George phoned Gabe: Rogers suspended their account because there was a high volume of spam being sent… probably from an infected machine. George called someone in to confirm that their office Windows machine isn't infected. When George told Rogers that they're running a wifi network, Rogers said that they wouldn't re-enable the connection until he WEP-encrypted the wifi. George explained to them that it's a public service for their customers; Rogers stood with their position.

Gabe explained to George that our authentication mechanism can lead us back to the user who was (intentionally or not) sending spam – all we need is for Rogers to tell us the date(s) and time(s) when spam was being sent. Also, there's no way for Rogers to know whether or not the wifi is WEP-encrypted.

They're now back up.

Gabe got a call today from John; their net access (Rogers cable) went down on Friday, and he wanted me to come by to check it out. The auth server confirms that they've been down for 4 days. I went to check it out – the cable modem won't connect. The “online” light is off, and the “send” and “receive” lights flash regularly and in sync. The DHCP server in the modem serves out IP addresses with no “gateway” value.

Just for fun, I took the cable modem upstairs and plugged it into the master coax connection, which is behind the TV behind the bar at north end. It did the same thing: flash normally like it's trying to get a connection (first the “receive” goes solid, then the “send” flashes for a while), and then they both start flashing together and the “online” light stays off.

I explained that the problem is with Rogers, and that they'll need to call them. I offered to talk to George (who works there and knows more about tech stuff), in case that helps with his conversation with Rogers.