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Antheil
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« Reply #675 on: 15:32:03, 18-07-2008 » |
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Has anyone used any of those programmes (like ActiveSpeed) which promise to dramatically increase the speed of your computer/broadband connection? Do they really work?
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Reality, sa molesworth 2, is so sordid it makes me shudder
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Ron Dough
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« Reply #676 on: 19:25:54, 18-07-2008 » |
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This rang a bell with me, Anty, as I remember that the Dode was full of something along these lines a few months back, telling me how wonderful it was going to be before he actually installed it. He doesn't seem to have mentioned it recently, so I've just called to ask him about it. Translated out of the blue vernacular, basically what he suggested was that it was useless, and indeed 'slowed a'thing doun'. He got rid of it pretty quickly, apparently (although, again, not in those actual words) - 'tell thon lassie nae tae waste her money' is pretty much verbatim however.  |
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Kittybriton
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« Reply #677 on: 00:55:54, 19-07-2008 » |
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We had something like that briefly, as part of an alternative ISP package which was truly execrable. Essentially what it was supposed to do was use time when pages had loaded and the connection was idle to "prefetch" pages linked to the pages being viewed.
In practice, the connection here is very seldom idle, and any acceleration was negligible.
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Click me -> About meor me -> my handmade storeNo, I'm not a complete idiot. I'm only a halfwit. In fact I'm actually a catfish. |
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Antheil
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« Reply #678 on: 10:59:50, 19-07-2008 » |
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Ron, (and Kitty) I take on board the words of Dode the Wise having googled further. I fear my Vergin' on the Ridiculous connection is the culprit when it comes to the bbc iplayer. Never ever had a problem before the new version of iplayer but although I connect and it says I have 7.6 mbps when I check speeds on the various testing sites at peak times the results are abysmal.
I happened to be about at 3am this morning and iplayer worked fine, it's this Virgin "traffic shaping" that is to blame rather than iplayer I guess. (I only watch in streaming, I don't download) The thought of changing ISP after so many trouble-free years with Virgin fills me with horror and letting everyone know new email addresses etc. Mort's BT experience has rather put me off them and I couldn't consider AOL so if I changed who do people think is the best?
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Reality, sa molesworth 2, is so sordid it makes me shudder
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Ron Dough
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« Reply #679 on: 11:12:38, 19-07-2008 » |
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It's not necessarily the traffic throttling that's causing your problems, Anty: is your VBB coming via cable or the telephone service? If the latter, then it may just be a case of 'when two or three are gathered together' - iPlayer is very greedy of bandwidth, and it only takes a couple of others on your spur to be downloading something equally demanding for the distribution to jam up markedly: the traffic throttling is an attempt to stop the regular users who cause these problems from hogging the network completely.
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Antheil
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« Reply #680 on: 11:35:08, 19-07-2008 » |
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Ron, I get bb via telephone socket. We only got bb here a couple of years ago (after a campaign to BT whereby we had to get 500 people to agree to use it) and there are still some local areas not able to get bb. The problem has only been since the new version of iplayer. Maybe I'll check my neighbours to see if they have a problem?
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Reality, sa molesworth 2, is so sordid it makes me shudder
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Ron Dough
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« Reply #681 on: 11:45:33, 19-07-2008 » |
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You'll almost certainly find that the problem only occurs at your local peak times, Anty, so you'll experience delays only when others are using the system heavily (which explains why you had no trouble in the dead of night....)
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Antheil
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« Reply #682 on: 12:32:36, 19-07-2008 » |
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Ron, I can see the logic in that but going on the iplayer message boards there are an awful number of posts from disgruntled Virgin customers about the unavailability of iplayer at peak times. And now, and this has never happened before, I have a problem with my Virgin email, in that it cannot connect. So reluctantly, maybe time for a change of ISP.
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Reality, sa molesworth 2, is so sordid it makes me shudder
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Ron Dough
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« Reply #683 on: 12:55:56, 19-07-2008 » |
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If you change ISP, the connection will still be through the same infrastructure, Anty, so the chance of improved speed is far from guaranteed. Furthermore the process of changing providers is a total lottery, with the potential for the whole thing to go completely wrong at anyone of its numerous convoluted stages.
Best bet: talk to someone else local with another ISP who uses iPlayer, and try to set up a simultaneous viewing to see if their downloading is any less troubled than yours. The e-mail problem sounds like a settings issue to me: nothing to do with the connection as such.
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John W
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« Reply #684 on: 19:00:53, 19-07-2008 » |
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My daughter is here with her laptop, hoping to use the BT wireless connetcion that we set up and which has always worked..... Although there's a wee icon saying connected and Belkin device working we are not really 'connected' as webpages won't open. I'm looking at screen under Internet Options and tried one tool which was Click Windows Repair Connection..... Windows can't repair connection. Can't clear DNS cache it says. What's that? That might not be the problem anyway.  |
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Andy D
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« Reply #685 on: 21:05:00, 19-07-2008 » |
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Dunno John, the only time I've got online wirelessly on my laptop was when I used a neighbour's connection and that worked fine - but then I'm running under Ubuntu not Windows  For those of you thinking of buying a new Windows PC, this is rather worrying: An unpatched PC is likely to last just four minutes on the internet before being attacked and compromised.
The time it takes for a PC to get itself owned varies by operating system and what activities a user engages in - but even allowing for this, putting an unpatched Windows PC directly onto the net in the hope that it downloads patches faster than it gets exploited give you "odds that you wouldn't bet on in Vegas", warns Lorna Hutcheson, a researcher at the SANS Institute's Internet Storm Centre (ISC).Full story here: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/15/unpatched_pc_survival_drops/ |
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offbeat
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« Reply #686 on: 21:52:54, 19-07-2008 » |
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I dont use Iplayer much but when i do it seems to stall every minute or so (my bb is tiscali) - rather annoying but learn to live with it!
Luckily r3 play again ok
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Antheil
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« Reply #687 on: 13:06:49, 20-07-2008 » |
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Oh I just about give up on this new bbc iplayer. I wanted to listen to Nige's late prom, there it was - part 1 and 2 - would it play Part 2 -No it wouldn't. Went to R3 homepage and the old LA, was it listed? No, it wasn't, just the Friday prom on World Service and stuff from Radio Jersey and Radio Cymru  Went back again to iplayer, part 2 Prom not now listed! So annoyed I forget to set Total Recorder last night - did anyone out there record and would be willing to send me a copy?? |
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Reality, sa molesworth 2, is so sordid it makes me shudder
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Ron Dough
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« Reply #688 on: 13:27:51, 20-07-2008 » |
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I rather think the Dough Archive might be able to help you out there, Anty: there should be a main copy plus a back-up. I've not had a chance to check them out yet, but as soon as I can, I'll PM you.
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Antheil
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« Reply #689 on: 13:38:39, 20-07-2008 » |
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Cheers Ron!!
Just updated to IE7 - machine now working at the pace of a tortoise <sigh> Updated the latest version of Flash <ditto sigh>
Spare laptop at the office, in two minds whether to "borrow" it ............
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Reality, sa molesworth 2, is so sordid it makes me shudder
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