Anomalous
@primus.ca
| Primus Canada cracking down on usage? Dear Customer,
Please be advised that your DSL account with Primus Canada will be deactivated on November 14, 2005 due to abuse of Primus Canada’s DSL High Speed service, contrary to Primus’ Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). We set out the applicable excerpt from the AUP below. You can view the entire AUP at »www.primus.ca/en/legal/aup.htm.
6 System Abuse
6.a System abuse is defined as any use of Primus resources, which disrupts the normal use of the system or Internet services for others. Examples of system abuse include, but are not limited to, attempting to disrupt the sessions of other Internet users, consuming excessive amounts of CPU time, memory or disk space, or otherwise affecting the performance of Primus servers.
6.b. Primus will log instances of abuse or unusual use of system resources, including but not limited to those stated herein, and take action as outlined in this Policy.
6.c. You agree that if you subscribe for Internet Services, which does not include the use of Static IP Addresses (such as Dial-up Internet Access or DSL Internet Access with a modem), You are prohibited from using automated operations and / or server applications requiring connectivity. Primus Canada considers such actions abuse of Internet Services and as such Your account will be subject to disconnection or termination of Internet Service without notice.
6.d. You agree to only make use of Primus system resources while logged in. The sole exceptions to this policy are e-mail filters, which process and sort mail as it arrives.
Primus will send to you within the next 14 days a prepaid courier package to return the original modem provided by Primus Canada. If you do not return the modem, you will be charged $175.00. Please call 1-800-806-3273 or email customer.care@primus.ca with any questions regarding this matter.
Primus Canada
-------
I do run my domain off my Primus connection, but it consumes virtually no bandwidth. My bandwidth use is due to Bittorrent, but I can't possibly be the only subscriber as such. I average about 160GB/month. | |
|
 
Doci
Toothless Fairy
join:2003-02-01 | Re: Primus Canada cracking down on usage? 160? Thats it?
~300G here and not a peep from Sympatico.
--
My freedom is a debt to Hitler. | |
|
Brano
I hate Vogons
Premium,MVM
join:2002-06-25
Burlington, ON | They're not cancelling you because you're running a server, but because the 160GB/month. | |
|
geiss8
join:2004-11-04
Burnaby, BC | I got the same email today, I use 80G/month.
but when I called Primus, they don't even know such email was sent...did someone call and find out wut's going on? | |
|
TFArchive
Premium
join:2003-02-03
Gloucester, ON | I did 600GB a couple months back on sympatico, no word at all  | |
|
 | 
Gtr7
Premium
join:2005-05-01
1 edit | Re: Primus Canada cracking down on usage? said by TFArchive  :I did 600GB a couple months back on sympatico
Right. 
Thats 833MB/HOUR @ 24/7 for a month ... busy.  | |
|
| | Squall_Leon
join:2005-09-16
v2e2d2 | Re: Primus Canada cracking down on usage? Anyone got a overcharged bill yet? | |
|
| | lafont02
join:2001-12-13
Laval, QC | And that's not even using all his bandwidth. He can go faster. | |
|
| | |
OllieD
@ucc-net.ca
| Re: Primus Canada cracking down on usage? Hello XXXXXXXX,
Thank you for your message regarding your account number XXXXXXXXX with
Primus Canada.
Since December a 50 MB download cap has been implemented for all DSL users
in British Columbia.
If you have any additional questions, please do not hesitate to communicate
with us via email anytime.
Best Regards,
/me LOLs at 50 MB --- MB!! | |
|
| | | | xdotnet
join:2003-11-12
| Re: Primus Canada cracking down on usage? Hello XXXXXXXX,
Thank you for your message regarding your account number XXXXXXXXX with
Primus Canada.
Since December a 50 MB download cap has been implemented for all DSL users
in British Columbia.
If you have any additional questions, please do not hesitate to communicate
with us via email anytime.
