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I have to confess to being something of a novice with mobile comms.  I have steadfastly refused to have a mobile phone on the grounds that I don't want people phoning me up!  The various acronyms associated with mobile comms still confuse me a bit, and I have never sent a text message! However, I find myself travelling quite a bit, and within the UK, it seems  to me that in British hotels internet access is often just another way to extract cash from the guests.  (This is is contrast to my experiences in the USA and Japan).  One criterion I had for selecting a system was that some support for Linux should be available.  Browsing various fora, I decided to have a go with the Vodafone system.

Vodafone have a quite a large website covering development of drivers etc for their mobile devices including the USB modems.  The associated Betavone Forge site has a forum which was very helpful in getting the system working on Linux (Ubuntu 8.04).

On receiving the pack from Vodafone (a quick and efficient delivery), I was initially concerned that the wrong modem had been supplied - but I think I was wrong.  The device itself is a Huawei E172.  Installation on Windows XP is pretty straightforward: the software is present in the device and is installed pretty much automatically when the device is pluged in.  I did reboot my linux laptop into Vista, but after installing the drivers, couldn't figure out how to connect (possibly due to my unfamiliarity with Vista - this was the first boot up in Vista for many months).

Making the device cooperate with my laptop was a little complicated.  I spent some time looking at the Betavine forums, and discovered a number of solutions, none of which seemed exactly appropriate.  I left a message for help.  I then made the big mistake: I followed some instructions on the Ubuntu forums, which conked out Network Manager.  So, now having a laptop with no internet access, I was a bit stuffed!  It took a fair bit of tweaking to persuade the system to spot my home network, but once that was done, I checked the forum - there was a response posted within 2h of my original enquiry.  (It's my experience that these fora represent the most effective and efficient support systems, generally coming from the user community).  The information there sorted out the profile I needed to set up the modem.

I tried a variety of the available driver versions, eventually finding 1.99.16 worked well.  I have tried the device in two locationsthus far, my office and my home.  In both locations, 3G was not available, and speeds were rather slow.  It remains to be seen how widespread the availablity of fast internet access is (I'm under no illusions there!).

[see also this review]

Ofcom have published a consultation document entitled "Delivering super-fast broadband in the UK": this is an interactive affair, and I notice that the comments on one particular paragraph exceed the others.  Guess what that's about?

1.38  The introduction of new business models can be controversial, but may be very important in the delivery of new access networks. Regulation can have a role, for example in helping to increase consumer confidence in new services. One example is improving consumers' perception of behavioural advertising. We are interested in views on where else Ofcom can assist in new commercial developments.

You can see the comments here.

Forgive the capitalisation, but SINCE WHEN IS IT APPROPRIATE FOR OFCOM TO ASSIST THE DEVELOPMENT OF UNPOPULAR, UNSCRUPULOUS, DEVIOUS, DISHONEST AND ILLEGAL BUSINESS PRACTISES?

I got my MAC, now to switch to a new ISP, an ISP that respects users' privacy, and which won't deal with Phorm.

I also finally got a response to my email requesting my web pages not be scanned by Phorm, a request that was NOT sent to an obviously Phome address, but which was read by at least 12 Phorm employees.

The information at the BT Webwise page seems to me to avoid discussing BT's real motives in proposing to employ this system.  The quoted blocks below come from BT's Webwise page.

BT Webwise increases your protection against online fraud and makes ads that appear on participating websites more relevant to your interests. It's completely free for BT Total Broadband customers and you don't have to download or install any software for it to work.

This is rather disingenuous.  Most modern browsers offer protection against phishing sites.  I strongly suspect that most broadband users would prefer to minimise all advertising: certainly this is one reason I use Firefox with its adblock add-on.  Of course it's free, BT will be selling our browsing history

BT Webwise automatically adds an additional layer of protection against online fraud by checking the sites you visit against a list of suspected fraudulent and untrustworthy websites. When you attempt to visit any website on the list, you'll see a warning, so you can choose whether or not to visit it. It's another way BT is helping to protect you online.

Of course, this depends on the accuracy of the list, and how comprehensive it is.   This isn't why BT are monitoring and selling your web browsing activity, they are doing it to make money.

BT Webwise also personalises the online advertising you see when browsing on participating websites by linking ads to your interests. For example, if you search for a weekend trip to Paris or visit pages related to Paris, BT Webwise would replace the standard ads that would normally appear with advertising relating to travel or hotels information. You won't see any more adverts than you normally do - they'll simply be more relevant.

Oh, yeah really great.  Other users of your pC will start seeing adverts based on your browsing activity.  This could have unintended consequences!

Well, I appear not to be one of those who will have Phorm trialled on them (since I haven't seen the invitation screen), and since the rollout is predicted to happen 4 weeks from the start of this 4 week trial, I will be long gone by then.  I requested my MAC at 8pm on 29/9/08.

On the "How it Works" page, BT is again rather disingenuous, beginning with the so-called antiphishing service.  They also claim if you have opted out

... BT Webwise will no longer collect any data from the web pages that you visit, meaning we will not provide anti-fraud warnings and the adverts you see online will not be tailored to your interests.

Again, BT put anti-fraud ahead of their real motivation.  Further to that, the system will still route all your web traffic through the Phorm hardware.  It's also cookie-based, which has the problem associated with cookie deletion.  Opted out peple will periodically find themselves opted back in as cookies get deleted or time out.  Note also that the BT-Phorm system will forge cookies to make them look as though they come from websites visited, rather than Phorm.

All the way through their ridiculous so-called FAQs I see nonsense at every step.  For example, I could use robots.txt to stop them scanning my websites, but only by stopping the Googlebot, or Tahoo, or everyone from scanning the site.  (See this page, it's down near the bottom)

Phorm is a rebadged spyware distributor - formerly known as 121 Media.  For more information about Phorm visit

BadPhorm

NoDPI

In the meantime, I will be changing ISP, and I have emailed to request that my websites are not profiled.