Absence doesn't make the heart grow fonder

I anybody has noticed my absence since 12th December. immediately after
posting about searching for living relatives, it was nothing to do with the
topic or my health.

The nice new Home Hub supplied by BT packed up after 9 days use. It has
taken inordinate fforts to get another delivered today,3rd Jan, get it
installed and re-connec tothe Net. BT service has been appalling,
incompetent and in some respects actually criminal.

Charles Ellson...

That's what is known as the benefits of regulatory disintegration. :-(
Other ISPs can be just as bad (or worse - no names, no pack drill) but
the system has been deliberately rigged by the regulators so that the
copper, broadband and subscriber apparatus bits of the service have to
be dealt with by different people causing the inevitable "tennis
matches" with some faults.

NotMyRealName...

If you ever want a new line installed make sure you haven't lived in your
house for a whole number of years. Eleven months is ok and so is 1 year and
1 month but not exactly 1 year. The online application form doesn't allow
it.

If anybody has sent me anything in the interim and has yet to receive a
reply they must assume that the communication is now lost in cyberpsace. If
an answer is still timely, the only option is to send again.

It has been particularly galling gto experience this interruption at a time
when in my family anyway it is customary to send long and illustrated
communications between the various branches so that we can keep the wider
cousinage structure up to date.

Of course the latest bit of updating is resolutely refusing to appear. No.12
grandchild is a week overdue. In view of what I have written on sgb in the
past (population-wide only 85% of married parenting fathers are the actual
genetic fathers of their children) I thought it advisable to tell the father
there is no doubt at all that he is the genetic father. His mother couldn't
get him out of bed on time for the first 25 years or so of his life. Its

Graeme Wall...

ROTFL, hope you had a good Christmas Don.

obviously genetic.

singhals...

Welcome back.

dwilcox...

I was a little surprised you abandoned a good ISP like demon - who have
their own Broadband service - for BT - who I personally wouldn't touch
with a bargepole

Geoffers...

Ahh but, you're saying that because your are with Demon aren't you.
I have been with BT for years, dial up, ISDN, ADSL and now maxADSL and never
had even so much as a hiccup!

Hugh Watkins...

they are all BT just rebadged (cable TV etc are not)

TalkTalk is very cheap and is a 2 mb BT line which they buy wholesale
and route via manchester

8 mb if you are lucky

once set up
god enough

Fenny...

Talktalk are a bunch of useless wasters who know less about internet
connections than most people who haven't even heard of the internet.
Their customer service is completely non existent and trying to get a
connection in the first place takes several months of paying before it
finally arrives. And don't believe the bit about it costing Ł21 per month
with all inclusive calls. Minimum contract is 18 months, so once you've
signed up and found how useless they are, you're stuck with them.

Hugh Watkins...

there was a mess at the start caused by BT making an error and not
untagging my line in their system

and then because I did not undertand they had sent me a single port router

their help line people were inexperienced
but what do you expect at such a cheap price :-)

my mac and my PCs (virtual and real) just network via a old cheap 10 mb
LAN Corega 5 port hub in front of the router WAN

I have the contract including foreign calls

I put 18418 in front of 00** ********* and can chat with mosy of Europe
USA Australia for 70 minutes and no extra charge

when 60 mins had passed just ring off and redial to get another freebie
hour - it takes a bit of getting used to to ring anywhere in UK and not
pay per minute

I did not pay until connected

Hugh W

dwilcox...

I use Netscape 4.6 dial up networking via Demon for Ł10 per month I for
one can't afford all these fancy prices per month for broadband, cable
TV (don't want it) or mobile phones (haven't got one)

Phil C....

For me broadband was actually cheaper than dial up because I chose to
share a connection, at no inconvenience at all. I live on the limits
of distance from telephone exchange that should be feasible for
broadband but, so far, I've had a very good service. It was worth the
initial hassle of getting it set up. I've also found that broadband
has continued to work perfectly even though we've had a noisy fault on
the line (for several weeks!) that certainly knocked out my old
dial-up connection.

I too can live very happily without cable. I think I now know how to
use my mobile phone in an emergency... but I wouldn't swear to it.

dwilcox...

Mind you I do my family history resarch the simple way too. In the
churchyard at night with a pick and shovel...

Phil C....

I *could* have a family link to someone who worked that way. There's a
pub right in the area of London my Crouch family came from (Fitzrovia)
with the name "Ben Crouch's Tavern". It's apparently named after a
notorious early C19th body snatcher. Any relationship would have to be
pretty remote - I've traced my direct line back further than Ben - but
I could get lucky...

It seems to be a kitsch Goth pub (or something) so I probably won't go
there for a quiet drink unless I've got some black eye shadow and
whatever else those Goth chappies wear.

Lesley Robertson...

And a DNA sequencer hooked up to the car battery?
Lesley Robertson
;)

Hugh Watkins...

and how much on ordinary telephone?

BT line plus calls ?

more than Ł20 all together I bet
and for a slower service too

netscape UK is another rebadged BT product

Hugh W

Charani...

They also require you to install unnamed third party software
allegedly to help sort out any problems and it must be allowed to run
at all times. Built in spyware is what some people call it.

Fenny...

They might require it, but it's not necessary. Pa installed it on his
machine and it caused a right royal PITA. Ma already had broadband, so
all I did was change the settings on the existing modem and everything
worked fine. I really ought to get some time to sort Pa's connections
out.

They only support MS products, though. When I rang their Unhelpful Desk
and said there was a problem getting Thunderbird connected (it actually
turned out that their mail server was at fault) they said they couldn't

Hugh Watkins...

if your machine has an ethernet card
it can use any external old router

Hugh W

Hugh Watkins...

if USB may be

but ethernet just shakes hands with any card

the router handles the log on itself internally

you use a web browser to change passwords

the best have a good firewall too

Hugh W

help unless I was using Outlook or Outlook Express. I never mentioned
Firefox, as I thought I would be pushing my luck.

David H Wild...

I use Talktalk, and do have problems, but I don't have any software
supplied by them - and it wouldn't work on two of my machines anyway.

Hugh Watkins...

not on my macintosh

nor on a a PC if you know how to make an ethernet connection to a router
and read the instructions in the router box

David H Wild...

I have a Risc PC, a Linux box and a windows laptop. The first two wouldn't
run the software, anyway, and the laptop is connected only when needed.

David Love...

Snap! Snap! Partly Snap as I have a windows desktop :-)

Hugh Watkins...

snip
they all speak ethernet if they have a card

to each other no doubt on a home LAN

you don't have to install any of the software supplied by a modern ISP

One of the little kiddiewinks has also come up with the idea that all
over 70s must have a younger person with them to explain the contract
because, according to this theory, over 70s won't understand it.

I know a lot of over 70s who've got more savvy than TalkTalk aka
Carphone Warehouse.

Hugh Watkins...

I am 71 on sunday mate

David H Wild...

You young ones. :)) I'm 75 next month.

David Love...

Beetcha by five months :-)

Regards from New Zealand on a cool Saturday morning.

Hugh Watkins...

dang silver surfers

;-)

Hugh W

Hugh W