On Aug 9, 2006, at 4:04 AM, Arjan Hulsebos wrote:
Maybe so, but that argument doesn't buy me more helpdesk folks. The same holds true for the bandwidth argument, especially now that bandwidth is dirt cheap.
On the other hand, it shouldn't be too difficult to come up with a walled garden profile for subs that have infected PCs, basically allowing only access to a filtering proxy, so these subs can download their patches and antivirus updates through it.
In addition to "they still need to be able to download patches and attempt to fix their system" you may not be able to shut off all services for the subscriber regardless - e.g., they've got voice services and you're killing their emergency dialing capabilities? As importantly, broadband SPs are trying to move to triple (quad) play services, how tolerant do you think your average subscriber is to losing cable television services because their kid downloaded some malware? Minimizing subscriber churn and targeting profitable services are critical, most of these solutions today only make the problem worse - when something breaks with vanilla Internet access the first person the subscriber calls is the SP, and the resources cost for fielding those calls exceeds even that of the amortized capital costs for the service - tearing deeper into losses. I half believe that Net Neutrality itself wouldn't be an issue if operators were able to run profitable businesses in broadband service markets. Adding security to the mix only compounds the problem. -danny