Internet service provider

An Internet service provider (ISP, also called Internet access provider, or IAP) is a company that offers its customers access to the Internet. The ISP connects to its customers using a data transmission technology appropriate for delivering Internet Protocol datagrams, such as dial-up, DSL, cable modem, wireless or dedicated high-speed interconnects.

ISPs may provide Internet e-mail accounts to users which allow them to communicate with one another by sending and receiving electronic messages through their ISP's servers. (As part of their e-mail service, ISPs usually offer the user an e-mail client software package, developed either internally or through an outside contract arrangement.) ISPs may provide other services such as remotely storing data files on behalf of their customers, as well as other services unique to each particular ISP.

Google Error Highlights Data Entry Problem in Industry

It's time to admit that data entry errors happen. A year or two ago, someone told me at ISPCON that his biggest fear about his own data center is a technician mistyping a command.

That happened to Google just a few days ago, resulting effectively in an outage lasting about an hour. It was one character. As internetnews notes, "Forward Slash Led to Massive Google Glitch".

Some are saying that no system should be so vulnerable to a typo that a single errant character could shut it down, but I think that any ISP that runs its own anti-spam system would admit to similar issues. Some have even designed that all-too-perfect spam filter, the one that blocks all e-mail.

The fact that a system could be brought down by a single errant keystroke is no surprise. Instead, companies need to have checks and balances. But checking an employees' work requires having another employee to do that (generally, they're called "managers") and in this economy, it seems that not even Google can afford them.

Economist Magazine: Poorly Managed Bailouts Could "Help Recreate the Monopolies"

We've put it on the ISP-Planet home page. The Economist magazine, which is no liberal rant haven, writes:

Perhaps the biggest risk of all these broadband plans is that incumbents will exploit the crisis to gain regulatory concessions limiting competition and open access to their networks in exchange for promises to invest. This could even help recreate the telecoms monopolies of old.

Governments around the world understand that broadband can bring wealth and can make it easier for the newly unemployed to obtain new jobs. A former classmate from high school, Steven Van Solkema, just left his Wall Street career and opened an online tea store at www.leafspa.com. Broadband gives you some interesting options!

But there's a real risk that any bailout money will go to existing projects or dividends. The intent of the bailout is not to help top executives at embattered companies, nor is to maintain the dividend rate of the S&P 500.

The current proposal [.pdf] (h/t OIA) gives companies a tax credit of 10 percent for broadband projects (20 percent if subscribers served by those projects had no access to broadband in the past). The vast majority of this money would go to the major phone companies, and they would get it for doing what they were going to do anyway.

Government could send the money to small businesses, but it's easier to send it to big ones.

Bruce Kushnick of TeleTruth is still asking for an accounting of all the tax breaks and other incentives that the phone companies have already received. With a track record like this, there is little likelihood that more cash would result in broadband for poor people.

He writes that the US would get more by giving to smaller companies: "Money given to small, innovative companies will be spent immediately at the local level in thousands of areas around the U.S."

So can Mr. Van Solkema get a tax credit for starting a new business in tough times? He deserves it.

Small Businesses Shutting Down Credit Cards?

An unnamed source tells me that credit card companies are cutting the limits on small business credit cards. A few have seen their limits cut to their outstanding balance.

Those small ISPs that are able to will be paying off their credit cards and will not use them in the future.

Some fear new fees in addition to rule changes.

If you're seeing this, let me know in the comments or send me a note and let me know whether or not you'd like to be quoted by name.

Charter Expected to File for Bankruptcy by April 1

Hindsight is 20/20, but it looks now as if Paul Allen should have sold Charter Communications some time ago. He considered doing so as long ago as August, 2007.

More recently, the rumors have been bankruptcy, and today it was confirmed that Charter Communications will file for Chapter 11.

Marketwatch notes that poor management caused problems:

Earlier in this decade, Charter was hurt more badly than its cable competitors by satellite broadcasters. The company had many systems that were late in adopting state-of-the art two-way capability, and the satellite companies targeted Charter systems in those areas. It also had a poor customer service reputation that it has had to work hard to overcome.

I would add that Paul Allen's involvement did not help the company. Customers -- and possibly even managers -- assumed that the company could lose money forever. It has, in fact, not made a profit since 1999.

The company has over $20 billion in debt and insufficient cash to make payments. The problems have been visible for some time. In 2007, the article also linked to above noted that the company was, "highly leveraged, with $19.6 billion in long-term debt and $81 million in cash on hand."

Yahoo Finance shows Charter with $22.553 billion in debt, more than Allen can repay by himself (compared to $14.666 billion in assets). Cablevision, which is about 5/6 the size of Charter in terms of subscribers, has $9.140 billion in assets and $14.239 billion in debt. That's a similar debt level.

