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Schrodinger
new user
Reg'd: Tue
Posts: 8
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Talktalk have recently started to offer "free" broadband with one of their
phone packages.
What they do not make clear, however, when you are signing up for their 18
month contract, is that certain ports are either blocked entirely or
restricted.
For gamers, this means that Steam - the most popular online game content
delivery system in the world - doesn't work.
It also means you can't use bittorrent etc.
They advertise themselves as "gaming friendly" and proceed to disable the
most popular single player games (Half Life, Half Life 2) and the most
popular multi player games (Counter Strike, Day of Defeat etc.).
The games may work if your Steam account is up to date, but Steam cannot
update and so, if you use Steam then it *will* stop working with Talktalk.
Moral: you get what you pay for and anyone interested in using their PC for
games or (legal) file sharing should not use Talktalk.
I am contacting trading standards next week re: their "gamer friendly" false
claims.
Steam FAQ
Thread on Steam Forums
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Dawg
regular
Reg'd: Wed
Posts: 479
Loc: Blyth, northumberland
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thank you a lot for the advice
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dan44762000
Reg'd: Sat
Posts: 242
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very informative and interesting ,,i shall not be sighning up for it now.thanks
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Schrodinger
new user
Reg'd: Tue
Posts: 8
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I should clarify, by the way, that I have been with Talktalk for 2 years and this also affects me - even though I am paying *FULL PRICE* for the service. There was no warning this would happen and the 50p per minute tech support usually don't know anything about it.
This is scandalous business practise.
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dangermouse75
regular
Reg'd: Sat
Posts: 1836
Loc: Leicestershire
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I don't play online games or use BitTorrent so it doesn't affect me, though I was interested to follow it up and found this page.
According to the article above, TalkTalk's policy is:
"We restrict P2P activity in peak hours to make sure that other general Internet use takes priority (including surfing, email, shopping, gaming and commercial downloads). Between midnight and 8am we allow a greater proportion of P2P traffic."
Is this similar to other ISPs?
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Dawg
regular
Reg'd: Wed
Posts: 479
Loc: Blyth, northumberland
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no i have unlimited everything, i am with AOL and i started at broadband speed 56k and then went to 112 then to 256 which i am on now.
i dont use the aol software tho
EVER
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Schrodinger
new user
Reg'd: Tue
Posts: 8
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Quote:
I don't play online games or use BitTorrent so it doesn't affect me, though I was interested to follow it up and found this page.
According to the article above, TalkTalk's policy is:
"We restrict P2P activity in peak hours to make sure that other general Internet use takes priority (including surfing, email, shopping, gaming and commercial downloads). Between midnight and 8am we allow a greater proportion of P2P traffic."
Is this similar to other ISPs?
Great. So they restrict access to the most popular online FPS (counter strike) and one of the best selling single player games (Half Life 2) to *improve* the service for gamers... 
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Mouse
Moderator
Reg'd: Thu
Posts: 6486
Loc: Psst....over here
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That's a silly move TBH blocking the ports that Steam and WoW use, there's nothing illegal there and has nothing to do with p2p and what benefit does a gamer have?
I think they've shot themselves in the foot big time with this and the 18 months contract is a bit of a killer, I notice a lot of mobile phone companies having 18 month contracts too, is this the new norm? Is it fair business for them to write such a excessive contract length and is it set at one year and six months so that the consumer forgets when the contract is due for renewal and sticks with the same provider for a further 6 months?
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The_DADDY
regular
Reg'd: Mon
Posts: 1141
Loc: Who gives a damn!
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Quote:
Is it fair business for them to write such a excessive contract length and is it set at one year and six months so that the consumer forgets when the contract is due for renewal and sticks with the same provider for a further 6 months?
I never looked at at this way before but its a very good point!!
The_DADDY
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Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, but its all ive got!
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maxping__
regular
Reg'd: Sun
Posts: 1891
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Quote:
What they do not make clear, however, when you are signing up for their 18
month contract, is that certain ports are either blocked entirely or
restricted.
You can run most P2P progs on any port you choose so how can they block it?
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 IDNet Home Max 8 Mb
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Schrodinger
new user
Reg'd: Tue
Posts: 8
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I don't know, I am talking here about Steam. I understand you can use a p2p anonymising server to get around it, but this won't work with Steam.
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Dawg
regular
Reg'd: Wed
Posts: 479
Loc: Blyth, northumberland
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im a keen gamer and i am playing counter strike source as i type because i am dead lol.
if they blocked steam i will never be getting it.
nobgody beleives me at school either so i tell them to get on with it. then when they log-on and try to jon a game and talk-talk wont let that port be accessed ill say "told you so".
that is why i am gald to see repsonses.
thank you for advice and i think ill be sticking with my trusty old aol and the foreign helpline workers 
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cauldbum
regular
Reg'd: Sat
Posts: 392
Loc: Edinburgh area
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Just as well there is always someone watching out! I am not a gamer and was thinking of taking up Talk Talk, so is there anything else I should know before getting involved - am with Wanadoo at the moment
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abbafan1972
regular
Reg'd: Fri
Posts: 1489
Loc: Birmingham, United Kingdom
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Thanks for that.
I do not use Gaming, but do use Bit-torrent. I will stick with Tiscali, as I am more than happy with them.
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Dell Inspiron 1720 running Vista Home Premium, Sky 8MB Broadband, Firefox 3.0.1, Thunderbird 2.0.0.14
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