By:mark @ 8:22:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Well we just got our trusted BT Internet news E-Mail and since there isn't much news this morning we might as well publish it:

"Welcome to the April edition of the Good News E-mail from BT Internet.
This month's edition contains:

1. BT Internet a Million your chance to be the first online millionaire.
2. Important information about the BT Internet Free Call dialler.

1. Visit http://www.btinternet.com for your chance to be the first
online millionaire in the UK!

The end of Week 2 of the BT Internet a Million promotion is fast
approaching, so make sure you play before midnight on Sunday 16 April,
for your chance to win UKP 1,000,000, and to be entered into this week's
prize draw.

There are some fantastic prizes in this week's prize draw including
cars, holidays, trips to sporting events and computer equipment from IBM,
lastminute.com, oneswoop.com and Sports.com .

The lucky main prize weekly winners will also be able to nominate a
school to receive an IBM Aptiva PC with an Intel Pentium III processor.

If you haven't entered already, visit http://www.btinternet.com and
click on the Net a Million link. You only need to answer one question
correctly for your chance to win one of the great prizes this week, and
to be entered into the UKP 1,000,000 prize draw.

Someone will win UKP 1,000,000!!!! Enter once per week until midnight
on 1 May 2000 for more chances to win!

2. Important information about the Free Call dialler

In order to take advantage of free evening and weekend calls with
BT Internet you must remember to connect with your Free Call dialler
during the free call periods from 6pm-midnight Monday to Thursday and
6pm Friday to Midnight Sunday. If you do not have this dialler please
download it now from the BT Internet homepage on:

http://www.btinternet.com/html/new_0800.shtml

If you would like to upgrade your access to include BT Internet Free
Evening and Weekend calls, you can simply visit the homepage and go to
"my account"."

We left out No.3 in the letter as it wasn't to do with BTI, not really anyway. Take note that using their dialler is just the same as using your dun, it makes no difference.

News - April 14,2000

Official OCM Info - For World Online Customers

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

This is from the General Manager of OCM Ltd.

Every time a call comes in the standard divert charge to OCM is 10p/min at BT Rates and as WOL/Localtel offer 10% discount on all calls it is 9p/min.

This means every time you receive a call and it shows up on OCM you are being charged 9p/min WOL/Localtel rates. If you decide to immediately cancel the call you will be charged 4.5p as this is the minimum charge. If you decide not to cancel the call you have four options. ALL COSTS are to YOU and not the person calling!

1.Voice Over IP - Charged at 9p/min WOL/Localtel rates. This requires mic + speakers.

2. Divert to another number - Charged at 9p/min WOL/Localtel rates to normal land line. Mobile may have different charges.

3. Disconnect from the Internet and continue speaking on phone - Charged at 9p/min WOL/Localtel rates.

4. Divert to Voice Mail - Charged at 9p/min WOL/Localtel rates and national rate to retrieve.

Note: OCM to OCM over IP is free.

and..

We spoke to WOL and they said....

CALL DIVERT Will COST £4/quarter from June 30th and it will only be added if OCM software is downloaded from the WOL site.

General Complaints

By:mark @ 6:41:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Since our more direct 'complaints' page won't go up until the new main page layout is completed, I'm going to do something to help those with problems. We will attempt to list all the general complaints we get no matter which ISP and round them up in a news item like this when we can. The idea being that our readers can use the new 'comments' system to post 'fixes' to the problems or just suggest a solution.

We obviously can't go hunting after every ISP ourselves, only the ones with more major issues. This seems like a good way to get more 'universal' help out to readers. We will try to include our own advice where we can:

Current Complaints
-LineOne/Quip Charging for calls
ISPr Suggestion: Thought we solved this one? Anyway it might be wise to search our news for the answer (ISP name search).

-X-Stream Engaged/Error Messages on 0800
ISPr Suggestion:XS's 0800 number doesn't cover the whole of England just yet and is very overcrowded, nobody knows when they plan to fix these problems. Some people can connect perfectly, while others can't connect at all.

