COMPUTERS, THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY

[Pluggy]

Got a card through the door saying I can have fibre broadband at my premises. EE are offering 75 Mb/s or 38Mb/s at a price. Torn between mind numbing speeds and keeping money in my pocket......

Basically a tenner a month more for 38Mb/s or £20 more for 75Mb/s

[Steven Chorkley]

Ouch, here with Plusnet we could have Fibre for £5 more a month... we only pay £2.50. With unlimited UK & International we pay £11 a month + £11.95 line rental. Mum wasn't bothered, and simply said that she'd rather keep the £5 as she wouldn't notice anyway...

[Stanley]

I agree with your mum, 17mb is fast enough for me. BT are cashing in while it's new, the price will come down.....

[Steven Chorkley]

She doesn't see the potential savings of having a fast connection. I don't pay for TV, I simply pay online services for what I watch. My mum currently pays £26 a month (30% discount) for Sky+ HD. If she upgraded the internet for such a small fee (If you find a cheaper deal, please let me know!) she'd be able to stream everything using XBMC, therefore able to cancel sky. Now TV is also an option. The phone bill can be removed as her phone line can be replaced with a VOIP phone, there is a service where you can use 01282 dial codes as the IP Phones external number.

That's just the beginning, already saving £30 a month of the bat... £-5 a month for the additional cost of the broadband.

[Pluggy]

The biggest slice of the phone bill is the line rental, and if you don;t have the line, you don't have the broadband either (at least in Barlick). I don't think I'll bother upping my speed. It works fast enough as it is with 3 of us at it. £20 a month for line rental (£16 ish on its own), anytime land line calls to UK and 30 countries, 500 mins of mobile calls and broadband. Its not bad. Since the last Openreach vist, the internet has been 100% and faster than its ever been.

I have a 01282 VOIP number for my business, but I pay for it. Much cheaper than a real second line, but I need the 'real' phone line to bring it in, it doesn't need much bandwidth, I could potentially run hundreds of phone calls over my existing broadband. There are many firms doing cheap or even free broadband these days, but it always depends on you paying the line rental and usually other services. Telly over the internet is easy, its obtaining stuff thats worth watching thats the expensive bit, I have dozens and dozens of channels broadcasting utter c**p (I mean just how many 70's and 80's gameshows can you stomach), that doesn't cost me anything, just get a dish and watch the freebies that sky/freesat broadcasts.

[Tizer]

We had to replace my Dad's TV last week and I noticed that they're selling a lot of `smart' TVs now that (they claim) you can use as computers and watch your TV via broadband. Sounds like an expensive way to watch TV to me!

[plaques]

you can use as computers and watch your TV via broadband.

.
I've got a couple of these 'smart' TV's and they are certainly smarter than I am. I would think they are referring to the IPlayer and other boardband goodies like Google etc. There are other web sites where you can download films, legally or a bit iffy, plus open source media streaming on broad band speeds of 5mbps which will give you all the films that you can shake a stick at. I'm not advocating a smart TV as a must have but I think they are worth the extra money.

[Stanley]

Until something blows up I'll stick to my Freesat and HD recorder. As Pluggy says, most of the films on offer via other routes don't grab me anyway.....
I remember when LA went multi channel many years ago a friend there told me that the problem wasn't the channels it was the content.... He was right....

[Steven Chorkley]

Everything that is offered via FreeSat and Freeview is already available over the internet, you also have the potential to receive more. Smart TV's are okay for iPlayer + Plex, but not much more. They don't truly receive IPTV, most require services e.g. YouView. Once Sky is canceled however, you can always receive FreeSAT from Sky £70 one off fee (cheaper than buying a replacement box.)
I know about the landline rental... But we only pay £11 a month, however call prices are extortionate (needing unlimited calls add-on...) IP Phone would greatly reduce price for the phone.
I really do believe internet is the way forward, but I guess if you don't need the bandwidth now, you can always upgrade later. I genuinely don't believe the prices will reduce, they may for a short period when ADSL gets phased.

