September 29, 2002 - October 3, 2002
News - October 3,2002
Kids Know More About The Net Than Books
By:mark.j @ 9:09:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Not surprisingly children have been found to be more knowledgeable about the Internet than they are about books. 1,000 children from ages 7 to 16 years old were questioned in the UK wide NOP Research:
Six out of 10 youngsters questioned knew the term "homepage" meant the introduction to a website yet only 9% could explain the meaning of a preface in a book.
While 38% knew a hardback was a type of book, 57% correctly answered that hard drive was part of a computer.
Less than a quarter knew what to do if someone asked them to RSVP - to reply to an invitation - although 70% were aware what "www" meant in terms of the world-wide web.
The Ananova item reports that children use the Internet on a regular basis to help with school work, with 69% claiming it makes work easier.
Entertainingly 61% of those polled claimed to have helped an adult with using the Internet. |
Tesco.net Launches Unmetered
By:Keith @ 8:48:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] On checking my inbox this morning I noticed an email from Tesco.net, which I tend to use as a backup.
They have launched 3 new products to replace their standard local rate service, these include:
ANYTIME only £12.99 a month
Do you and your family spend a lot of time surfing? Well, this is the package for you. Go on-line whenever you want for just £12.99 a month - (that’s £3 cheaper than both AOL and BT Openworld Anytime*) with nothing else to pay! Plus, you get 500 free Clubcard points when you register.
DAYTIME only £5.99 a month
If you’re at home during the day or even work from home, this is excellent value. You get unlimited Internet access between 2am and 4pm every day, including weekends.**
PAY AS YOU GO
Surf as much as you like and pay just 1p a minute evenings and weekends, and 3p a minute on weekdays!*** That’s cheaper than a local call**** , and ideal if you don't use the internet a lot.
At present signup is only available to current members of the local rate service and you will need to login to the members area to signup. However registration will be open to new members shortly.
As with most ISP’s you will need a BT phone line and the free Clubcard points offer is only valid until 16th February 2003 and may only be applicable to current members.
It’s also worth noting that the signup page for new members for the local rate service is currently offline. |
News - October 2,2002
BTO Launch Interactive Music Awards
By:mark.j @ 3:03:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] UK ISP BTOpenworld has today announced the launch of their Interactive Music Awards 2002, full press release follows:
BT OPENWORLD LAUNCHES INTERACTIVE MUSIC AWARDS
The BT Openworld Interactive Music Awards 2002 were launched today to celebrate the cream of the UK's interactive music industry. A prize-giving ceremony will be held on November 26, 2002 at one of the best known venues in London - the BT Tower.
With 13 categories ranging from the Best Pop Artist to the Best Shop, the awards are open to the entire spread of the interactive music community including record companies, new media and marketing executives, specialist music websites, webcasters, retailers, software manufacturers and also websites built by music fans. The awards look at everything from websites to SMS campaigns and interactive TV.
Nine of the categories will be judged by industry panels whilst three (Artist of the Year, the dotmusic's People's Choice Award for Best Music Web Site and Best Shop) will be voted for by the public. A special award for Best Innovation will be chosen by BT Openworld itself.
A web site for the awards (www.ima2002.com) goes live today and is hosted by dotmusic (www.dotmusic.com), BT Openworld's music site. The site will feature downloadable entry forms, all the news on the awards plus areas for additional content from record companies such as audio tracks, exclusive video footage and messages from artists.
Ben Drury, head of music at BT Openworld, said: "Online music has come a long way in the last five years and it's time that it was recognised by both the wider public and the industry. The BT Openworld Interactive Music Awards will reward the very best in every aspect of online music and raise awareness of the importance of the online medium in the 21st century music business."
The dotmusic's People's Choice Award for Best Music Web site is expected to be one of the most fiercely contested as it will be open to any music web site from official artist sites to online fanzines. Thousands of entries from websites are anticipated with potentially hundreds of thousands of votes.
Entries open October 7 and the deadline is October 23. A shortlist will be announced at the beginning of November.
