How safe is changed password?

Telecom has been urging customers to change passwords for their Xtra email accounts after a security breach.

the company has cancelled thousands of passwords and says they’ve been  assured by Yahoo the problem is now sorted.

But is it?

. . . Institute of IT Professionals NZ CEO told NBR ONLINE over the weekend that his members continue to investigate the possibility that Xtra address books and email were downloaded for later use by the hackers. Telecom and Yahoo acknowledge the nature of the Yahoo mail server security breach meant it was possible this had taken place. But both say there is so far no evidence it happened. Mr Matthews asks if there’s any evidence it didn’t.

The direct mail server security breach meant phishing emails were sent to the contacts of some people who were not actively using their Xtra account, let alone clicking on a dodgy link. . .

Ours was one of the accounts which had its password cancelled and we had no trouble resetting it.

But no evidence that address books and emails were downloaded for later use could just mean they haven’t been used yet.

Thanks Telecom

Telecom has announced changes to overseas roaming charges which will significantly reduce the cost of calls and data in several countries:

A feature is a flat daily rate for data roaming by postpaid customers across major travel markets. Australia roaming will start at a specially reduced rate of $6 a day (Telecom will review the rate in mid 2013). Customers will pay just $10 a day flat rate for data while travelling in the UK, USA, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and Saudi Arabia. Telecom’s fair use policy applies to these rates .

Data roaming charges will be slashed by 83% to 92% in other markets, although charges will continue to be on a usage basis.

The new postpaid pricing schedule also includes new voice call roaming rates, featuring a 35% cut in the per-minute rate for Australia. Rate bands across all other markets have been simplified to make them easier to follow, with individual market rates either reduced by up to 50% or broadly similar to current rates.

For prepaid customers, data roaming charges will reduce by up to 88% and voice roaming charges by up to 45%. . . 

This is a vast improvement on the current very expensive rates for making calls or using data and much more convenient than using a local sim card while away from home.

It should be good for business too as a lot of frequent travellers who use their phones and iPads as infrequently as possible unless they can get wireless connections when overseas will be far less concerned about the cost.

Bad old days are back

Remember when it used to take weeks to get a telephone connected?

Those bad old days are back.

Last month we applied for a connection for a new staff house on a dairy farm and were told someone would be out to do it a few days later.

He arrived when he was supposed to but took one look and said he couldn’t do the connection, someone else would have to do it.

We were told that someone would be out the following week.

That week came and went but no-one turned up.

My farmer phoned Telecom and was told someone would definitely be in touch the following morning.

No-one called so my farmer phoned again and was told that the job couldn’t be done. There wasn’t enough of whatever was needed at the exchange and it could be some months before there was.

Last week, about a week after that conversation, my farmer got a phone call, while we were driving to Christchurch, saying someone would be out to do something to a grey box in the middle of December.

He explained what we’d been told so far and asked if that meant that whatever was lacking at the exchange had been sorted.

I was in the car with him and could hear the conversation on the speaker.

We both got the impression she didn’t know anything about the exchange but before we could pursue the conversation, reception dropped.

As her number had been withheld we couldn’t call back and she  hasn’t tried calling us again.

That was five days ago and we still don’t know exactly when someone will be coming to do whatever needs to be done with the grey box nor whether if, when that’s done, the phone will be able to be connected.

Contrast that with the service from Sky.

Someone turned up at the designated time, put up a dish, connected the box and television – and it worked.

Connecting  a television and a telephone are different jobs but there’s no reason the service we’re getting from Telecom shouldn’t be up the standard as that we got from Sky.

Dear Telecom – updated

Dear Telecom,

Our internet connection died on Monday morning.

I phoned your help desk. A recorded message told me people were experiencing email difficulties, technicians were working on it and the waiting time for calls to be answered was about an hour.

I hung up.

About an hour later I rang back, heard about the email problems again and then was told if I left my number someone would call back.

I left my number. Someone called back.

She tried to help and couldn’t. She passed me onto someone else who tried to help.

She wanted me to tell her which of the lights were green on the modem. I couldn’t see to read in the half-light under the desk. I enlisted a younger pair of eyes, she read out the labels and I relayed them to the help desk.

It didn’t help and nothing else that was suggested worked. She passed me on to someone else.

