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'zacly. You Yanks have zero to bitch about. I have no idea who VoltageX is with as an ISP, but I'm with a company called Internode who are among the best in Australia. I get 1500/256 with a 20Gb download cap after which I'm shaped to 64kbps for AU$69.95/month (about US$51). My exchange will be upgraded to ADSL2+ capability in the coming months, and I've nominated for transfer to an equivalent plan on ADSL2+ when available. Pricing stays the same.

Given Telstra's monopoly on last mile and the virtual non-existence of cable beyond Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane in Australia, Telstra essentially drive the market here. Consequently, there's a regime whereby data volume is the defining factor for ADSL. There is effectively no such thing as unlimited transfer, and in fact, some ISPs (Telstra included as far as I recall) count data in both directions towards your monthly allowance.

If you've some free time, jump on http://www.whirlpool.net.au/ and read through the historical news.

Now, tell me again what you're complaining about?

Loudest outcry, from a quick look at Whirlpool, the preeminent Australian broadband community, was from people who'd previously boasted and showed screen shots of them downloading up to 150GB/month, and who spent the next few weeks trying to devise elaborate and failed efforts to try to argue their way out of a contract on the basis that "will" is different to "may", though "may" can very easily be defined as "will".

They got little sympathy from other users, who saw that the throttling of their neighbour from eating through 5GB a day only improved their performance.

Luckily we have the "Australian Competition and Consumer Commission" and "Consumer Affairs" to stop that sort of thing here. Maybe that is another reason why Australian ISPs have always had download limits. They are just more up-front about their policies.

Some companies still advertise "Unlimited" services despite the shaping, though. These companies have been busted left-right-and-centre by the authorities lately, and ISPs are now avoiding the word "unlimited".

http://whirlpool.net.au/article.cfm/1516
http://whirlpool.net.au/article.cfm/1533

Luckily we have the "Australian Competition and Consumer Commission" and "Consumer Affairs" to stop that sort of thing here. Maybe that is another reason why Australian ISPs have always had download limits. They are just more up-front about their policies.

Some companies still advertise "Unlimited" services despite the shaping, though. These companies have been busted left-right-and-centre by the authorities lately, and ISPs are now avoiding the word "unlimited".

http://whirlpool.net.au/article.cfm/1516
http://whirlpool.net.au/article.cfm/1533

For the third year in a row, Urgo's list of April Fool's Jokes on Websites contains the most complete list of April Fool's Day pranks websites have created. Featured by news.com.com.com.. and Microsoft, the site strives to list EVERY joke site, and is updated every few minutes with new verified jokes. wikipedia also contains a sizeable list.

Sample:

tveps.net - Isaac 'Chef' Hayes not leaving southpark after all. Comes clean that it was a publicity stunt.

thinkgeek.com - USB Tanning Center, RFID Blocking T-shirt, Grow Your Own 1up Mushroom Kit, Caffeine Inhaler, and more

theregister.co.uk - customise The Register to suit your needs - from blocking ads, to selecting the kind of stories you really want to read.

worldofwarcraft.com - Blizzard to put Wisps as a playable race for World of Warcraft.

tvpredictions.com - Ready for X-ray TV? New TV picture technology even clearer than HDTV; you can actually see through people's clothing on TV.

blizzard.com - BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT® PRESENTS BURGERCRAFT(TM)

bolloxcomics.co.uk - Myspace parody

bolloxcomics.co.uk - YTMND parody

wiebetech.com - 5 TB iPod

sideshowtoy.com - Half a Darth Maul Figure Exclusive?

slashdot.org - OMG!!! PONIES!!! (and pink layout)

whirlpool.net.au - Telstra will only release 2mbit ADSL2+ in Australia.

forums.worldofwarcraft.com - World of Warcraft 1.11 patch notes leaked

mymsnsearch.com - fake (but hilariously accurate) search results

gearlog.com - Laptop Lingerie: Bringing Tech & Pleasure Together

googlesystem.blogspot.com - Google Browser is finally launched. Installer 1.68MB

sordeo.com - mirror image and the title says, 'Now optimized for those afflicted with Dyslexia'

eternal-lands.com - Free Software Foundation buys Eternal Lands

This one got me for a while, even whilst laughing at other april fools stories. Note - they added the april fools label later.

