Canary Wireless

Canary Wireless

I just received the Digital Hotspotter. It's a tiny little unit that takes 2 AAA batteries and detects WiFi networks.

It's really easy to use, just press the button and it scans for available networks. If there are any it shows the SSID (i.e network name), the channel it's using and whether encryption is being used.

If the network isn't broadcasting the SSID (they called it "cloaked") which really means it's not sending out the name in beacon packets, then it still shows the network, channel and whether WEP is in use or not.

As the device is so small, it's pretty convenient to carry about if you're looking for a hotspot (or want to jump on to someone's wireless network).

Of course using to "steal" someone's bandwidth may not be such a good idea as it may well be illegal (in fact even snooping out a WiFi network can be illegal in some countries). In the UK for example intercepting data that you're not meant to is breaking the law it's covered by the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIP) Act, of course the likelyhood of you being prosecuted for it are extremely unlikely (if you can be caught in the first place) but that would including decoding the WiFi beacon packets that every WiFi network uses. Once you join a WiFi network (that you're not meant to) you're also breaking the law as you're using computing resource (even just in the Access Point which is having to process the packets your sending) which you're not entitled to be using which is covered by the Computer Misuse Act. Again unless you're doing something seriously wrong, it's unlikely that you'd be prosecuted.

This does bring up the whole security issue, recent reports still show that most WiFi networks are unsecured or on default settings. This is not only dangerous in terms of people having unrestricted access to your network, but also if they are doing something illegal (maybe hacking someone else or down or uploading illegal material such as child pornography) then the Police will come knocking at your door. You may think you're being nice by having an open network, but remember you're responsible for its use.

It's not hard to secure a network, depending on traffic levels WEP can be enough (you need to snoop a reasonable ammount of data to break the WEP codes), someone determined to get in will but it will deter the average user. Of course upgrading to WPA which uses AES (advanced encryption standard) makes it even more difficult. Then if you run things like SSH (secure shell), IPSEC (IP Security) or a secure VPN (virtual private network) on top of the WiFi network it's going to be very difficult ot snoop the traffic. It's even a reasonable policy to run an open WiFi network if the only thing you can do with it is run a secure protocol above it.

PlayStation Portable update

In the vein of being geeky at the moment, I decided to try and connect my PSP to the WiFi network and see what happens.

The WiFi network is secured using WEP to reduce the chance of people randomly connecting to it (not that I wouldn't mind people using spare bandwidth, just there are major issues with liability etc.).

So on the PSP I create a network connection, unfortunately the key entry system in in Japanese but that was only for the connection name (I think you can change it), but since there was a default, not a problem. The select the SSID - luckily this has an English keyboard and it wasn't too difficult, WEP was the same, everything else was left on automatic (such as IP address, netmask, etc). It's odd the PSP wouldn't scan for a network.

There's then a test connection, which happily connected.

It was then possible to upgrade the unit (there's an upgrade option), which worked flawlessly. It just pulled a new image from Sony and stored it on the (supplied 32MB) memory stick. The firmware is then copied from the memory stick to the internal Flash memory. You need to make sure you have sufficient battery power and that unit should be plugged into the mains and then it all runs smoothly.

I haven't yet noticed much of a difference in actual operation, apart from the OS reporting v1.5 instead of 1.0.

It looks as though there is a lot more functionality in the unit than Sony have made publically available yet, there are reports of people having got web browsers, IRC clients and other Internet applications running on the units.

I do believe Sony are on to a winner here and that the PSP really has the possibility of becoming a sophisticated portable media hub.

The Dangers of Broadband

A couple of days ago I decided to revitalise an old laptop that had been sitting dormant for a while. It had an old copy of XP that (long story) had a dubious Product Key, so wouldn't upgrade to newer versions. Since I had a spare (real) copy lying around I booted from this and did a recovery - that installed the new Product Key while hopefully maintaining all the programs etc that had been installed. That actually went very well, slow, but well.

Next step run Windows Update and get the system into a reasonable state, again slow (just due to the system - there's a fast broadband connection) but all went well. Then install Microsoft's new Anti spyware system and Grisoft's AVG (free version while testing). They immediately showed problems, a virus and lots of spyware. Several attempts at scanning and deleting just didn't seem to work. Unplugging the LAN connection did improve things but as soon as the Ethernet was reconnected up pops the spyware. Something was badly wrong. Leave it until morning ...

