June 21, 2002 - June 26, 2002
News - June 26,2002
Quik ISP Updates Off-Peak Unmetered
By:mark.j @ 2:46:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The increasingly popular UK ISP Quick Internet has apparently had a review of their Off-Peak unmetered dialup service and chosen to make a few improvements, full press release follows:
Quik Internet Review their Residential Pricing for Off-peak Unmetered Access.
Quik Internet have today reviewed the pricing policy on their 56/64K Off-peak Unmetered Access Package and added a new twist to the tale! From today you can connect off-peak through Quik Internet for just £9.99 per month inclusive. The twist in the tale being that for only £1 extra a month you can have your own Domain Name and Email addresses as well.
Colin Macdonald Co Director of Quik Internet explains the reason for the change in pricing “Most residential customers have an email address from their current provider for example john6429@anyisp.com , which is fine for that person to use, but what would happen if, heaven forbid AnyISP.com shut up shop tomorrow and left all their users with no Internet Connection and Email”. He continued “What we are trying to achieve is to get people to realise that if they register a name for themselves it secures their email address no matter what ISP they are signed to”.
Quik Internet are confident that the demand for both of these revisited packages will be high, after re - launching their 128K for Business and Residential earlier in the month, with exceptional take up. Business and Residential customers have flocked to Quik’s service, eager to use the fastest connection possible for those unfortunate souls who are not yet in ADSL enabled areas and who want a reliable, cost-effective connection. Sign up can be completed on line or through calling or emailing the office. |
BTOpenworld ISP Still Booting Users
By:mark.j @ 2:42:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] You may remember the news from several weeks ago when BTOpenworld announced their intention to drop the maximum unmetered (narrowband) dialup usage in any 24 hour period from 16 to 12 hours.
Unfortunately The Inquirer is reporting that the ISP has now started kicking people off their service based on the new guidlines, which was almost inevitable. No warnings this time, you're more likely to see this:
Dear Customer,
We refer to our previous email regarding your BTopenworld account.
Our records show that your account continues to be connected for long periods of time - typically 12 hours or more in a day. Unfortunately, as we informed you in our earlier email, this is a breach of our Terms & Conditions. To review these, please go to http://www.btopenworld.com/helpnb/terms
We are sorry to tell you that your account will be terminated from 2nd July 2002, in accordance with our Terms & Conditions (paragraph14 (b)).
If you use a BTopenworld for BT Surf Package please note that only your BTopenworld for BT Surf Package will be terminated. If you no longer need your separate BT Surf Package, you should cancel it by calling BT Retail on 150 using a BT line.
An 'always on' internet connection may better suit your needs and you may wish to consider high speed BTopenworld Broadband Plug & Go. It's up to ten times faster than a standard modem and uses your existing BT line without affecting your voice calls. Once set up, there are no extra charges above the monthly rental fee. To find out more and check broadband availability in your area, please go to http://www.btopenworld.com/broadband
If you have any questions about your account termination, please contact the BTopenworld team at http://www.btopenworld.com/helpnb.
When contacting the BTopenworld team, please quote your email address and reference number Axxxx.
Yours sincerely,
Davros
Leader of the Universe
BTopenworld team
www.btopenworld.com
We note the entertaining reference to Daleks at the bottom, which they of course made up.. or did they [start of 1960s B-Movie violin shocker sound..]?
Of course if you're one of the few who've used BTOpenworlds service for many years and can't get their ADSL promotion or afford Satellite then it's all very harsh. No attempt to warn or even allow the customer to explain their usage, how kind. |
UKSO Touts Broadband Security
By:mark.j @ 8:33:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The recently launched UK Security Online portal, which covers everything from consumer firewalls to corporate protection, has today sent out a new PR highlighting the importance of security for broadband connections:
UK Security Online have called for ISP's to do more to educate their users about security risks inherent in always-on or "semi-permanent" connections.
Also ISP's must start taking the security of the communications systems they provide to customers more seriously. It is becoming increasingly inexcusable that passwords and even data for email servers, web servers, and any number of other servers are still being passed in clear-text when technologies exist to make this obsolete.
Furthermore, a failure to restrict outgoing traffic from their network to ONLY known IP addresses is making spoofed (forged) IP address Denial of Service attacks against others a trivial matter. This latter problem is made worse by the increasing penetration of Windows 2000 and XP O/S that now make spoofed IP attacks possible in a way that Windows 95/98 and ME simply didn't. Add to this the increased prevalence of broadband services and this combination makes for a lethal mix of increased offensive bandwidth capacity and software that can exploit such offensive capability to maximum effect.
