Cool Ideas Fibre ISP – Feedback Thread 2

[dotdan]

I was asking in another thread if Vox had any issues, but didn't get a conclusive answer. Some people on this site were saying that Vox had some international traffic problems at some point, and others were saying it was fine the whole time. Vox customers I know had no perceivable problems over the course of the weekend. I know Vox is big, so, presumably has more cash for such things. I would also like to know if they were actually impacted at all by these DDoS attacks.

Well via my account manager, no. They weren't affected by the DDOS attack over the weekend due to these 3-4 devices they have in place in EU. I forget the name now unfortunately. I can only imagine the costs involved though!

 

[dotdan]

Well via my account manager, no. They weren't affected by the DDOS attack over the weekend due to these 3-4 devices they have in place in EU. I forget the name now unfortunately. I can only imagine the costs involved though!

Ah it just came back to me the solution they use... probably shouldn't mention it on here. CISP probably uses it as well or knows about them in any case and most likely a very expensive solution.

 

[Enzo Matrix]

It seems to me that there is lots of confusion here around just exactly what happened.
I think it is pretty simple.

A bad actor or group of actors with very advanced networking skills decided to initiate a ransom for network access attack against CISP.

To maximise effect and cause the most griping, it was conducted during gaming hours.​

To prevent early detection blocks of CI IP ranges were hit and then amplified from inside.​

​

Be mindful that this was a criminal event, for those of you who believe there is a defence against an ambush, you are wrong.​

Cyber-terrorism is not new or exclusively targetted at CI.

The real question is, was it mitigated or did the attacker/s just stop?

Or were they paid

 

[BrendanMc]

Yeah, was a crash course for me to get it setup, but I got help from Roelf, he winbox'd in and made sure all my firewall protections was good. By default it comes factory set pretty secure lately. I only disable the DNS remote something something on it. Not at the router now to find the wording.
And I check weekly for any update to the software and firmware.

Thanks I have the TP Archer 1200 Gigabit router, i think, at work now, but i'm pretty that's the one

 

[CrypticZA]

So many angry people simple solution was just to VPN (find one that was working). Used Proton VPN whole weekend on their 7 day trial, connected to a JHB server and was hardly affected. Was able to stream, game and almost anything whole weekend... Had the occasional drops etc but really can't rage too hard about it since it was a cyber attack...

 

[smokemaryjane]

I know that openserve = telkom. That is why adsl accounts work on their fibre system.

So, here's my suggestion to CISP (but i guess this needs to be requested from the providers and not the isp)
Allow users to dial up to other isp's on any fibre network.

I would happily fork out money for an adhoc fibre dialup with like 10GB of data. Just like we used to do during ADSL days.

 

[CrypticZA]

I know that openserve = telkom. That is why adsl accounts work on their fibre system.

So, here's my suggestion to CISP (but i guess this needs to be requested from the providers and not the isp)
Allow users to dial up to other isp's on any fibre network.

I would happily fork out money for an adhoc fibre dialup with like 10GB of data. Just like we used to do during ADSL days.

Vumatel and the others are highly unlikely to do this. I have asked about this before and the reason they give is they lock down the ISP to the line to ensure they bill the right company.

 

[jannier]

I know that openserve = telkom. That is why adsl accounts work on their fibre system.

So, here's my suggestion to CISP (but i guess this needs to be requested from the providers and not the isp)
Allow users to dial up to other isp's on any fibre network.

I would happily fork out money for an adhoc fibre dialup with like 10GB of data. Just like we used to do during ADSL days.

Most of the FNO infrastructure does not allow it. I know it is not possible with Vuma trenched.

 

[pstation]

Well via my account manager, no. They weren't affected by the DDOS attack over the weekend due to these 3-4 devices they have in place in EU. I forget the name now unfortunately. I can only imagine the costs involved though!

They likely would have faced the same issues if they were also being hit with an attack of this magnitude. The only way to seamlessly fend off an attack is by having enough extra bandwidth to simply absorb the bad traffic and I doubt any ISP in SA has 500gbps of spare capacity just lying around. Otherwise it becomes a game of cat and mouse of having your upstream providers filtering good traffic from the bad.

 

[smokemaryjane]

I'm just suggesting a possible solution that will prevent more sadness for us plebs who want to game etc on a weekend.

Right now, I am still in the mindset that I will be moving away. I need working internet on weekends.

