finding out what a file does..

[Und3ertak3r]

Zonewalker , seem many of us fail to read the full content of many posts, the second is that we suffer fro poor communication skill's .. this i will admit for my self..
I trust that this is not taken as a flame.. but a insite to this snakes underbelly

Any of us post our replies based on our interpretation of the post (or what we read of it).. and our own experiences ... in my case The Australian ISP Scene.. here we have local ISP's on a local dialup and State/NAtional ISP's on a "MegaPOP" dial up.. that is On phone number State or Country Wide.. Your POP could be any where in the state/ country (well in theory) dependent of local system usage.. See I could move across the country.. hmm say to Perth.. I can still use the same dial up number.. same account..
So that is the perspective I am working from.. I think I explained a bit more in my other post..

ok WHAT is the RIP bill.. link for the dumb.. 2tired & 2lazy to search right now

Cheers

[Zonewalker]

Und3ertak3r.... I'm sorry if it seemed like a flame... it wasn't intended as such... if any of you took my earlier reply as a flame..... please don't. The intial reply was written whilst at work.... in other words under pressure to get about 501 other things done - but I just couldn't let Oblivious go with the wrong idea of what was happening.

I understand that we all post replies with our own local perspectives... which is why I said in my first post

'I can understand your reactions but the situation in the UK is probably a little different to what you are used to across the ocean.'

looking back on my fiirst post I can see where I'm giving the impression of being impatient - to be honest I was... work and all... which I can only apologise for. However I'm settling back with a few beers now... much more relaxed.... apoloigies to all if you were insulted

The UK isn't as big as Aus so we only have ISP's that cover the whole country.... but then we also have British Telecom (BT) who until recently pretty much had a starnglehold on all internet communications... for example...

Oblivious pays Freeserve (his ISP) to get access to the net etc, Freeserve in turn have to pay BT for the privilege of using the phone wires in the first place. Clearly many service cost increases Freeserve forward to Oblivious is because BT have upped the charges to Freeserve for using the wires. Similarly any legal obligations that the UK government enforces on BT also get passed to Freeserve (and then Oblivious) whether they like it or not. Hence the RIP bill (see later).
The stranglehold that BT has had on the UK telecommunications industry has until recently also been one of THE major reasons why the UK is lagging in the broadband/ADSL/cable market . Fortunately that's starting to change now (the government forced BT to stop charging so much)

As for the RIP (regulation of investigatory powers) bill... amongst other things it basically allows the UK government to force an ISP to hand over all logs of where an individual has surfed to, all of their email (including replies) and pretty much any communications activity that the government wants (it's tied into the echelon system for those that are interested) . It also (theoretically) forces an individual to hand over the passwords to any piece of encrypted info said individual is in possession of or suffer inprisionment for refusal to hand over that password... I say theoretically because personally I'd tell any copper who tried to force me to hand over my passwords to go f**k themselves with a large pointed stick. If you want more info look at

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/ripa/index.htm

http://www.stand.org.uk/ripnotes/

frankly it's scares the **** out of me and yes I did sign several petitions to the EU high court to try and get this legislature stopped... whilst these did not stop the bill... they at made sure it got toned down a bit. If you guys think the US is getting bad as regards restricting freedom etc ... well yes it is but just be glad you are not in th UK

Z