Next decision was to completely reinstall XP (actually SP1), plug the system in and leave XP installing. After the initial load of CD, XP reported 39 minutes remaining - which took more like 2 hours, but at least it could just get on with it. Then do the updates etc. and install the Anti spyware software. Somehow the system had become infected again. I'd guess that either the original spyware reports itself to a site which then probes you, or the system was just randomly attacked (probably the former). It seems that when XP is installing it leaves NetBIOS turned on which since it's unpatched at that point leaves the system open to attack.

This had taken most of the morning and dragged into the early afternoon. But since I couldn't get rid of the spyware - another reinstall. This time I unplugged the system from the LAN and started again. I also made sure I had SP2 and the anti spyware/virus software on CD. Eventually XP installed and then installed the software (which noticed NetBIOS was turned on and turned it off) and did the local SP2 upgrade. It was now evening but it seemed to work. SP2 comes with a pretty lame firewall, but at least it's a firewall so I made sure that was running, then plugged the system into the LAN. No spyware/virii appeared and I managed to get the system updated. It's been like that ever since.

I also happen to run a Samba server (which is an open source file/print sharing system for UNIX that emulates a Microsoft Domain controller) so I can keep important files centrally. I decided I'd check the logs, and lo and behold there have been consistant attempts to connect to it. As a precaution I've always only allowed machines on the local network to connect, but I'm sure if it had been left open it would have been severely comprimised by now.

I'm now going to start filtering at the router connection to my broadband provider. It may make things slightly more restrictive, but stopping external probes and even attacks is more important. It shows that there are nasty things at work on the Internet.

The moral of the story is run a firewall if possible at border of you and your broadband provider, if not firewall every PC that connects to the Internet.

More on unbundling

I just returned from a brief holiday in France. I stayed near a tiny village called Ampus which is in Provence. The house I was in was a 15th century old farmhouse, which was next to 3 other houses. Ampus itself (the "main" village) is about 6 minutes away and Tourtour about 10 minutes the other way. The total population of the two communes is about 1,000 people.

In June (or thereabouts) this year they're getting broadband. Whether it's from the encumbant France Telecom I didn't ascertain - but it's coming.

Local loop unbundling has taken off big time in France, and triple plays are the norm. Advertisments on TV were showing a basic offering of around 9.99 Euros per month for 10Mb/s. I think you had to take telephony with that package (which is actually delivered as VoIP) but the end user doesn't care. How the actual calls are delivered to them is irrelevent as long as the call quality is good, and they offer competetive telephony rates anyway.

The UK has got a fair way to go before hitting European levels of unbundling and unfortunately with BT's current pricing policy and Ofcom's late play of being serious about LLU it's going to be hard to achieve sensible pricing that can match EU offerings, in fact the UK may never catch up.

PlayStation.com - PSP

PlayStation.com - PSP

I've actually posted something on my personal blog about this too.

I bought a Japan import from Play Asia. It came with Ridge Racers (suprisingly a racing game).

Sony have got a winner here. The graphics are superb. It's widescreen and the display is extremely crisp and sharp. Though 3D isn't real, it's very realistic. The screen is 4.3" wide supporting 480 x 272 pixels and 16.77 million colours.

The system uses Sony's 1.8" UMD optical disk which comes in a protective sheath (like a minidisc). They're small enough so you could easily carry a few around with you (though don't eject them apart from on a flat surface, they tend to fly out and disappear somewhere awkward). Unfortunately size isn't so appealing for the PSP itself, it wont fit into a shirt pocket and probably not into an inside pocket of a jacket or even a coat.

It's also got WiFi built in that can be set-up in AdHoc mode allowing game play with other PSPs, or in Infrastructure mode which goes through an access point. Though there doesn't seem to be any Internet utilities on the device yet (apart from a network update section) it's rumoured that the Opera browser is being ported and there'll be a firmware update for that and Email.

The system looks like a USB memory device when attached to a PC (which basically gives access to the Memory Stick) and you can store audio and video on it. Sensibly Sony support MP3 directly on the PSP, though it will also support ATRACplus encoded music (interestingly, if someone decides to produce UMD music disks, they only support ATRACplus and linear PCM). Video is H.264/MPEG-4 AVC on the UMD and MPEG-4 SP,AAC on the memory stick.

