They are turning off landlines in 2025!

[AnalogSteph]

Provider did make those settings available. Unfortunately they also publicly posted default logins for their devices, so chinese bots keep knocking on my firewall quite often. For the same reasons I would not like to open ports they use.

Huh? You don't have to open any ports on your network unless you want to use the router as a SIP gateway for IP phones. (Even then it's just a handful of well-defined ports.) Phone goes into router, router does all the VoIP PBX things. The VoIP traffic never goes through your firewall, which I assume sits behind the router.

And why would the default login thing be a problem, unless that always remains active even after you've set a password manually (which would be super dumb)?

 

[Offler]

Huh? You don't have to open any ports on your network unless you want to use the router as a SIP gateway for IP phones. (Even then it's just a handful of well-defined ports.) Phone goes into router, router does all the VoIP PBX things. The VoIP traffic never goes through your firewall, which I assume sits behind the router.

And why would the default login thing be a problem, unless that always remains active even after you've set a password manually (which would be super dumb)?

I dont want to use SIP gateway, but after I googled it a bit, my ISP/Phone provider does use them. So I was like "no, thank you,".

Mostly ISP installs modems/routers to people who are not skilled in IT. Those settings are available on internet in case someone wants to maintain modem/router at his home, but it rarely happens. People dont have any idea how to set these things up, so they sometimes remain on factory settings.

Firewall log report drops like 3 attack packets every minute, and at rate once per day there is an attempt for a remote access, apparently trying to use those credentials.

And it used to be worse, because a lot of devices in my IP range was in a botnet scanning everything around. Then it was 3 dropped packets every second.

Also some years ago I used to do raids in an online game. Somebody was seriously trying to DDoS my IP, they gave up when I restarted the line before every raid (dynamic IP).

 

[Blumlein 88]

Is that wireless I guess, from a cell tower?

Yes it is. You just get a fixed unit with different pricing for internet over the normal 5G network. With strong signals it can be quite speedy. Even with just good enough signals it isn't too bad. Prices are usually reasonable. Something around $50 to $80 a month for unlimited use.

 

[AnalogSteph]

I dont want to use SIP gateway, but after I googled it a bit, my ISP/Phone provider does use them. So I was like "no, thank you,".

Mostly ISP installs modems/routers to people who are not skilled in IT. Those settings are available on internet in case someone wants to maintain modem/router at his home, but it rarely happens. People dont have any idea how to set these things up, so they sometimes remain on factory settings.

Fortunately, even regular dumb users fully expect having a working telephone line (imagine that). At least they definitely do around these parts, and in many cases the existing phones to be accommodated are old POTS or even ISDN (which has always been more popular here than in other areas of the world). So the router will generally come with phone jacks to plug those into and should only require fairly minimal setup to tell it what sort of phone is connected and what number (out of the ones that are usually acquired automatically) is supposed to go to it. The specifics behind the scenes are officially Not Your Problem™, for better or worse. You can always buy one of the routers they sell to small businesses if you do want to mess with that. That's what I did (though it was more to accommodate ISDN telephony, which is a more common thing in businesses).

All this is doing is moving the VoIP to landline transition from the exchange to the customer. All the POTS equipment at your local exchange is likely to be 25 years old by this point and increasingly unreliable, and they'd like to get rid of it sooner rather than later. It makes a lot of sense to move that to the customer where the router is likely to be replaced about once in a decade anyway, and if that fails, there's just that one line affected.

 

[Anton D]

This is the start of a near-future dystopian story.

 

[Blumlein 88]

This is the start of a near-future dystopian story.

Really??? I haven't had a landline in 15 years. Not a problem. So I'm not sure what the dystopian story is, but for me it began 15 years ago.

 

[DonH56]

Really??? I haven't had a landline in 15 years. Not a problem. So I'm not sure what the dystopian story is, but for me it began 15 years ago.

