isp – Terence Eden’s Blog

Universal Basic Website

@edent — Sat, 27 Apr 2024 11:34:29 +0000

Many years ago - when I was very young and you were even younger - it was standard for an ISP to provide all their users with a small amount of webspace. Both Pipex and Demon offered webspace back in 1996. If my hazy memory is correct, they offered a few megabytes - more than enough for a fledgeling website⁰.

But, over the years, ISPs shut down their bundled web offerings. Even their bundled email services went on the chopping block. This is sad, but understandable. Most people unbundled their email so they didn't need to stick with the same ISP. Why have user@isp.example when you could have a GMail address?

And, indeed, why host data with your ISP when you could just use Facebook?

For most people, Facebook is a pretty good personal website. You can post your photos and have your friends & family see them. You can write long heartfelt rants about your teenage melodrama. You can put up the opening times of your new business. You can even host a discussion board around a specific topic.

Now, don't get me wrong, there are a few problems with Facebook¹. All your faves are problematic. But I think it shows that people want the benefits of personal websites, even if they don't want the hassle of running those websites.

What does the world look like if a country offers its citizens a Universal Basic Website? Similar to Universal Basic Income, a no-questions asked entitlement to a chunk of the Web. Perhaps a generic subdomain, some storage space, and an easy to use interface?

Oh, sure, there are lots of technical issues. You'd probably have to make sure people weren't running unapproved scripts. Moderation of prohibited content would be contentious. Tech support would be a nightmare. Some corrupt company would get billions to run a sub-standard service. A failed backup or a hacker would wipe out your bakery's recipes.

But...

We accept that there are common spaces in the real world² where people can have fun without paying. Anyone can go to a park. Anyone can stick a flyer up on a community notice board. We let kids ride the bus for free.

Can we do the same in cyberspace?

You can read some other peoples' thoughts on this Mastodon thread.

With background MIDI music, as was the fashion of the day. ↩︎
This is an understatement. ↩︎
AKA Meatspace. AKA AFK. ↩︎

Virgin Media preparing to offer symmetrical upload speeds?

@edent — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 12:34:09 +0000

Virgin Media - a UK-based fibre-optic ISP - recently sent me a survey about their potential product offerings. It was desperate to know if I wanted bundled streaming video (no), or Sky Sports (LOL no), or any other digital subscriptions (no, go away), or a landline (what, is this the 1990s?). They even wanted to know if I'd pay extra for priority support.

In amongst all the other offers, they asked whether I would be interested in paying more for symmetric Internet speeds!

Here are some of the offerings they proposed. I must not that these are from a market research exercise. Whether they'll ever launch, and whether the prices are accurate, is something we'll have to wait to see.

As I've mentioned before, I like my 500Mbps down - but the 50Mbps upload is a bit of a drag. So I eagerly answered "yes" to anything that looked like faster upload bandwidth.

I've no idea if this will actually materialise. And I can only hope those prices are realistic.

If you're interested in joining Virgin Media, you can get £50 if you join with my link.

Review: Virgin 1Gbps Fibre ★★★★⯪

@edent — Fri, 10 Dec 2021 12:34:37 +0000

Exactly a year ago, I asked "What's the point of Gigabit broadband?"

Well… I'm about to find out! Despite my well-publicised annoyance with Virgin Media, they are the only fibre provider in my area. They've also recently merged with O2 - my old employer⁰ - and are offering a free speed boost to any joint customers.

I had an old pre-pay O2 SIM, so spoke to Virgin and cheekily asked for a free speed boost. They said yes! Wye, shy bairns get nowt!

A few days later, Virgin sent me an upgraded VM SuperHub 4 (my current "3" can't go up to 1Gbps, and I didn't get on to the trial for the "5").

I'd already been sent some of their Plume Mesh Network pods, and they didn't need any extra configuration - more on that later.

Let's dive into the important stuff!

Speed Tests

Virgin's offer is 1130Mbps average download speed and 52Mbps average upload speed. What's that in the real world?

With a direct Ethernet connection: 942Mbps down, 52Mbps up, 10ms ping.

