The best of 'Reader Comments': BT downtime and the BSA under fire

Each week silicon.com is inundated with comments from you, our readers. From the past seven days, we present some reactions to stories about downtime on BT's UK national network (http://www.silicon.com/a449294 and http://www.silicon.com/a49336), and thoughts on software licensing following criticism of the Business Software Alliance's (BSA's) tactics (http://www.silicon.com/a49383).

For obvious reasons, a number of readers commenting this week preferred to remain anonymous.

Not only trouble at local loop...
From: Anon

Another frustrating day. It is obviously not just the local loop that needs looking at. I hope that BT will offer its customers an explanation (credible). This underlies the importance of establishing an internet infrastructure where users have true choice with redundant network paths both from their local IP devices as well as through the backbones.

Getting the right staff
From: Alan Cornelious

Where do they get their engineers from? As a long-standing computer engineer myself, I have never known a critical installation like this to have been down for such a length of time - 25 hours+!!! It is about time they invested more in the right kind of people to support all these wonderful ideas they keep coming up with.

Compensation?
From: Anon.

I have lost two days' work and there is no stated time as to when this problem will be sorted out. Will they give us a month free as a gesture of goodwill?

Free support?
From: Tom Uphill

The wonderful thing for BT is that for its users to call to get help while their server is not working properly they have to each spend 50 pence a minute on the phone call. Not bad for a lousy performer.

Compensation
From: Anon.

After 10 years with my previous (and reliable) service provider - I've just ventured into Openworld. It's not encouraging that only 10 days into the service I had to dig out the contract to naively check if I could be compensated. Wait a minute! In it BT clearly undertakes to "use the reasonable skill and care of a competent internet service provider". I'm calling my lawyer!

Nothing to do with us, guv...
From: Anon.

For the last two days BT has been telling me "There are problems with one of the major UK backbones". What they failed to tell me is that it is THEIR backbone! The truth will out.

Channel of complaint
From: Anon.

My suggestion to people would be to send emails to the cabinet office and the minister responsible (as I have done) and point out that as they get more people to join the net and our economy becomes more dependant on this communication link, it needs to work FAST and All THE TIME. In a commercial world the simplest way for Oftel to enforce this would be to enforce service level agreements like the main telephone business ones. So why are they not?

My choice here is between NTL and BT. They effectively operate a cartel by their lack of commitment to services at a price. The Swedes have 10 times the bandwidth for one quarter of the price. Mostly because their government is committed to the concept (and how else do you work in 10 feet of snow!).

Only some parts of BT are in chaos, clearly this does not include their 'let's sc*** the public' legal department.

'Leaves on the track'
From: Anon.

After queuing for some time for a `technical support` person I was told that BT Openworld were unable to tell me anything about the fault because they were not allowed to speak to BT Ignite to ask them! And of course they will be offering home users no refund, not even an apology or an explanation. Definitely `leaves on the track` level of denial.

The solution?
From: Harvie Rollins

We have just ditched all of our existing comms solutions for a brand new narrowband service about to be lunched by BT. When you subscribe you get all the `bits` you need in a lovely big brown cardboard box. The contents are:

3 miles of gardeners' string
2 baked beans tins (empty and nicely washed out) one end taken off and a small hole in the centre of the other end.
1 set of instructions which reads: pass ends of string through centre holes in cans and tie a firm knot to secure in place

There is some small print on the instructions which reads: Please note that BT is responsible for keeping the string taught. However BT are unable to guarantee the taughtness of the string at all times. You therefore may experience some small losses in service.

And finally...
From : asd asd

I'm afraid they promised ISPs it would be back up by 1pm. The sad truth is it was just before 7pm - nice one BT, we hate you.

Meanwhile, a law firm has advised IT directors not to be influenced by the BSA's software auditing forms (http://www.silicon.com/a49383 and http://www.silicon.com/a49386 for our view)...

DIY
From: ba ta

Do not complete the forms and incriminate yourselves. Get legal but not on their terms.

Think before you act
From: Anon.

Any IS manager who passes on this sort of info to external bodies without first looking into all implications very carefully, deserves to be prosecuted...

Vendors must co-operate too
From: David J Walker, AUK2000

As a software producer myself, obviously I am against piracy. However, before certain companies start getting heavy, possibly they should ensure that their product is fit to be marketed. When the BSA's members clean up their acts, they can start expecting the market to clean up theirs. Bullying, deceitful, possibly unlawful tactics do not make them any friends. Nor do the incredible profits they show year on year. My company approached one of the software licensing police companies concerning piracy of our product, and were abruptly told that they had no interest in a company as small as us.

No to the BSA
From: Khushil Dep

This is right out of order! Companies these days are having enough trouble wading through the licence schemes of some vendors and trying to get themselves in order without the BSA sticking their noses in. FAST do a great job on their own to get things checked so I think this is just BSA's idea of validating itself.