Best Regards,
1. 50gb cap
2. delisted from nasdaq
3. funny 50mb cap cs email
lol.. i'm gonna cancel my primus service and sign up with netscape. | |
|
Primus_in_BC
@primus.ca
| I got one this morning too.
Last months stats: 64GB down, 34 up. Very very roughly, that probably breaks down as usenet: 30GB down, BitTorrent: 30 GB up plus 30GB down. Plus extra b/w on other PCs in the house, but I doubt that that's more than a GB or two each either way. Given Primus' continued "no download cap" stance, I suspect the problem is the upload volume.
Haven't rung them yet - will see if I can get some agreement about an acceptable upload volume.
Kinda scary cos if they refuse to cancel the disconnection I don't know where else to go! We're painfully short of ISPs with a >10GB/month cap here in the lower mainland. | |
|
| |
Primus_in_BC
@primus.ca
| »www.primustel.ca/en/residential/···west.htm
says "Unlimited use - No cap on downloads!"
But no mention about uploads and of course the 'system abuse' section of the FAQ, quoted above, can always be used to deal with any activity they don't like.
I'm presuming that there's a way out of this. Termination with no opportunity to change usage is a bizarre way of doing business. Heck, I'm not even running a server like they're suggesting. OK, yes, I know that BitTorrent is accepting incoming connections but surely it's a client program (*bats eyelids innocently*). | |
|
tumble
join:2005-03-31
Vancouver, BC
| They're not cancelling anyone. It's just spam.
Received: from exprod8mx2.postini.com ([64.18.3.102] helo=psmtp.com) by smtp-06.primus.ca with smtp (Exim 4.43) id 1EY3H7-00039W-FV for 1747018@primus.ca; Fri, 04 Nov 2005 10:14:41 -0500
Received: from source ([216.254.136.57]) by exprod8mx2.postini.com ([64.18.7.10]) with SMTP; Fri, 04 Nov 2005 10:14:29 EST | |
|
| nyt
join:2003-02-20
france | Re: Primus Canada cracking down on usage? Postini is handling primus.ca mail, looks legit to me. | |
|
| | tumble
join:2005-03-31
Vancouver, BC | Re: Primus Canada cracking down on usage? You can call them to verify, theyll tell you that its spam. Atleast thats what they told me. | |
|
|
Primus_in_BC
@primus.ca | I'm not convinced. The IP address of the apparent source machine in the headers matches that of Primus' mailing list server (lists.primus.ca) | |
|
Primus_in_BC
@primus.ca
| (on hold as we speak - I'd forgotten how long it takes to talk to someone at Primus!)
If you get the email, don't click on the "view entire AUP" link. It doesn't go to where it appears to go to, but to an URL that has a number encoded in it - which matches the number in the email address to which the email was originally sent. I guess this is their way of confirming receipt. | |
|
Primus_in_BC
@primus.ca
| OK. Customer support didn't know anything about it (said "we've never sent anything like that to our customers"), suggested it was spam but offered to transfer me to technical support.
Technical support also didn't specifically have anything to say about my account but she said she's asked around and this *is* spam. Told me to delete it and run a virus check. Odd cos there's no attachments and the only two links in it are the mailto link for customer.care and the lists.primus.ca link (which pretends to be the AUP link).
I'll still be worried when I get up on the 14th November though *LOL*! When you speak to an individual at a large company I'm always scared - just cos the person you speak to says something doesn't confirm in my mind that there isn't someone else there who's going to take different action. | |
|
The Flash
You don't win friends with salad
Premium
join:2002-10-17
Toronto, ON | Funny thing, they spelled Telecommunications wrong. | |
|
Solar1um
Unlimited
Premium
join:2005-01-10
Lévis - QC | Yes is an hoax ! | |
|
Anomalous
@primus.ca
| A couple of good points have been raised:
I didn't have time to examine this closely before I left this morning. Not only does the link point to a very different, apparently unique URL, but the email also contains an image bug, which looks very similar to the AUP URL. It wouldn't surprise me if this was just default behaviour of the mailing list software responsible.
