Tag Archives: isp

Orange to revamp home broadband packages

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Orange has decided that it will revamp it’s broadband packages in just over a week. This is probably an attempt to try and regain some of it’s lost customers following the company’s shameful performance over the last few months.

Customers have become fed up of the poor customer service and vague fair use policy. As a result, Orange has been loosing customers to other ISPs with better deals and clearer agreeements.

The new plans will replace the current plans and hopefully make the deals a little simpler.

However, ISPReview says that the “unlimited” packages will remain. So, unless Orange do something about their bizarre fair use policy, they won’t get anywhere. In addition, new packages won’t resolve any problems with customer service.

We’ll have to wait and see what the new plans bring. I don’t think they’ll be much to be excited about – long contracts, stupid policies, cheap routers and awful speeds. Surprise me, Orange.

(Source: ISPReview)

Find software market shares online – great website!

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This website has been around for quite a while (I think, anyway) but I only recently came across it from another tech blog I was browsing through. I find it really useful for determining the most popular software as well as search engines, ISPs, and more!

It can be found here (http://marketshare.hitslink.com/) and it is really worth looking at if you are interested in market shares in the technological world!

It can also show you trends – so you can see where browsers (for example) are going in terms of how popular they are. There are some handy graphs and charts.

It doesn’t cost anything and be extremely handy. I shall definitely be referring to it in future posts as I think it can be very useful.

ISPs should just tell us the bandwidth limit, and not claim “unlimited”

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Following up from my investigation into which ISPs actually provide unlimited broadband, I am beginning to wonder why some ISPs advertise “unlimited” broadband when it clearly isn’t.

It confuses me – why can’t ISPs just advertise the amount of bandwidth that you are actually allowed to use rather than advertising a service that isn’t correct? Isn’t that some sort of fraud? I mean if I went out and bought five pints of beer and only got three, I’d be a little annoyed (honestly, I’m not like that – I don’t drink!, it’s just a scenario). It’s a similar sort of service.

Unlimited means something that has no limit. We all know that. So why are ISPs telling us a lie?

It just doesn’t make business sense to me. If you are an ISP, why do you want to tell customers they can download as much as they like when they really can’t? It just creates hassle – if users download more than you want them you have to send them a letter complaining that they are downloading too much, then another letter if they don’t have a reaction to your first letter, then threatening warnings about legal action, then court cases – it goes on and costs money!

Wouldn’t it just be simpler if ISPs just made it absolutely clear how much you can download per month without having to go through endless “fair use policies” that often don’t claim the usage allowances anyway? Aghh! This one is very frustrating.

Karoo changes policy yet again!

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A while back GEEK! reported about Karoo – the only ISP in Hull (UK) that screwed up on its internet policy.

Well it would appear that Karoo has changed its internet policy yet again. Now they are saying that a full court order will be required before the suggestion of a service cut-off can take place.

This statement was issued by Karoo to TorrentFreak: “We will no longer suspend a customer’s service unless we receive a court order from a copyright owner taking legal action. As a result it is the responsibility of the legal system, not Karoo, to ensure the accuracy of the information provided by the copyright owners.”

This changes the rules a lot. What they are saying is that Karoo will not cut off their users for illegal downloads by themselves. They will wait until a copyright owner files a case in court, and (supposedly) if the court order affects someone from their user base then they will cut that user off, either temporarily or permanently depending on what conclusion is made by the court.

Karoo have finally made the decision that it is the legal system that must deal with illegal downloaders, not Karoo themselves. I respect this decision, personally. I’m not a Karoo user myself, but I would agree with what they are now doing.

However, that isn’t game over if Karoo do get a report from a court. There are some issues that can come up. There is no guaruntee that court orders are 100% accurate so innocent users may get cut off. IP addresses are too easy to hide or modify so it would be unfair to cut off a user because of their IP address downloading an illegal file. The only real way that ISPs (or courts) can be sure of illegal downloads is to analyse a user’s hard drive, but even this has its issues – there would have to be warrants involved and before you know it a quick illegal download can become a huge matter.

GEEK! has never encouraged illegal downloads and never will. GEEK! will shortly be posting a guide about staying legal online so make sure you stay tuned if you want some key tips on how to avoid getting in trouble with the law because of your internet connection.

Karoo ISP screws up service policy

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Karoo, the only ISP in Hull (UK), recently screwed up its service policy, leaving a lot of press concern.

The company was recently under fire from the press, with news that it would suspend all users that illegally downloaded content from the internet. No 3-strikes policy, no warnings. Do it once, and you’re kicked off the net.

This was a big leap for a company – no other ISP in this country does such a thing. News sites became very concerned that Karoo had gone a step too far.

If you wanted to get yourself back on the internet, you would have to speak to Karoo pay a re-connection fee and sign a document promising that you will never download illegal content again.

Many people were claiming that this was totally unfair – to cut off a user with no notice at all.

However, the company has now edited their policy. The new idea is that all users are now on a 3-strikes system. A user will get 3 warning letters before being cut off by Karoo. This is an improvement, but there are still very few ISPs in this country that have this procedure.

I would hate it if my ISP cut me off with no notice whatsoever. This is not good conduct and I would be complaining if my ISP was thinking of following a procedure like that.