Slashdot Mirror

I don't use a smartphone of any type. But the free service, Nomorobo, provided by my cable-based Spectrum server works very nicely.

https://newsroom.charter.com/p...

It's useful, no doubt, but you'll find that no solution short of a mucking with IP telephony or extra hardware to screen the calls will bring much peace of mind. Nomorobo and some other solutions only kicks in AFTER you've been forced to hear the first ring of the call. No exceptions. Very distracting, especially given we have a very loud, long ringer for a hard-of-hearing parent that stops all conversations dead while we wait to for the follow-ups that might indicate the call is probably from a real acquaintaince.

The callerID also shows up on your TV if you have kept the default for screening legitimate calls thru your cablebox feed.
And there is still plenty of stuff that must be screened by hand with their webGUI.
I've been tempted to get into the Rasp PI movement, but I think it requires signing up with some "free" IP telephony system. Some sub $100 devices claim to block that first ring too (though your cablebox will probably still show the caller ID briefly), but I'll wait a while.

I don't use a smartphone of any type. But the free service, Nomorobo, provided by my cable-based Spectrum server works very nicely.

https://newsroom.charter.com/p...

http://help.twcable.com/twc_se...
I've read through a number of peering agreements over the last year, and this is one of the most onerous and one-sided that I've seen. Mandating minimum connection speeds that are out of the realm of all but probably the 20-30 largest carriers in the world, minimum of 8 POPs with 4 of them in distinct regions peering with TWC, must have at least 500 downstream AS's, and must be advertising 2000+ /24s of IPv4 space.
Definitely taking the stance of they have everything to gain from this relationship and any benefit to the peer is only if it benefits TWC more. The Google's and Facebooks of the world have fair and reasonable policies that most large enterprise customers can easily meet to benefit from peering. Maybe this is why peeringdb doesn't list many locations or peers for TWC. Glad Charter is buying them. Hopefully peering policies like this go away soon. For those interested, Charter's policy is here for those interested in how far apart they are from each other:
https://www.charter.com/browse...

I have run test-ipv6.com on my phone & tablet. My carrier being Verizon, while my ISP was previously TWC and now Charter. When I am nowhere near a hotspot and need to depend on my cellular connection, I get a 10/10 score. When I'm near any hot spot, the score is 0/10. Verizon is the only one that seems to have its act together - dunno about Comcast. I've seen the support pages of Charter and TWC on IPv6. Not impressed, given that I couldn't get IPv6 w/ either.

It's easy to be cynical about this, but Time Warner is so customer surly that a ultra-huge mega-merger might actually be better for existing Time Warner customers.

For example: Time Warner abuses the broadcast flag / CCI DRM schemes to flag everything they legally can as "copy-once", locking out lots of DVR competition because the additional features don't work. Charter does not do this, and only flags content as "copy-once" or "do-not-copy" as contractually required by the content providers.

A Charter merger with Time Warner would make my service better and more enjoyable the instant they flip that bit to comply with Charter's current policy regarding CCI tagging because I would no longer be required to watch content only on the device that recorded it.

Time Warner is the worst cable company out there from a customer perspective. When the best news you get about someone providing you a service is that they are selling out to competition, that tells you how bad the service is.

This is a good deal for those who are getting Charter or Spinco (will be managed by Charter) out of the deal. Charter has a fairly open peering policy https://www.charter.com/browse....

Front line tech support and supervisors have NO idea what ipv6 is or how to get it to you.

I have Charter cable, and "just for fun", called tech to ask about if they had native ipv6 availible, and if not, if they had better "regional" tunnels or 6rd gateways. Note that I already had the info from http://www.myaccount.charter.com/customers/Support.aspx?SupportArticleID=2665 working with my Linksys E4200v2; I just wanted to see if there was a closer 6rd tunnel gateway to my location. Over 45 mins and no help at all from the support or the supervisor. Neither had any idea about ipv6 even after I directed them to their own internal support article.

"The good people of Wilson, NC pay $99/month for 10/10 Mbps internet service, 81 TV channels and telephone service. How'd they manage that, you ask?"

They got the Charter Bundle? Except it's 100+ channels, the internet is closer to 10/1 Mbps and the support sucks.

Geez, what the hell!

I invite everyone to make their opinion on this matter known to Charter via their support web chat, email form, or whatever:
http://www.charter.com/customers/contactus.aspx?contactus=7

I am pretty sure their support people are here in STL and not India.

http://www.charter.com/onlineadvertising
Includes the URL to opt out (not as a link though), which is a cookie for connect.charter.com

But, I can't think of how a cookie can actually create an opt out of this. And it's a huge inconvenience to require a cookie.