For contrast, my old system got 550Mbps down, 37Mbps up, and 9ms ping on a wired connection.

5GHz WiFi sat next to the router: 591Mbps down, 52Mbps up, 11ms ping.

And, of course, that's part of the problem with "Gigabit speed"! Great if you're wired in with some CAT6. But you're never going to hit the limits on a single WiFi device. My PS4 - wired in - can only get about 350Mbps from Sony's servers.

Of course, if you have multiple devices all streaming at once, that's when you'll notice the difference.

Thoughts on upload speed

I'm annoyed that the upload speed is still so low. The Internet is an inherently "sucky" medium; people download far more than they upload. But with competitors like Hyperoptic offering symmetrical speeds, it's a little disappointing. Frankly, I would rather have doubled my upload speed than download speed. The Virgin gigabit network is DOCSIS 3.1 which is theoretically capable of gigabit upload speeds.

But it looks like it doesn't use DOCSIS 3.1 for upload, which is weird. For general use, 50Mbps is fine. But when uploading a video to YouTube or sending large files to friends, it is a bit of a barrier.

Installation & specs

It was a self installation. Literally just unscrew the coax cable from the old unit and screw it into this one. Then wait a few minutes as it booted up and connected to the network. It uses a different power connector to the old version, which is slightly annoying - and the power cable is slightly shorter. But the overall design is much nicer - it's smaller and has a thermal vent at the top.

One irritating thing is the light on the device. The old 3 model had a small LED which could easily be covered. The 4 has a light bar which stretches around the the top and requires a long bit of tape if you don't want to dazzle yourself. Thankfully, there's a manual control so you can dim it, or turn it off: The SuperHub 4 is an 802.11ac device. If you want WiFi 6 (802.11ax) you'll need the SuperHub 5. I don't have any AX devices, so it doesn't bother me.

There are 4 Gbps Ethernet ports. If you choose to use your own router and place the hub in "Modem Mode", then only one of them will work.

Weirdly, there are 2 telephone ports. That's for a landline VoIP service. Frankly, I think they're useless. Would have been better to replace them with USB ports for printer / file sharing.

There's a WPS button for "easy" WiFi sharing. And a plastic card containing the default username and password.

Configuration

I'm really not sure how I feel about this... Virgin know my SSID and the passwords. They used them to preconfigure my Intelligent WiFi Plus Pods. So why isn't it the same here? Once the hub was plugged in, I expected it to start broadcasting my old WiFi name so all my old devices could connect to it automatically.

I manually set everything up, and my old devices connected just fine.

It's pleasing to note that the software has been updated to allow Emoji SSIDs! That means you can follow my tutorial: "HOWTO: Make a Doctor Who "Bells of St John" Style WiFi Name".

UI

It's well known that ISP supplied kit is a bit crap. It's usually mass market junk with a UI that barely works and few scheduled security updates. The SuperHub 4 is has the same poor interface as the older model.

There are a few welcome improvements. It doesn't need to reboot when you change the SSID, and the whole interface is a lot faster. Hopefully you won't need to spend too much time with it. Setting up port forwarding and fixed IPs is a bit of a chore. And there's no local domain name resolution. You can set up some rudimentary MAC filters, to keep devices on a specific SSID if you need.

But, in general, it's a bit of a horror-show.

IPv6?

LOL Nope! Customers have been asking for this for 11 years. Although there are signs that IPv6 is being worked on.

Final Thoughts

There's no need for Gigabit speeds… yet! Even on my "slow" 500Mbps connection I was able to stream 4K HDR Surround Sound Netflix. Downloading gigabytes of games is limited by the console providers' infrastructure. My wife and I could make simultaneous video calls with a tenth of the speed we have now.

But tomorrow… Will VR/Metaverse require stupid-fast speeds? Will hundreds of IoT gadgets want to burn through my bandwidth? Probably not, no. But I'm a geek and I crave the newest, shiniest, fastest tech that I can get my hands on.

If you live in a Virgin area, and can live with the slower upload speeds, and you don't mind the SuperHub's half-baked interface - this is a cracking service. Especially given the free speed upgrades available if you're also an O2 customer.