The full list of categories is as follows:
Judged Awards
Best Pop Artist
Best Rock Artist
Best Indie Artist
Best Dance Artist
Best Urban Artist
Best Major Label
Best Independent Label
Best Promotional Campaign
Best Use of Broadband
Awards voted for by the public:
Best Shop
Artist of the Year
The dotmusic People's Choice Award for Best Music Website
Special award presented by BT Openworld
Best Innovation |
BSG Re-Focuses On Business
By:mark.j @ 1:34:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The UK government’s broadband advisory team, the Broadband Stakeholders Group (BSG), is to refocus on business needs due to internal criticism that it has so far failed to do just that:
The BSG was set up last year to help the Government achieve its goal of making sure "the UK has the most extensive and competitive broadband market in the G7 by 2005".
But the group has been beset by problems. Some BSG members believe it lost its way when some telcos began to boycott meetings six months ago, after discussions on the slow pace of local loop unbundling and the restructuring of BT were quashed.
"Fewer companies of size and importance - with the exception of BT - are turning up to meetings and engaging in the process, partly because controversial subjects such as BT restructuring are off-limits," said an executive at a large telco who is a member of the BSG.
The CW360 item reports that the BSG will report on its first year's work and outline its role for the future, which is expected to focus more on business uptake, during the end of November next month.
Sadly the BSG now believes that it's no longer necessary to concentrate on the setting up of the country's broadband infrastructure because BT's service now covers two thirds of the country =(. |
Free Online Music Helps Fight Piracy
By:mark.j @ 1:21:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Here's a twist in the tail; in their continuing efforts to win back custom from controversial online P2P song-swapping services, the music industry is offering its own free downloads:
For one week beginning on Thursday, music fans in Europe will be able to download, stream or burn onto their hard drives a selection of tracks from 6,000 artists including ColdPlay, Dido and Elvis Presley.
It is part of a marketing ploy called "Digital Download Day" devised by British firm OD2, a technology company specialising in digital music distribution and co-founded by recording artist Peter Gabriel.
Backed by record labels and music retailers, a host of subscription download services have been hatched over the past year to tap into the consumer craze of downloading music.
It's not yet clear whether the project will be a success, although the fact that it's only a short term program and has some limits means that it probably won't.
European Internet users will need to be a member of MSN, Tiscali or the HMV portal etc. in order to access the £5 worth of free music. More @ ZDNet. |
Energis Looses Deputy CEO
By:mark.j @ 9:34:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The deputy CEO of telecoms and networking group Energis, David Wickham, is reported to have quit is job last Friday, yet he's not the only one to go:
Bill Trent, the finance director, leaves at the end of October and will be replaced by Eamonn O'Hare, the CFO of PepsiCo Inc. in Asia, the newspaper said.
Chairman Archie Norman also replaced several senior managers in the sales and marketing department, which will be headed by Rob Fisher, the Guardian said.
More in The Guardian newspaper. |
THUS Telecom Eyes Early Profit
By:mark.j @ 9:30:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The telecommunications operator behind UK ISP Demon Internet, THUS, has today said that it expects to become profitable a year earlier than it previously forecast.
The economically pleasing news is apparently thanks to boosted revenue from business customers:
The company will be profitable after capital expenditure, interest payments and all other spending by the fourth quarter of 2004, Chief Financial Officer John Maguire said in an interview. The shares rose as much as 19 percent.
"By the end of the fourth quarter in 2004 we'll have more money in the bank than we started the quarter with," Maguire said. "And that won't be because we draw down on any loan facilities. It'll be because the business is generating cash."
Thus has cut net debt to about 11 million pounds ($17 million) after founder ScottishPower Plc last year backed a 269 million-pound share sale and spun the company off. Chief Executive Officer Bill Allan has steered the business toward more profitable business customers rather than supplying wholesale network capacity to rivals, a market where prices have plunged.
