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The BT Engineer cometh !!
Fri, 20 Oct 2006 15:10:04 +0100
uk.people.silversurfers
previous
Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...
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Again. And he had a pleasant Scottish accent. The first thing he said
Rabbit...
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All the best people do :-)
David C....
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Allegedly.......(An honest & accurate definition of "best people" is
required.)
Rabbit...
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It's God's Own Country, proof enough :-)
Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...
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I've kept a careful log of my disconnections for about 6 weeks now - PN have
been sent a daily update with router log attached.90% of them come almost
randomly spaced within the times 19-30 and 22-00. They don't appear to
Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...
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That was the impression I got from this guy on both occasions. But wouldn't
you think that if the problem was a BB one, then they'd have the foresight
to send an engineer who knew about BB? Or am I being ultra naive agsain?
Rabbit...
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YES!!!! :-)
Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...
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Somehow I thought you'd express that point of view. :)
Rabbit...
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Glad I didn't disappoint you then :-)
Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...
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Thanks. 3 disconnections already today. :( Now that's disappointing.
Rabbit...
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But have you had a disconnection when you booted up ? I have twice :-(
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John the R-T...
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Lucky you. So far I've had three connections. Longest was six
minutes.
Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...
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Perhaps you should change to Plusnet then. And if you do I'll get a discount
since I referred you. Please, please, John!! :)
John the R-T...
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No thanks. Up until now my connection has been rock steady from NTL.
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John the R-T...
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Oo look, FN is begging.
Rabbit...
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I've always said he was an old beggar........ or was it another word I meant
Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...
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I'm sure it was. Well they are all out to get me, aren't they? :(
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;-)
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Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...
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Well it's money innit? LOL
John the R-T...
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Yeah and I'm hoping to get a refund from NTL for a weeks loss of
broadband. When's the next Sceptics and Cynics Anonymous ( UPS
branch) meeting?
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Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...
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Guess what? BT want to send an engineer round again. That'll be the
4th since 29/09/2006 and the last one was last Friday. I'm gobsmacked!!!
Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...
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Even moreso now - sometime this afternoon my stable rate was increased from
3000 kbps to 4500 kbps (that's the highest it's ever been set at). But only
getting a download speed around 3000 kbps atm. Wonder what it'll be like
when the traffic falls off in the wee small hours.
Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...
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And Plusnet have just emailed to say a BT engineer will visit between 13-00
and 15-30 on Wednesday. Not I wonder what he can do?
Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...
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Well he never turned up on Wednesday 01/11/2006. So guess what? PN texted
me at 07-20 today (better than am alarm clock) to say "BT want to send an
engineer round - what would be a convenient time? I have the feeling those
ever decreasing circles are still rotating nicely. I wonder why he never
turned up last Wednesday. PN don't know. I don't know - you'd have thought
they would have the curtesy to 'phone and apologies etc. It would be a free
call to them surely?
Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...
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Plusnet just texted again exactly like last Monday - BT Engineer will be
visiting on Wednesday between 13-00 and 15-00. Iwonder if he'll turn up
this time? And if he does, will he, like last time, be able to do nothing
since there's no fault here?
Rabbit...
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Keep trying, you'll eventually get *the one* who knows the cure :-)
Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...
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Yep! But the cure has to be administered back where he comes from and not
here where he's coming to. Like in July when I was crawling along at less
than 240 kbps and they found the fault at the exchange, on their equipment.
:(
~~Linda~~...
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Good Lord, that was about the last time I managed to post in here and you
were having PlusNet problems then, about time it got sorted!!
Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...
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Yep - it's the same open ticket, but now the speed is sorted but I am
getting disconnections every evening. BT have sent 3 engineers round and
they have put new outside cabling to the house and rewired the main phone
socket. They have tested the line right up to my router and reckon the
fault isn't here, yet they keep insisting on sending another engineer. One
was due last Wednesday but never turned up. Today they've arranged another
visit for this Wednesday.
~~Linda~~...
