Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: More than a little odd

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  • David Slack,

    We've had a response from John Goulter, so now, typing the information third hand:

    Telecom say they've traced the source as far as they can, and can so far confirm that it is coming not from them but from some other assigned provider.

    How that squares with Simon's impression that it comes from the main trunk I'm not sure, but I trust they'll be back in touch if they have more.

    Devonport • Since Nov 2006 • 599 posts Report

  • Alastair Thompson,

    TV3 just had an item on it.

    Video of the phone ringing and everything.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 220 posts Report

  • reece palmer,

    My connection ran at 3.5mbs before the great unleashing, it now runs at around 1.6 to 1.8. The data cap between 4pm and 12 pm is 400mb if you exceed this you get placed into a pool that is limited in capacity where you have to compete with other naughty downloaders for that limited bandwidth, its part of the terms and conditions you signed up to when opting for go large (slowly) the data things a whatever for me I plan to download the planet and am investing in a pc with lots of hd capacity to enable this. The issue I have is that when placed in this pool you are notified beforehand, I've not been notified that this is the case so why is my supposedly unthrottled 'as fast as my line will allow service running at an average of half the speed it did before the unleashment of this bunch of lies.

    the terraces • Since Nov 2006 • 298 posts Report

  • Dominic S,

    Reece: The limit is, as Sam F pointed out, 700MB, not 400. This is Telecom's "fair use" policy, and it seems seperate from their "traffic management" policy.

    Evidence: http://jetstream.xtra.co.nz/xtratools/1,8752,205451-204362,00.html

    Auckland, New Zealand • Since Nov 2006 • 9 posts Report

  • reece palmer,

    Pardon my mistake, 700 it is.

    the terraces • Since Nov 2006 • 298 posts Report

  • Simon McCallum,

    Hi All,
    Well all quiet on the calling front. The calls ended at 4pm today after the head of our IT support group talked to Telecom Corporate, being a big organisation sometimes helps :). I was also told that the calls to my home line and my work number where originating from an auto-dialler from another service provider. I will however follow Telecom's advice and contact the police about this issue. So there may be more about this later.

    Russell, thank you for appearing on camera about this, it was appreciated.

    Well back to marking and real work.

    Simon

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 9 posts Report

  • Simon McCallum,

    Well I was wrong.

    10am this morning it starts again. Well I suppose I have no phone for the weekend. This is just getting silly.

    Well at least it has raised the issue of Net Neutrality, but really I don't have time for this.

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 9 posts Report

  • chris bramwell,

    Is your phone still ringing??

    Since Nov 2006 • 3 posts Report

  • Simon McCallum,

    yep 10:10 - current.

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 9 posts Report

  • Russell Brown,

    Couple of things:

    1. It's not clear from posts here that it's not only Simon's phone at work that's being affected, but his home phone too. This would seem to rule out the idea that it's just some malfunctioning auto-dialler, as does Simon's latest update, yesterday:

    So the saga continues, 10am -8:20pm yesterday and then a couple at 11:30pm, but those had beeping at the other end. This morning about 10:10 they started again. We have been checking every hour or so to see ifit is still going, and indeed the phone is still ringing. There has been an interesting change today, now there appears to be someone listening and pressing buttons at the other end. I asked a few questions and they started using 2 beeps for yes and 1 for no. All very odd. I did not stay on the line as I am too busy to play silly games.

    So the summary is:
    Thurs 2:00pm-6:00pm 6:50-8:30pm
    Fri 9:00am-4:00pm
    Sat 9:30am-8:20pm +2 at 11:30
    Sun 10:10am - current

    Now that there is someone on the other end I am more confident that a formal complaint may actually find someone who is doing this.

    Also ...

    2. Keith, there's a very clear difference between protecting the network from some guy trying to torrent four movies at once, and someone using Skype. The former can represent a threat to service at peak time, the latter simply represents a threat to Telecom's business.

    BTW, Bram Cohen always cautions against running too many open torrents. He says the protocol's not designed for that, and that having any more than two torrents downloading at the same time is suboptimal.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report

  • Simon McCallum,

    The calls last night ended by about 8:30 pm. I got another at 12:40am this morning before I unplugged the phone. The problems followed me to work again this morning starting at 9:31am. I have called Telecom and they could not find any national calls to my number. Apparently it might be an international number which they are currently checking.

    I will update people here with what is happening.

    I certainly hope that they find something, they should be able to work out who is ringing or else how could they charge people for calling me?!?

    Simon

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 9 posts Report

  • Simon McCallum,

    Calls stopped this afternoon still no word from Telecom about why they could not trace them

    Simon

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 9 posts Report

  • stephen walker,

    how could telecom not know where calls on their network are originating from?

    nagano • Since Nov 2006 • 646 posts Report

  • Span .,

    Many moons ago I had a very obscene phone message left on my Telecom voicemail (by someone who obviously knew me). I rang and reported it, to Telecom, as you do. However they were unable to trace it because at some point in the reporting process someone (not me) deleted it from the system. I really really really wanted to assume this was conspiracy, not cock-up as it usually is, but I suspect it was incompetence (pretty bloody fundamental incompetence, but anyway).

    However Simon your case smells much more than mine. I just do not find it credible that Telecom could not be able to trace this number, after several days now. As someone else has pointed out - how do they bill us for all our calls if they can't work out which number we're calling from?

    This is just absurd. Are Telecom even giving you any reason why they can't work it out?

    Alternatively could you suggest that they give your phone free caller ID capacity for a while, give you a caller ID capable phone for free, and hopefully at some point your mystery caller would slip up and forget to put in whatever that magic code is?

    Auckland, NZ • Since Nov 2006 • 112 posts Report

  • Simon McCallum,

    Calls are still coming in at work and at home today. From before 7am at work according to one of the other lecturers who turns up early for work. Still no word from telecom about the situation ans why they can not trace the calls or do anything about them

    Simon

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 9 posts Report

  • Span .,

    Any luck yet Simon?
    Are they at least going to not charge you for the phone line that you can't use?

    Auckland, NZ • Since Nov 2006 • 112 posts Report

  • Russell Brown,

    From Simon's email updates on the saga, as of yesterday:

    Just thought I would report on a new twist to this strange story. From about 2pm today my Head of Department, Ian McDonald, has been the target of the harassing calls. This is a serious escalation of the problem, as his PA has to answer every call politely just in case it is actually official business. Telecom's answer of "we will give you a new unlisted number for free" is even less satisfactory for the HOD of a university department. Perhaps now they will actually solve the problem rather than telling me they have not made any progress.

    This was already ridiculous, and it just gets stranger. I will keep you up to date on the developments as I am sure it will be interesting to see what the next move is.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report

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