While it's good news, 2004 is still someway off and it looks as if THUS will continue to have a rough ride until then. More @ Bloomberg. |
Internet = Best For Environmental News
By:mark.j @ 9:21:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Apparently the Internet is the best place to go if you're looking for news of the environment.
So say the respondents to a global online poll conducted for the Andreas Papandreou Foundation of Greece, which involved more than 25,000 respondents in 175 countries:
Mr Papandreou said: "This experiment in e-democracy created a unique opportunity for ordinary people to participate in a global debate about the critical issues that affect their daily lives.
The inspiration for this global poll draws on the forms of direct democracy first developed in Greece 2,500 years ago.
In public assemblies, people could express their concerns before their leaders and fellow citizens simply by jumping onto a rock," he said.
The BBCNews item notes that 38% said the Internet was the best source of environmental news, with newspapers and TV following far behind on 17%. |
Fast24 ISP Issues Full Service Update
By:mark.j @ 9:14:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Continuing problems with the unmetered dialup ISP Fast24 have forced the provider into issuing a full service update, which is as follows and can also be found under our Fast24 Forum:
First of all I would like to apologise for our lack of appearance recently. A while ago members of staff started to be targetted personally, and this has discouraged staff efforts.
Our appearance and contributions to ISPR have generally been made in our own (non paid time), and hence you can imagine it can be be disheartening when after a hard days work you log on to help out, only to be accused of not having been around, or running away when problems occur. No, we've not been running away, just working extra hours to resolve things.
Problems:
1. Authentication Failures on 08089996356
2. Busy signals on 08089933225
3. Missing Web Files
4. General Discussion
1. Authentication failures on 0808999636 have mainly been because the providers of this number have been unable to provide us with realtime accounting packets. This means that have been unable to control customers usage sufficiently, and many users have been abusing this vulnerability. In reality the number is reaching capacity as a result of a relatively small number of customers filling the ports. We've spent the past 5 days (including Saturday and Sunday) crunching data, and are now starting to suspend such customers. This will free up the capacity.
We've been assured realtime data will be available within the next week which means we will not have to spend hundreds and hundreds of man hours churning data that our database would do automatically under normal circumstances.
2. The busy signals on 08089933225 number result from customers flowing off the 08089996356 number. Our resolution of problem 1 should result in a resolution of problem 2 soon after.
3. I understand that we had a failure of a raid device on one of our main web servers at the weekend. Unfortunately this severely damaged data on one of the user areas, including our own website. We've restored from older backups, and this has resolved most sites. Unfortunately an attempt to place a warning message in the spaces whos websites could not recovered resulted in the index pages of other sites being overwritten. We should be able to resolve this tomorrow morning.
4.
a. ISPR ball on our website:
The ball advertising our successes earlier in the year was removed on Friday, as we did a minor website upgrade. Unfortunately this update was lost on Sunday, and the backup did not include this update. This will be reinstated within the next couple of days or so.
b. Cancellations:
If you wish to cancel your account, then please email your username, last two characters of your password, and reason to cancellations@larkinternet.com
If you have emailed us previously, and believe we have not done anything about it, please forward as attachment previous correspondance.
c. Webmail loss?
There has been no loss of mail, and webmail has been unaffected by the server failure at the weekend, apart from a day where you could not get to webmail.fast24.net
Conclusion:
We're doing everything we can to return things to reliability. And hope to make some announcements in the short term to put peoples minds at rest, and to remove many of the pitfalls that have caused recent issues.
The onus is now no doubt on Fast24 to turn their words into action and ultimately improve the service quality. |
BTOpenworld To Cap Broadband Usage?
By:mark.j @ 8:58:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] There's nothing new about rumours that BTOpenworld could also introduce a usage limit on its broadband ADSL service, yet today those fears have risen once again:
Earlier this month BTopenworld sent out letters to its broadband satellite users warning them that it would impose restrictions if people used the service too much.
And now BTopenworld has capped the use of its supposedly unmetered dial-up service.
Insiders have already told The Register that BTopenworld intends to start restricting its ADSL service for its heaviest users.