Promotion

We both get £50 if you sign up to Virgin media using this link. Enjoy!

I still own a few shares in Telefónica. Adjust your bias filters accordingly. ↩︎

Preview: Virgin Media's Intelligent WiFi Plus Pods

@edent — Mon, 01 Mar 2021 12:22:28 +0000

Virgin Media have provided me with a test unit of their new Intelligent WiFi pods to review. They're useful, but come with some annoying limitations.

If you have a big home, put a pod in every room and you'll have fast WiFi broadcast everywhere. Well, that's the theory.

Limitations

The big limitation is that both your 2.4GHz and 5GHz WiFi SSIDs need to have the same name and password. I usually split the names so that I always know which network I'm connected to. Virgin will remotely log in to your SuperHub and forcibly rename your 5GHz network to be the same as your 2.4GHz one. That means you will need to manually reconnect things which used the old name.

I kinda get why they do this - better to connect to a slow but stable 2.4GHz than a flaky but fast 5GHz - but it is annoying for those of us who rely on segregated names. Some of my IoT kit gets really confused by this. You may find that some equipment roams onto the 2.4GHz network because it is marginally stronger and never connects to the faster 5GHz network.

It is a Mesh system. The way it works is simple - the VM supplied SuperHub broadcasts 5GHz and 2.4GHz WiFi. This pod plugs into a power socket and listens for WiFi signals from the hub. It then rebroadcasts them - using the same name and password. So your phone or laptop will seamlessly connect to one network without you having to fiddle around with anything. But, of course, if the pod doesn't have a great connection back to the hub, it won't be able to give you a decent connection.

There are double Ethernet sockets on the Pod. They connect back through the WiFi; there's no PowerLine functionality. Additionally, there's no plug pass-through, so this will take up a socket in your home. It's also quite large - and might block the plug next to it.

The pod can get warm, there is a fan on the back of it which makes a light whirring noise. Nothing too loud, but you probably don't want to place it near where you sit.

Despite being rebranded Plume devices (see below) you cannot use the Plume app to manage them.

Speed Test

If I plug an Ethernet cable directly into the SuperHub, my laptop gets these speeds. I pay for 500Mbps and I get it. Nice!

If I'm next door to the Hub, and on 5GHz WiFi, I get these speeds: Pretty good!

At the bottom of my garden, without the pod, this is what I get on 5GHz: And on 2.4GHz

Pretty crappy! The 5GHz barely connects and the 2.4GHz is a bit wobbly.

So, the big test! When I plug the pod in halfway between the garden and the hub, this is the speed I get at the bottom of my garden:

Finally, plugged into the pod's Ethernet:

Initial thoughts

As a basic WiFi extender, they work. Naturally, the speed is limited to whatever the pod can negotiate with the hub. If you can get / afford multiple pods, they should form a mesh network to create a higher throughput backhaul.

But it does seem to come with a cost. Some of my gadgets get confused when there are multiple networks with the same name. They'll stick to a stronger 2.4GHz network rather than the faster 5GHz one. A couple of devices kept losing connectivity completely. And, because the networks insists on putting all the SSIDs on the same frequency - I've noticed an overall slowdown in my WiFi speeds.

Whereas before my top speed was over 500Mbps on WiFi, it has now dropped to about 480Mbps.

WiFi and Internet speeds are fickle beasts. I ran each test a few times at the same time of day. My maximum speed has dropped, but that's a fair sacrifice for vastly improved speeds elsewhere.

Tech Specs

These are rebranded Plume SuperPods.

WiFi INTERFACES

4×4 MIMO 802.11a/n/ac 5GHz
2×2 MIMO 802.11b/g/n 2.4GHz
Dual-band, dual-concurrent radio operation
5GHz MU-MIMO with Beamforming

CHANNEL BANDWIDTH

5GHz 20/40/80 MHz
2.4GHz 20/40MHz

CHANNELS

5GHz 36 to 48, 149 to 161
2.4GHz 1 to 13

DFS CHANNELS

52 to 64, 100 to 144, Region Dependent

ETHERNET

Dual 100/1000Base-T Ethernet with autosense WAN or LAN configuration

IoT RADIOS

Bluetooth Low Energy

Other Features

They're also meant to come with ad-blocking and speed-testing. But those features are unavailable. Similarly, I couldn't find a way to access the BLE functionality.

