9 Ways ISPs Screw You Over

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Here is a rather interesting article that shines a light on the many ways your ISP is screwing you over. Personally, I can’t complain, but know a lot of you guys out there are experiencing most (if not all) of these issues.

Indeed, competition for your ISP dollars is so fierce that we often see back to back commercials for different companies that provide nearly identical services. And if you believe the marketing, every ISP offers “blazing fast” speeds, “award-winning” customer service and just about everything short of eternal youth for “only $39.95 per month.”
 
The one MAJOR flaw in this article is the part about inadequate virse/spyware protection. WTF? So the ISP's have to be responsible for something that is not their property? Thats like saying the DOT needs to pay for new tires on any vehicle that travels a public road or make sure that every person wears their seat belt. That part of the article was absurd and stupid. Another part that was kind of on the "duh" side was when it spoke about throttling during peak times. How can they prove that the ISP is throttling and its not just a slow down due to net congestion during peak hours?

I will admit that most if not all ISP's do things that irritate customers. No ISP out there can claim 100% customer satisfaction. Thats why I would always tell someone to check out an ISP's ranking from a respected source like JD Powers, make sure they have what you are looking for at a price you can afford and shop around. And if you have any questions always ask for a copy (or where to download a copy) of the TOS (Terms of Service). This way you can see what the fine print is before you join.
 
^ This

If an ISP becomes responsible for virus protection then are they also responsible for keeping your os up to date?
 
The one MAJOR flaw in this article is the part about inadequate virse/spyware protection. WTF? So the ISP's have to be responsible for something that is not their property? Thats like saying the DOT needs to pay for new tires on any vehicle that travels a public road or make sure that every person wears their seat belt. That part of the article was absurd and stupid. Another part that was kind of on the "duh" side was when it spoke about throttling during peak times. How can they prove that the ISP is throttling and its not just a slow down due to net congestion during peak hours?

I will admit that most if not all ISP's do things that irritate customers. No ISP out there can claim 100% customer satisfaction. Thats why I would always tell someone to check out an ISP's ranking from a respected source like JD Powers, make sure they have what you are looking for at a price you can afford and shop around. And if you have any questions always ask for a copy (or where to download a copy) of the TOS (Terms of Service). This way you can see what the fine print is before you join.

Yeah I was thinking that. Also that the author complained about wire tapping, packet sniffing, etc on one hand and the lack of ISP interfacing on the other. I mean, you can't have both ways.

Most people disregard warnings not to go to unsavory websites. It's advertised just about everywhere that identity theft is rampant, but people tend to think "it'll never happen to me". People don't update their virus scanner even when it's given to them in the first place (Comcast does offer a free scanner to their subscriber, for the record). We [H] users undoubtedly try and try and try to educate our family members and friends and relatives, but they continue to ignore us with the attitude of "we have you to fix our computers anyways".

It's not the ISP's fault. Nobody wants to protect their computers.
 
That "CALEA back door" doesn't just stay open all the time for any Dirty E-Harry wannabe. You need a warrant to receive the captured information, and the ISP only delivers information about the particular subscriber in question.

In reference to the peak hour throttle, depending on the ISP, the throttle may mean the difference between your gay porn upload taking forever or everybody's upstream becoming impaired. Some providers only identify heavy users and throttle them when the business clients call because their VOIP calls keep getting dropped or choppy. It's not like they're out to get you, but your dirk diggler exhibition will just have to wait a few more minutes to get out on the web.

In terms of the 'up to' claims, I think it's important to note that dedicated bandwidth costs a bit more than best-effort service. If this guy thinks that people are getting screwed over now, he hasn't seen anything yet. The whole reason people are getting broadband as cheap as they are is because providers oversubscribe their trunks, often to the tune to more than 100:1, under the assumption that not every subscriber is going to want to slam out their link at the same time. Even 'dedicated' services are often oversubscribed at much lower rates because the plain and simple truth of the matter is that unused trunk and backbone traffic (not up to the point of saturation, mind you) is money down the drain. Sure, everyone likes to pick on the 'evil' big ISPs, but the smaller fish have to watch that bottom line even more closely. :rolleyes:
 
The one MAJOR flaw in this article is the part about inadequate virse/spyware protection. WTF? So the ISP's have to be responsible for something that is not their property? Thats like saying the DOT needs to pay for new tires on any vehicle that travels a public road or make sure that every person wears their seat belt. That part of the article was absurd and stupid. Another part that was kind of on the "duh" side was when it spoke about throttling during peak times. How can they prove that the ISP is throttling and its not just a slow down due to net congestion during peak hours?

I will admit that most if not all ISP's do things that irritate customers. No ISP out there can claim 100% customer satisfaction. Thats why I would always tell someone to check out an ISP's ranking from a respected source like JD Powers, make sure they have what you are looking for at a price you can afford and shop around. And if you have any questions always ask for a copy (or where to download a copy) of the TOS (Terms of Service). This way you can see what the fine print is before you join.

Why does your work run AV/spyware software on their servers? Should they not have that type of protection on them to protect visitors that may come to their internet facing webpage? Yahoo and Hotmail offer free email that has virus protection, why can't ISP's? Hell they monitor our traffic for P2P and collect data to sell to marketing groups so they can feed us ads, why can't they impliment a Virus/Spyware filter too? If you know what the packets or data looks like that has XYZ virus, couldn't it be easily filtered out?
 