-RedHotAnt Speed Problems
ISPr Suggestion:Even a T3 line may not be enough for RHA to be perfect for modem users, so far ISDN ones have been fine. If you get a slow connection tone (33Kbps etc.) that's not your norm of say 44+Kbps, then it's likely RHA still being a little strained. However other unmetered ISPs can be A LOT worse.

-EzeSurf Sign-up problems
ISPr Suggestion:We will divert any such E-Mails to EzeSurfs own support, they should be dealt with accordingly as Richard is quite a fast worker =).

Hope this new system helps, remember not to shoot the messenger if you disagree with something. These are peoples complaints and not ours and we state as much very clearly, help them if you can.

Business Internet Unmetered

By:mark @ 6:21:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We just welcomed a new mail n our box from the people at Business Internet about the future of their ISP, namely, unmetered:

"Just to let you know we are trying to strike a deal to provide unmetered dial-up services to our small business customers. We have yet to fix a price at this time, but it should tie in nicely with our current metered service.

New services will also provide voicemail, discounted domain name (.com and .co.uk), hosting, design and promotion/marketing.

We are also working on our ISDN side with discounted routers/ta/cards and high quality ISDN Internet access. This will be launched soon, under our http://www.isdnaccess.co.uk site."

BI are currently at the top of my list to be reviewed and so it shouldn't be long before we put theirs up. So far they seem like a very good ISP and one that clearly knows when it's time to expand.

BT Say NO To FREE LOCAL CALLS

By:mark @ 8:38:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We read over @ http://www.barrysworld.com about a piece of news they saw over at Yahoo to do with Free Local Calls. You may remember we rumoured that BT did have long term plans (2 years or so in the future) to introduce such things, so this article comes as no supprise when published now. Have a read of it anyway, HERE.

"There have been rumours that BT was looking at introducing free local calls, but Bonfield was clear:

I don`t think there is anything we`re going to do to free local telephony calls. We`re trying to balance up the positioning of our pricing so it is fair to all our customers and fair from a regulatory point of view."

Ah who cares about Free Local Calls, all we care about are free direct net calls. BT will have to be careful though, we know of two cable companies who might make the big local calls leap.

News - April 13,2000

World Online/Localtel

By:zeon @ 6:53:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Some customers seem pretty angry about these T&C changes and the line rental going up.

You have a number of options if you don't like the new T & C's...

1. Cancel now. This will incur a charge of £18 as you have left before the first year.

2. Cancel before June 30th and after you have been a customer for a year. This will not incur a charge and you will avoid the increase in line rental.

3. There is a faint hope that because of all the customer feedback that they will actually offer a different options for customers not wanting 24/7.

If you cancel you will not be charged for any Screaming.net/World Online calls made during 8am - 6pm from 10th of April until you cancelled.

Lots of people have also suggested that you might want to complain to OFTEL @ http://www.oftel.gov.uk/ and WATCHDOG @ http://www.bbc.co.uk/watchdog/, if you are very unhappy with the new offer.

Something, which has also annoyed people when ringing Localtel/World Online, is the automated phone system and the withdrawal of the 0800 faults line. This is very bad practice on there part, because to report a fault now, you have to phone a local rate number and go through the automated system, this wouldn't be a problem but if you report the fault on your mobile and you can't get straight through to someone it will cost quite a lot of money!

EzeSurf Update

By:mark @ 5:07:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

This morning we were able to ask Richard (EzeSurf Tech bloke) about the DNS TimeOut issues that EzeSurf users have been having. These problems have gone on since day one and Richard was able to give us a reply:

“In regards to the DNS problems planet have got back to us with a few possible ideas as to why these errors are happening. They seem to think that it may not be a problem on our side but possibly a settings error. They are investigating it further as we are here at Ezesurf, and we hope to have a complete explanation and solution to the problem very soon. All I can say in the meantime is watch this space!

