[GLLUG] WAS: Re: Am I over-reacting to this?

[Christopher Hunter]

On 20/01/14 16:54, Jean van Wyngaardt wrote:
> I'd imagine ISP's are only going to make the news more often nowadays. 
> Its never good to have a router which can be exploited without much 
> skill, especially when the responsibility falls on the ISP to protect 
> its clients confidentiality and online safety with the equipment 
> they're providing.
>
> Another thing which bothers me a lot with companies like Virgin Media 
> is how they advertise an Unlimited Broadband Service, yet every client 
> who wants to connect to VPN requires a person like me to log on and 
> allow VPN through. I'm starting to also discover that they block loads 
> of ports for no reason, example would be 4500 for L2TP VPN, I tried to 
> setup a server on my home connection and no matter what settings or 
> routers I tried, 4500 refuses to open. Reading through forums, this is 
> a massive problem not limited to just 4500, but many other ports.
>
> ISP's should seriously shift their marketing from 'Unlimited' to 
> 'Limited', because its not as advertised. Its complete bullshit.
>
> Jean
>
The also need to stop advertising "fibre internet".  It's nothing of the 
sort.  In some cases, there's fibre to the street cabinet, but in most 
cases it's either ratty old coax or even twisted pair!

Sky and Virgin persist in advertising their "fibre, unlimited" services 
to me.  When I got fed up with this, I decided to have a little fun:

I answered a call from Virgin.  Their salesman seemed really surprised 
that I had actually answered the phone, and a home appointment was set 
for the following evening.

The clown from Virgin turned up fifteen minutes late - not good, as I 
pointed out to him.  He ran through his pre-programmed spiel, during 
which I nodded at appropriate moments.

I then asked THE question:

"When will you be able to fit the fibre, then?".

"Next week" he replied.

I asked, "What kind of fibre do you use?  Single mode? Multi-mode?"  He 
started to look nervous.  "What kind of media converter do you use?"  He 
started to perspire quite obviously.....

"Look..."  he said  ".... it's actually coax to the household".

"Oh yes?" I asked.

"Yes" he glumly replied, "And wires for the phone line"

"So it's NOT actually "fibre internet" then?"

"No" he admitted  "....but we have to tell customers that it is".

I actually felt quite sorry for him as I threw him out.

Subsequently, I've found out a few things:

Both Virgin and Sky installers routinely tell customers that the crappy 
RG59 they fit is actually fibre!

Neither company actually offers "unlimited" service - it's actually 
capped.  Just try downloading a couple of distros on Virgin and watch 
your data rate plummet for the next 24 hours.  Both of them have "fair 
usage" policies which are actually quite draconian data caps.

Virgin sell your browsing data to "Phorm" (a "targeted advertising 
company").  This is actually illegal, but you sign a (concealed, tiny) 
waiver to allow them to do this when you sign your contract.

Neither company achieve the data rates they claim.....

C.