Interestingly, there's a "List-Unsubscribe:" header on the email. I wonder what would happen if I unsubscribed myself? :P
That said, I still think this looks legit. The recording on the Customer Support number says their office is closed, I'll try tommorow morning. I'm so looking forward to spending a half-hour on hold.
Another user speculated this might be related to upstream usage, which is entirely possible - of my average 160GB/month, 60GB of that is always upload - I run the upstream pretty much full-tilt.
[rant]
What the hell is wrong with Western Canada? I fully realize my usage is heavier than most, and I do run my personal domain out of my home. I'm willing to pay $60 or $70/mo for my internet connection, but no-one will take my money. It's either "Be a good little pigeon for $40/mo and don't use any bandwidth" or "We'll give you business class after you prove you're a long running business with a good credit record.". I'm not asking for credit, nor am I a business, [scream]I JUST WANT A FUCKING CONNECTION![/scream]
[/rant] | |
|
|
Primus_in_BC
@primus.ca
| Re: Primus Canada cracking down on usage? I hadn't spotted the image bug in the HTML. Odd that Thunderbird didn't spot that & warn me either.
I'm fairly sure that this has actually come from Primus as I've had emails with "lists.primus.ca" in them before. I've got one in front of me dated 22/9 which is an advert for TalkBroadband. Again it's sent to {unique-number}@primus.ca rather than my actual email account (the same unique number as the AUP email). Again the message ID is from lists.primus.ca, again the source machine appears to be called "source" and again the return path is to lists.primus.ca. All the links on the TalkBroadband message are also pointed to lists.primus.ca/t/{big number}/{big number}/{small number}/0 same as they are in this AUP email.
The question is, did the email go out by mistake (maybe to everybody on Primus!) or are they actually disconnecting us & the front desk just doesn't know anything about it. And if it DID go out by mistake then why do they have this email ready to go on this list server? Tends to imply that they might be about to start kicking people off for real.
I run my BitTorrent with the upstream throttled most of the time. I move the throttle between 10-20KB/sec depending on how much my ratio needs it & how much stuff I'm the lone seeder for. Occasionally I'll run it unthrottled but rarely for more than half a day at a time. | |
|
|
Primus_in_BC
@primus.ca
| Re: rant.
Absolutely agree. It's amazing that back East they're saturated with unlimited broadband providers. Loads of people on here reporting 200GB+ and no problems. Here everybody except Primus appears to be limited. Heck, some of them seem to have limits like 3GB/month. Oh please! Just my email & http come to more than that! The idea of having a limit that low on a service that fast... you could use your monthly limit in a couple of hours. It's like giving someone a Ferrari and telling them to keep it under 30kph.
Agreed. I'd happily pay $50 for someone who said "sure you can have 100GB/month. And we don't mind if 30 of that's upstream". Maybe that's what I'm getting from Primus but I'd just like them to tell me so I can relax .
The business options don't appear much better. Sure, they charge you more, but the caps are seldom much better. Best ones I could see topped out around 30GB/month & you're expected to pay $100+ for that! Of course with that you also get web hosting, 10 static IPs and a dozen other things I don't want as well. | |
|
Anomalous
@primus.ca
| I just spoke with someone from Technical Support (I just had a bizarre problem with my connection. I'm guessing it was something to do with Uniserve, because rebooting my monowall fixed it), and he swore up and down that email was spam.
I still strongly suspect someone at Uniserve has been bitching about how much Primus customers are utilizing their network (remember, they enforce a 10GB/mo cap on their own vict^H^H^H^Hcustomers), and someone at Primus responsible for the West decided to drop the axe without telling the call-center staff in the East.
I believe this email is far too sophisticated for simple spam. I'm not an expert, but I know a thing or three or four about mail headers, and DNS lookups, and WHOIS commands, and there's nothing in the headers of that email that make me suspect it was sent by anyone other than Primus.
I'll still call Customer Support in the morning, and get a name and a time. Others may want to do the same.