It's possible to set various languages for various bits of the system (i.e. menus, subtitles etc) however the Japanese game that came with the PSP still maintained various settings in Japanses which I unfortunately I can not read or understand.

Sony are on to a real winner with this, and if they add Internet features it could also perform as a very portable media hub.

Ecademy Wifi and Wireless Trusted Network

Ecademy Wifi and Wireless Trusted Network

Last night (23rd March 2005) there was a meeting of the Wireless section of Ecademy which was all about VoIP with presentations from Vonage UK and Gossiptel.

It will be interesting to see how well Vonage do in the UK as the European telecoms model is different from that in the US, especially regarding termination charges (i.e. in the UK you cant escape them). However they do have an interesting story and are coming out with some interesting devices (WiFi handsets, video sets etc). Vonage offer a residential service at £9.99 per month for unlimited calls to the UK and Irelend, and £18.99 for the business service which includes a fax line. You can buy extra services like virtual phone numbers, soft phone support and fax service.

Gossiptel are concentrating on the so called prosumer (i.e. high level consumer) but it's basically a SIP service like Vonage with a web based configuration system. The basic service is free, but you pay for PSTN calls, then you can get some pre-paid services (World 500 and World Unlimited for £9.99 and £19.98 respectively). With the free service you get an inbound 0870 number (which in the UK is known as a non-geographic national rate number i.e. Gossiptel receive revenue when people call it). The World plans give you the same features but you can also choose a geographic number (i.e. 01/02 number ranges). Call pricing outside your call plans is charged at 1.5p pm for World services and 2.5p pm for the free service. Gossiptel don't care how you access the service and can use any SIP compliant phone (soft or hard) and they'll even support multiple end-devices (so you could have a phone at home and the office and they'll both ring when a call comes in). There was a brief mention of ITSPA (though this was glanced upon due to time constraints, Gossiptel were founders of ITSPA).

VoIP hasn't really taken off in the UK, ITSPA say there are about 10 - 15,000 users (maybe that means users of ITSPA members), Wanadoo probably have near enough double that themselves. Of course it doesn't take any Skype users into account and currently Skype, Vonage or Wanadoo are not members. However CPS services have taken off in the UK.

CPS is carrier pre select, which allows a telephony customer to utilise another carrier for all their calls. There are quite a few CPS services including One.tel (who are owned by Centrica the gas utility), TalkTalk (from the Carphone Warehouse), SkyTalk (from BSkyB) and Tele2 (actually both of the last two are actually provided by THUS, but Sky/Tele2 handle all the customer side of things, THUS just provide the telco services).

Many of these are offering unlimited (UK) calls for under £10.00 a month, they are also offering cheap international/mobile calls and DSL bundles etc. Since it's carried over the PSTN, the customer knows they're getting good quality calls, none of the random quality associated with a VoIP which in reality is likely to be a VoDSL call (which really means consumer ADSL provided by BT whhich is 512K down 256K up at 50:1 contention with no QoS guarantees).

I asked the question "how were BT's 21 Century Network plans going to affect the VoIP providers?" and didn't really get any sensible responses. That's probably because people don't yet really understand the implications of them and how they make every UK Altnet and ISP a BT reseller.

BT are making major changes by introducing 21CN, it WILL be great for the consumer, IP into every exchange and probably every house, but it WILL also have a major effect on everyone else. For once in their life BT have got it right (in terms of what they're doing), as everything moves to IP, it doesn't really matter whether a call is local or long distance (in UK terms) so why charge for it, they'll bundle unlimited calls in with the line rental along with IP connectivity etc. By the time they roll-it out, they'll also have a full triple play including IPTV.

BT are stating they'll start rolling out by 2006 and turn off the PSTN by 2009, I'd guess those dates are pessimistic and the roll-out's already happening.

Watch out UK

NTL and Telewest merger might be scuppered by Ofcom

The industry has long predicted the merge of the cable duopoly NTL and Telewest in the UK. The merger would make sense for a lot of reasons both economic and technical. Let's call the combined entity NTelewestL.

However it might all fall through as NTelewestL might be considered to have significant market power (SMP) - which of course it would have in the cable market. If Ofcom put NTelewestL in that position, they can be forced to open the network up and allow other companies access to network services - much like BT have a wholesale and retail devision.

