[iwar] [fc:Telecommuters.must.pay.extra.for.cable.VPNs]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2001-12-14 16:21:48


Return-Path: <sentto-279987-4066-1008375662-fc=all.net@returns.groups.yahoo.com>
Delivered-To: fc@all.net
Received: from 204.181.12.215 [204.181.12.215] by localhost with POP3 (fetchmail-5.7.4) for fc@localhost (single-drop); Fri, 14 Dec 2001 16:23:08 -0800 (PST)
Received: (qmail 17672 invoked by uid 510); 15 Dec 2001 00:21:15 -0000
Received: from n24.groups.yahoo.com (216.115.96.74) by all.net with SMTP; 15 Dec 2001 00:21:15 -0000
X-eGroups-Return: sentto-279987-4066-1008375662-fc=all.net@returns.groups.yahoo.com
Received: from [216.115.97.189] by n24.groups.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 15 Dec 2001 00:21:02 -0000
X-Sender: fc@red.all.net
X-Apparently-To: iwar@onelist.com
Received: (EGP: mail-8_0_1_2); 15 Dec 2001 00:21:01 -0000
Received: (qmail 71199 invoked from network); 15 Dec 2001 00:21:00 -0000
Received: from unknown (216.115.97.172) by m3.grp.snv.yahoo.com with QMQP; 15 Dec 2001 00:21:00 -0000
Received: from unknown (HELO red.all.net) (12.232.125.69) by mta2.grp.snv.yahoo.com with SMTP; 15 Dec 2001 00:21:00 -0000
Received: (from fc@localhost) by red.all.net (8.11.2/8.11.2) id fBF0LmG05005 for iwar@onelist.com; Fri, 14 Dec 2001 16:21:48 -0800
Message-Id: <200112150021.fBF0LmG05005@red.all.net>
To: iwar@onelist.com (Information Warfare Mailing List)
Organization: I'm not allowed to say
X-Mailer: don't even ask
X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.5 PL3]
From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net>
X-Yahoo-Profile: fcallnet
Mailing-List: list iwar@yahoogroups.com; contact iwar-owner@yahoogroups.com
Delivered-To: mailing list iwar@yahoogroups.com
Precedence: bulk
List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:iwar-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2001 16:21:48 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [iwar] [fc:Telecommuters.must.pay.extra.for.cable.VPNs]
Reply-To: iwar@yahoogroups.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Telecommuters must pay extra for cable VPNs

By BOB BREWIN 
(December 13, 2001)
Planning on supporting full-time teleworkers or casual telecommuters with a
secure virtual private network (VPN) over cable broadband service? Think
again. 

 Two of the major cable companies, Comcast Corp. and Cox Communications
Inc., have boilerplate language buried in their residential service
agreements that expressly forbids the use of a VPN over a residential
broadband cable hookup.

Two other major cable companies, AT&amp;T Broadband and AOL Time Warner Inc., as
well as Cablevision Systems Corp., which serves 3 million subscribers in
suburban New York, all say they allow the use of VPNs by residential
subscribers but they won't provide user support.

CIOs want to provide remote workers with VPNs to ensure secure connections
that will protect corporate data and applications. VPNs provide remote
workers with a protected tunnel to corporate servers through the wide-open
Internet, guarding data against penetration by hackers.

Cox views even casual use of a VPN by a part-time telecommuter as a
"business class" service that must be provisioned through the company's At
Work broadband offering and not its At Home service offered to home users,
according to Bobby Amirshahi, director of communications for Cox Business
Services in Atlanta. Amirshahi said typical At Work charges for a teleworker
with a VPN connection run between $75 and $100 per month compared with
$34.95 per month for residential high-speed cable broadband service.

Amirshahi said that while Cox doesn't "actively scan" its network to detect
the ports used by VPN clients, it does scan the network for excessive
bandwidth usage. 

Jennie Moyer, a spokeswoman for Philadelphia-based Comcast, said her company
"does not support VPN residential services," adding that teleworkers or
their companies can purchase Comcast Pro service, which supports secure
VPNs, at a cost of $95 per month compared with $39.95 per month for the
residential broadband service.

Sarah Eder, a spokeswoman for Englewood, Colo.-based AT&amp;T Broadband, said
that while her company doesn't ban the use of VPNs, it doesn't provide help
desk support for VPN users. She said AT&amp;T intends to introduce its own
business grade service once the company completes the transition of its
broadband service to its own network from bankrupt At Home Corp.'s
Excite@Home service. At that time, AT&amp;T Broadband will offer help desk
support for VPN users on a business-grade network.

Dan Paton, information services adviser at Oakwood Healthcare Inc. in
Dearborn, Mich., which is in the process of rolling out remote access to all
the physicians who work at Oakwood's hospital, said he is well aware of
cable company policies on VPNs and "will go with the business grade service"
because of the importance of remote access to the physicians.

Analysts view the cable companies VPN policies as unnecessary and as a way
to milk more money from corporate users. June Langhoff, a telecommunications
consultant in Pacifica, Calif., said cable companies that force teleworkers
to sign up for higher-priced business class service "are ripping off their
customers." 

John Girard, an analyst at Gartner Inc. in Stamford, Conn., said the VPN
policies indicate that cable companies, which have made a
multibillion-dollar push into broadband over the past five years, "don't
understand much more than delivering entertainment into the home."

Girard said cable business-class service "is not any better than
residential, yet they charge you more." He added that cable companies
probably fear that a large number of teleworkers hooked up to any one cable
system could use an excessive amount of bandwidth. But that concern is
misplaced, he said. "They should be more worried about kids coming home from
school and downloading movies or music,'' he added, noting that those
activities use more bandwidth than corporate applications running over a
VPN. 

VPNs are "no problem" to cable companies to manage or operate, Girard said,
but their VPN policies could be an impediment to the growth of cable
broadband. 

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Call any Phone in the World from your PC with CrystalVoice
-LOW rates world-wide - $0.039/min in U.S.
FREE trial. Click here.
http://us.click.yahoo.com/Ib1xVB/IxbDAA/ySSFAA/kgFolB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

------------------
http://all.net/ 

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ 



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : 2001-12-31 21:00:00 PST