For the third year in a row, Urgo's list of April Fool's Jokes on Websites contains the most complete list of April Fool's Day pranks websites have created. Featured by news.com.com.com.. and Microsoft, the site strives to list EVERY joke site, and is updated every few minutes with new verified jokes. wikipedia also contains a sizeable list.

Sample
tveps.net - Isaac 'Chef' Hayes not leaving southpark after all. Comes clean that it was a publicity stunt.
thinkgeek.com - USB Tanning Center, RFID Blocking T-shirt, Grow Your Own 1up Mushroom Kit, Caffeine Inhaler, and more
theregister.co.uk - customise The Register to suit your needs - from blocking ads, to selecting the kind of stories you really want to read.
worldofwarcraft.com - Blizzard to put Wisps as a playable race for World of Warcraft.
tvpredictions.com - Ready for X-ray TV? New TV picture technology even clearer than HDTV; you can actually see through people's clothing on TV.
blizzard.com - BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT® PRESENTS BURGERCRAFT(TM)
bolloxcomics.co.uk - Myspace parody
bolloxcomics.co.uk - YTMND parody
wiebetech.com - 5 TB iPod
sideshowtoy.com - Half a Darth Maul Figure Exclusive?
slashdot.org - OMG!!! PONIES!!! (and pink layout)
whirlpool.net.au - Telstra will only release 2mbit ADSL2+ in Australia.
forums.worldofwarcraft.com - World of Warcraft 1.11 patch notes leaked
mymsnsearch.com - fake (but hilariously accurate) search results
gearlog.com - Laptop Lingerie: Bringing Tech & Pleasure Together
googlesystem.blogspot.com - Google Browser is finally launched. Installer 1.68MB
sordeo.com - mirror image and the title says, 'Now optimized for those afflicted with Dyslexia'
eternal-lands.com - Free Software Foundation buys Eternal Lands

Today, Telstra announced their ADSL2+ plans. They're going to offer a whole 2meg! A Telstra spokesperson said "typical consumers do not need faster Internet". Telstra are reserving the rest of the bandwidth for video on demand and VoIP.

Unbelievable...

get a freaking ps2 for 140 bucks.

Not entirely. Several PS1 games do not work correctly on the PS2. I'm guessing this PSP emulator won't be 100% compatible either, just as the Nintendo DS isn't compatible with link-cable-heavy GBA titles such as The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords and Pokémon.

Most ISP's in Australia that are of the "small" to "medium" size offer those sorts of residential plans at the moment.

I work at an ISP whose two most expensive plans are 139.95 (1500/256) and 149.95 (512/512) - static IP address, unlimited up/down, no ports blocked, no arbitrary "reasonable use" speed throttling, and no limit to the servers or services you can run through the connection.

For those /.'ers located in Australia who are doubting me, go to Broadband Choice at Whirlpool and check out the plans comparison part of the site.

Really, it's only the big guys in Australia who are offering "unlimited" plans loaded with caveats.

I would be surprised if it wasn't like that in the states too.

Most ISP's in Australia that are of the "small" to "medium" size offer those sorts of residential plans at the moment.

I work at an ISP whose two most expensive plans are 139.95 (1500/256) and 149.95 (512/512) - static IP address, unlimited up/down, no ports blocked, no arbitrary "reasonable use" speed throttling, and no limit to the servers or services you can run through the connection.

For those /.'ers located in Australia who are doubting me, go to Broadband Choice at Whirlpool and check out the plans comparison part of the site.

Really, it's only the big guys in Australia who are offering "unlimited" plans loaded with caveats.

I would be surprised if it wasn't like that in the states too.

Thousands of users made the switch after realizing that they're STILL going to have to put up with the infamous NAT Error, and it STILL drives Ubuntu users crazy...

A forum that discussed this very topic (may save the $20!)
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t =266277

Some more links in there no doubt!

Here is the VOIP forum I am a member of:

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-threads.cfm?f =107

But is very Australian. :)

Unwired - http://www.unwired.com.au/index.php already have a rollout with plenty of coverage around Sydney. http://www.unwired.com.au/availability/index.php
iBurst (flash warning) - http://www.iburst.com.au/ are implementing rollout now.