So there would now have to be NTelewestL Wholesale and NTelewestL Retail. Retail would operate just as the current operations do now attracting customers and offering bundled services. However a wholesale division would require a complete new set of procedures, billing operations, network breakout etc. This is where problems will occur, it adds a hige ammount of complexity and cost to the deal which is already fragile as both companies are not in the healthiest of financial positions. In fact the costs are likely to be so significant that they could completely break the merge, which must put the regulator between a rock and hard place.

Download Skype for Windows

Download Skype for Windows

There's a new version of Skype (v1.2.0.21 BETA), it wont show up if you check for an upgrade so you have to go to the download section manually.

They've added lots of features including (as guessed) centralised contacts. I've no idea if it works as the install just upgraded my old version and used the existing contacts. Hopefully it will just automagically save them.

Skype have now officially added voicemail (which anyone can buy, $16 [euros] pa). That's quite cool.

I'd like to have tried SkypeIn (so you get a real number for people to call you on), unfortunately they've run out of UK numbers. However for a business who wants a non-UK presence, maybe that's a benefit. Various other VoIP providers do offer that as a premium service.

Of course SkypeIn may turn out to be a regulatory nightmare as a law enforcement agency could attempt to have the calls (legally) tapped, but what jurisdiction does it fall under, where the call terminates (in IP land), or where it originates (in real telco land in a specific country). Intercepting calls in IP land is going to be virtually impossible, unless the software can be forced to split the call traffic so it can be monitored elsewhere (but a regulatory nightmare, one caller could be in UK under UK regs and the other end of the call in the US under US regs, under what regulations should the call be intercepted). Incepting at the SkypeIn/Out side where the call falls under standard telephony regulations is much easier and legally much clearer - maybe that's a Skype installed SkypeIn so they could comply with legal intercept?

As soon as I can get SkypeIn I'll post some results.

Ones to watch

There are two companies that could make interesting moves in the months to come that look to emerge from the pack.

One.tel who were set-up by Centrica and once looked to be dumped by Centrica may now be an exciting bet. I'd guess that Centrica decided that the market wouldn't support a sensible sale, so their best move would to be invest more in the company and it looks like that One.tel have now got between £250M and £300M to go buy someone. Since consilidation is the game this may be actually be pretty perfect timing to buy a network or a competitor who are ailing and so gain by economies of scale.

Wanadoo are also investing heavily in their own infrastructure (to the detriment of Energis) and it seems France Telecom is funding Euros 1bn over 3 years for LLU roll-out. That's likely to make Wanadoo the largest LLU entrant in the UK and they have plans for unbundling around 1,000 exchanges. LLU is all about scale, but with this kind of cash to play with it will give them a very good fighting chance.

Access for all

The telco and ISP markets are suffering, there's massive competition and huge margin erosion that goes with that. Making a living in either industry is difficult and both are seeing lots of consilidation. Of course there are now very few ISPs not owned by telcos as the historic trend has been to consider access as a huge cash cow.

Unfortunately that's just not the case any more and access is becoming commodity (if not already). Soon everyone in the UK will have at least 8Mb/s ADSL and as BT and LLU entrants role out ADSL2+ speeds will reach 13 - 18Mb/s, but who cares? With those kinds of speeds (and some QoS guarantees) it's possible to offer genuine triple plays of content, Internet and voice.

Some people believe those speeds aren't high enough, and the UK are way behind Korea/Japan and elsewhere in Asia. Maybe that's true, but they aren't tainted with a legacy infrastructure. Fiber to the home just isn't practical in the UK without massive investment, and telcos just don't have the funds to even think about it. Digging fiber is expensive (somewhere between £200 a meter in rural areas, to about £2,000 per meter in an urban conurbations) someone has to pay for it. The cable companies or even BT could go somewhere towards that by installing DSLAMs in their street cabinets and then short range DSL between the street cab and the customer premises. Unfortunately that would still require huge investment (especially bt BT who'd still have to get fiber to the street cab). VDSL could then be used as the DSL technology for the short-haul, however it's not legal in the UK as it doesn't meet the ANFP (Access Network Frequency Plan) and Ofcom I believe picked ADSL2+ over VDSL as more telcos requested it. This is not suprising as VDSL only supports very short distances to get anywhere near it's maximum speeds of near 54Mb/s.

