INFO: Removing crap that gets installed by Supanet dial-up ISP

Here's some information that I'll share with you after a frustrating
morning, to save anyone else going through the same problems.

I was called to a customer who had used the Supanet ISP on his Tiny PC. He
was in the process of changing to BT Internet and had already uninstalled
the Supanet software and removed the Supanet dial-up connection object when
he called me in.

Try as I might, I could not get an alternative connection object to dial -
either to BT or to a test ISP that I commonly use. The error was always the
same: "Error 775: The call was blocked by the remote computer" with more
details of "The remote computer may be blocking because of caller ID or a
scheduling policy that allows access only during certain hours." The
modem's log showed

send: ATDT ##########
rcv: RESTRICTED

Strangely, there was no match on the MS Knowledge Base for Error 775 or "the
call was blocked".

BT said that it was a known issue with Supanet: they "optimise" the modem
which means it will only dial their phone number :-( What a f*cking stupid
thing to do!

Supanet couldn't even tell me how to "deoptimise" the modem because their
server with the tool on it would be down for about a week.

However a Google search came up trumps: you need to tweak the registry:

http://www.itreviews.co.uk/discuss/8/6

The gist of this is:

From Start go to Run and type "regedit"
This will open up the registry editor
Find the directory
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SOFTWARE
PDCR4032
In there you will find 4 files Default and band0, band1, band2. Simply right
click on the files band0, band1, band2 and rename them oldband0, oldband1,
oldband2, this will unlock your supanet modem.
Change your dialup settings to your old ISP and no more Supanet.

"Martin Underwood" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:42f77efa$0$1207$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Here's some information that I'll share with you after a frustrating
> morning, to save anyone else going through the same problems.
>
> I was called to a customer who had used the Supanet ISP on his Tiny PC. He
> was in the process of changing to BT Internet and had already uninstalled
> the Supanet software and removed the Supanet dial-up connection object
> when he called me in.
>
> Try as I might, I could not get an alternative connection object to dial -
> either to BT or to a test ISP that I commonly use. The error was always
> the same: "Error 775: The call was blocked by the remote computer" with
> more details of "The remote computer may be blocking because of caller ID
> or a scheduling policy that allows access only during certain hours." The
> modem's log showed
>
> send: ATDT ##########
> rcv: RESTRICTED
>
> Strangely, there was no match on the MS Knowledge Base for Error 775 or
> "the call was blocked".
>
> BT said that it was a known issue with Supanet: they "optimise" the modem
> which means it will only dial their phone number :-( What a f*cking
> stupid thing to do!
>
> Supanet couldn't even tell me how to "deoptimise" the modem because their
> server with the tool on it would be down for about a week.
>
> However a Google search came up trumps: you need to tweak the registry:
>
> http://www.itreviews.co.uk/discuss/8/6
>
> The gist of this is:
>
> From Start go to Run and type "regedit"
> This will open up the registry editor
> Find the directory
> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
> SOFTWARE
> PDCR4032
> In there you will find 4 files Default and band0, band1, band2. Simply
> right click on the files band0, band1, band2 and rename them oldband0,
> oldband1, oldband2, this will unlock your supanet modem.
> Change your dialup settings to your old ISP and no more Supanet.
>

I wonder how many sales Tiny lost due to that, I've actively discouraged any
friends and colleagues fom buying Tiny for that reason alone - but then it's
all history now:-)

Peter

"Peter Andrews" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:EWNJe.39084$(E-Mail Removed). uk...
>
> I wonder how many sales Tiny lost due to that, I've actively discouraged
> any friends and colleagues fom buying Tiny for that reason alone - but
> then it's all history now:-)

What was the exact relationship between Tiny and Supanet? I've seen some
descriptions of the problem saying it's a problem with the modem used in
Tiny PCs and other descriptions saying that it's software installed by the
ISP Supanet.