Richard”

With the exception of not answering our calls for the 128Kbps ISDN ability 08004u > EzeSurf switchers were originally offered; to be reinstated, EzeSurf has been doing very well. In fact it’s currently one of the top ISPs not only for price but performance, a big leap ahead from the 08004u style we all used to know and hate. Once this DNS situation is fixed then it could well be in line for a silver award, this is how an unmetered ISP really should work.

To date the only new complaints we have had come from two people who can’t seem to sign-up. Something to do with not being able to get through to tech support or still waiting for their sign-up E-Mail, we will pass all such information onto Richard ASAP.

Help Needed

By:mark @ 10:52:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

ISPreview can't possibly review every ISP people ask us to all at once and right now you all want reviews and or a detailed lists of the current Unmetered offerings and which is best etc. The problem is some unmetered ISPs have been directing us to their 0845 services to use as a basis, fine but we are seeing that 70% of the time the 0845 service does not depict the unmetered one. Mainly because the 0845 is usually on a very different network, this is not helpful and making it diffecult for us to review any of them.

Something made even harder when unmetered ISPs don't want to give people (us) temporary (even if just for a week) free accounts, so we have to pay. Obviously if we paid for all of them we'd have to kill ISPreview off as it just isn't even close to practical. This is where we need your help, anybody on an unmetered package really, be it 24/7 or limited FreeCalls.

Firstly we'd like to call upon all unmetered ISPs that we haven't reviewed to send us account details so we CAN review them, that'd at least let us conduct proper tests. Secondly we'd like to call upon all ISPreview readers to help us find out how good these unmetered ISPs really are, try to find out the following:

ISP Name:
Cost (include all offered packages):
URL (chances are we know them all anyway):
Connection speed (modem only):
Average Download Speed (Modem):
Average Download Speed (ISDN64):
Can you multilink ISDN/Modems?:
Multilink Quality:
Average Modem Multiplayer Ping: (only if you play on-line)
Average ISDN Multiplater Ping: (only if you play on-line)

All the other details we can be worked out for ourselves, please keep your info short and direct, explanations ONLY if 100% needed. There are three ways in which you can get this information to us, via E-Mail (Put subject as 'ISPNAME Results', change as required), in a comment post with this news or on our forums. A comment under this news is the best way to do it.

Hopefully this will allow us to cover more ground and have a wider scope of opinion for the review. Please help us if you can and be honest with your details, the more info on any one ISP, the more 'accurate' we can be, one set of details for one ISP isn't enough.

ClaraNet Update

By:mark @ 10:37:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We have been inundated with E-Mails surrounding ClaraNets newest packages that were announced over the web yesterday. We urge you to leave comments under the appropriate news post and stop mailing us as we have asked ClaraNet to read your comments. To sum things up, people aren't very happy =).

I count about 14 E-Mails all saying pretty much the same thing, that's the most we have ever had relating to any one ISP inside 12hours. We are talking with ClaraNet to see what's up and if something can be done, we don't doubt your comments to them would be most useful in helping.

So far most concern is being centered around the GamerZone package, people are angry at Clara for cutting off 6hours and still charging £50 for the same package, with less hours. If they go ahead with it then this would easily make ClaraNet the most expensive unmetered ISP in the UK, not a good start for 2000 =)

E-Mail Reply Delays

By:mark @ 10:30:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Just a quick sorry for not getting back to all of you, my personal policy of 'replying to all but offensive/abusive' E-Mails is getting a tad stretched. All these new unmetered ISPs are forcing us to become the focal point for peoples concerns, problems, complaints, ambitions and all sorts, so much so that it's easy to get overloaded on mail.

We can't deal with everything and since most are personally addressed to me then it's even harder. Remember you can also send some to 'Zeon; (Richard) by using our 'About' section and he'll more than likely get back to you, so will I for that matter if the load can be spread. Right now we have a ton of consumer issues to deal with and it's hard knowing what to say and what not to, we do our best.

Please don't send us 'waste of time' E-Mails though, it just takes up more of our time that could be better spent reviewing, posting news and everything really =)

News - April 12,2000

Great Virgin Net Giveaway Restricted to US

By:Daniel @ 7:45:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We have just found some very suprising news on The Register:

"Virgin Net has said that an initiative to hand out free hardware and Net access in the US is unlikely to be repeated in Britain.