Really wish FiOS would come out this far.

Charter Communications "Special Offer" "To opt out, it is necessary to install a standard opt-out cookie on your computer. If you delete the opt-out cookie, or if you change computers or web browsers, you will need to opt out again."

http://connect.charter.com/landing/op1.html

According to the letter I got you can opt out. The FAQ is here http://connect.charter.com/landing/op1.html

It *seems* to be well dodgy nevertheless. I am still waiting for FiOS then i am gone...

A representative will be with you shortly. You have been connected to TTM Mike .

TTM Mike : Hi this is Mike from Charter. How may I help you today?

Robert Hafner: I read an article online, and the followed it to the Charter webpage, which states that Charter is going to be monitoring my surfing habits and placing ads into pages I'm viewing. I am wondering how soon this will happen to me personally.
Robert Hafner: http://connect.charter.com/landing/op1.html

TTM Mike : I do apologize but let me transfer you over toour internet support line.
TTM Mike has left the session.

Please wait while we find an agent from the CHAT - DUMA - HSD Support department to assist you.

You have been connected to TTD Grah .

TTD Grah : Hi, this is Grah. Thank you for contacting Charter's High Speed Internet support. How may I be of assistance to you today?

Robert Hafner: I read an article online, and the followed it to the Charter webpage, which states that Charter is going to be monitoring my surfing habits and placing ads into pages I'm viewing. I am wondering how soon this will happen to me personally.

TTD Grah : One moment please.

Robert Hafner: http://connect.charter.com/landing/op1.html Contains the information
Robert Hafner: that I am basing this question off of.
Robert Hafner: As well as http://consumerist.com/5008801/charter-to-begin-tracking-users-searches-and-inserting-targeted-ads

TTD Grah : Yes, that is our new update.
TTD Grah : One moment please as I download the document.
TTD Grah : Charter has formed a partnership with an industry-leader in online advertising, NebuAd (www.nebuad.com). NebuAd, through their advertising network, will display targeted advertisements to Charter High-Speed® Internet customers while they are surfing the Web. NebuAd does not collect and use personally identifiable information to deliver advertising. Customers will not see more ads - just ads that are more relevant to their interests that have been expressed through their web-surfing activity.
TTD Grah : The feature will be activated automatically for Charter HSI customers beginning in June 2008 in the following four Charter markets:
Newtown, Connecticut
Fort Worth, Texas
San Luis Obispo, California
Oxford, Massachusetts

Robert Hafner: So the ads are placed directly into websites I would normally view?
Robert Hafner: How do I opt-out for an entire household, with multiple computers and browsers?
Robert Hafner: Currently the only way to opt-out is by placing a cookie under each browser of each account of each computer, which is absolutely insane.

TTD Grah : The technology can actually often distinguish between different users on a shared computer and, therefore, can serve different ads to different users. Only a portion of the ads you see will be a function of the enhanced service - you will still see some ads that are served based on other criteria.

Robert Hafner: The question was were are those ads being placed- are they replacing other ads on websites, for instance?
Robert Hafner: And if so, how is the owner of the actual website going to be compensated?

TTD Grah : This site may appear depending on what are you trying to view online.
TTD Grah : This site will give you options on what to have according to what you need.

Robert Hafner: What site are you referring to?

TTD Grah : Say for example, you are surfing because you wish to purchase shoes online, this site will pop up and give you options to chose from.
TTD Grah : That is how it works.
TTD Grah : That is how it works.
TTD Grah : The site will not pop up everytime you go online.

Robert Hafner: So this only affects my traffic to

A representative will be with you shortly. You have been connected to TTM Mike .

TTM Mike : Hi this is Mike from Charter. How may I help you today?

Robert Hafner: I read an article online, and the followed it to the Charter webpage, which states that Charter is going to be monitoring my surfing habits and placing ads into pages I'm viewing. I am wondering how soon this will happen to me personally.
Robert Hafner: http://connect.charter.com/landing/op1.html

TTM Mike : I do apologize but let me transfer you over toour internet support line.
TTM Mike has left the session.

Please wait while we find an agent from the CHAT - DUMA - HSD Support department to assist you.

You have been connected to TTD Grah .

TTD Grah : Hi, this is Grah. Thank you for contacting Charter's High Speed Internet support. How may I be of assistance to you today?