After about an hour of this the bloke who was trying to help said he’d have to email a technician who would text me and I could expect that message within four hours.

By Tuesday morning I’d still heard nothing. Our office manager spent more than an hour on the phone getting to the same place I had.

But at 9:35 I got a text telling me Telecom had logged a case and giving me a reference number.

Yesterday evening when we’d heard nothing more my farmer rang for help.

He got nowhere.

I went over to the office and found a message saying the problem had been resolved and everything would be fine by this morning.

At 9:18pm I got a text saying the problem had been resolved.

I went back tot he office, the internet was still dead. I rang the support number again.

The woman who answered got me under the desk again to put the end of a paper clip in a tiny hole in the modem to reboot it. That didn’t work either.

She passed me on to someone else who studied the case notes and said that the problem at the exchange had been fixed  but they still had to do something else, it should be fine in the morning and I’d get a text between 8 and 9am.

At 9:30 having heard nothing I rang the help desk again. I explained I needed level 2, the woman who answered said she’d try to help me first.

She couldn’t and eventually passed me on.

Once more I had to get under the desk and stick a paper clip in the tiny hole in the modem. The paper clip bent and wouldn’t turn the modem off. The man on the help desk suggested I get a tooth pick. I did. It broke. I found a stronger paper clip which enabled me to turn the modem off.

It came back on but the internet light still didn’t.

The help desk man eventually said he’d have to email the technician again. I asked him if he could impress upon him the urgency of the matter given we ‘d been trying to run a business on a couple of t-sticks for 48 hours and could he please ask the technician to contact us and give us an indication of what might be done by when.

He said I should get a text.

I didn’t.

I tried phoning Chorus directly but was told I had to go through Telecom.

It’s been more than four hours and we’ve still heard nothing.

Yesterday was the 20th of the month, had it not been for the t-sticks we wouldn’t have been able to pay the bills. As it was we could, albeit at a far slower rate than normal because mobile reception isn’t very good out here.

Thanks to the t-sticks we’ve been able to send and receive emails and I’ve been able to blog too but the much slower connection and the hours we’ve spent on the phone are costing us time and causing frustration for our staff and us.

That would be bad enough at any time of the year but it is especially concerning just two days before the country shuts-down for Christmas.

The length of time it’s taking and the silence in which we’ve been left are an appalling reflection on your customer service.

How hard would it be for a real person to phone us and tell us what’s happening and give an indication of when the problem might be resolved?

The very least a business in the business of communication should do is communicate with its customers when they’re having problems.

Yours in frustration

Ele

UPDATE:

3:08: Internet is back. Thank you.

Telecom abstaining from abstinence campaign

Telecom has canned its abstain for the All Blacks campaign.

Sex sells but abstinence would have been a big ask, even if it was tongue in cheek.

A campaign asking people to abstain from something they chose to forgo might have worked.

The one exhorting New Zealanders to touch, crouch and not engage for six weeks ought to have been chucked in the bad-idea bin long before it reached the public.

Is XT working properly yet?

Alcatel-Lucent, which designed telecom’s XT network has been employed to find out if it’s working properly.

We still have concerns with it.

When we were in Wanaka over Christmas/New Year my farmer’s phone and mine kept disconnecting mid call even when the display showed full reception.

I have an XT t-stick for my computer and it kept losing reception and/or disconnecting too.

I suspect that means the system can’t cope with the population influx.

We haven’t had any problems with phones in Wanaka since then but computer connection, in Wanaka and other places, while better is not 100% reliable.

We also both find that coverage for our XT phones isn’t as good as it was with the old system. There’s always been a black spot between the Otematata saddle and Omarama but anywhere else in the Waitaki Valley used to be okay.  It’s not with XT phones which go in and out of reception in several other places in the valley and other places between home and Christchurch and throughout Otago and Southland where we used to have no problems.

The system has got over its initial problems and is certainly working better than it was but there’s still room for improvement.

How does a Milestone compare with an iPhone?

Those who responded to my question of whether it would be better to buy a Blackberry or an iPhone all said an iPhone.

Now I have another question, how does Telecom’s Milestone, which is to be lanunched on July 1 compare with an iPhone?

The media release says it’s  powered by Android™ 2.1 operating system – which I presume is a good thing, but will it work outside main centres?