A starting action list for security conscious ISP's should include:
1) Having clear and PROMINENT instructions included within the main dial-up or connection configuration that includes information about security measures that users should be taking to protect themselves when connecting to the Internet. Even if they don't provide this information themselves they should point to some of the many sites (like ours) that do. Most users are totally unaware of the dangers they face and the potent weapon that their new broadband connection could be when comprimised and used to attack others.
2) Start planning for the total elimination of clear-text passwords being transmitted to servers they control. At the moment any users POP3 email could be retrieved by someone who has obtained the clear-text passwords. Since they can configure equipment to retrieve mail but leave a copy behind, it is possible that many users email is being read by others without them even being aware. Secure POP3, Secure IMAP4 and Secure SMTP all exist as protocols and are now included in most email server and client (Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, etc) distributions. There is simply no excuse for continuing with unsecure POP3 and other protocols. The same applies to secure FTP. Secure FTP is available over the SSH protocol. What is the value of SSL encryption if data is then transferred in clear-text via FTP.
3) Seriously consider blocking incoming Port 25 to ALL their dial-up and broadband IP ranges and ensure that user MX records are configured to deliver first to the ISP Mail Server and then on to the end-user mail server. Failure to do this can lead to the type of situation that Demon internet has been facing this week (and probably for a long time now) where effective "inside-out" spamming attacks can be launched against insecure customer mail servers and these then send the spam to the ISP mail server, resulting in potential denial of service to other clients. Users simply cannot be trusted to adequately secure mail servers and where the repurcussions of just a few unsecured servers can impact on all ISP customers then draconian action has to be considered.
4) Furthermore, ISP's should be ensuring that email leaving their network via their mail servers does not come from domain names they don't recognise. Many such as BT have already moved in this direction. There is no reason at all that ISP's should feel an obligation to deliver such mail, it should be sent via the mail servers of those that do control the domain. If they don't provide such outgoing mail then the customer should ask themselves why they are using such a "half-service" and move the name to a full service provider. Furthermore, ISP's should consider authentication other than by just recognised IP number. There are many SMTP relay authentication tools available and these should be more widely used, thus breaking the reliance on easily forged IP numbers alone.
5) ISP's MUST stop traffic from leaving their network that originates from unrecognised IP numbers, a technique often referred to as egress-filtering. Most Distributed Denial of Service attacks are launched using spoofed IP numbers and yet these are so easy to detect. An ISP knows it's local IP ranges. If traffic originates from inside their network with an unknown source IP address then that packet should NOT leave their network. To allow such packets to leave their network is gross negligence. It can only be a matter of time before a lawsuit is mounted against an ISP by a Denial of Service attack victim on the grounds that the ISP has behaved in an irresponsible and negligent manner in having allowed such packets to originate from their network.
We will be adding a page to our site listing ISP's that we can recommend as "Security Conscious ISP's" that are either already taking all these measures (we know of none as yet) or who can detail their plans for doing all of the above.
The link to this Press Release is at http://www.uksecurityonline.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=193 |
Netsystems Satellite ISP Update
By:mark.j @ 8:26:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] One of the more recent broadband Satellite ISPs to enter the UK market, Netsystems, has today sent us an updated service announcement:
You already know that our services are available to users from all over Europe (provided they are receiving the ASTRA signal from 19.2°E) to subscribe to our Internet connection services, starting at 30 EUR per month. Our customers throughout Europe and North Africa are now about 50,000.
Furthermore, from the 1st of July we will start selling and delivering our Sat Modems (PCI and USB) all over Europe, for our customers' convenience.
We are also partnered with Yahoo!, to allow our customers to subscribe to our Yahoo! services and promotions.
Our website is now available in English (http://www.netsystem.com/eng/) and Italian (http://www.netsystem.com), and a French version will be ready in a matter of days.
For 30Euros (36 inc. VAT) per month you'll get the ability to surf the Internet at a speed of up to 350 kbps.
One advantage of this service is that the ASTRA 19.2E satellite is already quite popular among some free TV viewers and so many may thus find it an easier service to install. |
LANergy Creates PCI Powerline Card
By:mark.j @ 8:18:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Powerline is an old idea and has so far failed to take hold in the UK despite a number of attempts, another is currently underway.
