h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

"Cant believe that it being classed as "the right thing to do"

Well, of course it is. The problem: Defrauding a UK National company. Not of money, but of resources. Resources vital to the smooth operation of its services. Resources which, if overtaxed, can and will result in the service dying. The service which, when dead, will spike lots of calls to Customer Services, complaining.

You may wish to disregard this statement, but the world does not revolve around any Website. Pitiful though it is that some digibox users now cannot access h2g2 via their digibox, it's obviously not meant to be, in the eyes of Telewest.

"Shame the two people involved didnt think about others before taking the actions they did."

I remind you nobody but Telewest has put /dna/ in the firewall. I've stated this before, but you should think of informing Telewest about the loophole as a mere Bug Report. Bandwidth costs. Not only in the money sense, but it also is a cost on the machines. The machines which supply a service. And what should happen if those machines die because of excessive bandwidth used on DNA? The service stops. A lot of angry customers. Customers, who actually PAY for their Internet access, since Blueyonder, the official Telewest ISP can be impacted, since it lives on the same network.

Think about it. They weren't paying for Internet access, and Telewest didn't give access to h2g2 as part of their Interactive Services section. Nor does the Internet, or h2g2 come under the description of 'e-mail', last time I checked.

I,for a long time,only had access to h2g2 via digibox,and it never interfered with any of my other services.Now and again I still use the digibox to access h2,well I did,and to this day never had a problem.I just dont think the impact on other services is as great as you are making it out to be.

And when you accessed h2g2 by digibox?? Where there different rules then?

This post has been removed.

If you didn't have a phone and one of your friends showed you how to clout the side of a public phonebox to get free credits, would you call BT to tell them about this technique or would you make some free calls of your own? or would you wait till you had a phone of your own and then grass up about the free credit trick?

nah phone BT using the trick

<./>F81706?thread=367232</.> legal access isnt the only reason here is it , but its late and time for .


good nite all, may your goddess or god be with you

blessed be

Jonathan

re F81706?thread=367232

feisor's got the right idea, ignore the muppets, but there's no need to pull the plug on all digiboxers, is there?

Mycelium,
It looks like the deed is already done. What we do know is the Telewest have been informed, and today, no user on a Telewest supplied digibox can access the site.

As I said before, it is pointless all standing here beating our chests and shouting it's unfair. How do we go on from here. This doesn't mean that I don't care that a whole swathe of researchers currently don't have the hardware/facility to access the site, and I don't agree with the motives behind the reporting of the loophole (I saw it as an easy way for Sat and Aka to win an argument about digibox access, but what will shouting about it on here do?

Remember, they have not been banned. That would imply action on the part of TPTB which to my knowledge has NOT been taken. Telewest are the only reason that people cannot access the site

aka, you say that you first came to us via the digibox route, and I notice that your U-space (U178815) was created on the 3rd June 2001.

Now my question is; why did it take you 2 years and 8 months to decide that the digibox route to h2g2 was very naughty and someone should be told about it?

Oy.

I have not read the backlog of all the journals and threads - not most of it, anyway - and I am by no means an expert on this. I do take the rather uninformed position that I would prefer it if the digibox users still had access to h2g2.

But that's not important. I smell a witch hunt. This thread is completely unproductive and will only result in hot tempers and an annoyed group of people. I hate to see people yell about this and that and then have people a month later yelling about how they hate yelling. And then the real yelling begins!

So I respectfully suggest that we all abandon this thread- perhaps yell in our journals (that's healthy) and call it a day

Or if you deny this, name me one productive thing that can come of this thread.

- an old fuddy duddy who prefers... good emotions.

Jodan

Well said

"... name me one productive thing that can come of this thread."

I'll name you one.


What is aka's *real* motive for alerting Telewest to a possible breach of their terms and conditions by digibox users in accessing h2g2?

That would be a witch hunt, if I ever heard one.

And I've never heard of a productive witch hunt, except the Salem Witch Trials, which resulted in plenty of interesting reading material.

One small point.
*clears throat*

There are 10-13 year olds on the site.
The rules state this site is for 16 and above.
Only pointing out a fact.
I would think they could easily be avoided or instructed by those bothered.

Stopping digibox may not cut down on as many rude complaints about typing, txt and "low intelligence" because it is actual immaturity in some cases.

Pictures swarms of 10-13 year olds (on PCs) visiting the original complainers. You all remember 10-13 don't you?

No, I'm not hunting no witches.

aka came up with the plan to tell Telewest that there were users of their's that had been using a digibox to access h2g2, which is apparently not part of the plan that that company had for the use of said digibox. I just want to know why s/he decided to do that.

What about productive things for digibox users as opposed to the whys and the wherefores? (this is not an indication of feelings I may or may not have on the situation)
There are many users with PC access that email digi users so comments can be passed on.

Equally I only have a limited knowledge of digiboxes.

Phoning the company gets you nowhere. Writing will acheive more.
Why don't the users that have accessed h2g2 write and ask if they can incorporate it into a new package, perhaps with an additional fee paid.

If it is a case of bandwith then an additional income may cover the extra cost (although probably not). How financially viable is it likely to be for telewest to invest in further technology to offer additional services when eventually they anticipate a greater number of home PC users?

I assume that there are many digibox users that don't use h2g2 - I know of one - and their service is being affected, perhaps by the sudden influx (post LD closure) of digi users onto h2g2? A couple of years ago, one or two users would not have had a significant affect on the performance of Telewest services.

But with the recent number of researchers accessing the site from a box then it would appear it might have??? Many times box users have been cross at the slowness of posting or page loading. Is this why?

Abbi, this site is accessable by under 16's, but they need their parents permission to sign up

*clears throat as well*

Actually abbi the rules state no such thing.

- Step 2 in the registration process says:

"If you're under 16 you need to get permission from a parent or guardian before providing us with any personal details."

- Then step 3 if you have registered your age as being under 16 says:

"Before you go any further, we need you to get permission from your parent or guardian to tell us some information about yourself.

The information you'll give us below will never be given to anyone other than the BBC.

Please ask your parent or guardian to read BBCi's Rights and Responsibilities."

- then you click the box and you are in and posting


Signed,
BureauGris/GreyDesk - who according to SSO was in actual fact born yesterday

The DOB thing for registration with the Beeb got me thinking. So I decided to act upon it...


SSO says that I haven't been born yet

I've been avoiding this one so far, but for what it's worth here goes. If we got rid of everyone who accesses this site via "unauthorised" access wouldn't we be kicking out half the people that use it? I mean, most people seem to access it from work, and why not? Companies do not have any moral status, so you can't say it is "right" that the digibox users can no longer use h2g2 on this basis. I don't claim to understand the motivations of the people that brought this to Telewest's attention but if this was their argument then it was either misguided, stupid or dishonest.

It seems to me that if digibox users accessing h2g2 were seriously degrading Telewest's service they would have noticed it on their own, no doubt they have sophisticated ways of analysing traffic data. I find it difficult to believe that one website could cause any serious problems.

Thanks for clearing up the age rules
I should have re-read them first.

I noticed researchers of that age were in the links given earlier. I thought some consideration of that fact was in order. It could explain some happenings.

I have no problem with them being here.