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Interested in lobbying BT for Broadband access?
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July 2004 - Week 4
Wireless in Newton Longville...
Hello Nick,
We at IPaXiom are currently weighing up the response from our recent
door-drop advertising campaign at Newton Longville in an attempt to
accumulate the demand for wireless broadband internet services across the
village.
The plan is to provide broadband internet to every home in Newton Longville
using the latest in mobile wireless technology. This gives users the comfort
of connecting to the internet from anywhere within the coverage area, which
we are hoping will be the entire village.
Since our campaign, we have received twelve responses. Our target is 30
users before we can begin the deployment of the wireless network.
Best regards
Sami Malik
Empowering Next Generation Services
Business Development Director
Head Office: +44(0)870 432 7920
Fax: +44(0)870 432 7921
GSM Tel: +44 (0) 7776187808
Email: sami@ipaxiom.com
msn: sami@ipaxiom.com
Mobile Internet is just a click away |
UK Weekend LAN Party
Gamers of MK
UkLanParty organize weekend LAN party events at York House Youth Centre in
Milton Keynes every month. Next event 13-08-2004 19:00hrs - 15-08-2004
16:00hrs.
Visit http://www.uklanparty.net
to register as a member for free and reserve your place.
Many thanks
webmaster@uklanparty.net |
My Emails...
The emails are categorised:
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We have eventually (!) got ADSL broadband working, but BT had to fit a
new faceplate, filtering the signal before my telephone extension network.
Now I have the problem of how to get a broadband cable neatly upstairs to
the computer again. It snakes through the living room and up the stairs at
the moment.
I could put my wireless transmitter downstairs and abandon the cable link to
my main computer. Is wireless (11.g) significantly slower than cable when
accessing broadband? [The Wi-Fi data rate is faster than Broadband.
You'll be fine.]
It seems the NTL wireless trial will have lost all their potential customers
before they get the new transmitter working.
Keith, Willen Park |
I had the BT engineer in yesterday and I am delighted to
report now have broadband via the Bradwell Abbey exchange.
Apparently I am on aluminium cable, but enough of the signal still gets
through.
They had to do some rewiring and moved the master socket to a new point in
the house.
They also removed the bell wire from the socket the Sky TV box uses as
apparently the bell cable can really trip an ADSL line.
Test results:
69.6dB
327.3NF
6.06km from exchange (previous BT tests told me 8.1km)
Speed is a sustainable 65kb/s and it has not dropped since it synchronised
for the first time yesterday afternoon. I am now going to cancel my hugely
expensive ISDN lines :)
Woot!
Paul, Willen |
| I've now got a 512kb broadband service from AOL. Not the
great 1Mb service I wanted but it's the only speed of service available on
my line. It never ceases to amaze me how such a modern city of ours is so
behind times when it comes to broadband. I don't suppose speed of broadband
is an issue when some don't have it at all, but do you know of plans to
upgrade the necessary lines?
K, Racecourses |
Just to let you know I have been accepted on the trial and
I connected successfully last night for the first time....it all seems to be
working very well. BT were a bit slow to get everything in motion but have
been very professional and helpful since then.
Regards,
Sanjeev, Walnut Tree |
I am using a LinksSys WAG35G Wireless-G ADSL Gateway. As a
modem and network switch it's absolutely faultless. My only word of warning
would be about the range of the wireless component. Walls in my house have a
serious attenuating affect on the signal, and at one time I had serious
doubts that I would be able to sit of the patio working on my laptop.
Tweaking the setup has helped somewhat, but if I was to buy the equipment
again, I would ensure that it is possible to fit an external antenna (a
common but not universal option).
A combination of this kit and Freedom 2 Surf as my ISP have given me 100%
uptime on the trial here in Willen Park which I am very pleased with, just
watch the Wireless coverage.
Brian, Willen Park |
After several previous attempts to get connected (over the
last 2 years) I was successful on June 24th in Walton Park, 6.2km from
Fishermead. The next day I had to go into hospital for a pre-arranged hip
replacement, and in the last few days I have been reading the mass of emails
that had been mounting up, including the ones from Metahusky. Personally I
thought some of it was rather like any of the Soaps.
I chose Tiscali as my ISP for Broadband (the 6x service, but I regularly get
589 kbps which amounts to a 12x), and they provided the ADSL Modem, cables
and two filters. So far I have not had a single cause for any complaint. I
ordered two additional filters, and they arrived by post the next day.
