BroadBand Watch

Eircom Issue Apology And Attempt To Explain Outages

2009-07-26T16:44:38Z

Eircom, one of Ireland's largest ISPs, has sent an email to its DSL customers to offer an apology and explanation for their outages and service issues that plagued the company in recent weeks:

Dear Customer
As you are aware, eircom customers experienced disruption to their Internet service over the last two weeks. On behalf of eircom, I apologise for the interruption to service and would like to take this opportunity to update you on the current position.
In early July we saw an increase in incidents known as 'cache poisoning'. This is a malicious activity by a third party to redirect customers to fake websites. We took immediate steps to protect our customers from this activity. This involved strengthening of the filters that block unwanted or suspect traffic. Unfortunately many customers could not, as a result of the incidents, access the internet or experienced delays for a number of hours on two specific occasions.
While our preliminary investigations have shown that, in general, our systems worked as intended when the attack occurred, we are taking additional steps to further protect our customers and their internet service. This involves upgrading and replacing some of our server equipment. Service has been fully operational since 14th July and we continue to monitor the situation closely. We want to reassure customers that eircom treats the issue of Internet security very seriously and will continue to take all necessary steps to ensure that an incident such as this does not reoccur.
We sincerely thank you again for your patience over the past two weeks as the measures outlined above were put into place, and apologise again for service interruption. We know that our customers have made eircom Ireland's largest ISP because of its reputation for reliability and its ability to resolve issues when they arise.
Should you have any queries or indeed any comments on this matter, please do not hesitate to contact our customer care team at eircom_DNS_info@eircom.net
Thank you for your continued custom and support,
Kind regards
Gerry Culligan
Director
Consumer Market

(source)

On the plus side, Eircom have made some effort at communicating with their customer base, but on the negative side.. Should this really have happened?

Wasn't "cache poisoning" the focus of Kaminsky's DNS security hole discovery a year ago?

Misleading Advertising Again

2009-05-24T12:11:28Z

Adrian highlights yet another advert that is highly misleading.

Why do ISPs keep on doing this?

Do they enjoy getting hauled over the coals by the advertising standards people?

Or does the benefit of duping people outweigh any negative consequences?

Open Wifi Could Get Your Connection Culled

2008-11-04T19:57:03Z

Ever since the advent of wireless networks there have been issues with security. While some issues have been quite serious, with sensitive data being purloined by criminals etc., in many instances an insecure wireless network simply allows other people to "piggyback" on it for free.

Why pay for bandwidth / internet access if you don't have to?

One of the ISPs in the UK, however, is attracting a bit of media attention at the moment due to a change in their terms of service:

9.6.4 We shall be entitled to terminate the Service immediately if We discover that:

(i) You have accessed the Service using Your username and password on multiple occasions, simultaneously;

(ii) You have permitted (whether knowingly or not) a third party to access the Service using Your username and password; or

(iii) You have permitted (whether knowingly or not) a third party (or third parties) to access the Service using a wireless connection over Your Communications Line.

Whether the ISP intends to actively pursue clients who abuse their new terms of service or not remains to be seen.

A storm in a teacup?

The Problems of Getting Broadband

2008-08-24T12:40:35Z

I came across this rather amusing cartoon on XKCD today, but while it is amusing I also suspect that it reflects a certain degree of reality for a lot of people in Ireland still.

How hard is it for people to get a reliable internet connection in a new house or flat?

I'd hate to even think about it.

Bitbuzz Teams Up With o2 Ireland

2008-08-01T18:51:09Z

Image via Wikipedia

I don't own an iPhone, but if I did the new offer from o2 Ireland and Bitbuzz would probably excite me.

Simply sign up with O2, register the device in a Bitbuzz hotspot and find yourself surfing for free in our locations throughout the Republic and Northern Ireland.

UK ISPs Commit To Code of Conduct

2008-06-06T09:09:49Z

Some of the larger ISPs in the UK have signed up to a new code of conduct with OfCom, the UK telco regulator.