Robert Hafner: I read an article online, and the followed it to the Charter webpage, which states that Charter is going to be monitoring my surfing habits and placing ads into pages I'm viewing. I am wondering how soon this will happen to me personally.

TTD Grah : One moment please.

Robert Hafner: http://connect.charter.com/landing/op1.html Contains the information
Robert Hafner: that I am basing this question off of.
Robert Hafner: As well as http://consumerist.com/5008801/charter-to-begin-tracking-users-searches-and-inserting-targeted-ads

TTD Grah : Yes, that is our new update.
TTD Grah : One moment please as I download the document.
TTD Grah : Charter has formed a partnership with an industry-leader in online advertising, NebuAd (www.nebuad.com). NebuAd, through their advertising network, will display targeted advertisements to Charter High-Speed® Internet customers while they are surfing the Web. NebuAd does not collect and use personally identifiable information to deliver advertising. Customers will not see more ads - just ads that are more relevant to their interests that have been expressed through their web-surfing activity.
TTD Grah : The feature will be activated automatically for Charter HSI customers beginning in June 2008 in the following four Charter markets:
Newtown, Connecticut
Fort Worth, Texas
San Luis Obispo, California
Oxford, Massachusetts

Robert Hafner: So the ads are placed directly into websites I would normally view?
Robert Hafner: How do I opt-out for an entire household, with multiple computers and browsers?
Robert Hafner: Currently the only way to opt-out is by placing a cookie under each browser of each account of each computer, which is absolutely insane.

TTD Grah : The technology can actually often distinguish between different users on a shared computer and, therefore, can serve different ads to different users. Only a portion of the ads you see will be a function of the enhanced service - you will still see some ads that are served based on other criteria.

Robert Hafner: The question was were are those ads being placed- are they replacing other ads on websites, for instance?
Robert Hafner: And if so, how is the owner of the actual website going to be compensated?

TTD Grah : This site may appear depending on what are you trying to view online.
TTD Grah : This site will give you options on what to have according to what you need.

Robert Hafner: What site are you referring to?

TTD Grah : Say for example, you are surfing because you wish to purchase shoes online, this site will pop up and give you options to chose from.
TTD Grah : That is how it works.
TTD Grah : That is how it works.
TTD Grah : The site will not pop up everytime you go online.

Robert Hafner: So this only affects my traffic to

I went to Charter's contact page and selected the option to chat live with a Customer Care Representative:

That kind of response doesn't sound like "Customer Care" to me.

Anyway, I called the number and spoke to someone who didn't have a clue what I was talking about. He transferred me to someone else.

The second phone rep said she hadn't heard about the new "enhanced user experience" feature, so she put me on hold to ask someone else. After she came back on the line, she said that she wasn't able to find out anything about it, so said to go to charter.net to stay informed about new features and services.

Naturally, there doesn't appear to be anything on Charter's site about the new "enhanced user experience."

So if I blog something, and title it a 'call to arms', am I suddenly relevant too?
No, you first have to include incendiary slashdot summaries like Company X to SPY on YOU!

How does this service actually work?
It uses completely anonymous information and, based on your surfing and search activity on the Internet, it infers your interests in certain product or service categories, such as automobiles/sports cars, fashion/handbags, or travel/Europe, and so forth.

I use charter.net for cable internet, and just saw this today. (kudos to Consumerist.com and DSL reports for the scoop!) Looks like Charter is using DPI, and your browsing habits to "replace" adds on the websites you visit with their own ads that are "more relevant". You can opt out by filling out your personal info on a non-secured website, but you must re-opt out anytime you delete your cookies. Not to mention the copyright ramifications. I would be pissed if I was a webmaster, and lost revenue becuase the ISP's replaced my ads.

Charter.net (cable) does this on both their residential and commercial accounts. I'll often try to send an abuse report on a recently (within 5 minutes) received spam and have it rejected by charter's outgoing filter. "Alert An error occurred while sending mail. The mail server responded: Message identified as SPAM - Please visit http://www.charter.com/postmaster. Please check the message and try again." Their filters are too stupid to recognize spam being reported, even when the only recipient is abuse@somedomain.

