COMPUTERS, THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY

[Tizer]

Oh yes, thanks, I hadn't noticed it sitting there minding its own business...and that little star does bookmarks too - perhaps it always did and I haven't noticed that either. The world's getting too complicated Pluggy.

I've just noticed too that my OGFB page tabs have got little blue symbols - Gearce will be pleased!

[Stanley]

Tiz, no because it reloads the page and the order is re-arranged. Right click on the navigation arrows takes you back to the original view. Like you I lost the reload button but then realised it was where Pluggy indicates. Didn't realise we had yet another new version of Firefox. It's working well though....

[Callunna]

I guess most of the posts in here will be about the agony of computing, but here’s a good thing I found. It’s an app for my Mac (I’m sure PCs will have something similar) which automatically reminds me to take a break if I’ve been glued to the keyboard too long.

It does a series of mini reminders (look away from the screen and refocus your eyes for 10 seconds, for example) then every so often (you choose the interval) it advises you to take a longer break, walk around, etc.

You’re probably thinking that any sensible person would be able to do this on their own, but it’s amazing how time flies and if you’re absorbed in your work you tend to forget.

[Tizer]

"...here’s a good thing I found. It’s an app for my Mac (I’m sure PCs will have something similar) which automatically reminds me to take a break if I’ve been glued to the keyboard too long."

I've got one...it's called Mrs Tiz!

[Stanley]

That should call the app SWAMBO!
Pluggy, I need a bit of help. God knows why but in an unguarded moment I tried to install Google Earth the other day and now have at least two versions of the application that don't work and are trying to load when I go onto Firefox. I've found them but they won't let me delete them, telling me I am not the 'owner'. How can I zap them? I have no objection to paying you for a visit to do it and if necessary run maintenance checks on the system. No problems, just routine maintenance if needed.

[Big Kev]

Is anyone else having issues with Orange Broadband at the Barnoldswick exchange? Intermittent connection and when it is up it's painfully slow...

[Pluggy]

Orange here is fine, haven't noticed any slowdown, my sister in law has been having similar issues in Padiham though, I thought it might be the router but swapping it out for another didn't improve things. The box appeared to be connected, logging into the router said it was connected, but it only appeared to route out to some IP addresses and since the DNS wasn't on its list nothing worked. I told her to ring Orange.

[Stanley]

No problems here Kev, the miserable 6mps connection has given me no trouble, it's working normally. Sorry yours isn't the same.

[Big Kev]

Orange here is fine, haven't noticed any slowdown, my sister in law has been having similar issues in Padiham though, I thought it might be the router but swapping it out for another didn't improve things. The box appeared to be connected, logging into the router said it was connected, but it only appeared to route out to some IP addresses and since the DNS wasn't on its list nothing worked. I told her to ring Orange.

Cheers
Pluggy. I'll swap out the router tonight and see if that makes any difference. I just got the usual list of questions from Orange Support...

[Pluggy]

Thick Indian accents reading from a script, nothing finer.......

Commiserations.

On the plus side, they're all as bad as one another.

[Big Kev]

I believe it's a dns issue, I get "Error 137 (net::ERR_NAME_RESOLUTION_FAILED): Unknown error" when trying to connect to Google. If I run a tracert to www.google.co.uk I get a response from the router in 2ms, it then takes 25ms for a Manchester hub to answer there's a number of timeouts then a hub in London responds. I can send and receive emails and can connect to some websites. Flickr being one of them but Facebook doesn't work. I can't get on here (OGFB) from home either.
I'm conversing with Orange support by email, this is very infuriating as it's so slow to get any response. I believe it's related to the work going on at the exchange, there were wagons there at the weekend so something was going on.

The issue doesn't appear to be affecting everyone. 2 friends, in Barlick, who use Orange have had the same problem since the weekend but, Stanley and Pluggy, both on Orange, don't.

[Big Kev]

Got a reply from Orange, about and hour ago, pointing me to a document showing me how to connect to my wireless router. That was kind of them. I'll be moving back to BT soon, methinks...

[Pluggy]

My sister in law didn't have much luck either, they were trying to convince her all the sites she was trying to access were down or having problems, BBC, Facebook, Ebay - all the trivial little nothingness sites.............

