PN Fair Usage and Access Logs

On the subject of fair usage and actually how much data has been used
by a user I was wondering if anyone knows, or if a plusnet spokesman
would like to comment, on how long access/ip logs are kept by the
company before being recycled?

"EC" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
news:(E-Mail Removed) oups.com:

> On the subject of fair usage and actually how much data has been used
> by a user I was wondering if anyone knows, or if a plusnet spokesman
> would like to comment, on how long access/ip logs are kept by the
> company before being recycled?

I am concerned that Force 9 (Plusnet) are reporting data transfer in excess
of what the software meter on my PC reports so I asked for last month's
figures to ennable me to undertake a day-by-day comparison. Unfortunately
they tell me that only overall figures are available for the last three
months and that 'we are not currently able to drill down into previous
months daily figures and currently we are only able to show the total
overall figure'.

--
F

Beware spamtrap - remove the negative

On 15 Feb 2005 00:15:33 -0800, EC <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> On the subject of fair usage and actually how much data has been used
> by a user I was wondering if anyone knows, or if a plusnet spokesman
> would like to comment, on how long access/ip logs are kept by the
> company before being recycled?
>

Hi,

The RADIUS logs we have are kept accessible on your account for several
months, these show us when you connect and disconnect. We do archive logs
from time to time as the databases can get very large, and these archives
will go back for years.

Regarding the View My Usage data, on the portal and internally we can see
the figures on a daily basis for the current month, and monthly for the
last three months. Further back than this is stored but other than a
direct query by one of our database administrators we have no interface to
view these. It has been suggested that we provide more information for our
customers on this and the View My Broadband Tool is currently in the
stages of being re-written.

With Regards,

Dave,
--
| Dave Tomlinson Broadband Solutions For
| Customer Support for Home & Business
| PlusNet plc @ http://www.plus.net
+ ----- My Referrals - It pays to recommend PlusNet -----

"PlusNet Support Team" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news(E-Mail Removed)...
> The RADIUS logs we have are kept accessible on your account for several
> months, these show us when you connect and disconnect. We do archive logs
> from time to time as the databases can get very large, and these archives
> will go back for years.

Dave,

In line with the principles of the DPA, you should only retain data for as
long as there is a business requirement to do so. I cant see what purpose
there is to hold this data for years. It's not likely to be for taxation
purposes either.

Do you have any information in public concerning your data protection
policy?

Thanks

Carl

On Tue, 15 Feb 2005 21:07:47 UTC, "Carl"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> "PlusNet Support Team" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news(E-Mail Removed)...
> > The RADIUS logs we have are kept accessible on your account for several
> > months, these show us when you connect and disconnect. We do archive logs
> > from time to time as the databases can get very large, and these archives
> > will go back for years.
>
> In line with the principles of the DPA, you should only retain data for as
> long as there is a business requirement to do so. I cant see what purpose
> there is to hold this data for years. It's not likely to be for taxation
> purposes either.

Unless it's an exemption for the purposes of RIPA? Don't know if such
exists, but...

"Bob Eager" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:176uZD2KcidF-pn2-(E-Mail Removed)...

> Unless it's an exemption for the purposes of RIPA? Don't know if such
> exists, but...

Not as far as i know. I was under the impression RIPA was similar to the DPA
in the sense that data can only be retained for legitimate purposes covered
by the principals of the DPA. RIPA is just another was of law enforcement
bodies accesing the data (as opposed to S29 requests or court orders).

I shall endeavour to find out tomorrow.

Rgds

Carl

On 15 Feb 2005 22:09:59 GMT, "Bob Eager" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>On Tue, 15 Feb 2005 21:07:47 UTC, "Carl"
><(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> "PlusNet Support Team" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news(E-Mail Removed)...
>> > The RADIUS logs we have are kept accessible on your account for several
>> > months, these show us when you connect and disconnect. We do archivelogs
>> > from time to time as the databases can get very large, and these archives
>> > will go back for years.
>>
>> In line with the principles of the DPA, you should only retain data for as
>> long as there is a business requirement to do so. I cant see what purpose
>> there is to hold this data for years. It's not likely to be for taxation
>> purposes either.
>
>Unless it's an exemption for the purposes of RIPA? Don't know if such
>exists, but...

If it was for RIPA he shouldn't tell you, since he's told you it isn't
for RIPA, unless he's he shouldn't have told you!

--
astro

F wrote:

> "EC" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
> news:(E-Mail Removed) oups.com:
>
> > On the subject of fair usage and actually how much data has been used
> > by a user I was wondering if anyone knows, or if a plusnet spokesman
> > would like to comment, on how long access/ip logs are kept by the
> > company before being recycled?
>
> I am concerned that Force 9 (Plusnet) are reporting data transfer in
> excess of what the software meter on my PC reports so I asked for last
> month's figures to ennable me to undertake a day-by-day comparison.
> Unfortunately they tell me that only overall figures are available for the
> last three months and that 'we are not currently able to drill down into
> previous months daily figures and currently we are only able to show the
> total overall figure'.
>

How much is is out and how do you connect?

I ask because if you use a modem/router box or have a firewall then what
actually makes it to your software meter may be less than what comes down
your line.

I drop about 300KB/day with a truly dynamic Pipex IP address, the highest
I've seen is 12 meg in a day.

Andy.

On 15 Feb 2005, "Carl" wrote:

>I cant see what purpose there is to hold this data for years.

I cannot see the data being especially detailed for it to represent anything
to lose sleep over, and since Plus.Net has accounting for usage, can see they
may need to keep it, in line with paperwork for business, being needed for up
to 7 years. If they were asked why one month some user (on a capped a/c) had
a higher bill, they may need to be able to answer that, but as to which IPs a
user connected to, I don't believe that level of detail would be kept, nor do
I believe it would even have been recorded... Peter M.

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On Wed, 16 Feb 2005 13:57:18 +0000, Peter M <us-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> On 15 Feb 2005, "Carl" wrote:
>
>> I cant see what purpose there is to hold this data for years.
>
> I cannot see the data being especially detailed for it to represent
> anything
> to lose sleep over, and since Plus.Net has accounting for usage, can see
> they
> may need to keep it, in line with paperwork for business, being needed
> for up
> to 7 years. If they were asked why one month some user (on a capped
> a/c) had
> a higher bill, they may need to be able to answer that, but as to which
> IPs a
> user connected to, I don't believe that level of detail would be kept,
> nor do
> I believe it would even have been recorded... Peter M.
>

Hi,

No we don't record what IP's or websites or whatever you haev visited at
all (except the apache logs for our portals for example). The RADIUS logs
are kept as you say in line with all paperwork and so that if there is any
queries we can deal with them.

With Regards,

Dave,
--
| Dave Tomlinson Broadband Solutions For
| Customer Support for Home & Business
| PlusNet plc @ http://www.plus.net
+ ----- My Referrals - It pays to recommend PlusNet -----