Date: Fri, 30 May 1997 10:50:12 +0930 (CST) From: grog@FreeBSD.ORG To: chat@FreeBSD.ORG (FreeBSD Chat) Subject: Anecdote: Connecting to the Internet in Australia Message-ID: <199705300121.KAA01561@papillon.lemis.com>
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ANNOUNCEMENT (remember, you read it here first):
I have just returned to Australia after spending nearly 25 years
in Germany. Read the headers for more details. As a result, and
because DE-NIC charges an arm and a leg for a .de domain, I have
changed my domain name from lemis.de to lemis.com. lemis.de will
still work for a while, but it costs me $15 per month, so it won't
be long.
One of my yet-unresolved problems is getting my net connection
transferred to Australia. Sure, there are plenty of ISPs, but the
prices differ wildly. A couple of things that I have found:
1. ISDN, which I used exclusively in Germany, is available. It's
cheaper than in Germany, but then, just about anywhere is cheaper
than in Germany. For example, a 60 minute local ISDN call costs
$US 1.43 in Australia and $US 2.82 in Germany. Nevertheless, it's
not financially viable: a 60 minute analogue call costs $US 0.19.
So does a one-month or one-year call, assuming Telstra can keep it
up that long: local analogue calls are a fixed price regardless of
duration. By contrast, a 60 minute local analogue call costs $US
2.82 in Germany, the same price as ISDN. So I'm going to have to
go for one or more analogue lines.
2. ISPs charge about the same in Australia as they do in the US
(about $AUS 20 per month for a certain number of hours). While
browsing on the web, however, I discovered that the national
Telco, Telstra, also offers a real network service, obviously
intended for companies and ISPs, complete with net routing (see
http://www.telstra.net/pricenew.html). The prices are really
good: no monthly fee, just a setup fee (about $AUS 500, if I
recall) and a flat charge of $AUS 0.19 (about $US 0.14) per
megabyte. The maximum price per month is $AUS 300 if you elect to
pay that way. Compared to the prices I pay in Germany (about DM
8/$AUS 6 per megabyte, and DM 50/$AUS 38 per month), it's
unbelievable, and even the $500 setup fee doesn't hurt by
comparison.
Well, I don't like telcos any more than the next person, but this
is a really good price. So I went to the local Telstra shop to
ask for an application form. They told me that there was no such
thing: they'd sell me Internet software for $20, and I could just
sign up under "Windows" via an 800 number. I told them about the
stuff I had read on the web, and they reluctantly called somebody
who faxed them the form, which I filled out and they, with obvious
bad grace, faxed back again.
That was the 5th May. Until today, I had heard no more, so I
called up to see what was going on. They claimed to have sent me
email confirming receipt of the application, which I just don't
believe. Anyway, they won't connect until the end of the last
month--to quote a Telstra person, their internal organization
leaves something to be desired. Grrr. She also gave me one of
the most obnoxious mail IDs I've heard, something like
<name@unpronouncablehostname.telstra.com.au>. When I suggested
that their mail gurus should put in a masquerade name in their
sendmail.cf to get rid of unpronouncablehostname (I didn't quite
phrase it that way :-), she told me that the problem was that they
were running Microsoft mail, and it wouldn't work. She also asked
me not to quote her, so obviously they're at least ashamed of it.
3. In the meantime, I went looking for access to bridge the time
until I get service. I didn't want to go and ask any local ISP,
who would probably be unhappy enough about Telstra's pricing
anyway, so I tried Telstra's end-user connect scheme. The guy on
the phone told me I could dial an 800 number and sign up directly
using a "menu". Well, the "menu" worried me (more "Windows"?),
but I tried it. What happened had me laughing for about five
minutes:
> atd1800656450
>
> CONNECT
>
> (many empty lines omitted)
> ** Telstra LaunchPad - Your gateway to Cyberspace... **
>
>
> Login: signup
> Password: (for future reference, it's also "signup")
> >
And that's all. That's a menu? Oh well, been there before. Let's
try help:
> >help
> ? Display help information
> help " " "
> quit Closes terminal server session
> hangup " " " "
> test test <phone-number> [ <frame-count> ] [ <optional fields> ]
> local Go to local mode
> remote remote <station>
> set Set various items. Type 'set ?' for help
> show Show various tables. Type 'show ?' for help
> iproute Manage IP routes. Type 'iproute ?' for help
> slip SLIP command
> cslip Compressed SLIP command
> ppp PPP command
> menu Host menu interface
> telnet telnet [ -a| -b ] <host-name> [ <port-number> ]
> tcp tcp <host-name> <port-number>
> ping ping <host-name>
> rlogin rlogin [ -l user -ec ] <host-name>
OK, they said something about a menu...
> >menu
> Menu mode not enabled
Hmmm. What else could it be?
> >local
> Connecting to 127.0.0.1 ...
> Escape character is '^]'
> Connected
>
>
> (SIGNUP.tmns.net.au) Enter password:
>
> Incorrect password.
The password I entered was the one they gave me, "signup". Tried it
several times. Oh well. I just wanted to get through to hub,
anyway...
> >telnet hub.freebsd.org
> Connecting to hub.freebsd.org (204.216.27.18) ...
> Escape character is disabled, binary mode selected
> Connected
>
> FreeBSD (hub.freebsd.org) (ttyp4)
Yup. No problems. If this thing also gave me ftp, I wouldn't even
need to sign up for Telstra. What an enormous back door (and what a
tiny front door).
Unfortunately, I *do* need ftp, so I called up Telstra and asked them
what was happening. It seems that their menu server is down (probably
runs on Microslop). Should be up later today. But it's probably
worth checking whether the back door remains when the server is
running.
Greg
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