Of course fiber to the home could be a possibility in "green-field" sites i.e. where premises haven't been built yet and there's no infrastructure, but that would require a lot of preplanning by the building trade and a complete rethink such that telecomms infrastructure is considered just like gas/water/sewage/etc is.

Instead of relying on the local loop, wireless could be a serious contender however currently that's frought with regulatory problems and spectrum is a precious commodity which the government is likely to see as a lucrative revenue stream so again in order to utilise it, infrastructure players are going to need to think carefully about the resources required to roll-out effective solutions that can really be disruptive to the traditional copper network.

Random telecoms musings

The UK telecoms industry isn't in a good state, There's intense competition and severe margin erosion. This means the telecoms companies are having to make cut-backs, which generally means getting rid of staff.

It also means consolidation and what seemed healthy players are going to be consumed by various bigger (or healthier) players.

So here's some predictions: -

i) Energis - they must be suffering. Wanadoo are moving all their infrastructure and services away from them, that must hurt. Energis have already been through administration and losing a huge chunk of revenue potentially puts them in a very week position with the banks. Only time will tell.

ii) 3 - the 1st 3G entrant in the UK, now winning customers on cheap price plans. How many are buying premium content/services? I doubt many. Once the GSM operators really start launching their 3G networks in ernest the GSM networks will be used to offer cheap & dirty services i.e. there'll be price cuts galore and all those price sensitive 3 customers will migrate wawy in droves. How long will Hutchison support a sinking ship?

iii) THUS - People will probably think this is biased, but it's not based on ANY factual information, it's just guesswork. They're ripe for a take-over. Market value is probably less than assets or turnover. Who will it be? Well either a foreign network wanting to get a ready built advanced UK network, or maybe C&W. I suspect C&W as they'll use the Demon brand to bolster the Bulldog service (who's heard of Bulldog). Bulldog have somewhere in the region of 4,000 DSL customers, Demon have 100,000+. Also I'd suspect THUS is chipping away at the high-end business of C&W too and what's say £300M to get a thorn out of their side and get a brand?

NOTE: these are personal opinions only and have no bearing to any knowledge gained in any employment or anything related to the real world.

Skype - Free Internet telephony that just works

Skype - Free Internet telephony that just works

Don't get me wrong but I LIKE Skype, however is the software really ready for prime time?

As a peer to peer Voice over IP (VoIP) telephony system it works, and call quality can be as good as a normal phone on a good ADSL link.

Unfortunately they haven't got it quite right.

Quirk number one is stored contacts, well to be exact they're not stored centrally but stored on the local machine. If you install Skype on another PC, you've got no contacts and that means re-authorising them all too. Rumours are that version 1.2 of the software will fix this and that the contacts will be stored centrally along with your sign-in/authentication information.

Quirk number two. Do NOT import your Outlook contacts into Skype. Well maybe you can, but if you have lots, don't bother. I tried this with an Outlook address book that contains over 5,000 contacts. Skype imported them reasonably quickly (I think it only uses contacts with an Email address). So now Skype has 2,100+ contacts and off it goes searching the Skype contacts database and tries to match your contacts to Skype users. It doesn't do a very good job, it also takes a LONG time. I started the process about 10 in the morning went out and came back 8 hours later, it had got through about 72% of them. 12 hours later it had finished and there were about 2,200 Skype contacts.

All well and good, but then you're asked if you want to add them. You'd think that was fine, but if you don't cancel you have to go through EVERY contact to add it to you contact list. A window pops-up (as per a normal search) and you can add or cancel. That's where it all goes pear-shaped. Cancelling just cancels that contact and pops-up the next. After about 10 it got very boring indeed.

Easy answer, quit Skype. Big no no, the software then pops-up and closes 2,200 windows one after the other, assuming you want to add the contacts, each one sending an authorisation request to the contact in question.

Next time you open Skype, you've got 2,200 extra contacts in your contact list. Maybe you don't care, but the whole thing crawls. It takes several minutes (if not longer) to load them all and it eats memory.

Well de-install and then re-install and you can have a clean start, then go re-adding all those real contacts you wanted in the first place (again) and re-send all the authorisation requests (again).