Discussion form for wireless isps here:
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-threads.cfm?f =18

Because they're stupid.

My boss recently PAID for eMule, which he installed on his daughter's computer. 5 days later they get a bill from Bigpond for $600AUD in excess data usage. Bigpond is one of the few ISPs left in Australia that count uploads are part of your data quota, and she left eMule running.

I find it quite funny that he ended up paying more for the illegally downloaded music than it would have cost to buy the CDs.

It depends which part of Australia.

You can get a 24 Megabit service for as little as $AU29.95 per month in Adelaide.

http://bc.whirlpool.net.au/bc-plan.cfm?state=sa&cl ass=0&type=res&pre=500&cost=40&speed=2048&upspeed= 0&ip=1&conntype=1&conntype=4&conntype=5&rt=1&dd=1& sort=1

The Tasmanian trial appears to be BPL-to-the-home rather than Homeplug. What's on offer is disappointing: low download limits, poor speed and uncompetitive pricing. Have a look at http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t =266922&p=8#r153/ for detailed criticism All in all it looks like yet another BPL beat-up: enthusiasm, spin and disappointment when trials don't proceed to a large-scale commercial roll-out. That is inevitable because the cost of fixing radio frequency problems means BPL in Australia is commercially uncompetitive

Broadband in Australia is still expensive when you compare directly to other countries. This is the plan I'm on: http://bc.whirlpool.net.au/bc-isp.cfm?id=24&p=5574 and it is fairly good value. (Link is to Whirlpool/Broadband choice, which is a comprehensive listing of all broadband providers and plans in Australia.)

It was only a few years ago Telstra/Bigpond had a full monopoly and charged around $80/m for 512kbps and 3GB/month, 15c/MB thereafter with no limit (reports of $2000+ bills being charged to single mothers). And they charged their wholesale customers the same or more for the same port, as well as being the major bandwidth provider. Telstra controlled 10/12 things an ISP needed.

Now BP has less of a monopoly but all ADSL providers still have to deal with Telstra (either using T's DSLAM ports or paying lots to put their own DSLAM equipment into the exchanges).

Rolling out an alternative network, either BPL or wireless, is the only way to cut Telstra out of the equation, but the startup costs are higher so prices are higher to get the return on investment.

The slowest plan is 256/64 and includes an astoundingly small 20MB of data

The slowest plan is 256/64 and includes an astoundingly small 20MB of data

The slowest plan is 256/64 and includes an astoundingly small 20MB of data, which includes uploads.

I can attest that the bubble is bursting. On my way to work I see at least a dozen "For Sale" signs, and it's only a 10 minute drive. On my way to pick up my son in the evening I see another 10, and that's only a 5 minute drive.

Problem is, the bubble has burst. I agree, rising petrol (mainly) and the general rise in energy costs (gas, electricity, etc) over the last few years has pushed most people over the razor's financial edge that they were teetering on.

Banks haven't helped. They've become only to happy to over-extend people's financial capacity with things like crazy honeymoon fixed 5 year rates. When your fixed term is up, you're balanced on a delicate razor's edge, and things like food start to become a luxury.

But, I thought this was a thread about Evil-T, not housing prices. You should go and read the Whirlpool (http://www.whirlpool.net.au/ forums some time. Recently, in the Internode (and probably others) forum has been a pile of discussion about how Telstra Wholesale is abusing their position to get people to sign up to BigPong DSL.

They seem quite happy to repeatedly reject your application with another ISP, but when you apply to BigPong they are quite happy to sign you up, remove technology blockers, find alternate paths, etc. Of course, once they have you locked into BigPong (thus proving that ADSL is, in fact, available) on a 24 month contract they laugh all the way to the bank.

This is why Telstra Wholesale should be completely separated from Telstra Retail. Telstra Retail should be subject to the same red tape and beaurocratic bullshit that other carriers are subjected to.

One to provide Wholesale Telecoms and the other to provide Retail Telecoms services.

This is so horribly over due!

We may be on the verge, finally, of seeing some real competition in the Australian teleco market place.

Telstra naturally are not very happy about what is now an approved [by cabinet] package, which will force them [Telstra] to create seperage network and retail divisions, with separate premises and management but under the same company structure.