Either way, someone screwed up badly in allowing the modem to get locked
into a state where it will only dial specific phone numbers. Anyone who
tried to reinvent the wheel or to lock-down the generic solutions (eg
Supanet, AOL) deserves to go bust: compliance with generic, non-proprietary
solutions is the only way forward in this game!

I actively discourage anyone to use AOL because it shuns the standard
Microsoft way and tries to reinvent the wheel. It's also intensely
patronising when installing its USB modem: you are forced to go through
tedious spoken instructions and seem to have no way of skipping over them if
you know when to plug things in or when to install the drivers.

The best ISP for me is one that makes it easy to set things up manually
(dial-up connection objects, email servers) rather than installing silly
little helper tools that often fail and then have to be unpicked. All I want
from an ISP is a few simple facts:

dial-up phone number
POP server
SMTP server
whether SMTP authentication is used

Armed with those, I can do the job quickly and easily, and use all those
"install BT internet" CDs as coasters!

When installing BT broadband for someone I came across a hilarious cock-up
in their installation script: at one point it pops up a full-screen app to
do the installation, but the progress bar freezes half-way through. It was
only by Alt-Tabbing around that I found another window that had been
displayed behind the full-screen one which wanted me to "press OK to
continue". That's not obvious to the layman for whom these hand-holding apps
are intended!

On Mon, 8 Aug 2005 20:18:13 +0100, "Martin Underwood" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>When installing BT broadband for someone I came across a hilarious cock-up
>in their installation script: at one point it pops up a full-screen app to
>do the installation, but the progress bar freezes half-way through. It was
>only by Alt-Tabbing around that I found another window that had been
>displayed behind the full-screen one which wanted me to "press OK to
>continue". That's not obvious to the layman for whom these hand-holding apps
>are intended!

I got called to someone who wanted to get their BT ADSL working with
Windows 98. They had a router with a USB and ethernet connection -
the ethernet connection was on the XP system, and the USB connection
was on the 98 machine because of no network card. For starters, the
BT helper software insisted that I needed to install the USB on the
workstation, and use the ethernet socket for a games console, and I
couldn't get out of it because it needed to configure the router with
a username and password which I didn't know, or anyone would refuse to
tell us. The funny part came when installing the USB drivers on the
98 machine - it refused to install because there was only 100mb on the
c: drive! I know that isn't much, but just the USB drivers! I
managed to find eventually the setup program in the end which did the
job, but it took me two hours to get where I wanted to be, instead of
the usual minutes.

On another tack, I tried to get someone who had a Tiny laptop at
church to get the recovery disks for it, he never bothered, guess he's
screwed now.

Andrew.
--
Andrew Hodgson in Bromyard, Herefordshire, UK.
My Email: use <andrew at hodgsonfamily dot org>.

"Martin Underwood" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:42f7affa$0$1244$(E-Mail Removed)...
> "Peter Andrews" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:EWNJe.39084$(E-Mail Removed). uk...
> >
> What was the exact relationship between Tiny and Supanet? I've seen some
> descriptions of the problem saying it's a problem with the modem used in
> Tiny PCs and other descriptions saying that it's software installed by the
> ISP Supanet.
They where part of Tiny/Time but where sold off into a different company
presumablely because the writing has been on the wall for time for a couple
of years now.

So unfortuneately their still with us (or possibly foretuneate for all the
people who are forced to use them!)

Unfortunately there are many unknowing, trusting people out there
paying for all this sh*t

off topic - note that if you need to setup internet for punters, you
can get online without messing about using 08456091322 with a username
of "hpclick" and no password. gets you online so you can sign them up
for wanadoo or whatever...

"ric" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) ups.com...
> off topic - note that if you need to setup internet for punters, you
> can get online without messing about using 08456091322 with a username
> of "hpclick" and no password. gets you online so you can sign them up
> for wanadoo or whatever...

Ah. Didn't know of that one. The test dial-up account that I use in this
sort of situation is 0845 6626000 with any user name and password.