Usenet as an alternative to Bittorrent - Virgin spying on customers - Privacy

I hate the idea that ISPs (those providers of internet) are being bullied into spying on what we are doing, first by the likes of the MPAA (etc.) and now by the bigger kids in the playground like the French Government (who are bowing to the posh kids with all the money) and it won't be long until other governments decide to go the same way...It's wrong to tar everyone with the 'evil' brush...

If that wasn't bad enough, some ISP's are spotting a way of saving money off the back of this and quietly sorting/throttling popular packet types (like bittorrent for example) and dumping it to narrower bandwidth...I object to both of these practices - frankly it's no-one's business what I'm doing with my pipe on my own time...and if I want to transfer stuff around the place using torrents, why should I get a slower transfer speed than someone moving data with FTP or HTTP? It's definitely unreasonable and it's obvious why - it's so they don't have to bite the bullet and upgrade their networks to cope with increasing demand for fast broadband (remember all the wailing and crying from the ISPs when BBC iPlayer rolled out)?

So...especially if you are using Virgin for your internet access (as they have already publicly admitted they are now going to voluntarilly spy on what their clients are doing with their pipes, which is frankly shocking), rather than search for an ISP (with backbone/morals) quite yet, IMHO it's time to go underground...

For web access, unless it's other SSL stuff (like internet banking) or just reading the likes of the BBC website, I recommend Torpark (which is a Tor-network enabled Firefox browser), use gmail over that for email accces (a bit slower, but free, anonymous and encrypted)...if you have some cash to spend, use Xerobank for the same thing (it's fast)...

If you need to move big chunks of data around - ditch the torrents (where all the attention is at the moment) and go old skool ...Welcome (back) to Usenet (some parts of which actually pre-date the internet, believe it or not) -

Two articles you will need to read to get you up and running (looks like "Wired" has similar feelings to me) -

How to share files on Usenet

What are NZB files?

- one you might need -

How to bypass blocked usenet

- that will get you 95% free from attention (for now) and cost you nothing...however, personally, I'm going to go "the full tamale" and employ SSL (i.e. - Packet gets encrypted at your end, goes through your ISP, can't be packet sniffed and therefore can't be deliberately slowed down or stopped by your ISP or pawed through and licked by the French Government...it gets safely decrypted at the other end and visa-versa...and then *everything* you do is just a big stream of anonymous, classless gibberish to the prying eyes that lurk in the underpipes (to which all they can do is shrug and shuffle on to the next victim)...thus leaving your ISP (in your case at least) to do exactly what they should be doing - providing fast, reliable internet access and not to be lackies for the money-grabbing lawyers of the music industry in the far-off US of A...

NTL Virgin media broadband - Great deal for an existing customer

Well done Flyingpops...

Here is pretty much the perfect script to bargain Virgin cable (as witnessed by me this morning)-

"Oh hello there, I just wanted to talk to someone about the price of our bill, we seem to be paying a lot more than the deals we have seen in the newspapers","yes, honestly we've spoken to BT and Sky and both of their broadband services (which is all we really use you for) are significantly cheaper","I mean, obviously it's a lot of hassle to change over to another provider, but we don't really use the TV channels you offer, and frankly we could get the same sort of stuff with a freeview box, nor do we really use the landline, our mobile providers give us loads of free minutes. We do like your service, but we really feel like we are going to have to jump ship if you can't offer us a better price for what we already get, say around £25"...(last bill, with phone calls was just over £40 for the "L" TV pack, 2Mb unlimited broadband and the standard land-line phone package)...

(so, Flyingpops has distilled the value of their whole offering, by this point, down to the broadband from a negotiation point of view, the TV and phone now being moot points, her aim being to be put through to the disconnection department, in time honoured fashion)... ;)

The first thing that happened, though, is that she was offered the exact same deal for £30! An immediate saving of about £12 a month - at this point, I would have hung up, smugly satisfied, but with my note (saying BT was £17.99 pcm for a similar broadband offer) tapping beneath her pen, she pursued - politely, but relentlessly...

"Well, that's alright, but I don't really think we can stay with you if you are going to be that expensive, I mean, if I went into town now and bought a freeview box, that's the same money as you have charged us for services we haven't used for the last two months, isn't it? I think I'm going to have to hang up now and talk to the other providers again..."

(and literally, that was all it took!)

"Oh hello, is that disconnections?"

(repeats the same arguments, jovially)

"Oh, twenty two pounds a month for the same deal and an upgrade to 4Mb broadband? Fink, is that okay?"

(I nodded enthusiastically, eyes wide and mouth agape)

Better blooming deal than the new customers are getting!!! Hahaha!