More trouble for you lucky users.....
www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-38208958
But at least it is cheap?
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I am a TalkTalk customer, and quite relaxed about this scare story.
From sherlock's link "TalkTalk's spokeswoman said some customers who had called in had been advised to change their wi-fi passwords, but the firm's security team now believed the step was unnecessary despite Mr Munro's warnings."
Below is extract from earlier BBC story:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-38167453
Post Office told the BBC that the problem began on Sunday and had affected about 100,000 of its customers.
Germany's Deutsche Telekom revealed that up to 900,000 of its customers had lost their internet connection as a result of the attack.
It involves the use of a modified form of the Mirai worm - a type of malware that is spread via hijacked computers, which causes damage to equipment powered by Linux-based operating systems.
Mirai was also involved in an earlier attack that caused several of the world's leading websites to become inaccessible, including Spotify, Twitter and Reddit.
Several models of router are vulnerable to the latest cyber-assault, including the Zyxel AMG1302, which is used by the Post Office.
The same router is also used by Kcom, an internet service provider (ISP) based in Hull, whose customers have also been affected.
"The vast majority of our customers are now able to connect to and use their broadband service as usual," the firm said in a statement.
"Our core network was not affected at any time and we have put in place measures to block future attacks from impacting our customers' routers and their ability to access the internet."
Attack widens
TalkTalk also confirmed that its D-Link DSL-3780 routers were affected but said only a small percentage of its customers used them.
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I am still receiving TALKTALK scam calls - 3 last week.
I left TT 2 months ago due to reasons other than the scam calls - they knew quite a lot about me & my TT contract - I now waste their time for up to 10 minutes, then tell then to go forth & multiply.
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>>I just block them!
They keep changiing numbers - sometimes pretending to be 0161XXXXX UK Styles & sometimes an "overseas number" but different country codes / regional codes.
Just looked at the history for last week 7 - 3 the same (on the one day we were out all day) & 4 different on other days.
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>> I am still receiving TALKTALK scam calls - 3 last week.
>> I left TT 2 months ago due to reasons other than the scam calls -
>> they knew quite a lot about me & my TT contract - I now waste
>> their time for up to 10 minutes, then tell then to go forth & multiply.
>>
I have been with TT since their inception. Never has a scam call from anyone pretending to be TT.
Only ever had one scam call from pretend Microsoft tech.
Complaints per 100,000 customers.
www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/latest/media/media-releases/2016/telecoms-pay-tv-complaints
Sky is the best overall, BT one of the worst.
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>>
>> But at least it is cheap?
>>
Indeed; how anybody can use them, given their cavalier disregard for the security of their customer's confidential information, baflles me. It's not like they're thatmuch cheaper than the other bottom feeders for most people.
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>> Indeed; how anybody can use them
Same Same.
Last edited by: Clk Sec on Tue 6 Dec 16 at 10:12
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>> Indeed; how anybody can use them, given their cavalier disregard for the security of their
>> customer's confidential information, baflles me. It's not like they're thatmuch cheaper than the other bottom
>> feeders for most people.
>>
Go on then, do a like for like price comparison with the closest bottom feeder you can find and post your results here so we can see what you mean.
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Let's start here then:-
preview.tinyurl.com/gqnyqvw
Nothing that damning from the ICO about Sky or BT, for example.
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A quick check over on uSwitch shows a 'typical' domestic package coming out at 27 quid a month via Talk Talk, compared with 27.50 for Plusnet and 25 quid for Virgin. So like I said, no great cost saving by using TT.
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>> A quick check over on uSwitch shows a 'typical' domestic package coming out at 27
>> quid a month via Talk Talk, compared with 27.50 for Plusnet and 25 quid for
>> Virgin. So like I said, no great cost saving by using TT.
>>
Have you tried comparing those "typical" packages for the exclusions and inclusions?
In case you missed it, the key word in my comment was "like for like".
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>>In case you missed it, the key word in my comment was "like for like".
They are as 'like for like' as can be practically determined without going through the T&Cs on 3 packages I'm not going to buy. I wouldn't switch to TT to save 50p a month.