The ISPs have made key commitments governing speeds and other key aspects of their product offering:

provide customers at the point of sale with an accurate estimate of the maximum speed that the line can support, whether it is in the shop, over the internet or on the phone;
resolve technical issues to improve speed and offer customers the choice to move onto a lower speed package when estimates given are inaccurate;
ensure all sales and promotion staff have a proper understanding of the products they are selling so they can explain to their customers the meaning of the estimates provided at the point of sale; and
provide consumers with information on usage limits and alerting customers when they have breached them.

The list includes household names such as AOL, BT, O2 and many more.

More coverage here

Dublin Council Axes Free Wifi Project

2008-01-13T15:11:56Z

In the last few days the plans to introduce free wifi to Dublin city have been axed.

Dublin City Council has come under some criticism for its shelving of the plan and has been accused of bowing to pressure from commercial interests.

The Council plans to run pilot schemes in some areas of the city which are not served by commercial ISPs according to reports.

French ISP Offers IPv6

2007-12-17T21:03:40Z

French ISP free.fr, which is part of the Iliad group, has announced an IPv6 offering.

Free is one of the first operator in the world to deploy IPv6. This new generation of IP protocol, set to spread in all devices in the coming years, optimises services development provided to customers. IPv6 is by essence supported without requiring specific update in the last version of operating systems: Windows Vista, Mac OS X, Linux.

Over the last few months the issues with IPv4 depletion and the lack of adoption of IPv6 by commercial entities has been attracting a lot of media attention.

Broadband for 99 cent or more false advertising?

2007-11-13T13:36:52Z

Irish broadband provider Perlico has been making waves in the last few days with their "99 cent broadband" offer.

Does it sound too good to be true?

Well, putting it bluntly, it is.

Even if you were to factor in the below cost selling as being a cheaper way of acquiring clients, the figures simply did not add up.

The 99 cent broadband deal is actually 40.99. That's 40 euro more than advertised.

They may claim that there are "terms and conditions" etc., etc., but who are they kidding?

If you claim to be offering 99 cent broadband, then why can't I actually buy it for 99 cents?

Debating BroadBand In Ireland

2007-09-06T19:39:35Z

There seems to be a little debate heating up between Karlin Lillington on one side and Damien Mulley on the other.

There's also a couple of threads over on Boards.ie

The question is whether there is an issue of demand or is it a matter of supply.

Are people unable to get broadband because they don't want it, or is it a case of the ISPs not being willing to supply it?

Or is it more of a chicken / egg scenario?

Mobile Broadband In Ireland

2007-09-01T15:15:39Z

Over the last few months I've been talking a lot about the mobile web in other places, however the reality in the Irish market isn't that attractive. While it may be fine to navigate the web from your phone if you're on your local wireless network ie. piggy backing off your dsl or similar, the costs of browsing the web using one of the operators maybe prohibitive.

Adrian Weckler's latest blog post mentions some of the cost involved and they are not nice!

3 Ireland Users Face Issues

2007-08-24T22:00:00Z

The Register reports that users of 3 Ireland's broadband services have been getting a rough time.

The report confirms some of the issues that have been reported by users on Irish ISP Test, Boards.ie and elsewhere.

The kind of issues facing users are caused by ISPs using NAT for their network, instead of providing dynamic IPs or even fixed ones. This can lead to IP ranges being blacklisted

This site has moved home (and backend)

2007-08-20T00:35:00Z

I've just migrated this site between servers and changed it from Wordpress to Movable Type.

Some of the older links will not work anymore, but as there wasn't a huge amount of content on here I doubt if anyone will notice :)

In any case I hope to be able to post here more often as it's now going to be in front of my eyes !

ISPs and Advertising Standards

2007-07-09T07:12:16Z

I suppose it comes as little surprise to many people to discover that there were several complaints about Irish ISPs to the Irish advertising standards authority. Adrian Weckler covers some of the low points for both UPC (NTL / Chorus' new owner) and Digiweb. What's surprising is that there aren't more complaints. I guess a lot of people don't believe in using official channels

No Wifi For Dublin?

2007-07-03T17:38:09Z

According to Adrian Weckler Dublin City Council will not be pursuing its plans to introduce free wifi throughout the city. A report commissioned by the local government suggests that the provision of wifi could infringe on European Union legislation.