COMPUTERS, THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY

[Pluggy]

I got around to checking Plusnet's speed in Barlick this morning - Church connection as mentioned earlier. Next door to the town square - 13.2 Mb/s according to uswitches speed tester. So it confirms Barlick does now have 21CN, Since Plusnet are just an extension of BT, it would make sense they're going to be one of the first to get it up and running.

http://www.uswitch.com/broadband/speedt ... tAodBhUAFg

I've moved onto Ubuntu 12.04 for my default. I often use a live CD to check out customer's machines and the 2+ year old 10.04 live CD is having problems with newer hardware. It often takes an in-ordinate time to boot on a newer machine and when it eventually gets there, bits don't work......

I wouldn't advocate upgrading if 10.04 works OK on your hardware however, Unity takes some getting used to after Gnome 2 on 10.04.

[Big Kev]

Received this afternoon from Orange


I can see from BT's systems that their 21sct Century Network (WBC) has now been made available in your local exchange. This network does provide a top speed on your line of 17 Meg.

I've escalated this issue to our Provisioning Department and requested that your line is migrated onto BT's 21st Century Network so that you can benefit from this faster speed. If the space is available in your local exchange this will be done for you within the next 5 working days.

I'll keep you posted.

[Stanley]

Never rang them Kev, too busy. Will do it ASAP.

I've copied your reply to them and asked for the same service.

[Tizer]

I might try loading Ubuntu 12.04 onto one of my old PCs to see how Unity looks. I've looked at screenshots of Unity on the web and it looks OK although different. I still haven't ventured onto 64-bit - I wonder if Ubuntu 12.04 64-bit will have all the Java thingies working?

[Stanley]

That was the problem with 10.4 64 bit that Pluggy was watching. He wouldn't let me have it till they had got up to speed on Java. They managed that so one would assume that 12.4 will be OK.

Must ring Orange today......

[Pluggy]

I've stayed 32 bit, I only have 2 Gb of memory so theres little point in going 64 bit.

[Stanley]

No doubt that 64bit capability of handling my 8g memory speeded thins up.
Kev, I got a dusty reply from Orange this morning, they have told me the only route is to ring the engineers at 5.1p a minute. I shall have to do it! You must have more influence than me!

[Big Kev]

No doubt that 64bit capability of handling my 8g memory speeded thins up.
Kev, I got a dusty reply from Orange this morning, they have told me the only route is to ring the engineers at 5.1p a minute. I shall have to do it! You must have more influence than me!

It must depend on who answers the email. Reply to them again insisting on a precise answer.

[Tizer]

Kev, the words `precise' and `email' are incompatible!

[Tripps]

Not sure if this is relevant, or even true, but when our exchange went to 21CN, Plusnet told me it would take a week or two to get up to speed. I didn't do daily checks, but I think there was some truth in it.

[Stanley]

I've come on in the middle of the day to let you all know that I rang the number Orange gave me and after 35 minutes of being passed from one 'agent' to another found a man who knew what he was doing. He took the trouble to listen to me, checked on the available speed and told me I was quite correct, 20mps service is available in Barnoldswick again on Orange via the new BT equipment. He told me that I would be 'upgraded' to where I was almost 18 months ago within five days. I shall leave my router on and wait with bated breath! As my mate Ethel used to say, "It ain't easy!"
I've just checked and at the moment I'm on 5.2 download and .38 upload. I shall report progress!

[Big Kev]

I've come on in the middle of the day to let you all know that I rang the number Orange gave me and after 35 minutes of being passed from one 'agent' to another found a man who knew what he was doing. He took the trouble to listen to me, checked on the available speed and told me I was quite correct, 20mps service is available in Barnoldswick again on Orange via the new BT equipment. He told me that I would be 'upgraded' to where I was almost 18 months ago within five days. I shall leave my router on and wait with bated breath! As my mate Ethel used to say, "It ain't easy!"
I've just checked and at the moment I'm on 5.2 download and .38 upload. I shall report progress!

Don't hold your breath

[Stanley]

Yup, you're right but on previous experience, the fact that they say the connection is 20mps capable and the fact they have said within five days gives me hope. Checked this morning, no change yet. How's yours going on?

[Big Kev]

Yup, you're right but on previous experience, the fact that they say the connection is 20mps capable and the fact they have said within five days gives me hope. Checked this morning, no change yet. How's yours going on?

Nowt yet. 6mb down 300k up.

[PanBiker]

Have you both tried restarting you routers?

[Big Kev]

Have you both tried restarting you routers?

Mine usually prompts with an Orange flashing light if there have been any changes. I'll give it a go when I get home.

[Stanley]

I took Ian's advice and lost my connection. Had to wait till 7am to get the n ice lady from Orange to take me through accessing the router via the screen. I shall not reset it again! (Oh, by the way, speed not altered yet)

[PanBiker]

A straightforward re-boot of any device should not cause you to loose connection. All it has to do is negotiate anew IP from the DHCP pool at the exchange. I re-boot my Netgear router whenever I have a care. Its the first step when investigating connection issues. It has never lost connectivity as a result. Very strange, mind you, you are dealing with Orange who don't seem to be able to organise the proverbial in a brewery.

[Nolic]

I've been using a laptop stand/cooler for the past few days and now wonder how I ever managed without it. I sometimes play games on the laptop and these can get the processor etc a bit warm The nature of the stand itself allows air into the laptop and this is backed up by a fan that runs through a usb plug. All for the price of a couple of drinks from Amazon. Highly recommended. http://www.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage. ... _Id=471108 Nolic

[Tizer]

Stanley, as Ian says, simply switching off and then restarting your router shouldn't fail - the router should fire up OK. However, very occasionally they don't and you have then go through a routine to get back to normal. I don't think it's ever happened to me. Whenever my ISP has a disconnection problem they send out a warning email telling affected customers to reboot their router but they always add a clause at the end saying in the remote chance it doesn't reboot to contact them to sort it.

[Stanley]

All I know is that mine didn't re-boot as it should. These things happen.... No change in Orange speed yet......

[Stanley]

No improvement in speed.....

[Stanley]

No improvement. It's five days since I rang them so I shall give them a couple of days more and then go on the attack again.

[Big Kev]

I have just emailed them again...

[Pluggy]

The first thing I do when I visit a customer with connection issues is to restart the router.