The unlimited internet promise appears to be made outside the US more than what I see here. I just don't see those claims made much, if at all in the US. A search on google for unlimted internet for me (mostly because google gives geography related search results) gives results for unlimited internet, but by that they mean an unlimited number of dialup internet minutes via 56k modem. Most of the large US ISPs will not show up in the first couple pages of google search results when one searches for the term "unlimited internet"--mostly dialup companies show up. Here are some of the main internet providers in the US--cable and phone companies:

ATT

Charter Communications

Time Warner

Verizon

Cox Cable

Qwest

And even evil Comcast

Find any claims of unlimited internet bandwidth from any major US ISP? Keep looking...you'll even find dislaimers saying explicitly that speed and bandwidth is not in any way guaranteed. Certainly those disclaimers are not front and center, but many have their disclaimers asterisk'd with notes on the main service description pages, so the disclaimers are not hard to find. The US has fairly clear and well enforced truth in advertising laws. Doesn't the UK?

I don't think anyone has any right to unlimited internet if I make no such claims, guarantees, or promises and especially if I specifically disclaim any such guarantee. The vast majority of US companies wouldn't make such a claim for fear of losing a class action lawsuit. It seems companies can make untrue claims about their products in the UK and not get sued? I certainly cannot in the US. That's a problem with your consumer rights laws, if they even exist.

I went to Charter's web page today and in their telephone FAQ titled 'Information: About Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP)', "Using Voice Over IP technology allows us to deliver the same great service as traditional phone companies, but at a fraction of the cost."

I wonder how if they were told to say that or if that guy just didn't know what he was talking about. I'd provide a link, but http://support2.charter.com/support/telephone/cont entredirect.asp just doesn't work.

How about a competitive marketplace for cable television? Charter sucks. Lots. Some of us Madison residents lease their dwellingplaces and are not allowed to mount satellite dishes. Therefore, I, and many other Madisonians, are stuck with over-the-air standard TV or Charter Cable.

Fortunately, I occasionally hear IPTV radio commercials for nearby towns. Hopefully those will make it to Madison before too long.

I've been thinking for ages that the RIAA should be sued for Electronic Theft/Illegal access. I hope this pans out, and the RIAA's practice of tracking users. I strongly suspect that they use trojans/viruses as a means of "obtaining" IP addresses, will be brought into the legal spotlight. Sorry, no links but if someone finds some good info, let me know :)

Furtehrmore, the RIAA has repeatedly attempted to force ISP's to drop PAID user connections to 0 upload - which sounds a lot like M$'s monopoly practices:( http://www.charter.com/help/RIAA.aspx )

I work for Charter Communications in St. Louis, MO. How is this any different than VOD (video on demand) provided by Charter...made possible by vod technology and two way addressable systems? Charter on Demand You can order any movie/tv series on our servers. Sounds like Tivo is just trying to provide the same types of services cable companies can already offer people.

I'm posting AC because I'm an employee of Charter Communications. They're about to add a penalty fee for certain subscribers, and I forsee SBC and others doing the same thing once the services are split.

Later this year (I don't have a specific date), Charter is going to add $10 a month to the Internet services bill of anyone who is NOT also a Charter TV subscriber. I thought cable companies stopped adding this "no cable tv" penalty charge YEARS ago. *sigh*

I'm trying to convince the local managers at my office, which is in a large college town, to waive this fee. Because a lot of people I know here have only Charter Internet and no television because many college students can't afford tv (or just don't want it), but the internet is almost a necessity for school work.

If they have to pay an arbitrary $10 extra (up to $52.95/mo for 3Mb/256k!) a lot of people will get pissed off and cancel the service and just use the free university wi-fi which covers most of campus and all of the (rather large) downtown area.

I can see why the number-crunchers at corporate want to add $10... they see it as a way to get back at all the people who switched to satellite for their tv viewing... but still keep Charter for the internet. But at least here where I am, I'm almost positive that more people that would be penalized have ONLY internet, and not internet + satellite.

If you are a Charter customer, PLEASE go to charter.com and contact your local area customer service and complain about this upcoming fee! I don't want to pay it any more than you do!

I don't know if it applies everywhere but the toll-free number I have for Charter is 1-800-800-CABL

-

Customer may set up one (1) web page per primary e-mail account for personal use using the Service, but Customer may not establish a web page using a server located at Customer's home. Customer will not use, nor allow others to use, Customer's home computer as a web server, FTP server, file server or game server or to run any other server applications. Customer will not use, nor allow others to use, the Service to operate any type of business or commercial enterprise. Customer will not advertise that the Service is available for use by third parties or unauthorized users.