Our cell and internet service are both unreliable at home so we want the landline for emergencies and our alarm service. Apparently we are in a hole due to the mountainous terrain around us (not all that bad, but guess nearest towers do not have line of sight to the house, more likely trees than terrain IMO). I was able to get a new landline carrier, for better or worse, but as of today the old carrier is still making its monthly deductions from our account despite three tries at cancelling. This after they told me that me they were ending my service and I needed to find another provider... Everybody says it's taken care of, don't worry, while they leech more money -- scumbags.

 

[restorer-john]

I bemoan the loss of conventional landlines. We have gone backwards in a huge way and lives have been lost due to the dumb reliance on unproven technologies.

Here's my firsthand experience from last week (in case you wondered where I'd been)

We had been without power, water, mobile phone and internet for 6 days from 10:00pm Christmas night (25th) here due to a massive storm (classified as a tornado actually) which took out over 144,000 people's electricity across a huge swathe of south east Queensland. We had 150km/hr winds and horizontal rain. We had our bags packed at the front door waiting for the roof to be torn off as giant gum trees around us snapped off and were uprooted.

What happens in a situation like that is the following:

• The power distribution system is massively damaged- power poles, crossbars and HV sections destroyed. It's pitch dark until you get your torches up and running. All the 33kV lines and LV lines around us had such significant damage, several of our main roads were impassable. I went out at 10:30pm and helped cut up a large gum tree blocking our main road in and out so vehicles could access.
• Mobile phone reception is the first to go after power, as the thousands of lightning strikes kill the towers which are placed on high points. The ones that do survive, last maybe another few hours before their backup battery banks rapidly fail- they now have no grid power to operate. All three major carrier networks go down in our area and many other areas. There is no communication at all. Not even SOS (emergency) calls work. Your phone is completely dead, unless you drive about 15km to an area with power and cell connection- if you can get out due to fallen trees and power poles/cables. Roads are blocked everywhere.
• Local TV and terrestrial radio goes off the air as the transmitters are damaged by the storm and then with complete loss of power.
• Internet is via fixed wireless in my case and the repeaters were struck by lightning and out for several days. I was able to get mine up and running a few days into the outage, by running the roof mounted dish and router from my generator and being able to make calls over Telstra WiFi calls (iphone).
• Others on the NBN (national broadband network) have no internet for over a week as the fibre nodes need power to distribute via the old copper lines to the subscribers.
• The water lasts for a few days until the local reserviors run dry. Our water is gravity fed from very large reserviors, where the water is pumped (by electricity) from one elevated part to another. The entire city experiences water pressure or loss issues due to the pumping stations being damaged/offline (650,000 people). Ironic, as all the local dams are now overflowing due to a unprecedented flooding event where we got 550mm in 12 hours one night. Lucky we are 150M above sea level. We filled all our water dishes, saucepans and even the bath before the water stopped. As the bath was above the house (2nd floor), I could have a shower by siphoning the water to a shower rose under the house via the garden hose out the window. LOL.
• Electricity crews are working everywhere, 24 hours a day, but have to stop when more storms and flooding rain prevents safe work.
• My generator (luck I had one) ran the fridge, fans, lights and even the bedroom air conditioner for 5 days, 12-14 hours per day for a week. Lots of trips to the petrol station (about 1litre per hour- 2.5kVA generator).
• Old people had no idea what was going on.

Nobody had phone, nobody had internet (except one or two people out in the valley who did like I did and ran their starlink from the generator). The community centre were people could go charge their phones, make a call perhaps, have a shower and get some free food got flooded, closed and access was impossible due to flooded roads.

Constrast this with copper POTS. Power was supplied from numerous exchanges, all with backup generation. Phones are passive devices- need no power of their own. Entire areas never went totally down- there was always emergency calls and redundancy. Where power lines went down, the phone lines often survived, were easy to repair, or mostly ran underground in the first place. Sometime water could cause trouble, but it was localised and not widespread.

Mt tamborine was very badly hit. Our valley (Bonogin) was also hit hard.

