Free access to the internet, but safe for your data or your computer? Not at all.

Recently one of Acentic’s employees was traveling and seeking to get some good internet connectivity at his hotel. When he was finally connected he sent me an email with the subject: "This email is sent courtesy of our “xxx competitor.”  He had actually discovered that he was able to send emails through a competitor’s gateway without paying for the service. 

So we did a little investigation on this and it seemed that the competitor's gateway was only blocking from surfing the web and a couple of other standard services, but wasn't able to lock him out of Acentic’s own email service. Now we're not using anything unusual - it's a server from a company that probably has millions of installations in the world. In fact he was also able to connect to Acentic’s VPN service, which accidentally runs on the same protocol as our e-mail service, and with this active he was able to use the Internet to its fullest without paying a single cent.
 
Now obviously we weren't the only ones that have discovered this "loophole". A German journalist actually wrote an article about six months after our employee discovered it. In the article the author described exactly what our employee was experiencing. After this report showed up in the German Linux Magazine the provider hurried to close this loophole.
 
The reporter had analyzed the problem in detail and detected that the gateway was not really using a controlled firewall but rather detecting certain "known" applications on the network and redirecting them if the client hadn't paid. Everything that was unknown to the gateway (or rather that the developer hadn't thought of), would just pass through. Who knows how much revenue this provider has lost in the six months that have gone by - probably hundreds of thousands. Attention to security is as key as return on investment is. As providers of an essential service to guests, many of which send and receive confidential information, we take particular care to avoid such loopholes through extensive testing prior to release. Who knows what other holes the provider may have left open. To think that you're sitting there with no "real" firewall doesn't give you a very good feeling about using hotel high speed internet.
 
On Acentic Horizon, our high speed internet access solution, this is not a problem because we are using a far more advanced architecture that utilizes a controlled firewall - so loopholes are a thing of the past. It's either you've paid or you haven't with no way of bypassing this. And a good firewall, that even includes intrusion detection functionality with the added benefit of a truly enterprise class Wi-Fi installation, will give our customers the peace of mind they need.

Acentic is proud that their CFO, Stuart Radcliffe, has recently participated in a charity bike ride over 4 days travelling from London to Paris between 2nd - 5th of September. The bike ride, organized by The Royal British Legion http://www.britishlegion.org.uk, has been running now for more than 15 years, with greater support and organization each year. It has become a critical part of the charity’s fund raising calendar, and the money raised from the ride, predicted to be in excess of £500,000, will all go towards providing financial, social and emotional support to those who have served and are currently serving in the Armed Forces and their dependents.

Stuart and the 300 other riders who joined the event covered a route of approximately 480 kilometres, starting at Greenwich Park in London on the 2nd of September and after arriving in Calais at the end of the first day, they followed a route through northern France. Stopping off at Beauvais and Abbeville they finally arrived in Paris late in the afternoon of the 5th of September. “This event was a great challenge for me”, Stuart reported. “While the distance covered over a short timescale left me thoroughly exhausted, I was ecstatic with the achievements of the whole cycling group and I am proud to have been involved in such an important charity event”.

Acentic supported Stuart throughout the 4 day ride and have received first hand the details about his unique experience, and here is the diary of his considerable journey.

Bike Ride Diary.pdf (197.52 kb)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhuFZCbNSg4

We here at Acentic, have always conducted research to understand consumer media behavior since it is the only way to ensure that a hotel meets the needs of their guests with the in-room entertainment services. A recent report from Ericsson’s consumer lab entitled “It’s all about the experience” highlighted some of the trends we are seeing within the hotel room http://www.slideshare.net/EricssonFrance/tv-consumer-insights-ericsson-consumer-lab-2010. The report confirms the growing demand for non-linear Pay TV. In the survey over 50% of interviewed consumers watch on demand content every week. The reality is that the consumer is moving away from a wish to own content (i.e. a DVD) and would rather have instant access to it via On-Demand services. The increased usage within the home will therefore make On-Demand even more in demand in the hotel room. The report also dispelled some of the myths we regularly see in our industry. One of them being that consumers wish to view internet on the TV screen. 70% of consumers indicated that their driver for connecting their PC to the TV was to have a larger screen and 67% said it was to make PC content viewing more comfortable, only 15% stated that it was to browse the internet on the TV. We have always believed that the television will remain the main device for viewing video content. This consumer report is just another sure sign that the TV is used for the passive viewing of “moving pictures” rather than the heavy interaction required with Internet. In fact, 93% of viewing time is still scheduled broadcast TV with picture quality remaining the most important feature. Acentic’s research shows that the most watched television program among hotel guests around the world today is still the news.

Before making big changes in the hotel room entertainment, it is important to make sure it is a system that works for the guests. Keeping it simple is key.