The ISP's comments follow Monday's announcement that Virgin Entertainment is to distribute 10,000 Internet Appliances to users in the US.

In return for the free portable Net access-only products, consumers must agree to have their online habits monitored and be ready to face marketing and advertising plugs from Virgin.

David Murrow of IAN said the company was currently talking to financial services companies and consumer groups interested in the product, but none in Britain or Europe.

Murrow did not rule out the possibility that a similar Net gadget offer could be tailored for the European market."

Well you know how the trend goes. One company introduces a new very popular new deal and the rest follow.

Source: The Register

AOL Beats Back Freeserve Ad Complaints

By:Daniel @ 7:40:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The Register has this interesting article:

"Execs at AOL UK are punching the air with delight after the advertising watchdog turned down a complaint from rival ISP Freeserve that one of its TV ads was misleading.

Two adjudications from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) cleared AOL's ad featuring cyberchick Connie of using unfair comparisons to promote its service.

The complaints centred on an ad that compared the cost of AOL's subscription and toll-free trial with peak access rates using Freeserve.

"...you get ten hours of AOL access including Internet phone calls completely and utterly free," trilled the ad, compared with Freeserve "at BT peak rate (which) could cost as much as £24".

Source: The Register

BT ADSL Rollout speeds up

By:mark @ 6:31:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Thanks to one of ISPreviews keener readers 'Mohamad' for letting us know he received a very interesting update on the status of BT ADSLs broadband rollout:

"As you have registered your interest in ADSL, we want you to be the first to hear about our development and launch of this exciting technology.

We are pleased to announce that our rollout of ADSL is ahead of schedule. The first stage in the rollout is to convert the local exchanges. We have already completed 400, and plan to bring the potential coverage to a third of all UK homes and businesses and 50% of all internet users by the end of June. This is far faster than anything seen in the States or elsewhere in Europe and is on schedule for rollout to customers outside of the trial.

Anyone can find out if their local exchange has been enabled by just entering their phone number on our website. If your exchange has been completed we then need to do a further survey to see if you can receive it.

As the rollout of ADSL comes closer, we will be sending you more details, including our prices and when it will be possible for you to place your order. In the meantime here’s the website for you to bookmark if you haven’t already.

http://www.bt.com/adsl

The BT ADSL Team
Building for the Net Generation"

Wow BT actually ahead of schedule, that's certainly a new one on us =), yet it seems to be true. Sadly I fear that ADSL nor Cable-Modems will ever reach the south coast of England because they just don't seem to care about us grass loving hippies =).

ClaraNets New Packages

By:mark @ 6:26:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

As we revealed exclusively yesterday, ClaraNet have new packages ready for launch, today our E-Mail box was filled with a nice press update curtsy of 'James':

"Full details of all the changes and additions will be on our website (http://www.clara.net/dialup/) shortly, but here are the highlights:

FreeTime Gamezone
This is the new name for the existing 'FreeTime Unlimited' package which we were testing for three months. Starting from 2nd May a new three month test begins: the price is unchanged, the 2 hour cutoff is being dropped, and it will continue to include completely unmetered calls during weekends (midnight friday to midnight sunday) and evenings (6pm to 2am).

FreeTime Unlimited
This is a new account, on test for three months, offering completely unmetered access to the web during evenings (till 2am) and weekends for GBP 9.99. There will be an idle timeout of 10 minutes but no cutoff. The principal difference between this account and FreeTime Gamezone above is that use of this account is restricted to the web, email and newsgroups *only*.

FreeTime 12
This package will remain unchanged however the price of the monthly subscription will be reduced to GBP 4.99, and a new annual option will be made available for just GBP 39.99.

Customers who wish to move to one of the new accounts will be able to do so starting from 2nd May by calling our customer support department or on the web at:

http://www.clara.net/dialup/change.html"

It won't take a moment for you to quickly spot some of the discrepancies in Clara's new tactics, could they be shooting themselves in the foot? The £9.99 package is all very well but limits you to only a select number of services, something that even the smallest unmetered ISPs don't do and STILL provide a good service.

