[TelstraClear] Cable billing while offline?

Forums › One New Zealand (including Vodafone, WxC, Farmside) › [TelstraClear] Cable billing while offline?

plambrechtsen

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#100301 8-Apr-2012 13:18

Just saw this on Twitter... Sounds wrong to me.

https://twitter.com/#!/zollymonsta/status/188790793639702528

sbiddle

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#606656 8-Apr-2012 13:35

It's perfectly normal for many ISP's, and has been discussed on here numerous times in the past.

nakedmolerat

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#606657 8-Apr-2012 13:42

does this only apply if you have fixed/static IP?

mattwnz

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#606679 8-Apr-2012 14:57

sbiddle: It's perfectly normal for many ISP's, and has been discussed on here numerous times in the past.

Although if a telecom rep on here says it sounds wrong...
I can understand that there would be traffic for hitting an ip address due to the technology, even if the modem is off. Should the customer be charged for that data, as they aren't actually getting a service while the modem is off.

Is it possible you could have a DOS attack on the IP and rack up a huge bill, or use up your quota?

johnr

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#606684 8-Apr-2012 15:09

nakedmolerat: does this only apply if you have fixed/static IP?

Nope

johnr

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#606685 8-Apr-2012 15:10

mattwnz:Is it possible you could have a DOS attack on the IP and rack up a huge bill, or use up your quota?

Yes it's possible

DonGould

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#606708 8-Apr-2012 15:52

sbiddle: It's perfectly normal for many ISP's, and has been discussed on here numerous times in the past.

Internet usage when modem is off!!
All the issues are well covered.

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sbiddle

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#606713 8-Apr-2012 16:00

mattwnz:
sbiddle: It's perfectly normal for many ISP's, and has been discussed on here numerous times in the past.

Although if a telecom rep on here says it sounds wrong...
I can understand that there would be traffic for hitting an ip address due to the technology, even if the modem is off. Should the customer be charged for that data, as they aren't actually getting a service while the modem is off.

Is it possible you could have a DOS attack on the IP and rack up a huge bill, or use up your quota?

If you don't understand why this happens you need to understand more about how an ISP network is configured, and how the connection is delivered.

A session based connection (such as PPP) easily gives the ability for a network to know if a connection is up, and since most ISP's who use PPP use a Radius Manager for centralised user management and billing it means if your PPP session isn't up they can't bill you. If the ISP doesn't use session based connections then there is no simple way for the ISP to know if the customer's CPE (not the modem as you refer to) is up.

Somebody can launch a denail of service attack on you and use your traffic regardless of whether your connection is session based or not.

Quite frankly I would be more worried about people who use poorly configured VoIP hardware sucking their traffic on a daily basis as bot's hit them, regardless of your ISP, rather than the billing systems of a single ISP. I've come across people using 2talk and iTalk lately being stung massively lately because it's not possibe to use the Restrict Source IP option on 2talk or iTalk.

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quickymart

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#606730 8-Apr-2012 16:34

It's correct, the first day I got a cable modem and hadn't even connected the thing, someone starting pinging my IP address. It showed as (very, very minimal) usage...we're not even talking 1MB here.