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What Software Do Cable Installers Place on Your PC?
{e}N0S asks: "The cable guy came over to install a cable modem at my Dad's house. As I watched him do his stuff I noticed he was installing something called Broadjump Client Foundation. I know you don't need software for a cable modem to work so I asked if it was necessary. He said he had to do his list of things, and we had to sign that he did his list of things, otherwise he couldn't leave it with us to use. Since I can always remove the software, I agreed, but I noticed while he was flipping through the install, he was clicking 'agree' on every EULA that came up. Doing a search on Google for 'Broadjump Client Foundation' comes up with some pretty scary stuff as far as what it does, like: 'Builds a database of subscriber demographics and buying behaviors to help evolve and refine marketing efforts.' Now, how does this affect us? Neither myself or anyone in my family agreed to the software; the cable guy did. And is there anyway to get cable companies to stop doing this as I can imagine since the cable company is a monopoly in this town, that the percentage of people who still have this software on their computers is pretty high."
nothing.
he did nothing. i wouldnt let him. i just signed as if he did, to keep him outta shit.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Have a bogus PC or bogus windows installation for him to install junk on, which you can leave "unused" till you need to call support when you can boot into that partition if needed.
blog.sam.liddicott.com
This is why I always opt for the self-install option with any ISP. I don't even like my wife messing with my computer, nevermind some complete stranger.
:P)
(Side note: Yes, she does have her own computer. So there.
[PowerPoint] is a tool for capitalist presentation
Do you want theoretical advice or practical?
Theoretical:
If you feel you can't live with the restrictions or you and your machine, then drop the service and use something else.
Practical
Just wipe the stuff off the machine after the guy leaves.
You can only analyze this stuff so far.
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
What cable internet provider was this?
Slashdot's first reaction to VMware
I use Mac OS X. The software that Comcast has is incredibly buggy for Mac OS. I refused to install it. I just signed the docs for the cable guy (as if I even needed him to come do the installation in the first place).
"I don't think it's selfish, to eat defenseless shellfish." -NOFX
I wonder if you could take them to small claims court to compensate you for the time you spent uninstalling the program?
Sure, it wouldn't amount to much money, but taking them to court would get their attention that people don't want that spyware stuff on their machines.
The nerve they have to install that spyware and not have the decency to even let their customer know. This is a severe abuse of your privacy.
Roadrunner let me pick up a self install kit, so no tech ever came to my house.
And no software needed to be installed anyway. Screwed the cable line into the modem, turned it on, attached it to the Linksys router, turned it on, attached that to the LAN port on my Mac, turned that on, and presto! A working internet connection!
And if you really don't want something done, assure the installer you will sign off on whatever, so long as he does what you ask.
All we care about is your autograph, if your happy and are willing to sign, im sure he wont have a problem.
alex
He stood me up the first time, then when he did arrive, he told me that I couldn't have a dedicated IP, despite them having promised me that I could have one. He did however configure my machine to use the cable company's proxy server, and use DHCP, etc... After he was done, I just reconfigured it and hard set the IP address. I haven't had a problem in the past couple of years. Except for when my machine was off for a couple of days, and I had to re-configure for DHCP,and "steal" another address, as my old one wasn't available any more...
-- -- Warning. Do not stare directly at the sun.
"Just give me the network info. I'll do it. You have no business touching my machine"
"but that's what my instructions say to do."
"are you bonded?"
"Whats that?"
"It means are you insured in case I have to sue you personally for screwing something up"
"oh.... Here's the info."
Besides, I connect through a router. What possible good would THEIR software do me?
"Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm fucked."; ~ Donald J. Trump
The Time Warner/RoadRunner guy simply came in, installed a new NIC, installed the cable modem, set up the new email settings in Outlook, and changed the IE homepage to their portal. I scoured the system when I got home from work (my wife was the only one here when he did the install) and was quite relieved that he didn't install any software.
When I moved lately I had a guy come out as they needed to "configure my pc".
I showed him to my Linux firewall, he was surprised about the prompt but figured it was just DOS (ha).
Put in the cd, realised it was not DOS, took the CD out, turned to me and said: "Well, I guess you know what you're doing." And left.
Offically my Cable Provider (Rogers) is not supporting Linux / Unix but if you have a technical issue just bug the Second Line support and 99% of the time you get the Unix guy who answers your questions.
If you want to e-mail me, use my PGP Key.
Well, as a very first step, I would recommend against posting this to Slashdot. Let me explain with a little thought experiment. Presumably you are trying to "get the word out" about the Evil Corporate Spyware installed by your cable provider. Suppose you were to succeed, and almost every cable customer were to remove said software from his or her PC. Their demographics database would start to be pretty thin, and suddenly they can no longer use that information to defray some of the costs of running a broadband outfit. Best case, you get a rate hike. Worst case, the cable company goes out of business, and you're back on dialup (which, if you wanted to vote with your wallet against this kind of practice to discourage it, you could have done anyway). A better course of action would be to quietly uninstall everything the cable guy installed and keep it all under your hat.
Karma: Good (despite my invention of the Karma: sig)
1.Connect PC, cable modem and a second PC (everyone has one :) ) to a simple hub ($20).
2.Run a network capture tool (tcpdump, snoop, ethereal, etc.) on the 2nd PC.
3.Boot your broadband PC.
4.Look at the traffic.
You should be able to recognize the DHCP negotiations and see whether anything unusual is going on. Odds are, all it needs to do is negotiate for an address, everything else is probably frill.
The next step is to install a 2nd NIC in the 2nd PC, load linux, connect the cable modem to that and the other NIC to your little LAN and use IP tables to set up a firewall and NAT.
KK4SFV
If you're going to play with their toys the you have to play by their rules. If their contract/TOS/whatever says you have to agree to have all that software and agree with the licensing to all in order to use their service, then I guess that's what you gotta do. But it's their system, their toys, so if you don't like it then don't play.
Now the installer was wrong. Very wrong. If you're gonna play by the rules then you should have read EVERY word of EVERY EULA and made the determination for each one. Since those are legal documents you would want to read carefully, perhaps consult with your lawyer on a few points. You could tie up that installer for a VERY long time. But for him to indicate that you accepted.....well, you might want to consult with your lawyer now.
. Quit playing Monopoly with Bill. Switch to one of many non-Microsoft products today.
I suppose it depends on your provider, but to my knowledge, you shouldn't need a damn thing. Wanna test it easily?
1) Borrow a laptop with an ethernet card, unplug the power from the cable modem (some of them will only give a DHCP address to one MAC address at a time, and need to "forget" what they have seen)
2) Plug in the cable modem
3) Attach the laptop
Didja get an IP? If so, I'd say you can pretty safely whack the offending software. I seriously doubt it's needed. A lot of things (like a lot of those "connection sharing" firewall/router devices) would fail to work if it was.
