Welcome to our News Archives page

August 16, 2001 - August 22, 2001

News - August 22,2001

Firenet Launch Unmetered

By:mark.j @ 11:46:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The latest dial-up unmetered ISP to hit the streets is 'Affinity' backed Firenet. Alan Castle, Firenet's MD, was quick to remind us yesterday afternoon of the details he'd previously sent on 15th August.

Apologies for not posting them, although the ISP submission list is for listings and not news:

Firenet
http://www.firenet.uk.com

Residential services: yes modem /isdn 64

Businesss services: Yes Modem / isdn 64

Packages offered:
Firenet Anytime (friaco deal) 24/7 £10.99 per month inc vat
Firenet Anytime Plus (friaco Deal) 24/7 £15.99 per month inc vat
Firenet 0845 pay as you go Free subscribed local call
Hosting Email Web design and Registration.

The Firenet Anytime Service has a 2 hour disconnect and a standard bandwidth level

The firenet Anytime Plus has 4 hour disconnect with a much more superior level of bandwidth.


At present the website only seems to allow you to signup with the £10.99 package, although there's a possible explanation on one of the other pages:

Due to our expansion into the FRIACO unlimited internet access with no call charges for a fixed monthly fee. We are moving from a business based ISP into the general public internet access market. Our new website aims to bring to you the best sites on the web for a wide a range of interests as possible. From business to pleasure, for young and old. We will keep on top of what sites are happening and bring them to you at this web address.

We'll of course be adding this ISP into our various forums and listings sometime later today after work.

V21 Clarify Service Improvements

By:mark.j @ 10:09:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The 'child-friendly' unmetered dial-up ISP, V21, has sent us another short message this morning to remind people that the reduced service restrictions are primed to work with the filtering software:

We still filter the content, but now all of it is done from either the 'Surf Safe' browser or filter attributes attached to the radius server. With these filters we can give the parents the option of still banning news groups and irc channels as they wish.

So as you can see all we are now doing is giving the parents more control over what their families are looking at.


Typically it's important to remember that V21 aren't an ISP designed to stop all web activity.

It'll work just like any ISP in the hands of an adult or those old enough to have a credit card for buying an account =).

Nildram Coax ADSL Customers From ISPs

By:mark.j @ 9:58:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Thanks to John for pointing us in the direction of Nildram's ADSL News page, where they've just announced a new scheme to coax ADSL customers from other ISPs onto their services.

Typically this is done when people begin to reach the end of their 12 Month contract, as seems to be the norm with almost all BT based services:

21st August 2001

Nildram ease the pain of changing Broadband providers!


With early adopters of ADSL technology now reaching the end of their initial twelve-month contracts, many are unhappy with the levels of performance, service and support they have received from their existing ISP. At present, ADSL subscribers wishing to transfer Broadband ISPs have to pay the full installation fee again; despite the fact that they will already have the BT supplied hardware. Whilst ISPs have been putting pressure on BT for some time to reduce the cost of transfer, BT have been slow to respond.

Once again Nildram has taken the lead by announcing a special scheme, MoveDSL, to reduce the cost of transferring from another Broadband ISP to the Nildram USB500 ADSL service.

The scheme is simple - the new installation fee is reduced from £150 to only £60, with a monthly fee of £45.00 (both subject to VAT).

Nildram MoveDSL is limited to the first 500 orders on a first come, first served, basis and applicants will have to supply a copy of their last bill as proof that they are an existing ADSL user.

If you wish to take advantage of this offer, please contact our Sales Team on 0800 026 2800, but be quick!


You'd probably have to be quite seriously disappointed with your provider in order to change, although we'd suspect there are a few such people around.

Internet Use @ Work Costs Companies

By:mark.j @ 9:51:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

According to Websense, a firm selling software to help manage Internet access @ Work, those using the Internet for leisure during working hours are costing the country roughly £9.6 Billion per year.

Websense says its data shows 44% of staff with Internet access spend an average of three hours a week on surfing personal sites. It calculated the total cost to firms by using other research showing 13.6 million workers have Web access and that non-manual workers earn an average of £11.88 pounds an hour.

"Nine billion pounds is actually a conservative number when you factor bandwidth loss, storage costs and human resource costs associated with free and open Internet use in the workplace," said Websense Chief Financial Officer Douglas Wride in a statement.

Typically the report ignores other factors such as how long people ‘now’ spend chatting to each other or whether Internet usage actually helps train and improve productivity. Ultimately there will be a loss, but would you trust data from a company that stands to benefit from that loss?

News - August 21,2001

EXCLUSIVE BigBlueSky DIE!