You can read about how the Plume adaptive WiFi works in their whitepaper.

Hackability

Basically none. They are paired with the Virgin SuperHub. They don't seem to work with other ISPs, and there's no management interface to factory reset them.

Virgin send the pods out preconfigured. Which means they log into your SuperHub, and copy your SSID and password to the pod. Hope you didn't use the password for anything sensitive!

Port 53 is open on the device - but doesn't seem to respond to anything.

Verdict

They work! But, I'll be honest, I think Virgin are a bit cheeky to charge extra for these. If they sourced a decent hub with external antenna - rather than the crappy Arris product they use - their customers would have better WiFi without the need to pay for more gadgets.

They're going to be £5 per month for up to 3 pods. That's £60 per year. At which point, it may be more cost effective to buy a decent router or your own mesh system.

I'm also not sold on the mesh concept. The domestic airwaves are already saturated with WiFi signals from your neighbours. Is adding yet another broadcast to the mix such a great idea?

Powerline networking is great - but I get that it struggles to reach the speeds offered by cable modems.

The dual Ethernet means that they can be wired in directly to your cable modem. So run a patch cable down to your shed, plug it into the Pod and you have a WiFi extender.

But, yeah, if you need WiFi in your attic or shed, they'll do. Obviously, if your walls block WiFi, there's a limit to what the pods can do. But the basic tech works.

Join Virgin Media and get £50 bill credit

Here's my referral link

Some Thoughts on Broadband Speeds in the WFH Age

@edent — Fri, 29 May 2020 11:39:53 +0000

ISPs suck. They're designed to. The A in ADSL stands for "Asymmetric". That is, your download speed is faster than your upload speed. This makes sense for most domestic purposes. Most people suck down a lot more than they push up.

But we've now entered the (permanent?) work-from-home era. If you're anything like me, you're spending more time broadcasting video than you ever did before. It's painfully obvious when you're stuck on a video call with someone who has restricted upload speeds. Blocky video and garbled sound - getting worse if more people in the household are streaming at once.

Almost all ISPs sell connections this way. And, to be fair, it made sense. But it's increasingly difficult to justify. Gamers want to stream, TikTokers want to meme, and boring old farts like me want HD video calls.

Before this all kicked off, I took the fastest upload package I could find.

Over 300Mbps down is swish! And the 35 up is pretty decent - especially if both my wife and I are on calls. But I'd gladly trade some of my download speed for a faster upload speed.

So which mainstream ISP will be the first to market symmetric - or better - speeds for home workers? BT is apparently trialling it as part of their fibre roll out.

Of course, if you're permanently working from home, perhaps it makes sense for people to go back to having a dedicated, separate line for work?

Either way, broadband speeds will have to change soon. People are beginning to send more data than ever before.

Virgin Trialling 322Mpbs Broadband

@edent — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 07:10:58 +0000

Earlier this week, I noticed that Virgin Media had upgraded my 152Mbps service to a whopping 322Mbps. Sadly, it was fairly short-lived - but here's what I can tell you about it.

Using my SamKnows monitoring box, I'm able to see regular snapshots of my broadband performance. My 152Mbps service is usually rock solid - there's very little variation in its performance. Last week, however, it shot through the roof.

(Download Speed .csv file)

Whoa!

The only fly in the ointment with Virgin's speeds is their lack of decent upload bandwidth. When I was on BT's FTTC, I was able to get 20Mbps up. Pretty decent for streaming video conferences, uploading to YouTube, etc. Virgin's best upload speed is 12Mbps. But, last week, this was boosted to 16Mbps.

Upload Speed .csv file

Because I'm a geek, I've set up a script to monitor my cable modem's power levels (no, you need a hobby. Shut up!)

Interestingly, there was no significant change in power or SNR. Additionally, the modem was still only using 2 upstream channels.

My script isn't set up to see if the modulation has changed.