'We need help now': Power restoration efforts hampered by more storms in south-east Queensland

Tensions in one storm-impacted community bubble over as Queensland's deputy premier is ambushed by angry residents.

www.abc.net.au

All Jack heard was a cracking sound before a tree split his home in half in Queensland's 'tornado' storm

The "tornado" that hit on Christmas Day was the biggest disaster the region has ever faced, according to Scenic Rim mayor Greg Christensen.

www.abc.net.au

 

[antcollinet]

I bemoan the loss of conventional landlines. We have gone backwards in a huge way and lives have been lost due to the dumb reliance on unproven technologies.

Here's my firsthand experience from last week (in case you wondered where I'd been)

We had been without power, water, mobile phone and internet for 6 days from 10:00pm Christmas night (25th) here due to a massive storm (classified as a tornado actually) which took out over 144,000 people's electricity across a huge swathe of south east Queensland. We had 150km/hr winds and horizontal rain. We had our bags packed at the front door waiting for the roof to be torn off as giant gum trees around us snapped off and were uprooted.

What happens in a situation like that is the following:

• The power distribution system is massively damaged- power poles, crossbars and HV sections destroyed. It's pitch dark until you get your torches up and running. All the 33kV lines and LV lines around us had such significant damage, several of our main roads were impassable. I went out at 10:30pm and helped cut up a large gum tree blocking our main road in and out so vehicles could access.
• Mobile phone reception is the first to go after power, as the thousands of lightning strikes kill the towers which are placed on high points. The ones that do survive, last maybe another few hours before their backup battery banks rapidly fail- they now have no grid power to operate. All three major carrier networks go down in our area and many other areas. There is no communication at all. Not even SOS (emergency) calls work. Your phone is completely dead, unless you drive about 15km to an area with power and cell connection- if you can get out due to fallen trees and power poles/cables. Roads are blocked everywhere.
• Local TV and terrestrial radio goes off the air as the transmitters are damaged by the storm and then with complete loss of power.
• Internet is via fixed wireless in my case and the repeaters were struck by lightning and out for several days. I was able to get mine up and running a few days into the outage, by running the roof mounted dish and router from my generator and being able to make calls over Telstra WiFi calls (iphone).
• Others on the NBN (national broadband network) have no internet for over a week as the fibre nodes need power to distribute via the old copper lines to the subscribers.
• The water lasts for a few days until the local reserviors run dry. Our water is gravity fed from very large reserviors, where the water is pumped (by electricity) from one elevated part to another. The entire city experiences water pressure or loss issues due to the pumping stations being damaged/offline (650,000 people). Ironic, as all the local dams are now overflowing due to a unprecedented flooding event where we got 550mm in 12 hours one night. Lucky we are 150M above sea level. We filled all our water dishes, saucepans and even the bath before the water stopped. As the bath was above the house (2nd floor), I could have a shower by siphoning the water to a shower rose under the house via the garden hose out the window. LOL.
• Electricity crews are working everywhere, 24 hours a day, but have to stop when more storms and flooding rain prevents safe work.
• My generator (luck I had one) ran the fridge, fans, lights and even the bedroom air conditioner for 5 days, 12-14 hours per day for a week. Lots of trips to the petrol station (about 1litre per hour- 2.5kVA generator).
• Old people had no idea what was going on.

Nobody had phone, nobody had internet (except one or two people out in the valley who did like I did and ran their starlink from the generator). The community centre were people could go charge their phones, make a call perhaps, have a shower and get some free food got flooded, closed and access was impossible due to flooded roads.

Constrast this with copper POTS. Power was supplied from numerous exchanges, all with backup generation. Phones are passive devices- need no power of their own. Entire areas never went totally down- there was always emergency calls and redundancy. Where power lines went down, the phone lines often survived, we easy to repair, or mostly ran underground in the first place. Sometime water could cause trouble, but it was localised and not widespread.

Mt tamborine was very badly hit. Our valley (Bonogin) was also hit hard.

