GNG News Guy
04-24-2008, 10:30 PM
http://i.dslr.net/urls/41/2041.gif (http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Blocking-Perftech-Injected-ISP-Messages-93867)
Canadian cable provider Rogers recently gave American cable users a possible glimpse of the future when they started charging data consumption overage fees (http://www.thegng.org/shownews/93153) for their capped and throttled broadband service. They've also been using a new user alert technology from Perftech (http://www.perftech.com/) that could see broader use as an ad-injection engine. Perftech's technology lets the ISP inject a banner ad above, beside or below any existing web content.
Perftech's technology clearly can be of practical use: it was used as early as 2005 (http://www.codeamber.org/news/PR020205_2230_code_amber_perftech_press.html) on Wide Open West's network to deliver Amber alerts. It can also be used to alert subscribers to possible infection or if their PC is being used as a spam relay. Rogers currently only uses it to alert customers when they get close to their monthly cap of 60GB.
However, Perftech also advertises the technology (http://www.perftech.com/ad_insertion.html) as a possible way for ISPs to subsidize certain lower-cost tiers of service. In this industry, it's hard not to think that a number of ISPs -- under constant pressure from investors to create new revenue streams -- will eventually use the technology to try and grab an additional slice of ad revenue. It's a good guess that users, ad networks and network neutrality supporters might get slightly annoyed.
Rogers does allow users to opt-out of the alerts, though users are forced to opt-out every billing cycle. One user in our Rogers forum (http://www.thegng.org/forum/r20354829-Express-Workarounds-for-Rogers-web-hijacking) highlights that the system is fairly easy to block if you want a more...absolute solution. You simply have to identify the server (in Roger's cap alert system's case it's 64.71.251.10), then use either a rule based firewall or a personal proxy server to block the IP. Might be useful information to keep on hand for down the road.
read comment(s) (http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Blocking-Perftech-Injected-ISP-Messages-93867)
Canadian cable provider Rogers recently gave American cable users a possible glimpse of the future when they started charging data consumption overage fees (http://www.thegng.org/shownews/93153) for their capped and throttled broadband service. They've also been using a new user alert technology from Perftech (http://www.perftech.com/) that could see broader use as an ad-injection engine. Perftech's technology lets the ISP inject a banner ad above, beside or below any existing web content.
Perftech's technology clearly can be of practical use: it was used as early as 2005 (http://www.codeamber.org/news/PR020205_2230_code_amber_perftech_press.html) on Wide Open West's network to deliver Amber alerts. It can also be used to alert subscribers to possible infection or if their PC is being used as a spam relay. Rogers currently only uses it to alert customers when they get close to their monthly cap of 60GB.
However, Perftech also advertises the technology (http://www.perftech.com/ad_insertion.html) as a possible way for ISPs to subsidize certain lower-cost tiers of service. In this industry, it's hard not to think that a number of ISPs -- under constant pressure from investors to create new revenue streams -- will eventually use the technology to try and grab an additional slice of ad revenue. It's a good guess that users, ad networks and network neutrality supporters might get slightly annoyed.
Rogers does allow users to opt-out of the alerts, though users are forced to opt-out every billing cycle. One user in our Rogers forum (http://www.thegng.org/forum/r20354829-Express-Workarounds-for-Rogers-web-hijacking) highlights that the system is fairly easy to block if you want a more...absolute solution. You simply have to identify the server (in Roger's cap alert system's case it's 64.71.251.10), then use either a rule based firewall or a personal proxy server to block the IP. Might be useful information to keep on hand for down the road.
read comment(s) (http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Blocking-Perftech-Injected-ISP-Messages-93867)