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[kitz]

From todays El Reg

BT reprograms biz customers as hotspots

BT has begun transforming its commercial customers' Business Hubs into OpenZone hotspots for any passing Tom, Dick or Harry to share, and leaving businesses to figure out how to opt out of the scheme after the fact.

Under the scheme, 20,000 BT Business Broadband customers have already had their hubs upgraded, with another 200,000 being seconded into the OpenZone network over the next few months.

Full story

[Imagine.]

Just seems  to me like another attempt from BT to squeeze our wallets a bit more 

[BritBrat]

I knew about this a few months ago.

Easy to get around, do not use the BT router.

But even a better idea DO NOT USE BT.


On a side note:

As of 24 Feb 09,

Ritchie has written to me to advise the brand new sealed BT hub with Assy No. ending in -008 for some time on o2 Access broadband,  has been upgraded from v5.29.117.6 to the new BT v6 firmware following a routine manual reboot of the hub.

No DNS poisoning was used, and the hub continues to work on o2 Access broadband after the upgrade.  He did not use DNS poisoning and the BT keycode prior to the upgrade was believed to be 5225-2374-WG62-22AS-BJ7P (2wire 'manual' setup keycode).

The keycode subsequently changed after the upgrade to 52AN-2374-WHE2-22AZ-B27S.  'o2 Access' product is a BT wholesale IPstream service offered in areas where o2 LLU broadband is not available.

Ritchie reports OpenZone functionality setting was Disabled by default following the upgrade.


http://bt2700hgv.tripod.com/ir1002700HGV.htm#New%20BT%20firmware%20v6.1.1.48

[kitz]

I'd heard that they were doing so to home users who wanted to opt in, but wasnt aware that they were now rolling out to all Home Hubs including Business ones.
I wonder what effect this could have on any usage restrictions (limits) on your account and if it could cause some users to breach their CAP or FUP... or if BT have any way of recording these transactions separately.

Thanks for the linky about even previously flashed HomeHubs and with another SP also being automatically upgraded to later f/w versions.
If that is the case then there must be something in the f/w which 'dials home' and periodically checks for updates from a remote server?

[BritBrat]

I think what BT are doing is disgusting.

I thought it was only Business routers they were doing this to.

Most home users would not have a clue how to protect themselves from misuse/abuse of their bandwidth.

I can see BT getting into a lot of hot water over this.

But I guess anyone who can break the law twice by covert data interception can do what ever the like now, knowing full well the government/authorities will do nothing.

[oldfogy]

So all this talk about making sure your wireless router is WPA etc protected now means nothing, or even to the point that BT have disabled this within your router.

Or have I missed the point.

And would I be able to use their BW if I located a hot-spot just by turning on my PC.
(Like I can with using my TomTom Satnavs' hot-spot feature with T-mobile hot-spots)

[camallison]

I'd heard that they were doing so to home users who wanted to opt in, but wasnt aware that they were now rolling out to all Home Hubs including Business ones.
I wonder what effect this could have on any usage restrictions (limits) on your account and if it could cause some users to breach their CAP or FUP... or if BT have any way of recording these transactions separately.

Thanks for the linky about even previously flashed HomeHubs and with another SP also being automatically upgraded to later f/w versions.
If that is the case then there must be something in the f/w which 'dials home' and periodically checks for updates from a remote server?

BT clearly state, to anyone opting in, that usage over the bt openzone/fon "channel" won't count toward users' CAP or FUP.  So, seems as though we can all "upgrade" to the opt in and use that as a side-channel for massive downloads and p2p whilst "behaving" on the main connection?   

[BritBrat]

I'd heard that they were doing so to home users who wanted to opt in, but wasnt aware that they were now rolling out to all Home Hubs including Business ones.
I wonder what effect this could have on any usage restrictions (limits) on your account and if it could cause some users to breach their CAP or FUP... or if BT have any way of recording these transactions separately.

Thanks for the linky about even previously flashed HomeHubs and with another SP also being automatically upgraded to later f/w versions.
If that is the case then there must be something in the f/w which 'dials home' and periodically checks for updates from a remote server?

BT clearly state, to anyone opting in, that usage over the bt openzone/fon "channel" won't count toward users' CAP or FUP.  So, seems as though we can all "upgrade" to the opt in and use that as a side-channel for massive downloads and p2p whilst "behaving" on the main connection?   

Now there is and idea.

Got a friendly neighbour both have the same broadband but never use your own account, just each others

I wonder if this could really be done.

[kitz]

I doubt it.

Since you have to pay to connect to the Openzone channel.  Ive used openzone in the past and you have to buy their credits to be able to use it.
Therefore those that are 'using your bandwidth' will be paying for it...  and its probably why the el reg article made mention of quote

But hitting customers twice for the same bandwidth is certainly a new low for the former-monopoly telco.

So you are paying for you connection and the other person pays per how much they use it.

[kitz]

If that is the case then there must be something in the f/w which 'dials home' and periodically checks for updates from a remote server?

Warning - there obviously must be.

If you have a BT Business Hub (2Wire 2700HGV) and even if you are NOT using it on a BT connection, it seems like an automatic firmware upgrade will now turn the hub into an Openzone hotspot.

Which is rather nice for BT... but not for the user if they are with a different ISP who has usage allowances 


http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/showthreaded.php?Board=plusnet&Number=3591285

I have been using a BT Business Hub (2Wire 2700HGV), it was recently upgraded automatically to new firmware that has enabled an additional wireless SSID for BT Openzone.

I have used my wireless laptop to logon to my router's Openzone SSID and accessed the Openzone network ........ via my Plusnet connection!

I have raised a ticket with Plusnet to ask if they were aware that this is possible.

I am not sure about the implications for usage, the BT website says that any usage via the Openzone connection is not included within the users allowance, is this because it is routed differently at the exchange? If so it will be the same on a Plusnet connection I guess.

I can disable the Openzone SSID though for some reason this effects the router's abilty to recognise connected devices correctly. I have contacted BT tech people in this regard and they are due to get back to me.

It seems that this situation might be replicated for Home Hub users, some Home Hubs broadcast a BT Fon connection sharing SSID.

[oldfogy]

From what I have read and understand I think BT are taking the "Micky"

BT should be paying the original subscribers for allowing BT to use subscribers equipment to allow the spread of their services to the general masses via "Hot-Spots".

[BritBrat]

It seems you can turn the hotspot off but it is one as default following a factory restore.

[oldfogy]

It seems you can turn the hotspot off

That's as maybe, but I wonder how many BT customers are even aware of what's going on to start with

[waltergmw]

Hello everybody,

It's worth reading Andrew Ferguson's article at:-

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/i/3899.html

Kind regards,
Walter