It was certainly a DNS issue in here case, the router refused to talk to the IP addresses of Oranges DNS server. Some Web IP addresses would respond, others wouldn't, try it 5 minutes later and some that would respond before don't anymore.

[PanBiker]

It sounds like someone has wiped or reset the routing tables or something like that. When I was doing my CCNA it was one of the module tests in the practical lab which always started with wiping the routers and configuring from the ground up via the CLI. From a blank routing table it can take days to do all the cross negotiating and table replicating between live routers on the net.

[Stanley]

Looks as though Pluggy and I have been lucky. As for changing over Kev, hang fire until they eventually give us what they promised us in October. I sympathise with your frustration but in the long run it might be better to bite the bullet and wait and see. Better the devil you know.....

[Big Kev]

My sister in law didn't have much luck either, they were trying to convince her all the sites she was trying to access were down or having problems, BBC, Facebook, Ebay - all the trivial little nothingness sites.............

It was certainly a DNS issue in here case, the router refused to talk to the IP addresses of Oranges DNS server. Some Web IP addresses would respond, others wouldn't, try it 5 minutes later and some that would respond before don't anymore.

When I told the Orange helpdesk it was a DNS issue they sent me instructions on how to reset winsock. I told them it was a Linux machine and I haven't heard from them since.

3rd line support were supposed to phone me, with an update, this morning at the latest. Turns out the man who is investigating didn't start until 1. It's 2:30 now and he still hasn't phoned. I nearly had to drive to the office to work this afternoon, fortunately my son is away so I'm currently sat in his house.

I'm tempted to walk round to the exchange and ask what's been unplugged or who has dropped a cabinet on a cable

[Big Kev]

I think I may have ruffled some feathers. I have an engineer coming tomorrow afternoon to test the line between my house and the exchange

[Pluggy]

My sister in law appealed to me to talk to Orange again because they fobbed her off,I finally convinced them is wasn't our end after replacing everything and connecting up to the BT test socket. Eventually they admitted they have a problem that is affecting some customers. They promised a fix in the next few days. We'll see..........

[Big Kev]

I mananged to get hold of the email address of a senior manager. He, unfortunately for him, gets it when I have no joy with customer services.

[Stanley]

I hope you get closer to a solution Kev. God knows how Plugs and I missed this one! The thing that surprises me is the bad service you are getting. Again, I must have been lucky, when I've had a problem I have been able to break through to the next level of diagnosis up and had good service but of course that may have changed. Almost certainly due to work at the exchange for the upgrade I suspect, someone has cocked-up and it wouldn't surprise me if they are relying on the change-over to solve their current problems. None of this does you any good and if it was me I would be as mad as a wet hen! Commiserations....
Huge Ubuntu upgrade this morning. What puzzles me is that you can have a small one that needs a restart and a big one like this (40mb) that doesn't.

[Big Kev]

Huge Ubuntu upgrade this morning. What puzzles me is that you can have a small one that needs a restart and a big one like this (40mb) that doesn't.

All depends on what is being updated.

[Big Kev]

The intermittent connection to the DNS server is now non existent. No Orange internet at all now, thank goodnes for moblie internet. I'll let you know what the engineer comes up with.

[Tripps]

When ignorance is bliss.....

I had a similar situation last week - no internet connection . Phoned Plusnet (free of charge) connected after about 3 minutes to a lady in Sheffield, who talked me through the local tests, which established that the problem lay with them, rather than me. She said it was a registration issue, and she would pass it to her technical people. Result - service restored in about twenty minutes.

Good honest Broadband from Yorkshire. as they say. Interestingly she said to keep the modem connected H24, as this indicated that t was a reliable connection, and would result in a better connection speed, and used very little power.

[PanBiker]

You will get a BT engineer Kev as they own the infrastructure. The BT guys worked wonders for me when I had a problem a couple of years back.

[Big Kev]

You will get a BT engineer Kev as they own the infrastructure. The BT guys worked wonders for me when I had a problem a couple of years back.

I remember reading about that, Ian. Hopefully I can grill him about the 21cn works, at the exchange, as well.