SamKnows

You may have noticed that SamKnows is looking a bit different this morning. As well as a bright, shiny new front page, we’ve redefined some of our sections — news and features have been beefed up, as have our various research projects we’ve undertaken.
Since the beginning of the year, people have been asking us what

The latest “State of the Internet” report by research firm Akamai has thrown up a number of concerning figures regarding the UK. The report reveals that, while the average Internet speed around the globe is a disappointing 1.5Mb, nearly 20% of the world’s broadband users have access to speeds greater than 5Mb. However the situation

The European Commission has today joined the debate between Internet users, ISPs and online advertising companies. In a blunt message to the Internet industry Meglena Kuneva, the Consumer Affairs Commissioner, warned ISPs, major websites and advertising firms that they are violating “basic consumer rights in terms of transparency, control and risk.” The European Commission has

Lord Carter, the Minister for Communications, Technology and Broadcasting has suggested a “music tax” to cover artist royalties. The government is looking to a £20 charge per internet user, which would be added to the customer’s ISP charges, for access to “unlimited content”. The initial idea would be on a voluntary basis but there are

Controversial targeted advertising company Phorm has announced a deal with Korean Internet service provider KT. This will see the company’s behavioural targeting advertising system replicated in Korea after successful trials in the UK. However, there are fears that the Phorm system infringes privacy laws and it has attracted a number of legal challenges.
In simple terms

A routine check of the offices of exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama has opened the doorway to a massive espionage ring in China. The ring was uncovered by security experts at two Canadian universities, the University of Toronto and Cambridge University, who found malware and spyware on the spiritual leader of most of the

Carphone Warehouse is considering a last-minute bid for the UK broadband arm of ISP Tiscali. The company, which is on the verge of administration and has been suspended from the Italian stock exchange, was being wooed by BSkyB until the deal appeared to fall apart on pricing issues. However, the media behemoth has recently renewed

IT specialists in Australia have discovered a botnet that is capable of controlling both routers and cable or DSL modems. The “Psyb0t” or “Network Bluepill” is capable of attacking and infecting around 50 models of routers and modems - including popular Netgear and Linksys models. So far, traditional router protection measures have not managed to

Phorm is refuting suggestions that strategic differences have caused four senior board directors to quit and is also denying the departures show it is giving up on the America market.
Despite the departing American-based chairman and chief operating officer being replaced by non executives directors based in London, a spokesman for the company is adamant that

I am pleased to announce that our first Performance Monitoring report is ready (finally!).
The report is available in PDF format using the link below. Apologies for the relatively large file size - many of the images are at a higher resolution, so you can zoom in for a better look. A one page “executive summary”

Long time readers of the site will be aware that our Availability Checker is available as an XML web service, and this web service is used extensively by the comparison websites, amongst others. Indeed, this is primarily how we fund the operation of the website.
One flaw, from a retail perspective, with our existing Availability Checker

Yes that’s right, in order to support our ever increasing developments we’re hiring a new full-time programmer.
There’d be opportunities to work on all aspects of Samknows, including the website, the availability checker API and the rapidly growing performance monitoring network.
The ideal candidate would:

Have excellent PHP, shell scripting and SQL skills (particularly MySQL)
Be very proficient in

Yes, it’s finally happened - we’ve had a face lift. I’ve frequently received comments on the design, but the final nail in the coffin was when someone answered the survey and said that the style was “just too geeky”!
Seriously though, we’re just trying to make the website a bit more usable, particularly for new users.

Firstly I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who answered the survey we put up on the site in February. The response has been far better than expected and I can only apologise that I can’t respond to everyone individually.
I thought I’d share some of the most pronounced results below:
1. Predictably, the

It’s a brand new year and I’d like to bring some brand new features to the website. I’ve already added the mapping engine and the address based availability checker since the start of the year, and now I’d like to get your feedback on what else you would like to see.
In this spirit, I have

Our wholesale broadband checker now supports address based checking. This is ideal if you don’t have a BT phone line but want to receive an accurate result! Address level resolution data is available for all BT Wholesale based ADSL services, BT Wholesale SDSL and Virgin Media cable services.
The Availability Checker API has been updated to

This boxing day sees the release of a much needed new mapping engine on the site. The new system offers a whole host of new features that many of you will hopefully find useful. These include:

Dynamic browsing of the map - Exchanges will now load automatically as you browse around the UK, no matter how

Yesterday saw the launch of Simplifydigital, a new digital services advice company. They aim to take the complexity out of choosing broadband, TV and phone services by tailoring a package to suit your individual needs. Whilst there are parallels between Simplifdigital and online comparison sites, Simplifydigital are breaking the mould by offering impartial advice

Firstly, apologies for the lack of visible updates as of late. I’ve recently started a new job and have been working horrifically long hours! Rest assured that ISP data is still being updated in the background, so your exchange pages should be right up to date. With that said I’ll move on to a few

As you may have already noticed, the website has undergone a makeover. The old look had been there for four years now, so we decided to have a bit of a change. We have tried to keep a similar feel to the site, and hope that both new and existing users find the updated layout