bobbear wrote:
There are strong feelings about this issue and possibly some misunderstanding/misinformation on both sides. However, there are certainly issues that need addressing.
As a new BT broadband user, I see the major points as these:
1) I am never going to use the BTFON service, so I do not want to be part of it and I should not have been signed up to it without my knowledge or agreement.
TBH, I agree, suppliers of a service (not just Fon) should not assume everybody wants that service and therefore should not automatically opt anyone in to that service.
That is simply wrong.
Again, I agree
To say "you can unsubscribe" is plain silly - try the same argument with unsolicited emails. I have just discovered I was signed up to BTFON and have unsubscribed on the BTFON webpage as previously described. Apparently I now have to wait 48 hours for my HH to be remotely updated and the services removed. (N.B. you need to unsuscribe your primary email address and any secondary ones as well).
It can take up to 72 hours, sometimes much longer, then the Fon map doesn't always get updated and then the map falsely reports a hotspot. Only your primary email address can be used to gain access to a Fon/Openzone hotspot, no secondary email details can be used.
2) The fact that the HH can have its settings altered remotely raises even more issues.
Hmm, that's been happening for a long time
Once the above update has been done, how do I block off the remote access and or the ports it uses?
There are ways to unlock the early type hubs, as can the HH2's and more recently the HH3's. For obvious reasons BT won't like to hear this. Not too sure atm what gets blocked on an unlocked HH3 - time will tell.
3) There appears to be no obvious way to locally disable the extra unwanted wireless services on the Home Hub (HH3 in my case) - there should be.
That's the same for the HH2 - in fact you can't even turn off your own SSID on the HH2 if you're a member of Fon
4) If you are on a rural bit of copper like I am - you need all of your bandwidth, (only 4Mbps in my case), I do not want an unknown number of users reducing my already pitiful speed - it makes speedtests totally meaningless as you don't know who else is using your bandwidth at the time of the test.
The 512kbps (total, not per user) will be reduced to the Fon user should you need more of your bandwidth - worst case, the user gets their Fon connection dropped all together
5) Do you trust the BTFON and remote control systems not to have any security bugs? I certainly do not. In fact a little bit of research reveals "Home Hub 3 serious security flaws for users".
Ah, that'll be the port 161 debate....
You have to ask yourself why BT give away these Home Hubs, (apart from the £6 delivery charge, of course). Despite BT's advertising puff - there is nothing special about the Home Hub apart from its well hidden stealth options - it's based on the French Thomson Speedtouch hardware and firmware.
If you don't like the way BT have gone about this, and as a result don't trust BT or the HH, the best option is to replace it with a good off the shelf Wireless N router/adsl gateway. That is the real customer choice.
