ISPs

Voices

U.S. Products Help Block Mideast Web

Paul Sonne and Steve Stecklow, Reporters, The Wall Street Journal in News on March 27, 2011 at 8:32 pm PT

As Middle East regimes try to stifle dissent by censoring the Internet, the U.S. faces an uncomfortable reality: American companies provide much of the technology used to block websites.

Voices

Prolific Spam Network Is Unplugged

Michael Hickins, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on March 17, 2011 at 1:54 pm PT

Activity from Rustock, one of the world’s most prolific spam email networks, has ground to a halt, apparently thanks to a coordinated effort by Internet service providers and software vendors. The take-down, which took place Wednesday morning Eastern time, happened without fanfare, and surprised many in the tight-knit community of cybersecurity consultants and experts.

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When Does It Pay to Trade Up Your Technology?

Cristina Lourosa-Ricardo, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on March 14, 2011 at 4:00 am PT

When Apple introduced its newest laptops last month, the company bragged about faster processors, dazzling graphics, new connectivity and a better camera. But all these improvements–to a series of computers that was already by most accounts pretty good–left some critics with a pointed question: Who really needs all that?

Voices

The Internet's Gatekeepers

Nick Feamster, assistant professor, Georgia Tech School of Computer Science in News on February 11, 2011 at 9:46 am PT

Nearly 60 countries around the world censor Internet communications in some form, but Egypt’s recent complete shutdown of Internet communications was unprecedented. Should free and open communication—particularly free and open communication via the Internet—be considered an unalienable right? How much control should a government or Internet service provider wield over its citizens’ communications?

The Internet Is Back to Normal in Egypt; the Country, Not So Much

Arik Hesseldahl in Enterprise on February 2, 2011 at 5:15 am PT

The four major Internet companies in Egypt have turned their connections back on, and its traffic is returning to normal. Though it’s clear that’s not yet true of Egypt itself.

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Egypt's Web, Mobile Communications Severed

Shereen El Gazzar, Lilly Vitorovich and Ruth Bender, Reporters, The Wall Street Journal in News on January 28, 2011 at 7:00 am PT

The Egyptian government’s crackdown on protestors intensified Friday with access to most forms of mass communication, including the Internet, mobile and SMS down, even as United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned that “freedom of expression should be fully respected.”

Netflix Takes Aim at the Cable Guys, With a Promise to Start Firing Tomorrow

Peter Kafka in Media on January 26, 2011 at 2:25 pm PT

Netflix, which is fighting with the cable guys and telcos over streaming video costs, says it will publish a ranking of the best broadband performers. Or in other words: Netflix says it will tell some broadband customers that they ought to get a new provider.

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Democrats Tell FCC to Push for "Net Neutrality"

Fawn Johnson, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on September 17, 2009 at 11:46 am PT

Senior House Democrats told the Federal Communications Commission Thursday it should do more to stop Internet providers from playing favorites among content providers, brushing aside opposition from Republicans and some large telecom firms.

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Relationship Status of RIAA and ISPs: It’s Complicated

Sarah McBride, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on March 26, 2009 at 1:11 pm PT

At a digital music panel in Nashville this week, executives from AT&T and Comcast created a furor by saying they were passing along warnings to customers that the RIAA says are illegally uploading music files onto the Internet. Later, the companies tried to calm the outrage erupting in the blogosphere by harrumphing they weren’t cutting off Internet access to those people–or in the case of Cox, hardly ever cutting it off.