Waddya think?

[floppybootstomp]

Ok, here's the clincher...

My monthly fee for ADSL1 was 35.74. Just read the e-mail from Tonnia (not 'Tonya' as I had spelt it ) and they've offered me ADSL2 for 30.62. So if I took the Zen phone line offer I'd still be around £9 a month better off.

So for all the reasons I've listed above and the fact I'm still saving some money I shall take Zen up on their offer.

I'll get one of those Netgear routers V_R and once it's arrived I'll make the switch.

Good luck with your change of ISP, keep us posted.

 

[V_R]

Sounds like a fine deal Flops, i'd not be too happy with an 18 month contract either tbh.....

Regarding the DGTeam firmware, there are some that are better than others.

Dont use the one with the 026 ADSL Driver, chances are it will brick your router... :/

http://www.siteguru.co.uk/be/netgear/

I'm using 1018_023o with my DG834GT and its great. Seems the general consensus is that is the one to go for. its not let me down yet.

Can adjust the target SNR etc with the DGT FW's.

 

[floppybootstomp]

V_R, I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about with this DGTeam firmware

I'm assuming it's firmware written unofficially and better than the router's native firmware?

So what difference does it make? What's wrong with just using the latest official netgear firmware? Just curious, always open to suggestions.

tbh the last Netgear I had died on me after fifteen months, I was going to go for a Thomson but I'm all ears, I do listen. My Linksys has been going good for almost three years now but I note a lot of folk have had bad experiences with Linksys routers so hey-ho, so it goes...

So what's a target SNR etc then? Not my forte, really, this internet thing, wasn't that long ago I was using carrier pigeons.

PS: My daughter has an iPhone and she'd never heard of jailbreaking.

'So what's it do then?' she asked.

'Let's you use other software that Apple won't let you use' I replied.

'Who'd want to do that then' asked offspring.

 

[V_R]

V_R, I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about with this DGTeam firmware

I'm assuming it's firmware written unofficially and better than the router's native firmware?

So what difference does it make? What's wrong with just using the latest official netgear firmware? Just curious, always open to suggestions.

Correct.

Nothing wrong with the official FW, DGTeam is just the official FW that has been tweaked for speed etc, and lots more options available to you.

http://dgteam.netsons.org/

tbh the last Netgear I had died on me after fifteen months, I was going to go for a Thomson but I'm all ears, I do listen. My Linksys has been going good for almost three years now but I note a lot of folk have had bad experiences with Linksys routers so hey-ho, so it goes...

Thompson's are good too, my GF's parents had a Linksys, it caused nowt but grief for them, and subsequently me! I swapped it out for the cable (virgin) version of the 834GT and they not mentioned it since.

So what's a target SNR etc then? Not my forte, really, this internet thing, wasn't that long ago I was using carrier pigeons,

Basically you can lower your SNR (default is 6db) thus improving your connection speeds. cant go too low though or it will disconnect.

On a side note, One of the benefits of ADSL2+ is that you dont have a 'profile' like you do on standard ADSL, See - http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/IPprofile.htm for more. On ADSL2+ you download at the speed you connect, not the speed of your profile.

PS: My daughter has an iPhone and she'd never heard of jailbreaking.

'So what's it do then?' she asked.

'Let's you use other software that Apple won't let you use' I replied.

'Who'd want to do that then' asked offspring.

LOL

 

[V_R]

http://computers.shop.ebay.co.uk/i....w=&_osacat=101270&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313

BTW.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Ah, missed that last post V_R but no prob.

Progress:

Have switched phone line from BT to Zen.
Ordered Netgear Router from E-Bay, refurbished for £21.95 inc postage, should arrive in a few days.
Once it arrives I phone Zen and they switch me over.

Whilst I was in the mood I changed my mobile phone.

Over the last week I've read lots of reviews and been looking at lots of deals.

I eventually settled on a mid range sortta deal. I've gone from an ageing Samsung G600 on a Sim card only deal for £15 a month to an HTC Desire on a 24 month contract for £20 a month.

I did look at lots of reviews before making a choice. Price was definitely an influence and whilst I know the HTC Desire is probably not cutting edge any more and it's been out around ten months now it'll be just fine for me and a huge improvement on what I've been using.

I figure an extra fiver on me mobile phone bill for 24 months works out I pay £120.00 for the phone. It'll do me for a coupla years anyhow, I'm not one of those always thirsting after the latest gadget.

It arrives tomorrow, so they say, and all I gotta do is charge it up and pop in my existing Sim card and I'm in business. Which is the main reason I stayed with Virgin. As far as mobile phones are concerned, I've been pleased with Virgin so far.

So, new toys soon come for Mr Flops

 

[V_R]

The Desire is a great phone Flops. Enjoy your new toys.

I sorted the 17th at work so im all set for install day. ordered the Netgear WNDR3700, should be with me tomorrow.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Damn, I got that wrong. The Desire was actually £30 a month with 200 minutes and unlimited texts, it was the HTC Wildfire which was up for £20.00 a month so that's what I got. Processor only half the speed of the Desire and less memory but otherwise quite similar.

Apparently as I only used Virgin for their mobile phone service I wasn't entitled to one of their media customer deals but when I asked about the deal they soon let me have it for same price, they sure are desperate to sell mobile phone contracts.

I am beginning to think I might be getting a tad old cos this bloody new phone is confusing the crap ouuta me

It doesn't appear to have a simple 'back' key or function and it's taking me forever to work out how do do things. For some reason I couldn't transfer old contact numbers from old phone by Bluetooth. It connected, went through the motions but then crapped out on me. Luckily my daughter had a spare Sim card so I transferred all numbers to that then loaded into new phone.

