While logged into my home PC at lunchtime today, I noticed that my download speed was the fastest speed I had ever seen in uTorrent. And while that depends mostly on seeds/peers etc. I thought to run a little speed test and this was the result:- Continue reading
Tag Archives: broadband
log me in to the drama
This week, I thought I would be clever and set my television shows to come down via RSS from wherever it is they come from. But this is the pretext as to what was about to take place over the next 24 hours.
I wanted some way to log into my home desktop to ensure that what I had setup would take place as planned. Psycik suggested a site called logmein.com and installing that on my computer so that I can use the web to access my PC. I signed up and thought I was up and running. I checked it all, and it worked. Continue reading
Broadband is Back!
Well, I am back online and my connection is stable – with many thanks to an intervention from a certain #geekzone lurker who shall remain nameless. He knows who he is and that I am eternally grateful for his assistance.
That said – Going without internet for more than 24 hours helped me realise the extent of my internet addiction. I do not know what is the more desperate sign – going to my parents to bludge their connection, or connecting up my mobile phone to my laptop to use as a Modem.
Either way, I have to face facts that I am hooked and live my life online. A sign of the times perhaps? Maybe not these times. Seems like only yesterday I was in IRC channels talking to people in Mississippi. And thanks to them, I can spell the name of that state.
Without internet, I wouldn’t have ordered the organic parrot food, the HP printer cartridge, shopped around for the best deal, so that I got a free 100 pack of 6×4 photo paper. I wouldn’t have purchased two SD cards an a camera battery from the online retailer who makes some bricks and mortar stores look like rip off merchants.
Given that I have grown up on PCs and can chart my childhood, teenage years and the first decade of adult life through the generations of dial up, x86 series intel chips, I can remember when there were three chip manufacturers – AMD, Intel and Cyrix. When RAM cost more than a tyre for a car and still does, depending on the tyre.
Because this generation is wired and going wireless. Ask me two years ago if I would have had a laptop and a wireless router in my house and I would have said no. Today, I have a laptop, wireless router and other devices that all access the wireless access point. Somethings that never crossed my mind two years ago.
So maybe I shouldn’t turn a blind eye to this new technology. I am reading computer magazines and forums again, because when it comes time to embrase the next big thing in IT, I want to know what it is and how to get the most value from it.
The up and mostly down of a telecom broadband connection
This house nearly came apart at the seams. At 7pm last night, we left the internet, working and we then left the house. We returned somewhere around midnight-ish. Shock horror, no internet. Reset modem (#1), nothing. Reset again (#2) and still nothing. Check settings, okay, no DNS information coming from Telecom exchange.
Phone telecom. 15 minutes on hold at midnight. Get hold of call centre in Manilla/Vanilla/Ice Ice Baby and explain whats happening. Reset modem (#4, #5 & #6) check settings. Man promises my a 12 hour pro-rata credit on phone bill. He says will get the pvc server reset in the morning.
Get up at 9.30am (sleep in!) and look at internet. Still not going. Reset modem (#7). Check, still no IP address issued from Telecom. Call Telecom. Manilla Ice much faster to answer this time. Explain it all again. Reset modem countless times, including factory reset.
Factory resets are where the modem is retored to well, its factory default. Doing this erases all Telecom settings. Later on in the afternoon it will dawn on me that the settings have changed and that the Manilla Ice has assumed I have a telecom standard modem (I dont). He says that he will get a technician to call me ater 3pm. Its now 10am. hmm… 3pm is a long way to go if you’ve got no broadband.
I tell him my credit better be worth it because as I’m on the top level residential plan, I expect better than this for my $$$ (40gb per month for $80 with free static IP address, unlimited speeds in both directions… currently pulling 6.8mbps and not even on ADSL2+ yet – another story for another day) He told me I would get one months credit on my broadband bill. Yay!
3pm and the technician calls. Go through with him all the same stuff I had been through with the Manilla and Vanilla Ice Ice Baby. He establishes I’m making a DSL sync (I could have told him that, I did, he didnt listen) and so the fault must be in the grey pillar beside the road, in the cabinet or at the exchange. Hes escalated the issue and will send a technician tomorrow. Tomorrow is Monday. This is a day of work, where one earns wages to pay the broadband bill. I point this out to him.
Right now, I am wanting to cry. Break down in tears in my computer room and sob because I cannot cope without internet for 12 hours, how can I cope without internet for two nights? Its unheard of!
Anyway, after some #geekzone intervention, we’re back online, although the connection is difficult and misbehaving like a kid in a toy store, but oh gosh its nice to be back online. Just not sure how long for. I will make sure I get that credit on my phone bill too. I will hold them to it by gosh.
On another note, Windows 7 is still impressing me. I have not yet installed any software (been playing games) but have made the decision that when it comes up for sale as a finished OS, I will upgrade my desktop and most likely my laptop. I was going to switch my laptop to Linux, but seeing how fantastic W7 is with its power settings, It would be worth it. Again, I haven’t had W7 and Vista running on the same machine, so I cannot make direct comparisons, but may for fun, do a dual installation on my laptop so that I can.