An iPhone, a Blackberry or what?

My mobile phone is showing its age and I’m looking at  a replacement.

I’m unsure whether I should stick with what I’m used to – a model that can make and take phone calls and send and receive texts – or go for something which can do more.

If you’ve had experience with  a Blackberry or iPhone, or anything that’s better than those I’d appreciate your advice.

I’m with Telecom now and  looking at changing phone not provider.

I’ve stuck with XT for mobile broadband but in spite of the new advertising campaign which Cactus Kate reckons means all the wrinkles have been ironed out, I’ve noticed my farmer’s phone, which isn’t on XT, gets service where the T-stick for the computer won’t.

My tartan genes get excited over a Scottish accent, but not sufficiently to allow me to accept poor reception.

XT truth from Telecom

When I rang the Telecom desk for the second time in three hours yesterday because the mobile broadband kept disconnecting the bloke who answered was very helpful.

He also admitted the problem was the XT network.

Phone calls take precedence over data so if/when the system reaches capacity a single extra phone call pushes out the broadband connection.

“But we’re working fast to remedy that and add extra capacity,” he added.

Does this mean that XT has been more popular than the company thought it would be or that capacity was insufficient to begin with?

Whichever it is, I’m giving the company the benefit of the doubt for now and waiting hopefully for delivery to meet the promises soon.

After all, as Not PC points out, other telcos aren’t fault-free either.

XT troubles

When I bought a new laptop last year I also bought a mobile broadband package which included connection to telecom’s XT network.

What a disappointment. It was no faster than the older model I’d had and when I was in Wanaka over Christmas and New Year it kept disconnecting and sometimes wouldn’t re-connect.

I eventually phoned the help-line, they did something to it and there was some improvement but still not the service I’d been promised.

When the outages to the XT network happened I was at home where I don’t use the mobile connections but I’d have been very frustrated had I been somewhere where I needed it.

In spite of this when I replaced the laptop that was stolen I went for the XT T-stick again, thinking that Telecom must have fixed the problems.

But in Wanaka on Saturday evening the computer kept disconnecting and after the fifth time in 30 minutes wouldn’t reconnect. At the same time my farmer who has an older Telecom mobile system had normal service.

Then the system failed completely yesterday.

It’s working again now, but how can we haver confidence that will continue?

We use Telecom because it’s always had better coverage in the country. We can make calls from most places on our farm when visitors with Vodophone can’t.

I had to sign up for a two year package so I’m stuck with Telecom anyway. But any more  problems and I’ll be going back to the store and asking to be swapped to the old system.

Telecan’t causes country chaos

The failure of Telecom’s XT network has caused chaos for farmers, stock agents and transport firms.

The buying and selling of stock requires co-ordination between farmers, agents and transporters who phone each other to arrange pick up and delivery times.

Most of these people spend most of their day well away from landlines so when their mobile phones don’t work they can’t be contacted.

When the phone system failed yesterday, stock was coming and going without the normal and necessary communication between buyers, sellers and truckies.

Is the headline just a wee bit slanted?

It says Telecom defends outrageous executive salaries.

Cactus Kate has another view.

The NBR looks at  how Paul Reyonold’s pay stacks up against the competition.

Uh oh18

When I couldn’t find a phone number on Monday I used the whitepages and got it immediately.

On my way to Christchurch the following day I needed the number again so rang 018.

I gave the operator the surname and first names of the couple and then explained I didn’t know the exact address but they lived at Clearwater.

She asked if that was an area, I replied it was a resort and she told me they didn’t have a number for anyone of that name at Clearwater.

The names I’d given her aren’t rare but they aren’t very common either so I asked if there was a number for any couple with the combination of names I was asking for anywhere in Christchurch.

She said there was one so I asked for the address and when she gave it to me I recognised it as being the one I needed.

Not giving the exact address makes finding a number harder, but given I gave the two first names and surname of the people whose number I wanted and there was only one with that combination in the whole of Christchurch, why didn’t she offer it as an alternative rather than just giving me the we -don’t -have -anyone -at -that -addreess response?

This isn’t the first time I’ve gone through a similar teeth-pulling exercise to get a number, even when I know it’s in the phone book and/or internet whitepages and I’ve got the right address.