By:Ross14 @ 7:29:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

ISPr have just received an email from Nutshell HQ. Frankly, the news title says it all:

NUTSHELL TO PROVIDE HELP FOR CUSTOMERS AS TROUBLED ISP BIG BLUE SKY TERMINATES ITS SERVICE

Net in a Nutshell has just this afternoon confirmed that ex-Big Blue Sky (BBS) customers are able to connect directly to the Nutshell service, as BBS has announced that they are terminating as an ISP provider with immediate effect.

Nutshell had recently agreed to make their network available to BBS as part of the BBS re-launch last week. Whilst this took place it became apparent to Nutshell that BBS were not in a situation to sustain this offering.

As a result Nutshell will contact all BBS customers to see if they would like to connect directly to the increasingly popular Nutshell Network. Furthermore, as a gesture of goodwill, Nutshell is offering BBS customers the Nutshell service at a special price - £9.99/month for the first 12 months, a saving of £36 over the year.

”We want to offer BBS customers the opportunity to sign to a reliable ISP at a price that will, in a small way, provide some compensation for the losses they have incurred under BBS,” explains Nutshell CEO Scott Ide.

“Whilst we do not need to do this as the termination of BBS has nothing to do with us, Nutshell has always built its business on providing high quality connection at affordable prices and we are now in a position where we can contact all BBS customers direct and give them the opportunity to join Nutshell.”

“Nutshell is aware that some people have already signed up to the new BBS service,” continues Scott, “and I want to reassure these customers that Nutshell will honour their connection and they will NOT be disconnected from their service.

For more information on Nutshell services, visit www.nutshell.co.uk or call 0870 010 2550

Virgin.net detail 24seven service

By:Rob.W @ 4:14:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Virgin.net have released further details on their new unmetered Internet access service.

Virgin.net is to launch an unmetered Internet access service, Virgin.net 24seven, in October this year. For a flat-rate of just £15 a month Virgin.net 24seven is ideal for those who wish to spend more time online without having to worry about Internet costs.

Peter Tuomey, Head of Access Products at Virgin.net, said: "It may seem that we're playing catch-up with many of our competitors with the launch of our unmetered product. However, we wanted to be sure we could offer a reliable service at an affordable price before launching.

"We have many very loyal, patient customers who have stuck with us for the last year while we developed this product. It was imperative that we were able to offer them a great product at a great price which I believe we have with Virgin.net 24seven."


Some 30,000 customers have already registered interest in the Virgin.net 24seven product. Virgin.net's one million customers will be informed of the new product via email over the coming weeks, though the service will also be available to new customers.


Thanks to Elizabeth Greene for the information.

V21 Extend & Un-restrict Services

By:mark.j @ 3:41:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Users of the popular 'child friendly' unmetered dial-up ISP, V21, will be happy to hear that they've today extended their cut-off time and opened up previously restricted services:

V21 OPEN THE FLOODGATES

V21 has now extended all service auto cut off times to 4 hours. This will assist online gamers and surfers alike. V21 also now has confirmed that all existing server restrictions are being lifted to allow newsgroups and irc channel access, therefore there are no restrictions in place to stop any access at all.

For this additional capacity V21 has taken on extra servers and dedicated bandwidth to cope with the now massive usage.

Steve Kaye, Director of V21 said 'We are aiming at giving the users just what they want. A good service for a good price. Our new service should mean that we get a huge number of new registrations and in time our prices will therefore get lower and lower'.


While the extended cut-off should no doubt make a lot of customers happy, the removal of server restrictions is questionable. After all v21 is supposed to be a 'child friendly' ISP, perhaps the service hasn't been as successful in that area as hoped.

Freeserve Still Pressuring AOL Over VAT

By:mark.j @ 3:34:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Freeserve have today continued there ever annoying offensive against AOLs questionable V.A.T tax payments, or lack of.

Having previously stooped to a new low last month following the use of politically dangerous comparisons, Freeserve have now launched an 'AOL VATOMETER':

A report issued late last month by Merrill Lynch showed that AOL did not pay VAT in the UK, because its service is provided from computers based in America. Since then Freeserve has repeatedly called for this situation to be changed, claiming that AOL is saving £30m a year -- which Freeserve believes gives it a significant and unfair advantage over rival ISPs.

According to a statement released by Freeserve on Tuesday, AOL has saved £1.8m since the publication of the Merrill Lynch report. Freeserve is claiming that AOL's £30m annual saving could be used to fund 676 new policemen, 1371 newly qualified teachers, winter shelter for over 70,000 people or 63,000 new PCs for schools.