If all goes to plan, the government (coalition) could steamroll ahead and sell its majority share holding ( 51.8 per cent stake ) in Telstra before the end of next year. Something which has been high on the governments agenda for some time now.

Sure that's going to make them a truck load of money, it's (the sale of 51.8% of Telstra is a lot of share value) going to do that no matter how you look at it.

What does all this mean for Australia?

Well we could perhaps look just accross the Tasman to the windy city of Wellington, in New Zealand, for an example of just what a completely deregulated teleco marketplace can do if you allow it.

Businesses and individual end users in Wellington, can gain access to Data and Voice services that the rest of the world ( except perhaps for Singapore with their Interent Corridor ) dreams of.

With 10 megabit and 100 megabit, and even gigabit connections for tens or hundreds of dollars a month, zero data usage charges, and peering for one and all if you want it, Wellington has shown that a completely deregulated telecommunications industry can work, and will work, if you allow it to.

We won't in the near future, say the next five years even, see the likes of what NZ has been able to achieve here in Australia, well not from what I can see gazing into my crystal ball anyway, as there's a legacy culture to be left behind before we can see Australia make major leaps forward.

I'm hoping that with Telstra now having to form a legitimate Wholesale arm, freed up and allowed to sell outside of it's previous one and only customer, being Telstra itself ( oh and the occasional carrier and ISP when they had time of course ), Telstra Wholesale may be allowed to sell core services at prices that would allow 3rd party providers, in particular the DSL providers, or the Broadband market at least, provide now ADSL 2+ services of 22 megabit speeds, throughout the country at prices equal to what we now pay for 1.5 megabit links.

What does the general media have to report? Here's a few links for further homework on the topic:

• Whirlpool News
• ABC Online
• The Australian
• News.com.au
• Australian IT
• The Age

Let's hope that with new management, and a sense of responsibility to the nation, the new Telstra's can both give back a little of what they have so easily come by, and finally deliver on the government's Digital Nation promise.

More to come on the temp home of Dez's Blog at http://mosman.no-ip.com

What happens when someone fakes an email header so it looks like an infrigment notice from a movie studio etc. For example Saying there is copyrighted material on the pharmacydirect.com.au website. So because of this case, emails are given the word of law by the courts and the Pharmcacy Direcy website is taken offline. Pharmacy Direct then sues the ISP for losing it millions of dollars. What will the courts do then.... Emails cannot be given legal status as they are too easily faked. It they were not there would be an easy way to filter spam emails. Another Lively discussion on this happening on www.whirlpool.com.au Direct link is to the discussion is here Bluemars

They were never delivered legal documents. Only sent emails and (apparently) there was a phonecall. Why would you comply with emails? Remember that site a while back that made phony cease&desist emails and sent them from hotmail/fake accounts to see how many ISP's complied? Everyone booed the ISP's who went along with it. This ISP ignores the emails and now they're getting sued. I wouldn't blame them. Why would they act on a legal matter if they weren't sent any legal instruction/documents? The whole thing is stupid. More info here: http://whirlpool.net.au/

As opposed to what - advanced Australian technology?

Well, yeah. I'm on iiNet's ADSL2 connection which gets 12 Mbit/s. Their support people not only know about Linux, they run Debian themselves and support it. So what's your problem with Aussie tech?

If you need to find out about the state of broadband over here, try http://www.whirlpool.net.au/. You might be surprised.

Might do well to check this page

http://whirlpool.net.au/survey/results2004.htm

not sure if its the latest tho

Sorry, broke the link:
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t =343331

Linksys make great routers

The quality of Linksys routers varies from product to product, as a lot of people that own a WAG54G (v1) will tell you:

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t =343331/

they run linux

Not all Linksys routers run linux.

Look at all the trouble you caused the poor host :P http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t =355027 All sorted now though, the site should load fast.

I'm in regional Australia and paying $AU60/m for 1.5M/256kbit ADSL with a 5GB (plus 5GB offpeak) limit, after which I'm shaped to 72kbps (and further shaped at 120% quota to 33kbps) and this is a fairly good deal! Since data travelling through the local IX is free I do have quota-free access to several mirrors so it's not so bad. $10/m more and I could double my quota if I needed. I also have a static IP and custom reverse DNS setup for no extra cost. :)

There's the $18.50/m I'm paying to Telstra as the minimum line rental that supports ADSL (there's a cheaper one, but apparently it's "incompatible" with ADSL). This is cheaper than the $27/m most people pay but I pay 30c per local call instead of 20c, and a few other things are more expensive. But we don't use the phone much anymore anyway.