The technology allows a carrier to make use of the power cables connecting houses together; this can then send a broadband (ADSL like) signal for Internet access.
A specialist in LANs, LANergy, has now created a new PCI networking card that allows owners to hook into their powerline for use as a local area network (LAN):
The product that interested show-goers most was under the counter: a tiny PCI card with an RJ-11 socket, which connects, via a small white box, directly to any power socket. Scheduled for delivery as a product sometime in September, this is the box that makes the LANergy people's eyes light up.
The electronics are about as complex as an Ethernet NIC, and the price point may be comparable (they should be aiming for around £100). Plugging one of these into PCs means that up to 16 people can share a network carried by the power wiring in a building. The device meets the HomePlug standard.
It'd be interesting to see just how easy it is to hook up since anything that plays directly with the mains supply has the potential to be very dangerous.
If successful then it would have to go up against the slower, yet much more established, Wi-Fi (wireless) technologies. More @ ZDNet. |
Hutchison3G Expands Toward Ireland
By:mark.j @ 8:09:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Hutchison3G, the next generation broadband wireless (3G/UTMS) mobile phone offering operator, has won a 3G contract in Ireland.
Hutchison 3G Ireland Ltd, a wholly owned unit of Hutchison, will pay a total of 50.7 million euros (32 million pounds) over a 15-year schedule for an A-class 3G licence, the company said on Tuesday.
Hutchison, headed by Asia's richest tycoon Li Ka-shing, has been among the most bullish investors in the unproven 3G technology, and plans to launch services in the United Kingdom and Italy later this year.
An A-class licence in Ireland requires the licensee to roll out at least 50 percent of its network by 2008 and provide spectrum for lease to "virtual" mobile network operators. The3G mobile service is expected to enable high-speed Internet access, among other features. |
News - June 25,2002
ISPr Server Update/Move
By:mark.j @ 7:10:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] | It looks as if our host is busy moving the site over to the faster server and so you should expect some turbulence with our services until it’s over. I've no idea how long it'll last, although hopefully all will be back for tomorrow.. we'll see. |
Maintaining The Broadband Momentum
By:mark.j @ 3:03:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Keith Todd, chair of the Broadband Stakeholders Group (BSG), has today stated the importance of being able to maintain the UKs momentum of broadband uptake.
He refers to the fact that 20,000 new connections are being made each week and the UK now has a real chance of being able to join some of the worlds broadband leaders:
To achieve this, said Todd, stakeholders must be ready to make the social and economic case for broadband. In this debate Todd sees a key role for government but said government intervention is only desirable where market forces cannot themselves provide a service, or if the "timeframe (for rollout) doesn't match the political agenda".
One area in which Todd said government intervetion is particularly unwelcome is in extending the scope of TV regulation to embrace broadband. "OFCOM will be about broadband but what we do not need is a regulated Internet," he said.
In an exclusive interview with ZDNet on Monday the E-commerce minister Stephen Timms restated the government position that public funds would not be used to subsidise broadband in rural areas. In his keynote on Tuesday Keith Todd called for a detailed UK map of availability to be made available so that customers could easily find broadband offerings in their area.
Unfortunately it's not clear quite what Mr.Todd meant by his remarks toward OFCOM and broadband or a regulated Internet.
It certainly wouldn't make much sense if he's suggesting that ISPs not be regulated; the lack of regulation is currently one of the biggest problems. Some ISPs can too easily get away with murder, more @ ZDNet. |
Demon Internet ISP Suffers SPAM Attack
By:mark.j @ 2:52:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The popular UK ISP Demon Internet is reporting to have suffered a major attack from spammers (junk E-Mail), which has resulted in E-Mail service problems for many of the ISPs users.
We've had a number of complaints about this, such as this one: "Demon Internet have had near-zero SMTP connectivity to POST.DEMON.CO.UK servers for more than a week"
Another states: "Routing has been up and down since 21/06/02 resulting in the whole demon network virtually falling off the face of the internet for considerable durations of time…
For further details see demon.service in usenet and you’ll see how many really upset customers there are at the moment."
Demon states that only a small percentage of customers have been hit by the problems, although we can't help but wonder what the ISP considers to be 'SMALL'?
The problem itself has stemmed from spammers being able to find and abuse some open relays in the ISPs service, not unlike some of the problems previously experienced by cable ISP blueyonder (Telewest).