[Pluggy]

You could always go the entirely dodgy route of 'skybox' internet connected satellite receivers and **cough** gift warranties : http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/12-MONTHS-Gif ... 4897.l4275

Or how to get ALL the sky channels for £35 a year (and around £85 for the box) beneath the Ebay appeasement language.

They don't need much bandwidth since the content comes from Sky's satellites and the **cough** decryption from the internet.

[Big Kev]

You could always go the entirely dodgy route of 'skybox' internet connected satellite receivers and **cough** gift warranties : http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/12-MONTHS-Gif ... 4897.l4275

Or how to get ALL the sky channels for £35 a year (and around £85 for the box) beneath the Ebay appeasement language.

They do get a little upset about 'card sharing' though. You're also reliant on the server, where the card gets its data from, staying up.

[Pluggy]

What do you want for £3.00 a month ?

You're not going to kick up a fuss if it doesn't work too well.

[plaques]

Since last Friday our TalkTalk broadband has been absolutely abysmal, possibly on a par with the old dial-up system. Their excuse is "not me gov: its openreach's fault and its out of our hands, we can do nowt about it". What a lame excuse. Any firm of real standing would be stood on Openreach's neck until it was fixed. This is their latest comment on the subject.

In progress | Issue No: 32422 Engineer: Openreach Repair
This customers exchange is currently experiencing an outage. Voice and Data are affected. Our Engineers are aware of the issue and are currently investigating.

LATEST UPDATE: Openreach have advised that the fault has been located in the middle of a 4 way traffic light junction. Arrangements for urgent traffic management survey along with a gully clean are being made. At this stage we are unable to provide an estimated resolution date however we will continue to liaise for updates.

Services affected: Phone and Broadband.

If the fault is at the junction of Skipton Rd and Keighley Rd. I would advise everybody to keep out of Colne for the next three months.

[PanBiker]

Not a lame excuse at all Plaques, as you are aware Talk Talk do not own the network and it would seem that once reported they have notified the network provider and lodged an engineering request. Open Reach have responded with their diagnosis of the problem and the latest status of work progression. The fact that it would appear to be a major fault that may take some time to resolve is not the fault of your ISP and there is indeed nothing that they can do about it. It is up to Open Reach to categorise the level of importance of the fault which I would assume will rest to some degree on the overall impact on the local infrastructure and knock on effect to the service provision. If it is in a major part of the backbone infrastructure you may well be lucky in that it will probably percolate up the service pile fairly rapidly, (worse is better in some circumstances).

Your ISP has done all they are contracted to do and what is within their power.

[plaques]

In the old cinema days if the projector broke down half way through the film you would get your money back. I am contracted with my ISP to supply broadband to their advertised standard. Who does what is not my concern. To plead that a brake down is unforeseeable is absolute rubbish. The logic of placing a main cable network under the centre of a road carrying vehicles of 40 tons or more beggars belief. The fact that I "may be lucky" speaks for itself. These people should have clear cut penalties for not providing the service they are selling.

[David Whipp]

As someone with more than a passing interest in having good quality roads and pavements, I'd be delighted if the 'statutory undertakers' didn't have the right to put all their kit under roads and pavements... the reality is that there's as much traffic under the surface as on top (surface water and foul sewers, water, gas, electric, cable, telecoms...).

When I was in hospital the other year, I switched my mobile on for a family call and ended up taking a call from a constituent about the loss of lines to the Manchester Road/Colne Road area of Barlick involving scores (if not hundreds) of households, all with different providers, but all dependent on Openreach. The delay in sorting out the fault (it was in the road above the Greyhound) was a disgrace.

It tickled me to be dealing with casework a couple of days after open heart surgery! Mainly with the power of colleagues and the press, enough pressure was exerted to push the repair up the priorities and the lines were restored - but not without a battle...

[PanBiker]

It would be interesting to find out where the major delays actually were, was it with Openreach or permissions required in order to open up the road?

