Thinking of joining PlusNet..good bad are ugly ISP

Hi
I have my MAc code and I'm looking of migrating to PlusNet to get me off the awful Utility warehouse/Mistral network. Can anybody give me a balanced opinion on them.

If you are happy with the way the demand is managed linky then there are no other current problems.
The support and backup have really improved over the last year and i can thoroughly recommend them.

I think it's only fair to mention there are spam problems with PN email addresses.

Possibly not if you are new user, and therefore not among those whose addresses were "harvested", though?

Do you not think that so many PN addresses are out in the wild, that dictionary attacks could still affect new users?.

I don't personally think it would have much effect, if any, on "dictionary" attacks, no. A dictionary attack, by definition, means the spammer doesn't have the actual address, and is just trying different combinations, with the idea that at least some of them will get lucky. As the basic syntax of PN e-mail addresses (and indeed, any commercially-supplied e-mail address) is no secret, I don't think this kind of attack would depend very heavily on how many addresses were already in the wild.

If we have anyone who has signed up fairly recently (i.e. since the breach), perhaps they can tell us whether they get much spam.

I never had problems with PN spam, ever, until that one incident, and suspect I might still be free of it today, if my address had not been on the compromised database. I can't prove it, of course - no way of telling what might have been. But I reckon if I signed up as a new user today, I wouldn't get half the crud I do now.

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But I reckon if I signed up as a new user today, I wouldn't get half the crud I do now.

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I don't reckon you'd get any at all! Following the webmail compromise, lots of people did either change their username or signed up for free accounts and stopped using their original email PlusNet address. Certainly having done that myself, I have no spam whatsoever coming into those accounts. It's also worth mentioning that since we started to default the catch-all anything@ address to being switched off at sign-up. On that basis the chance of both halves of a dictionary attack being correct is, I would imagine, many millions to one.

Ian

Edited by IanWild (Thu 03-Jan-08 08:59:09)

Plusnet connection wise was always rock solid for me. They do seem to suffer from a lot of email problems tho, resulting in a mass deletion of mail, if i recall on more than once? Security has been a problem too, with security breaches resulting in plusnet asking everyone to change passwords and emails obtained and harvested for spam.

They also have had a bad reputation in the past for changing terms and conditions regarding usage and failing to inform users, who subsequently fell foul over the new rules. Throttaling services and denied doing so, only to be caught out.

That was in the past tho and with BT as the new owners, i cant imagine them getting away with such things. Customer service can be very good on a personal level, but i found the forums to be a very if your face fits kind of place and had a few problems with non plusnet staff who moderate the forums, who subsequently followed me off the forums. That led to me leaving plusnet for BT.

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lots of people did either change their username or signed up for free accounts and stopped using their original email PlusNet address. Certainly having done that myself, I have no spam whatsoever coming into those accounts.

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Agreed, I took up the offer of a free domain and changed my email address, turned off the PlusNet address, and so far have not had any spam into any mailbox since.

Edited by cajef (Thu 03-Jan-08 14:38:50)

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If we have anyone who has signed up fairly recently (i.e. since the breach), perhaps they can tell us whether they get much spam.

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I signed up on the 16th Nov, no spam yet. Only used for plusnet correspondence so far.