Telstra overhauls process to kill duplicate sessions

Telstra has found a new way to deal with duplicate internet sessions on its network, where two users connect with the same login credentials.

The carrier said the situation most often arose when one customer either gave away or sold an old modem that still contained a store of their credentials.

Until now, Telstra simply terminated the longest running of the two sessions if it discovered a duplicate session in progress.

From now on, both users will be presented with a webpage to confirm their login credentials and set a new password.

"This process will assign the correct username and password to the correct customer and the modem they are using," the telco said in a blog post.

Telstra also said the new process would help "lock out someone who may be fraudulently or dishonestly using another customer's internet access", though it acknowledged this was rarely a cause of duplicate sessions.