While I realize you and your family never agreed to the software, you did authorize the installation of the modem. At best, it's a very gray legal area. The ISP and software manufacturer can both claim the tech was acting as a duly authorized agent (which he was) and you can validly claim that this software was never mentioned as being necessary and that it was sprung on you without prior notice, which would undoubtedly have affected your decision to purchase.
Unfortunately, he left with a valid signature, which legally means you have accepted the service as is, software and all. You may be able to remove the software, but at this point, all you can do is complain about it. But once you sign the sheet saying the work is done, you've essentially stated that the contract (or that portion thereof) has been fulfilled to your satisfaction. I know it's a hassle, but if you have serious misgivings about it, the proper procedure is to decline signature and say you never authorized this software installation, and allow the tech to remove the modem. Then deal with the sales department. If you paid by credit card, remember that you can put a hold on that payment until it is resolved to your satisfaction.
----------
Something clever... is how when you search for "Broadjump Client Foundation" in Google, the company's own homepage doesn't come up in the early listings.
This says to me that either there are very few links to the company's homepage, or there is no company homepage.
Heh. Conspiracy therories entered here. 10 cents.
If Nalgene water bottles are outlawed, only outlaws will have Nalgene water bottles.
I say inform your local newspaper or television news station. As you say, since the cable company is almost a monopoly in the area, I'll bet a number of people would love to know about how their local ISP is "spying" on them without them knowing. Most local news outlets are always looking for juicy stories about companies screwing over consumers.
I switched from Speakeasy DSL to Optimum Online when I moved (No DSL in new neighborhood... d'oh!!)
...) The guy just looked at it, and said, and I quote "Damn! You did a better job than I would have." The guy literally handed me the DSL bridge (It's NOT A MODEM DAMNIT!), we plugged it in, he saw the lights "go green" and said "good 'nuff for me."
... DirecTV rocks), I had my Linksys router plugged into my iBook.
:)
;)
When the Speakeasy guy came out 2+ years ago, I had done all the "inside wiring" myself (this was back in the dedicated-line days
When the Optimum Online guy came out here (I needed someone to come out since I don't subscribe to cable
First thing he did was go outside, climb the pole and turn the line on. when he did that, the cable bridge (IT'S NOT A MODEM DAMNIT!) "went green" and that was that.
All he asked was to see me pull up a web page. That was good enough.
Seriously, don't give the guy the old chip-on-the-shoulder attitude. Don't sound like a clueless yutz, either. Just explain to the guy that listen, it's my machine and I'll install all the software on it, thanks. It's already configured for the network -- I read the directions (on the web, in the box, etc.)
The installers are usually _very_ cool about that stuff. In fact, the cable guy saw my Sun Microsystems jacket and started asking me some questions... we had a good long talk about IP networks and stuff, since he was looking to go to some Cisco courses and get outta the cable install business
Best of luck with the installs! Remember, don't give them an attitude, just convince them that your machine is all ready to go. Remember, if they get out of there in 5 minutes instead of 2 hours, it means they get to take a long lunch
--NBVB
On Windows,
Press START, SETTINGS, Go into Control Panel, Select Add/Remove Software and remove the offending software.
If they complain, invent a ficticious "Computer Guy" who told you it was the reason your system was locking up all the time.
Mention that you have lots of games and Internet Explorer "add-ons" that you have downloaded and installed. Believe me, NO technician will want to muck about through a myriad of windows software installations to troubleshoot their spyware.
They'll go away.
In the UK when a guy from BT cam around to install my DSL he did the exact opposite. They're specifically not allowed to touch my PC as they're not insured for any damage. So the engineer has a laptop, he plugs in the modem and proves the line works. Then I sign him off, he gives me the modem and a driver disc and it's up to me.
Of course this was 2 years ago, these days the engineer doesn't even come over...
---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"
They also said they did not turn on the software, but after portscanning all of Charter's IP space that Arin said was allocated to them over 13,000 computers had this port listening out of over 25,000+ (4.5 Class C's) were actively listening for connections and would accept a connection if you telnetted to the port. Whereas scanning a non charter IP subnet there were less than 20 that accepted this (I don't have my numbers with me ATM).
The wonderful fellows at Securepipe.com Looked into this and brought it up with the local "watch dog" columnist for one of the local papers who wrote an article about this. Charter was not happy. The guys at Securepipe also brought this up with the local cable commission. Who were semi interested in this issue. About a week later port filtering was in place, including port 641 (what the software runs on).
They said the use was for the ability to remotely help users. Yes this is a nice function to have, but what if this fell into the wrong hands? The Broadjump software is based off of an older version of VNC that has some weak authentication issues. And also dealing with Charter and @home techs I wouldn't trust these people with my computer anyway. I don't trust my mother with my computer.
This was back in Novemeber/December who knows what they could do now.
wi2600.org You can read the threads here, many to list and you can see the research that we did to get into this. I do not know if an electronic copy of the mentioned newspaper article exists but if it does, I will try and get it posted.
Slashdot # 199661 the number that's the same upside down and right side up
But what about the mortals? 99% of this monopolistic company's customers have this crap installed on their computer, didn't ask for it, didn't agree to it, and don't even know it's there! Doesn't that strike you as wrong? Perhaps even evil? Laws are not keeping up with technology, and the inherent evil of capitalism is driving us into a dangerous situation. These companies justify their actions based just on maximizing profits for their shareholders. They don't care what petty moral problems this imposes.
Such an agreement would not be binding unless it included the texts of all the EULAs.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
From this site: http://support.sbcglobal.net/legal/5071.shtml Is the following EULA language: # RIGHT TO TERMINATE NETWORK-BASED SERVICES: By using the Licensed Software, you acknowledge and agree that BroadJump and SBC Internet Services shall at all times retain the right to terminate any and all on-going network-based services that you receive pursuant to your use of the Licensed Software for any reason whatsoever, including without limitation your refusal to allow BroadJump and/or SBC Internet Services to install on your computer any upgrade or modification to the Licensed Software in the future. You better keep that 486 honeypot running with the Broadjump software!
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
The cable guy came over to install a cable modem at my Dad's house. As I watched him do his stuff I noticed he was installing miniature cameras in my Dad's bedroom and bathroom. I know you don't need cameras for a cable modem to work so I asked if it was necessary. He said he had to do his list of things, and we had to sign that he did his list of things, otherwise he couldn't leave it with us to use. Since I can always remove the cameras, I agreed, but I noticed at the top of the camera was a small antenna. Doing a search on Google for 'Comcast minicam' comes up with some pretty scary stuff as far as what it does, like: 'Records toilet breaks and sexual escapades in order to enhance customer service' Now, how does this affect us? Neither myself or anyone in my family agreed to the cameras; the cable guy did. And is there anyway to get cable companies to stop doing this as I can imagine since the cable company is a monopoly in this town, that the percentage of people who still have these cameras in their bedrooms is pretty high.
