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April 10, 2001 - April 17, 2001

News - April 17,2001

BT Claims First 3G Voice Call - Not Vodafone

By:mark.j @ 4:07:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Earlier today Vodafone announced it had become the first British operator to successfully make a voice call over its fledgling 3G (3rd Generation broadband wireless) network. However BT has now reminded the public that it claimed the same thing on 19th March:

BT-owned Manx Telecom’s 3G network is currently under construction, and should be working within weeks, according to the company.

Mark Briers, project manager Manx Telecom, said: “We are currently connecting our 3G radio sites to the core network, and took delivery of 3G video handsets last Wednesday – I would say we are a bit further ahead than Vodafone here!

The Manx 3G network is due to launch commercially by early May, while Vodafone has claimed that UK 3G rollout will occur by June 2002.


The netimperative.com item shows that you shouldn't always boast about something unless you're absolutely sure it’s correct. Of course the Manx end of BTCellnet is more business related, its residential consumer rollout would take place in a similar period to Vodafone’s.

ISP Review Site/Forum Update(s)

By:mark.j @ 1:20:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Some readers have informed us that following the addition of the ISP Specific forums things (forum content) had become a little too complex and sometimes confusing. In response we have today made some changes to help make things easier on the eye.

Firstly the big blue notice box at the top of both forums has now been removed. We've also removed the new 'Broadband Sub Topics' on the General Discussion Forum and gone back to the way it was, with one category and four general broadband subjects for general discussion. This is as opposed to four categories and four subjects for each broadband type - good coverage, but too strong for most.

Following that we've also given the general forum a new topic called 'Website Hosting & Discussion', which some asked for and is an important/uncovered part of ISPs. We also added a new announcement topic under the 'Website' category so it's easier to see any updates there (not for public posting).

Finally the 'Forums' link at the top of the site (header) now takes you to a special summary page, which explains what each forum is as well as giving some help and rules. We hope this makes things a little easier for you, the readers.

Jedi Knights Not To Be Recognised Religion

By:mark.j @ 12:52:PM - Comments (3) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Yoda and StarWars fans alike were stunned by an email hoax suggesting that the forthcoming UK Census would recognise "Jedi" as a religion if enough people put it on their form. However according to The Office of National Statistics, such a stunt wouldn't have worked.

Yoda is reported to have issued the following statement, "rrrrmmmmmmmmmmmm much confusion I see.... rmmmmmmmmmmmm toilet I need rmmmmmmmm census form I use rmmmmmm."

Star Wars enthusiasts were asked in the email to enter "Jedi" into the box asking their religion.

Unfortunately, according to a spokesman at the Office of National Statistics, this simply isn't true.

"There won't be any coding for 'Jedi'," he said. "So it won't be called a religion even if 10,000 people do it."


If you ever needed proof that you can't trust what a chain letter says then this is it =).

AOL Worldwide Claims 29 Million Users

By:mark.j @ 8:54:AM - Comments (3) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
AOL (America Online), otherwise known as media and Internet powerhouse AOL TimeWarnder, has today issued a statement claiming to have surpassed the 29,000,000 subscriber mark to its worldwide ISP services.

Up roughly 1,000,000 on last month the company, which reports first-quarter earnings on Wednesday, said AOL members were averaging about 70 minutes (1:10) online daily, up from 64 (+6) minutes a year ago. On March 8, AOL said its membership rose to over 28 million.

"I think it's a little bit better than we expected," said Robert Martin, an analyst at Friedman, Billings, Ramsey. "Whenever they report subscriber numbers, it factors into the revenue implications, but people generally believe that the subscription dollars will offset any weakness on the ad side."

AOL Time Warner said separately that it introduced a new version of its AOL Mobile service to cell phones that incorporates a shopping category and content from new partners including eBay Inc., the online auction site, and Travelocity.com Inc., the travel reservation site.

The new version of its AOL Mobile service is available through Sprint PCS Wireless Web and AT&T Digital PocketNet Premium service.

Shares of AOL Time Warner were up 65 cents at $42.87 on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock is down about 20% from year-ago levels, outperforming most Internet media shares, which are down 90% from year-ago levels.

AOL continues to expand and grow, so does Connie get any credit? No, poor lass.

Vodafone Makes First 3G Voice Call

By:mark.j @ 8:48:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Mobile phone giant Vodafone has said it made the first live 3G (third generation / broadband wireless) voice call in Britain.

"Our announcement of the first 3G voice call marks yet another significant milestone in the development of our multimedia services and forms part of our rollout plans for 3G mobile," Vodafone UK's chief operating officer Gavin Darby said in a statement on Tuesday.

Quite how they did it and what the results were we don't know, although it does show that even before 2.5G GPRS phones are available, 3G is already heavily underway.