As to the ISDN, the only ones I've seen are about $50/m for two lines of ISDN (two phone numbers, one pair of copper) plus whatever the ISP charges. Telstra used to charge local data calls at $1.10 per hour, but now offer "unlimited data calls" for $16.50 extra per month. Most decent ISPs charge about $50/m for dual-channel unlimited ISDN dialup, so you are well over $100/m for your 128kbps, or just under for 64kbps. One would only go with ISDN if ADSL is unavailable.

What is described in TFA has happened in Australia lots of times too, check out some old articles in http://whirlpool.net.au/ and you'll see. Few ISPs have their own DSLAMs (only a handful, and they mostly are in the same exchanges). The fastest ADSL offered by Telstra is what I have, and apparently they are going to hobble ADSL2 to 6M/256kbit even if the line can support full speed.

And there are still many customers on devices that stop ADSL reaching them, things like pair-gain systems or RIMs. These are being upgraded, but at the same pace as any ex-monopoly telco. Telstra operate a cable network too so they wouldn't open DSL access there much, since customers could choose an ISP that is not owned by Telstra (Bigpond).

An interesting read, but there are plenty of stories like that here: http://www.whirlpool.net.au/ - the Britts are not alone.

The Whirlpool Forum FAQ says otherwise.

Of course WP is free so it isn't an exact parallel, but Slashdot and Fark do the same thing: more $ == more priviledges. Not to mention that Slashdot, Fark, and Whirlpool are not run as a commercial entity to make money (well, Slashdot sort of is) - AtomicMPC is first and foremost a magazine.

Oh, and something else I found out today (thanks Arghdee) - the $20 a year not only gets you into the extra forums, but allows you to access the ENTIRE magazine electronically, every month, for a year. (I'm not sure what sort of method - maybe PDF, or something similar).

Go to http://www.whirlpool.net.au/ or http://www.builderau.com.au/ for free forums in Australia.

The restrictions affect two of their about twenty forums - those two being a "general chat" forum and a "buy/sell" forum. All the others, general PC chat, hardware, linux, programming etc. will still be free for all. And being a computer magazine, these are what the forums are about - anything else is a bonus.

It's the same as Aussie broadband site, Whirlpool, only allows access to its "off-topic" forums (TV, sports, news, music, etc) to long standing members. The site is about broadband, and anyone can access those forums, but off-topic forums are a priviledge.

t does get annoying to see someone quite clearly making camp for the day to abuse the free service. There is only so much bandwidth to go around, and deliberatly going there to use as much of it for free as possible is attrocious; I'd like to be able to log onto my webmail without having to wait 5 minutes for the page to load - is that too much to ask?

Understandably annoying. Blame goes to the management of the whole thing though... who can blame those for taking advantage of a good thing. Not to mention the various people who actually live in the city and north adelaide, and have taken to using the wireless as their primary internet access. All that student accommodation around Adelaide Uni must be great for the poverty stricken student :)

Agile/internode are very excited about having ownership of citylan. They have the network to support it too ;)

Simon Hackett regularly posts in whirlpool forums about internode and agile plans, which currently seems to be regularly embarrassing telstra, along with iinet :D. Check it out if you're interested.

From the people who brought you "extreme ADSL2+" while only enabling 4 actual exchanges. This oughtta be a laugh

Firstly, there are another ~40 planned for 2005, and these are being held up by the evil oligopolistic Telstra.

Secondly, the wireless points connect via standard ethernet into Agile's backbone network, I believe.

From http://www.grcsucks.com/.

Steve Gibson often is referred to as being a "Security Expert", yet one has to see his appearances on *real* security boards/interviews/gatherings. Where was Steve Gibson at Defcon/BlackHat Conference ? Why doesn't he comment/ on Bugtraq or other Security Focus mailing lists ?