The true question is what RoadRunner installs on PC's that will not allow you to perform the standard install by yourself to save the fee.. I work for ISP and we have cable plant that works great. The average person can use our software to install our package and get up and running providing the cable techs have installed the right filters on the lines.. When I visit my aunt & uncles house to do their manual install of RoadRunner I am unable to resolve any DNS no matter what I do to the Win98SE machine... I do the normal kicking around of the computer and software and still nothing.. Hell I even tried getting my Linux Laptop to resolve DNS...... Nothing... I could ping by ip all day long just not get DNS... It was late I was tired so i told them to call RoadRunners techs... My cousin said the guy was there maybe 5 minutes and it was up and running...... He told my cousin that I must not have known what I was doing.... Hahah let me talk to RR's technicians who have been trying to force me a new ipaddress for the last year and a half.... :-) Anyways What software did that moron put on their computer that allowed them to work so fast?? Mind you they got charged something like $24.95 for the install..... has me boggled and mad :-)
Perhaps the good people at Lavasoft could add this kind of scumware to their list of Naughties?
Just a thought.
Trolling is a art,
Guy just handed me a disk to install. Didn't work on XP Pro. Called up ATTBI, they had me register the cable modem via their web site and set up on their proxy (which proxy I promptly dumped when I got off the phone). Didn't install anything else. I probably didn't even have to worry about hiding my Linux boot disk.
yep, thats right. when the cable guy came to install Road Runner at my co-workers house, he said he had to install some software. one of the things he installed was a very well-known virus (can't remember the name now) that destroyed everything on the hard drive. before nuking the HD, it also emailed copies of the virus to everybody in his address book - that doesn't look good when you are an infosec professional! my co-worker had to reinstall the OS, lost alot of data, and then realized after the reinstall that he didn't need any RR software anyway to use their cablemodem service. RR did nothing at all to compensate him.
My experience with RR has been great on the other hand. I never let them touch a thing. And they are fine with that. They just want to get out of the house and on to the next call.
-- ken williams
I gave him a couple of RedHat CDs and sent him on his way.
Check out AbiWord.
The Actual Website is www.lavasoft.de which is still up and running just fine.
WikiAfterDark.com It's a sex wiki, go now!
The only time my DSL provider (Bellsouth) has had to send a tech out was to replace my fried Alcatel 1000 about a year and a half ago. I've handled my own installations of dialup and DSL with them for the last 4 years. They are quite Linux friendly though they do not support it.
He was prepared to do a normal windows installation when I showed him my router and firewall setup. We plugged in a couple cables and bang, it was running. He was very happy to not have to deal with all the extra crap. "Wow, that's Linux? Cool.", he said. Probably his easiest call ever, total 15 minutes 10 of them me showning him how feature-rich Linux is.
Many DSL providers operate over the PPPoE protocol. Bundled with Verizon's was their crappy support software that I really didnt want or need.
Typically, the implementation used by the DSL provider (my experience was with Verizon), is not nearly as good as other versions available.
If you're a tweaker, bandwith whore or just generally care about your connection's performance I recommend heading over to DSL Reports.com and grabbing a copy of RASPPPoE and Dr. TCP. Packet size and receiving window settings can make a world of difference.
Quote, unquote: "Since I can always remove the software, I agreed, but I noticed while he was flipping through the install, he was clicking 'agree' on every EULA that came up. ....Neither myself or anyone in my family agreed to the software; the cable guy did. And is there anyway to get cable companies to stop doing this as I can imagine since the cable company is a monopoly in this town, that the percentage of people who still have this software on their computers is pretty high."
Ummmm...."clicking through the Eulas" is the only way to install the software. If he wants "cable companies to stop doing this" he could have cancelled the install and thrown the "cable guy" out. And, yes, as he observed the cable guy "clicking through the Eulas" and did not throw him out he *did* agree to them. However, this is a moot point because the software is easily uninstallable and is not required for the cable modem to function properly.
Cable companies are frequently "monopolies" in towns because of the expense of laying new cable and maintaining it. You can't have 10 cable companies all laying 10 strands of cable on each telephone poll. Besides that, it isn't economical for a company to provide service in an area in which it cannot have a guaranteed customer base (not a guaranteed number of paying customers--that is entirely different), because of the expense involved in setting up the cabling to begin with. Towns frequently entertain "bids" by competing cable companies as to which company will provide the area with the best prices, service and choice prior to awarding the "contract" to a particular cable company. It's not a monopoly--it's a practicality.
Frankly, I grow a bit weary hearing people complain about non-issues like this. Usually, these complaints are based on a wide degree of ignorance and fear, just like this one. It would be a different matter if you couldn't uninstall the software and still use the modem. But you can, and that fact alone makes this much ado about nothing.
The guy that came over to install my stuff was a total moron. When signing up for my cable modem service I decided to do the "honeypot" idea with my Windows machine, which I figured would be easiest (let them screw everything up, then pull out the info I need after they leave). There was a spot of trouble which I didn't forsee, however: I use Apple Studio Displays on all of my machines, and he couldn't get over the fact that they aren't iMacs. When he got there he was like, "Aa, iMacs? They're fancy. I don't know how to install this stuff on iMacs. Let me call my supervisor..."
I had three clearly visible beige boxes under the table at this point, which obviously had the monitors connected to them, the keyboards, mouses, etc, etc.
I tell him, "No, man, these are all PC's."
"Yeah, cool. Hmmm..."
*fiddles with one of them running Windows98, dials number on cellphone*
"Yeah, what's up, man. Um, I got these iMacs here, and I was wondering what I should do..."
I just about hit him over the head with my chair. After some pressuring I got to talk to the guy on the other end of the phone, who gave me everything I needed to know(IP, etc). When I gave the phone back I could hear him yelling at the "installer."
"Oh, you mean that they aren't iMacs. That's crazy. They look just like em."
What the FUCK...
Crystal Meth: Would you ingest somthing made from a poisonous gas and an explosive metal? You do it every day -- Salt!
The software:a is/speedyPP POE/BroadJump/s /startup _full.htmt mlr s/www.iscentra l.org/%257Etcniso/main/cisp.htm
http://www.velocidadejusta.com.br/manu
More information (search the page):
http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_page
Broadjump's homepage:
http://www.broadjump.com/
Mention of Broadjump in Yahoo's EULA:
http://support.sbcglobal.net/legal/5070.sh
Information about the Broadjump Client (looks like it spys on whether you've overclocked your connection):
http://osiris.978.org/~brianr/mirro
Posting what will be a +5 informative as an Anonymous Coward:
Priceless
http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interes ting-people/200202/msg00164.htmlr esting-people.org/archives/interes ting-people/200206/msg00132.html
http://www.inte
Freedom by obscurity?!? Ya that's the ticket, we'll all go underground and that way we can practice our freedoms in secret with out the problems for governments or corporate cheiftons. Great plan there Chester.