3G Could Hamper EUs Economic Growth

By:mark.j @ 8:45:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Already the cost involved with most EU countries in purchasing initial 3G (3rd Generation / Broadband Wireless) licenses has been a huge burden on operators and services. Now the costs of physically building the networks are expected to cause economic chaos and could hamper the overall growth of the EU:

European ministers have warned that the costs of building third-generation (3G) mobile networks to support broadband speeds could threaten the economic growth of the EU, unless steps are taken to ease the burden on telecoms operators which paid billions of pounds for 3G licences. If the carriers run into financial problems, it could delay the rollout of 3G mobile services for corporates.

Among suggestions for easing the debt burden are that licence holders should be allowed to share the cost of building 3G infrastructure, and governments should defer payments for the licences.

The German regulator has indicated it may reverse an earlier veto and let licence holders team up to build 3G infrastructure. In the UK, telecoms regulator Oftel said it would wait to see what the operators wanted.


Quite what will happen remains to be seen, although the ZDNet item does at least show that government and regulators are preparing for action of some kind.

Tiscali Bags Another ISP

By:mark.j @ 8:36:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
The big hands of pan-European and Italian based ISP Tiscali have once again reach out to expand ever further with the acquisition of the planet-interkom ISP. BT Wireless German subsidiary VIAG Interkom is responsible for the sale:

The move comes as VIAG Interkom, which was bought outright by BT in January, strives to get rid of its non-mobile interests. It spun off its fixed-network business earlier this year.

Maximilian Ardelt, CEO of VIAG Interkom in a statement said: “Of course this doesn't mean we are saying goodbye to the Internet. Rather, the company is concentrating on mobile data services, including mobile Internet access. This is the future of mobile communications and m-commerce for us.


Costing roughly 15,000,000Euros and 4,000,000 in Tiscali shares, the deal is certainly a large and powerful one. More @ netimperative.com.

News - April 15,2001

ISP Review Weekly Update

By:mark.j @ 10:29:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
I'll keep this update short because today is of course 'Easter Sunday'. Firstly the 0845 'FREE' listings have been completed and linked in, although we still have the 'subscription 0845' listings to finalise.

At present we're preparing to upgrade the new forums with the latest release, sadly this means a lot of work because we have to re-add our own hacks and code back in every new upgrade. Despite that we will also be adding in some of the features people have asked for and improve the layout a little.

The upgrade shouldn't affect the forum uptime by anything more than an hour, although it'll take several days to physically code the enhancements. No date has been set for this, although we expect it to be done this coming week.

Finally we also have a couple of articles coming in the next week, although that depends on time due to Easter etc. So have a nice weekend and enjoy the break, we probably won't be too active on Monday because it's a bank holiday.

BTCellnet Suffers GPRS Teething Problems

By:mark.j @ 10:20:AM - Comments (5) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
BT Cellnets trial GPRS (General Packet Radio Services) have come under fire today after several many of the customers testing the services complained of problems:

BT has been operating its GPRS network since September last year, but it currently treats data as a low priority. In periods of peak usage, customers have reported difficulties in making data calls. Users have also complained about quick-draining handset batteries, low throughput of data and frequent delays.

"We monitor the success rates of both voice calls and GPRS continuously, and it may not be our network at fault here, it could be the customer infrastructure," said Peter Lisle, GPRS programme manager at BT Cellnet. Lisle went on to urge any customers encountering problems to get in touch with the company.

However, experts in the industry said teething problems with GPRS were probably inevitable. Virtyt Koshi, a senior consultant at analyst company Ovum, said: "It appears that BT under-dimensioned its network by not providing enough resources to support demand. GPRS is at an initial stage in development. No one in the world has any real practical experience of it."


What ZDNet doesn't point out is that BTCellnets previous WAP services suffered similar problems and yet STILL have them today, that said and things should get better. With barely a month or two before mobile operators start churning out GPRS services we have to hope these issues can be fixed in time.

News - April 14,2001

TheDogmaGroup Slap Connect25 Over E-Mail

By:mark.j @ 9:01:AM - Comments (12) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Following on from Connect25's price hike last week and also their E-Mail change, TheDogmaGroup have today hit back with their own press release and a potential solution for such C25 users:

THEDOGMAGROUP.COM PROVIDE FREE EMAIL AND FREE WEBSPACE TO ALL CONNECT25 USERS

We have been suprised to learn that Connet25.co.uk are no longer choosing to support their customers email addresses via the unmetered dial-up solution. For this reason, I have spoken to my marketing director who has agreed plans to allow Connect25 customers to have free email and webspace via our servers: we have chosen to take this path because - as Internet users our selves, we can see what a problem users face because they have to log off an unmetered service and log on to a metered one to receive their email - we find this totally unacceptable.