At the time of writing the problem still exists and you can of course discuss it in our forums, or visit their service status page HERE. |
Internet Surfing = Bad For Your Eyes
By:mark.j @ 2:44:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Apparently the Internet, among other things, is being blamed for a surge in the sale of drugs designed to sooth sore eyes:
The experts reckon that the increase in red, dry or irritated eyes may be due to a rise in the use of antidepressants and more time being spent in front of flickering computer and television screens - both of which can cause dry eyes.
While it all seems quite logical, The Register does point out that the company stating all this is also one that sells eye-drops =). |
PIPEX ISP Beefs Up ADSL Support
By:mark.j @ 2:39:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Lately we've been hearing quite a bit about some of the troubles being experienced with Pipexs customer support departments, specifically their broadband ADSL.
Today it's being reported that Pipex is to recruit 30 extra support staff and thus bring the total number up to 90, this comes after the ISP was inundated with calls concerning its broadband products:
It is also planning to introduce other measures - such as phoning customers after they have hooked up to DSL - to ensure that the to help customers who have problems with their broadband service.
The ISP is currently under siege receiving around 4,000 calls a day from customers with problems, but is only able to process around 800. The result is growing frustration among its customer base.
David Rickards, the MD of Pipex, accepts there is a problem and admits that there are customers out there are frustrated.
The Register goes on to state that Mr.Rickards believes, in the long run, extra staff aren't going to help and that they should instead concentrate on finding the heart of the problems. Clever guy. |
V21 Clarify Unmetered ISP Charity Deal
By:mark.j @ 8:46:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The unmetered dialup ISP V21 has finally gotten back to us over our question regarding how much money the new 'Andy Cole Children's Foundation' service would receive and how:
V21 will be giving the Andy Cole Children's Foundation a minimum of £1 per user per month for every month they are active. |
KPNQwest Takeover Rumoured
By:mark.j @ 8:43:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] It looks as if the Dutch investment group, Trimoteur, could be planning a takeover of the troubled European data hub, KPNQwest:
KPNQwest's network is being maintained by former staff who have reached an agreement with management, administrators and Trimoteur.
Joost van Raay of Trimoteur says: "The network is alive and kicking, the clients are still there and ex-employees are doing just enough to maintain the network because it is in everybody's best interests - clients, suppliers, personnel, administrators."
Former KPNQwest vice-president Ewout Mogendorff has told Dutch news agency ANP that administrators for the bankrupt company would decide on a re-start of the company tomorrow.
More @ Ananova. |
Blueyonder 1Mbps Service = Popular
By:mark.j @ 8:39:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Telewests broadband and unmetered dialup ISP wing, blueyonder, has apparently been seeing a lot of success thanks to their recently launched 1Mbps cable modem service.
DigitalSpy has reported that 5,000 customers have upgraded their service to its new £35 per month 1Mbps downstream speed in the first week. There are currently 160,000 subscribers to its 512Kbps variant:
Chad Raube, head of internet services at Telewest Broadband, said: "We have been confident there is good demand for a further bandwidth boost, but consumer enthusiasm has been even better than we anticipated. It seems blueyonder customers definitely want to go faster!"
The pricing of Telewest's 1Mbps service has stirred up debate in the cable community about the price level of fellow cable operator ntl:home's own 1Mbps service, which is currently set at £49.99. |
Broadband Increases Internet Use
By:mark.j @ 8:36:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] It's hardly surprising, a new study has found that those on broadband are much more likely to spend longer online and less in traffic, at the shops, or on the sofa watching TV:
Compared with people who connect through regular dial-up services, broadband users are also more likely to perform a wider range of activities online, like building Web pages, creating online diaries, posting photos, and downloading music or videos, the nonprofit Pew Internet and American Life Project found.
Broadband users told the Pew project that they spend an average of 95 minutes online on any given day, compared to 83 minutes for dial-up users.
All this time spent online has increased the amount of work broadband users do from home and cut into their other activities, such as watching television, shopping, and reading newspapers, the survey found.