Skype have got some clever technology, but there's definately some things to fix before it's ready to be called a serious piece of software.

Welcome to the website for the All Party Parliamentary Internet Group - APIG

Welcome to the website for the All Party Parliamentary Internet Group - APIG

On Tuesday 8th of March, APIG and Hansard Society held a meeting at Portcullis House (next to the Palace of Westminster) to discuss "Will the Internet reconnect Britain?".

THere was a welcome speech from Milica Howell from the Hansard Society e-Democracy Programme, and it was chaired by Derek Wyatt MP (from APIG).

There were then two talks "Can we close the Digital Divide" by Catherine Bronley, Research Director at the National Centre for Social Research which shows that younger people are more likely to use the Internet, as are people who have gone through formal education (university) such that the social characteristics of people who use the Internet or want to use the Internet is very slim. So things need radical change to get non-users to have no interest to use the Internet to use it.

John Curtice, Professor of Politics at Strathclyde University gave a talk on "New Technology, New Politics", which concluded that access to the Internet does not appear to engender more trust in government of make it more likely that people will get involved politically, but it does mean people feel more able to get involved. Even here, however, it seems unlikely that the impact of the new technology will be sufficient to herald a new politics.

There was then a talk by Donna Young General Manager of BT Wholesale, "A view from the commercial sector". Unfortunately this was just BT pushing their 21st Century Network (21CN) and how it was going to be great for everyone. Enough said here for the moment.

The final session was from Brian White MP (Chair, All Party Parliamentary Group on e-Demoncracy) which talked about how developments in media issues as they affect political process and work of Parilament and Government informing current Parliamentary debate through meetings and reports.

For a mostly goverment run event, it was actually quite interesting.

ITSPA - Internet Telephony Services Providers Association

ITSPA - Internet Telephony Services Providers Association

Last night (Monday March 8th), ITSPA or the Internet Telephony Service Providers Association has their Parliamentary lauch in Portcullis House.

ITSPA was formed to support "new wave" telephony providers as the didn't feel the (multitude) of existing organisations that were geared towards traditional telcos represented them.

The launch was to officially aanounce their new code of practice, which as yet has not appeared on the ITSPA site.

Though there are quite a few Internet telephony providers (Gossiptel, Babbel, The Internet Phone Co, Sipgate, Vonage, to name a few) there are only around 10-15,000 VoIP users in the UK - these are people who've taken up VoB (Voice over Broadband etc) rather than corporate users who utilise VoIP across their own infrastructure. I'd also guess these figures are exagerated as people sign-up for a service and then don't use it. Quite a few of the telephony players attended the event, including AOL who are expected to launch a service reasonably soon, as well as the traditional telcos such as THUS, Energis and Colt.

Interestingly Skype, who have by far the greatest of VoIP users wasn't there (more on Skype in another article).

Only time will tell if VoIP does take off, it will, but in what time-scales. Currently BT Wholesale have almost 5 million ADSL connections, local loop unbundlers account for 31,000 (as of the end of Jan 2005) and cable about 2 million. Unfortunately most of those ADSL customers are on consumer "broadband" which is contended at 50 to 1, with no QoS guarantees. 50:1 with an upstream connection of 256Kb/s means 5Kb/s. Of course most of the time most of the users wont be using their bandwidth, but they will some of the time and that's where problems will occur.

Unfortnately it'll only get worse, as BT have introduced capacity based charging and the larger BT Wholesalers are moving or have moved to this. CBC is where the ISP pays a fixed prices for the end user connection (at whatever speed they're connected at) and pays a big wallop for the backhaul of the data (i.e. size of pipe). The more users you put on the pipe, the better the ISP economics, so they want to overcontend as much as possible.

LLU players do have the option of offering QoS all the way back to the DLSAM (and into the premises), but as yet they only represent a tiny proportion of users.

What this means is that as people pick VoB services (and more people use it) the contention issues will increase. Consumers may put up with it, as they're getting calls "for free" but as a business it's unlikely they will - they wont want the call to fail just as they're clinching that important deal.

So until real QoS can be achieved (and BT have said they are going to trial it sometime this year), VoB is likely to get mass appeal and then a huge backlash as people give up their primary telephony access for a sub performing service. With things like CPS (carrier pre select) already offering flat rate UK calls etc on standard phone lines, why move to VoIP?