What was so special about AT&T internet a few years ago?

[LocutusEstBorg]

Why did websites provide different sets of hyperlinks for 'AT&T Users'? My cousin had AT&T and he kept saying that various internet applications and websites don't work on AT&T but I could never understand what the hell it meant.

In any case it sounds like some proprietary bullcrap which I'd hate.

 

[FrozenIpaq]

Why did websites provide different sets of hyperlinks for 'AT&T Users'? My cousin had AT&T and he kept saying that various internet applications and websites don't work on AT&T but I could never understand what the hell it meant.

In any case it sounds like some proprietary bullcrap which I'd hate.

Well those are probably more or less "premium" services that require the ISP to subscribe to that site for you to have access. A few things that come to mind are online broadcasts of sports games. With most sites that do stream these events "live" it requires you to be with a company that is part of a contract/deal with the website that will allow you to view it online. Basically: you have to own a regular TV subscription of sorts before you are able to watch said TV online (so as not to lose customers to the web).

The Olympics did this recently as well and it's all about contracts, deals and broadcasting rights I'm assuming.

 

[Slasher]

I've never heard of internet provider exclusivity but every once in a while I do come across country specificity

Like for example Hulu - Watch your favorites. Anytime. For free. doesn't work if you live in Canada, while conversely if you live in Canada you get to watch purepwnage the tvseries and trailer park boys on the internet exclusively Video - showcase.ca

 

[LocutusEstBorg]

IIRC he said even applications like MSN Messenger on Windows 98 had various issues with AT&T connections.

I've seen websites/emails that have specials links to the same page that say 'AT&T users click here instead'.

 

[eldiablov]

IIRC he said even applications like MSN Messenger on Windows 98 had various issues with AT&T connections.

I've seen websites/emails that have specials links to the same page that say 'AT&T users click here instead'.

Are you actually making a thread to find out about something so you can then complain about it?

Is that what you're actually doing?

 

[LocutusEstBorg]

Are you actually making a thread to find out about something so you can then complain about it?

Is that what you're actually doing?

I want to know how its different from a technical point of view. Specifically the reason for this:

I've seen websites/emails that have specials links to the same page that say 'AT&T users click here instead'.

At the time I assumed it was due to some kind of transparent proxy. Or some custom browser for the links.

 

[FrozenIpaq]

Most likely because of the browser that AT&T users used, a lot of ISPs installed their own browsers back in the day so I wouldn't be surprised if that was part of the reason

 

[NoEffex]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure they had their own browsers

 

[TeamOverload]

IIRC he said even applications like MSN Messenger on Windows 98 had various issues with AT&T connections.

I've seen websites/emails that have specials links to the same page that say 'AT&T users click here instead'.

I've seen emails like that for AOL, so I guess I get what you're referring to. I've had AT&T at my parents house for years, and never experienced anything of the sort.

 

[LocutusEstBorg]

I've seen emails like that for AOL, so I guess I get what you're referring to. I've had AT&T at my parents house for years, and never experienced anything of the sort.

Pretty sure they don't do it anymore. I'm talking like 6-7 years ago.

 

[Dmoney]

I kinda remember using them too a long time (before i've experencied the internet in reality) lol but yeah man used them way back like said at least 7-8 years ago ah good times and brought me back memories.

 

[Hellcat]

I think it's the same thing as for AOL users some time ago, they had "AOL? Go here"'s too.

Reason being fairly simple:

AOL (and so AT&T maybe too) routed the traffic from the own, internal network into the internet via multiple different gateways, each with a different external (internet side) IP address.
You can never be exactely sure where and how your IP packets are routed, so while surfing you might hit the same site with different IPs every view.

So, sites that kept (keep) session information tied to IP addresses get confused and log you out due to all of sudden comming from a different IP address.

To counter that, website makers added those links, so the backend of the site knew your IP could change on every view and does things a bit different to still keep your session allive.


Some ISPs still do it these days (esp. or maybe even all mobile cell internet accesses) but website coders got more clever and have not so much a problem dealing with it these days, esp. with really EVERY oh so tiny browser supporting cookies by now (wasn't so common when this was an issue).

Hence no need for the "special treatment" links anymore. (but you DO still discover them every now and then)