The 152Mbps is a somewhat arbitrary speed limit. As far as I can tell, it was chosen to be exactly twice as fast as BT's 76Mbps service. This 322Mbps service is, presumably, a response to BT Infinity 4's speeds of 300Mbps.

Although, yet again, the upload speed is slower. If Virgin would only activate all four upload channels - rather than the current two - they could double the speed to at least 24Mbps and finally be faster than BT.

The Official Response

Why Are @VirginMedia Hijacking My HTTP Connections?

@edent — Wed, 19 Nov 2014 07:05:45 +0000

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that an ISP in possession of a good Internet connection must be in want of a customer.

One would think that, in these capitalist times, ISPs would compete over who could provide the fastest speed, the best service, and the lowest price. Sadly, in the UK, our ISPs seem to compete on who can be slightly less awful than each other.

Last night, I did what many people normally do with their Internet connection. I made an HTTP request to open a website. Rather than receiving the site I had requested, I received this monstrosity from Virgin Media - my ISP.

I really was baffled. At first, I thought the site I was trying to reach had been blocked by the infallible British justice system. This is what Virgin customers see when they try to access a site blocked by the Great Firewall of Cameron:

I'd made several web requests during that session but, crucially, this was the first one that I had made over HTTP. The rest had all been secured via HTTPS. It wasn't even a salacious site I was visiting - unless cultural criticism of Barbie is too hot to handle nowadays.

Here's the thing though. I've a number of devices in my house, all of which make HTTP requests. My solar panels, my tablet, my TV, my radio, all chattering across the 'net on Port 80. Any one of them could have had their session hijacked. Perhaps they would have failed gracefully - perhaps not?

Perhaps some cheap piece of kit is sending usernames and passwords in plain text - now all that information has been redirected to my ISP.

I wasn't able to catch the exact exchange, nor the HTTP status code that redirected my session. All I do know is that my ISP broke the trust that it has with me. I pay Virgin to send and receive bits. Nothing more, nothing less. I don't want it interfering with my traffic outside the bounds of normal operations.

What next?

Sorry to interrupt you ordering from Pizza Hut - we'd really like you to try a slice from Dominos?
Sorry to interrupt you listening via Pandora - we've done a deal with Spotify, so try that instead!
Sorry to interrupt you placing an order with a new ISP - please give us another chance!

Virgin send me an email with my bill. They also post me endless leaflets asking me to upgrade to their TV service. If they wanted to contact me about their new "Web Safe" system, they have ample opportunities to do so without monkeying around with the service that I'm actually paying for!

This sort of session hijacking is... I struggle to adequately describe it. Disgraceful is probably the word that comes closest. It is a Man In The Middle (MITM) attack. It impairs the operation of my computer. It's just rude!

And, the icing on the cake, Web Safe isn't very good.

There's a plaintive thread on Virgin Media's community forums asking for help with Web Safe:

is there a way to block only on-line betting/gambling sites i.e. make it impossible for anyone in the house to gamble away real money ?
I don't see any obvious solution on the f-secure or the web safe pages.

I don't want to filter my connection - but I appreciate that some people want to place limits in order to protect themselves. Web Safe can't do that. You can only opt out of sex, drugs, and ~~rock'n'roll~~ crime.

Why is Virgin Media doing this?

As part of our commitment to the UK government's initiative to improve child safety online, we're giving all our customers the chance to decide if they want to switch on Web Safe, our suite of parental controls.
From October until December, you will occasionally be redirected to a branded Virgin Media web page when you're browsing the web.
Please watch out for any other pages claiming to encourage you to switch on parental controls during this period, as these will not be from us, and may put your online security at risk.
From Virgin Web Safe FAQs.

Yup, Call-Me-Dave and Theresa May-Not have decided that we aren't sufficiently puritanical in our online browsing. Despite their hectoring and scaremongering, fewer than 15% of households have switched on the censorship software.

Even the language of it leaves me crawling with horror. "There are some things online that you might not want your family to see" is reminiscent of the Lady Chatterly trial's infamous "Is it a book that you would even wish your wife or your servants to read?"

Let me briefly enumerate some of the many ways that Web Safe is a bad idea.