Lets face it, you need download abilities for modern Microsoft O/S's as kind of the rule and if you plan on multiplayer then you need to download 60mb Mods from time to time. Yet the new package is worse than BTIs despite the extra 2hours because it is so limiting. We'd throw the extra two hours away and stick with BTI, as then you have no such limits as Clara will impose (bar 2hr cut's) and you can multilink!

As for the GamerZone package, isn't it exactly the same? The current £50per month one states 2 hour cut offs, but to this very day we have never had one. On top of that it lasts into the early hours of the next day (8am) longer than the new one does, once again a shot in the foot to Clara.

Thankfully light does exist at the end of the tunnel as Clara plans on the introduction of a 24/7 unmetered system in the near future, how near? We don't know. Post your comments and we'll ask ClaraNet to take a look and read your opinions.

NTL Cable-Modems

By:mark @ 9:56:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Thanks to the friendly named 'Barrysworld' crew for informing everybody about some interesting 'Cable-Modem' news, if you live in Nottingham anyway =):

"If you live in Nottingham you should now be able to order your cable modem and get an installation date. Masha sends in word that NTL are taking orders as of yesterday."

You can find a little more over at BW or pop right over here to NTL for even more details. I doubt we'll ever see ADSL or Cable Modems where I am, still there's always ISDN.

Tiny Unmetered Update

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

Thanks to the Net4Nowt crew for informing us that 'Tiny' On-Line (unmetered) has had a bit of an update:

"Although pricing details for the various packages have not been finalised, general manager of Tiny Online, Colin Greene, said "The 24/7 free access, any time, will be significantly under £30, and the off-peak package -- from 6pm to 8am -- will be significantly under £10.

Unlike several of the recently announced unmetered access packages, Tiny claims that there will be no online spending level required, no required amount of Internet calls and no compulsory advertising."

There's more on costs over at Net4Nowt but so far Tiny looks to be going the right way, unmetered access just keeps getting cheaper and cheaper. However I'm still waiting for a 24/7 that lets you connect at 128Kbps with a set 2hour cut off at least =). BTInternet seem the closest you can get for that ATM.

RedHotAnt Raises Charges

By:zeon @ 7:12:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

From the RHA website:

"To maintain a quality level of service and to continue accepting new sign-ups over and above the initial 50,000 available slots from the 2nd May 2000 RedHotAnt's standard tariff charges will be increasing.

The new tariffs have not yet been agreed and will only affect users signing up after this date and will not affect users who signed up prior to this date.

If you haven't signed up already then do so now to secure your place on the RedHotAnt service."

News - April 11,2000

FAQ for World Online Telecom/Screaming.net

By:zeon @ 9:11:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

ISPreview and The Scream! have put together an FAQ about the changes that Screaming.Net and Localtel users are going through at the moment.

The FAQ is HERE

NTL Unmetered ON

By:zeon @ 7:37:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The new service, which went live six days ahead of its original start date, is available to all NTL residential telephone customers. The service called ntlworld features no subscription charge, no call connection charge and no internet call charges.

Source: Yahoo!

AOL 24/7 Unmetered Details

By:mark @ 5:03:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Well we all knew it would happen sooner or later and today we now know a lot more, thanks to 'Darren' for the heads up on this news. From what we have been told and have now partly confirmed by calling AOL ourselves, they intend to launch their 24/7 FreeCall access plan on April 18th.

As of this moment we have no details on prices and from what AOL say, they intend on keeping it under wraps as it's subject to change until the very last minute. However late April is the time that we expected BTSurftime2 to ehumm.. surface and AOL are known to be involved with that, we guess prices might be in BTS2's region.

More news soon..

ClaraNets New FreeCall Service

By:mark @ 4:57:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Thanks to one of our ISPreview readers 'Basil' for letting us know about some exclusive information on the new ClaraNet Service. I think some of you will remember our Interview with ClaraNet, in which we found out about a new CHEAPER FreeCall package on the way. Then TheMatrix.org.uk printed some news several days later, basically stating exactly the same, yet nothing ever happened.

