Australia's dumb Internet filter dropped

The Australian Government has dropped its ill-fated attempt to implement a "mandatory Internet filter" or  "clean feed".

It is not really clear where the intention to do this came from.  It seems to be an initiative conjured up during Kevin Rudd's time as Prime Minister, perhaps resulting from some background influence of the Australian Christian Lobby.

Stephen Conroy, the Communications Minister, continued to try and sell the initiative even though it was clear he didn't really know what he was talking about.  He was unable to address simple questions like:

• Who would decide who would be added to the "black list" of sites
• What scrutiny would be applied to such decisions
• How the filter would actually fulfill its stated objective "to stop the distribution of child abuse pornography material" - when it could have been easily bypassed by those who wanted to

This half-baked and ineffective measure would have resulted in censorship of the Internet, somewhat like the Great Firewall of China that the Communist Party administers.

Instead, an Interpol process will be used that will have a more rigorous process for deciding what sites are to be blocked.

Its good to see that some sense has prevailed with the outcome here.

Links

• Government abandons plans for internet filter - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Google stuffs up Picasa upgrade by removing integration with Picasa Web Albums

BEWARE: The Google Picasa Windows client upgrade from 3.8 to 3.9 REMOVES integration with Picasa Web Albums and replaces this with the inferior Google+ photos. 

I recommend you DO NOT upgrade until they sort this mess out.

Otherwise, if you "upgrade" you will lose the easy ability to:

• embed photos and slideshows from Picasa Web Albums in a blog or Google site etc.
• easily create Picasa Web Albums and upload smaller sized photos

This is a REALLY BAD upgrade as it downgrades your functionality.  Google, please reconsider this.

A 4 week nightmare with Telstra

I was convinced by a door-to-door salesman about a month ago to move our home phone and Internet to Telstra after 10 years on Optus.

He assured me the cable Internet was very fast and very reliable.  Unfortunately, Telstra and their cable Internet are not.

If you are thinking of moving to Telstra, I recommend you don't.


If they don't sort their mess out, they will lose most of their customer base and the business will continue to decline.  Let's hope they wake up before end-game.

Below is a summary of a letter I sent the David Thodey, the Telstra CEO, advising him of our tales of woe.

=====================
David Thodey
Chief Executive Officer
Telstra Corporation Ltd
242 Exhibition Street Melbourne VIC 3000

Dear Mr Thodey,

I wish to express my extreme dissatisfaction with my recent dealings with Telstra.  I recently moved back to Telstra on a "cap bundle" after 10 years on Optus.

Over the last 4 weeks I have spent more time on the phone (over 10 hours) to Telstra than I spent with Optus over 10 years.

Connection

• Major issues getting Internet service provided.  It took over 12 days and several telephone calls to get it connected, even though it was part of a "bundle".
• I rang the Complaints Department and lodged a complaint that I was without the Internet for a 10 day period, and that scheduled commitments were not met.
• The Internet connection was the booked for next door, which a required another phone call to Telstra and further rescheduling.

Ongoing dropouts not resolved

• Over the next week, we experienced several drop outs, and spent hours on the phone talking to various people in the Call Centres
• A couple of time I was able to restore the service, but it was running very slow with DNS timeouts, then dropping out again.
• Several more phone calls, then technicians came twice and said "there was no signal in the street", then it started working.  But they did not log a problem with the network department.
• I lodged another complaint, then got another modem.  The problems appeared to be fixed. 

More service disruption

• The Internet then functioned OK for about a week and was OK, but still not fast.  
• Working from home, the Internet dropped out again. I couldn't restore it by resetting the modem.
• Further lengthy calls to Telstra, more diagnostics (turn modem off, reset it, reboot PC etc) which did not fix the problem.   I lodged another complaint about the service and lack of problem resolution.

Backup Telstra Wifi Modem failed and not replaced.

• The Telstra Wifi Modem I had for backup Internet also failed - I could not connect to it via wifi.  After more diagnosis over the phone they told me what I told them - that the wifi connection was not working.
• Telstra Camberwell said they had no technician there so they couldn't do anything. I told them I had been advised by the call centre that the modem would be replaced.  They said they would have send it to Sydney to get it looked at, and they could not give me a replacement until this happened.  They gave me a loan USB modem, which does not work.

Service restored, but widespread problems apparent in suburb

• Another Service Stream technical came and after fiddling with the modem as able to get it working again.  
• He said there was (still) a weak signal in the street, and the network people would need to look at it (apparently the same problem I reported about 2 weeks ago).  He said the there were also problems impacting Surrey Hills, Canterbury and Camberwell.
• Telstra complaints told me that may complaint yesterday was "not recorded as a complaint" despite my specific request for it to be.
• I advised the previous complaints manager that  I was completely frustrated by Telstra's appalling customer service, inability to provide a  basic Internet connection service, and inability to resolve problems, and that I was changing to another provider for the phone and Internet.  Telstra them offered to not change us exit or cancellation fees.

