[Watford] BT Openwoes issue

[Peter Grant]

I have to say that so many ISP have the most retarted policies on payment,
so I'm not suprised.
I know some charge extra to pay by cheque or simply don't allow it - which
is fair enough in this age of internet backing etc.
However, when dealing with Be There's business section, I did expect to be
able to pay by direct debit - expect they can only take direct debits for
personal named back accounts and not from business accounts. Their only
other option for payment was to keep credit card details on file and charge
it monthly.
Peter

"When you have a Swiss Army knife of a mind, everything looks like it
should be dismantled." Danny O'Brien/Merlin Mann


On 12 April 2013 11:28, Alain Williams <addw at phcomp.co.uk> wrote:

> You might find this tale interesting if you have any customers using BT as
> an ISP.
>
> I received a call on Weds PM (about 17.15) from a customer who often works
> at
> home connecting to the office PC using 'go to my PC'. He had lost
> connectivity,
> wanted to know 'if the Internet was down'.
>
> I could login to the Linux server (ssh) and ping his PC at the office.
> I was told that a couple of other home working co-workers were also
> similarly
> affected, at least one used a different service from 'go to my PC'.
>
> Next morning - the phone calls started at 7.45, so I went in. My ssh
> connection
> had stayed up all night - until they rebooted the router & firewall.
>
> Internally no problems. Servers OK[**]. They were receiving/sending email.
>
> I noticed that all external web site access timed out.  Both from the
> Windows
> PCs and the Linux box ...  unless you visited google; that worked, but
> search
> for something (worked) but clicking on any link timed out.
>
> No point in calling BT support - they would just blame internal
> infrastructure I thought.
>
> They have a smoothwall firewall/router. Find the passwords. Find that
> smoothwall
> has a packet trace facility.
>
> Telnet to google port 80. I see the SYN go out the SYN ACK come back ...
> great!
>
> Telnet to my web host port 80. I see several SYN go out, nothing back. Ssh
> to my
> web host, run tcpdump, no packets come from my customer. Try again on
> another
> web server - same result.
>
> I phone BT support - thinking that I would have an argument, how the hell
> do I
> explain this to a clueless support driod ?
>
> Long story short: the bill had been paid by cheque which BT had received
> but
> ''not allocated''. The bill was due the day before.
>
> So: with a BT ''accounting issue'' they allow all services through except
> web
> (port 80)[&&], but allow web to google. There had been no email, no phone
> call.
> I think of pubs/coffee_shops/... where when you connect you are forced to
> a sign
> in page that asks you some details -- surely BT could have done something
> like
> that ?
>
> After speaking to someone in the Philippines (or somewhere) service was
> switched
> back on in 10 seconds.
>
> Summary my customer lost 3/4 day work for several staff who could not do
> things;
> will have to pay for a chunk of my time ... the MD was not a happy bunny.
> He has
> asked for recommendation of another ISP.
>
> You have been warned.
>
>
>
>
>
> [**] A Linux & a MS SBS 2011 server. Their MS windows support company
> recently
> withdrew their services blaming a Linux server making their work too hard.
> I do
> wonder about them, a year ago on a server upgrade they could not get MS
> Exchange
> to send email out of the building - so asked me to handle outgoing email
> on the
> Linux box -- which I did easily.
>
> [&&] I did not check if https (port 443) was still working.
>
> --
> Alain Williams
> Linux/GNU Consultant - Mail systems, Web sites, Networking, Programmer, IT
> Lecturer.
> +44 (0) 787 668 0256  http://www.phcomp.co.uk/
> Parliament Hill Computers Ltd. Registration Information:
> http://www.phcomp.co.uk/contact.php
> #include <std_disclaimer.h>
>
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