The sorry saga of vanished ISP Fast24 will conclude for customers next Friday when the firm's broadband suppliers Tiscali and NetServices finally pull the plug on connections.

Fast24 customers are being offered the chance to "rescue" their connection by moving over to EzeeDSL, a brand of Leeds-based business ISP 186K. Tiscali and NetServices have appointed 186K to put up a "walled garden" for Fast24 users when they try to connect, which will offer the chance to enter into a 12 month contract with the new provider.

EzeeDSL has come to specialise in these customer-base salvage operations. It was originally brought on stream to offer an easy escape route for trapped E7even punters. E7even went titsup in July.

Tiscali and NetServices won't be dishing out MACs to those who don't sign up for EzeeDSL. They say it is a breach of their customers' - Fast24 - confidentiality. Provision of MACs is currently ungoverned by Ofcom, though the regulator has unveiled proposals to take over the increasingly fractious business.

Tiscali and NetServices will be hoping many won't fancy the inconvenience of waiting for Fast24 to be wiped off the net on the 17th and then starting from scratch, potentially through BT or another wholesale source.

Along with broadband connections, many domains were lost in the Fast24 chaos thanks to the disappearance of its hosting tentacle DomainBuster. Register readers came to the rescue with advice on how to escape that labyrinth here and here. ®