Oh dear, The Register has a nasty habit of getting it right when it comes to BTOpenworld 'insiders' =(.
Economically speaking BTOpenworld has much less of a case for imposing a limit on their ADSL service, which is more expensive than most. |
News - October 1,2002
The Top 10 Internet Viruses
By:mark.j @ 2:40:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] It's the begging of a new month and time to once again see who's topping the online Virus charts from MessageLabs:
1. W32/Klez.H-mm
2. W32/BugBear-mm
3. W32/Yaha.E-mm
4. W32/SirCam.A-mm
5. W32/Klez.E-mm
6. W32/Magistr.B-mm
7. W32/Yaha.C-mm
8. W32/Hybris.B-mm
9. W32/Magistr.A-mm
10. W32/Tettona.A-mm
Clearly BugBear has managed to gain a firm hold within a short period of time, although no surprises seeing the notorious Klez-H at the top again. |
New Bugbear E-Mail Virus (Worm)
By:mark.j @ 1:32:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The latest E-Mail worm (virus) to hit the Internet is called Bugbear-A and exploits a known vulnerability in some versions of Microsoft Outlook that executes attachments automatically:
Bugbear-A contains a file that logs keystrokes and opens up ports to remote exploitation by hackers. It arrives as an email disguised as a previous message.
Identification is only possible by looking at the attachment, which is always 50,688 bytes in size.
MessageLabs say they have intercepted 6000 copies since it was first intercepted in Malaysia on September 29.
More @ Ananova. |
Broadband Users Watch Sport Online
By:mark.j @ 1:29:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Apparently many of those lucky enough to have a broadband Internet connection have begun using it to watch online sports coverage:
While the internet currently accounts for less than 1 per cent of sports industry revenues, this is set to grow as sports rights holders begin to support emerging channels more actively.
"Broadband sports represent a significant new revenue opportunity for rights holders and operators alike," says Nick Griffiths, Director, Broadband Entertainment Strategies at Strategy Analytics. "But they must nurture their relationship with great care, and must accept that the internet will play a supplementary role to television for many years to come."
More @ Europemedia. |
Rival ISPs Stick By Unmetered Use
By:mark.j @ 1:23:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] UK ISPs AOL, Freeserve and Tiscali have today claimed that they have no plans to follow BTOpenworld's lead by capping their 24/7 unmetered dialup usage.
It's often the case with mainstream ISPs that when one makes a change, the others follow; not this time:
Representatives of AOL UK, Freeserve and Tiscali all said their outfits had no plans to introduce such strict limits. And doubts were expressed over the ability of BTopenworld improve its financial standing through the introduction of user caps.
After all, that is one of the major reasons why the ISP - affectionately called BTopenwound because it leaks so much money - introduced this cash-saving initiative.
The early response from BTopenworld customers is that they feel they've been ripped off.
Interesting to see AOL included, didn't they just introduce a 30hours per month cap for Eurobell customers? Out of the three mentioned above, Freeserve is the most directly comparable to BTOpenworld. More @ The Register. |
Fast24 ISP Looses Customer Websites
By:mark.j @ 9:53:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] It looks as if UK unmetered dialup ISP Fast24 has finally managed to restore its website.
Unfortunately the same can not be said for its customers, many of which have been greeted with the following announcement:
Important Notice
Due to a hardware failure on our primary web server, all information stored on this FTP account has been lost and is unrecoverable from backups. As a result of this all original content will require re-uploading. Your current username/password details remain the same, and have not been damaged or compromised.
We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused. |
MS IE6 Still Top Of The Web Browsers
By:mark.j @ 9:38:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] New research from OneStat.com has shown that Microsoft's Internet Explorer v6 web browser is still the king, yet AOL owned Netscape and associated Mozilla are once again starting to grow:
Mozilla 1.0 global usage has grown from 0.4 percent in June to 0.8 percent this month, nearly four months after its release. Netscape 7.0 global usage has risen from 0.3 percent to 0.5 percent in the same period.