Thankfully we can all rest easy as broadband users still like to spend the same amount of time with family or friends, so no broadband zombies then? More @ ZDNet. |
Oftels June 2002 ADSL Fact sheet
By:mark.j @ 8:25:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Oftel has release its June 2002 issue of their broadband ADSL fact sheet HERE today. Unfortunately there's next to nothing new, it notes that by the end of May 66% of the country was covered (1,115 exchanges) and the current install tally for that month is as follows:
2. Take up (as at end of May):
BT: ~240,000
Kingston: ~11,000
There are however two developments related to ISDN upgrades and cancellation charges that might be of some interest:
BT ISDN/Highway conversion to self-install Broadband: BT plans to introduce, from 17 June, a process that will enable consumers to convert from ISDN/Highway to BT IPStream Home and Office through the placement of one order. This matches the process already in place for the IPStream 500 and S products and will remove the need for the consumer to cancel one service before taking up the other.
Cancellation charges: BT has announced reductions in the End User cancellation charges for all its broadband products. From 13 June, the charge for cancelling 2 days or less before the Customer Confirmed Date (CCD) will fall from £75 to £45, and that for cancellations 3-5 days before the CCD will fall from £45 to £15. |
News - June 24,2002
V21 ISP Launch New Charity Service
By:mark.j @ 3:07:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The unmetered dialup and broadband offering ISP V21 has teamed up with a new charity to help children in Africa, full press release follows:
V21.co.uk launches the Andy Cole Childrens Foundation online as a new Internet service provider.
We have teamed up with Andrew's own charity to help him help the needy children in Africa, this is possible by paying the charity as users surf. To sign up to this charity please click on the link below.
AndyColeChildrensFoundationOnline
"It is very disappointing to see children in Africa suffering through no fault of their own, Hopefully initiatives like the Andy Cole Children's Foundation Online, powered by V21.co.uk, will help my foundation to continue to raise significant funds to help some of those children."
Andrew Cole Blackburn Rovers
"We are always very pleased to sign up a charity, especially one that helps children. We look forward to working closely with the charity and wish it every success in its work, and pledge our full support."
Steve Kaye V21.co.uk
In short the new and dangerously long named service is another resold package, although strangely V21 haven't actually mentioned just what the charity itself is going to get?
How much money is being donated and through what method? If somebody subscribes then does a percentage of that monthly payment go to charity? We'll try to get some more details.. |
Gov - No Rural Broadband Subsidies
By:mark.j @ 2:57:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Hardly surprising, the new e-Commerce minister Stephen Timms has stated that the UK government is still not prepared to subsidise the rollout of broadband to rural areas.
This despite the increasing concern over a growing digital divide and the fact that other countries are already offering such subsidies:
"Since that (BSG) report was published, we've seen some big changes. I met with the chairman and chief executive of BT last week, and they both emphasised that broadband is at the heart of BT's commercial strategy," Timms told ZDNet UK.
"I think it's important that people don't look to government money as the way forward. We can look to the normal commercial process to deliver broadband to people. It is government's responsibility to help the market, and to keep an eye on what's going on, but it's not going to be government money that pays for the infrastructure," Timms insisted.
This position, which has been attacked in the past by some tech-savvy MPs, is at odds with the policies of many other developed nations. France last year committed 1.5bn francs (£150m), plus another 15bn francs worth of loans, to finance broadband networks in areas where it isn't economically viable, while Sweden is spending 10bn Swedish krona (£700m) on achieving 98 percent broadband coverage. The US government has earmarked $750m to help underwrite the cost of deploying rural broadband to about six million homes.
The ZDNet item notes how Timms doesn't see broadband as a universal service, which conflicts with the wording in the governments own broadband strategy.
He also notes how financial help could actually hold up progress rather than enhancing it (what, how’d he figure that?), yet obviously doesn't explain what that's supposed to mean.
We can only assume he's referring to the broadband rollout on a strange and unknown planet, which is arguably not the UK. |
BT Reveals Wireless LAN Hotspots
By:mark.j @ 2:45:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] BT has today revealed the first three of its broadband wireless local area network (LAN) hotspots. So if you're around Heathrow Hilton or within BT buildings in London and Suffolk then you'll be able to get online using your laptop:
Users will need to install the appropriate network card and pay a fee to access the service. BT pledges to have 20 hotspots available at the launch on August 1 and a further 50 by the end of the year.
It has agreed deals with Bluewater and Earl's Court Olympia as well as Hilton Hotels. Talks are under way with Travel Inn.