Thankfully 'Basil' had better luck getting some new information out of Clara than we ever had:

"We're just about to announce a similar service, 6pm - 2am weekdays and all weekend for £9.99"

That's two hours more than with BTInternet, although they won't allow 128Kbps ISDN. Their current package costs £50 for 6pm - 7am or 8am, or something along those lines. Personally I could do with the extra hours of the old package, but cheaper. Speaking of which I could also do with 128KBps, don't know about you lot but I'd pay £50per month for 128KBps 24/7 with no cut-offs =)

THE EzeSurf UPDATE

By:mark @ 1:15:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Wow it takes a long time to converse with that EzeSurf lot, still we managed it and finally have answers to at least 90% of the questions we shot off at them previously:

1) The older 08004u > Ezesurf subscribers were offered 128Kbps as a part of it (same price and everything), yet we aren't allowed to connect @ 128KBps unless we buy a second account (now):

Answer: We are still trying to sort this out, EzeSurf is now quite adapt at dodging the issue =).

2) Web space is currently 15mb, yet it used to be 20 or 25mb:

Answer: They have agreed to put it back to 20mb and admitted to unfairly changing it.

3) Caledonian Internet seem to be EzeSurf under a different name, why?

Answer: (quoted)
"Caledonian Internet are an independent ISP who are re-sellers of the Ezesurf package. They have a few bugs to work out and at this moment you can only sign up for the surfsaver package through them. They are our "Guinea Pigs" if you like for the Eze-agent reseller package we have put together. This package will become available for anyone who wishes to resell ezesurf."

4) Not showing the T&C's to new users until recently, thus making any T&C's void for earlier subscribers and also changing their T&C's without informing readers:

Answer: (quoted)
"As for terms and conditions, yeah we have not been the best at that. The website at the moment is getting a full revamp and will include full support pages and T&C's."

5) Rumours about financial problems and staff payment issues:

Answer: We never believed the rumours either and it looks like we were right not to post news about them. All are false and we would guess were made up by impersonators on IRC in the EzeSurf support channel, same reason we don't use IRC Chat as the main system.

We'd call that a fairly good result, although users who paid all that money for the original EzeSurf package and 08004u one SHOULD get their 128Kbps ISDN ability. Yes and we mean WITHOUT having to buy a second account!

After all they do seem to occupy the same location and it WAS in the original (and ONLY) FreeCall EzeSurf package (and 08004u), changing the name of an ISP after a take over is not a valid way to get out of a previously signed and agreed service agreement =). We hope to have the answer on that soon.

PhoneBills Site Updated

By:mark @ 12:55:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Finally, after several months of waiting the much used site http://www.phonebills.org.uk has been updated. Thanks to http://www.barrysworld.com for the news, phonebills is a site dedicated to helping YOU find the best call deal(s) around. It's really quite clever and is something we would have done long ago had they not already, whats the point in doing something that's been done better?

CallNet0800 Slowing.... Down... Slow..

By:mark @ 12:49:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

This morning we recieved two E-Mails complaining that CallNet0800 seems to be slowing down. We tried to connect today and found the same situation and noticed at least 10 other complaints above the norm on the newsgroups. From what we can guess or at the very least, understand, this is because CallNet0800 just sent out a further 60,000 boxes (roughly) to Pre-2000 subscribers.

Obviously if you get that many people (including us) with new boxes and get at least 20,000 extra on the service, there's going to be problems. ISPreview once again asks itself, why oh why don't ISPs upgrade !BEFORE! getting more users on-line? Especially if they know ther'll actually get them!

GlobalSoho a no show?

By:mark @ 12:45:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We have been seeing A LOT of complaints about GlobalSoho who seem to have vanished off the face of the earth after getting thousands to sign-up with them. Having just checked we can see that the situation hasn't changed, it's been like this for nearly a week.