Customer may set up one (1) web page per primary e-mail account for personal use using the Service, but Customer may not establish a web page using a server located at Customer's home. Customer will not use, nor allow others to use, Customer's home computer as a web server, FTP server, file server or game server or to run any other server applications. Customer will not use, nor allow others to use, the Service to operate any type of business or commercial enterprise. Customer will not advertise that the Service is available for use by third parties or unauthorized users.

11. NO EXCESSIVE USE OF BANDWIDTH

If Charter determines, in Charter's sole discretion, that Customer is using an excessive amount of bandwidth over the Charter network infrastructure for Internet access or other functions using public network resources, we may terminate Customer's account at any time and without notice, or require Customer to upgrade Customer's service level and pay additional fees in accordance with our then-current, applicable, published rates for such service.

I live in (or around) St. Louis, MO, USA. My area is blessed with the presence of Charter Communications. They are a cable company that does offer tier based pricing.

Service plans (select one)
384 K $29.99/month
2 M $39.99/month

There's actually a 3rd tier in the middle they don't tell you about on their website. I'm not certain what the specifics are on it. But the tiers are listed as; Bronze (Maximum-crap), Silver (Marginal-crap), and Gold (Minimal-crap).

Here's what they don't tell you: All upstreams, on all tiers are capped at 150 kilo-bit per second. Regardless of the tier you're paying for, you cannot buy more upstream. This has annoyed me for years. Oh how I long for the days of @home. I am curious why the upstreams are capped as they are. I don't understand why the upstreams are limited as they are. I think that it might be to curb child pornographers and data pir8s, but those activities are illegal. It's not up to my cable provider to thwart such activity.

It makes me wonder what they're doing with all that extra bandwidth. Their mail servers likely take in significantly more than they put out. Their web servers likely don't consume a relativly large amount of bandwidth. They must have a massive surplus of upstream that they're paying for anyway.

I know one ISP in particular that shall remain nameless that has closed home user accounts for people using VPN (in some cases but not all). They consider this a business use and request that if these VPN ports are blocked that they will need to purchase the business account (more money) to get these ports opened up. In this case I would agree with the author and say that ISP = Web.

Actually, you can run just about anything you want with a dynamically assigned IP address.

On many ISPs, yes, but a lot of people only have the option of getting broadband from one with an extremely restrictive AUP. The alternative with Charter is to purchase a business account! Unfortunately, Verizon's AUP is no better. Specifically, this section: "E. You may not use the DSL Service to host any type of server personal or commercial in nature."

This is rediculous IMHO. I'm getting forced into changing to Charter from my current ISP. I'm not looking forward to it.

With the exception of me occasionaly checking my e-mail via web interface, my website gets a massive 1 hit every 3 days. (At least that's what it was so far this month... and over half of those were just SE robots.) I also average 2-4 e-mails a day. When I checked with Charter via the phone, however, I was told that I absolutely could not run my mail and web server on their service without upgrading to a business account.

I'll be honest, I never worked with the Ricochet stuff. Right now, though, my company (small local ISP, we also do wireless) does have some of the Waverider 900MHz hardware deployed. We have FOUR customers using it, as opposed to several hundred using the 2.4GHz stuff. Heck, I'm about half a mile away from one of the Waverider CCUs (basically, their equivalent of an access point), and I have to deal with the competition for my broadband because the 900MHz stuff just doesn't cut it, and (as I don't own the property) I can't put up an external 2.4GHz antenna.

The possibility of your computer being "hacked" is slim to none. Although illegal entry into computer systems happens every day, it generally occurs in large corporations. Hackers commonly "sweep" a range of IP addresses looking for possible "holes" to exploit. These "holes" are generally provided by oversights in software development, such as telnet servers, mail servers, ftp servers, chat servers, etc. Most of our customers have no need to run these types of services, and are therefore not vulnerable to such exploits...

I often have problems with my cable modem. DSL isn't an option for several reasons:

A) I haven't had a phone line or paid for a land line in 5 years

B)Speed is truely a little slower

C)DSL is MUCH more expensive (at least for providers in my area)

D)It would be a large transfer investement to go to a different type of service - I have been able to do a lot of eBay selling and transfer of hardware as Charter has transition from @home (which was superior) to PipeLine.