Users wishing to take the oppurtunity of receiving FREE EMAIL and WEBSPACE can look forward to the following:

FREE EMAIL IN THE FORM OF whatever@onlineserve.co.uk
FREE WEBSPACE IN THE FORM OF www.whatever.onlineserve.co.uk
FREE SMTP RELAY CONFIGURES SOLEY FOR THE CONNECT25 RANGE OF IP ADDRESSES
NO ADS -NO BANNERS
QUICK AND EASY SETUP
FREE TECHNICAL SUPPORT VIA MEMERS WEBSITE & EMAIL


Their are some Terms and conditions to this service which are listed below, and we believe these to be common sense rules that apply to all Internet activity:

The Internet is a powerful information and entertainment tool. We would expect our customers to use the Internet with respect, courtesy, and responsibility, giving due regard to the rights of other Internet users.

As a major provider to the Internet community, our acceptable use policy is designed to produce a better environment for us all. Common sense is the best guide as to what is considered acceptable use.

The following are unacceptable uses.

Illegality
In any form, including but not limited to activities such as unauthorised distribution or copying of copyrighted software, harassment, fraud, trafficing in obscene material, drug dealing, and other illegal activities.

Net abuse
Including but not limited to activities such as using a nonexistent return e-mail address on a commercial solicitation, spamming (sending unsolicited advertising to numerous e-mail addresses or newsgroups and/or generating a significantly higher volume of outgoing email than a normal user), trolling (posting outrageous messages in newsgroups to generate numerous responses), mail-bombing (sending multiple messages without significant new content to the same user), subscribing someone else to a mailing list without that person's permission, cross-posting articles to an excessive number of newsgroups, or attempting without authorisation to enter into a secured computer system.

Tortuous Conduct
Including but not limited to posting of defamatory, scandalous, or private information about a person without their consent, intentionally inflicting emotional distress, or violating trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property rights.

Misuse Of System Resources
Including but not limited to employing posts or programs which consume excessive CPU time, band width or storage space.

We reserve the right to determine what constitutes acceptable use.

TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS FANTASTIC DEAL email sales@thedogmagroup.co.uk with your required email address, password and webspace address and we will have your free account up and running in less than 30mins.

We will then send you the auto-update .ins file to work with Internet Explorer and Outlook Express to update your settings,

We welcome all Connect25 customers with open arms to THEDOGMAGROUP.COM


Although we disagree with Connect25's actions, especially in light of their price hike, this is merely a press release trying to tag on to the growing anger among some Connect25 users. That said and it's a free service with some special options, although Connect25 aren't likely to be very happy.

That said and perhaps they should have considered not taking the action they did beforehand.

News - April 13,2001

HAPPY EASTER!!

By:mark.j @ 3:54:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
ISP Review would like to take a moment and wish you all a Happy Easter. For some it's a time of religious belief, for others it's about chocolate eggs and for the rest of us it's to do with getting a couple of extra days off work =).

Don't forget to spare a thought for the Easter bunny, as we reported on last year he had come out his recuperation period with 'Easter Eggs Anonymous' and should be back in full swing for Sunday.

It's never easy having to carry roughly 30,000,000 chocolate eggs around at any one time, thank god he only has to do it once every year. At least Santa has elves, what does the Easter bunny have? Eh? Probably some Pneumatic arms and a hard hat - not quite the image we're used to.

Expect the usual weekly update on either Monday or Saturday.

SurfAnytime Acquire NextCall

By:mark.j @ 3:03:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
This should help answer some of the questions floating around our forum today:

Press Release
------------------------------------
SurfAnytime are proud to announce the recent acquisition of the ISP interests of http://www.nextcall.net

This, coupled with a highly successful launch has greatly increased our customer base and is one way of telling people "we're here to stay!".

As a company the primary goal of SurfAnytime is customer satisfaction. In an age where the Internet plays such an important role in education, business and entertainment, SurfAnytime can offer customers a superior service at affordable realistic prices.

SurfAnytime launched on 3rd of April 2001 and is one of a new breed of
FRIACO based ISPs.

Save The World! - Logoff The Internet

By:mark.j @ 9:45:AM - Comments (10) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
An American environmentalist group is trying to stage a massive 'Logoff The Internet' day in order to not only help save the Internet, but the planet as well:

"Internet usage may seem innocuous enough," the http://www.savecyberspace.org site, mentioned in the release, warned. "But the servers that feed this information to the public run on real power. And most of this power gets generated by burning fossil fuels which pumps tons of green house gases into the atmosphere."

"This in turn aggravates the already critical Global Warming situation."

The site states that, unless surfers were prudent with dwindling Internet resources, the Net may not survive. "And even if it does, the planet's ecosystem may be severely damaged. Conservation now may be the only way we can save Cyberspace for the rest of the world and for our own children," it warned.