Look, the cable companies enjoy their quasi-monopoly status and they seem quite happy to abuse their position, and with the law makers pockets lined well, they will have no worries. What worries me is the lack of FULL disclosure. If I'm going to be screwed in such a way, I think you should at LEAST know what's going on. I want a legal form that people read with glazed over eyes and initial parts to show them EXACTLY what information will be collected and used against them. However, as long as Michael "nepotisim" Powell is the chairman of the FCC to serve interests of the greatest donors and not the people, we might as well get used to saying, "Thank you sir! May I have another!"
Democrats and Republicans only disagree about how to enslave you
I keep all my cable installers and put them in a deep circular well in my basement. They scream and holler, especially when I tell them I'm going to make a fleshsuit out of their skin. I won't feed them until they put the lotion on. And I get all the channels for free!
So a few years back I was working for the IT department in a county that I lived in doing Tier 2 networking support.
:)
It was kinda nice, being 17 and having my own parking space, office, nametag with picture, etc... and computer that they gave me...
Now they were pretty strict about paperwork and licensing, being gov't and all, and at first my boss thought I wouldn't even need a computer of my own in the office at first, but then I needed to check my Groupware email so much, so I got a little crappy Pentium 3/300mhz that I found in the 'Old Computers, Destroy these, don't give them away' room.
Anyway, I installed Windows 2000 (or 98) or it first, but I left 10Gb as an extra partition.
I got bored one day and thought, well I am working in Unix stuff in the server room all the time, and this thing doesn't even have SSH built in, so let's install linux. I thought to consult my Boss, but then decieded not to bug him. I had the license, it was free! He said not to bring any software from home, because of pirating/licensing issues, but thought this would be fine.
I loaded Linux, and it worked like a dream on the machine (this was before Redhat was BloatHat by default). So of course I use Lilo to switch between Windows for email (groupware...), and Linux. I was also testing out VMWare to try to get the Groupware going in Linux.
Anyway, a few weeks later (being a lowly intern) I have to share my desk and computer with someone who is just starting, which was fine with me. It was a two person office anyway, and she was just using my computer until she got her own.
One day, apparently she rebooted Windows for something, and I forgot to ever mention linux for more than a second. Lilo comes up, and she sits and thinks, so it goes to Linux. Then when it prompts her for a username/password, she goes to the Bossman
Bossman says to me in his office later, "I need to talk to you, did you load Linux on your computer?". To make a long story long, I didn't get fired or anything but I did have to explain my way out of it (GNU, etc...)
The next day he gave me a machine to work on in Linux and test VMWare on. It was a Dual Processor Box, with 1gb memory, and 4 harddrives all in Hardware raid!!! I had to load Oracle and VMWare on it... Oh, what a job !
Tibbon
tibbon.com
Duh.
They're called "Root nameservers."
Here's a list (from my /etc/dnsroots.global file)
The Web is like Usenet, but
the elephants are untrained.
And if you don't want to "nice" the root servers, put your local ISPs nameservers first in your /etc/resolv.conf file:
nameserver 12.34.56.78 --your isp nameserver here
nameserver 127.0.0.1 --this is bind on localhost
The first nameserver will be the first on the list, and localhost is second, which will use bind to query the root servers.
An Austin-based software company who targets their marketing to broadband ISPs. A friend of mine interned there last year while she was finishing out her journalism degree. Her job, if I recall correctly, was to write (like a journalism, not CS major would write) some of the webpage content and also press releases.
Essentially, their purpose is sort of like the giant installer CD that comes with your sound/video card. See, broadband ISPs, particualarly cable-based ones, don't really have their own install techs. Their guys are sub-contracted. In fact, Roadrunner's guys will have their company name and a "licensed subcontracter for Time-Warner Cable" printed on the side of their van. At least around here, there is a reasonable lead time for install, about a week, although I'm sure RoadRunner would like to speed that up, as it just leads to faster revenue/happier customers.
Anyway, it's like the Video/Sound card CDs in that it's a bunch of useless software in addition to an auto-install program that speeds up the tech's process. Rather than configure the windows PC to pull on DHCP via the NIC, and set the mail client and web browser up, the broadjump software does it for them. It also (like the vid/sound card disc) installs a bunch of other useless cruft. They allegedly had some sort of remote support program, and a MMORPG (Blood pledge, I think... It's really big in Korea) where if the customer signed up through the link on their desktop, the ISP got like a $3/month cut.
So anyway, that's their software.
Our techs install software for clients on a daily basis and I've often wondered whether it makes some difference who actually clicks to accept the EULAs. In our case we are not employees of the companies which actually bought this software, but are paid to install it by the purchasers. So what is *their* legal liability to a EULA if *I* click on "ok" to some incredibly stupid EULA? Who exactly is being put to a liability here (assuming a EULA actually incurs some liability at all, that is)?
I think that if a company needed to wriggle out from under an overly-restrictive EULA they could certainly use the defense: "None of our people clicked on that agreement... it was a contractor and he didn't have the authority to bind us to a legal contract."
No one ever had to evacuate a city because the solar panels broke!
...smaller companies they can easily push around. I thought about a DSL account, but Qwest, surprise, surprise, is 'incompatible' with Earthlink (at least last time I checked). I swear...it's no wonder that such a small percentage of users have broadband access- pick what you hate dealing with most: too expensive, too invasive, or too much of a hassle. It's all there.
I'd recommend doing that anyway. Not because of them trying to extort more cash from you (although that's a damn good reason), but because a lot of the cable modem setups out there have the cable installer guy get the MAC address of your PC's network card to phone into the office. Why? So that not every jackass can hook up an off the shelf cable modem, fire up DHCP, get a lease, and run with it. The DHCP server only gives out an IP to the list of verified MAC addresses. Mine does this.
So if the guy had used the MAC of the router, I'd be unable to connect without the router in the loop. As it stands now, I hid the router (avoiding any cable guy questions), he used the MAC of the PC, and then later I changed the router's WAN MAC to be the same as the PC's MAC. Thus, if the router kicks off one day, I can plug that PC in directly and still have some connectivity for getting technical help on fixing it. Most all SOHO NAT router devices let you change the MAC of the WAN side. Linksys calls it "MAC Cloning" I believe.
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
I agree. We're always bitching at the poor telemarketing sales reps, when they're not the ones who set their hours, you know? It's not the installer's fault he's got this list from the main office.
If you use a little common sense and explain yourself rather than going ballistic, the installer's going to maybe be won over and give other people options, too, rather than "just doing his job." Alienate him, and he'll start thinking of his customers as a bunch of hassles to be gotten through. That's no good for anyone.
(Seems like cable installers really run a range of attitudes, though. Companies hire out during big install promotions, so you could be dealing with anyone.)