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>> They are as 'like for like' as can be practically determined without going through the
>> T&Cs on 3 packages I'm not going to buy. I wouldn't switch to TT to
>> save 50p a month.
>>
Exactly. Nor would I.
If you haven't costed a TalkTalk package to include everything you have currently or need, you won't know that the amount you are saving is actually tens of £s, not 50p.
My current package includes anytime UK calls, anytime UK mobile calls from the landline, international calls landlines and mobiles to various destinations, one free SIM with 500MB data and some minutes and texts, unlimited internet downloads. All for a very very low price. When that deal ends, or now if I wish, I can change to the new prices which will be fixed for 18 months. No other telco offers to fix your price afaik. To top it all, the new package deal is available to all customers, i.e. it is not a limited time offer for new customers [*].
[*] Your Uswitch prices for Virgin and Plusnet are limited time enticement offers available only to new customers.
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>> Let's start here then:-
>>
>> preview.tinyurl.com/gqnyqvw
>>
>> Nothing that damning from the ICO about Sky or BT, for example.
>>
"The data was taken from an underlying customer database that was part of TalkTalk’s acquisition of Tiscali’s UK operations in 2009. The data was accessed through an attack on three vulnerable webpages within the inherited infrastructure. TalkTalk failed to properly scan this infrastructure for possible threats and so was unaware the vulnerable pages existed or that they enabled access to a database that held customer information.
TalkTalk was not aware that the installed version of the database software was outdated and no longer supported by the provider. The company said it did not know at the time that the software was affected by a bug – for which a fix was available. The bug allowed the attacker to bypass access restrictions. Had it been fixed, this would not have been possible."
Easily done when acquiring other companies.
Some massive mistakes:
www.investopedia.com/slide-show/biggest-acquisition-failures/
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>>Easily done when acquiring other companies.
If you don't have the budget / inclination to do due diligence properly.
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Your data is probably as safe with TT as anybody at the moment, given the pain and embarrassment visited on them. Trying to predict who is going to cock up next sounds difficult.
As long as they are cheap and it works, I'll use them. It's a commoditised service.
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>> >>Easily done when acquiring other companies.
>>
>> If you don't have the budget / inclination to do due diligence properly.
>>
Don't have the budget? Did you look at that list?
5 Biggest Acquisition Failures Of All Time
www.investopedia.com/slide-show/biggest-acquisition-failures/
No company even with limitless cash can ever be certain that it has done due diligence "properly" - because they won't know it hasn't been done so until things go wrong.
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The level of vitriolic comments made by some posters about TalkTalk on this website is quite astonishing.
The ISP actually has fewer complaints recorded against it than Sky or BT based on the ratio of complaints to subscriber numbers. It offers excellent value with no unnecessary frills for its subscribers, as I've known and enjoyed for more than 10 years.
I have had fibre with TT for around two years, but recently switched to the recent offer of fibre and line rental included for £27 a month, which is cheaper than I was paying previously. If a better offer comes along after three months from TT I can switch without penalty.
I dropped the phone calls option, using my mobile for personal calls (GiffGaff Goodybag with 500 minutes, unlimited texts and 4G data) ) or via What'sApp or Messenger via w-fi free of charge if the person called uses these apps.
Calls to other TT subscribers on landline are free and I have several friends and family members who are subscribers; it would be even better if you didn't need to have a landline for broadband, but I always make sure I get the best value for my money....:-)
PS
There's a new special offer on TT fibre available at the moment, but ends on Thursday.
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>>Indeed; how anybody can use them>>
Don't see any mention of TalkTalk in this piece, but I do see last year's winner, BT, is still in with a shout of repeating the feat...:-)
www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-4005916/It-s-time-vote-Wooden-Spoon-Awards.html
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I spotted that article a while back and immediately booked an appointment with Specsavers.
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Maybe if even 50% of remaining TT customers complained there still wouldn't be enough to make the top 10... :-)
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>>.. there still wouldn't be enough to make the top 10... :-)>>
You overlook the fact that TT has several million subscribers and that the ratio of complaints to number of subscribers is, in fact, quite low.