The Register states that the proposed logoff is set to happen on Monday 23rd April 2001 at noon. Of course they've made a few mistakes in their assumptions.

Firstly noon isn't such a busy period and secondly, while people use there computers then they won't be doing other things - such as driving a car. This produces more pollution than the power needed to run a modern PC - PC power comes from a more refined source etc. (varies).

The other issue is that of the Internets bandwidth, the problem is getting it installed - we're in no real danger of running out. Of course if you’re annoyed at Mr Bush for screwing up the environmental summit recently then by all means Logoff.

Email Monitoring Law (RIP) Suffers Delay

By:mark.j @ 9:33:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
It's beginning to look as if British firms may have to wait until the end of the year before the Information Commission tells them how much the Data Protection Act allows the monitor staff emails:

Last October, the commission launched a public consultation with a view to publishing a final version early this spring. However, following the Kournikova virus in February and suggestions that monitoring staff emails to prevent similar incidents could contravene rights to privacy under the law, assistant commissioner David Smith said the policy was being revised and suggested that it would be ready by early summer. This week the Commission was unable to specify a new release date for the code, and now Christmas looks to be the likely date.

The Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIP) Act gives firms the right to monitor staff emails, but there is confusion over whether this puts them in contravention of the Data Protection Act. The Information Commission's guidelines are intended to help firms navigate this legal minefield.


What surprises us most about the ZDNet item is how the government and those that drew up the law could have missed so many of the obvious issues coming out now.

Excite Europe To Be Sold

By:mark.j @ 9:28:AM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Excite, the popular search engine linked in with The Free Internets (TFI) unmetered ISP, has been approached by potential buyers and may soon be sold.

A deal could potentially be done for just Excite UK, which is 42% owned by British Telecommunications, or the entire European operation -- worth somewhere between £35-70 million pounds at current valuations.

Last April, at the height of the dotcom gold rush, Excite Europe had been considering a two billion pound flotation.

Italian Internet service provider Tiscali has expressed interest in the UK, while analysts say other potential buyers include France's Wanadoo and Germany's T-Online.

An Excite sale would mark another round of consolidation among European Internet firms. On Thursday, BT sold German ISP Planet-Interkom to Tiscali for £48 million pounds.

There's probably only room at the top for two or three pan-European Internet companies, although other specialist operators could exist on the sidelines.

Excite UK, with one million users, as of February 2001, is the fifth most used Internet portal in the UK.

News - April 12,2001

KeConnect Internet Launches Unmetered ISP

By:mark.j @ 6:35:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
KeConnect, a previously unheard of service provider, has today become the latest ISP to join the growing number making use of cheaper FRIACO/BTSurfPort24 systems in order to offer an unmetered ISP - full and exclusive press release follows:

PRESS ANNOUNCEMENT

From KeConnect Internet Ltd
www.KeMe.com



KeConnect Internet launches KeMe
24/7 unmetered Internet for a flat-rate £14.95 a month.

Our service is based on the FRIACO agreement, which we generally regard as a more robust and financially sustainable way to provide an unmetered service. Our subscribers will benefit because it is run on an IP network dedicated to Internet traffic and, as always, we are committed to providing our customers with the best service available at the best possible price.

There are no hidden charges, no unwieldy contracts and no need to change telephone provider, plus unlimited e-mail addresses and 50MB of Web space.

KeMe is the residential service of KeConnect Internet Ltd, formed in 1987 and now a major provider of Internet related products and services to the business community. The company has agreements in place with a number of Local Authorities, Local Chambers of Commerce, and Educational Organisations to provide direct connection to the Internet. In the last fourteen years our business philosophy, to offer high levels of commitment, a personalised service and an ethical approach to sales of IT products and services, has not changed. The KeConnect Web site regularly receives over 2 million hits every month and its growing list of business users enjoy fast, easily affordable access to the Internet with the highest levels of reliability and technical support.

Launching the KeMe 24/7 unmetered service for residential users was a natural progression for KeConnect, drawing upon our wealth of experience and understanding of the Internet user's requirements. We are an Internet Service Provider (ISP), licensed by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Office of Telecommunications (OFTEL). We are well positioned to offer and provide quality support to this new FRIACO based service, along with the necessary in-house Technical Advisers and Customer Care teams.


For more information, please visit www.KeMe.com or contact us at:

KeMe.com
KeConnect Internet Ltd


The service appears to offer more web space than most of the others, however performance and quality of support will be known in time. There’s now more unmetered options for consumers than ever before.