While Freeserve do have a point, they're probably not making it in the best way and would do better by carrying out their original threat to move servers outside of the UK.

Sadly unless the government issues some sort of statement then we fear this will drag on, sending ever more people to sleep and even going so far as to induce a coma in others. More @ ZDNet.

14 Million Brits Online (60%)

By:mark.j @ 3:25:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Yawn, yet another survey from NetValue into Internet usage has found 14 Million people in the UK are now online. That's roughly 60% (1/3) of the entire population:

Six out of ten Net users are men. Four out of ten are women. Kids under 15 made up around 8 per cent of users, while 5 per cent were "silver surfers" aged 65 and over.

Only yesterday, Jupiter MMXI reported that a third of the UK population - some 33 million people - accessed the Web at least once between April and June.


The Register also mentions some more random statistics from the report, although sooner or later the figures should start to level off. Hopefully sooner, so less of these reports are published.

ISP Liability Concerns - E-Commerce Law

By:mark.j @ 9:57:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The forthcoming E-Commerce Directive has once again caused concern amongst ISPs. A public consultation paper on the subject failed to clarify their liability for hosting illegal content, namely of the 'third party' kind:

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) released its proposed implementation of Directive requirements today, but ISPs are nervous about the government's indecision over the need for notice and takedown regulations. The paper states that ISPs will not be exempt from criminal liability if they have actual knowledge of a customer undertaking illegal activity on their service -- but service providers are uncertain about what "actual knowledge" would entail.

The consultation document states that an ISP may be liable for damages "if it is aware of facts and circumstances from which the illegal activity is apparent". It offers reassurances that they may not be liable if, after obtaining actual knowledge or becoming aware of facts and circumstances indicating illegal activity, "they act expeditiously to remove or to disable access to the information," but ISPs say this is not good enough.

But Claire Gilbert, senior vice president of public policy and regulatory affairs at AOL, is anxious for the government to stipulate the exact grounds for ISP exemption of liability. "The law has left us in an uncertain position... if someone sends us an email about a defamatory posting on our service, it's difficult for an ISP to judge how to act," said Gilbert. She questioned whether this would count as "sufficient knowledge", and explained that "ISPs get many hoaxes every day -- it's difficult to check them all."


The ZDNet item makes some excellent points and shows how the new directive seems to once again ask ISPs to act as the 'Censors' of online information when they're not qualified to do so.

ISPs have already adopted a self-regulatory 'notice and takedown' approach, yet the directive adds legal framework to the mould, which isn't completely explained. Sadly this area of the directive isn't due to be reviewed until 2003, which is typical of world governments that have no idea how ISPs really work.

Free Internet Content To Vanish

By:mark.j @ 9:46:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

According to a recent study by Ovum, the analyst and consultancy group, your days of surfing the Internet and reading free information could soon be numbered:

Paying to create or acquire content, and then giving it to surfers for free "does not make for a long-term sustainable business model", is the conclusion it has come to after researching the subject in a report, "Wireless Internet Business Models: Global Perspective, Regional Focus".

However, Web sites that are not in the business of purveying financial data or astrological information can take heart. Ovum suggests companies offer a mixture of free and paid-for content to begin with, to "instil a sense of value"--telling customers that content is worth paying for, and dividing content into basic, free services, and premium ones which cost money.

Such a strategy also has the added benefit of providing revenues, and contributing to survival, which is increasingly becoming the name of the cyberspace game.


The ZDNet item is nothing we haven't seen before, even during the periods where Internet access was a rich mans game did they (research groups) tout such rubbish.

The key issue that seems to escape Ovum is the impact of flexibility and freedom, which allows 'any' one person to come up with and introduce an idea that'd normally only be done by bigger/commercial groups. Many sites, including ours, provide this information because it's something we can do as a hobby and in our spare time while helping other people.

In short, there will ALWAYS be sites offering free information and guidance so long as there are people to run them. Thankfully the world is full of such people, it's a pity Ovum haven't seen them.

Hotmail Hacked - Latest Security Breach

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

One of the worlds most popular 'free E-Mail' (freemail) providers, Hotmail, has once again be hacked. Sadly we've now lost count of how many times the service has been breached:

Underground hacker site root-core.com has released a graphical exploit tool for sneaking a glimpse at other users' Hotmail accounts.

When logged into your Hotmail account, the URL displays a message number for the appropriate message you are viewing, and the username. By tinkering with these, it's possible to hit on an existing username and message number combination. This allows you to view, but not modify, other users' messages.


As usual Microsoft is already aware of the problem and it'll no doubt be gone within a day or two, more @ VNUNet.