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I reckon you should stop feeding them decent coffee and choccy biscuits,
they've got a list of who wants to come to your house!
Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...
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In fact they always seem to turn up just after they've dined, so refuse any
offers of eats and drinks that I have made. Being within 2 km of the
exchange I think they make me the first visit after their dinner break.
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Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...
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Well he's just been and gone. Same guy who fitted the new outside phone
cable a few weeks ago. All he could do was test the line again - Fine - he
said. No errors,
synching at 5.2 M ( well so is my router too). SNR and Line Attenuation
OK and same as my router suggests too. All he can suggest is that the
fault is elswhere, possibly back at the exchange on the BT or Plusnet
equipment and/or software. Surprise - surprise - I seem to recollect saying
that at the start. Well it seems the rewiring of the main socket and a new
outside line have not made any difference at all. Although we do know that
they are in good condition anyway.
Rabbit...
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Until the next time, and I speak from experience :-(
Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...
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You mean next Friday when a BT Engineer visits again. They seem to like it
Rabbit...
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Yeah I was about to offer them B&B to save them travelling :-)
Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...
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The guy who came today reckoned it was my ISP (Plusnet) that request the
visits re broadbaqnd and not BT. As a result they are billed for each visit
(over £100 he thought) so you'd have thought they would be looking more
closely at their equipment, after these visits that keep reporting back 'no
line faults' wouldn't you?
Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...
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Unbelievable ! PN have just emailed and texted me to say that BT want to
send an engineer to check my fault. That will be 5 since 29/09/2006, and
the last two both said there is no fault with my line after testing it
again, and also said it was really a waste of their time being called out.
Nopw I'm not calling them out and they implied it's my ISP who is requesting
the visit. I am really gobsmacked now.
Frogman...
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How did you receive the e-mail? the plusnet status page reports e-mail
as down and it certainly is here this time (non plusnet connection) and
has been since about 15:30
Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...
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I got the email from Plusnet in the usual way - timed at 16-49. I also
received a text message at the same time on my mobile. As you will have
guessed, I was watching the footie at the time.
Frogman...
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Is that using OE and was it to your plusnet addy? because it seem that
pop3 is still down
Frogman...
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It's back up and running now :-)
Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...
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My mailwasher is still trying to connect to it though. :(
Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...
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Just found it - So looks OK again.
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here. :)
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Rabbit...
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Oh don't worry about it I had visits from lots more than that last year and
they all had a different answer.
Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...
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But was any of them right?
Rabbit...
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The last engineer was right at the time.
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:(
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coincide with anything I can think of. I started to think, along the
lines - 'could it be the neighbours microwave oven?' - but then when they
were away for the week and I was feeding his fish - the discos didn't stop,
'or could it be when I switch any of my energy saving lamps on and off?' -
So I spent a couple of evenings using just a torch. The discos still
occured. Of the last 82 discos 9 have been outside the time range I
mentioned. Almost every time the router reconnects the synch rate has
neen reduced, but not always. Very occaionally there's an increase, but
not often. PN insist that I shouldn't be getting disconnections at all.
Rabbit...
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Yeah but so many are getting them.
Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...
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AFAIK It's mainly those who've been LLU'd that were having the real
problems - not those on BT datastream. THe LLU problems have to be sorted
by Tiscali I believe - datastream by BT - you pays your money and takes a
Rabbit...
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I ain't complaining till I move, then I might since I'll be almost sitting
in the exchange :-)
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chance. LOL
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Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...
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But he has just installed new cabling on Friday.
Rabbit...
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From the pole to the junction box thingy ( as opposed to the pole to the
house) was what I eventually got replaced too 'cos it went through a tree.
Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...
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And did it change anything for you then?
Rabbit...
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Well it did for a while but unfortunately the tree grew again this year :-(
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Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...
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Yep! He moved there 'cos the neighbours were so nice. :)
Rabbit...
