Free Broadband (Apparently!)

[MartinS]

Apparently, this company are giving away free broadband via a dial-up modem for life (for the first 80 million users) if you sign-up before the launch (1 October 2004). Signing up will only mean you get the software sent to you at launch, and does not commit you to any contract.

For all of you techies out there - how can they do this - 2MB connection speeds through your phoneline!

www.juiceboosted.com/index.php

I have signed up for it as it seems to good to be true, but hey, if it is free, then how can I say no!

[EDIT]
After reading the replies, I've cancelled my account and will not be receiving any free software in October - maybe I was a bit naive!
As an aside, other companies are already supplying this technology - http://www.onspeed.com is one that I found. I'd be interested to speak to someone who has this installed on how it performs, especially compating the annual cost compared to broadband.
[/EDIT]

[beanie]

nah not true speeds

[Lee B]

Most broadband services go through your phone line at some point, (except that of coaxal services such as Telewest and NTL) Broadband just uses the bandwidth that is already there alot better than standard phone connections. 2megs seems to be high claim, are they saying upto 2 megs

[turbanator]

These claims seem unbeliveable, especially the first.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
You will never see another dead, blank or irrelevant page ever again and if you do, we will pay you £500 GBP*.
You will NOT get another spam email EVER, but if you do we will pay you £100 GBP* in compensation.
You are guaranteed to get a minimum connection speed of 2MB with 100% uptime. If we fail to meet either or both we will pay you £500 GBP* per failure.
YOU will NEVER receive a virus or worm in your email inbox again as we operate up to the millisecond software to stop the same, but if you do get one we will pay you £500 GBP* compensation.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Unfortunatly, if something seems to good to be true, it usually is.

[alunharford]

You will never see another dead, blank or irrelevant page ever again and if you do, we will pay you £500 GBP*.
You will NOT get another spam email EVER, but if you do we will pay you £100 GBP* in compensation.
You are guaranteed to get a minimum connection speed of 2MB with 100% uptime. If we fail to meet either or both we will pay you £500 GBP* per failure.
YOU will NEVER receive a virus or worm in your email inbox again as we operate up to the millisecond software to stop the same, but if you do get one we will pay you £500 GBP* compensation.
JUICE is able to block every porn and adult site on the Internet if you choose to filter it and if we fail you we will pay you £200 GBP* per reported instance. That's how confident JUICE is.
We can STOP your child from chatting to people who pretend to be children in chat rooms by using amazing breakthrough IP filtration and parenthesis technology.

lol.
Somebody's either wanting to put a trojan on lots of computer or (more likely) they're after a list of REALLY gullible people they can sell on.
Don't you just love computers that can pass Turing tests :-)

[Fathoms Down]

Sorry, but this service looks a total bunch of poo. The only way I can see this system working is if it has some kind of proxying service with compression which, from a technical point of view, isn't good. Compression requires CPU cycles so the faster your Internet connection goes, the slower your PC runs. Proxying opens up a huge can of worms and this is where I can see this "offer" comming in to play. If they have your demographics (name, age, location, etc) then they can see the proxy logs (yes, the log of every web site you've ever been to) to third parties which gives you... wait for it....more junk mail and spam. Lovely.

[alunharford]

Originally Posted by GotTheBug

Most broadband services go through your phone line at some point, (except that of coaxal services such as Telewest and NTL) Broadband just uses the bandwidth that is already there alot better than standard phone connections. 2megs seems to be high claim, are they saying upto 2 megs

No they're not. They're saying a minimum of 2 megs.

btw.
http://www.broadbandreports.com/shownews/51987

Personally, I'm most impressed by their "Parenthesis technology" though

[alunharford]

Originally Posted by Nick Bown

Sorry, but this service looks a total bunch of poo. The only way I can see this system working is if it has some kind of proxying service with compression which, from a technical point of view, isn't good. Compression requires CPU cycles so the faster your Internet connection goes, the slower your PC runs. Proxying opens up a huge can of worms and this is where I can see this "offer" comming in to play. If they have your demographics (name, age, location, etc) then they can see the proxy logs (yes, the log of every web site you've ever been to) to third parties which gives you... wait for it....more junk mail and spam. Lovely.

But wait... didn't you read that it "Works with any PC or MAC of the lowest specification believable"? :-D
lol

Alun Harford

[Dr Stevil]

Good motto for life in general:
"If it seems to good to be true, it probably is..."

I'll stick with Blue Yonder I think

[Lee B]

Originally Posted by alunharford

No they're not. They're saying a minimum of 2 megs.

btw.
http://www.broadbandreports.com/shownews/51987

Personally, I'm most impressed by their "Parenthesis technology" though

Mmmmm well this must be a pile of poo then, BT and others would love to offer these speeds at a premium cost of coarse for home use, and these guys would be using BT lines so big pile of poo, Stay well clear.