MS Fixes Another E-Mail Security Flaw

By:mark.j @ 3:40:PM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
If you're running Microsoft Internet Explorer v5 to 5.5 then you might want to pay a visit to THIS PAGE. It houses a fix for the latest vulnerability to affect the browser, which Microsoft explains as follows:

Technical description:
Because HTML e-mails are simply web pages, IE can render them and open binary attachments in a way that is appropriate to their MIME types. However, a flaw exists in the type of processing that is specified for certain unusual MIME types. If an attacker created an HTML e-mail containing an executable attachment, then modified the MIME header information to specify that the attachment was one of the unusual MIME types that IE handles incorrectly, IE would launch the attachment automatically when it rendered the e-mail.

An attacker could use this vulnerability in either of two scenarios. She could host an affected HTML e-mail on a web site and try to persuade another user to visit it, at which point script on a web page could open the mail and initiate the executable. Alternatively, she could send the HTML mail directly to the user. In either case, the executable attachment, if it ran, would be limited only by user’s permissions on the system.

Mitigating factors:

The vulnerability could not be exploited if File Downloads have been disabled in the Security Zone in which the e-mail is rendered. This is not a default setting in any zone, however.


Well we think 'SHE' must need the patch.

Patricia Hewitt On e-Government Failings

By:mark.j @ 3:34:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
British E-Minister, Patricia Hewitt, has admitted that the government isn't exactly up to scratch on broadband and their own e-services:

"Not everything is perfect and we aren't moving fast enough in every area, including broadband and e-government," Patricia Hewitt told Computing in an exclusive interview. "We are all learning as we go along. I'm not complacent but some of the more pessimistic reports are inaccurate."

Of broadband she said: "We are now in fast catch-up mode to Germany and Scandinavia and ahead of other countries in Europe. My sense is that the market is building up, and in six months we will see a strong upturn in the use of broadband."

"The arrival of local loop [unbundling] coincided with the slowdown in the market. This means companies have not put their money where their mouth is and placed orders. Our next step is to push broadband into the parts of the country that can't be reached by ADSL or cable."


The VNUNet item is in stark contrast to recently released statistics that showed the UK behind almost ALL other European countries with broadband and barely ahead of Korea. At least they’re being partially honest, which makes a change.

Thankfully with newer xDSL standards such as RADSL on the verge of public inception then ‘Things can only get better..’ – or not.

New Reviews @ ISP Review

By:mark.j @ 12:17:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Today we've added two new UK ISP reviews, this time of the 'cheaper calls' ISP, SupaNet and the standard 0845 provider, CNG:

SupaNet - http://www.ispreview.co.uk/reviews/supanet/

CNG - http://www.ispreview.co.uk/reviews/cng/

CloudNine Ends 12Month Minimum Contract

By:mark.j @ 11:28:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
CloudNine seem to be having a press release frenzy this week and today yet another change to their services has been announced, albeit a comparatively small one. They intend to end the '12 Month Minimum Contract' rule, which they never truly enforced:

PRESS RELEASE

Thursday 12th April 20001


As part of our ongoing process of review, simplification of polices and making our terms of use more transparent, Cloud Nine have this week changed our T&C's to end our previous 12 month minimum contract for monthly-paid unmetered dial-up packages.

We have never really enforced this part of our T&C's and it is really a case of official policy catching up with current practice.

We have instead issued a simple cancellation form for customers on monthly-paid contracts available at http://www.mysurftime.com/servicecancellation.doc and have implemented a cancellation charge of £25+vat if a monthly-paid dial-up contract is cancelled within the first 12 months. Thereafter no charge is payable. The charge will not apply if an account has never been used.

The reason for the cancellation charge is simple. Cloud Nine have no set-up charge and have no wish to introduce one since this would penalise our loyal customers who stay with us for years at a time. Furthermore, Cloud Nine provide a domain name with most of our packages so do have to bear an upfront cost and also most support provided is up front too. The charge is set at a reasonable rate that reflects these factors and other associated costs with any early termination.

Connect25 Raise Prices AGAIN!

By:mark.j @ 10:40:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Customers of the popular unmetered ISP Connect25 will not be so happy to learn that not long after the last hike, C25 have once again raise their prices to £12.95 Per Month.

For an ISP that originally set out with a tag of £49 per year and enthusiastically stated such a price was possible, we disagreed; this is a real smack in the face for existing customers.

In the past we've ignored such problems as signup delays and fluctuating service issues due to being so much cheaper, yet this new price puts them into a more mainstream bracket with SurfPort24 ISPs.

According to the FAQ's the 1hour cut off is still valid, which is a pity because for 5p more you could go with an ISP that has a 2hour cut. On top of that it's also been confirmed (via FAQ) that the E-Mail change is official, yet another smack in the face:

Do I get a free email account?
Yes, it will start yourname@c25web.co.uk

Do I get free webspace to design my own website?
Yes, it will start www.yourname.c25web.co.uk


For an ISP that once stood to pride itself as a haven for 'Light Usage' customers, it's certainly managed to do a full U-Turn in a very short space of time. C25 have now lost their economical edge over others and placed them in a market that sees quality of service and support held in higher regard than service cost. The question is, can they win out or will the bigger opposition end up eating them alive?