I've been with TT for more than 10 years and have been very satisfied for 99 per cent of that time..:-)
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>> You overlook the fact that TT has several million subscribers
But some of them not by choice. I was originally with Pipex, who got bought out by Tiscali, who were then bought out by TT. I never had any problems with Pipex or Tiscali IIRC, but TT on the other hand! Eventually TT got things right for me, but by god they were slow in doing it.
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>> But some of them not by choice.
>>
Funny, that's what Vauxhall owners say about their cars. ;-)
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>>But some of them not by choice.>>
Almost exactly the same route as mine although I was also with WorldOnLine, which offers great value at the time. I still use the Pipex (a superb ISP in its era) and WOL e-mail addresses as necessary.
But I switched to TalkTalk by choice and have had very few regrets..!
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Truth is, options are limited now for many.
Virgin Media won't supply us (no cable here, and I think they have 'sold' their legacy non-cable customers to TalkTalk), and they were dismal when I was a customer; Sky for unlimited medium fibre + phone calls is at least a tenner a month more than TT.
Disregarding those two, TT seems to be very much in the pack at the moment for customer satisfaction, whether measured by survey or complaint counting. None stands out but Plusnet seems to have the least gruntled customers for now.
www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2016/09/ofcom-q2-2016-report-bt-broadband-attracts-complaints.html
www.thinkbroadband.com/isp/compare.html?isp_7=1&isp_113=1&isp_77=1&isp_22=1&isp_104=1&commit=Compare
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>> Virgin Media won't supply us, and they were dismal when I was a customer
IIRC, Virgin were once NTL. But most of their customers referred to them as NT Hell
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>>IIRC, Virgin were once NTL. But most of their customers referred to them as NT Hell>>
My road was one of a number in my town that was cabled by Telewest in the late 1980s or early 1990s which merged with NTL in early 2006, before then itself buying Virgin Mobile a few months afterwards.
It was re-branded as Virgin Media the following year, but I've never taken up its offers despite being constantly bombarded with offers over the years as the services, especially broadband, were far too expensive compared in turn with Pipex, WorldOnline, Tiscali and TalkTalk.
As an aside comment, it's not generally known that the Home Plugs method of transmitting digital data/broadband by mains electricity was originally conceived in 1999 by MANWEB, then the electricity supplier for the North West and that Video On Demand was a BT invention, an idea it eventually sold to Time Warner in the States through then lack of interest in the UK.
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>> Disregarding those two, TT seems to be very much in the pack at the moment
>> for customer satisfaction, whether measured by survey or complaint counting. None stands out but Plusnet
>> seems to have the least gruntled customers for now.
More or less the way I feel. I was very disgruntled with TT. I switched to Plusnet, with whom I am pleased. However their prices seem to keep creeping up.
Has anyone had any joy with negotiating Plusnet prices downwards?
Last edited by: Duncan on Mon 12 Dec 16 at 11:31
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I perceive two kinds of ISP problems.
One is service-related - does it work reliably, and if it doesn't, are they any good at dealing with it. If it works OK, the rest of it is irrelevant. I only have experience of two ISPs, Virgin (dial up, followed by ADSL) and TalkTalk (ADSL and, for about 6 weeks now, FTTC).
The ADSL connection here was always poor.
Virgin showed no interest in sorting it out, once Openreach had been and I had paid them for fixing it (which they didn't, completely). That was an odd experience actually - what Openreach said in effect was "there wasn't a fault but we've fixed it for you". What they meant I suppose was that I had the service I was paying for, but they tweaked it a bit (they rewired the extension sockets, put a line filter in and a filtered plate).
By the time I had TalkTalk, it was clear it was just a bad line - rain always caused drop outs or slow downs, and the maximum speed was never over 2mbps. With the help of the bods on the community forum I tweaked it from about 1.2 to 1.8 sync rate. The community forum is the best thing about TT; I have not heard of anything like it with other ISPs. Touching wood, the FTTC service is everything it should be, and seemingly rainproof too, so for now the other service aspects don't matter.
The other consideration is price and packages. I left Virgin because they whacked up the prices to we ADSL customers and they clearly had no interest in retaining us. I have learned that TT needs watching when the contract ends and the bills go up. The best way I have found of dealing with TT when that happens is the online chat. The chat can be saved so there is evidence of any promises and what was agreed to. Just don't try actually talking to them (their name is satirical) and they are OK.
