COMPUTERS, THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY

[PanBiker]

With our "special relationship" with the US, they could have pushed the investment into the UK and we could have made a profit selling to the Johnny Foreigners. Maybe we are not so so special anymore.

[plaques]

The group will also seek to set common standards for new technologies such as artificial intelligence..'.

We already lead the world in artificial intelligence. With BoJo the buffoon and Rees-Mogg the Barny Flintstone of the 21st century the world will have a tough time catching up to us.

[Whyperion]

Were not chips made in scotland at one time ? Was it price or quality that became a problem ?

[Stanley]

What we are good at is closing the door after the horse has bolted. Consider Rape prosecution, racism and corruption in the police. But then some doors like corruption in party funding and the honours system seem to be left permanently open.

[Big Kev]

TalkTalk Fibre65 switchover this morning, seamless. All good so far.

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[plaques]

TalkTalk Fibre65 switchover this morning, seamless. All good so far.

I've been looking at that myself. Just a few weasel words about future price increases but that applies to my existing deal. At the moment I get quite a number of 'drop outs' which I tend to put down to lack of band width. I've 1000 metres of copper plus they have put up about 200 new houses en route. Probably worth asking about.

[Big Kev]

TalkTalk Fibre65 switchover this morning, seamless. All good so far.

I've been looking at that myself. Just a few weasel words about future price increases but that applies to my existing deal. At the moment I get quite a number of 'drop outs' which I tend to put down to lack of band width. I've 1000 metres of copper plus they have put up about 200 new houses en route. Probably worth asking about.

I did the whole thing using the 'chat' facility on their website. I have the Fibre65 package which includes anytime calls on the landline (kept the same number), caller ID and iine rental. £25 a month with an 18 month contract, I opted for the voicemail which is another £1 a month.

[Big Kev]

No telephone service yet, I have a dial tone but get an automated message saying it's not completed and to try again later. It then goes on to say it will be completed by 19:45 today.

[Big Kev]

Phone's on

[PanBiker]

Sorted, enjoy.

My Fibre 65 continues at 49mbps and I seem to be getting lots of intermittent dropouts on the WiFi. That's on the output side of the router of course. I might have chat with TalkTalk and see if I need a replacement router.

[Big Kev]

Day 2 and all seems to be going well so far. I will be firing up my work laptop later this evening and checking the VPN connects OK, I don't want to be messing about at 7am tomorrow.

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[chinatyke]

Kev, why do you need a VPN in UK? Does it improve speed or connectivity?
Some people here use VPN to get around the Great Firewall of China to access blocked sites.
I have one loaded on to my smartphone but not on my pc, only so that I can get updates from HSBC banking app.

[Stanley]

I'll be interested in that reply! Mozilla keep telling me I can have one but I don't know if I need it.

[Big Kev]

Kev, why do you need a VPN in UK?

The systems I connect to are behind the company firewall, the information on the servers is not for public consumption

[Stanley]

[plaques]

Kev. In your deal with TalkTalk did you buy a new router £4.95. I'm a bit like Ian mine is about 3 year old but I'm getting suspicious about drop outs. should I, can I, get a new one with the 65 deal. ?

[Tripps]

Kev, why do you need a VPN in UK? Does it improve speed or connectivity?

I've got two !

Someone recommended Proton Mail on here, so of course I had to get it. Swiss and fully secure - so they say. They later offered me a VPN - so of course I had to try it. Their free version offers only a limited number of virtual servers - all in Europe. In fact it seems to slow things down a bit. I can switch it on and off quite easily. It's mainly off.

The other is built in to the Opera browser, and also free of course.

The only benefit I get is access to a music provider in the States called Pandora. They won't connect you if you have a UK IP address. They used to do so, and I thought it was wonderful (literally) but I learned to live without it, and Spotify is easly as good, and maybe better now.
Summary - don't bother. . . .

Not sure how using one makes Kev's traffic more secure though?

[chinatyke]

Thanks, Kev. I've tried VPN's here twice on free trial (Express VPN) but like Tripps I found it slowed things down, presumably due to the routing path and accessing international servers. They do work well in China and enable access to censored websites like Facebook, and many ex-pats swear by them.
I think I'm right in saying all data via a VPN is encrypted and secure.

[PanBiker]

Day 2 and all seems to be going well so far. I will be firing up my work laptop later this evening and checking the VPN connects OK, I don't want to be messing about at 7am tomorrow.
20210629_184858.jpg

Your router dashboard looks different to mine. Is yours a later generation router?

Mine is a Huawei HG 633 and according to the interface the firmware is up to date.

[Big Kev]

Kev. In your deal with TalkTalk did you buy a new router £4.95. I'm a bit like Ian mine is about 3 year old but I'm getting suspicious about drop outs. should I, can I, get a new one with the 65 deal. ?

There was a £4.95 charge for the router, that's what it said it was for on the bill.

[Big Kev]

Kev, why do you need a VPN in UK? Does it improve speed or connectivity?

Not sure how using one makes Kev's traffic more secure though?

It's an end to end secure business link, effectivelly an encrypted tunnel secured by a certificate at each end.
Busines VPN vs Private VPN

[Big Kev]

Day 2 and all seems to be going well so far. I will be firing up my work laptop later this evening and checking the VPN connects OK, I don't want to be messing about at 7am tomorrow.
20210629_184858.jpg

Your router dashboard looks different to mine. Is yours a later generation router?

Mine is a Huawei HG 633 and according to the interface the firmware is up to date.

Device version is DG8041W-2. T5

[Tripps]

effectively an encrypted tunnel

Thanks for the link etc. I rarely use a VPN, just for Pandora.com or FOMO -(fear of missing out).

I have never worried too much, that my transmssions may be intercepted. Seem to have survived up to now.

[PanBiker]

Day 2 and all seems to be going well so far. I will be firing up my work laptop later this evening and checking the VPN connects OK, I don't want to be messing about at 7am tomorrow.
20210629_184858.jpg

Your router dashboard looks different to mine. Is yours a later generation router?

Mine is a Huawei HG 633 and according to the interface the firmware is up to date.

Device version is DG8041W-2. T5

Looks like a later beast. When I Googled the model to find out, guess what comes up first in the list?

Intermittent WiFi drop-outs, same as I am getting on mine.

I think I will try chat as according to all the tests from the TalkTalk end all is fine and dandy. Shocked to find that the guaranteed speed for the Fibre 65 package is only 26 Mbps. I got nearly that on the old ADSL deal! Problem is on the output side so I need to get a support engineer that knows the difference and won't just go of the line tests and router firmware interrogation. I used to get 56Mbps before Open Reach started rolling out the fibre to pole.

[Big Kev]

Not experienced any issues here, work laptop is connected via wifi and the VPN logs show it's been up for 9 hours 26 minutes, which means it's time to log off