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
Well I work for an ISP that uses broadjump for our client install CD. Basically broadjump as a company specializes in making these CD's that automatically check the system and do any neccesary steps for getting your broadband connection working.
In our case the CD will install a branded internet explorer/outlook express but it's just something they whiped up with the IEAK tools so nothing too special.
The big step on our network is it will register the MAC address on our customer administration webpage. Broadjump basically builds the CD to the specifications the ISP asks for. They are simply an outsourcer that specializes in these things. On our CD there are basically 3 steps. First the CD checks the machine to make sure it meets the minimum requirements. So it checks the basics like CPU speed, free hard drive space and memory. It also verifies there is an Ethernet card and that it's bound to the TCP/IP protocol with the proper DHCP settings. If it finds any problems with these settings it will give the user the opportunity to automatically fix the error or a description of the problem so you can fix it yourself. The next step is it will install the internet explorer software. After this it does a dhcp release and renew to get an IP. It then contacts the customer administration website to register the MAC address so that the computer can get a valid IP. Up to this point the machine only has a 10.x.x.x IP address which only allows you to connect to the DHCP server, DNS server, and the online customer administration servers. After it successfully registers the MAC it does another release and renew which should give you a real IP address and it uploads a text file log of the whole process to an FTP site. The text file doesn't really contain anything terribly useful and nobody on the helpdesk ever bothers with the things. Nothing evil was included in our text file though I'm sure other ISP's may ask broadjump to include some system configuration details in their implementations. Like I said, for us it's just a log file of the steps the broadjump CD completed. If it got to the point where it succesfully uploaded the file then the connection is obviously working and at that point there isn't going to be much to say in the log file of interest.
All the steps this CD takes can easily be duplicated manually. In fact most of the time if a user calls the helpdesk because they cannot get their new connection up and running we just register the MAC address manually on the website for them. Registering this address automatically is the main reason we include the CD in the self install packages. I do recommend people unfamilear with DHCP and mac addresses to use the CD on our system, there isn't anything terribly mysterious about our broadjump cd though who knows what other ISP's ask them to implement.
In general there are only a few methods of broadband client access that users need to be familear with to get up and running manually without these CD's.
1. Plain DHCP or Static address. Most cable modems work on simple DHCP addresses. Usually the cable ISP will hack their DHCP server to only allocate a certain number of unique IP's through a single cable modem. I know the cable ISP I used to work for did this. After the first 2 IP's included in a consumer package it would just keep sending a DHCP offer of the second IP address to any additional computer that sent a request from that cable modem. The system programmer there hacked a neat little system together using SNMP and DHCP. SNMP trap would be sent to the DHCP server with the sequence number of the DHCP request and serial number of the cable modem.
2. DHCP with Mac address or hostname registration. The ISP I'm working for uses the MAC address to limit the number of IP's you can get. A web interface to register these MAC addresses is available and before you register you are assigned a private IP address in the 10.x.x.x range which only works inside a small internal network segment the DNS, DHCP, and registration server are on. I have also seen ISP's that use the hostname as a unique identifier. Usually this involves setting the name of the computer to be your ISP username to get a valid IP.
3. PPPoE. An extention of the dialup authentication model to broadband connections. Usually you will need some form of client software for these though most routers have built a PPPoE clients into their firmware. MacosX also includes out of the box support for this protocol. You will need to use a username and password to authenticate with the network to allow traffic to pass to the internet. Seems to be most popular with DSL providers probably because of their dialup heritage.
4. Custom client/logon. As seen in the roadrunner cable modem networks. A custom authentication method can be used that usually contacts a server to authenticate the user in a fashion similar in structure to PPPoE. In the case of roadrunner their client has been thouroghly reverse engineered so if you are running an alternate OS you should find a client available to keep you logged in. The proprietary method of authentication will probably become extinct as industry standard solutions are cheaper and easier for broadband providers to implement. If you are saddled by this method of authentication just check around for a third party client. It will probably provide some benefits over the standard client like automatic keep alives so your connection doesn't time out.
as an employee of (cable company name removed) i can tell you exactly what it does. it isn't spyware or ad-ware. i predicted when we were first told about this new tool that this story would show up on slashdot. hence i had several questions when i first got it, and even went so far as to contact a member of the development team about it.
the software has 2 major functions-
a) -secure software that allows technical support to connect (by proxy) to a remote machine to perform a myriad of tasks. it can push urls, view TCP/IP related (only) connection info in cases of slow-speed troubleshooting, and even has a function to allow the technician to troubleshoot further by using a remote VNC-like application.
this may sound scary, but read on. the software leaves no open ports, and cannot be remotely-accessed without the user activating the software (at a tech's request). the user must then manually connect to a closed server with an auth code that the tech gives. the tech connects to the server, and may be allowed any of the above tasks if authorized by the user. the customer is told clearly what will be done, and the tech explains what he/she is doing before proceeding. there are strict policies for the use of this software. the technician is not allowed to browse the hard-drive, download/install/troubleshoot any application that is not on the supported list, and is under no circumstances allowed to change anything on the user's computer without explicit permission. i can't stress this enough, in order for any kind of connection or action to take place the software will ask the user if it's ok to proceed with on-screen alerts! the user may break the connection at anytime during the process for any reason by clicking a button on the taskbar.
since the connection takes place through a single closed, proprietary server there is virtually no chance of this application being used as a backdoor. the software is hardcoded with the URL of the server, and can connect ONLY to that server and nothing else. even if someone malicious were to get a hold of the client software, without (password protected) access to the server to generate a short-time auth code for the user to type in, it's useless.
b) -a backup/restore application for tcp/ip and connection property settings. it's configured to save driver files for the NIC and USB modem devices, ip address/subnet mask and DNS property information (in cases where specified), and occasional pings and traces to the dhcp server, gateway, and dns servers along with netstat info. the software catalogues the information bi-weekly, and stores it on the hard-drive. none of this information (save the pings and traces) can be retrieved by anyone outside the system. it's mostly used for cases where the user breaks the connection by altering configuration. the backups allow the user to restore the connection settings to a previous known-working configuration.
that all.
this isn't a data-mining application. privacy was discussed in detail in software-training. i understand being cautious, (hell, i'll admit i was concerned as hell when it was first announced) but i can tell you in all honesty that the bundle on our 'easy installer' cd's contains no spyware. broadjump was contracted to write the software specifically for our use, and no 'add-on' click-tracking or cookie-scouring was allowed.
the client software is ONLY in the hands of tier-2 and above, highly-skilled, highly trained and QA/policy monitored technicians. the broad-jump software is a means to an end for technical-support. if you've had any experience supporting win9x systems you know that windows can be downright retarded when it comes to connection management. it has been an invaluable tool when faced with users who doesn't know their right mouse-button from their left. thus far it's been a huge success, customers seem to love it, it allows us to do all the work, while they just watch and keep tabs or relax as they see fit.
i knew there would be a few who flipped out over this application. but really, the only people who get up in arms about it are those who don't need it. if you're smart enough to understand what this software does, you should be smart enough to understand that there is a genuine need for it. it's the people who call tech support complaining about error 691's with their caps lock key on, or who've lost the address bar in IE who need it. if you're not comfortable with the application, uninstall it.
the odometer lives!