With regard to where the service infrastructures are actually located, where else can they go if not under road or pavement. A lot of the infrastructure will be based on legacy installations I would imagine and the fact that roads have been widened, moved or otherwise altered will have some impact on where the services below end up. You cant rip everything out and start again every time you do a bit of remodelling or town centre development.

If you took all the underground electricity and telecom cabling from underground and stuck it all up on poles it would become considerably more unreliable. We could do away with the fresh water supply and the sewage system but most folk would not welcome the trips to the local well or the resurgence of the night soil men. You can't have it all ways.

[Stanley]

Do you remember the time when we were told that Fibre cables were going to be routed via canals and sewers? I wonder if any were done that way? When they first started building motorways I said they should be installing a big pipe and cable trench at the same time on the same routes, to be used for future needs....

[David Whipp]

It would be interesting to find out where the major delays actually were, was it with Openreach or permissions required in order to open up the road?

In the case I quoted, Openreach tried to blame the Highway Authority for not allowing them to dig... but I checked... at the time, Openreach hadn't asked to dig. Anyhow, they (and the other undertakers) have powers to dig straight away in an emergency (eg the recent power failure and digging outside the old Post Office building). They were just using 'Traffic Management' as an excuse for not doing the work.

There is a general problem with sorting out traffic management for road works; LCC now require 12 weeks notice for routine work - which I'm told is at the request of bus operators so they can re-route services.

[Stanley]

Your life in their hands.....

[Tizer]

Have any of you tried that alternative way of distributing your broadband throughout the house by using adapters to carry the signal through the electrical power circuits? We can't use wireless connectivity because of our house's old, thick stone walls, and now our new super-duper insulation which is foil-coated makes it even worse. Our builder suggested the power circuit adapters as an alternative. From what I've read it sounds like I need to plug the network cable into an adapter then wherever I want another gadget connected I just plug in an adapter to the mains and connect a network cable between that and the gadget. Can it really be that easy? What's the catch?

[PanBiker]

Power Line Adaptors Tiz. You can get wireless versions as well, one plugs into mains socket and router and has what is effectively a wireless bridge built in, you can then plug other adaptors in around the house to create mini WiFi hotspots. Never used them but looked at the solution for a mate in a similar situation. Older house thick walls and multiple rooms between existing wireless router. He eventually settled for a hard wired extension from his router over CAT5 cable as he only wanted access in another single area of the house, CAT 5 was considerably cheaper. Broadband connected Digital TV boxes push them if your TV is not near your router.

CISCO use the same technology on their very expensive frequency hopping wireless repeaters for wireless internet in larger buildings, we had a bunch of them in the temporary accommodation in the old Barden School building in Burnley during the BSF building and transition phase.

The technology does work but you will get what you pay for, buy decent ones with good filtering and isolation from a reputable manufacturer.

[Big Kev]

Have any of you tried that alternative way of distributing your broadband throughout the house by using adapters to carry the signal through the electrical power circuits? We can't use wireless connectivity because of our house's old, thick stone walls, and now our new super-duper insulation which is foil-coated makes it even worse. Our builder suggested the power circuit adapters as an alternative. From what I've read it sounds like I need to plug the network cable into an adapter then wherever I want another gadget connected I just plug in an adapter to the mains and connect a network cable between that and the gadget. Can it really be that easy? What's the catch?

I use TP-Link AV500's for my VOIP phone and yes, it is as simple as that. You can add more to it and they "find" each other. There is a manual reset if needed but mine worked straight out of the box. Argos stock them for £24.99 a pair.

[plaques]

When I tried to connect our first smart TV using the recommended LG dongle it was a waste of money. A pair of plug in powerline connectors from Amazon at about £25 did the trick. You can actually buy them in three's if you want TV in an extra room. If I can do it anybody can.

[Pluggy]

Should be OK in a domestic installation, if you have 3 phase electric the 2 sockets need to be on the same phase. We tried to use them in a school and they often didn't work because of the phase thing.