Re: [OT] Logging hours online?

["graham_howe" <graham@xxxxxxx>]

--- In ukha_d@y..., "Mark McCall" <mark@a...> wrote:
> Mate has just had a "yellow card" from BT Internet saying
he's 
using over 12
> hours a day and if it doesn't stop he'll be kicked.  He recons
he's 
using no
> where near 12 hours a day - while he has no life he does have a 
job :)
> 
I don't know about logging online time itself, and I suspect it will 
be very dependent upon the actual browsing environment. For example 
the software to monitor a sinlge PC dialing up via a modem would be 
quite different from multiple PC's on a home LAN connecting through a 
router and of course there are numerous other environments.

However I am replying because I have actual experience of the 
BT 'disciplinary' action as follows. I got a 'yellow card' as you put 
it for being connected more than 16 hours a day (this was last autumn 
so presumably the limits have come down) which may have been true on 
the odd occasion but sounded dubious as an average. My reposne was to 
immediately (within minutes of receiving the email) throttle my 
router so that it could not call the BT number for more than 15 hours 
in any 24 hour period. However a few weeks later I received the 'red 
card' anyway and was told that my account would be cancelled in 2 
days time. My response was to immediately go out and set up an 
account with another fixed rate isp (thankfully I never trusted BT 
with my email or web hosting so it was no problem to change isp). I 
then sent BT an email saying thanks for nothing and that I did not 
expect to be charged for the remainder of the month as they had 
broken the contract. A few months later I noticed that BT were still 
taking their monthly fee. So I called them up and asked what the hell 
they thought they were doing taking money from my account after they 
had cancelled my contract. They replied that the contract had never 
been cancelled despite me receiving an email stating that it had. 
They then refunded all the fees (including the partial month) from 
the day the account was supposed to be cancelled and I killed the DD 
mandate just to make sure.

So, in summary, I don't expect any monitoring software or actual 
usuage figures to be at all relevant as BT seem to have their own 
concept of time. But even if they issue a 'red card' it is quite 
likely that their utter adminstrative incompetance will prevent it 
>from
start looking at the alternatives, to move email and web services to 
another 'long term' supplier if possible, and to ignore anything BT 
say.

Regards

Graham



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