You also have to remember, we (the ./ community) tend to be a lot less trusting and paranoid than the rest of the world (rightly or wrongly), and I really don't think most people care about spyware. Given that we're quite the minority, I don't necessarily think the company is so *evil.* If they won't let you have your modem install without the stuff, it's more likely due to inflexible bureaucrats than any conspiracy.
That said, I hate telemarketers and do hold people responsible for the jobs that they hold. Are the Phillip Morris scientists not responsible for their lack of integrity just because "their boss told them so?" Arguements of "I was following orders" don't fly too well.
I would have to be on the verge of death from starvation to work as a telemarketer. If then.
-Looking for a job as a materials chemist or multivariat
The point is that most internet users don't even know what an IP is. They don't care about linux, and they probably aren't even aware that there could be software doing "bad things" on their PC. These users are having spyware forced upon them in two ways:
This is a serious problem. Let's actually discuss ways to resolve it for everyone, rather than trying to make ourselves look clever.
I NEVER let anyone install any software on my company computers or my home computers that deal with broadband.
This approach may get you permanently relegated to the slow lane of the Internet, if that (hint: what do you think your AOL or Earthlink connection does, especially upstream? Do you think they ignore all that nifty consumer buyer profile data they see pass through web proxies and such?)
As a Cox.net consumer and manager of a regional broadband service provider (not cox - we service flyover country:-) ), I'd suggest a better alternative:
- supply a stock Wintel PC next to your cable modem/DSL/wireless DSL termination. Win2K or WinXP are probably necessary.
- use the stock machine for the installer to load his garbage on
- use the machine for customer support calls
- let it crunch keys or run some other distributive application
- replace it in the link for normal operation using your router/internet sharing device of choice (e.g. RouterOS, Linux dual-nic, Linksys firewall router, etc)
Just make sure you get the details down of how your service provider authenticates you and let you on his network - PPPoE, DHCP, MAC-based authentication, etc. and make sure your router solution is configured to do the same.
Yea, I hate spyware and won't use it on my network either...
*scoove*
Now techs on the phone is another problem. Back when I had cable, I quickly discovered that the national helpdesk for RR was staffed by a bunch of dicks. I called them to let them know about a case of router flap that had been going on for over a week. They started giving me the wrong around about my "Windows" box being misconfigured. I informed him that I own no Microsoft products. To that he replied that everyone runs Microsoft. I laughed and said that I was one person that didn't. He asked what I ran and I replied I used a Mac. He then said something to the effect, "don't you know? Microsoft owns Apple". He also said that he couldn't see why anyone would want to use such a worthless operating system. I was starting to get a little pissed at this point. I asked if he'd say the same about my Linux boxes or my Suns. He said Sun is dead. Microsoft was buying them out. He also said that Linux was a hacker's tool and that he could have me arrested for using it. .... Now being a Mac user, I know what it's like to have my OS insulted. You don't insult a Mac guru's OS. You don't insult a Linux guru's OS either. You damned sure don't insult both in the same paragraph. If he had been there in person I would have firmly planted a Sun keyboard in his ass sideways. Since he wasn't all I could do was cuss at him and demand to speak to his super. He refused and hung up on me.
Well, I returned the favor. <g%gt; I always record my tech support calls. I dubbed a couple copies of the tape and certified USPSed them to Cox, RR, and my state AG. I also included a letter that indicated who all received a copy of the tape, summarized the coversation, gave a time and date for the call, back ground to counter the ill-informed knowledge, and finally notified them in writing of the router flap. About 4 days later, I noticed that the router flap had been fixed. A few days letter I received a letter from Cox apologizing for the problems and promising to investigate further. The next day I received a letter from RR apologizing for their employee's action and informing me that the tech was no longer with RR. Oh happy day. :-)
I've found a couple tricks when calling a tech support line that might help you. Always start off the conversation in a calm voice. Don't act pissed. Stay calm and collected. Ideally you would do this even if you felt you needed to ask for the tech's super. State your name, where you're calling from, and on behalf of what company. This is a good thing to do even if it's for you home line. Pretend the loss of access if affecting you at work. "My name is John Wayne; I'm the Network God at Such n Such Unv in Smallville, St; I'm calling to inform of that you have a case of router flap that is causing us problems downstream.". Be concise and to the point. If you think you need to drop some techy stuff to make them feel you know what you're talking about, drop big things only. Don't jargon-drop little stuff. Spend more of your time keeping everything else you say technically accurate. Don't let yourself slip up. Stay calm. Always stay calm. Say "I'm calling to inform you of a DDoS attack coming from one of your customers" not "You're DDoSing us! We're gonna sue! Our routers are melting. We're melting. ARGH!". The latter makes a bad impression. Try to maintain control of the conversation. Don't let them BS you into doing weird shit. State the facts up front. Tell them exactly what you've done to diagnose the problem. This is how I get hard drives replaced without all the reformatting bullshit. When I know the HD is bad I call them and tell them I've low-leveled it, checked jumpers, tried it in another machine, and run two bad blocks checks on it; here at the results. I've covered all their bases with the facts. All they have to do next is RMA it. Good luck!
Only thing I have ever seen on the cluelesses machines with Roadrunner is their Road Runner Medic. They usually won't install it either unless they're asked. They push self installs for almost everything. Even cable convertor boxes.
I have Road Runner and as soon as I can get DSL I am getting it. First off, I never cal tech support until I try everything I know. Then when I do call and first level says first delete your network connections and recreate them I say I already did that and if he says do it again I say let me talk to your manager. Now it seems they know me and they just send me to second level on the spot. Then whenever I detect a problem on their end (DHCP server not responding, random connection problems, thier cable modem "updates" not working(from the modems web page)), I have to practically jump up and down on one hand upside down to get their attention. One time I had a guy come and check my levels and he saw I had a splitter in the line between TV's and the cable modem. He insisted that you should not split a cable modem dedicated jack and I told him YOU GUYS DID IT! (it's true they did). I would love to rewire it myself with a DC6 and a dual jack with one for the TV's and one for the cable modem, but I can't find a DC6. Anyone know where I could find one? I would love to do it and see if he was right. My most favorite one though is when I broke down and called them to run a cable from my basement to where the cable modem is and they drilled a hole in my FLOOR! I ASKED and PAID for a WALL JACK. Funny thing is when they came to re-do it, they only had to drill the hole about 5 inches over from where they did drill it and it only took about a minute to fish the cable up thru the wall (internal wall, no insulation). They guy was in so much of a hurry, he could not do it right! All I say is fine. If you can't do it right, then you wil come back and do it right again. There's never time to do it right the first time but there's always time to do it after it was screwed up the first time.
