BT Openzone

sogs

Hi all looking for some advise please we have bt broadband which is suppose to be unlimited however a few days ago bt emailed us to say that we were approaching the limit which we thought was odd. Today we went into the connect to a network menu and we a connection for bt homehub and a connection for btopenzone which shows unsecured network, this may be a really stupid question but could our neighbours be getting internet access without paying as this is unsecure?????

We havent used the internet anymore than normal and are puzzled with bt email may just have to phone them tomorrow otherwise.

thanks

PlutoinCapricorn

If your PC is in range of a BT Openzone WiFi hotspot, you will see the unsecured connection on your network list. You can connect and look at a few pages, but you cannot access the internet as such. You can use the BT OZ connection to read about the service and buy vouchers so that you get internet access (very expensive). Some BT OZ connections link to your local council too.

So your neighbout is not getting free internet access via BT OZ.

crampo_2

If your network is Unsecured. Yes your neighbours COULD be (dont make accusations as you don't know. But it could be more than just one neighbour (if you have more) you could have the whole street connecting to you. Then you have the case of what they are downloading. because if they are downloading illegal content , its your responseability not theres. SO i would think about securing that network.

Browntoa

the BTopenzone signal is a seperate signal to your secure Wep homehub signal, it does no use any of your own bandwidth and no one is sharing your Network. Mine does the same thing as I use the BTbroadband Anywhere , I can log on for free at any openzone signal

what Option Bt broadband are you one ?? the only unlimited option is option 3 ( log on to your btbroadband account and it tells you which option you are on) may be why you got the warning email

£$&*"($£&(

It's probably not you. You'll probably find that a neighbour is registered with BT Openzone which is acting as WiFi hotspot for other BT users. I've just set up a neighbours BT Broadband and he gets a BT Openzone and BTFON connection listed and was using one of these because it connected automatically. You can find out where these hotspots are located on the BTFON or Openzone site. As a BT Broadband customer you have free access for 250 or more minutes a month. It for use away from home. You need to make sure your connecting to your BT Broadband connection. There should be a way to ignore these Openzone or BTFON connections but I'm not sure exactly how to do this in Vista.

AirCooledHeaven

Make sure the security on your homehub is set to WPA. Do not use WEP as it is very easy to hack. And homehubs are one of the easiest wireless routers to hack when set for WEP...

Also bear in mind that all 'unlimited' broadband services have a 'fair usage policy' which basically is the same as a cap. For example I have an 'unlimited' connection but it's effectively capped at 30GB.