Note: Article Updated 4/1/04

Once upon a time, a Digital TV company existed. They offered free e-mail accessible through your TV, amongst other things like News and Shopping, and lots of TV channels. This Article will focus on the TV E-mail part, since it was the TV E-mail which allowed anybody who used it, complete access to the global Internet. Something which the system was not built to cater for, and it was this 'hack' that gave hundreds of people free Internet access without a service provider.



To clarify: Accessing the Internet without an official provider in this way, by making use of a hole in the system, is like watching people go into a sweet shop and buy the sweets therein, and whilst the shopkeeper is busy, break in through the back entrance and steal the sweets held in the store room; Although do not take this analogy literally as the bandwidth is there for the taking, but this article is addressing the usage of the bandwidth on non-digibox* Websites. Nobody is being accused of being a .



Imagine the Shopkeeper to be the Systems Administrator, witnessing all of their resources go away into a task for which the system was not designed; And although not many people who gladly use this 'hack', care-free know about it, it's still not a good thing. It is for this reason that this article exists to educate exactly why it shouldn't be done.

The Telewest Digital Set Top Box is a small VCR sized piece of equipment which, when connected to the Telewest network and your television, provides a host of content made available by fast, fibre-optic cables. Such content can be sent as TV signals, giving better quality picture and sound than receiving terrestrial TV through an aerial; Or it can be sent in the form of digital information held on the Internet.


Telewest offer services like News*, Weather, Information, Phone Books, the 'Red Button' functionality*... and TV E-mail.

What Exactly Does Telewest Offer in this Package?

With the Telewest Digital TV package, you can watch TV, listen to digital radio stations, and access some Interactive content. Content which happens to be on the Internet. Telewest don't offer Internet access; They have a branch-off company to do that. Blueyonder provides PCs and Macs in the UK* with a dial-up or Broadband connection to the Internet. They don't offer Internet access to digital TV users; The software in the Set Top Box was not built for the 'Web, and the providing servers are insufficient to withstand requests for all the content on the 'Web that so many customers at a time might be requesting.

TV E-mail allows each Telewest home to have up to three e-mail accounts, which can send and receive e-mail from any functioning e-mail address provided by Telewest, or any other e-mail provider*. Due to a flaw in the system, the code of the Internet, HTMLHyperText Markup Language can be incorporated into e-mails sent to Set Top Boxes. This code can display different coloured or sized fonts*, or it can provide a link to websites on the Internet.

So, What's Wrong With That?

So, any Website in the world can be accessed via this small piece of equipment; an action which not only taxes the Set Top Box, and causes the user an immense amount of difficulty, but also the providing servers and the bandwidth of Telewest have a hard time of it, too. Telewest have realised this problem recently and to attempt to put a stop to it, have blocked all domain names which do not reside in what is commonly called the Website 'garden'* from being accessed. If an 'external' domain name* is requested, the Set Top Box will show an error message stating that the requested Web address is unavailable from the Digibox, and the call to the requested Website will fail.*

So There's No Longer a Problem?

The problem actually still remains - Because bbc.co.uk resides in the Telewest garden, to provide Telewest Digital customers with News and Weather in a flatter, basic form of its Internet News Website, all sub-sites that live on bbc.co.uk are also accessible. This includes all of the DNA sites, the BBC Messageboards, the Cult TV section -- everything that BBCi are to publish on bbc.co.uk.

Remind Me Why This is a Problem?

This is a problem for not only Telewest, but its customers, because as those who use the flaw in the system to access sites like h2g2 through an E-mail hack eat up the bandwidth on h2g2 and other bbc.co.uk sites, (effectively robbing the store of its stock of sweets, if you like -- even though they may be unaware of it; Take for instance the example of the mother whose child is actually stealing the sweets. The mother is responsible, even if she is unaware of the child's behaviour in the store. In this analogy, think of the digibox user as the mother, and the digibox itself as the spoilt child defrauding the sweet shop), everything slows down -- Parts of the country may not be able to use the Interactive services due to server lockups*. This would be Telewest's problem to sort out, by purchasing new servers, providing more bandwidth -- but the reason they need more bandwidth and servers to solve the problem is down to usage of their equipment which is, seemingly against Telewest's will.

You're Lying (or "I Have Something to Add that Contradicts You")

I do not work for Telewest, but I've had enough experience with their equipment and technology of the 'Web in general to understand that the volume of Telewest digibox users who do use the site (and other BBCi sites not intended for heavy data transfer) via the 'hack' must be causing the system a great deal of harm. Since the Telewest system does not provide Internet Access via its Set Top Box, it's obvious that Telewest are not going to cater for such usage, and thus, when request for heavy content on the 'Web is called, in the volume of traffic equal to as many digibox h2g2ers are online at a time, the systems behind the digibox services are going to be compromised.

If you work for Telewest, and are authorised to represent the company, and also, would like to correct me, then please E-mail me from a @telewest.co.uk e-mail account.

Please do not leave a message on this Article just to say that "Telewest provide free e-mail, and if I can get to h2g2 from E-mail that means I can legally get to h2g2 for free, without paying Telewest a penny extra."; You only get the e-mail and some sites as part of your Interactive TV package. Also, just because some Telewest employees also claim to use the 'hack', or claim that they know all about it, it does not mean that Telewest as a company are letting it go, and allowing free access to sites it does not advertise in its inner menu system.

As noted above, if a Telewest employee who is authorised to represent the company and the IT department of it, which would be most aware of the extra bandwidth being used, than anywhere else in the company, please e-mail me via the link given, from your workplace e-mail account.

Could You Explain Something Else For Me?

If you are still uncertain as to why accessing h2g2 through the e-mail hack, also known throughout the former LD community as the 'magic e-mail' is illegal, and in violation of your Telewest Terms of Service, please leave a message in the forum below.