Gorkman
If you're concerned about spyware, be very careful about who's DNS server you list in your PC.
Should your service provider wish, he can capture Ethernet traffic specific to DNS inquiries and compile some interesting information without even needing you to install and use his client software.
We used this approach at my previous job (dealing with employee security and network use compliance... great job, eh? *sigh*) We had web proxy operating but had an occasional employee who bypassed the proxy and figured he could avoid detection as he surfed his favorite porn or gambling site. By tracking his DNS lookups (many of the sites had hidden references to sextracker.com which made it easy to spot), we'd take his URL of choice and map the DNS to monster.com or hotjobs.com - giving him the clue that continued use might be an opportunity to work elsewhere.
Sniffed properly, your provider will obtain an IP address and the Internet address being looked up (e.g. sextracker.com). He can insert the sniffer in line with the DNS server(s) to simplify data capture (rather than have to deal with inspection on a bigger network).
Should he limit DNS lookups on the same segment as his nameserver, you may be able to avoid this spying by operating your own DNS (e.g. on your dual-NIC Linux firewall) or by using an alternate DNS server.
*scoove*
1.) The Installer checks your cable lines to see what the forward and return levels are, to see if they'll work with your exisiting drop at your house-box. If everything's ok, they'll run an extra outlet, take it to the house box, and split it off as the first splitter in your box. If it's not ok, they'll re-hang or re-bury the drop, then run your AO.
2.) The Cable installer calls in the MAC address of your cable modem, so that DOCSIS can authorise your account.
3.) We plug in the cable modem in, and make sure that the Cable Modem actually lights up. Once that Cable Modem is lit, you can get a DHCP address with any DHCP client.
4.) We'd run the RoadRunner disk...it'd set up the IEAK Customizations, set up email addresses, and then do a series of tests to ensuer that everything was ok. This included a ping test, a DNS test, and tweak your TCP/IP settings for broadband.
Basically, once they bring it in, DOCSIS provides the authentication (if you're on a system that uses DOCSIS). They shouldn't need to run any software on your computer that provides authentication--it's hardware based.
I disable sigs...do you?
I moved about a month ago, and moved from DSL to cable, and thought I'd share my experience with people.
The guy came over, hooked up the cable modem, and watched as I ran about 50 feet of cable from it, around the back of the apartment, and through the window of the office (the only cable jack was on the opposite side of the house to the computers). When I finished he asked which computer had to be set up. "That one" I said, pointing to a small box hidden under the desk. It is a p133 that has run my website on 48 megs of ram for the last 5 years. "But not really that one," I finished.
See I have a nifty little firewall from netmaster (was merilus) which is a full computer on a pci card that uses the host computer only for power via the PCI bus. When I explained this to him he just kinda nodded.
"Don't worry," I told him, "I'll take care of it all." "All I need from you is the end of a cat5 cable." He went back to the cable modem and did the initialization or whatever he needed to do, and I overheard him say to head office something about "no, this guys going to set it all up."
I had already set up the card for DHCP, so it was a matter of replacing the DSL modem cat5 cable and putting in the new one from the cable modem. I borrowed a pen from the slightly stunned installer and reset the system, waited the 40 or 50 seconds for the system to come back up, and then pinged out from my linux workstation.
I mentioned that I worked for the last few years with a networking company and he said "well, you know a lot more than me then." No shit was the un-stated response. He left after having touched nothing more than the cabel modem.
Moral of the story: If you don't want them to touch anything (and any moderately competant geek shouldn't), don't let them! All that needs to be done on a cable modem install is to plug in the external cable into your firewall (you DO have a firewall right?) and for you to either reboot it or renew the DHCP lease. You can set up all the @HOME proxy info if you want, but it's not needed.
"Honda just started a thing where they put a GPS reciever/transmitter in your car. They track everywhere you go and how long you're there (when you're stopped).
Say you stop at AM/PM, they know that you are a user of Arco gasoline. Say you stop at a Michales craft store, they know that you are into crafts. Perhapse you stop at Costco - they could surmise that you have a large family.
This, along with the ability to record your conversations in the car are used to find out what your into, but its anonymous, of course. All that they use that information for is to customize advertisements on your car stereo just for you.
They also track who is in the car with you, because they is useful demographic information to help them with their targeted advertizing.
You don't have anything to hide, so that wouldn't bother you, would it?
So - are you wondering when you can get one of these new Hondas?
No?
Aunt Mary, just replace Honda with Microsoft and/or your Internet service provider.
You DO know that you've ALREADY agreed to this on your computer, right?"
This has worked for me 100% of the time. They get creeped out every time.
guns kill people like spoons make Rosie O'Donnell fat.
The point is that most internet users don't even know what an IP is
This is true, and I'll play devil's advocate a bit (since I don't see many arguing the service provider's view - even though I personally and professionally object to this level of intrusion, and also perceive an EULA to be rather unenforcable).
They don't care about linux, and they probably aren't even aware that there could be software doing "bad things" on their PC
Exactly. In fact, it gets much worse. They will demand you do things to them that are fundamentally bad... such as a medium-sized business we recently switched over that had been running a T1 with public addresses on every desktop, confidential filesharing servers (with public IPs) with IRC, RPC, NNTP, and thirty other services running, and absolutely *zero* firewalling/security/etc.
They got replaced with a rackmount Mikrotik router system and were immediately firewalled, RFC 1918 standard private IP network, etc.
Their response? Forget about thank you - nothing about complaints that they can't see things from home anymore (no, they won't buy VPN software - think cheap), can't run personal websites on desktops, open relaying on their Exchange server was "broken", etc. Oh, and to explain this to them? "We don't want to know about those details. We just want it to work the way it did before without spending more money."
Users will insist on being stupid about IP, security, etc. (I only mention this because it is part of the mindset you need to understand to see where the service provider is going to come from).
The tech did the EULA for them without consulting them
Come on... do you expect these folks to be experts about business policy? We train our guys to provide option A or B - A = installed our way, B = no install, goodbye and good luck. 90% of the customers are never an issue, but the 10% "I design websites, so therefore I'm a networking expert" types micromanage everything and work hard to screw it all up.
The contract demands the software to be installed. This is a serious problem.
Yes, and back to my clueless business example, here's why they insist upon it:
"Every time you users download something, reconfigure something, whatever, you dick up your IP settings and make me spend $50 per customer service telephone call to fix it."
By loading this software, I ensure that my configuration will probably stay on top of all the nonsense you put in there, and I can actually have a clue what is going on when you manage to screw it up still.
The alternative is $500/month broadband (minimum...), or zero support (which doesn't work, btw - people would still blame the service provider when a tornado obliterates their home, destroys their PC, and "their Internet doesn't work.")