It only works on your domestic connection. If you - or your wife - wants to get around it, switch off WiFi and use mobile data instead.
As mentioned above, it's now an extra vector for web criminals to phish for your details.
The risk of false positives - Virgin Media has a page where you can tell them that they've over-zealously blocked an innocent page - such as a church.
The risk of false negatives - if you believe that Virgin Media are doing their job, you may believe that you are surfing encased in a cyber-condom and are completely free from the risks of infection.
It fundamentally alters the relationship between the subscriber and the ISP. It allows them to pro-actively censor material that you request.
By demonstrating their ability to hijack your browsing sessions - because the Government asked them nicely - it shows that they take no interest in standing up for the rights of their customers.
It equates the free expression of sexuality with violence, hate, and criminal activity. If your house contains a person who is confused about their sexuality - cutting off their chance to understand what's happening to them is barbaric.
It's likely that these filters will also block sexual health charities. That's probably a bad thing, right?

Web Safe is a rotten product which is being foisted upon users in a manner which is unbecoming of a decent ISP.

If you want to stop the government pushing more censorship and control onto the Internet, please join the Open Rights Group.

Virgin Media Just Gave All Of Their Customers Plausible Deniability‎

@edent — Wed, 23 Apr 2014 11:08:43 +0000

My current ISP is Virgin Media. They get a lot of stick for being a bit useless - but I can't fault the speed of my domestic connection. They recently upgraded me for free to 152Mbps downsteam (and a less impressive 12Mbps up).

As part of this upgrade, they sent me an email stating:

now that your broadband has been supercharged, on the house, why not put it to the test? You've got the UK's fastest widely available broadband speed which is 12x faster than Sky and BT's regular broadband^, so get your friends over with their tablets, phones and laptops to try it out.

Well, that'll be a fun evening, eh? All of us sat around pushing the fibre to its limits. But, wait! How will all my friends get on the wifi?

Luckily, Virgin has thought of that. The bottom of the email helpfully suggests...

P.S. You can even change your WiFi password so it's easier to share.

Brilliant! Virgin's suggesting is that you change your super-strong password from "@WZ*dobAv8AxCbUeTckU" to "comein" so that your mate Dave can find it a bit easier to leach your WiFi.

This means three things.

Your password is weaker! Making it much easier for a malicious user to guess.
Dave now has access to everything on your network. Your file server, printer, TV, games consoles, security cameras, etc. He has unfettered access.
If he is so inclined, Dave can download illegal content under the guise of your IP address. If he's smart, he'll drive round to your house, sit outside in his car and do it. Or maybe he'll just torrent Game of Thrones while the rest of you are playing MarioKart.

Virgin, however, don't see this as a problem.

Fixing It

It turns out, Virgin already thought of a solution to this problem. The SuperHub2 cable modem they provide isn't the best bit of networking kit in the world, but it does have "guest networks".

A Guest Network has a different SSID (Network Name) and, more importantly, is completely separate from your main network. Your friends will still have Internet access, but they won't be able to pilfer your files, control your telly, or switch your Internet Connected Fridge off.

I suggested this to Virgin, but they seem to think their customers are too thick:

Really, it's about as hard as changing the password on your main WiFi page.

If your friends can't bear your company without the pacifier of free WiFi, I strongly suggest that you set up a guest network. Add a password which is easy enough to type on a phone's keyboard, and let them run wild. Just remember - although they'll be unable to access your computers, you have no control over what sites they visit and which files they download...

Plausible Deniability

Perhaps that is Virgin's plan all along. As an ISP, the last thing you want is your customers getting sued for copyright infringement. You want the customer to enjoy all the delights that the Internet has to offer without constantly being worried that the cops are going to bust down their door.

Plausible deniability is a term coined by the CIA in the early 1960s to describe the withholding of information from senior officials in order to protect them from repercussions in the event that illegal or unpopular activities by the CIA became public knowledge.

"Who? Me officer? Why no! I certainly did not download those files. My IP address you say? Well, Virgin encouraged me to share my WiFi password with all my friends. I suppose it could have been any one of them. What? No, I don't know which of my mates likes Game of Thrones, I've never seen the show myself...."