Hawk's Babble-Log

Some AT&T techs know what they are doing

We had an AT&T tech come out the other day to fix what the first AT&T tech screwed up. He reviewed our account’s history before coming out and he knew exactly what the issue was before he even stepped foot inside the door.

Turns out, when our U-verse/DSL was first set up, it was installed on a “dry loop”, which is a pair of copper which doesn’t have a voice line already on it. Recently, I ordered up a second voice line so that I could put another DSL on it, so that we could finally drop goddamned U-verse/DSL. Well, that messed up how our existing U-verse/DSL was connected.

The second AT&T tech figured it out and had us back online quickly.

We thought the original network was on the original voice line. Not so. Now the original network is on the new phone line, and the new network is going in on the original voice line.

I think part of the problem is that AT&T has gotten so big that one part doesn’t know what the other part is doing. The voice-line guys don’t talk to the DSL-line guys. And the DSL-line guys don’t talk to the U-verse guys. And the U-verse guys don’t talk to the voice-line guys.

BTW, the U-verse/DSL connection still sucks. Sometimes, only half of a webpage will load. Sometimes the images won’t. Sometimes it’ll be a complete DNS failure. Sometimes the page will come down without CSS. Sometimes it works fine. When I’m having trouble hitting a site, I can pull it up on my phone and it works perfectly. So I know it’s not the site. It’s the U-verse/DSL connection. Something is still wrong with it. I can’t wait to drop it forever.

AT&T technician sucks ass

I’m getting another voice line installed. The AT&T technician is scheduled to come out between 8am and noon. He arrives around 11:59am.

This guy then proceeds to disconnect my existing DSL line (actually, it’s U-verse) AND my neighbor’s phone line! For a 13-year veteran of the phone company, he’s looking pretty incompetent to me. He said something like, “Well, the wire had no signal on it, so I yanked it!” Well, at least he did hook up the phone line. So that works.

Right now, I’m online via my phone. It’s slow, but at least I have it as a back up.

Carrier IQ

You’ve probably heard about the fuss. A company called Carrier IQ developed some spyware for cellphones which reports everything you do, text, surf, etc, on your phone. It started when an Android developer, Trevor Eckhart, noticed the traffic and reported it. Carrier IQ tried to silence him. He brought in some big guns with the EFF. Check it out:

Software maker sorry for trying to silence security researcher:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/11/24/carrier_iq_about_face/

Assange: ‘iPhone, BlackBerry, Gmail users – you’re all screwed’:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/12/01/julian_assange_surveillance/

Does your smartphone run Carrier IQ? Find out here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/12/01/apple_sprint_carrier_iq/

http://betanews.com/2011/12/07/android-users-can-detect-carrier-iq-everyone-else-is-out-of-luck/

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/networking/finding-and-cleaning-out-your-smartphones-carrier-iq-poison/1697?tag=mantle_skin;content

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=17612559&postcount=110

I have five words:

Class Action Lawsuit!

… and …

Criminal Prosecution.

As I’m on a rooted Android system, Cyanogenmod, I don’t have Carrier IQ installed and never have. I do recommend you get an Android smartphone, root it, and install Cyanogenmod. It’s totally free and well worth the trouble. In fact, you can get a fully unlocked and rooted phone with Cyanogenmod already on it from people on Ebay. That saves you from even doing the work.

On a related note, I do recommend you get the app Lookout from Lookout Labs. For a free app, it’s pretty darn impressive! They also have an app which can detect the Carrier IQ rootkit/spyware called Carrier IQ Detector.