Let's actually discuss ways to resolve it for everyone, rather than trying to make ourselves look clever.
It really comes down to one of two options:
1. Do it yourself. Know how to do all of this stuff as good or better than the service provider (and fake like you're an idiot customer with the spare Wintel box next to your connection for when you have to demonstrate the service provider has a problem).
2. Let your service provider do it all for you. Don't care to learn IP? Don't want to accept responsibility for screwing up your IP service when you load that stupid "dialup optimization" software you saw in a pop-up box, on top of a broadband PPPoE connection? (usually also spyware... ugh) Be my guest... but understand that decision comes with a price. And understand that price usually includes your service provider getting to capture all that data on you, in exchange for protecting you from your own stupidity.
The only other solution I can see is a Spyware-Free certification standard for service providers and software vendors. Establish a neutral entity, develop criteria for membership and verification, and allow people to promote that their product/service is compliant and recognized by the organization. Sort of a BBB approach to the issue...
*scoove*
TimeWarner/RoadRunner in Tampa Florida has software, but they're usually too lazy to install it, which is a good thing. They used to have the required authentication software, but that's a different animal.
TimeWarner/AOLCable in the Tampa area is actually RoadRunner. You can switch providers, save $5/month, and use the AOL auth software. Unfortunately it's an obnoxious set of popups and banners that drives me absolutely nuts. From what I understand that's all they do.
Charter Communications in the Los Angeles area *DOES* have a spyware package, which sounds like what you have.. My girlfriend was putting in the order for my cablemodem, and they asked her "What OS are you using." The phone was handed off to men, and I told them Linux. They aren't allowed to even install with a Linux machine.. I had used on e on their network 2 weeks prior, so I knew it wasn't a technical problem. I finally gave in, and told them Win98, and brought a workstation back to the house for them to see when they installed..
The Charter installer went to put the CD in to start installing software, and I told him "NO!" Then I asked what it was.
Funny thing, I guess I made it clear enough that I only want a connection. They never even gave me my Email account info. Not like it matters, I never checked my TimeWarner/RoadRunner Email in the years that I had it.
Their spyware wouldn't have done much good. They would have put it on a freshly installed 98 box, which would have gotten formatted later. I took that machine down, and put up my Linux firewall, and reassembled my home network (3 machines, for 3 people. Imagine that. hehe)
It is obnoxious that they feel it's ok to push their software on you, but it's just as obnoxious as buying a new laptop with their choice of OS and software packages, that you're good enough to pay for. Did I really want WinXP Home and MSOffice 6000? Nope. But I don't have a choice.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
Depending on quite what you signed I'd say the Eula wasn't signed for you and didn't apply to you.
Possibly the cable installer has actually broken the Eula by transfering the software to someone else.
Eitherway you haven't agreed to not reverse-engineering the spyware. It would be nice then to keep sending them back reports on your computers activity that are completely bogus if enough people did this then all their data would be pretty worthless.
I'm sure most people dmake up names etc when they are asked to give out personal information (income gender age job etc) to get a service.
The general tactic is its even better to give wrong data than it is to refuse to give any at all. As this way you are invalidating anything other people are conned into giving.
It's all about squeezing every last dime from the customers.
Actually, It's about more than that. PPPoE adds support for things like authentication which makes it easier to support multiple ISPs on one physical network. That's the reason PPPoE was deployed in Ontario, Canada. The phone company was forced by the govt to resell its ADSL service to competitors at a bulk rate, to allow competition. This meant that there was now multiple providers on the same network, and the ADSL network behaves a lot like ethernet. Thus, to allow things like metering and authentication and lots of other things that ISPs might care about, a new protocol had to be deployed over the existing one. Hence, PPPoE.
Yes, PPPoE is a pain in it's "dial-up" like nature. Yes, it does have some overhead over ethernet. However, it does allow for competition. Which is a good thing. As for the inability to keep an IP address, well, nothing says that you'll always get the same IP address using DHCP.
Also, I bet that in certain areas of the world the Cable companies will also start using PPPoE once the regulators start making them resell bandwidth too. I hate the thought, since I also like DHCP better, but it's the way of the world: Physical networks are prohibitively expensive. So to enable competition, you have to share them.
It would not cost them a $50 support call to answer direct technical questions from experienced users if they would route questions properly based on their content. For example, if a user calls up, explains that he has changed network cards and asks to have the MAC entry changed in their database, it is not effective customer service to work through a thirty minute script only to end with an escalation to second line support when a direct bump to second line could have finished the call in one minute! (Example from my experience, obviously)
I once got in the middle of a thread on the MindSpring customer-service newsgroups and posted a suggestion that they institute an "experienced customer" line. The idea being you get certified through them that yes, you really know what you're doing (maybe by taking the same tests of proficiency that their employees take?) and after that you're given access to a support line staffed by people who don't insist on going through the "is it turned on?" parts of the script. Who talk to you as though you have a clue, in other words. Hell, they could not only make money on it by charging a token fee (maybe $5 per month), they could use it as a pool to recruit new tech folks.
Basically, phone centers need to program their script bots with something akin to keyword matching to determine when the caller is not going to be served by a cookbook of click heres and tab theres. In my experience, it is luck of the draw whether you get a first line rep who knows their stuff or is just following the script, and there are a lot of gradations between first and second line that could be subdivided more efficiently. Can it really be that cost ineffective to provide decent, non-irritating support to all levels of users, as opposed to just the clueless ones?
It's all about metrics. If you don't force the techs to follow the same script, you can't effectively compare their performance and weed out the ones that aren't making good numbers. (The fact that you can't do that short of actually listening in on a tech's calls from time to time, we'll ignore for now.) ISO 9000 can be a good thing in its place; likewise Six-Sigma. This kind of cookie-cutter tech support is the worst possible application of both, but management just sees a documented, reproducible process and finds it Good.
-- Old Man Kensey
For those who really don't remember (or who followed a different track to geekdom), executing that line on your TRS-80 Color Computer would make ROM cartridge programs run twice as fast, and bump up your BASIC program speed by about 50%. Of course, you'd better POKE 65496,0 when you're done, so your 'half-fast' cassette recorder would work again.
It wasn't all that noticeable with a single machine, but I once had a Beowulf cluster of these babies, and...
The two things that PPPoE seems to accomplish are to give the telcos (or other CLECs) and ISPs a bit more flexibility about where to put routers - it makes it easier to terminate the PVC on a shared router at the telco POP instead of requiring either an ATM connection to the ISP or an ISP-owned router at the POP. The authentication features also makes it a bit easier to turn off service to people if they haven't paid their bills, for the case where the telco/CLEC is providing a shared router at the POP. (If the ISP has a PVC all the way back to their router, they can do the same thing by disabling the PVC in their router.)
Mostly it's ugly.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks