From a pitiable 56kbps AOL dial-up somewhere in suburban Colorado, 19-year-old Myko Hein would like to tap out this sad, regretful message to the powers-that-be at his former cable Internet provider, AT&T Broadband: I was wrong. It'll never happen again. Please take me back. . . .
From a pitiable 56kbps AOL dial-up somewhere in suburban Colorado, 19-year-old Myko Hein would like to tap out this sad, regretful message to the powers-that-be at his former cable Internet provider, AT&T Broadband: I was wrong. It'll never happen again. Please take me back.

Just last month Hein thought of AT&T's service as unbearably slow -- acceptable, perhaps, for sending e-mail, but pure molasses when it came to trading software in Internet chat rooms. Hein's thirst for speed finally drove him to employ a sophisticated hack that "uncapped" his cable modem, obliterating the bandwidth limit imposed by the company, and granting him speed beyond the dreams of hotwired youth.

But it only took six hours for AT&T to catch Hein, cut him off, and ban him from their network for life. "They said they considered it theft of service," recalls Hein. "There were no second chances."

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