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One day God was sitting on a cloud with the angels. He was just about to
finish creating the world when He said, "Well that's just about it. ....only
the finishing touches to do.....I think I will create an island just off
what's going to be called Europe. To the north of this island I will create
some of the world's most beautiful scenery.........I will fill the rivers
with fish and the land with game so that they will never
hunger.........there will be an abundance of fresh water so they will never
thirst.....I will let them invent a drink for their pleasure called Whisky
(no E)....and Irn-bru..........the people from this place will be warm and
friendly......some of the world's greatest minds will come from this place.
For future generations I will put oil and gas under the sea so that they
will have great wealth."
At this point, one of the angels said to God -- "Don't you think you're
giving these people too much? You have cursed other parts of this world with
famine, drought, disease and war. Don't you think they're getting off
lightly?
.......God laughed -- "You have not seen their neighbours yet!" -- and went
on to create England.
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Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...
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Well if tha believes tha' lad - - - tha'll believe owt. :)
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when he arrived was,"your cable out here appears to be the original, I'll
change that". Well that would be circa 1950. So that's what he did.
Then he showed me where a newer bit of cable had been crimped to the
original - all corroded were the crimped bits. "I'm surprised your 'phone
w*rked at all" he said. So now I've got one length of brand new telephone
cable from my main phone socket all the way to the top of the telegraph
Rabbit...
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Last year I got that plus a brand new cable from the telegraph pole to
whichever box that cable goes to, which did improve my voice calls till the
tree it went through grew again this year :-(
David C....
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Yup, voice calls are not always understandable, & that's after
considerable accent coaching -:)
Rabbit...
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Well I ain't starting another battle with BT now :-(
Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...
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pole. Can't see any immediate change in synch speed or download speed -
that should take time for the MaxDSL electronic managing system to w*rk,
but it seems the crc error rate is about 1/3 what it was so far - I'll keep
my beady eye on it for a bit.
Steve...
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What's your Noise Margin and Attenuation like? has your noise margin
changed since the new cable? and was the new cable copper of aluminium?
Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...
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SNR 14.8 to 15.4 dB Down 16.0 dB up
LA 39.4 dB Down 21.0 dB up
Can't see a significant difference, they were:
SNR 13.8 Down 16.0 dB up
LA 38.8 dB Down 21.0 dB up
after disconnection last night
SNR 13.6 dB Down 16.0 dB up
LA 39.9 dB Down 21.0 dB up
at boot up this morning
Perhaps SNR downstream is up marginally a few %
Steve...
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Hmm, have you asked them to keep your SNR high because of
drop-outs/disconnections as it could go down to 6.0 db and that would
give you a higher Sync rate.
BTW what is your current sync rate?
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Jeff Gaines...
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Good BT engineers are really good, and they seem to enjoy their work as
well :-)
Hope the replacement helps your signal over time.
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Jackie...
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I hope it works better now FN.
Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...
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All digits crossed here Jackie - only time will tell.
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Rabbit...
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Hope it jbexes for you, but I suggest you don't stop attending the Sceptics
and Cynics Anonymous ( UPS branch) meetings :-)
Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...
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Switched pooter off around 18-10 amd left router powered up and running.
Went out to play snooker and just got back. Guess what - ,there was a
discinnection at 18:22:33 so looks like the problem hasn't been fully cured.
Don't really suppose ity ever will. :(
pmj...
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What about giving up with the ADSL Connection (which relies on a
*Phone* Line, with all its attendant probs), since you seem to be
having so many probs with ADSL & changing over to a *Cable Modem*
Internet Connection? [*1]
You don't get any Disconnections or variations in Download Speed
(from the ISP, though obviously the other Servers out on the
*Internet* will (still) vary), or any hassle, with a Cable Modem
Connection - it's "just there" - always on, all the time, rock solid,
no probs.
Cable Modem Internet Connections are available in Sheffield, aren't
they? - I dunno off hand whether it's NTL or Telewest who has the
Franchise in your area, (but anyway, both those firms are now merged
together)
Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...
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Might look into it - but what is the cost likely to be - will I need a power
socket near the entry point of the cable? etc etc. I think I need the
house rewiring as a main priority atm. Now that's another tale.