News - August 20,2001

Clara.net Update - Business Unmetered

By:mark.j @ 4:07:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Early details of clara.net's future 24/7 business unmetered package slipped into the public domain over a month ago, although today more news has surfaced to help clarify things.

Apparently the service will indeed cost £24.99 as previously suspected and a formal announcement regarding the new package could appear sometime later this week.

In fact it's suspected that the offer itself will also launch this week, although none of this has been 'officially' confirmed.

Originally due to go live towards the end of July, we suspect some of the recent technical issues caused a delay. Hopefully more information will surface during the week and it won’t be forced to suffer further delays.

More BBS Concerns Addressed

By:mark.j @ 3:46:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

In further efforts to recuperate some of their tarnished image, the newly re-launched unmetered ISP, BigBlueSky, has sent out another update to some of their old and existing customers:

We have received a number of communications from our customers regarding the status of their BBS membership. In particular, some of you are concerned about the subscriptions paid under our initial “annual” and “lifetime” programs.

Firstly, we at BBS value your membership and want to retain you as a valued customer.

Secondly, our business model, on which we based the annual and lifetime subscriptions is no longer sustainable. No business intentionally goes out to upset it’s customers by “moving the goalposts” but we now recognise that we have underestimated certain market forces that have driven us to review our financial position. Under these circumstances, a business can do one of two things:

1) Admit defeat, suspend all our services and appoint a Receiver, or

2) Offer all our valued customers a way forward with a much improved service at the best price on the market.

We believe that no-one benefits from option 1 above and are now in a position to offer you option 2 with immediate effect.

Thirdly, our effective price of £9.99 per month (£29.97 for 3 month’s service) equates to a saving of at least £3.00 to £5.00 per month against the next best offer on the market for a similar service. Any of our annual members will recoup their “forgone” subscription within the first 5 to 8 months of service.

Finally, as a measure of goodwill to you, our valued customer, you can sign-up to our new service until 31 August 2001 absolutely free of charge. We at BBS are confident that you will enjoy this enhanced service during this initial free period that you will want to stay online with us. Remember that by remaining as a BBS customer, that you will not incur any telephone charges while you surf the internet.


BBS does a good job of spouting the usual marketing clap trap, something we see from far too many ISPs, although it's to be expected.

We'd also have to disagree with their statement about being £3 to £5 cheaper than the next best offer on the market. Aren't there three - four other providers offering a sustained price of £9.99 per month with more reputable images?

Earthlease To Sweeten BT Local Loop Offer

By:mark.j @ 3:31:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

According to the 'Financial Times' newspaper, the Earthlease consortium is rumoured to be preparing to up its £8Billion offer for 'part' of BTs fixed line local loop network:

Despite being told that BT is not interested in selling its "core asset", Earth Lease has continued to woo city analysts about its plans for the local loop.

And last week it told analysts that it might be prepared to increase its offer for the wires that connect homes and businesses to the phone network.

An Earth Lease spokesman told The Register: "We never said the original offer was the bottom line."


The Register only goes so far as to confirm what people had already believed; anyway if BT were to engage in 'further' discussions then they'd probably want a higher price over the existing offer. Typically we doubt BTs response would be any different from the last time.

Important 0800OnlineServe Update

By:mark.j @ 9:58:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Following yesterdays update regarding a possible suspension of 0800OnlineServe's unmetered service, today good news arrives in the form of another update:

It appears that the unmetered service will not be suspended. Engineers are currently on schedule to return the service to the levels it was initially at. All previous problems, including lack of data transfer will be rectified.

Customer websites are currently unavailable due to scheduled maintenance that will be completed later on today. We also be releasing the new range of dedicated 'off-shore' datacentre appliances which will be available to the public in the next few days.


No doubt customers will be breathing a sigh of relief this mornings following yesterdays shock news. We'll be keeping tabs on the ISP to see if things improve over the coming days, although we doubt they'd have cancelled the suspension without believing that themselves.

BBS Expel Employees / Update Refunds

By:mark.j @ 9:52:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Following yesterdays item regarding how an undefined number of BigBlueSky employees were posting in the forums as legitimate users (dishonest) to advertise the ISP, today the David Singleton (BBS MD) has sent us the following update:

We went through and have identified the abusers, disciplinary action will be taken including termination of these individuals. Their specific job descriptions include designing print advertising and mailings, but doesn't include screwing around in the forums.

Mr.Singleton was then keen to say, "I can promise it wont happen again," we'd hope so to. No doubt this latest of blows to the once again troubled ISP can't be helping its tarnished image.

