Talk Talk HomeSafe - The UK's safest BB connection!

[RichardCoulter]

I received a letter this morning from TalkTalk to try to get me to drop Virgin Media (VM) in favour of them.

One of the reasons they say they are superior to VM, is that their "ground-breaking HomeSafe security service comes free as standard". They then go on to say that this is "the UK's safest BB connection!".

This seems rather a bold claim. Does anyone know anything about this and if it is true?

[downquark1]

Safe in what way?

[jamiefrost]

Hardly works, there by reducing the possibility of getting a virus and browsing to a dodgy web page?

Looks like it's some sort of ID protection monitoring certain names numbers etc. and the ability to block websites at the router. Could by like using Open DNS and enabling some of there safety options so addresses for certain websites don't resolve.

http://sales.talktalk.co.uk/product/homesafe

J

[thenry]

http://www.talktalk.co.uk/security/homesafe-demo.html

gimmick, I'd rather do it myself.

[Rob]

How much of this is stuff being blocked at the local router? Or is it reliant, especially for the webrowsing stuff, on the ISP having their kit somewhere intercepting the traffic to and from your home which means they can potentially track your activities. In otherwords the reincarnation of Phorm

[tweetiepooh]

We use OpenDNS on Virgin and it works fine provided clients all use the router to resolve names. We only block "adult" sites as neither myself nor my wife have any interest and our children are young enough that we just don't want them getting anywhere near them.
Norton on the PC in Windows mode can monitor traffic for certain data items and block their transmission (without a password) such as phone numbers, CC details but can't see how it can work with encrypted data. Kids only use Linux.

[Jameseh]

Didn't TalkTalk just get rollocked by Ofcom for the same claim on TV adverts? Moronic.

[RichardCoulter]

Thanks for the replies everybody, it does indeed seem to be a gimmick.

I'm surprised that they can get away with making such outrageous claims.

[Mick Fisher]

Originally Posted by Rob

How much of this is stuff being blocked at the local router? Or is it reliant, especially for the webrowsing stuff, on the ISP having their kit somewhere intercepting the traffic to and from your home which means they can potentially track your activities. In otherwords the reincarnation of Phorm

Exactly, you can opt out of the Homesafe bit but you can't stop the scanning and interception.

[Nicosia]

what a load of rubbish lol... they give you some un heard of anti virus thats rubbish..

well I use a mac so screw that... and better then VM?!?! they are very desperate for customers