The tech said I would be called if they were going to pull the plug, but after the bureaucratic floundering I saw when trying to get service from this company, I wouldn't stake my life (or my internet access) on that.
I am also now very concerned about the potential for easy spamming of Primus account holders' email. I'm not going to go into much more detail, but if you got one of these emails, try sending an email from something like a hotmail account to the address in the "To:" field. You should be quite concerned at the result. | |
|
|
Primus_in_BC
@primus.ca
| Re: Primus Canada cracking down on usage? Agree totally. That email came from Primus. All the headers, the routing, the odd things in the links all match the 'legit' email I got from Primus about TalkBroadband. Unless they're implying that someone else sent spam about Primus TalkBroadband?
Yes, I'd expect to be given a call, or at least an email with my NAME in it (actually, the TalkBroadband email had my name in it, so why the heck couldn't this one?). But, like you, I've found them useless on the phone - heck it took a month for them to get us online and they buggered up the email accounts as well. When my wife kept phoning them to find out what was going on, they'd hang up on her! They gave us a month free though as compensation, which was nice.
Maybe we'll all get the chop on the 14th & the call centre just don't know about it yet. Or maybe they're setting up a disconnection system and something just leaked out. My suspicion is the latter.
The spamming sounds easy in theory but that would result in their servers being hit by 1000s of simultaneous identical spam emails. Remember that everything's automatically run through Postini for spam filtering. I'm sure it would spot that and erase the lot of it. | |
|
| |
Anomalous
@primus.ca
| Re: Primus Canada cracking down on usage? What is the unique tracking number on the webbug you received? If it's unique to mine, than that adds further evidence this is a legitimate list-server-served email.
Mine is "http://lists.primus.ca/db/694366/157908/1.gif"
If they are identical, that would suggest this just might be some elaborate spam. | |
|
| | |
Primus_in_BC
@primus.ca
| Re: Primus Canada cracking down on usage? I'm similar - 157xxx and the rest of the URL is the same.
The 157xxx number matches the number in the AUP link - but oddly not the number in the "To" header. So it would seem that the 157xxx is a tracking number unique to the list-server. But not directly related to the customer number.
I'm guessing they've made a mailing list to mail out to the high volume users. | |
|
| Grobycen
join:2005-05-02
Canada
| Has anyone tried forwarding the E-mail to an E-mail department at Primus?
At least they will investigate the issue and get back to you. Somethings the level 1 agents are in the dark at some companies. I found dealing with a mail support or service team the best.
P.S. Include the headers when forwarding the E-mail to them so they can also investigate.
It seems strange that only Primus users got this E-mail. If it is a hoax I would be wondering how this other party got the mailing lists. | |
|
Iridium
Premium
join:2003-04-02
Los Angeles, CA
 ·DSL EXTREME
| 6.a System abuse is defined as any use of Primus resources, which disrupts the normal use of the system or Internet services for others. Examples of system abuse include, but are not limited to, attempting to disrupt the sessions of other Internet users, consuming excessive amounts of CPU time, memory or disk space, or otherwise affecting the performance of Primus servers.
It doesn't specifically mention bandwith, so I wouldn't worry.
--
Democracy is three wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner. | |
|
franch
join:1999-11-03
Canada
| I have Primus also, but I did not receive such an email message. I also don't use that much bandwidth. If you ask me, I think it's a legitimate message.
