ISP Popular Posts

FIOS is ordered. Goodbye Comcast/Vonage. What can I expect, besides disaster?

The US has been falling behind the world in Broadband capacity to the home largely because of the complacency of the telcos and cable service providers.

Google might get them to switch into high gear with their announcement today, however. Google will be running Gigabit(!!) fiber to the home for a reasonable price to up to half a million households. That is 100 times most current Internet speeds.

I'm a Comcast customer --- pity me. Yet again, I've been hit with speeds slower than a 2400 bps modem, an unexplained Internet outage, the dregs of customer support, and utter incompetency.

Leech this! It's IT Blogwatch: in which Comcast gets outed for secretly disconnecting BitTorrent seeds. Not to mention contrasting views of the West and the Middle-East...

The AP's Peter Svensson makes the accusations:

Comcast Corp. actively interferes with attempts by some of its high-speed Internet subscribers to share files online ... runs counter to the tradition of treating all types of Net traffic equally ... confirmed through nationwide tests ... the most drastic example yet of data discrimination ... It involves company computers masquerading as those of its users ... an aggressive way of managing its network to keep file-sharing traffic from swallowing too much bandwidth.

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The Wi-Fi router in this IT pilot fish's home office is kicking him off the Internet every five minutes, so after his own troubleshooting doesn't fix things, he ventures where every IT professional fears to tread: his ISP's tech support line.

In Thursday's IT Blogwatch, Richi Jennings would us want to keep an eye on journalists shutting down spam sites. Not to mention google suggestions...

Brian Krebs was busy at work:

For the past four months, Security Fix has been gathering data from the security industry about McColo Corp., a San Jose, Calif., based Web hosting service whose client list experts say includes some of the most disreputable cyber-criminal gangs in business today.

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The February issue of Consumer Reports says Verizon FiOS is your best bet when it comes to triple-play services of phone, broadband Internet, and TV. This shouldn't surprise Computerworld readers --- our own survey of broadband providers put Verizon FiOS at the top as well.

Contract IT pilot fish gets an urgent call to head for a medical clinic because the network is down. But the LAN is working fine -- it seems to be the clinic's Internet that's out.

It's IT Blogwatch: in which we debate the pros and cons of open-access Wi-Fi. Not to mention a really messy server rack...

Bruce Schneier raised eyebrows with this:

I run an open wireless network at home. There's no password. There's no encryption ... To me, it's basic politeness ... But to some observers, it's both wrong and dangerous ...

The Federal Communications Commission has announced a plan to subsidize broadband Internet connectivity for rural healthcare organizations. The idea is to kickstart innovative Internet uses to improve patient care out in the boonies. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers connect the dots. Not to mention Study like a scholar, scholar, at BYU's HBLL...

An open letter to Ivan Seidenberg, Chairman & CEO of Verizon Communications Inc.:

Dear Mr. Seidenberg,

I am proud to say that I am a "Double Freedom" residential customer with Verizon, whatever that means. I hope it is a good thing.

I learned I had this designation at the end of a 90-minute marathon call to four Verizon service representatives this morning to find out why I was not getting my Verizon DSL service to provide Internet and email access to my home. The voice part of the service was fine.

As the copyright enforcement center kicks off, do you know if your ISP in bed with Hollywood and planning to play police with the six strikes 'Graduated Response'? Will the Center for Copyright Information beat Fair Use to death with an infringement club?

Google's gift to travelers might have something else hidden inside.

In today's podcast: McAfee buys Secure Computing; notorious ISP knocked offline; and DRAM prices plummet.

Some free marketeers have a great idea to destroy what's best about the World Wide Web.