Posts by Simon Chapman

ISP blows the whistle on router chip 'fault'

Try alternative firmware

I use a Netgear DG834G v2 on a Zen connection and all is fine even though it uses the AR7 chip (the newer v3 uses a different chipset I believe). However, I used to suffer a lot with disconnections caused by fluctuating noise ratios when I was using an earlier version of the firmware, V3.01.25. Since upgrading the firmware to V3.01.31 ten months ago, I have had no more problems.

The problems reported by Zen don't seem to affect lines with stable SNRs so only folk with a) a fluctuating SNR and b) the AR7 chipset would see disconnections. In any event, it is worth experimenting with different firmware versions before declaring the AR7 as the villain.

PS. There isn't a chance in Hell that Zen are trying to shift blame here. They are possibly the most honest and technically proficient ISP in the country.

PlusNet blasts email into blackhole (again)

I feel for the majority

Don't let the few clued up users posting here confuse you - if PlusNet have 200,000 customers, the chances are that at least 175,000 of them will have been using PlusNet's mail servers and have lost mail as a result of this debacle. Presumably a few thousand of those will get the message this time and move elsewhere. A year ago, one of their directors put his head on the line when he promised thinkbroadband forum members that the mail problems wouldn't occur again. Yet he's still there!

Spammers stuff PlusNet email accounts (again)

It gets worse...

It has now been revealed that a customer e-mailed PlusNet on May 5 to report the trojan to them. PlusNet kept it quiet but, according to their own forum posts today, didn't manage to flush the trojan out until May 9 - and even then they negligently failed to notify their customers of the risks they had been subjected to. In all, they said nothing for 10 days until the spam hit the fan today, forcing them to reveal all.

This company "relaunched" itself this year with "open, honest and responsive" tub-thumping. This is surely one cover-up too many and their conscious neglect of their customers may justifiably make them liable for criminal damages.

Sweeping trojans under the carpet

It looks very likely that this problem is connected to a trojan virus attack last week - on May 9 according to http://usertools.plus.net/status/archive/1179240249.htm - which PlusNet staff admitted today that they knew about at the time. They claim to have secured the platform after that but it seems that they neglected to alert customers to the risk they were exposed to, ie unknowingly downloading the trojan. Whoever took the decision to sweep the discovery of the trojan under the carpet last week should be fired right now. You can't play PR games with customers' security.

Cowboys

These cowboys should not be allowed to run an e-mail platform. God knows what this latest catastrophe may end up costing their long-suffering customers. They don't even handle huge volumes of mail compared to the big boys so they are simply incompetent. One of their directors posted on TBB at the time that the new platform was being installed that he guaranteed a trouble-free run from that point forth. I'm assuming he will do the decent thing and fall on his sword.