Opera 5.10 Web Browser Update Released

By:mark.j @ 9:37:AM - Comments (4) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Opera is fast becoming the third most used web browser in the world, with IE at No.1 and Netscape still hanging firmly @ No.2. However Opera isn't perfect, the 5.01 release brought it closer to the likes of IE and Netscape, yet fell short.

Now version 5.10 has been released and contains the following new features as well as some bug fixes:
-Skins
-Flash Enabled
-New progress display & stop button
-Work faster with improved mouse navigation
-Improved window handling
-More privacy
-Updated E-mail client
-Better DOM and CSS support
-Bug fixes...


You can get a full low down on what all of this means HERE.

Connect25 To Change E-Mails

By:mark.j @ 9:22:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Please bare in mind that we haven't managed to confirm this yet, although it has been quoted to us by three people, the first being Keith:

From Thursday, 12th April 2001 Connect 25 will no longer support connect25.co.uk email addresses. Therefore any C25 user who has an email address like '...@connect25.co.uk' will no longer be able to use it.

All members can apply for a new free email address in the format '...@c25web.co.uk' but will only work through the 0845 service and not the unmetered.

The free email section on their website has the following:

For your Free email account, please call 0702 111 3535 (Open Good Friday, Bank Holiday Tuesday)


A quick visit to http://www.c25web.co.uk shows that the domain does exist, although there are some differences in the 'whois' data:

Connect25.co.uk:
Registered For: Vince Caimano
Domain Registered By: WEBLEICESTER

NS1.WEBLEICESTER.CO.UK 195.146.160.2
NS2.WEBLEICESTER.CO.UK 195.146.160.3


c25web.co.uk:
Registered For: Cash4links.Net Ltd
Domain Registered By: NWNET

NS0.TELINCO.NET 212.1.128.40
NS2.TELINCO.NET 212.1.128.42


The readers who reported this seem a little concerned given the short period they've been given to make the change, which seems somewhat unfair.

Online Advertising Surges By 200%

By:mark.j @ 9:14:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Despite the current economic downturn, spending money online continues to grow at a staggering rate in the UK, surging over 200% year-on-year in 2000, a new survey shows.

Total spending on online advertising totalled 154.7 million pounds in 2000 up from 51 million in 1999, survey by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) found.

Spending on online advertisements has also for the first time overtaken cinema advertising, estimated at 128 million pounds in 2000, the IAB said on Wednesday.

"Clearly Internet advertising continued to race ahead," Danny Meadows-Klue, chairman of IAB UK, said. "These growth rates are unparalleled in traditional media."

The survey is the only audit of Internet advertising expenditure carried out in the UK.

"In spite of a difficult year for the advertising sector as a whole, UK Internet advertising has continued to grow steadily," said Paul Pilkington, senior manager at PriceWaterhouseCoopers, which carried out the survey along with the IAB.

Stocks and shares may continue to sway; yet the increasing amount of online users and shopping will not dwindle.

News - April 11,2001

IC24 To Extend 0800 to 29th April

By:mark.j @ 4:00:PM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Today is 11th April, a day when the totally free (off-peak) unmetered ISP, IC24, ends its last 0800 extension program. The good news is that IC24 have confirmed to us that they will indeed extend the service again until the 29th April 2001.

With the ISPs future in doubt and the potential for a direct sale and re-ownership now looming close, the days of extended 0800 may soon be over.

Alcatel DSL Modems Vulnerable To Hackers

By:mark.j @ 3:53:PM - Comments (4) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
A theoretical, yet with very real potential, security flaw has been found with the fireware (software rom upgrade) for some Alcatel DSL Modems. The flaw could allow hackers to access users passwords and alter the devices, making them temporarily or permanently unusable:

According to these organizations, two models -- Alcatel's Speed Touch Home ADSL modem and the Alcatel 1000 Network Termination Device, which are among the most popular broadband modems -- could allow a hacker to remotely install new "firmware", the software embedded within the modems.

Exploiting the modems' vulnerabilities could lead to "unauthorised access, unauthorised monitoring, information leakage, denial of service, and permanent disability of affected devices," CERT said.

For its part, Alcatel said it is working with US researchers to determine the extent of the problems. "Our engineers are in discussions with CERT and the San Diego Supercomputer Center to try to determine what the problem is and, if there is a problem, what to do about it," said Alcatel spokesman Brian Murphy.


The ZDNet item is very worrying, especially since these very models are used widely in the UK by numerous and popular ADSL equipped ISPs. While nobody has yet to physically see such an exploit, the potential still exists.

Alcatel are working on a solution although it's suggested that such modem users make use of a firewall until it's released.

