devitry.com

Tech in the country. Programming & Technology inovations.

Wednesday, February 25, 2004

Naked DSL is here for Quest customers. This is good news for Vonage customers and others wanting hassle free high speed internet. Complain to your operater if they don't allow you to uncouple your high speed line!

Tuesday, February 24, 2004

Computer tips and other random articles: So many people have been asking me for more info on securing their computer that I had to publish a page on it. Hopefully, as time allows, there will be many more random articles to come on helpful tips for the average consumer. I'll also try to write on my latest projects. These are all works in progress, so please forgive the incompleteness at this time.

Monday, February 16, 2004

More Security Holes: Besides the latest security holes with windows, I've added a security hole on Microsoft.com to my list of stupid webmaster security holes page here. That page has sites that still have not fixed a problem dubbed XSS (Cross Site Scripting) made public by CERT over 4 years ago! Someone has also gone through the trouble of creating a website devoted to these types of problems at www.crosszone.org/crosszone/. Report you own discoveries, they are rather easy to find.

Wednesday, February 11, 2004

AIM Game "Virus" An AIM game called Buddylinks is spreading like a worm through the AIM network. After you agree to the TOS, the game installs and sends an invite to all your friends. Very bad because it looks like the invite is from you! Installing Windows programs from the internet is just plain unsafe.

Vonage Warning: Beware of a company desperate to screw it's customers on billing issues. Companies should only charge it's customers for services or plans that it provides, however, even with flat rate pricing, Vonage manages to tack on fees where none should exist. Here are some examples:
  • You are billed ahead of time for a month of service: This may seem normal, however, they are living off a month of billing float, and pretend that your haven't paid for your month of service yet.
  • You start paying for service before you have it. You order online for their service, but you can't start using it until the convert box comes in the mail. You also have to get it set up and all the technical issues sorted out. (and yes, there are technical issues to deal with, but that's another story) Before you know it, you've paid for half a month of service and have barely started to use the plan. That's $20 right there!
  • You have to pay to switch plans. There is a $9.99 (plus tax) fee to switch plans. I've never seen that from a "phone" company.
  • You loose out when switching to lower plan If you paid for an unlimited plan, then switch to basic plan, they retroactively switch your plan for that month (Even though you've already paid for that month! ) When asked about this, they don't admit that I had already paid for the month of service. It's like that month had disappeared. So, you lose out up to $20 for a plan reduction. Oh, and if you had already used a lot of minutes that month in the other plan? You'll have to pay extra for those over minutes that you paid for.
  • It costs you to terminate the service They will bill you $40 to terminate the service. Customer service will say this is a normal fee and it's in the click through contract. While there is a $40 fee in the click through contract, it's for the equipment return. If you send back the cisco box within a week, in "the original packaging" you will get a credit for it. Yeah, who remembers to save the boxes? Anyone want to sell their Vonage boxes?
So, all told, there is a good $90 of extra charges that they manage to squeeze out of poor customers. Customers who are just looking for a better alternative than the regulated phone companies. Maybe a service like this should be regulated? Well, maybe not like the phone companies, but they certainly should clean up their act.