Ali...
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£17.99 pm for 2Meg (up to 10Meg available). You need a power point near
the cable modem (which would normally be positioned near your computer
(but mine is on the other side of the room))
Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...
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Presumably that is the cable that carries the TV channels as well and is
ususally situated near the TV - Like the Sky digiboxes (I still use two - an
Ali...
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No. Or yes. The cable from the wall plate to the modem is nothing to do
with the cable to the settop box (and both can be quite long).
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analogue and digital). So that would be downstairs and the computer room is
Jackie...
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I have had another e-mail from Sky to tell me B/B is almost ready here -
have your heard any more? that might solve your problems!
Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...
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I'd forgotten about them. But I think for a speed equivalent to what I'm
getting now they would not be free, and of course, it would still be ADSL
coming down my pphone line. PN still appear to be the best package for me
at the price. Don't forget the 250 Mb webspace. And the Sheffield call
centre. With Sky help line, I often have difficulty with the broad
Scottish accents. It must be me though, I seem to understand the Sheffield
people much better.
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upstairs, so presumably a wireless router would be the answer to that.
More expense. At the moment I'm getting ADSL downloading around 2900 kbps
(router synching at around 4300 kbps) for £14-99 per month - and have Sky
Digital for all the sport's channels. The disconnections I get don't
actually cause any inconvenience since my router always automatically
re-connects within 40 seconds, and they usually occur when pooter is off or
hibernating - usually whilst I'm watching evening TV. Since each
disconnection usually results in a reduction in synch rate, then I think
this is keeping my speeds down to much lower than BT reckon I should be
getting. The point of the exercise is now just to improve the speed. Going
cable doesn't appear to be a cost affective move for me then. :(
Ali...
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Not unless a full TV/phone/BB package beats your current Sky/BT/PN
arrangement.
Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...
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I don't think they have a package that covers all the channels I want.
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David C....
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FWIW, Telewest brought the cable into the house at the least
conspicuous point & then asked me where I wanted the internal TV &
Modem cables laid. My modem was close to the original PC, (obviously)
but since moving all the PC's around the house, a wireless router now
provides the connections.
Point being, if you ever decide to take the plunge, (personally
recommended....) you choose where the cables go.
As for the price comparisons re. phone & Internet charges, + your
choice of TV package, that's you business, but I still have an old
dish on the wall, but it's never going to be used again!
Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...
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I have an old one and a new one (replaced a few months ago) and I use then
both on a regular basis. Been watching some german footie tonight on
analogue, and English footie on digital.
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As for all the comments on here re. speeds & connection problems, if
cable is available I'd not consider any other way of connecting to 't
net.
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David C....
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How can he, is it not true that Founder Members are "required" to
attend "all" the meetin's?
Rabbit...
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FN is an icon of Sceptics and Cynics Anonymous ( UPS branch) sort of one of
the before and after but I'll leave you to guess which one :-)
Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...
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Wotdoyameanbyetha' ?
Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...
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That's not the first time you've posted that fabricated fairy tale in here
you know. :)
Rabbit...
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Yeah well I do need to keep reminding you of the difference between God's
Own County and God's Own Country :-)
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David C...
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It'll not be the last time, I'll bet.........
Be fair, we need Scotland.
It's somewhere to send the tourists so we can make room for the next
batch:-)
DC
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Ciao, DC.
Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...
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Pam the goose...
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Ah well, it was Scots who produced Gander so I have a special feeling for
the race which maybe makes me biased but I'd expect a man who talks
thataway to be able to find what's wrong:))
Bram...
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Uh!!? I thought Ray was a Scallyl., not a Jock ..!
Mind you.., they are both pretty undecipherable dialects.
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Makes you wonder if that'll be the cure. Hope it is:)
Flyiñg Ñuñ 2°°6 +...
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So do I - but why didn't the other engineer spot it?
Well he was a Tony Robinson lookalike and quite small. Perhaps he didn't
want to climb his ladders.
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