We tried the E-Mail, phone and even fax numbers that we had, yet all seemed not to exist anymore. Looks like another scam has got away with all your details =(, better get ready to block those new 'Porn' E-Mails out hehe. If we knew the right people we could then follow this up and catch the b#@%7$s, however we don't know god and so it's really all down to you lot =)

Chat With Visual Depth

By:mark @ 12:33:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The good old team at the ever popular Net4Nowt has managed to set-up a live chat with the team behind 'Visual Depth'. VD (hehe VD) are the people bringing one of the better unmetered services your way in the coming weeks:

"All visitors to Net 4 Nowt will be given the opportunity to chat with representatives from the soon-to-be-launched unmetered ISP Visual Depth.

This coming Saturday at 9pm the chat room will be the place to find out the latest developments from Visual Depth. They are expecting to launch later this month, but our visitors will have the chance to ask them questions on their new service.

Their 24/7 unmetered access is expected to cost less than £60 per year with a set-up fee of under £25."

We aren't quite sure what makes them so different that they need a live chat to tell us all the answers (they do have a web page, don't they?), still might be worth a visit. Last time we popped into N4N's chat room they just sat there while we tried to speak and talked to each other, how nice =)

News - April 10,2000

World Online - Freedom 24 Chat!

By:zeon @ 7:28:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The Scream has informed us that they are having a big chat about the Screaming.net/Localtel to World Online - Freedom 24 on their IRC channel tonight. Details are irc.esper.net channel #thescream

The Netscape Boutique

By:Daniel @ 7:06:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

I have just found this intresting bit of news over at Pc Format

"Electronics Boutique is going to become a key retail distribution channel for Netscape Online, making it Electronics Boutique's exclusive Internet Service Provider. Co-branded Netscape Online/Electronics Boutique.

CDs will be distributed and promoted in each of Electronics Boutique's 192 stores nationwide. We're not sure if this means you get a Netscape Online CD put into every bag when you make a purchase from Electronics Boutique, or if you can pick them up free at the store."

Also this is my first post with the new news system so if u spot any errors sorry!

Localtel = World Online Telecom

By:zeon @ 1:25:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Localtel have changed their name to World Online Telecom and Screaming.net is now 24/7. Line Rental will go up to £14.99/month from 30th June. Screaming.net will be available for another 6 months then the Screaming.net e-mail addresses will be switched off. Existing Localtel Customers can signup for a new e-mail address @worldonline.co.uk.

From 9am this morning Screaming.net was free to Localtel Customers. So now if you are a Localtel customer and dial screaming.net at anytime you will not be charged for the call.

The full text of the letter sent to all Localtel customers is HERE

EzeSurf Gone Dead?

By:mark @ 10:14:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We are starting to hear some rather disturbing rumours coming from inside EzeSurf, several rather worrying messages have been posted on newsgroups/chat and even in our own 'comments system'. In fact our own EzeSurf guy that we usually talk to, and mostly deals with support, seems to have vanished off the earth. We won’t be the ones to start a panic, so will retain the details until we hear back from EzeSurf (one week and counting [best James Bond voice]).

If we don’t hear back from him soon then we’ll just go right ahead and publish what we have found out anyway. We did get some answers to our previous list, just waiting on the 128Kbps ISDN one that's so important to many of you.

Lawbreaking ISPs

By:mark @ 9:15:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Remember how over the weekend we exposed how CallNet0800 among what could be many more, were breaking the law? They did this by putting customers on-hold and making them listen to music down their technical support line, fair enough that’s a crime in itself =) but the difference here is that it was a premium rate number (50p a min). We recently found out that was illegal, see our previous posts on the subject HERE and HERE for more.

