Comcast is collecting data on my blog: How to stop Brand Dimensions

I just noticed some interesting entries in my logs from a new bot: BDFetch. Brand Dimensions is a company that collects information from the Internet, looking for bad things people say about Comcast's poor service. Apparently, they're conducting private investigations for U.S. clients from Canada by collecting files on everyone that says something about Comcast online. Personally, I'd rather not be investigated by a Canadian company in a state that requires licensing for such activities.

Here are the entries from my web server's access log. Clearly, they're looking only at content that mentions Comcast. I mention other brand names, but they're not interested in them.

72.14.164.176 - - [05/Jun/2009:16:49:17 -0400] "GET /robots.txt HTTP/1.1" 200 289 "www.brandimensions.com" "BDFetch"
72.14.164.150 - - [05/Jun/2009:16:49:39 -0400] "GET /blog/2008/11/comcast-strikes-back.html HTTP/1.1" 200 17006 "www.brandimensions.com" "BDFetch"

Since then, I have two new lines in my robots.txt file:

User-agent: BDFetch
Disallow: /

If that doesn't work, I'm going to cut off the 72.14.164.0/24 network at my firewall.

Wondering if Brand Dimension is watching you? Here's the grep command to find them:
grep BDFetch access_log
You'll need access to your web log. Also, remember that grep and unix are case-sensitive.

Comcast Strikes Back

One week after my port order for my Comcast phone number transferred to Vitelity, Comcast shut down my Internet service. My Comcast voice port line had been dead for a week, and I got home to a dead Internet connection. My Cable modem could pick up an IP but Comcast wouldn't allow it to connect.

I called Comcast customer service and the generally polite customer service rep told me that a port order terminated phone service and Internet service, because it's not possible to activate a Cable modem with voice capabilities with the phone service off. Which is exactly what I had for a week. Customer service rep expressed that Comcast didn't like it when people ported "Comcast's" telephone numbers. Given that Comcast already sued Verizon over the porting telephone numbers difficulty, it's funny.

My only option was to get a new cable modem with no voice ports. After I hooked up the new modem, one call to an also-polite customer service rep got me connected again. I got a new IP, so a quick edit to sip_custom.conf got me connected to Vitelity again.

It was a positive experience, because I feel much freer to switch to whatever ISP I can find that's cheaper. Thus I'm looking at FIOS or DirecTV with a cheap landline for DSL. For those two shows I like to watch on Showtime and HBO, it costs us about $100 a month. Ouch.

What will next month's Comcast bill bring? Credit for terminated phone service? Extra service fees for termination? We'll find out in a month.