The key difference? Profitability and customer service.

Look at BroadbandReports' ratings. Cablevision's Optimum Online service gets a B- for customer support and a B+ for the overall rating (value for money). The B- is not good, but it's far superior to Charter. Charter gets a C for tech support and a C for value for money.

Then there's profitability. Full year data is available for 2007, not 2008. In 2007, Cablevision reported net income of $218 million. In 2007, Charter reported a net loss of $1.616 billion.

If Charter cannot solve its profitability issues and customer service problems, this bankruptcy will only be the first of many.

SMK at Black Hat

internetnews.com's Sean Michael Kerner is at Black Hat DC 2009, and he's got some fascinating information from it on his blog.

He has four stories:

1) One presenter claims you can hack a satellite feed with less than $1000 worth of equipment. Please note that the hacker is not controlling the satellite itself; instead, he's looking for feeds that are not public but that are broadcast over satellite.

2) Another presenter said that users of Adobe Flash are creating implementations that are defective by design, at least in security terms. One common error involves files that have the username and password hardcoded into them. She showed that these vulnerable files can be found with a simple Google search.

3) A presenter posited the possibility of a novel attack on browsers that stores executable code in the offline data cache, but said that this attack is not yet a serious threat.

4) Hacking SSL is the fear of every webhost. Moxie Marlinspike demonstrated an attack that involves tricking a browser into thinking it's in a secure SSH session when in fact the browser is not in such a session. Marlinspike obtained login information for Gmail, Yahoo, PayPal, Facebook, etc. and then discarded that information. Marlinspike could not think of any way to fight the attack, but Kaminsky reminded attendees that DNS SEC would protect against this attack.

This year's conference does not contain the kind of blockbuster vulnerability that Kaminsky demonstrated last year (see The DNS Vulnerability and the ISP). So please reread last year's article on the DNS vulnerability and please implement DNS SEC if possible.

Adobe Should Fix Vulnerability Faster

ADTRAN's 10-K is Mostly Good News

On Friday, ADTRAN reported results for the fiscal year 2008. The company makes telecommunications equipment and is thus a good barometer for the industry. The company has always claimed to deliver better engineered and cheaper products from its headquarters in the "Silicon Valley of the South" in Huntsville, Alabama.

The company is very honest about its exposure to the recession. During 2008, it realized $2.8 million in losses in the stock market and its filing notes that the company also owns municipal bonds that have not yet lost value, but which could lose value or liquidity in the future.

Nevertheless, this is a profitable company, with $78.5 million net income for 2008 and a debt to equity ratio of barely more than 10 percent.

The company has already seen a slowdown in sales and foresees a further slowdown in Q1 2009, noting, "Beginning in the latter part of the third quarter of 2008 and extending through the fourth quarter of 2008, we experienced an overall decline in order rates across most of our product categories. We believe this decline in order rates was the result of slowing macroeconomic conditions, coupled with the fact that our sales in the fourth quarter of each year have typically been lower than our sales in the preceding third quarter due to seasonality. Our sales in the first quarter of each year have also typically been lower than our sales in the second and third quarters of the previous year due to seasonality."

Like many companies that are still profitable, it plans to reduce its debt. For example, the company is making early payments on a loan from the State of Alabama.

Consider ADTRAN a bellwether for companies that do their engineering in North America and sell to North American customers, as over 90 percent of its sales revenue in 2008 was generated in North America.

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Posted by agoldman at 3:02 PM | Add Comment

February 25, 2009

ISPCON Closes

I am writing this blog note to inform the ISP community that ISPCON will not run this year or in the foreseeable future. A conference that predates the Internet (when it was known as BBSCON, some of you may recall a fierce debate over whether the Internet should be commercialized) has become out of date. The Internet has moved on to smartphones, social media and user-generated content (for which Mediabistro has several strong shows).

It has been a privilege to run ISPCON and to bring together so many of the leaders of this industry.

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Posted by agoldman at 2:07 PM | Add Comment

February 23, 2009

If you missed it, Adobe last week admitted that Acrobat Reader is vulnerable to an attack that exploits a buffer overflow to place a downloader on the victim's PC. The downloader can then download and install a keylogger or other malware.

The company is working with anti-virus vendors such as Symantec and McAfee but announced that a patch will not be available until March 9 or 11.

Surely that's not good enough. High security enterprises such as Wall Street firms already have systems in place that combat downloaders by restricting the access of every device on the network. Anyone with lesser security expects vendors to fix vulnerabilities quickly, initially with a patch that might disable some functionality, and then later with with a software upgrade.