The answer is quite simple: he would get nailed down by arguments and facts from real security experts in less then a minute. These persons tend not to be very impressed by self-proclaimed Security Experts and his obfuscation of the real issues and intentions.

As you can read on his resume page, Gibson worked for years as a marketer "Gibson founded a proprietorship specializing in media advertising and public relations" , and that's what he is really good at.

There is usually always an amount of truth behind stories in tabloid newspapers. However, everybody knows that the tabloid newspaper will sensationalise the story to make it sound worse than it already is. Of course they do this to sell more newspapers.

Steve does the same thing, and while he does have a few things to sell, it appears that the main reason he does it is to stroke his inflated ego.

His technique is the same as tabloids - use loaded words to spread Fear, Uncertainly and Doubt among his readers, such that they tend to think that only he knows and understands the whole truth, and only he is the one that will "save them". Notice how he liberally also uses HTML features, such as colour, font sizing and emphasis to highlight some of the loaded words. His DoS attack description could be a canonical example of this technique.

You may be interested in my first attempt at doing it, in regards to the possiblity that your house could be burgled - GRC.com has a new Sheilds UP Test .... It's not that hard to do, and for somebody who lived in a house, yet wasn't aware that they could be burgled, it would be quite scary to find out, particularly in the way I've presented this information.

I'd go with someone else but they're the only broadband provider for my area.

No, Telstra provides the wholesale ADSL service to other ISP's as well. Did you perhaps fall for the old "oh dear you're too far from the exchange, but sign up for Bigpond and we'll try again" trick? Telstra/Bigpond is notorious for turning down applications from other ISP's, only to approve it when the same customer signs up for Bigpond ADSL. It's the same line, the same exchange, the same DSLAM (modem). I'd recommend you sign up with a different ISP. Both WestNet and Internode got very good results in the Whirlpool Australian Broadband survey 2004. I'm looking at moving to WestNet (from Dart/Hotkey) soon.

I'd go with someone else but they're the only broadband provider for my area.

No, Telstra provides the wholesale ADSL service to other ISP's as well. Did you perhaps fall for the old "oh dear you're too far from the exchange, but sign up for Bigpond and we'll try again" trick? Telstra/Bigpond is notorious for turning down applications from other ISP's, only to approve it when the same customer signs up for Bigpond ADSL. It's the same line, the same exchange, the same DSLAM (modem). I'd recommend you sign up with a different ISP. Both WestNet and Internode got very good results in the Whirlpool Australian Broadband survey 2004. I'm looking at moving to WestNet (from Dart/Hotkey) soon.

To expand on this, a lot of you non-australians should probably know that Telstra Bigpond is the ISP that people choose when they don't know any better.

Not necessarily. Please don't generalise.
Where I live I have the choice of Optus or Bigpond (Telstra) cable internet. Optus prohibits servers in their acceptable use policy, and according to the Whirlpool forums they block certain ports to enforce this.

ADSL is also available, but it has a much lower download speed. We also have the Optus Local phone service running over their cable network, so to get ADSL we'd need to switch back to the (Telstra) copper phone line first.

When I signed up for broadband, Bigpond cable offered free installation and 2 months free access on a 24-month plan. Compared to getting the copper phone line reconnected and changing telcos, having ADSL activated, and whatever upfront fees were involved in getting an ADSL modem, and still only being able to download at a fraction of the speed, cable seemed the much better choice.

I'm not a big fan of Telstra, but right now there's nothing better out there. Hopefully by the time my contract expires my exchange will have ADSL2, and I can consider other options.

pctainto wrote:
Seriously, why is this news?

1. Alston to take top Telstra job
http://whirlpool.net.au/article.cfm/1462

Near gave me a heart attack, but the last paragraph gave it away even before I clicked the "Media Release". Absolutely believable that Alston (ex telecomunications minister) would have so little integrity.

2. "Son of Kong" - King Kong production diary day 123.
http://www.kongisking.net/index.shtml

This was one that took some real planning and work.

Damn PJ has lost some weight ...