The tech support people are probably clueless about this. You should probably talk to someone in accounting to see if they have plans to disconnect you. | |
|
| |
| | Luko
Premium
join:2003-06-18
Pittsburg, CA | Re: Primus Canada cracking down on usage? Probably someone like RIA trying to scare bittorrent users. | |
|
BIGMIKE
Premium
join:2002-06-07
Westminster, CA | Where do they get a price of $175.00? For a $60 DSL modem. | |
|
|
pichou
@primus.ca | Re: Primus Canada cracking down on usage? Horses arse. I never heard of such horseshit in my life .. They do not charge 175.00 for a modeum. Where in the love of God did you get your facts. Off of the cereal box perhaps. | |
|
SteveeBee
@rr.com | ...I suppose if a prepaid, self-addressed mailer arrives at your house, you will know one of:
a) it was legit and Primus wants to dump you, or
b) someone wants to steal your modem by have you ship it to them [chuckle] | |
|
|
Primus_in_BC
@primus.ca
| Re: Primus Canada cracking down on usage? Well if they're saying that we'll be disconnected on the 14th, I wouldn't expect to have to send the modem back until after then.
Although I see your point - the envelope could arrive before the 14th. Yes, that would definitely trigger a couple more phone calls!! | |
|
cruix
join:2002-04-07
Vancouver, BC | i say class action lawsuit if they end up kicking people off for downloading too much. they even advertise the whole unlimited download deal | |
|
|
Primus_in_BC
@primus.ca
| Re: Primus Canada cracking down on usage? There's enough vagueness in the AUP that they could probably use it to kick off anybody they wanted with no fear of legal reprisals. In fact it's pretty much the same as every other ISP's AUP - any ISP could use their AUP to kick off anybody - if they wanted.
Leave anything running overnight, run a web server, run a game server, run BitTorrent, heavy use of anything... all in breach of the AUP if they wanted to pick at it. | |
|
Xort
@primus.ca
| I'v just gotten a very similar email.
After calling in to check it out their call center was maybe the worst I'v ever had to use, the frist person didn't have a clue and could find anything out. (Their phone system was very loud, and cut off to quickly after they were talking so the last thing they said got chopped.)
So I left them some info to call me back when they figured their stuff out.
The call back said that I was using my acount too much. And I kid you not "You're using 3hrs a day, and over 100hrs a month."
Hours... yes that lady passed a computer science class I'm sure. So anyway I'm fairly sure that it's GBs and anything over 3 a day or 100 a month.. (odd those are exclusive of each other.. but anyway) will get you canned.
However with luck she will email me a full report "for my records". Which I fully intent to turn over to a few choice agencies and anyone else that will listen.
Their TOS which I read in depth has no cluase at all for bandwidth useage. In fact I would guess that the TOS they have is about 10 year old given the clauses listed. It's mostly a dial-up access TOS.
I have both their package page, and their TOS saved in case they try and change it. (it also has nothing about them being able to change the terms of the agreement which just shows how old it is).
What burns my can is that I would have switched to a different ISP if they were only offerning 'fake unlimited' bandwidth, but now I can't because Telus is on strike and other ISP say they can't help me with a new sign up untill Telus is back to work.
So they are going to send me a prepaid package to ship them back their modem, however I'm going to guess they might not cut my MAC address from their system swiftly so I'm going to be using my old modem for as long as I can. | |
|
| cruix
join:2002-04-07
Vancouver, BC | Re: Primus Canada cracking down on usage? "3 hours a day". yup, thats exactly what she told me too. un-freaken-beliveable. | |
|
Primus_in_BC
@primus.ca
| OK, here's some more stuff.
First, read the thread over on the Telus board about this: »A warning for those switching to Primus
Some of those guys have actually managed to speak to someone at Primus that acknowledges this as a real email.
Secondly, the number encoded in the email is your internal Primus account number. It matches the first part of the activation code that was on the initial "Welcome to Primus" paperwork that you got. Confirming yet again that this is legit email from Primus and tied to your actual account.
Thirdly, go to here: »adsl-reg.uniserve.com/
(Thanks to danf on the other thread)
Type in your phone number. Then type in your account number (the one off the email/activation code).
This will show you your data transfer volumes on a day-by-day basis with up/download details and totals.
Pretty cool huh? Now if Primus would only give people that link and tell them what volumes are permitted instead of this vacuous "unlimited" rubbish that they're not prepared to stand behind, I'm sure we'd all be a heck of a lot happier. | |
|
|
|
|