Another issue still playing around with the workings of BBS is that of customer refunds, thankfully Mr.Singleton was able to offer some advice in this area too:

We are making every effort to bring back a much better service and I feel we can given time. We are trying to address one issue at a time, first lets get the service running and the bugs worked out. Second lets address the previous users and attend to their needs. The service didn't go down over night and it won't be in full swing again over night, a special e-mail is planned for the first week in September which I feel will more than satisfy all former BBS customers.

The refund issue is not dead and yes believe it or not we do have plans to address this shortly to everyone's satisfaction. I am not asking people to do anything other than be patient.

It would be so much better if the nay Sayers would simply try applying for a refund. The company is prepared to make refunds, but people must ask, any user who would like a refund needs only to send a letter to our head office with the following details

1. There full name, current postal address, and telephone number.

2. A copy of their card statement as proof of payment.

3. Their UKGW number.

4. Request must be in writing (legible).

5. All request must be received at this office, no later than 30 September 2001.

All request must be sent to the following address:

REFUNDS
Bigbluesky
Limited
22 Bannatyne
Street
Suite 2
Lanark
ML11 7JR

Please note the following rules apply to refunds:

1. The company will not refund by cheque, all refunds will be issued through the customers card company. The reason the company will not issue cheques is simple, some customers were sent a refund cheque and still went to their card company to try and obtain a second refund.

2. The refund request must be received by this office no later than 30 September.

3. Any request received after 30 September will be declined.


Although the process itself seems designed to deter people from making a claim, anybody whom legitimately needs one should follow it and do so ASAP. BigBlueSky now has more ground to make up than ever before, it'll be a test of time, strength and quality as to whether they succeed.

Oftel To Force Mobile Price Cuts

By:mark.j @ 9:31:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Over the past few years’ mobile operators have faced fierce criticism regarding the 'call charges' between networks. Thankfully Oftel has been investigating this and we already know price cuts for such calls are on the cards.

Yesterday The Financial Mail newspaper went one step further and uncovered more detailed information. "Oftel is likely to demand a one-off price cut of as much as 20%. Then it may impose a pricing formula that will further reduce charges over two or three years," the newspaper claimed.

Oftel declined to comment on the report itself, although did make mention of the investigations status, "We are expecting to report in the next couple of weeks."

As yet no conclusive information on the cuts has been released, although the 20% mark is widely believed to be roughly correct.

News - August 19,2001

Virgin.Net Preps New Unmetered

By:mark.j @ 2:03:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

According to Net4Nowt, an article in today’s 'Guardian' reports that Virgin.Net are to make an unmetered comeback. Vigilant readers may remember Virgin stating as such several months ago, although nothing ever came of it.

In fact the actual pre-subscription page has been around for several weeks and apparently already has 300,000 interested subscribers.

As yet no price tag or launch date has been set for Virgin.net 24seven (as it's called), although it's due to start 'very soon'.

BBS Staff Impersonate Legitimate Forum Users

By:mark.j @ 1:51:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Several days ago we posted a warning in the news to those whom would choose to subscribe with our forums and impersonate legitimate users. By this we mean individuals working for a particular ISP and yet refusing to identify themselves as such and instead opting to 'ADVERTISE' the ISP by posting overly positive messages.

ISP Review and its entire readership consider this to be extremely dishonest marketing on the part of any ISP. Typically we asked such individuals to either come forward or remove themselves from the forum.

Today one or more employees/employers @ BigBlueSky have been exposed as engaging in such activities on our forums and possibly those of other sites as well. One out of several suspected users in the BBS forum is 'Phill88', whom posted in a familiar language and before others could get online with the newly re-launched ISP - very unusual.

Typically the post(s) read more like advertising and this is often a sign of ISP staff trying to impersonate legitimate users. That and the combination of other evidence all pointed to an impostor. Today we were sent the following E-Mail, which made the judgement final:

-----------------------------
From: "David Singleton" <*****@bigbluesky.uk.net>
To:
Sent: Sunday, August 19, 2001 7:27 PM
Subject: emails received from ******

Mr. Jackson
I joined the forum this past week and asked that my email be hidden from view. My name is Phillip ****, I live in Glasgow, but one of the forum members is sending abusive email to me can you please look into this and ask the forum people to not give out my personal email. I took this address in June and only share it with friends and close family.

Phillip ****

-----------------------------

Typically somebody (BBS MD - David Singleton?) had neglected to remove his personal ident from the E-Mail software, thus showing the real senders name. In being fair we put this issue to Mr.Singleton, whom replied:

-----------------------------
Mark

This will be addressed at our staff meeting tomorrow, If I find someone has been playing in the forums, if I find that someone in here is using my pcs to Spam they will be terminated on the spot, I have six working in here today doing design work, I will narrow the search to them as such use is not tolerated here either.