In comparison, global usage for Microsoft's latest browser, IE 6, has grown from 46.4 percent to 52.3 percent from June to September, the study found.
In total, Microsoft's collection of IE browsers comprise 94.9 percent of the market; the browsers of AOL Time Warner-owned Netscape and Mozilla represent 3 percent of the market; and Opera comprises 0.9 percent.
ZDNet reports that the research is based on a sample of 2 million visitors divided into 20,000 visitors of 100 countries each day. |
What Does The Internet Do To You?
By:mark.j @ 9:33:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Understanding what kind of impact the Internet has had and will continue to have on our lives is a very difficult question to answer.
Now one of the world's first research centres dedicated to studying the Internet and its social consequences has arisen, The Oxford Internet Institute:
Learning more about the net, the way it accelerates change and harnessing it to help research was key to future political, social and economic policy, said Andrew Graham, economist, Master of Balliol College and a keen supporter of the new institute.
"How do we learn fast enough so that we are learning faster than the world changes?" asked Mr Graham, "if we are not learning faster than the world changes then we cannot possibly control it."
The Institute has been established as a multi-disciplinary centre that will have its own teaching staff, carry out its own research and act as a collection point and clearing house for net research projects. It aims to establish its own regular surveys of net use and analyse trends.
Hopefully the new group won't end up as just another dry, detached research group. More @ BBCNews Online. |
Freeserve Suffers Data Transfer Problems
By:mark.j @ 9:26:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] If you're currently experiencing a slowdown in your unmetered dialup AnyTime Internet connection with Freeserve then a new service update may help to explain why:
We are currently experiencing data transfer problems with the AnyTime package. Customers in the South and the Midlands may find that Web pages load slowly or not at all. Please be assured that Freeserve is working to resolve this issue and full service will be restored as soon as possible.
Update - It seems that all customers are now experiencing problems. The Service Status Update now reads: We are currently experiencing reduced connection speeds on the AnyTime package. Customers may be unable to send or receive email and may find that Web pages load slowly. |
BTO Confirms Unmetered Usage Limit
By:mark.j @ 9:20:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] UK ISP BTOpenworld has confirmed earlier rumours that the ISP is to seriously limit unmetered usage on its dialup platform to 150 hours per month for AnyTime customers and 120 for Surftime users.
Some 900,000 customers will be affected and should receive a more detailed E-Mail on the subject today; the new limits will be effective from 1st November 2002.
We've always been surprised that they didn't do this sooner. Don't be too shocked if several other major UK ISPs choose to follow suit within the next month or two, such is often the tradition. |
Telewest Announces Restructuring
By:mark.j @ 9:14:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] DigitalSpy reports that the UKs second largest cable operator, Telewest, has finally reached a preliminary restructuring agreement with its bondholders:
As expected, the company is opting to go down the debt-for-equity restructuring route, with £3.5bn worth of debt being cancelled and replaced with ordinary shares in the restructured company representing 97% - current shareholders will get just 3% of Telewest's issued ordinary share capital.
Charles Burdick, Telewest's Managing Director, said that the agreement: "...represents an important first step towards completing a financial restructuring that carefully balances the interests of all stakeholders. I am confident we will be able to conclude a final agreement that will put the Company on a sound financial footing, allowing us to build on our operational strength and extend our leadership in the broadband market. All customers and suppliers should be reassured that Telewest will continue to meet its operational commitments." |
Kesgrave Hits ADSL Trigger Level
By:mark.j @ 9:10:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] ADSLGuide reports that Kesgrave (Suffolk) has become the latest local exchange to reach its broadband ADSL pre-registration trigger level, which was this time set at 350.
However it's feared that many ISPs aren't actively chasing up the pre-registrations and thus the chances of some exchanges actually being enabled could be dramatically reduced.