U.Genie To Save E-Mail Accounts

By:mark.j @ 3:43:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Good news ahoy as the service provider U.Genie has been listening to its customers and finally decided to take some action, Net4Nowt reports:

One of our readers told us today, “I got a call from the ISP manager of U Genie, who had just got out of a meeting with the MD of the Internet part of BT on the future of U Genie saying, we are going to keep the email service for current users but still closing other parts of Genie.

If only more ISPs would listen to their customers, but then we customers aren't supposed to know anything are we?

GUS To Sell Urbanite ISP - 'Breathe'

By:mark.j @ 3:40:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
The saga of the Ex-unmetered ISP, Breathe, continues today as Great Universal Stores (GUS) is now known to be preparing to sell the ISP. However as before they have denied the rumours, which often turn out to be at least partly true:

City sources told The Register that GUS has already been out pressing the flesh looking for a buyer although the outfit - which owns retailer Argos and online sales outfit Jungle.com - declined to comment on what it described as "rumour and speculation".

The news will come as a hammer blow to staff at the modern urbanist ISP who have endured a turbulent time at the company over the last six months.

The Register understands that GUS is now actively looking for a buyer. A spokeswoman for GUS reiterated today that the company was interested in breathe for its technology.


Hopefully any new owners won't buy the ISP just for its technology and then dump it again, we're sure that'd really [insert profanity here] Breathe off. The last thing the ISP needs right now is another shift in ownership, making them feel somewhat like a tennis ball. More @ The Register.

Cloud Nine add FREE Personal Firewall

By:mark.j @ 9:34:AM - Comments (6) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
CloudNine have today issued a new press release that sees them as being one of a select few unmetered ISPs to recognise that spending longer online also posses a security risk for dial-up users as well as broadband ones. In order to combat this they’re proud to offer a special ‘FireWall’ deal:

CLOUD NINE COMMUNICATIONS LTD PRESS RELEASE
Date: 10th April 2001
Cloud Nine add FREE Personal Firewall for HomeSurf users


Cloud Nine are the UK distributors for US software firm Tiny Software and have a web site for the award winning Winroute software at . Winroute is the complete software router that runs on most flavours of Windows and has built in Network Address Translation (NAT), state-of-the-art firewall, SMTP/POP3 mail server, DHCP server, proxy server, and more. As a result of that arrangement we are delighted to bring the excellent Personal Firewall 2.0 to our single user HomeSurf and BusinessSurf dial-up customers. Personal Firewall is designed to bring the security features of Winroute to the single PC dial-up user. Personal Software is available FREE to all HomeSurf customers and can be purchased for a special offer price £24.99 (inc. VAT) per seat by our BusinessSurf customers. Who said security had to be expensive!!

New customers will be given a DOWNLOAD option upon signing up for a Cloud Nine package. Existing customers should complete the CONTACT FORM to ask for a download URL.

In the increasingly dangerous world of Internet access Cloud Nine are committed to improving the security of Internet access whilst connected via Cloud Nine. Unmetered Internet access has increased the window of risk, now with our Personal Firewall add-on you can surf with confidence.

Tiny Personal Firewall represents smart, easy-to-use personal security technology that fully protects personal computers against hackers. Built on ICSA-certified security technology, it is also an integral part of The Tiny Software Centrally Managed Desktop Security (CMDS) system selected by the US Air Force for its approximately 500,000 desktop computers.

NOTE: Tiny Personal Firewall will not function properly if it is installed on a computer using WinRoute or Microsoft Internet Connection Sharing. Cloud Nine regret that we cannot provide support on the Personal Firewall, though an FAQ and downloadable Manual are available. The product is, however, very easy to set-up and learns intuitively your patterns of access. Compatible with Windows® 9x, ME, 2000 and NT4.0.


It’s worth pointing out that Firewalls can be tedious to operate if you want them to work just how you’d like, although if you use chat systems a lot then they could save you a lot of trouble you probably never even knew you had.

AltaVista Re-Do Popular Search Engine

By:mark.j @ 9:28:AM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Although not directly ISP related, the much criticised AltaVista (fake unmetered service etc.) have today announced the completion of their search engine and web site overhaul:

In a further bid to demonstrate its commitment to search services, AltaVista has launched an upgraded version of its website offering a cleaner design with enhanced search features and a simplified user interface.

In addition, all content has been replaced with seven vertical search centres, allowing users to extend their searches in specialised categories such as finance, technology, travel, shopping and careers.

Other features on the new AltaVista UK site include image enhanced search results, advanced search capabilities, a power browser, a web directory powered by LookSmart, and added customisation capabilities.


The netimperative.com article shows how AltaVista are now up to scratch with the newer generation of engines. However it remains to be seen whether the engine itself is actually any good.