Now on Sunday we received E-Mail from somebody who works for the companies that supply’s several ISPs premium rate numbers (iDesk Plc), namely:

ic24 - 50p/min
c&w - some premium numbers on some tariffs
totalise -50p/min
compaqnet – premium

In order to protect out source we won’t be saying any names or giving away too much, obviously this person doesn’t want to loose their job. Our friendly informant had this to say:

“Now I am certain that these companies are placing you on hold when there is no agent available you hear music and dumb voice messages, which I am certain you are being charged for. I know the local rate numbers charge you while you are on hold before an agent is available. We use the same telephony system to handle the premium calls so I assume that they are charged for too. Obviously this only happens when it is busy or when not many staff. Although if it is illegal; it shouldn't happen full stop.

We support this and many other ISPs that I am worried may be breaking the law by placing many customers on hold. (Probably unintentionally as a company)”

We intend to investigate this further as lets face it, illegal or not (it is though hehe), if you’re paying 50p a minute for technical support then you should be getting it! If we wanted to listen to music while paying 50p a minute then there are plenty of other numbers we could call =).

This is the part where we need your help; if you have ever been charged while on-hold using a premium rate number (must have been while on hold!), then contact us NOW! Anonymous complaints are no good if this ends up as legal action to get your money back, so please at least allow us to use your name and E-Mail address (privately). Any evidence such as a phone bill is also helpful, mostly we just need your name/E-mail and a short statement about what happened and of course the ISP involved. Hopefully this will never go beyond a simple warning and request for repayment to those unfairly charged. Update when we know more.

World Online Freedom 24 - More Details

By:zeon @ 7:13:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

User of World Online are beginning to receive this e-mail:

"Dear World Online subscriber

Last week we told you about our fantastic new service Freedom 24.

Freedom 24 is our new unmetered internet access service, and you can sign up TODAY!

It gives you:

· Free, unlimited internet telephone calls, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
· Free internet access
· Low cost telephone calls

You also get:

· Free 'Online Call Manager' messaging service so you don't miss a phone call when you're online
· Free unlimited email addresses
· Free 12 Mb of personal web space

Click here now to find out the rest of the details and to switch to our new Freedom 24 service. http://www.worldonline.co.uk/freedom24/index_1.html

Of course, you don't have to switch to Freedom 24. You can continue to use your existing internet service with World Online at local call rates the choice is yours!

Laurence Alexander
Best wishes,
Managing Director of Consumer Services
http://www.worldonline.co.uk"

Looks like people will have to do something to get the free calls to the Internet. No mention of Localtel in there, but the "Low cost telephone calls" might mean something. The url given in the e-mail currently gives a 404. It will probably be live after the announcement though.

Source: Newsgroups

News - April 9,2000

ISPreview Weekly Update

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

Another week and yet another weekly update, so what have we got on our paws for this week you ask? Well the most notable things would have to be that we plan to do a huge update to our ISP Listings since they have been seriously neglected of late. Other than that we will install a manually operated ‘ISP Complaints’ page, which is where we will note down issues we are aware of with specific ISPs thanks to our readers.

The other big thing is that our own ISP Service that’s currently nick named ‘ISPreview On-Line’ (oh yes the genius of it all =]) is coming along. We can’t answer ANY questions on it yet and not for a little while anyway. Suffice to say FreeCalls may be on the cards for the not so distant future =). Then the next course of action is to do with trying to solve some bugs in the ISPreview code (Oh, please don’t use Netscape6Beta – it doesn’t understand certain table commands like v4 does yet).

We have tried for ages to find a logical pattern in the bug that causes ISPreview to hang for a small portion of people and in some cases, crash, for just a few others. However to no avail, all the code like JS and banners is in the header and footer files, yet when we put them together on their own page then the bug fails to surface. Now every sub page on ISPreview has been seen to cause the bug as well, yet all they have is the same header/footer and their own BASIC HTML content.

Since the bug doesn’t occur with Netscape v4.5 and up (tested), we have to assume that it’s also something to do with IE4/5’s code and most likely a bug with it. To date we still believe it’s to do with the banners, as it seems almost entirely random, more tests will continue. While testing I did notice something more serious, that ISPreviews content is fast outgrowing the page itself, so in the near future there will be a re-design for at least the main page.

That just about covers it for this week; projects like Hosting Review are still set for the summer so we rather focus on ISPreview right now.