Anyways, point of the matter is, I don't want to leave. I dont want to have to deal with the hassle of moving, ~a month waiting, installation costs et al. I know what a pain this process will be.
But I am also not prepared to stay with a company, who is basically getting 'load shed' every other weekend. And the irony of eskom loadshedding is that I dont get charged during that outage. But my ISP does charge.

 

[Mike Hoxbig]

And the irony of eskom loadshedding is that I dont get charged during that outage. But my ISP does charge.

Are you paying Eskom for unlimited electricity every month?

 

[dotdan]

They likely would have faced the same issues if they were also being hit with an attack of this magnitude.

Apparently not. There has been numerous attacks on SA ISP's in the last two months. They weren't hit.

 

[smokemaryjane]

Are you paying Eskom for unlimited electricity every month?

I'm paying eskom for electricity. When its not working, I don't get charged. When its working, I get charged.

I'm not screaming, I'm not swearing. I am just trying to make some discussion here, and voicing my concerns and even giving suggestions (no matter how daft they might be to the higher ups at CISP)

Do I throw in a jab with my comments to show my disdain towards this current situation? Yes.

But you are on some other wave. And I guess you just want to shoot everyone down who has anything to say?

 

[dotdan]

These DDoS attacks have unfortunately shown the weakness with ISP's in SA. Whether the higher ups want to accept it or publicly accept it even, it is the truth.

 

[DJZassie]

I'm paying eskom for electricity. When its not working, I don't get charged. When its working, I get charged.

I'm not screaming, I'm not swearing. I am just trying to make some discussion here, and voicing my concerns and even giving suggestions (no matter how daft they might be to the higher ups at CISP)

Do I throw in a jab with my comments to show my disdain towards this current situation? Yes.

But you are on some other wave. And I guess you just want to shoot everyone down who has anything to say?

So basically you want a product that charges you based on your usage? Like a capped account? Why not find an ISP that can give you your requirements?

 

[ToxicBunny]

I'm paying eskom for electricity. When its not working, I don't get charged. When its working, I get charged.

I'm not screaming, I'm not swearing. I am just trying to make some discussion here, and voicing my concerns and even giving suggestions (no matter how daft they might be to the higher ups at CISP)

Do I throw in a jab with my comments to show my disdain towards this current situation? Yes.

But you are on some other wave. And I guess you just want to shoot everyone down who has anything to say?

Ok, so in places where you are charged a connection fee for the electrical connection, do you ever get a rebate for the periods when the connection isn't working?

 

[zaowuya]

I was looking at the one that @jannier posted. The one you posted looks nice. I see it on the scoop website, price is decent too. Thanks!

Config can be tricky, but you can DM me if you get stuck. With RouterOS there really are about a million things you can change, but it comes with pretty decent defaults in terms of firewalls, etc. (The best thing is that it has a safe mode so you can test settings without actually flashing them, so if you make a mistake you can roll back).

 

[GrootBaas]

I just hope that CISP didn't pay the attackers anything to stop it.

 

[smokemaryjane]

@ToxicBunny @DJZassie

After 4 DDOS attacks, and a TOS from CISP that literally says they will never give money back for downtime. I don't care about getting money back. All I stated was there are other services who can't make money from you for nothing.

Now if you go a bit further back, you will see people asking for rebates/cashback/discounts (something they requested as a gesture of gratitude to the people still staying with CISP). Honestly, 4 attacks, no refunds. Fine.

I just cannot fathom anyone willing to put up with this though. Once sure, twice maybe, but ongoing? Boy you guys must download all your stuff on week nights, and then play VLC catchup on weekends.

But everyone here today (apparently shills/fanboys for CISP) is just shooting down anyone who shows some agitation towards this issue. What is your plak? There is NO WAY you are ok with this.

Twitter and SMS this weekend: 2 notifications
CISP site: no updates for international outages since 8pm last night (it still wasnt working before midnight)
Facebook: not even one notice on their page this weekend. People had to go make comments on existing notices to get a response.

Should I only post happy monday pics on this thread? I just don't get it.

 

[Markd]

so I've just read the article posted on MYBB on ISP's being under attack. It started with RSAWEB who mitigated the attack in about 10 hours, then Axxess/WebAfrica and others that use Liquid Telecom, who mitigated the attack "in minutes". Yet I lost an entire weekend here on CISP. Is it working yet?