My ISP advertises "security tools" with their packages, so assuming someone decides to use their stuff, they may hold them accountable if they get infected. To me it's just another con job on the sheeple to get them to buy their services.
 
It's funny, I always thought ISP's could offer a paid service where people would get corporate level Virus/Spyware/Phishing protection on the side of the ISP. I mean things like live packet scanning to block viruses as well as questionable spyware. They could also do widespread domain and IP blacklisting, and have ISP based parental controls. They could go as far as blocking software often linked to harming computers, like file sharing software causes dumbasses to download and execute viruses.

I am not talking about simply hoisting some crappy free subscription software (Norton/Mcafee) upon a user. A user who has no idea how to use the software or understand the limitations of the software.

Such a service would even be attractive to advanced users if such users could have direct control over it. Sorta like having your own corporate hardware security solution.
 
COX offers antivirus and spyware free with their cable internet. It's in the tools section of their webmail pages. I don't use it, I'm covered through work who purchased enough licenses to cover home users who connect via VPN,
 
Security is everyones responsiblity, but there is a valid point made by Lebowski. They should offer some type of email protection seperate from anything the customer would have to download and install, as many of the free email services offer.
 
Its not the ISP responsibility to provide users with security tools, thats the end users problem.

On a related note, I'm very happy with my ISP. Its a town-owned Co-op and the service and support are awesome.
 
I can't recognize any of the "features" mentinoed here...being an ISP in the US must be something different than in Denmark.

But the virus thing...WFT?!

Does it count that I close ALL customers sending more than 1000 emails via our SMTP server in 24 hours? :D
 
I work for a ISP and this article is out of its mind...
I am sure some ISP's do this but not all
The only thing we do on that list is packet inspection looking for those who break the law or break our terms of use.
Virus protection is up the end user, plain and simple.
 
I work for a ISP and this article is out of its mind...
I am sure some ISP's do this but not all
The only thing we do on that list is packet inspection looking for those who break the law or break our terms of use.
Virus protection is up the end user, plain and simple.

How do you select who's packet to inspect? Frequent use of high bandwidth? Or even one time use of a large amount of bandwidth?
 
the virus/spyware thing was a bloody joke. other than that, i thought it was a good article.

however i was surprised to see nothing on bandwidth overage charges...that crap drives me nuts! i'm using a 5mb connection just because i dont have any limitations. but truth be told, i had a 1mb couple years ago and i could barely tell the difference.
 
A lot of these things have nothing to do with the ISP... this list could be shorter.
 
After moving to a new location that didn't have Comcast.. which is horrid in AL, but pretty decent in AZ, I decided to try Mediacom since it was either them or Knology.. and I got a 1 year deal for $20 a month.

Now my bill is up to $63 a month for 12Mb service.. but I always get the full 12Mb speed no matter what time of day it is.

Customer service is pretty good.. way better than Comcast out here.

I kinda wish the price was lower.. but for the speed they offer, it is a better deal than the other services available here.
 
Why does your work run AV/spyware software on their servers? Should they not have that type of protection on them to protect visitors that may come to their internet facing webpage? Yahoo and Hotmail offer free email that has virus protection, why can't ISP's? Hell they monitor our traffic for P2P and collect data to sell to marketing groups so they can feed us ads, why can't they impliment a Virus/Spyware filter too? If you know what the packets or data looks like that has XYZ virus, couldn't it be easily filtered out?

Your post alone shows you have a very small idea on how the internet works. First off, any company runs av/spyware on their system, but the backbone doesn't provide that, the company does. Again I go back to the DOT example. Does the DOT have to pay your car insurance? No. Its the end users equipment, not the ISP's. If the ISP provided you a computer to use their internet on, then yes it would be their responsibility. Jesus H Christ, thats the problem with people now days is the do not want to take any responsibility. It has to be the fault or job of someone else. And a lot of ISP's do offer a rudimentary virus scan on emails, however due to privacy reasons the customer has to "opt-in" for it. And many ISP's offer some sort of anti-virus software for the customer to use. As stated above Cox does this, its a version of McAfee. However its a one pc license. In my case I have 6 pc's running in my house, so thats not an option (thank god for AVG). If people would just educate themselves with the computer and become familiar with simple things like anti-virus, firewalls, and secure browsing, then many of the viruses in the wild would not be so common. Its not the ISP to blame, its the end users.
 
IF you have an SLA with your ISP (commercial accounts) and they don't actively try to at least try to filter out some of the garbage their in violation of their own SLA. Gives you an out that they don't want. I had a problem like that with an ISP at client of mine. I did some digging and found out we were getting DOS attacks from their own servers.

As for screwing people over on the consumer side. I know that I get a 911 emergency services fee on my sprint bill. Thing is I use a USB adapter not a phone. Why should I pay for 911 service that I can't possibly use? Still there it is every month on the bill and I've tried to fight it to no avail. I actually called them (on my AT&T phone) and asked them how to make a 911 call on my sprint mobile broadband card, they didn't have an answer..

:D
 
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