The Ananova item reports that costing has yet to be finalised, although unmetered business users should expect a hefty tag of roughly £95 per month. Metered services will cost closer to 10pence per minute, more tariff details soon. |
Orange Threatens 3G HALT
By:mark.j @ 9:15:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Orange, one of the UKs mobile phone operators, is threatening to stop its 3G (broadband wireless) service development unless Oftel takes a more lenient view over existing phone charges:
Network-to-network charges - known in the trade as termination charges - can cost up to 39p per minute. In January Oftel handed its investigation over to the Competition Commission after the four UK operators protested.
At the time Orange said the Commission's new remit was in line with its wishes. Only BT Cellnet - now o2 - complained about the review.
This weekend, however, Orange accused the regulator of being too heavy handed. Speaking to the Observer, Peter Dunn, Orange's director of regulatory strategy, said: "If you take a chunk of money out of business, that's going to affect us." He suggested 3G plans would be hit as a result.
The Silicon item reports that there will not be an immediate move from Orange, although there could be a slowdown in rollout. To us this seems rather petty and they'll only harm their own business.
Of course we're the ones who have to pay the ridiculously high charges and most would thus favour Oftels move. |
THUS Plans Legal Action Against Oftel
By:mark.j @ 8:12:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Despite recently winning a complaint regarding ADSL pricing and access, THUS Telecom is said to be planning legal action against the regulator for failing to tighten BT Groups regulation enough in the first place.
The Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported that this relates to BTs broadband pricing:
The newspaper did not name its source, but said Thus wants Oftel to reopen an investigation into BT's pricing of retail broadband services under the Competition Act which, if successful, would allow it to sue BT for lost revenues. Action could be initiated as early as this week.
Thus is also keen to prompt debate over what many industry executives see as excessively "light touch" regulation by Oftel which, they argue, gives BT a huge competitive advantage and stifles competition, the article added.
Analysts say they want to ensure that such a system does not continue when Oftel is replaced by a new communications and media super-regulator, Ofcom. A number of companies last week petitioned government ministers on telecoms regulation.
It’s unlikely to have any real impact for consumers, although ISPs and Telco's have always criticised Oftel for not doing enough against BT in one way or another. More @ Ananova . |
News - June 23,2002
ISP Review Weekly Update
By:mark.j @ 9:03:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Unfortunately we're out of the World Cup, although if you factor out the South Americans then the next European Cup should be interesting. I for one will now be supporting South Korea, mainly because they were so supportive of us.
We've also got some other bad news, our new Reader ISP Reviews system has been delayed a little longer after we realised there was a key security feature. We had hoped to begin on-server testing this weekend, now it'll be next week.
Our ISP Review server was also supposed to be moved to a faster system on Friday, although an issue with Pop E-Mail passwords has delayed this move until Monday or Tuesday next week.
Next week should also see a reasonably in-depth article on BTs new BT 'No Frills' Broadband service, which we hope you'll all find interesting.
Finally please note that I'll be on vacation from Saturday July 13th until Monday 22nd of the same month, more on that closer to the time. |
News - June 22,2002
ISPr - July Issue .Net Magazine
By:mark.j @ 2:22:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] If you're passing by a newsagents then take note that for the third time we’ve helped the popular .Net Internet magazine put together their annual ISP report.
However please remember that those services listed as top were taken several months ago when the item was first written and some may no longer be valid, such is life with static publishing =). |
Boltblue ISP Launches Unmetered
By:mark.j @ 9:10:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] One of our readers, Glenn, kindly informed us that the UK dialup ISP Boltblue has finally introduced its own unmetered 24/7 AnyTime service at a respectable £12.99 per month.
Unfortunately you must already be a member of the ISPs 0845 Local Call Rate (Lite) dialup service and be over 18 years of age, although it's easy to subscribe. The ISP itself is very basic with 15mb web space and little else outside of E-Mail.
Note that we couldn't find any information on cut-off times etc., although we doubt there are no limits. Also any former Cable & Wireless Lite subscriber (BT line) can join and still keep their old E-Mail address etc. |
Ruling On BTs Hyperlink Patent Case
By:mark.j @ 9:00:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Remember BTs claim to have invented and thus own the patent to hyperlinks? These are the links you click on websites etc. that take you to other places and sites around the web. If you do then you'll be interested to know that a ruling could be due soon:
There are indications that a US court is to rule shortly whether to dismiss BT's claim that it owns the patent to hyperlinks - or let the case go to full trial.