The site has also posted a list of 173 UK exchanges, none of which will be issued with a trigger level. Apparently this is due to the number of lines served by said exchanges; the trigger level that would be set based on the current costs for enabling the exchange could not be realistically met. Demand will still be monitored just in case it ever does become economical. |
Eurobell Customer's Update
By:Anne @ 8:22:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Today I was given some information from UK ISP Kalnet4u, Eurobell customer's can Call 01752 300300. They will hear a recorded message and this explains that Eurobell customers in the Devon area can now get Blueyonder.
If all customers contact that number then they will find out if they are in the areas that can receive the service. More information as I receive it.
Telewest also explained that AOL withdrawing its coverage for Eurobell customers was beyond their control. More information will be posted as soon as I receive it. |
News - September 30,2002
Oftels New Price Assurance Standard
By:mark.j @ 2:59:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The UK Telecoms regulator, Oftel, has today announced the introduction of a new scheme known as the Oftel Price Assurance Standard (Oftel PASS).
The scheme allows Oftel to award 'the Oftel PASS' to websites offering easy-to-use, high quality price comparisons for fixed, mobile or Internet tariffs:
The Oftel PASS logo displayed on a price comparison website, will give consumers the assurance that they will be able to compare prices easily and accurately whilst shopping around for the best deal.
To be awarded the Oftel PASS, price comparison websites will have to meet certain criteria, including:
* price comparisons must be accurate and updated at least every eight weeks;
* the website must be independent and not affiliated to any one telecoms supplier;
* residential price comparison information must be free; and
* the website must be interactive, for example, allowing consumers to search for information by their postcode.
Companies offering on-line price comparison services can apply to Oftel for accreditation, which is likely to take about eight weeks. Oftel has appointed independent consultants Analysys to audit the websites and Oftel will have final approval.
David Edmonds, Director General of Telecommunications said today: "This scheme is really good news for telecoms consumers wanting to make sense of the huge choice of tariffs available to them.
There are some excellent websites that offer price comparisons for fixed, mobile and Internet services already in operation. But consumers aren't always sure that the information they're getting is accurate and independent.
The Oftel PASS will give them the assurance that the site is offering comparisons from a wide range of operators - at least ten different suppliers for fixed telecoms services.
It will also provide a guarantee that the website has been independently checked and verified so that they can make their choices with confidence."
A number of websites have already expressed an interest in the scheme and Oftel hopes to accredit the first sites before the end of the year. |
AlphaPhe ISP Refunds - Update
By:mark.j @ 2:54:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Following a recent news item in which we highlighted the concern of those AlphaPhe customers whom have yet to receive a refund, the ISP has now issued us with a response:
It has come to our attention that some users are concerned about the status for their refunds, we would like to reassure our users that refunds are currently being processed and we will be in touch shortly.
We apologise for the delay, it is purely due to the fact that there are a lot of refund requests to be processed and they are being dealt with in the order we received them.
Again, we apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused.
AlphaPhe.Net
Sadly no mention was made of how many refunds have been processed and how many are yet to go. AlphaPhe removed its unmetered dialup service after loosing its financial support over a month ago. |
Video-Networks & BTs High ADSL Costs
By:mark.j @ 2:50:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Video-Networks, which supplies broadband ADSL based Video-on-Demand (VoD) services, is apparently having to consider the future viability of its business due to the high cost of BTs ADSL network:
The privately owned company has had problems because of the high fees charged by BT for the use of its ADSL network. Despite pressure from regulators, BT has yet to unbundle its package.
This has meant that Video-Networks'' subscriber base has remained static for two years, at about 15,000 customers, all in the London region. Video-Networks had wanted to extend their system across the UK, with up to 200 channels carried by DSL, but these plans have been abandoned.
The Europemedia item reports that should the businesses financial backers choose to withdraw support, they could well end up suing BT. |
Fast24 ISP Website Vanishes
By:mark.j @ 2:43:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] What is it with UK ISPs and their website servers? First PlusNET had problems and now the troubled unmetered dialup ISP Fast24 has vanished without a trace.