The other gripe about cable not comparing to DSL is the misleading requirements. I had posted this in my journal before:

Charter Pipeline requirements

1)Workers / installers also make people think that is MEGABYTE AND KILOBYTE it is megabit and kilobit - they advertise the service with a k when it should be with a kbps or kb - but front desk people will often say "You should upgrade to the 1 megabyte service"

The way I have tested this is by hooking my Aiport BaseStation up to both - I used his (neighbor's) service, he used my service for a week. We both use Peer to Peer and both download a considerable amount of images and software updates. We also both upload to eBay a lot. There is a considerable sized class action action lawsuit in Greenville against Charter, this is one of the many things mentioned as a grievance in the suit.

2)They advertise on the Pipeline website that a Mac with a 601 PPC or higher is able to have the service. They install free ethernet cards (ISA,PCI, PCMCIA) in most every Wintel but won't install an AAUI adapter (on some Macs) or something like a PCMCIA card on the PowerBook 1400. They also tell my customers that I have sold 7300's (604e/180 processor) to, even if they have G3 upgrades that they won't even ALLOW then to get on Pipeline claiming it doesn't meet spec, when one can can view this message on their site: Pipeline Requirements [charter.com]

They also are under investigation for charging the bogus "line maintenance fee" - which they tell you if you don't have they will charge you to fix your cable, when technically (although not by law) they are a municipality/utility and must include line maintenance in costs.

1)The bronze service (256kb) which I have neither uploads or downloads ANY FASTER than the Silver 512kb - Gold 768kb - or Platinum 1mb -

Workers / installers also make people think that is MEGABYTE AND KILOBYTE it is megabit and kilobit - they advertise the service with a k when it should be with a kbps or kb - but front desk people will often say "You should upgrade to the 1 megabyte service"

The way I have tested this is by hooking my Aiport BaseStation up to both - I used his (neighbor's) service, he used my service for a week. We both use Peer to Peer and both download a considerable amount of images and software updates. We also both upload to eBay a lot. There is a considerable sized class action action lawsuit in Greenville against Charter, this is one of the many things mentioned as a grievance in the suit.

2)They advertise on the Pipeline website that a Mac with a 601 PPC or higher is able to have the service. They install free ethernet cards (ISA,PCI, PCMCIA) in most every Wintel but won't install an AAUI adapter (on some Macs) or something like a PCMCIA card on the PowerBook 1400. They also tell my customers that I have sold 7300's (604e/180 processor) to, even if they have G3 upgrades that they won't even ALLOW then to get on Pipeline claiming it doesn't meet spec, when one can can view this message on their site: Pipeline Requirements

They also are under investigation for charging the bogus "line maintenance fee" - which they tell you if you don't have they will charge you to fix your cable, when technically (although not by law) they are a municipality/utility and must include line maintenance in costs.

I'm in the same boat (pun intended). I live at Johnson Lake in Nebraska. a couple months ago Charter dug laid some fiber all around our lake, some of which ended up less than 20 feet from my back door.

I call about 2 times a week asking if I can have cablemodem, they keep saying it's coming, and when I tell them that I saw them physically installing it, they blame it on political problems. Being in touch with my congressman, Tom Osborne, I know for a fact that he's one of the main reasons there's a 'push' to put broadband in rural areas.

So far, i haven't seen the progress, other than a bunch of dead line and empty promises.

Charter Communications has struck a deal with Diego/Moxi to launch the Moxi Media Center which includes a PVR that can record HDTV.

Here is the press release.

• Level One -- 256Kb Down / 128Kb Up $34.95/month
• Level Two -- 768Kb Down / 128Kb Up $42.95/month
• Level Three -- 1.5Mb Down / 128Kb Up $59.95/month

Even more ironic, under the "General Subscriber Responsibilities" of Charter Pipeline's Customer Agreement, they require you to adhere to MSN email's TOS. That's being quite selective considering there's so many free e-mail sites out there. One has to wonder what (if any) TOS/Privacy agreements that will accompany this set-top box.

Just thought I'd toss in my "we have it here too!" comment.

Here in St. Louis, Charter has been offering Digital Cable and VOD for over a year. I've watched a few movies and the quantity (200 maybe?) and quality was always quite good. Prices vary depending on age and popularity; anywhere from $1.99 to $3.99 I believe.

Along with the standard movies, there's a good 100 or so pr0n flix; I think those are between $7.99 and $9.99.

One thing that really surprised me was that there's a kids section too! You can watch old episodes of the Care Bears and other cartoons and educational shows, and they're only $0.99 a piece.

In case you don't trust your kids (or roommates, which frequently act like kids), they offer an administration feature where you can set up user accounts and spending limits. Pretty cool, IMHO.