Isn't April Fools Day just the best? =] For a 'full' list of sites pulling pranks today check out this list here

Here is a sample:

dotget.net - Microsoft to put P2P software .GET into next version of Windows
kylewenda.com - the government records your phone calls... scary
rfc-editor.org - RFC for "Requirements for Morality Sections in Routing Area Drafts"
waferbaby.com - amusing php error
planet.gentoo.org - Various things, CFLAGS, etc
fark.com - Many Jokes (keep reloading): BOOBIES!, Logged in as admin, North-Central Kentucky Bunghole-Discharge, page from 1999, BEER
2600.com - Formal Attire required for 2600 meetings today
forumsector.com - Changed the name to Nascar Sector
wikipedia.org - Britannica taking over Wikimedia
google.com - Google releases Google Gulp
kellyosbourne.org - Sanctuary records group shut us down
nukefreezone.net - Making fun of atrios.blogspot.com
weebl.jolt.co.uk - Replaced with Cats-By-Mail
telecom.co.nz - Click 2 Brick
ytmnd.com - (NSFW) hacked by teens for christ
wingus.ampedhost.com - Site converted into Mingus' Gently-Used Furniture store. Oh dear. Why won't he be kind?
homestarrunner.com - Now a pay service.
whirlpool.net.au - Australia's biggest Luddite to head Australia's largest telco
thinkgeek.com - Fake product listings.
theregister.co.uk - Bush twins to join Air Force tech unit in Iraq
creativebits.org - Site purchased by Microsoft

Isn't April Fools Day just the best? =] For a 'full' list of sites pulling pranks today check out this list here

Here is a sample:

kellyosbourne.org - Sanctuary records group shut us down
nukefreezone.net - Making fun of atrios.blogspot.com
weebl.jolt.co.uk - Replaced with Cats-By-Mail
telecom.co.nz - Click 2 Brick
ytmnd.com - (NSFW) hacked by teens for christ
wingus.ampedhost.com - Site converted into Mingus' Gently-Used Furniture store. Oh dear. Why won't he be kind?
homestarrunner.com - Now a pay service.
whirlpool.net.au - Australia's biggest Luddite to head Australia's largest telco
thinkgeek.com - Fake product listings.
theregister.co.uk - Bush twins to join Air Force tech unit in Iraq
creativebits.org - Site purchased by Microsoft
ocremix.org - Now partnered with EA (or something like that). Called EA ReMix.
spacedaily.com - Bush Cancels Space Shuttle Program
planet.gnome.org - Switched sites with planet.kde.org
planet.kde.org - Switched sites with planet.gnome.org
ietf.org - RFC: Efficient Transformation Formats of Unicode
beejaysworld.de - Gentoo dropping livecds for x86
nature.com - Apollo bacteria spur lunar erosion
antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov - Water On Mars
smh.com.au - (Free Reg Req) SMEGmail offers 1 terabyte storage
smh.com.au - (Free Reg Req) Linux looks to Hilton for exposure
thetoque.com - Canada Builds Own Missile Defense Shield
onion.com - U.S. Dog Owners Fear Arrival of Africanized Fleas
chron.com - Bush Twins in Maxim
ask.com - Jeeves has been replaced by a robot
animenewsnetwork.com - Viz Unlicenses Naruto
uninventthewheel.co.uk - New BMW technology to get around the EU ban on right hand drive cars in Europe.
newgrounds.com - changing to numagrounds.com
neopets.com - neopets adds 50 new pets
www.firstloox.org - The Loox is being recalled
packages.gentoo.org - Adobe doesn't sell products for Linux
pc.ign.com - Microsoft World of Wordcraft (Extremely Obvious)
spamusement.com - Page full of spoof banner ads
gentooexperimental.org - Gentoo using the NT kernel
moddb.com

For a full list of sites that pulled April Fools Day Pranks this year check out this list here -