The UK telco launched a legal challenge against Prodigy Communications Corp in December 2000. BT claims it owns the patent for hypertext links or the "hidden page" as it was described in the original patent.
If BT is found to have ownership of such a fundamental element of the Internet, which really nobody should 'own', then the operator could well abuse this for commercial gain and has already stated as such. More @ The Register. |
How Not To Treat A Customer - BT
By:mark.j @ 8:53:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Stephen Jardine, IT manager at law firm Winkworth Sherwood and customer of BTs business ADSL service, has become the latest victim of poor customer support and is now without a connection:
Adding to his woes, all Jardine's department's BT pagers were cut off on Tuesday and he lost the use of a two megabit stream used for outgoing phone calls on Wednesday.
Despondent Jardine said: "My business has stopped since Monday. I can't get email, I can't get anything. All our pagers have been cut off since Tuesday. When I finally got through to someone at BT to ask why, they said a letter to us had been returned in the post so they just stopped our service without even considering calling us first."
To add insult to injury, Jardine has had almost no luck in getting through to customer services and has been kept on hold for an average of 50 minutes for every call he made this week.
Customer support is by far and away one of the most common complaints we get regarding any of the groups Internet related services. More @ Silicon. |
KPNQwest Finally Pushed Offline
By:mark.j @ 8:46:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] KPNQwest, one of Europe's largest Internet data hubs, should have finally started to close after a failed attempt at dipping into previously secured funding from Citibank:
The bank blocked KPNQwest's attempts to withdraw money from its account, which has a balance of more than EU15m, after it could not provide any asset-back guarantees for the money; its assets are likely to be auctioned off in the near future unless a last minute buyer is found. The court agreed and receivers now say, with some certainty, that they will be forced to shut the network.
Offers for the crippled company have been forthcoming but its bankers have rejected them all so far on valuation grounds. However, if the network is closed down it will certainly reduce the amount KPNQwest's creditors can reasonably expect to receive back, as customers leave - if they have not already done so - and the company's valuation plummets further still.
More @ netimperative.info . |
News - June 21,2002
BTOpenworld ISP Looses E-Mail
By:mark.j @ 3:15:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] BTOpenworld has today found its services severely disrupted after a fault resulted in a lost connection for thousands of customers:
A spokesman for BTopenworld said: "We have had an email problem today that affected around 3,000 customers. There was a fault and we responded by upgrading the service. It has now been resolved."
Unfortunately the Silicon item reports that a number of customers are still unable to send or receive E-Mail and that support is proving hard to contact.
Earlier in the week we noted PIPEX as being another ISP to loose its service, this time their unmetered dialup, due to a fault at Energis. Thankfully after many hours of downtime it was ultimately restored. |
Govs Broadband Wireless Plan Attacked
By:mark.j @ 3:08:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The Governments plan to treat 3.4GHz licence sales in a similar way to the method used for 3G (UTMS) has drawn criticism from Cambridge Broadband, a broadband wireless technology provider:
Wharton claimed: "In an auction, there is the risk that operators end up unable to fund their businesses through having ploughed all their resources into their licences. Worse still, the spectrum could end up in the hands of the wealthiest operators, who have only acquired licences to prevent their competitors from doing so."
However, as the decision has already been made, Wharton urged the government to minimise the reserve prices set for bidders and allow licence-holders to gain additional revenue from providing backhaul to mobile operators - both factors that some believe led to the lack of interest in the government's similar sell-off of broadband wireless licences in the 28GHz band.
For the record this latest spectrum sale is designed to offer alternative (other than ADSL etc.) high-speed Internet services and encourage the availability of access in rural areas. More @ netimperative.info . |
BT - No Further ADSL Price Cuts
By:mark.j @ 3:01:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] BT Wholesale CEO Paul Reynolds has today stated that there are no plans for further broadband ADSL price cuts, which is hardly surprising:
He said: "DSLAM technology is getting a higher roll-out so we would expect to be able to squeeze prices further."
However, he argued that cheaper DSLAMs would increase the number of exchanges that could be enabled for broadband cost-effectively, so there would be some benefit for the consumer, in terms of wider availability if not cost.
He said: "We will pass that on to the consumer in terms of wider footprint, but we have no plans to cut wholesale DSL prices as yet."