Paul, Walton Park |
Hi, got broadband in Middleton a month ago and it is
brilliant- faster than the 100Mb LAN at work- and worth every penny. 1Gb a
month from PlusNet is more than enough for what I do, at £1 a month LESS
than the dialup rubbish from AOL. THanks for getting us this far with your
pressure on BT.
Cheers,
Laurie, Middleton |
| I am on the BT trial.
Can you tell me how it works? I mean if the line can't take broadband
before how come it can now?
[BT has changed a planning rule. Nothing has changed physically or
electronically.]
If you come off trial it'll stop being able to get it?
[Yes - BT will enforce their planning rule.]
Hope you can help - I'm still new to all this.
Thanks
Richard, Loughton |
Have changed my Email address. THANKS TO GETTING BROADBAND.
I took up the BT trial via Powernet and so far (touch wood) everything is
working OK. Speed (according to online checkers) is around 275kbs, not
lightning, but massively better than 56kbs and the "always on" benefits are
incalculable as I run an e-commerce website.
Cannot thank you enough for the efforts you have put into the Broadband
issue.
Thanks again
Graham, Loughton |
Just to confirm that I am a happy broadband user now for
over a month, with Powernet.
But without techie son to set things up I would have been lost as the
internal telephone extension would not take the signal and we needed to
invest in a wireless router - but this is great. No more family competition
for access to the internet which can be accessed anywhere in the house.
Powernet would not supply a wireless router as they said it causes them too
many problems.
Thanks for your efforts,
Ros, MK Village |
I signed up with BTYahoo! for the trial and all is working
well.
Thanks,
Peter. |
Just want to thank you for all campaigning to get broadband
to MK. I have just today received my broadband trial package from BT and
connected at 564 kbps with no hassles.
Thank you again.
Regards
Wayne, Walnut Tree |
Thought I'd add my name to the list of those happily
connected to Broadband through the extended reach trial. I'm using PlusNet,
which others in the village (Wicken) have used successfully. So far so good.
I'm sure this has been stated somewhere, but what happens after the trial?
Or is that up to the individual ISPs?[From what I’ve heard nothing
happens at the end of the trial for successful trialists: they carry on
paying their bill and receiving their broadband service.]
Anyway, thanks for your efforts in pushing all of this, I'm sure it had a
very positive effect.
Regards
Chris, Wicken |
I went live on Broadband through BT on the 7th July.
Thanks for your help and all your campaigning. Its amazing that somewhere
like MK has so much problems getting broadband.
Dave |
Just to let you know we were turned down by BT some 4 weeks
ago now. We are now on broadband Wanadoo with no problems at all.
Regards,
Mike and Ann, Downs Barn |
From a happy Great Linford household.
Just to let you know that I HAVE BROADBAND thanks to all the efforts from
you and your team.
Just an interesting point though, as I have opted to use BT Broadband as my
ISP for the trial, they had sent me the modem pack which didn't seem to
work. Then after many exhausting phone conversations they sent out an
engineer who told me that the modem sent to me may be faulty, so he let me
install a THOMPSON SPEEDTOUCH modem from his van and asked me to get BT to
send me another modem. This I did, and lo and behold the new modem also
won't give me access to broadband. The modem in question is the BT VOYAGER
105. I wonder if there may be an issue with the modem BT are issuing to the
trial members, or if anyone else has suffered a similar problem.
No problems with the broadband as yet. Looking good for the future.
Many many thanks again
Brian, Great Linford |
Thank you for running the group and devoting your time to
it. I now have a totally working broadband connection in Newton Longville.
I ordered ADSL the day it was announced many years ago and lived through the
trails of the initial "engineer only" roll out and dodgy teething problems
the service had when it first launched.
I had got used to having ADSL so it was a real culture shock to move to the
village and find I couldn't get it. Now - entirely thanks to your lobbying
efforts - I have returned to having a rock-steady connection provided via
PlusNet.
You're a star! (Beers in the pub when I get a Thursday off to get up there).
Ian, Newton Longville |
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BT have been alerted to all the following emails...
I called BT Yahoo! on Sunday to ask about the really wobbly connections I've
been getting; why do they always you assume you know nothing about the
internet/computers generally?
The bloke on the end of the line started to say "well, maybe it could be
viruses..." and when I asked him what viruses, exactly, would cause a Mac to
sometimes get no connection and sometimes have a solid, near-perfect one, he
went a bit quiet and muttered "There are some very rare viruses on Macs..."