Here is a sampling:

dotget.net - Microsoft to put P2P software .GET into next version of Windows
kylewenda.com - the government records your phone calls... scary
rfc-editor.org - RFC for "Requirements for Morality Sections in Routing Area Drafts"
planet.gentoo.org - Various things, CFLAGS, etc
fark.com - Many Jokes (keep reloading): BOOBIES!, Logged in as admin, North-Central Kentucky Bunghole-Discharge, page from 1999, BEER
2600.com - Formal Attire required for 2600 meetings today
forumsector.com - Changed the name to Nascar Sector
wikipedia.org - Britannica taking over Wikimedia
google.com - Google releases Google Gulp
kellyosbourne.org - Sanctuary records group shut us down
nukefreezone.net - Making fun of atrios.blogspot.com
weebl.jolt.co.uk - Replaced with Cats-By-Mail
wingus.ampedhost.com - Site converted into Mingus' Gently-Used Furniture store. Oh dear. Why won't he be kind?
homestarrunner.com - Now a pay service.
whirlpool.net.au - Australia's biggest Luddite to head Australia's largest telco
theregister.co.uk - Bush twins to join Air Force tech unit in Iraq
creativebits.org - Site purchased by Microsoft
ocremix.org - Now partnered with EA (or something like that). Called EA ReMix.
spacedaily.com - Bush Cancels Space Shuttle Program
planet.gnome.org - Switched sites with planet.kde.org
planet.kde.org - Switched sites with planet.gnome.org
ietf.org - RFC: Efficient Transformation Formats of Unicode
beejaysworld.de - Gentoo dropping livecds for x86
nature.com - Apollo bacteria spur lunar erosion
antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov - Water On Mars

For a full list of sites that pulled April Fools Day Pranks this year check out this list here Here is a sampling: dotget.net - Microsoft to put P2P software .GET into next version of Windows
kylewenda.com - the government records your phone calls... scary
rfc-editor.org - RFC for "Requirements for Morality Sections in Routing Area Drafts"
waferbaby.com - amusing php error
planet.gentoo.org - Various things, CFLAGS, etc
fark.com - Many Jokes (keep reloading): BOOBIES!, Logged in as admin, North-Central Kentucky Bunghole-Discharge, page from 1999, BEER
2600.com - Formal Attire required for 2600 meetings today
forumsector.com - Changed the name to Nascar Sector
wikipedia.org - Britannica taking over Wikimedia
google.com - Google releases Google Gulp
kellyosbourne.org - Sanctuary records group shut us down
nukefreezone.net - Making fun of atrios.blogspot.com
weebl.jolt.co.uk - Replaced with Cats-By-Mail
telecom.co.nz - Click 2 Brick
ytmnd.com - (NSFW) hacked by teens for christ
wingus.ampedhost.com - Site converted into Mingus' Gently-Used Furniture store. Oh dear. Why won't he be kind?
homestarrunner.com - Now a pay service.
whirlpool.net.au - Australia's biggest Luddite to head Australia's largest telco
thinkgeek.com - Fake product listings.
theregister.co.uk - Bush twins to join Air Force tech unit in Iraq
creativebits.org - Site purchased by Microsoft
ocremix.org - Now partnered with EA (or something like that). Called EA ReMix.
spacedaily.com - Bush Cancels Space Shuttle Program
planet.gnome.org - Switched sites with planet.kde.org
planet.kde.org - Switched sites with planet.gnome.org
ietf.org - RFC: Efficient Transformation Formats of Unicode
beejaysworld.de - Gentoo dropping livecds for x86
nature.com - Apollo bacteria spur lunar erosion
antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov - Water On Mars

Just over a year ago, myself and some mates ran some external cat5e from my house, to my neighbours house (two houses along) to join our networks.

We knew all the laws regarding separating from power, depth of trenches, what sort of cable and conduits etc. to use, so we did it. One of us had an open cabling registration, and five of the other six were in the middle of our cabling course, so legally we were covered there.

It worked great, I put up pictures on popular aussie geek site Whirlpool and thought nothing of it.

A couple of months later I had a call from someone at the ACA. They had seen the pictures and wanted to come inspect it. I thought we were done - I didn't think they'd fine us, but I thought they'd definitely tell us to rip the cable down.

As it happened the cable:
(a) was under 500m in length
(b) did not cross onto public property
(c) did not carry internet traffic

So it was all fine by them - and it is still going strong! Full story at my site.

There are no such things as "bt ports": with most popular BitTorrent clients you can assign the ports used yourself.

True, clients can pick their own ports, but tracker operators pick the port that the tracker runs on, and the majority of BitTorrent trackers seem to run on the default port. Blocking 6969/tcp out is already being done. At a particularly fascist provider, those trackers that don't run on 6969/tcp can be special-cased with a set of (IPv4 address, TCP port) tuples.