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>> . The community forum is the best thing about TT; I have not heard of anything like it with other ISPs.
Plusnet has a community forum, which I found very helpful when I had a speed problem. I was with TalkTalk for several years before Plusnet and never had any problems. I moved eventually because I thought I was paying them too much.
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>> I have learned that TT needs watching when the contract ends and the bills go up. >>
You surprise me somewhat with that comment. I've always managed to get a similar or better deal at the same price or a little less each time I've renewed my contract - what's more it doesn't depend on whether I speak to a UK based call centre or one abroad and confirmation by e-mail follows within minutes.
Where the ISPs seem to make most of their money is via the line rental but, presumably to hide its actual cost and a method first mooted earlier this year by TalkTalk, the combined cost of line rental and a service or services such as broadband and TV is now given as a fixed monthly charge. See:
tinyurl.com/hu46jut
Perhaps a little easier for ISPs to pull the wool over our eyes now...:-)
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>> Perhaps a little easier for ISPs to pull the wool over our eyes now...:-)
>>
Don't blame TalkTalk. The inclusion of line rental costs in the overall cost was a recommendation made by the Advertising Standards Authority.
www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2016/05/advert-watchdog-forces-uk-isps-include-line-rental-broadband-price.html
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>> The inclusion of line rental costs in the overall cost was a recommendation made by the Advertising Standards Authority. >>
True and a point made for some time by the ASA, but TalkTalk were the first to take it up.
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Yes - a point in the favour I would have thought. Been with TT for years and never had cause to complain or indeed needed even telephone their help line. I upgraded to fibre recently and the instructions for setting up the new router were a model of clarity.
Anyway how can you not admire a Co with a CEO called Dido? ;-)
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>> >> I have learned that TT needs watching when the contract ends and the bills
>> go up. >>
>>
>> You surprise me somewhat with that comment. I've always managed to get a similar or
>> better deal at the same price or a little less each time I've renewed my
>> contract
That's the point I think. I had not realised that I was out of contract and not having checked for a while had not noticed what I was paying. I then took a new contract to get it down.
More recently, they mailed me to offer fibre for £x additional per month. I said yes, then later checked the new customer offers On request I was switched to the new customer rate on a new contract.
Inertia is not our friend. It's at least mildly sneaky to say (as they do) that "existing customers can enjoy the same prices as new customers" but to require us to ask.
No different to many other services of course.
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>> It's at least mildly sneaky to say (as they do) that "existing customers can enjoy the same prices as new customers" but to require us to ask.>>
A lot of ISPs don't allow existing customers to upgrade to better offers meant to attract new subscribers and that included TT...:-)
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I've always been very happy with Talk Talk.
They were Tiscali when I fist went with them and had a year away a three years ago to get MotoGP on BT (sport).
I certainly didn't appreciate them until I'd experienced just how bad BT are. The broadband was so unreliable and customer service is non existent, but still the keep putting their prices up.
We changed back to Talk Talk the day the contract ended and have had no problems at all that haven't been sorted out immediately and without any hassle.
Pat
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BT is OK, in our experience.
We've had a satisfactory haggle with BT, this morning, as our existing deal with them finishes quite soon.
BT Fibre Infinity1, unlimited downloads, line rental, caller display and evening and weekend calls for £31.49 per month.
We spoke with a very friendly, polite and helpful lady at a UK call centre. The email confirmation came in less than five minutes.
This will be our third year with BT.
Less hassle to renew than find a new provider, too.
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I renewed my TT fibre broadband contract for £27 a month for 18 months including line rental. I don't need the TV (have more than ample similar alternatives and, if by any chance, I have to phone someone who isn't a TT subscriber I'll pay the phone call charge).
Otherwise I use my mobile and the free wireless telephone calls capability of WhatsApp and Messenger (both owned by Facebook);financial savings on an annual basis will be significant.
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Today's OFCOM report
www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/latest/features-and-news/complaints-figures
complaints per 100,000 customers
BT and Vodafone worst.
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TalkTalk wi-fi router passwords stolen - BrianByPass
