Telkom vs Webafrica

[kaspaas]

Hi,

Just a headsup:

a client had problems connecting to ADSL with a Telkom managed ADSL line and a Webafrica bandwidth account.

It turned out the problem was that Telkom changed stuff ...

The client had Webafrica's security activated that limited login to ADSL to a single telephone line.

It seems as it Telkom had changed the "identifier" during the night, and that the additional security prevented the client from logging into ADSL.

 

[Nod]

I had this before as well. They change your port number on the DSLAM for some unknown reason, and then you sit without a connection until your ISP can reset your security for you. Very nice of Telkom to make changes without notifying the people affected.

 

[bonobo_slr]

I had this before as well. They change your port number on the DSLAM for some unknown reason, and then you sit without a connection until your ISP can reset your security for you. Very nice of Telkom to make changes without notifying the people affected.

There is no guarantee that the NAS port will stay the same so it is actually not the best "security" feature. I have considered implementing something similar, but I cannot have any guarantees that port number will remain fixed. If there are repairs done at the DSLAM there is no way the ISP can be informed of what ports are affected and what ISPs the users on the other end they actually belong to. You can have multiple ISPs and do not have to tell Telkom about it. So how are they supposed to know who to inform. I know that I am wasting my energy typing this, but if you really think about it, this is hardly Telkom's fault. They get blamed for a lot of things and with good reason, but in this case I feel that the ISP should not really be offering this a full on security feature. By all means offer it, but they should give more info to the customer about such things like NAS port changes.

 

[HavocXphere]

Yeah...can't be helped.

The ISPs should have a warning on the page where one configures the port num security.

On balance its still a good thing though. No more cap theft.

 

[bonobo_slr]

Yeah...can't be helped.

The ISPs should have a warning on the page where one configures the port num security.

On balance its still a good thing though. No more cap theft.

Agreed. But if I were to do something like that I would put in a self management page / sms functionality, where you can enable/disable the feature and update your nas port. Then it is useful and not too much of an inconvenience should the port change.

 

[Syndyre]

There is no guarantee that the NAS port will stay the same so it is actually not the best "security" feature. I have considered implementing something similar, but I cannot have any guarantees that port number will remain fixed. If there are repairs done at the DSLAM there is no way the ISP can be informed of what ports are affected and what ISPs the users on the other end they actually belong to. You can have multiple ISPs and do not have to tell Telkom about it. So how are they supposed to know who to inform. I know that I am wasting my energy typing this, but if you really think about it, this is hardly Telkom's fault. They get blamed for a lot of things and with good reason, but in this case I feel that the ISP should not really be offering this a full on security feature. By all means offer it, but they should give more info to the customer about such things like NAS port changes.

Yeah, it has its uses but the problem always comes in when people don't really understand the tech behind it.

I wonder if limiting the account to a specific exchange wouldn't work better, if the NAS port ranges for each exchange were publically available or at least to ISPs. Sure its slightly less secure but the probability that the guy who stole your username is using the same exchange as you must be pretty low.

 

[HavocXphere]

Similar idea: The ISP should send an SMS whenever a foreign port num attempts to log in to a secured account.

I'll email a request to WA if I get the time.

 

[Nod]

There is no guarantee that the NAS port will stay the same so it is actually not the best "security" feature. I have considered implementing something similar, but I cannot have any guarantees that port number will remain fixed. If there are repairs done at the DSLAM there is no way the ISP can be informed of what ports are affected and what ISPs the users on the other end they actually belong to. You can have multiple ISPs and do not have to tell Telkom about it. So how are they supposed to know who to inform. I know that I am wasting my energy typing this, but if you really think about it, this is hardly Telkom's fault. They get blamed for a lot of things and with good reason, but in this case I feel that the ISP should not really be offering this a full on security feature. By all means offer it, but they should give more info to the customer about such things like NAS port changes.

They could at least inform the user. The user can then disable the security for the duration of the work.

 

[lilGr]

The problem always stems from telkom , It`s basically a given

 

[Lycanthrope]

They could at least inform the user. The user can then disable the security for the duration of the work.

That's under the assumption that the user knows how to turn on a computer in the first place.

 

[Nod]

That's under the assumption that the user knows how to turn on a computer in the first place.

The user normally have to enable the security feature himself, and even if it was done from the ISP side, the user at least know something was done, and can inform his ISP(s) of the potential issue.

 

[Lycanthrope]

The user normally have to enable the security feature himself, and even if it was done from the ISP side, the user at least know something was done, and can inform his ISP(s) of the potential issue.

Unless it's done for them

I understand what you're getting at. However, not everyone knows enough to do it by themselves, when their line dies, to them, that's really the extent of their thought processes. They don't need to know how it works, so terms like, "DSLAM" go over their heads.