Network techs visit for the first time

• Advised me that "the readings were too high and the hub in the street was out of alignment and needed adjustment, and once that was done the service would be restored".  And it was.  Hallelujah.  They had only just been notified of a problem!
• The next day another Network tech came and replaced the box/plate in the street outside are residence, and the speed improved.  He was capable and friendly.
• I was contacted by a new Case Manager who apologised for all the delays and hassles and said that David Thodey and received my letter and that steps would be taken to resolve the service and escalation problems I had encountered.  
• I advised that we have decided to move to another phone and Internet provider (iiNet) as we have little faith that Telstra will be able to provide ongoing reliable Internet or resolve any future problems.

Telstra must be spending an excessive amount on foreign Call Centres and complaints staff to deal with ongoing occurrence and escalation of service issues that are not resolved.

As a Telstra shareholder, I consider this to be gross mismanagement of the company.  Telstra has been unable to provide me with a basic functional Internet service, and the customer service has been extremely poor.

Yours faithfully,


Peter Campbell.

What is Labor up to with the NBN?

Labor's policy initiative for implementing a high speed National Broadband Network arguably was a decisive factor in them forming minority government after the hung 2010 Australian federal election.

Rob Oakshott and Tony Windsor both stated that the delivery of fast internet access to rural regions in Australia was a key consideration in their decision to support the minority Gillard government.

So far so good.  Many of Australia's regional areas - even close to major cities - have very slow Internet access.  This hampers local businesses and makes it difficult for them to compete with city-based businesses, particularly when websites need updating and eCommerce transactions are conducted.

Spending money - say $20b - on providing fast broadband Internet access to rural areas would go a long way to providing services and opportunities to rural areas.  This could have the following benefits

• Companies could conduct business relying on Internet services at any location, not just major cities
• Regional employment opportunities could increase, attracting people to live in regional areas rather than continue to go to cities such as Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane that are becoming crowded and congested
• Innovative health services using video conference and remote surgery could be provided in regional areas, and mean that people living there don't always have to travel to Melbourne for complex or specialist medical treatment
• Young people in rural areas would have the same sort of access to online media and social network that their city counterparts have.

I think all this is good.

However, the notion of providing fibre to every household in major cities is questionable.  The vast majority of  people who currently have ADSL2+ are happy with their speed of access and download volumes.  Our household manages well with 15GB per month and two fairly heavy Internet users find the speed more than acceptable.

Friends with teenage children downloading lots of media operate on plans up to 150GB per month and find this meets their needs.

The notion that extremely high speed (and expensive) optical fibre is required to every home is simply not true.  The notion that "it will be needed in the future" is highly questionable too.  Given the rate of innovation and change in computing and the Internet, when the future arrives it will be different, and more often than not cheaper.  

Politicians like Stephen Conroy know virtually nothing about technology and networks, yet they are presiding over major decisions like the scope and technology solution(s) for the National Broadband Network.

Most of these decisions are happening behind a veil of secrecy, with "commercial in confidence" being trotted out as the excuse for this.   This is just not good enough.   There has been no community consultation regarding the NBN requirements that I am aware of.

There has been no open industry consultation about it either.

Now Stephen Conroy and Julia Gillard are sitting on the "business case".  Why?  It is because it doesn't stack up?   Do the significant costs of providing optical fibre to every home not have any tangible benefits?

Right there are more questions than answers.  

I support proceeding with a rural high-speed Internet solution (say $20b) but think we should delay any expenditure on implementing optical fibre to the homes in our cities.

Optical fibre is already in use within the "Internet backbone" and further investment in this would be appropriate and cost effective.

Is Stephen Conroy's Internet censorship a religious crusade?

Stephen Conroy, a Victorian Senator, has been relentlessly pursuing government censorship of the Internet, claiming that this is required "to protect children from harmful content" and to "stop bad people exchanging harmful content".  Unfortunately it will do neither.

While his motive is reasonable, his secret Internet black list is not.  It will be easily subverted by the villains, and will be largely ineffective.

Unfortunately Senator Conroy has deaf ears to these concerns, and is blindly forging ahead with his ill-considered proposal.  Who does he thinks he is "representing" as a Victorian Senator?  Not me, nor many other Victorians I suspect.   His fervour and devotion to this cause suggests possible religious motivations.

Along the way, he has claimed that the Internet is not special.and should be censored like books, films and newspapers.  Senator Conroy has dismissed the torrent of criticism directed at his policy as "misleading information" spread by "an organised group in the online world".

He has also ignored the obvious similarities to China's Great Internet Firewall censorship.

Australia has just made Google's top 10 censorship list  of countries that have asked the search engine Google to hand over user data or to censor information.

Internet censorship is part of a steady drift towards Big Brother. CCTV, secret police lists, anti-terrorism and anti-organised crime laws that all impinge in individual rights. Oh, and no Bill of Rights either.

So the Labor Government is happy to behave like the autocratic Chinese Government? Its a disgrace!

The solution is for people to install personal content filters if they wish, and for the goverment and police to actively pursue and prosecute wrongdoers.

According to the U.S. Ambassador, "the United States has been able to accomplish the goals that Conroy has described for Australia, which is to capture and prosecute child pornographers, without having to use internet filters".  So can Australia.

External links

• Internetblackout.com.au
• Great Intenet blackout, Greenlivingpedia.org
• Left reasons to oppose the net filter #nocleanfeed, larvatusprodeo.net
• US ambassador critical of Conroy's internet filters