[mythtv-users] Mythtv and Choice Hotels

[Brian Wood]

On Tuesday 30 December 2008 09:03:02 Greg Woods wrote:
> On Tue, 2008-12-30 at 08:07 -0700, Brian Wood wrote:
> > I can tether a Windows machine to my Blackberry, but I have not figured
> > out how to do that with a Linux machine.
>
> There is command-line software called "barry" but it is fairly early in
> its development. There was an article about it in last month's "Linux
> Journal".

Must have missed that (I subscribe to the paper version). Thanks for the 
pointer.

>
> > Anyway, I have discovered that the smaller "Mom and Pop" places, often
> > along the Interstates, have very few problems. The larger, more expensive
> > "Big Name" hotels are where I have problems.
>
> These are also the places that typically have problems with hackers and
> spammers; it is much easier to hide in a large place. That is why they
> have to have so many restrictions. We have had users report problems
> where they cannot authenticate to our mail server from a hotel. Turns
> out the hotel was diverting all outbound SMTP connections to one of
> their own servers (probably an anti-spam measure). That works fine for
> your average Outlook user trying to send mail, but it really screws
> things up if you are trying to do authentication or TLS encryption, as
> we require our users to do if they want to relay mail through our
> servers from outside our network.
>
> Chances are, the click-through EULA that nobody ever reads has
> provisions in it that allow them to do this, so there isn't much you can
> do other than work around it. I use a VPN link to work, or when they are
> blocking that,  SSH port forwarding (as suggested by a previous poster).

I have no doubt that the "click through" agreement allows them to kidnap 
babies for sale to the highest bidder, but that doesn't make it right.

But I have a choice in where to stay, and I have gone out of my way to tell 
offending hotels that I will never stay with them again, and will advise 
other to do likewise. Of course, when I try to explain why, I get blank 
stares.

They are selling a service that virtually nobody on the premises understands. 
All they know how to do is call their contractor, who provides the service. 
They will be told "everything's fine", leaving them totally confused, and 
probably deciding that I am a nut.

-- 
beww
beww at beww.org