I've managed to connect to my home Wi-Fi router and also get online via 3G thingie (though I really don't understand a lot of this, lol). Have enabled G-Mail ok but can't get my Zen ISP e-mail service to work so I will phone Zen helpline tommorow.

In my opinion the touch screen is quite fiddly, I hated it at first but I am getting quite used to it now, beginning to like it. I've plugged me Sennheiser PX200 headphones in and have listened to the FM Radio, will soon load some mp3's on and have a listen.

Configured phone to be recognised as hard disk, have set ringtone, cannot figure how to get desktop pic to fill only the viewable screen, it gets spread over the whole area that you can drag around.

It seems as if there are a million and one things to discover on this phone and then I have to work out how to work them. I almost wish I hadn't changed tbh, but I suppose I will get used to it, beginning to like it a lot already.

My router was posted to me yesterday, as soon as it arrives I will hopefully activate my ADSL2 connection.

To summarise, I haven't saved a great deal of cash but I do/will have improved mobile phone and Internet service.

Land line/mobile/Internet was costing me £66 pcm, it's now costing me £63 pcm. nottalottadifference but things are better.

I'm pretty much locked into the mobile 2 year contract (which I don't mind, I'm comfortable with that) but my Zen Internet and Land Line are still on a month's contract so that at least is flexible.

 

[V_R]

It doesn't appear to have a simple 'back' key or function and it's taking me forever to work out how do do things. For some reason I couldn't transfer old contact numbers from old phone by Bluetooth. It connected, went through the motions but then crapped out on me. Luckily my daughter had a spare Sim card so I transferred all numbers to that then loaded into new phone

My GF's got the Wildfire and i'm an ex Android owner. If i can help, ask away.

The back button is the one with the arrow pointing to the left, below the screen (right middle) The home button (far left) will take you back to the home screen.

I'd recommend Launcher Pro off the market to replace that HTC Sense poo. Its a lot faster and smoother.

Configured phone to be recognised as hard disk, have set ringtone, cannot figure how to get desktop pic to fill only the viewable screen, it gets spread over the whole area that you can drag around.

Theres an option in Launcher Pro where you can disable that if your interested.

My router was posted to me yesterday, as soon as it arrives I will hopefully activate my ADSL2 connection.

To summarise, I haven't saved a great deal of cash but I do/will have improved mobile phone and Internet service.

Land line/mobile/Internet was costing me £66 pcm, it's now costing me £63 pcm. nottalottadifference but things are better.

But it will be much faster.

If you find yourself really not liking the phone i'm sure you will have a 'cooling off' period.

 

[muckshifter]

can you phone people

 

[floppybootstomp]

can you phone people

Now there's a very relevant question

Yes, have done so a few times today, no probs.

Have yet to have somebody phone me though, damn, work sure is quiet

V_R - all your input really apreciated, I'm sure I'll have some questions.

I don't think it's this phone in partictular, just moving from 2007 phone to current phone that's a culture shock for me

I'll suss it

 

[floppybootstomp]

Router just arrived. I phoned Zen, could have started ADSL2 initiation now but may have been offline over weekend. So I have arranged to swap routers at midnight Monday/Tuesday and Zen tell me on Tuesday morning I'll have my new service.

Vunderbar

 

[V_R]

Sounds like a good plan, no net over the weekend would suck.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Sounds like a good plan, no net over the weekend would suck.

Aye, that was my reasoning.

I spoke to Tonnia at Zen again today.

She is one bright young cooky, that's for sure and she seems a thoroughly nice person.

Dead sexy voice as well - Stop it Tony! lol

 

[V_R]

Hmmm, maybe i might call Zen tomorrow.....


So tomorrows the day then, you get your ADSL2+ and i get my FTTC install!

Heres to hoping it all goes well for the both of us....

 

[floppybootstomp]

Yep, have configured router today, hope I got it right, it's sitting here ready to be connected at midnight.

I have a bit of a busy day tomorrow for a change so may not check my connection til mid-afternoon.

Here's hoping your connection goes well V_R.

 

[Taffycat]

Best of luck to both of you, Flopps and V_R, hope your new connections will be up-and-running and problem-free.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Thanks TC

I was up at 6.30am today which is early for me and the service was active. It just worked on all three networked machines.

And yes, it is faster. A lot faster

 

[V_R]

So, FTTC installed and working great!


First up, heres the results BEFORE the install...

First Speedtest i did..... Though to be fair the pings seems to be more around the 12-16ms mark on the Speedtest website.

Pings via Command Prompt to BBC

C:\Users\xxxxxx>ping www.bbc.co.uk

Pinging www.bbc.net.uk [212.58.244.70] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 212.58.244.70: bytes=32 time=8ms TTL=51
Reply from 212.58.244.70: bytes=32 time=8ms TTL=51
Reply from 212.58.244.70: bytes=32 time=8ms TTL=51
Reply from 212.58.244.70: bytes=32 time=8ms TTL=51

Ping statistics for 212.58.244.70:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 8ms, Maximum = 8ms, Average = 8ms

Heres the BT Modem after i did a bit of tidying up, its down the side of one of the sofas so you cant see it, though looks like i need to sort out that wall....

He didn't change the master socket faceplate as i have all pre-filtered sockets around the house and he said the ones they fit are the same thing as what i have, though he did say the one i have here is actually better than the ones the fit now.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Looks like you sorted there V_R

Ah, the speedtest, forgot about that, here's mine. Download speed has doubled whilst upload speed remains about the same.