The Silicon item notes that BT Wholesale has a target of controlling 50% of the broadband market by next summer (2003), its current share is roughly 36%. |
Analysts Doubt Satellite Broadband
By:mark.j @ 2:56:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Analysts have cast doubt over satellite ISP services being able to attract support from institutional investors. This follows the third postponement of Inmarsat's (broadband satellite service) flotation:
Inmarsat had hoped to gain a listing on the London Stock Exchange by the end of July, valuing the company at £1bn. But the flotation is now scheduled "for some time this year", according to a company spokeswoman.
Owned by a coalition of telcos, Inmarsat runs nine satellites in orbit and was looking to impress investors with plans for a new generation of satellite broadband services scheduled for 2004. The company needs the flotation to meet regulatory requirements to operate in the US.
It has already had to ask the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for more time to complete because of the market's negative attitude towards technology and telecoms stocks, and still has another year to meet the FCC deadline.
The impeccably timed VNUNet item goes on to note the troubled water such services have found themselves in, not least due to the growing penetration of fixed-line ADSL and cable modem etc. services.
It’s almost impossible for such services to match the diversity and price of their land-based competition. |
Aramiskas SME Satellite Broadband
By:mark.j @ 2:47:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Aramiska has launched a new promotion to highlight their SME broadband satellite ISP offerings for those outside of traditional ADSL or cable modem coverage.
Unfortunately there doesn't appear to be anything new that hasn’t already been mentioned in our listings:
Its two-way service is capable of data transmission speeds of up to 2,048 Kbps downstream and 320 Kbps upstream, providing a lifeline for SMEs that run multimedia-heavy or other bandwidth-hungry applications.
Eindhoven-based Aramiska claims that some 8m SMEs in Europe "do not, nor will not have access to terrestrial broadband internet". Entry-level packages start at £99-a-month and support up to 30 PCs, with higher-end options available for companies that need guaranteed bandwidth and support for up to 100 PCs.
More @ netimperative.info . |
Isonetric's Broadband Satellite For Hire
By:mark.j @ 2:38:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Isonetric, the broadband satellite ISP, has today announced its new 'broadband for hire' service. If you can't guess what this is from the wording then check out their latest press release:
Isonetric Broadband has developed a new service - broadband for hire
This exciting new opportunity will enable anyone to have internet access at exhibitions, conferences or seminars. Isonetric is the first satellite broadband provider to offer this service.
Isonetric will provide a satellite dish and the transmitter/receiver boxes at the event location. We will install the dish, set up all the related cabling, commission the dish and then de-install it at the end of the event.
We can provide download speeds from 512kbps up to 4mbps and upload speeds of 128kbps at any location within the UK and Ireland.
Satellite broadband provides always on high speed internet connectivity with no geographical restrictions. A 74cm elliptical cream coloured dish is attached to your property and connected to a computer through a transmitter/receiver box. Once the bespoke software is installed you are connected to the Eutelsat satellite and the Hughes Network System Operations Centre. You then can use the internet for business or pleasure 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
Isonetric Broadband is one of the first providers of satellite broadband in the UK. With headquarters in the seaside town of Brighton, Isonetric has offices in Liverpool and Falkirk with offices due to open in London, Cornwall and Birmingham. |
Half The UK Online Each Day
By:mark.j @ 2:34:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] A new study by the Royal Bank of Scotland has found that roughly half of the UKs population goes online each day and men are more likely to shop online than women:
About 43% of people questioned claim to use the internet at least once a day, 22% use it three times a week, and further 15% say they use it on a weekly basis. Women are more likely to go online to gather information than men, with 64% against 61% using the internet to find things out.
The over 65s are almost as likely to use it in this way as 16 to 24-year-olds. But women are less likely to have bought something online than men, with just 43% making a purchase over the internet compared to 54% of men.
The research found that 63% of people who use the internet do so to get information, 20% use e-mail, while 18% go online to shop. But just 7% bank over the internet.
Nothing too surprising, although putting the 'going online to get info.' question in with 'E-Mail' being separate seems like a silly thing to do. More @ Ananova. |
IMPORTANT: ISP Review Server Move
By:mark.j @ 8:46:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] No we're not changing hosts again (thank god), however in order to solve a few problems our existing one is moving the site onto a more advanced server with the latest software and updates.
The move is expected to be quick and will occur sometime this afternoon. While most of the sites systems should be fine, we will still have to disable the faster PHP parsing on our forums and it's possible that some other systems may go offline.
So don't be surprised if there are a few problems or if the forums go offline, hopefully they won't, but you never know. |
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