So I'd like to hear your stories about manipulating and generally getting your ISP to do what you want, who your ISP is, etc. I am not asking for anything illegal. I just want ways & means of getting your ISP to deliver what they promise. (No, I didn't literally mean hacking. That's what quotes are for.)
If possible, a sort of 'how-to' would be the best way to post, especially if you've done it more than once (i.e., it's repeatable).
Many of us, myself included, have quite crappy service, and these kinds of tips might help us upgrade that crappy service.
What you're asking for is information on Social Engineering. Social Engineering is illegal. It is also considered fraud. I would suggest rethinking about what you're asking. Especially since you're specifically asking how to blackmail a corporation. which is again, illegal.
I have Charter 60Mb internet, and it is run on copper coaxial cable. I also live in a congested neighborhood. One trick I learned pretty quick is that Charter runs multiple "channels" into an area. If you live in a neighborhood with closely packed houses or an apartment complex, it is very probable you can find yourself on a congested channel. Whenever I notice an erratic ping or feel bottlenecking, I know the packet transfers are waiting in line somewhere longer than they should. The first thing to try is somewhat easy, just be prepared to be treated like you're 5 years old. Call the ISP customer service, tell them your internet connection is not working right, and go through the whole" resetting the modem" ordeal. They can look at what your equiptment is doing. When they suggest they can send a tech out to look at it, tell them the last time you had this problem it was fixed by changing your internet channel to a less congested one. If they can't do it, they will transfer you to someone who can, and it will be done while you are on the phone in a few minutes. Alot of techs use this trick to make customers happy who complain, so every few months different channels end up congested, and you just have to call in again. Another thing Charter does is prioritize traffic. Business traffic goes first, then residential. Charter offers a few speeds here, or "tiers". The highest is 60 Mb, so that traffic goes first after business traffic, then the 2nd tier, and so on. I hate paying $70 a month for internet, but it keeps my traffic prioritized the best I can get it. None of this is a tricky or bad thing to ask for, it's just good customer service.
Although you may have a crappy service, (A lot of us do) as @Fragmented_Cat pointed out, what you're asking for is illegal, I doubt any of the moderators on this forum let alone anyone in the community would appreciate what you just requested.
Since when did "Social Engineering" become a crime? Of course fraud is illegal but let's say you for instance tell your ISP that you are unsatisfied with the speed and is considering switching provider just to make them increase your bandwidth. I don't see how that would be a crime but I would be interested to know if I am wrong.
I don't live in America though so I am not perfectly informed on american law.
Yes but that was not what the OP had said. "Manipulating and blackmailing and generally getting your ISP to do what you want" is different from complaining to your ISP that you are not getting the speeds you pay for.
I interpreted it as simply finding different ways to complain to get the ISP to improve your service like for instance complaining about the speed even though it is what you paid for and say that you are considering to switch ISP. I have heard about cases when this have worked and people have got their bandwidth increased simply by saying that they were considering to switch.
Someone I knew had just gotten internet at their house. (Windstream) What they did was horrendous. They had just taken a cat5e cable and rolled it down their long dirt driveway completely unburied. To get to the house you had to run over the cable like 3 times. after like 2 months watiing on them to come and burry the cable they got fed up and just stopped paying them. Because technically they aren't getting what they payed for (an installation). So finally 6months after that they came and buried the cable. Which was probably the same cat5e that was driven over many times. Surprisingly they still get the full windstream quality. on a good day they will get 1.5mbps down and .1mbps up. They pay for 3 down and 1 up.
Social Engineering is illegal when it's part of something else that's illegal. In context, if I wanted my ISP to give me my neighbour's service and not have an account to pay on myself, that'd be illegal. On the other hand (and also in context), what I'm asking for is what are the hoops to jump through in order to actually get what I do pay for.
I apologize for how unclear I was originally: "blackmail" in particular was a really shitty choice of words.
I think you'll find that my edited post makes it clear that I'm not looking for actual fraud or blackmail or indeed anything illegal. I originally posted this shortly before going to bed, and would have fixed this much sooner if I had been awake.
You guys were right in that my language did not make clear that I wasn't looking for ways to outright break the law in the pursuit of better internet. While several people did understand what I was going for, the post was sufficiently badly phrased to make it a valid question.
If you think the post still needs work to make it clear I don't want anything illegal, feel free to mention me in this thread or PM me. I'm 100% willing to respond to any such concerns.
there was a guy who set up a raspberry PI that ran a program that ran speed test and he had 150 down 75 up and he had comcast and when the speed went below the raspberry pi tweet @comcastcares that his internet went below what he paid for, so you could use that to get your internet back up
That's fine, just wanted to make sure about the intent. I can understand the loathing caused by an ISP, just was concerned about the responses the thread would get.
OP, call your ISP and tell them you want to cancel your service, because their service is too expensive, and you are switching providers. It won't magically turn a pile of shit into a pile of gold, but it will give you a better deal than you have right. now.
It comes down to annoying legwork. Either ringing and complaining until it changes or passing complaints on to someone above them. In the US that would be the FCC, UK the ASA (advertising standards authority/agency) or what ever the equivelant of these is in your country.
Make life for them as annoying as it is not to get what you paid for. It is sad that it has come to this, that you have to force a company to do what you are all ready paying them to do in the first place. Humans really are lowly pieces of shit.
If your ISP's backbone is copper; run away, run far away.
But don't be a dick and spam them, copper is almost guaranteed to go down whenever there is severe weather.
That being said; some technicians are lazy and don't install things as they should.
And if you ever contact the call center, remember they are people too. Just act like a decent human being and you should be treated the same way by them.
Source: I work for a network management company. We do genuinely try to help people solve their problems.
Social Engineering is most common for hackers trying to gain a 'dox' on someone. It's not very hard at all. Social Engineering will always be a big flaw in security. For example if you wanted to gain personal info on someone, who uses AT&T all you would need is something basic from this someone. Something simple as an ip address, then you would call stating that you're an employee and you need help filling out a offsite billing ticket. You would also state that your system frameworks are down (tools). Most technical supporters do not know the walk through for dns look ups, you would then walk him/her through the process telling him/her to open 'g2 via mycsp' and enter the ip address. From there he can grab the circuit iD and look up the account by the main tool verifying it to the fake employee. It's simple as that and it could happen to any ISP. Good social engineers wouldn't even need a employee iD in place. Lol. Let's just say all ISP providers in the US is vulnerable, and I can vouch myself.