---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message-ID: <nqvpj3$59p$1@news.albasani.net> Date: Sat, 10 Sep 2016 02:02:12 +0000 (UTC) From: bob prohaska <bp@www.zefox.net> Subject: Re: Alternatives to AT&T DSL service Fred Goldstein <fg_es@removeqrm.ionary.com> wrote: > which is precisely why "net neutrality" is a thing. Internet service > itself was never tariffed. Now, the DSL wire itself is treated as if it > were Internet service, even though it isn't. Suppose I have a copper pair connected to a CO-powered phone. It sounds as if my carrier (AT&T) is obliged to share this copper with any ISP I designate. Is this correct? If I relinquish the analog copper service, by going to U-verse or something equivalent, do I then lose the right to ask AT&T to share the copper pair with other ISPs? Can I get the right back, perhaps by paying for reinstallation of an analog service line? To put a sort of closure on my original question, after AT&T made their changes to the "redback" edge routers in Sacramento my service has been reasonably good. For the time being there's not enough incentive to change to another ISP. At least, not yet.... Thanks for reading and all your insights! bob prohaska ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20160910150405.GA14812@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Sat, 10 Sep 2016 11:04:05 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: Two critical bugs and more malicious apps make for a bad week for Android Google releases fixes for newer devices and ejects apps following reports. By Dan Goodin It was a bad week for millions of Android phone users. Two critical vulnerabilities were disclosed but remain unpatched in a large percentage of devices, while, separately, malicious apps were downloaded as many as 2.5 million times from Google's official Play Marketplace. The vulnerabilities, which are similar in severity to the Stagefright family of bugs disclosed last year, have been fixed in updates Google began distributing Tuesday. A large percentage of Android phones, however, aren't eligible to receive the fixes. Even those that do qualify don't receive them immediately (the September updates are currently not available as over-the-air downloads for either of the Nexus 5X devices in my household). That gives attackers crude blueprints for exploiting vulnerabilities that remain unpatched on millions of devices. http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/09/two-critical-bugs-and-more-malicious-apps-make-for-a-bad-week-for-android/ -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <87sht8e1ig.fsf@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> Date: 10 Sep 2016 03:01:59 -0300 From: Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> Subject: Re: Is 384 Kibit/s adequate for travel? "John Levine" <johnl@iecc.com> writes: >> How grim is this by today's standards? > > I've dealt with worse, throttled to 64kb when a mobile data package > expired. > >> Should we even try for email? > > If your mail program does IMAP and you can tell it not to download > attachments, it should be fine. You surely remember that mail was > quite usable at 9600 bps. Just so. I remember when it was considered advisable not to send email messages larger than 30K. Now many messages have more than 30K in the headers. I use POP3 over dialup. Occasionally people send me multi-megabyte email - image collections among other things. I have a script that opens a connection to the POP3 server, fetches a LIST and then headers for new messages (TOP n 0). It deletes spam and offers to delete large messages but allows me to see who they're from first and decline. This avoids the problem of, say, 10 meg of attachments to email from my friend (who should know better by now) vacationing in Burma blocking the one-liner I have to see before tearing off to the airport. I always run the script before telling the mail client to fetch mail. If your browser allows you to disable images and javascript, (how 20th century) that can also make a slow connection usable for the web. (Except, of course, cases where the images or js interactivity are essential to the purpose in hand.) -- Mike Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20160910150042.GA14793@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Sat, 10 Sep 2016 11:00:42 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: How the 911 system might be hacked Critical to the success of the 911 emergency phone system, which has saved countless lives since it was first implemented in 1968, is its ability to quickly route calls to emergency responders closest to a caller. But a group of researchers say they've found a way to effectively disable the 911 emergency system across an entire state for an extended period of time by simply launching what's known as a TDoS attack, or telephony denial-of-service attack, against 911 call centers. The tactic involves infecting mobile phones to cause them to automatically make bogus 911 calls- without their owners' knowledge - thereby clogging call-center queues and preventing legitimate callers from reaching operators. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2016/09/09/how-americas-911-emergency-response-system-can-be-hacked/ -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20160911031602.GA16122@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Sat, 10 Sep 2016 23:16:02 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: Dycom says AT&T & Centurylink's FTTX plans are driven by customer demand by Sean Buckley Google Fiber may have lit the FTTH fire, but network construction company Dycom said that AT&T and CenturyLink's ambitious FTTH expansion plans represent the consumer and business customer's demand for higher speed bandwidth. Steven Nielsen, CEO of Dycom, told investors during this week's DA Davidson 15th Annual Engineering & Construction Conference that AT&T and CenturyLink's FTTH aren't directly linked to Google Fiber's actions. http://www.fiercetelecom.com/telecom/dycom-at-t-centurylink-s-fttx-plans-are-driven-by-customer-demand-not-google-fiber -- Bill Horne ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20160911030759.GA16083@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Sat, 10 Sep 2016 23:07:59 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: Thousands of Verizon customers are battling data over-limit fees By Teresa Dixon Murray, The Plain Dealer A week ago, I wrote about a sudden surge, in my family's cell phone data through Verizon. In my unscientific survey that lasted one week in late August, every friend and acquaintance I asked said they were having the same problem: Their monthly data use had been soaring in recent months for no apparent reason. For some people, using more data meant hefty over-limit fees, often amounting to $50 or $100 or $200 extra a month. In the past week, I've heard from thousands of people, mostly Verizon customers, but quite a few AT&T customers too. People from all over the nation. Most have iPhones. Some have Androids. All have seen their data use jump significantly -- doubling or tripling since the spring in many cases, even though their cell phone habits haven't changed. Data costs money. As if Verizon, the nation's largest wireless carrier, doesn't make enough money, it posted a profit of $18 billion -- billion with a B -- last year. That's up from $2 billion five years ago. http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2016/09/hundreds_of_verizon_customers.html -- Bill Horne ------------------------------ ********************************************* End of telecom Digest Sun, 11 Sep 2016