BT also keep asking if I've been to try their test downloads to time them to
see if the connection really is slow, and won't accept "but when I try to
download email, the operation times out because the connection is so slow"
as 'proof'. I've also had "It could be other applications running on your
computer", as if I'm so stupid I can't tell the difference between
applications slowing down the machine and a webpage that isn't loading in
because the connection isn't there.
Having made it clear I'm on the trial at the start of the call, and halfway
through, eventually the 'tech support man' goes "I see you're on a trial..."
and then clung to that like a lifejacket for ten minutes. It took half an
hour to persuade him that I actually do have a problem, and it does actually
need some investigation. He told me I'd get a call.
Still no word.Simon, Kents Hill |
I'm up and running and have been from the 10th July. I have
today (at last) managed to get my emails from aol.com via Bt Broadband on
the extended each trial. Most is OK but occasional out of reach signals blow
everything off line!!! bit of a drag but usually can reconnect manually
straight way. Auto set up for when I switch on my computer so we will have
to see how things go after I shut down as to whether I can reconnect to aol
for emails!!
We shall have to see.
Be in touch soon with update ASAP
regards
Rex |
Although I wasn't successful on the BT trial - too far from
the exchange. I now have broadband from Ehotspot - a satellite company who
have linked up a lot of Nash residents. It's working well. £99 to install
(includes all equipment costs) and £29.99 per month thereafter.
Thanks.
Rosemary, Nash |
I live on Great Holm very near the Fire Station and was refused broadband
when I moved here [December 2002] and on several later attempts.
I applied to join the NTL wireless trial, but never heard another word.
When the BT extended reach trial was launched I applied to BT Yahoo to
upgrade to broadband and eventually they understood that I wanted to join
the trial.
Suddenly my BT Yahoo dial-up service on the free 0808 number was barred.
Apparently the broadband team had taken over my account and I was no longer
eligible for the free dial-up number. This was eventually solved, after
several very heated phone calls to remote parts of the world, by a senior
member of staff suggesting I opened a new account, which I did.
Meanwhile my free issue broadband "modem" refused to synchronise at any
time. BT Yahoo logged a fault and an engineer telephoned me. He told me that
remote testing showed that my line was faulty at my end and that I had too
much connected to it [Sky box, community alarm, DECT cordless base station
and a front door intercom]. No offer was made to come and fix this! As well
as this private line I have a business line so I asked the engineer to test
that line. Not only was it fine, but it was 500 metres shorted than my
private line [no my house is not over 500 metres from end to end]. He agreed
that the best bet was to use that line for broadband.
I then entered the nightmare world of BT people in many different towns and
countries who were variously helpful, unhelpful, intelligent, stupid, well
informed and uninformed. The trouble was none of them could complete the
apparently simple task of transferring my trial from one line to another. I
was asked to email BTBBreachtrial@bt.com and after a reminder I received a
reply saying that I could not join as the trial was now full!! This episode
rolled around for a couple of weeks.[The Trial is not full.]
Suddenly this afternoon while in Northampton my mobile rang and a broad
American accent apparently calling from Scotland asked for my details to set
up a new account with BTConnect. They have promised to call me on Monday [I
am out all of Friday] to advise progress. After so many failures I am not
holding out too much hope.
Douglas, Great Holm |
Hi, I thought I'd just inform you that I now have broadband
working just fine, with only a few problems. These include: occassional
disconnects because there is no DSL line detected by the ADSL modem (though
it picks it up again after a minute or two. Another is that the remote
computer (I'm guessing the BT servers) aren't responding to me when I try to
connect, but after a while, (eg. Over night) the problem goes away.
Other than this, I have a full speed broadband connection working fine.
[Get your ISP to resolve this: Broadband is supposed to be always on!]
-Sefran |
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I see BT Broadband for the trial is free – does this apply to Business
broadband users. I also added the BT Business Internet Business Pack so that
I could have a static IP which I expect to have to pay for. Regards
Stuart, Wavendon Gate
[BT have now stopped taking orders.] |
Call to BTOW helpdesk this morning:
ME: my ADSL modem has occasional trouble achieving line sync some evenings
after about 8.00pm. I’m on the 01908 long reach trial by the way.
HELPDESK: Aha, well we have problems with exchange
01703 at the moment. Could that be you?
Hmm.Neil |
Been looking at the ISP HomeChoice.... Seems to be a pretty
good package, don't know if you fancy letting people know about registering
their interest, we might get them to setup in MK! Means no more digital TV
from NTL too then :o)
The link is :
http://www.homechoice.co.uk/pcode/stay_informed.jsp if your
interestedJames Two Mile Ash |
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