'We need help now': Power restoration efforts hampered by more storms in south-east Queensland

Tensions in one storm-impacted community bubble over as Queensland's deputy premier is ambushed by angry residents.

www.abc.net.au

All Jack heard was a cracking sound before a tree split his home in half in Queensland's 'tornado' storm

The "tornado" that hit on Christmas Day was the biggest disaster the region has ever faced, according to Scenic Rim mayor Greg Christensen.

www.abc.net.au

Sounds utterly horrendous.

Hope you and yours are all OK.

 

[restorer-john]

Sounds utterly horrendous.

Hope you and yours are all OK.

We are all good and thanks for asking. So many people way worse off and many lost their homes in areas not that far away from us. I was lucky and fortunate we only had a bunch of torn up trees and lost services. No house damage.

The entire experience teaches you what not to overlook. Keep a supply of power (generator/inverter), batteries, an excellent radio, along with perhaps some UHF communication, water, cash (electronic payments go down too) and the basics all packed in a few bags and stored offsite if you can. Be prepared to walk away from your home at a moment's notice.

Mother nature is throwing some crazy stuff at the world right now. I see the lower 48 US states are in for some wild weather, and parts of Europe have been hammered right now with people being isolated with no power and sub zero temperatures.

I'm not a religious man, but I am sending all my best thoughts to anyone experiencing these extremes in all parts of the world. Be safe, and know others care.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Tornadoes and the storms that spawn them are terribly destructive and dangerous. Glad you are okay.

 

[Willem]

We moved over from traditional and then isdn landlines to telephone from the cable company, and never had any problems. We are about to transition to fiberglass from the Dutch former national telecom, and do not expect any issues either. We have had mobile phones from the same telecom provider, and never had any service interuptions, other than the very occasional and properly announced local interruptions for an hour or so for scheduled maintenance. Electricity supply has been similarly reliable. Such services should and can be utterly dependable. Even so, now that our wired phone system depends on the power supply, we keep our mobile phones next to our beds.
There are two things that strike me in these reports. The first is that I wonder if in some countries permits to operate such utility services do not come with strict performance requirements. In the Netherlands such permits are auctioned, but the bidding demands performance guarantees, for reliability and (100%) coverage. The second is that in some reported cases electricity supply seems less secure than desirable, and the real problem. Overhead power lines are a recipy for disaster, and more so in lightning prone regions. Here, the local grid is completely undergound, and increasingly the high voltage grid will also be underground, for greater reliability and less visual obtrusion. For now, the grid has a fair amount of redundancy to cover for mishaps.
So isn't this a problem of insufficient public supervision rather than a problematic technology?

 

[Willem]

And as for the current weather issues, yes it is raining a lot here in the Netherlands. The river dikes are being inspected 24 hours a day, but nothing serious has happened thus far. The dikes have been reinforced in recent years, after major inundations some 15 years ago. And to absorb the huge quantities of water, overflow areas have been designated that can be flooded without much damage. And finallly, of course the pumping stations are working at maximum capacity to keep our feet dry. Once again, the historical steam engined and World Heritage Wouda pumping station at Lemmer has been activated: https://nos.nl/video/2503563-stoomg...-jaar-oud-maar-nog-hard-nodig-tegen-hoogwater These days it is a museum, but every few years it has to show its mettle. I thought the technology buffs at ASR would like to see it pumping the equivalent of one Olympic swimming pool every 35 seconds.

 

[DonH56]

Glad y'all are OK @restorer-john ! Similar things happen around here in bad snow (or wind) storms, and my dad was without power for almost two weeks down in MS after a hurricane went through. Same sort of thing happens; without power, gas stations can't pump gas, cell towers (if they survive) die because the base station generators only have a few hours to maybe 24 hours of fuel, all the cable repeaters die so no news/TV/internet for us even with our own generator, etc. Add to that pipes freezing in homes without heat and all that jazz. Our old POTS landline worked through it all, though it has been taken out a few times when the local wiring boxes were damaged.

