Broadband Internet Speed test

A vulnerability has been reported in SpamAssassin, which can be exploited by malicious people to cause a DoS (Denial of Service).

The vulnerability is caused due to the use of an inefficient regular expression in “/SpamAssassin/Message.pm” to parse email headers. This can cause perl to crash when it runs out of stack space and can be exploited via a malicious email that contains a large number of recipients.

The vulnerability has been reported in version 3.0.4. Prior versions may also be affected.

Update to version 3.1.0.
Original advisory

Corning, one of the largest fiber optic cable manufacturers, has an article on why fiber optics is actually than copper.

From the article:
Over recent years, optical telecommunication technology has matured, while the performance requirements for premises networks have increased dramatically. The ever-increasing bandwidth requirements have driven significant increases in the cost of copper network systems, while technological maturity has led to relative declines in the cost of optical systems. In the light of these changes, the historical economic arguments against using fiber in the premises should be reexamined.

These days we demand increasingly higher performance from the premises network, but at the same time we expect “plug and play” installation, declining installation costs, and an increasing network lifecycle. Today the performance and cost advantages of optical fiber relative to copper technology in relation to modern premises networks applications are evident.

UK Online is rolling out its ADLS2+ service nationally now, but users will have to buy their own modem.

UK Online has become the first ISP in the UK to offer ADSL2+ nationally, promising speeds of up to 22Mbps.

The service will be available for £29.99 per month in most urban areas, UK Online said, although customers will need to buy an ADSL2+ compatible modem for £79.99 and pay a one-off connection charge of £25 — bucking the trend of modem giveaways among mainstream ISPs.

While the popularity of such high-speed services with consumers is yet to be proven, a 22Mbps service will certainly prove popular with Sky, which bought UK Online’s parent company Easynet in October of this year.

Read more on ZDNet UK.

Broadband access in South West England is to increase from 99% to 99.99% following a £1.3m cash injection.
The South West Regional Development Agency (RDA) is investing the money to upgrade 19 rural telephone exchanges.

The money will mean outlying businesses will be able to get access to high-speed internet connections.

The agency said money will ensure there was not a rural “digital divide” and said more money would be put aside to reach 100% access in the region.

The majority of the exchanges being upgraded are in Devon - 11 in total - with three in Somerset and two each in Wiltshire and Gloucestershire.

In Cornwall, North Tamerton will be converted alongside St Martins on the Scilly Isles.

Fabian King, from the South West RDA, said: “Remotely located companies need to be able to conduct business on a level playing field and not be at a disadvantage to their urban competitors.”

From BBC News.

At the end of the third quarter of 2005, there were a total of 1.132 million broadband clients in Portugal, with penetration reaching 10.8 percent, a value which reflects a growth of 0.8 percentage points compared to the second quarter, according to figures released by Portugese telecoms regulator Anacom. Compared to Q3 of 2004, the increase in clients amounted to 51.4 percent. In the period January-September 2005, ADSL access registered a quarterly increase of 11.8 percent, while cable modem access grew by 3.5 percent. Compared to the same quarter in 2004, ADSL access clients increased by 84.7 percent, to 640,800 subscribers, while cable modem connections grew by 22.7 percent, for a total of 488,400. In the third quarter, ADSL added 68,000 new clients and cable 16,000. Due to a 10 percent fall in interconnection prices, local calls dropped by 6 percent, while regional calls, national and fixed-mobile calls fell by 20-30 percent. Voice and broadband offers have become 50 percent cheaper for end consumers. On the other hand, 2 Mbps internet access is already responsible for 50 percent of ADSL accesses.

From TelecomPaper.