Can you forward the email you received to me at directors@bigbluesky.uk.net, the email idents in this office all identify me as the sender every single computer, I will look forward to receiving your email and promise a quick response. Please understand that I cannot be in every room watching everybody all the time. But I will stop it.

D. Singleton MD

-----------------------------

We're not here to accuse specific individuals of this most dishonest and disrespectful crime against legitimate ISP users, although clearly somebody @ BBS has been doing just that. No doubt our readership will pick all the 'unspoken' details to shreds, however..

ISP Review will NOT tolerate 'witch hunts' and those whom suspect forum users of similar abuse should send one of the forum admins a 'PM' (Private Message). It'll be logged and investigated. Just because you suspect somebody of being something doesn't give you the right to post abuse towards them, let us handle it.

We will not allow witch-hunts within our forums as honest users could get stuck in the middle; this isn’t medieval England. Such topics will be erased and or member accounts suspended / removed. BigBlueSky is investigating this issue further and should have it resolved; we'll trust them to make sure such mistakes never happen again.

We'd just like to point out that those ISPs whom offer help and identify themselves on our forums are most welcome. This is only related to those whom choose to act in the aforementioned and dishonest way.

ISP Review Weekly Update

By:mark.j @ 12:50:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

To be honest I'm not quite sure what to write this morning, the coder for our new 'Readers Top 50' system has just vanished and we're busy sorting out some other issues with the site. Ironically it's usually a good sign when the coder goes AWOL because we often see the script a few days later =).

Aside from that we've also been working to improve the forum speed and loading (until the next upgrade arrives) and making sure all the usual sections of the site are as up-to-date as we can keep them.

We're also working towards our new colour theme, although we won't tell you the colours we'll be using until the day it's online, kind of like a surprise =). Still needs to be tested before we're happy.

On a lighter note and we'll be attending ECTS 2001 in London / ExCeL this year, just as we've been doing for quite sometime now, albeit under different projects. We had hoped to set up a special 'ISP & 3G Technology' stand, although the costs were too high.

Having said that we'll still be in attendance as members of the press, our mission? To hunt down and report on any Mobile or Internet related technologies and software. So if you know or represent any such companies at this year’s event then let us know to stop by and we'll do it.

Typically if we do find such material and don't get distracted by half naked models and good looking games then we'll make sure to post videos and pictures (Of the Internet stuff, of course). See you next week.

0800OnlineServe To Suspend Unmetered!

By:mark.j @ 10:47:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

In a small and equally shocking news update from TheDogmaGroup backed 0800OnlineServe this morning, we've learnt that the trouble unmetered service could face suspension from as early as Monday next week!:

The unmetered Internet service, http://www.0800.onlineserve.co.uk may be suspended at the beginning of the next week. All users will be refunded if the service is brought to temporary suspension. There are several un-resolved issues, and we cannot continue operating an unmetered service without a high QoS (Quality of Service) guaranteed.

This statement is not definite and we shall see the status of work that is currently being carried out by our technicians on the access servers and come to a decision on Sunday. We are sorry for the inconvenience this may cause, and hope to return the unmetered access to tolerable levels within the next day.


The ISP has been suffering nothing but problems over the past few weeks and recent attempts to fix things appear to have failed. We should know sometime today or tomorrow whether 0800OnlineServe will opt for a ‘suspension’ or not, no doubt their decision will be based on the effectiveness of this weekends upgrades.

As the item states, this would only be a ‘Temporary Suspensions’ (Ala – BigBlueSky) and they’d hope to restore things ASAP. Either way such a move would no doubt cause a great deal of upset and anger amongst customers, especially those who’ve just recently subscribed.

NTL Trial Wireless Broadband

By:mark.j @ 10:41:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

It's beginning to look as if the fixed broadband wireless provider, Tele2, may finally be getting some competition. According to ADSLGuide, NTL is to trial its own broadband wireless system in London until 15th November 2001:

ntl is looking for a limited number of people to participate in our exciting new wireless Internet project. The purpose of this project is to evaluate customer experience of this brand new broadband technology. This technology will allow Internet enabled PCs to connect to the Internet at speeds of almost ten times the rate of a standard dial-up modem. In addition, this provides an always-on service and leaves the existing telephone line available for normal use.