It happens often with country people because rural delivery addresses usually go through a postal centre some distance from the phone exchange, so for example the postal address might be Oamaru but the phone exchange will be one of several other wee townships such as Enfield, Windsor or Duntroon which most people don’t know.

But it also happens with addresses in towns and cities and others tell me they have similar problems with the 018 service.

If it’s this bad when staff appear to be New Zealanders, imagine how much worse it will get if Telecom moves this service to an overseas call centre too.

Why not more WiFi?

Internect connection in Argentina was better and faster in 2003 than anything we could get at home at that time.

We’ve got broadband since then and although the rural connection (through Orcon) is much slower than we’d get in a city it’s an improvement on dial-up - fine for emails, net surfing and blogging but slower than desiarable for up or downloading lots of data.

But it doesn’t work on the laptop so when we’re on the road we use a Telecom mobile connection which operates at a similar speed to the home connection.

That’s pretty dismal comapred with many other places and last month’s visit to Argentina showed us their technology has overtaken ours again with the proliferation of free WiFi services which were available in most cafes, bars and hotels.

Bernard Hickey  found a similar level of service in the USA and Fairfacts Media notes free WiFi is offered by British pubs as a way to attract business.

We’re a long way from widespread availability of WiFi in New Zealand although the government has promised a boost to internet services as part of its investment in infrasturcture.

The wee Otago town of Lawrence isn’t waiting for the government though. The ODT reports  the locals are already setting up free wireless internet in the town centre.

More and more people, especially overseas visitors and business people, had laptops with them as they travelled, so it made sense to try to offer them free Internet access so they would stay longer in the town. . .

Quite – it’s good for travellers and it’s good for business and there’s no need to wait for the government to do it.

Tech tantrum #3

When I turned on the computer as I normally do first thing, this morning there was no internet connection.

I truned it off and unplugged everything, waited a minute, plugged everything back in, turned the computer on again, which is the limit of my technical ability, but still nothing.

The next step was to phone the help desk – but Orcon doesn’t open until 8am. Mutter muble, call that service?

We’ve got a backup with the laptop which has Telecom mobile, but 8am to 10.30 weekdays and 8am to 8pm weekend hours for Orcon’s help desk isn’t good enough in a 24 hour world.

New Toy

We have just invested in a mobile connection for the laptop.

It was supposed to have been set up on Thursday and when we couldn’t connect we presumed it was because mobile reception can be a bit hit and miss at home.

However, when we tried to check road conditions on our way up the Waitaki Valley today it still wouldn’t connect.

The very helpful bloke at the Telecom help desk discovered our connection hadn’t been processed, then told me to hang up and he’d call me back when he’d sorted it out.

He did, it was and I was able to get reception until we entered the Lindis Pass.

I’m impressed.

Broadband pitiful

 

Japanese telecoms entrepreneur  Sachio Semmoto told Helen Clark three years ago that New Zealand’s broadband was pitiful.

Semmoto praises Communications Minister David Cunliffe for tackling Telecom. “It had to be done”.

But he’s critical of the Government’s recent Budget announcements: The $340 million Digital Pathway Fund will still not be sufficient to fast forward the switch in emphasis needed to get New Zealand on to a better broadband platform, he says. Its focus on fibre – when many advanced societies are switching to greater use of mobile technologies – needs to be balanced.

New Zealand will simply “get killed” if it does not tackle such issues swiftly and build a speedy information highway to connect to nations with which it wants to do business.

If he’s not impressed by city broadband speeds he’d been even less impressed in the country.

 

We’ve got wireless broadband at home which gives us 100Mbps. The crib in Wanaka has dial up at half that and I had a laptop in Millers Flat last Friday where dial up was just 15Mbps.

Technology tantrum

A few weeks ago we got a letter and an email explaining that Orcon was taking over Telecom’s rural wireless network and that we should check our email settings to ensure we would continue to be able to send and receive emails.

 

There is a long story of time wasting frustration involving several calls to the help-line. The shorter version is we are now back to dial up speed with lots of can’t-find-website-check-you-are-connected messages; the house computer can send and receive emails, eventually after several disconnects but the office computer can only send.

 

I don’t know if the problem is with Telecom or Orcon but I’m not very impressed with either of them – and wireless help desks don’t work in the evening.