We first noticed this when posting our ISP Complaints update a day ago; the following domains are affected:
http://www.fast24.net
http://www.larkcomputers.com
http://www.larkinternet.com
Some readers have also noted that their own Fast24 hosted websites appear to be offline. Unlike PlusNET, Fast24 has not issued a service update to explain the lengthy outage. So far as we can tell, dialup and E-Mail remain unaffected.
The unexplained disappearance has left many Fast24 customers concerned that the ISP could be upgrading, which has traditionally resulted in even more problems =). |
Parents Online Week Begins
By:mark.j @ 2:32:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Today has seen the start of a new government backed project called 'Parents Online Week', which is designed to demonstrate the educational benefits of the Internet to parents and children:
The week-long series of special events was kicked off earlier today at the Kingwood Learning Centre in Fulham, London. The website which supports the programme has also been relaunched (http://www.parentsonline.gov.uk) .
The site is now in its third year, and is part of a Department for Education and Skills (DfES) programme to help parents and their children make the most of the educational benefits of the internet. It features a range of quick links and searches so parents and children can find useful information easily as they learn together online, according to the DfES.
Minister for Family Learning, Catherine Ashton, said: "The internet can make a real difference to children's learning and the Parents Online website offers access to a huge variety of sites for children as well as information on internet safety."
More @ Silicon. |
Isonetric Preps New Satellite ISP Service
By:mark.j @ 1:43:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] While the news itself is embargoed (14th October 2002 - we'll publish it then), we can state that the broadband satellite provider behind several UK ISPs, Isonetric, will soon announce a new product.
The forthcoming service will be designed to compete, economically at least, with UK ADSL offers and cover the UK and Europe. Sadly that's all we can tell you, full details will be made public on 14th October 2002. |
UK ISP IntY Signs New Linix Deal
By:mark.j @ 1:33:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Linix, a major player in backend ISP services, has today announced a new deal with managed Internet services vendor IntY:
Linix Opt For ExoServer To Provide Virtual ISP Offering
Internet Service Provider Chooses intY Equipment To Sell Through Partners
Specialist managed Internet services vendor intY today announced a valuable deal with Linix, a major player in backend ISP services that will see the intY ExoServer server appliance resold through the Linix family of over 70 VISP (Virtual Internet Service Provider) partners.
"Linix are a well respected and influential member in the UK ISP community with excellent technical know-how and selling skills," said Mark Herbert, managing director of intY Ltd. "Our partnership is another significant endorsement for the ExoServer product, demonstrating its popularity in the market and superiority among other products."
The intY ExoServer is a flexible management appliance for corporate Internet and email access. A robust platform, the ExoServer is ideally suited either as a standalone CPE for a small/medium-sized business or as the workhorsefor a much larger branch operation. The partnership with Linix promotes the uptake of the ExoServer among a large, growing range of UK VISPs.
Simon Jessop, Director of Operations at Linix said: "We researched a number of options before coming to the conclusion that the intY ExoServer - rather than the Equiinet NetPilot - is the best available product for us and our partners. ExoServer fits superbly into our existing portfolio, and we see it becoming an important technology component of our service." |
BTO To Limit Unmetered Dialup Use!?
By:mark.j @ 1:28:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Insiders have rumoured that UK ISP BTOpenworld, which charges £15.99 per month for 24/7 unmetered dialup Internet access, is to seriously limit the unmetered usage of its customers.
Apparently the ISP plans to introduce a monthly maximum usage limit of 150 hours, which while economically safe (typical BT), is still roughly half of what users are currently allowed:
Anyone approaching their new monthly limit will receive an email to let them know. If they want to continue using the service after they have exceeded their quota, then they will have to download the Pay As You Go dialler from the BTopenworld Web site for the rest of the month.
If all the hours aren't used up then they can be carried over for the next month, but only up to a maximum of 50 hours.
This new tariff will replace its "all-you-can-eat" service, which effectively allowed people to stay online 12 hours in every 24 without having to pay for the cost of the Internet call.
BTOs move is similar to that of several other ISPs; a good number recently imposed an identical 150hours per month limit - coincidence?
However it also means that the onus will now be even more on ISPs to improve service quality, leaving very little room for their usual excuses.