To qualify for this trial you must:

* Be within our London coverage zones
* Have unobstructed view of one of our transmitter locations
* Be somewhat PC literate and have a PC with:
i. Ethernet capabilities
ii. Use Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000 Professional


With a predicted 512Kbps (Downstream) / 128Kbps (Upstream) bandwidth offer and costing an impressive £24.99 per month, NTL look set to be very competitive with their service.

Sadly unless the system is able to extend out to areas NTL doesn't already cover and offer Cable Modem access in, then it's probably not going to take off. In order to succeed NTL will need to find ways of beating BT to areas they don't already cover.

Online Traffic Increase To Spark Upgrades

By:mark.j @ 10:29:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Any major online network provider or ISP knows of the recent increase in online activity, which equates to quadrupled bandwidth use during the past year.

Yesterday one of the Internets original founders - Lawrence Roberts, whom created ARPAnet (Internet precursor), spoke out about how networks and ISPs will soon be 'forced' to upgrade:

Roberts based his findings on data that typically isn't available from tier 1 carriers in the US. He signed nondisclosure agreements to get information on the equipment carriers employ and how much of capacity was used on typical days and peak days. He compared total traffic in April and October 2000 with April 2001.

"Beginning in 2000, Internet traffic has doubled every six months, and it grew at the same rate the first quarter of 2001," Roberts said in a conference call. In the late 1990s when the industry grew and dot-coms sprouted like weeds, Internet traffic didn't grow as fast - some 280 percent per year.


Of course Mr.Roberts and the ZDNet item are correct, although it's nothing the major players didn't already know. BT itself suffered a similar crisis during the first two-three months of this year, only now have things started to get back to normal.

Thankfully with the emergence of high bandwidth (Gbps) networks and connections, the Internets future looks secure. However those who refuse to upgrade for either cost or practical reasons could eventually be left in the cold.

News - August 18,2001

Men = Top E-Mail Flirters

By:mark.j @ 9:09:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

A survey by the email marketing company, http://www.edesigns.co.uk, has found that men are the top 'Flirters' when it comes to E-Mail:

The study looked into the bad email habits of men and women, and discovered that email is now the number one channel for kindling office romances. Over a third of all men surveyed admitted to spending more than 40 minutes of each working day flirting or gossiping via email. Their female counterparts appear more cautious about creating another Claire Swires fiasco, with only 13 percent of women using email to flirt with their workmates.

But there is a serious side to the issue. "Although the research shows some quirky results, there is still an important issue concerning misuse of email at work. As email is a quick and simple form of communication, companies are losing precious work hours as a result of email abuse," said Louis Halpern, chief executive officer of the Email Marketing Association.


More @ ZDNet.

V21 Expand Unmetered To Cable Customers

By:mark.j @ 9:03:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The 'child friendly' unmetered dial-up ISP, V21, have today sent us a small update regarding their expansion to cover cable (NTL, Telewest etc.) customers:

V21 is now proud to announce it's launch of their unmetered internet access of £9.99 to all cable users. This service will include NTL, Telewest, Cabletel, Cable and Wireless

V21 is restricting this offer to the first 10,000 subscribers. Preregistrations are to completed at http://www.v21.co.uk .


It certainly seems as if two of the once 'minority dial-up' groups, Dual channel ISDN and Cable customers, have recently been getting some extra options. We'll update the unmetered ISP listings in due course.

NTL Discontinues TV-Internet Deal

By:mark.j @ 8:54:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

According to a letter sent to subscribers from NTL, the once popular 'Dialup TV-Internet' deal will finally come to an end on September 24th 2001.

The move has been expected since we reported some months ago that they'd no longer be taking new subscriptions for the package. Apparently NTL believes it has "much better and more dynamic services at lower cost" to offer.

News - August 17,2001

BT Preps Ethernet RADSL Trials

By:mark.j @ 3:57:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Ever ahead with the broadband R/ADSL news, ADSLGuide have published early details regarding future 'Ethernet RADSL Trials'.

Presently RADSL is only supported under USB offerings, thus the Ethernet trial opens RADSL up to businesses and heavy residential customers on 512Kbps, 1Mbit and 2Mbit connections.

The trail looks set to begin sometime this October and should be quickly finalised in preparation for the November rollout.

BigBlueSky Goes Pan-European

By:mark.j @ 3:49:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Once again the recently re-launched unmetered ISP, BigBlueSky, has sent us a second update regarding their future 'European Unmetered' dial-up services launch.

There's also a small mention of Keyscope, BBS's future business wing:

We have decided to take BBS International. We are planning a Pan European launch of 0800 service for November 2001. The site will be available in the following languages:

1. French
2. German
3. Spanish
4. Italian
5. Dutch
6. English
7. Swedish
8. Danish
9. Norwegian


I will keep you posted with regard to the actual launch date for these countries and Services to be offered. A launch in the US is also being planned.