Local electric feeds are underground, but feeders to the area and of course the high-tension lines are all overhead. A bad blizzard and windstorm (we had 96 mph gusts here) 10 or so years ago took out hundreds of poles and several high-tension towers. It took weeks to repair. We were without power for about a week; others were out for less, and some much longer. Underground is not a complete panacea as water seepage and other problems (bad animals, and humans) can damage the lines and then they are much more difficult to repair or replace.

I keep thinking about renewing my ham license, but one more expensive hobby...

 

[DonR]

I bemoan the loss of conventional landlines. We have gone backwards in a huge way and lives have been lost due to the dumb reliance on unproven technologies.

Here's my firsthand experience from last week (in case you wondered where I'd been)

We had been without power, water, mobile phone and internet for 6 days from 10:00pm Christmas night (25th) here due to a massive storm (classified as a tornado actually) which took out over 144,000 people's electricity across a huge swathe of south east Queensland. We had 150km/hr winds and horizontal rain. We had our bags packed at the front door waiting for the roof to be torn off as giant gum trees around us snapped off and were uprooted.

What happens in a situation like that is the following:

• The power distribution system is massively damaged- power poles, crossbars and HV sections destroyed. It's pitch dark until you get your torches up and running. All the 33kV lines and LV lines around us had such significant damage, several of our main roads were impassable. I went out at 10:30pm and helped cut up a large gum tree blocking our main road in and out so vehicles could access.
• Mobile phone reception is the first to go after power, as the thousands of lightning strikes kill the towers which are placed on high points. The ones that do survive, last maybe another few hours before their backup battery banks rapidly fail- they now have no grid power to operate. All three major carrier networks go down in our area and many other areas. There is no communication at all. Not even SOS (emergency) calls work. Your phone is completely dead, unless you drive about 15km to an area with power and cell connection- if you can get out due to fallen trees and power poles/cables. Roads are blocked everywhere.
• Local TV and terrestrial radio goes off the air as the transmitters are damaged by the storm and then with complete loss of power.
• Internet is via fixed wireless in my case and the repeaters were struck by lightning and out for several days. I was able to get mine up and running a few days into the outage, by running the roof mounted dish and router from my generator and being able to make calls over Telstra WiFi calls (iphone).
• Others on the NBN (national broadband network) have no internet for over a week as the fibre nodes need power to distribute via the old copper lines to the subscribers.
• The water lasts for a few days until the local reserviors run dry. Our water is gravity fed from very large reserviors, where the water is pumped (by electricity) from one elevated part to another. The entire city experiences water pressure or loss issues due to the pumping stations being damaged/offline (650,000 people). Ironic, as all the local dams are now overflowing due to a unprecedented flooding event where we got 550mm in 12 hours one night. Lucky we are 150M above sea level. We filled all our water dishes, saucepans and even the bath before the water stopped. As the bath was above the house (2nd floor), I could have a shower by siphoning the water to a shower rose under the house via the garden hose out the window. LOL.
• Electricity crews are working everywhere, 24 hours a day, but have to stop when more storms and flooding rain prevents safe work.
• My generator (luck I had one) ran the fridge, fans, lights and even the bedroom air conditioner for 5 days, 12-14 hours per day for a week. Lots of trips to the petrol station (about 1litre per hour- 2.5kVA generator).
• Old people had no idea what was going on.

Nobody had phone, nobody had internet (except one or two people out in the valley who did like I did and ran their starlink from the generator). The community centre were people could go charge their phones, make a call perhaps, have a shower and get some free food got flooded, closed and access was impossible due to flooded roads.

Constrast this with copper POTS. Power was supplied from numerous exchanges, all with backup generation. Phones are passive devices- need no power of their own. Entire areas never went totally down- there was always emergency calls and redundancy. Where power lines went down, the phone lines often survived, were easy to repair, or mostly ran underground in the first place. Sometime water could cause trouble, but it was localised and not widespread.

Mt tamborine was very badly hit. Our valley (Bonogin) was also hit hard.

