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What happened to Compuserve?

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing July 6, 2017April 15, 20231980s, 1990s, AOL, AT&T, IBM, sears, verizon, yahoo

Compuserve was an online service for dialup modems from the 1970s to the 1990s. It was a way of getting online and communicating with others before the Internet was generally available to individuals. Later, it became a primary way for individuals to connect to the Internet, turning itself into an Internet Service Provider. But over time, it faded away into history. Here’s what happened to Compuserve.

Dave Farquhar

David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He started his career as a part-time computer technician in 1994, worked his way up to system administrator by 1997, and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He invests in real estate on the side and his hobbies include O gauge trains, baseball cards, and retro computers and video games. A University of Missouri graduate, he holds CISSP and Security+ certifications. He lives in St. Louis with his family.

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What is Spectrum, or Charter Spectrum?

Dave Farquhar ISPs May 8, 2017March 7, 20181990s, AT&T, AT&T U-verse, cable tv, comcast, Missouri, New York, Paul Allen, phone service, time warner, verizon

What is Spectrum? Charter Spectrum, or simply Spectrum, is a new name to many parts of the country. Spectrum is the brand name for cable, Internet and phone service from Charter Communications.

Although Charter started using the Spectrum name prior to its merger, the name Spectrum gained prominence as a result of the second, fourth, and sixth-largest cable operators in the United States merging in 2016. Post-merger Charter is now a Fortune 100 company.

Dave Farquhar

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Patch management strategy

Dave Farquhar security April 3, 2017November 19, 2018Canada, nessus, oracle, sprint, SQL, verizon, vulnerability

Vulnerability management and patch management are close relatives. In most companies, think of them as siblings who hate each other. That’s usually how it plays out. It doesn’t always have to be that way, but it takes some thought and strategy from both sides. Here are some ideas for patch management strategy.

Dave Farquhar

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Spectrum bought by AT&T? Not quite.

Dave Farquhar ISPs November 24, 2016October 22, 2022AOL, AT&T, cable tv, comcast, nbc, phone service, time warner, verizon

Was Time Warner Cable or Charter Spectrum bought by AT&T? No it wasn’t, but I understand why some people are thinking that right now. It now turns out that both Charter Communications and AT&T have a history with Time Warner, but it’s complicated.

That said, there was a rumor that AT&T’s arch rival Verizon is considering buying Charter Communications, the company behind Spectrum. Meanwhile, AT&T did buy Time Warner. Time Warner differs from Time Warner Cable.

Dave Farquhar

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Blu Studio One review

Dave Farquhar Android September 28, 2016October 11, 2019android, AT&T, ips, McAfee, motorola, sprint, verizon, yahoo

I needed a phone in a hurry the other day when my wife’s Moto E started acting up. We turned to the Blu Studio One, specifically model# S0110UU. This is my Blu Studio One review.

It’s an inexpensive midrange phone for people who want to bring their own to their carrier rather than (over)paying on a monthly installment plan. It works with GSM providers like T-Mobile and AT&T. It does not work with Sprint or Verizon, since they use the CDMA standard. Some of the smaller carriers also work with GSM. Buying a Blu phone isn’t a bad way to go when you’re looking to save on a cell phone.

Dave Farquhar

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How I set up office hours in Google Voice

Dave Farquhar Landlording December 4, 2015October 29, 2018AT&T, spam, verizon

If you have a side business, you need to offer customer service, but it’s also perfectly reasonable to not want your phone to ring at 3 a.m. You can fix that if you set up office hours in Google Voice.

Fortunately it’s easy to set up Google Voice to allow your phone to ring during office hours and go straight to voice mail after hours. And the nice thing is, Google Voice transcribes your messages. This makes it very easy to filter out people who are calling you trying to solicit your services at 25 cents on the dollar. I can’t say for certain that people are more likely to do that at off hours. But it’s certainly more annoying to get awakened at 3 a.m. by someone wanting to lowball you. And yes, I speak from experience.

Here’s how you do it if you don’t want to be disturbed at unreasonable hours.

Dave Farquhar

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Three things to remember from Verizon’s Data Brach Investigations Report

Dave Farquhar security April 20, 2015April 18, 2015breach, CISO, Data breach, Exploitation, Mandiant, Patch Tuesday, verizon, vulnerability

Every year around this time, Verizon releases its Data Breach Investigations Report, referred to in the trade as simply the “DBIR.” Verizon is one of two companies you call if you’ve been breached and you really want to get to the bottom of what happened and try to keep it from happening again. (Mandiant is the other.)

My CISO hates this year’s edition because of its Joy Division-inspired cover and some of the cutesy writing. But it still makes some valid points that I wish everyone would take to heart–and those points remind me why so many people in my field of work listen to Joy Division.

Dave Farquhar

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How to ensure you never get another Windows tech support scam call again

Dave Farquhar scams February 2, 2015October 29, 2018AT&T, AT&T U-verse, phone service, spam, verizon, VOIP

I haven’t received a fake Windows tech support call in a very long time. A couple of the operations doing this have been shut down, but based on the continued popularity of the things I’ve written about them, I wonder if some people are still getting them.

That makes me reluctant to block them, just in case they call me again, but if you’re getting those calls and want them to stop, I can tell you how to do that.

Dave Farquhar

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Verizon sabotages Netflix

Dave Farquhar Uncategorized July 19, 2014August 31, 2014net neutrality, netflix, verizon, VPN

I’m fed up with ISP duopolies. Why? Because Netflix paid Verizon the ransom it demanded, and yet Verizon hasn’t lived up to its side of the deal. To the contrary, evidence suggests Verizon is actively slowing down Netflix, because when Colin Nederkoorn encrypts his Netflix connection so Verizon can’t see what it is, it speeds up.

News flash: Encrypting data via VPN adds overhead, so it ought to slow the traffic down.

I’m starting to doubt whether net neutrality is enough to solve the problem. A better solution is to break these companies up, let them serve whoever they want, and let municipalities compete with them if they want.

Not that that is ever going to happen.

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

Some tips for trolling fake technical support calls

Dave Farquhar scams, security, Windows June 12, 2014April 18, 2017antivirus, AT&T, caller id, command prompt, FBI, Fraud, India, LAME, Missouri, old windows, preschooler, verizon, windows 98, windows 9x

I did a little more digging after getting yet another fake technical support phone call last week, and I’ve done some thinking on my own. If you want to troll these criminals when they call you, here are some ideas. Read more

Dave Farquhar

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