36 Years of the Digest ... founded August 21, 1981
Copyright © 2017 E. William Horne. All Rights Reserved.

The Telecom Digest for Thu, 22 Feb 2018
Volume 37 : Issue 44 : "text" format

Table of contents
Court to "Charter": Lawsuit about fake speeds will proceed danny burstein
Facebook Shows Why SMS Isn't Ideal for Two-Factor AuthenticationMonty Solomon
Threat from AT&T to pull my plugbob prohaska
---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.4.64.1802191819430.20497@panix5.panix.com> Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2018 18:20:46 -0500 From: danny burstein <dannyb@panix.com> Subject: Court to "Charter": Lawsuit about fake speeds will proceed "Charter Corporation", now operating under the name "Charter Spectrum", is a major cable internet provider. [Ars Technica] Charter Communications cannot use the federal net neutrality repeal to avoid a lawsuit over slow Internet speeds in New York, the state's Supreme Court ruled today. [a] Charter thought that the Federal Communications Commission's net neutrality repeal would help it fight the lawsuit. In November, Charter argued in a court filing that its motion to dismiss the case was bolstered by the repeal because the FCC also preempted state-level regulation. ==== rest: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/02/net-neutrality-repeal-cant-save-charter-from-lawsuit-over-slow-speeds [a] In NYS, unlike many others, the "Supreme Court" is the first level, not the top. =========== Official NYS Attorney General statement at: https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/statement-attorney-general-schneiderman-court-win-lawsuit-against-charter-spectrum _____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] ------------------------------ Message-ID: <63CFEB84-FF2E-4340-ADE1-381A8C3B39F7@roscom.com> Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2018 16:51:03 -0500 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: Facebook Shows Why SMS Isn't Ideal for Two-Factor Authentication Facebook Shows Why SMS Isn't Ideal for Two-Factor Authentication by Josh Centers If you follow recommended security practices, you use two-factor authentication on every online service that allows it. For those who aren't familiar with two-factor authentication, it makes it so a username and password is no longer sufficient to log into your account - you must also provide a six-digit time-based one-time password that is either sent to your phone via SMS text message or generated by an app. (Then there's Apple's two-factor authentication for Apple ID-protected logins, which relies on Apple-proprietary communication channels and devices and thus breaks the usual conventions, see "Apple Implements Two-Factor Authentication for Apple IDs," 21 March 2013.) http://tidbits.com/article/17802 ------------------------------ Message-ID: <p6id1s$jj$1@news.albasani.net> Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2018 00:04:12 +0000 (UTC) From: bob prohaska <bp@www.zefox.net> Subject: Threat from AT&T to pull my plug Just opened a letter claimed to come from AT&T stating in part: "It's important that you call us at 877 377 1686 before 3/25/2018 to set up an appointment to move your service and ensure your service isn't interrupted when we transition customers in your area within the next 45 days!". I've been resisting their blandishments to abandon my POTS line and DSL service for years, it's pretty clear they are adopting a harder sales line. This looks like an explict threat to disconnect service. Does anybody know if the threat is real? I like my POTS line. If there are "magic words" that translate to "no" in the correct language it's be good to know them. Thanks for reading, and any guidance! bob prohaska ***** Moderator's Note ***** Bob, I'm very curious about your DNS entries: here's the output of a PTR query that I just made. moderator@telecom:~$ dig -t PTR -x 69.239.235.194 ; <<>> DiG 9.9.5-3ubuntu0.17-Ubuntu <<>> -t PTR -x 69.239.235.194 ;; global options: +cmd ;; Got answer: ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 3229 ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 2, AUTHORITY: 4, ADDITIONAL: 1 ;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION: ; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 4096 ;; QUESTION SECTION: ;194.235.239.69.in-addr.arpa. IN PTR ;; ANSWER SECTION: 194.235.239.69.in-addr.arpa. 7187 IN CNAME 194.192.235.239.69.in- addr.arpa. 194.192.235.239.69.in-addr.arpa. 3600 IN PTR www.zefox.net. ;; AUTHORITY SECTION: 192.235.239.69.in-addr.arpa. 3600 IN NS ns1.zefox.net. 192.235.239.69.in-addr.arpa. 3600 IN NS ns2.pbi.net. 192.235.239.69.in-addr.arpa. 3600 IN NS ns1.pbi.net. 192.235.239.69.in-addr.arpa. 3600 IN NS ns2.zefox.net. ;; Query time: 4136 msec ;; SERVER: 127.0.0.1#53(127.0.0.1) ;; WHEN: Wed Feb 21 21:42:03 EST 2018 ;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 181 +--------------------------------------------------------------+ ... so, I'm curious why there's a "CNAME" for a PTR record: I've never seen one before. Bill Horne Moderator ------------------------------ ********************************************* End of telecom Digest Thu, 22 Feb 2018

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