Tiny Online Launches Unmetered

By:mark.j @ 9:12:AM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Thanks to John for pointing out that Tiny Online have finally launched their 24/7 unmetered package @ £14.99. This actually went live a few days ago, although the note was one sentence in a large press release.

The Affinity VIP backed ISP is the latest such provider to use the BTSurfPort24 technology, which seems to be increasingly popular.

News - April 10,2001

SniffOut Clear Up Surftime Issues

By:mark.j @ 4:24:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Following their most recent service update many SniffOut Surftime customers found themselves confused because it didn't make clear whether the notice meant they'd get their service back or not.

As such one of our readers, Jon, simply asked - "Are you reinstating Surftime customers?". To which they replied:

Apologies for present situation.

SurfTime suspended, but certainly intention to resume. Understand a few technical/compatibility problems which are well on way to being cleared. Likely that Classic 0845 linked to BT connections will be first back online - working towards end of this week, followed shortly afterwards by 0844 numbers. Easter break may disrupt planning as telco staff may not be available for entire period.

Support
Sniff Out


Sounds a little like the SniffOut support person was rushed; yet hopefully this should still help to clear some of the confusion up.

Local Loop Unbundling Process Slows

By:mark.j @ 3:52:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
It's been awhile since we last heard anything from Oftel or any other operators on the subject of Local Loop Unbundling (LLU), but not anymore. Today Oftel admitted the majority of players have withdrawn from the process to open up BT's network:

Either way it is clear the majority of operators are no longer interested in unbundling. "You can take that number [25] as a ballpark figure," says an Oftel spokesman. The regulator still denies that this means the process is doomed.

"It is not in crisis. What has happened is that the situation has changed very rapidly and a lot of companies have reassessed their involvement," he says. Lack of demand throws in doubt BT's original plan to open up 600 of its 6,000 exchanges by the summer. "The target can only be reached if there is the demand. We can't force operators to place orders," says the spokesman.

Oftel acknowledges that cost is a major factor in most operators' decision to withdraw from the process. Some smaller players suggest that a co-mingling solution, in which they share space with BT's equipment rather than have the expense of building their own extension, would drastically reduce costs. BT has refused to consider a co-mingling solution and Oftel says it is currently investigating this refusal.


Of course what ZDNet doesn't notice is that while there might be less interest, this is perhaps a good thing. After all, when buying your services from a company you want to know they have the strength to stay competitive.

If a company can't afford to invest in LLU for whatever reason then perhaps that's a good thing because then the bigger ones will be around to take better advantage. That said and it'll be sometime yet before we know exactly how LLU is going to be used, time will tell.

Freeserve To Cut Older Unmetered Package

By:mark.j @ 3:37:PM - Comments (4) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
During January of this year Freeserve introduced their new £12.99 AnyTime (24/7 unmetered) package and unlike other ISPs (BTInternet) they firmly stated that the older one would stay online and that upgrading would not be compulsory.

Customers of the existing £9.99 package were also offered a special deal at the time and many took it. However despite this it looks as if Freeserve have done a U-Turn and now plan to permanently migrate to the £12.99 offer:

However, El Reg has seen correspondence from a senior official at Le Freeswerve to a customer which quite clearly says that UFT is to be phased out - possibly within the next month.

In a statement, Le Freeswerve told El Reg: "Since we launched Freeserve AnyTime in January, many of our UFT customers have asked to migrate to the new service, principally because their telecoms provider is BT and we can now offer an unmetered product which doesn't require the use of a router box or a dial-up prefix to connect to the Internet."

"We haven't taken on any new customers to UFT since November 2000, so we will be migrating the existing customer base to Freeserve AnyTime in the next few months. We will be writing to all UFT customers in the coming weeks with details of how to migrate, and to tell them about a special offer for Freeserve AnyTime exclusive to them."


The Register points out that this sounds a lot like the older UFT package is being scrapped and we'd have to agree. However customer reactions to this have yet to be seen and we don't yet know exactly what 'special offer' they will give existing customers.

Discussion seems to have already started in our new Freeserve forum.

FHM & BTs Genie To Tie The Knot

By:mark.j @ 3:27:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Genie, BT Cellnets mobile Internet portal and ISP along with male magazine website, FHM.com, are to link up in a £250,000 multi-channel partnership deal:

A range of co-branded services and features are planned, including SMS and WAP services carrying FHM wireless content, which will be launched in Summer 2001, and a mobile zone within FHM’s hardware channel, where Genie will be the exclusive mobile retailer. The zone will be promoted in the FHM magazine, at the FHM.com site, and direct to Genie customers.

An online poll for FHM’s ‘100 Sexiest Women in the World’ will run at the Genie and FHM sites, including FHM’s new French website, FHM.fr.


More @ netimperative.com.

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