| Posted: Saturday 17th April 2004 by
Sam |
The ADSL availability checker on BT.com/broadband has been recently updated to a new version.
Version 7, which some have noticed has already been in operation for a couple of months, has one feature that people familiar with the system are bound to notice. A code, known as the "BT_ADSL_CODE", which was hidden away in the HTML source code allowed people to determine what products a certain phone number was running (i.e. ISDN, Redcare, etc). The part of the code that revealed this information has now been removed from public access, and has been replaced by a "C" for compatibility problem or "Z" for no problem. The "C" would indicate that the phone number has a product on it which is incompatible with ADSL.
The inclusion of more detailed information about compatibility problems was introduced in version 6, back in June 2003. This has apparently caused a huge rise in checks to their system, and possible violations of the Data Protection Act. It is interesting to note that BT have left in the textual messages which tell you about potential compatibility problems. Whilst they do not provide a firm code representing an error (as one message can apply to several problems), they do still allow for people to make an educated guess of the products installed on a telephone line.
Improvements to the new checker will not be directly apparent to us end-users, but ISP's will be receiving additional information, also available in new formats. BT say that the accuracy of the checker has also been improved. |