COMPUTERS, THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY

[Big Kev]

In my experience they are all pretty much as bad as one another, Plusnet do have UK call centres which is in their favour, but I was sorting out a broadband issue for a customer a while back and and I was given a real run around by a 'Jobsworth' at Plusnet because the customer couldn't remember her password.

Most of the others have call centres staffed by blokes called John with thick Indian accents......

I spoke to "Kevin", who had the same accent. It got most confusing..

"Hello, you are speaking to Kevin. Can I have your name, please?"

"Yes, it's Kevin"

Silence...

[Stanley]

I don't know if it's because we are talking about them but Talktalk email connection is AWOL this morning....

[Stanley]

The Talktalk SMTP server is still offline.....

[PanBiker]

Stanley, mines working OK, just done a test loop and all is fine with Talk Talk here.

[Stanley]

Just tried sending a test mail to myself and mine seems to be OK now.....

[Tizer]

An interesting new security problem...
BBC News, 3 March 2014
Hackers take control of 300,000 home routers
A world-spanning network of hijacked home routers has been uncovered by security researchers. The network involves more than 300,000 routers in homes and small businesses that have been taken over through loopholes in their core software. Discovered by researchers at Team Cymru, the network is thought to be one of the biggest involving such devices. It is not yet clear what the people behind the attack intend to do with the collection of compromised routers....
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-26417441

[Stanley]

Thanks again to the lads. 70mb of new OS this morning for Ubuntu......

[Tizer]

Virgin Media are still chasing Mrs Tiz's father for about £170 even though she paid all outstanding monies and told them to close the account last October when he moved into the nursing home. They kept sending bills but eventually admitted they'd made a mistake and marked the account `Gone away' instead of closing it. But even after the admission the bills kept coming and no amount of telephoning them seems able to stop the flow. More recently they passed it to the debt collectors and we had to chase Virgin again - they took a while but eventually said there was nothing owing and to ignore any bills he received. But now another debt collector is chasing it up and we're having to go through it all again. The letter arrived today and they say they're coming to the house early next week. Our attitude to such things is `let 'em come' but we're just about to complete the sale of the parents' house and we don't want it messed up. Just think how much misery is caused by companies like Virgin Media!

[PanBiker]

My late sons car insurance company were still chasing the lad for the instalment of his policy for the month he was killed in the RTA. They were informed within 15 minutes of the fatal accident of the circumstance by the police. I was still receiving threats of courts and stuff like that 12 months later just before the mail redirect ran out. They even had a copy of the death certificate sent to them but continued to ask for the £38.00 or whatever it was. I gave up communication with them in disgust and did not renew the mail redirect. I assume they have now got the message. I of course could not care less, it's upsetting though with the ineptitude of how some companies operate.

[hartley353]

My sympathies are with you on this one Tizer, I have gone through it twice before. When dealing with these companies you are only able to reach computer operators who work to set scripts, and only have available certain boxes on there screens to tick. It all seems to go in a circle, with machine generating bills and threats. Only one has gone to the Debt collector level, and was passed down there ranks as uncollectable till it reached a nasty sort in Preston, after a number of threatening phone calls he turned up at my door. My last words to him was the offer of an ambulance, then I heard no more, 20 years on I probably couldn,t resolve it the same way. Good luck.

[Tizer]

When we phoned Virgin Media yesterday and explained they kept putting us on hold, saying they had to check with someone else, and in the end no-one answered and we gave up. We've sent a message to the debt collection company telling them that Virgin confirm that no money is owing and the account is closed.. It's up to them now, if they turn up at father-in-law's house it's empty and has a `sold' sign outside. They can dig themselves into a hole if they like.

Years ago when we had Demon Internet as our ISP they set debt collectors on us to retrieve £5 (yes, five pounds). It was bizarre, we told the collector to provide proof that we owed anything to Demon and eventually they gave up, because we didn't have any debts. It must have cost both companies far in excess of £5!

[hartley353]

Vodafone have not responded to my Invoice yet, but they have countered with a bill for £3.52 for late payment of my last monthly bill. the late payment was entirely due to their tardiness in billing me a settlement figure. Now I shall send them a reminder bill, to this I will attach an additional charge for paying this fee. David faces Goliath again, but in place of the sling I have the county court.

[Bodger]

we moved from England to Ireland , i was followed by phone to say they would come to Ireland an collect what they said i owed, it was th time of the 'troubles',he said they would come over and collect, i asked him what kind of a coffin he wanted to go home in, end of story

[Steven Chorkley]

I am also with Plusnet... They are brilliant! Static IP, amazing support and they also allowed me to setup my own line parameters. We pay the line rental upfront... discounting that, we pay £11 a month for unlimited UK and International calls (After we lost the Orange second line) and Unlimited downloads. I monitor my connection with online services. 97% uptime.

[Tripps]

Wow Steven - 1062 Gbs! Don't you ever sleep?

I've just checked my usage and I'm using only about 15 Gbs per month recently. I was using less than 10Gbs before , but now I have unlimited, I use it more of course. I've got myself a directly connected internet radio by Noxio, which I like a lot, and accounts for the increased usage.

[Steven Chorkley]

Noxon *

And yeah, I download a lot. That can include machine drivers / updates, but mostly software packages. I also download a lot of media, mostly usenet data. I have a HomeServer that runs 24/7, it often increases to insane data amounts when I add a new TV series ect... I don't know how it managed to be so high last month though. Plusnet offer a QoS system that handles priorities very well, I mostly rely on this.

I'm on a 3GB a month limit with tethering at the moment on EE. I've almost exceeded my allowance in 9 days. £10 a GB thereafter!!!!!! Crazy!!!!!! If anyone can tell me about a PYGO service that's cheaper, please let me know! I've been trying to use college WiFi to download iPlayer shows, downloads and other stuff... but not really managed it :/

Usage at home has been much lower, but hasn't been under as much demand.

[Tizer]

The reason I got onto Plusnet so many years ago was that I found that many of the people working in computers used it as their ISP.

[Tripps]

"Noxon *"

Thanks for the correction. Yes you're right it's a Noxon Terratic. I confused it with Roxio (software).
AS usual I only understand about a quarter of what you post, but have great admiration for your enthusiasm.

[Stanley]

All bloody Greek to me......

[Tizer]

Noxon? I thought that was something to do with Superman. Like krypton. Our double glazing probably has noxon filling the gap between the panes.

[Tripps]

All is revealed. . . Of course mine is an obsolete model from ebay for about £40
Access to "Oldham Community Radio - music for the mature listener" amongst about 5000 other stations.
I know you can do this on your PC, but it's nice to have a separate device with preset channels.

Noxon

[Tizer]

Do you know if there is a Noxon radio that has the ability to automatically record programmes for listening later? I couldn't see any on the web site. I've used a Pure Digital radio for this for some years but they don't make the recording ones any more.

[Stanley]

They all need a good signal and unfortunately Barlick has lousy service.....

[PanBiker]

Lousy for DAB but these use your WiFi or router as feed.

[Tripps]

As Pans says - it does not need any local radio reception - it is fed from your broadband, and with a standalone device, it simulates an ordinary radio, and does not affect the computer at all.
As for recording I use this software. i-sound recorder It's free to try out, and not too expensive to buy. ( about $30)