ADSL Protected Access

ADSL South Africa (Broadband South Africa), 6 March 2007

This is the name of the new service MWEB introduced to combat the ever increasing problem of bandwidth theft. Home users and small businesses lose a lot of money every year that can be directly attributed to this type of thievery.

“We are aware that the scourge of bandwidth theft is increasing and are constantly educating our members and customers about how to prevent it. Furthermore, to help combat bandwidth theft, MWEB has developed a service which allows users to increase their security even further” (MWeb increases protection against ADSL bandwidth theft, MyADSL, 28 February 2007). This is according to General Manager at MWEB Business, Gary Hart.

How does this ‘ADSL Protected Access’ service works?

The service secures the four most used ports criminals exploit on ADSL routers to target victims. The service does this ‘by blocking unsolicited incoming connections’ on these ports (MWeb increases protection against ADSL bandwidth theft, MyADSL, 28 February 2007).

Is the ‘ADSL Protected Access’ service optional?

Yes.

‘Customers are able to choose whether to enable this service or not, but if it is enabled, criminals will find it much harder to gain access and steal bandwidth from these protected routers’ (MWeb increases protection against ADSL bandwidth theft, MyADSL, 28 February 2007).

In other words, you do have the option to enable it but don’t have to, although it will be to your benefit to enable it.

Will the ‘ADSL Protected Access’ service affect normal incoming and outgoing traffic?

No, according to Hart, because it will only ‘block the most common vulnerable spots on routers that are used by criminals to gain access to users’ accounts and thereby steal bandwidth’ (MWeb increases protection against ADSL bandwidth theft, MyADSL, 28 February 2007). He added: “While most big corporates have firewalls which prevent unsolicited access to their Internet connections, small businesses and home users generally don’t, and are therefore more vulnerable. Protected Access will not affect existing anti-virus programmes, incoming or outgoing emails, or the ability to view Web pages. It also won’t affect existing proxy settings or VPN connections” (MWeb increases protection against ADSL bandwidth theft, MyADSL, 28 February 2007).

What will the service cost me?

The best part is that its ‘a free, value-added service to MWEB customers’ (MWeb increases protection against ADSL bandwidth theft, MyADSL, 28 February 2007). In other words, it won’t cost you a cent to make use of this service.

Will new ADSL customers need to enable the service themselves?

‘MWEB has elected to disable the Protected Access service for all business customers by default, but will recommend that customers enable it wherever appropriate. MWEB Home will activate the service for all new ADSL customers and recommend to existing home customers that they protect their connection by activating the Protected Access service’ (MWeb increases protection against ADSL bandwidth theft, MyADSL, 28 February 2007). In other words, don’t stress about it MWEB has it all sorted.

Is it a program that needs to be downloaded and installed?

No, you simply go to MWEB’s “My ADSL Account” section and activate it there.

ADSL South Africa(Broadband South Africa) welcomes MWEB’s continuous drive to protect their customers against bandwidth theft by providing them with a ‘free, value-added service’ such as ‘ADSL Protected Access’.