Posts by AndrueC

Re: IPv6

Separate out the costs of physical line, POTS and ADSL and let users choose which of them they want

That seems a very reasonable idea. Just so long as you know that not taking a POTS will prolly only save a pound a month and won't improve your xDSL service significantly (if it all - the ANFP might prevent BT from using voice frequencies for data).

A pound saved is of course a pound saved..but I don't personally think it's worth getting all het up over. I have a corded phone plugged into one of my extensions because I know that if there's ever a power cut, if my mobile phone can't be charged or if my mobile mast/provider craps out I will always have a telephone that works.

Re: IPV6 - adoption

Why I don't know since you can simply have a non-routed block inside your /64- you don't get an address from the routed portion of the /64 until your ruleset has been tested functionally...

Assuming you are using a suitably configurable router and/or know how to do that of course :)

Trouble is a lot of SMEs are probably using domestic routers or have cheat sheets for their Cisco box rather than a Cisco trained staffer on the payroll. With IPv6 (at least for the various domestic routers I've tried) as soon as you enable IPv6 your machines all appear on the public side of the router and a good firewall becomes essential. Mind you I'd hope that it's impossible to buy an IPv6 capable router that doesn't have a reasonable firewall. Although mine (Billion 7800 I think) disables part of the firewall functionality if you use port forwarding.

Re: Does anyone actually use IPv6

it's incredibly rare to hear of anyone using it internally inside businesses.

I can understand their reluctance. There's a lot of new knowledge to learn in order to ensure adequate security and correct configuration. I set mine up at home for the fun of it but if was doing that for a company I'd have struggled to get past the risk/cost assessment.

For all that some people moan about NAT it's obvious that it works for most people most of the time and is largely invisible. I've never known it interfere with anything (I know it can but I've personally never encountered it) and port forwarding is simple enough to understand for the few of us that have to set up a server. You even get implicit protection from random external attacks since machines inside the network can't be targeted unless forwarded ports point to them.

IPv6 is a brave (and welcome) new world but I for one would be very cautious about allowing IPv6 traffic to pass through a corporate router to/from the outside world.

Re: IPv6

Or will tbe bits arrive by magic through the ether?

Well - you've heard of Ethernet haven't you?

:)

I complained, nothing much was done. Nothing much CAN be done. Once your address is out there, it's out there.

That's very true. Many years ago (eight or nine at least) I was a member of Borland's TeamB and that address became compromised. I immediately switched to a new address and blacklisted the old one but I've just checked and this morning alone I've had four messages sent to that address. So perhaps a dozen messages sent every day for the last eight years with my server rejecting every single one and yet still spam comes in.

It looks like that and other addresses will be my lasting legacy to the world when I die.

I get about four or five of these incidents a month.

That's why I ended up only doing business only with Tesco and Amazon. Pretty much every other retailer ended up leaking the email address I'd given them(*). It seems (strange/sad to say perhaps) that only the really big boys can keep personal information safe.

Hmmm.

(*)The worst offender is LinkedIn. I've configured four addresses for them now and have given up completely. Seems like it only take a month for spam to start coming in to any address I give them.

Re: How big a problem and why?

Not happened to me either as far as I can tell. I did use my Gmail address rather than one hosted by my own server but almost no-one else knows that address so the account is quiet as the grave apart from the monthly billing invoice from PN.

Unfortunately trying to investigate spam by looking at mail headers is not really reliable as they are easy to fake. It'd be better if someone getting spam to their own server could take a look at the logs and see exactly which remote machines are issuing the RCPT.

Re: Wrong tree

Granny will just have to get in touch with the consulate, I'm afraid.

Oh dear.

:)

Re: Wrong tree

I agree with most of what you say (I have a TrueCall unit and wouldn't be without it) but there are a couple of wrinkles where anonymous callers are concerned.

Our CPs can't force anyone in Mumbai to send an ID signal. So if there is no caller ID what are CPs to do? They can't arbitrarily block anonymous incoming international calls as that would be interfering with your service. Okay so perhaps they will allow you to 'opt out' of anonymous calls. But then what happens if your granny is on holiday in Mumbai and needs help and she just happens to be using a phone that doesn't transmit caller ID information?

Which leads on to the second part of the problem which is that quite a few organisations that deal with sensitive personal information like to withhold their number. GP surgeries often do for example.

Re: line open

That still works?????

Thats amazing! I'd have thought with the leaps and bounds in digtisation , cpu power , exchanges and god knows what the telcos would at least be able to tell when you've hung up! Its one of the basics surely?

It's a feature, actually. It dates back to when cordless phones weren't as common. The idea is that you can put down the phone you answered with then walk to another room and pick up the phone there without losing the call. There is usually a timer so that after a while the line is dropped anyway. BT reduced the timer duration a while back.

Ah here we are.

Re: Bye bye then

It didn't just affect BT customers, but other ISPs too

Everyone on FTTC goes through the BTor DLM so yes, it will affect us all.

I've noticed my fibre to cabinet speed increase noticeable recently!

There have been modem firmware updates that changed the frequency plans which helped a lot of people. Hopefully that isn't related to this issue. It should only impact those with unstable lines and thankfully the nature of FTTC means they are less common than with ADSL.

Re: Bye bye then

It seems forums are full of problems caused by BT's rate adaption

Most of the fuss is (was, really due to gradual improvements) about the BTw implementation of DLM for ADSL though. The BTor implementation for FTTC has generated relatively few complaints as it actually seems to do a reasonable job(*).

Unfortunately this could mean that they have to go down the route that BTw did. I think part of the problem with that system was the lack of line information which resulted in a rather crude response and wide banding.

There's an interesting discussion here.

(*)Better granularity, variable interleaving rates (including reverting to none at all if things improve) faster response times.

Re: What counts as the reference number for "customers"

I live in the city centre of Manchester and even I only achieve half the quoted "up to" speed. And that's at off-peak times, without throttling.

If you're on DSL..

What are your modem stats? Most speed problems on DSL are the result of telephone line length or internal wiring. No-one can do anything about your line length but internal wiring issues can be fixed.

A lot of these problems come about because people misunderstand the phrase 'up to'. There are two uses:

'I've seen you walking at up to 4mph' - implies that if you can no longer go faster than 3mph you should see your GP.

'Human beings can walk at up to 4mph' - implies nothing whatsoever if you can only walk at 3mph.

The latter is what was meant with DSL. The technology had an upper limit of ??Mb/s under ideal conditions. The fact you only get half that just means your particular conditions are not ideal.

Re: UK isn't so brilliant

but you don't have to pay BT - I pay Aquiss for line rental and for Fibre for example.

Sorta. Aquiss will be paying BT on your behalf ;)

Re: UK isn't so brilliant

Furthermore some ISPs will buy the whole broadband service from BT and sell it on, differentiating by customer support, additional services or cost

Actually by number I think it's correct to say that most are using BT's wholesale service. But anyway some ISPs buy enough bandwidth from BT. Some don't. Some rely on BT to carry traffic all the way to them - others pick their traffic up from various collection nodes around the country and use their own carrier. Either of these choices will affect latency and throughput depending on time of day. So there's another differentiator.

UK ISPs are therefore differentiated by customer support, additional services and service quality. The only thing they aren't differentiated much by is connection speed. But even then there are differences. Only PlusNet offers 40/20 for instance.

So..what other differentiation are you asking for?