While it's bad news for heavy users, it's good to see more ISPs finally waking up to the reality of the economics they've subscribed to. More @ The Register. |
Wireless ISP IAP Broadband Expands
By:mark.j @ 1:03:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The ever expanding world of broadband wireless ISPs grew further today after IAP Broadband announced an improvement to its coverage:
Transmitter Live - Sep 30 2002, 12:23 PM
The naish Hill Transmitter is now up and running thanks to everyone who contributed to the development of the site.
We will be conducting tests in area of possible coverage over the next few days and the results will be posted soon after |
UK ISP Freeserve Turns Four (Age)
By:mark.j @ 9:31:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The Guardian has an interesting item on French Wanadoo owned UK ISP Freeserve, which has just turned four years old and gained a new CEO; Eric Abensur.
They look at where the company came from and where it's going in the future:
For Abensur, that future is almost certainly going to include a re-branding exercise that will turn Freeserve into Wanadoo, the name of its owner. For some experts, this move could be the most dangerous of all to Freeserve, which is one of the few brands to have established itself successfully in the new media upsurge of the past five years.
"BT's 'No Frills' service has changed everything for everybody," says one analyst. "Freeserve is a big company, so it has the whole inertia factor in its favour. But I wouldn't want to have to rebuild my brand equity at the same time that BT has woken up."
Whenever this re-branding move happens, Abensur also has to decide if the company - whatever its name - will continue as a low-cost, mass-market provider supported by advertising revenue and phone fees, or whether it will aim to be a premium broadband provider with exclusive content and more upmarket customers. |
New Wi-Fi Tech Challenges 3G
By:mark.j @ 9:24:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] New broadband wireless WAN (Wide Area Networking) Wi-Fi technology from Proxim, which allows users to log into their ISP from up to 12 miles away, is seen as a potential threat to future 3G (UTMS) mobile phones:
These versions of wireless networks using the Wi-Fi, or 802.11b, standard create a wireless zone of up to 12 miles long, far beyond the usual 300-foot-radius range that Wi-Fi typically achieves, Zakin said.
Overkill for use inside a home, where most Wi-Fi networks are currently found, the long-range Wi-Fi gear from Proxim and others is meant for small Web service providers. It lets them beam long-range signals outside, particularly to sell broadband access in rural areas where DSL (digital subscriber lines) or cable broadband service haven't reached, Zakin said.
The new technology is a further boost to the long-standing 802.11b standard, but it may come at the expense of 3G, the set of standards that have been developed for sending and receiving broadband data such as live video and CD-quality audio from compact mobile phone handsets. Mobile phone network operators have found that rolling out 3G is a pricey proposition.
It's far too early to know what kind of impact Wi-Fi is going to have on 3Gs market, which will extend beyond broadband wireless mobile phones. More @ ZDNet. |
4 New Exchanges Close To ADSL Trigger
By:mark.j @ 9:16:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] ADSLGuide reports that the following four exchanges appear to be very close (within the 90%+ range) to hitting their broadband ADSL pre-registration trigger levels:
1. Kesgrave 335 (95%)
2. Merthyr Tydfil 236 (94%)
3. Inverness Culloden 183 (91%)
4. Maesteg 360 (90%)
Hopefully at least one will make it by Friday, although it could be early next week before they finally hit the mark. |
News - September 29,2002
ISP Review Weekly Update
By:mark.j @ 9:40:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] I'd like to start by apologising for the lack of an E-Mailed newsletter this past two weeks, we've been unable to find out why some people seem to get corrupted output and others don't. It looks to be either a common client side change or an issue with the server that we're unable to see.
Thankfully we did get a chance to re-do the unmetered dialup ISP list and also increased the number of headlines (10 to 12) and full news items (5 to 6) showing on the front page, as requested by some readers.
The Reader ISP Reviews system has now also entered the final stage (stage 5) of testing before public release. As it stands now there are no new bugs, although we've yet to run through a full and final test. It should be launched soon.. |
|