'We need help now': Power restoration efforts hampered by more storms in south-east Queensland

Tensions in one storm-impacted community bubble over as Queensland's deputy premier is ambushed by angry residents.

www.abc.net.au

All Jack heard was a cracking sound before a tree split his home in half in Queensland's 'tornado' storm

The "tornado" that hit on Christmas Day was the biggest disaster the region has ever faced, according to Scenic Rim mayor Greg Christensen.

www.abc.net.au

So happy to hear that you were prepared. Many are not. I live in an area that is frequented by winter storms and many here live on small, isolated islands that can go for a week or more without electricity. My 6500W gen runs just about everything in the house except hot water. As my father used to say, "Preparation is the difference between inconvenience and disaster."

 

[Timcognito]

Hard to believe, I live less than 20 miles from San Francisco on Pillar Point a stones throw from the Pacific Ocean and every winter violent storms take out our power at least 4 or five times. We were down 14 hrs two days ago and as long as 5 days two years ago. The best cell phone is two bars LTE and it often goes out with the power. Our land line, dsl and solar panels with whole house backup battery has been our savior. Contemplating Starlink satellite. Anybody using it, please rate your experience.

 

[antcollinet]

I thought the technology buffs at ASR would like to see it pumping the equivalent of one Olympic swimming pool every 35 seconds.

Amazing. You were right - at least for this technology buff.

though I'd say if you're relying on 100yo steam pumping to "keep your feet dry", your infrastructure might not be quite as robust as perhaps it should be.

Having said that - I'd love to see those machines running at full tilt.

 

[Willem]

your infrastructure might not be quite as robust as perhaps it should be.

This is the ultimate backup, and it is a very powerful one. Thus far we seem to be the only country in the region that has kept its feet dry. The challenge for the future is very real, however. Climate change is making for warmer and wetter winters, and In the Alps they are getting more and more rain instead of snow. It is now coming our way in one big wave rather than slowly over a few months. We and also Germany need more areas for controled flooding. We did a lot of that already, and because of that, and because of good dikes, we have managed this one, but the future will be more challenging.

 

[Blumlein 88]

And as for the current weather issues, yes it is raining a lot here in the Netherlands. The river dikes are being inspected 24 hours a day, but nothing serious has happened thus far. The dikes have been reinforced in recent years, after major inundations some 15 years ago. And to absorb the huge quantities of water, overflow areas have been designated that can be flooded without much damage. And finallly, of course the pumping stations are working at maximum capacity to keep our feet dry. Once again, the historical steam engined and World Heritage Wouda pumping station at Lemmer has been activated: https://nos.nl/video/2503563-stoomg...-jaar-oud-maar-nog-hard-nodig-tegen-hoogwater These days it is a museum, but every few years it has to show its mettle. I thought the technology buffs at ASR would like to see it pumping the equivalent of one Olympic swimming pool every 35 seconds.

D.F. Wouda Steam Pumping Station - World Heritage Site | Exploring the Netherlands

DIscover why the Wouda Steam Pumping Station (Woudagemaal) is included on the UNESCO World Heritage Stites list. Includes pratical tips how to visit the pumping station.

exploringthenetherlands.com

A short article in English. It is impressive and interesting. 4 million liters per minute is almost 1 million gallons per minute and over 1.4 billion gallons a day.

 

[restorer-john]

So isn't this a problem of insufficient public supervision rather than a problematic technology?

It has brought up a lot of discussion in relation to emergency cross network roaming and just network to network roaming in general, during times of natural disasters.

There are no service guarantees in Australia with mobile networks according to the latest reports. One entire major carrier (Optus) went down for most of a day a few months back (a major router mapping issue) and took out 10 million customers completely with no access to even emergency calls. It resulted in some government intervention and that is ongoing AFAIK.

The old copper network did have service and availability guarantees, as it was a government owned enterprise until it got half sold off and those assurances went out the window, along with timely repair, connection and service. It has been largely left to rot except for parts where the broadband network piggy backs on the old wire.

I'm glad providers in your country are held to a high standard.