With regard to a business ISP, Keyscope.net is nearly finished and we hope to launch in the next 3 weeks with 0800 for business packages. Voice services will be launched within a fortnight.

BBS Refund Link

By:rich.p @ 2:18:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

BBS have sent us a quick note to say that they will have a link up on their page for refunds this evening:

"Just a quick note to let you know that we will be placing an email link on the front page of bigbluesky.uk.com to help facilitate refunds to previous customers who are entitled to refunds."

We'll wait to see how customers get their refunds...

0800OnlineServe Service Update

By:mark.j @ 9:57:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

TheDogmaGroup backed unmetered dial-up ISP, 0800OnlineServe, has today sent us another service update regarding forthcoming improvements to their ISP services:

Users should expect to see a drastic improvement on all services as the weekend begins. The network has been fully upgraded and redundant hardware has been installed.

We will also begin excepting new registrations for all services at the close of next week. This includes 0800.Onlineserve Internet, and thedotcompletehost.com.

WebDev Team


Hopefully this latest spate of improvements will finally solve the remaining service problems, which many of their customers have been complaining about. We'll have to wait and see.

Freeserve Staff Spy On TV Celeb

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

Janet Street-Porter, known as a hater of anything she doesn't use herself (Computers, Internet, Mobile Phones, People..), is apparently being spied on by staff at Freeserve whom occupy the opposite building:

And in the privacy of her own she can't help but walk around without a stitch on and lay out underwear on her bed, so it seems.

Which is exactly what titillates Le Freeswerve's peepers, according to The Scurra in today's Mirror.

A spokeswoman for Le Freeswerve wouldn't say if staff would be reprimanded over the affair.


The Register doesn't go into much detail, although you'd think that anybody whom walks around their house in the buff might have the sense to draw some curtains?

Online Fraud - Grossly Exaggerated

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

Following recent reports showing a near double increase in online credit card fraud, people have naturally become concerned. However a new report by Datamonitor (business information group) claims fears that online shopping is a goldmine for fraudsters are grossly exaggerated.

Despite this the report also states that consumers need to be reminded of the risks if they are to remain confident in e-commerce.

The card fraud rate, a percentage of total transaction volumes, is still extremely low and online fraud rates are virtually un-measurable, despite the scare stories that so often grab media headlines.

Apparently the fraud rate in Europe is just 0.06%, meaning fewer than one in 1,500 transactions are fraudulent. The equivalent figure for the U.S. is just one in 2,500. So while new countermeasures may be someway off and there's no room for complacency, things aren't as bad as they seem.

Slow xDSL Rollout Causes Kids To Suffer

By:mark.j @ 9:34:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

It's probably one of the most unusual subject titles we've ever started with, although the story itself holds a small amount of credibility. According to research conducted in the USA, kids with broadband connections are more likely to use multimedia Internet features and thus stimulate learning.

Typically a slow British rollout of R/ADSL services in the UK could subsequently turn the new generation of children into 'thickies':

Eight out of ten parents - who expressed a preference - said their children's Net skills had improved since they began using DSL Internet service making their study time more productive.

While four out of ten parents said their children's interest in schoolwork had increased - and resulted in better grades - since they began using DSL.

Said Californian parent, Beverly Fierro: "My son uses DSL for research and for class reports; he gets both graphics and text information. He used dial-up first...but DSL is much faster...and makes it easier when you need to do research to go from one page to next without having to wait. I don't think he would put as much effort into research without the DSL Internet service."


The Register's item seems somewhat strange and is probably a mild overreaction to broadband technologies. A rough translation would be, children are getting better grades through 'research' because now they can 'quickly' find the answers to exams =).

Having said that it's certainly something else to throw at BT, who knows, it may even lead to a "Save the children - install broadband" campaign. We can only hope.

News - August 16,2001

ISP Reps Must Identify Themselves

By:mark.j @ 4:04:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We're aware that quite a few ISPs often stop by our forums to help out related customers or post general advice. It'd be helpful to our readers if we could identify such individuals and mention them under the 'specific ISP forum' they're associated with.

Some such as WonkyPig and Zen Internet have already made this obvious or asked us to mention them, if others would like to do the same then please E-Mail me. It's always nice to see ISPs taking a direct interest in their customer’s well-being.

We'd also like to remind any 'unidentified' reps that neither our readers nor we tolerate the abuse of such a position to advertise services while masking yourselves in the guise of a customer.

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