IT TOOK SEVERAL YEARS TO BRING BROADBAND TO HORSTED KEYNES
THIS PAGE RECORDS THAT STRUGGLE AND COVERS OTHER LOCAL BROADBAND ISSUES

NOW LET'S SEE IF WE CAN BRING AN OPTICAL FIBRE INTO THE VILLAGE!

Chris is pleased to offer help to villagers who are having trouble setting up their Broadband connection. Please ring 791624 for details.

 

NAMESCO - NDO, SORRY YOU HAVE COMPLETELY LOST ME For several years I have recommended the services of the UK company Namesco, also known as NDO. They are based in Worcester and offered a service that was in my humble opinion second to none. Their customer service team were second to none, acting quickly and efficiently whenever I had a problem. I do not receive any commission yet I have recommended their services to several people in the Village something that I now bitterly regret. You will notice that I am writing in the past tense, for the following reason. To do anything these days you need a password: to check your emails, to look at the state of your account or perhaps to upload a new file to this website. Someone at Namesco had an idea recently, "Let's make every customer alter their password, not just once but every 6 months". So why is this such a good or bad idea? I have a technique with my passwords. They are all different and based on a certain formula that I will not disclose to you. This means that I can work out any password if I happen to forget it so I have no need to record it or write it down anywhere. If you don't know the formula you have very little chance of working out or guessing my passwords. So why is it so bad to have to alter my passwords every few months? The answer is simple. As I cannot work out my password I need to write it down, and write it down somewhere that I know I can find it - that will be on my computer then. So whereas now nobody can know my password it is now on my computer for any thieves to find. Naturally I can't put the password behind a password protected file as I might forget that password! This means that not only do I have the considerable inconvenience of having to alter my password every few months, I cannot find it if I lose my computer! I will also add that I am fairly computer literate, changing the password on my email programme only takes me a few minutes. Despite their being some "easy" diagrams on the Namesco support site I can absolutely assure them some people have no idea. So they have to get out an expert to help them, and this will need doing twice a year! I am afraid many customers just ain't going to stick with it and will move away. How utterly stupid in a time of recession. Unless I am missing something and Namesco just don't want that sort of customer. The next complaint about Namesco is how they went about this change. They gave most of us very little notice and naturally many customers did not understand what it was all about anyway and ignored the emails. This evening Namesco just turned off their emails so these customers phoned Namesco support. Guess what? Namesco support became overloaded and was constantly engaged. Tweets abounded, journalists became interested. Those customers who have been away - and I know of at least one customer who has been in Portugal - came home to find that they could not get at their emails (not even the emails telling them how to alter their settings) and they couldn't contact Namesco support either! This means that as I recommended Namesco the customers rang me and wanted me to sort the whole thing out for them immediately! Oh did I mention that it's not only emails that are affected. I know it won't be so many customers affected but anyone with a web site on Namesco can no longer upload files (that's FTP if you are not technical) from more than one computer at a time. I have a large number of web sites and upload from all over the place. I also have different IP addresses but they seem to think that every web site owner has a static IP. I don't as it costs me extra each month. Again I simply rely on a secure password to stop hackers. I have this week moved my domains away from Namesco - an expensive frustrating logistic nightmare but I will not be told how I access my perfectly legal websites!! Why have Namesco done all this? I wish I knew. If they have been hacked then I might just understand, but they say not, (I wonder?). Instead they seem to be suggesting that this has all be done for my benefit. They talk of industry standards. Well then they should at least have phased the change in so that just a few customers were affected each day or week to avoid blocking up their phone lines. Too simple perhaps. Thanks, but no thanks Namesco. I have moved to a different host. Oh they charged me £18 to move the address when many, no most operators do it for free. The job involves entering three "email" type address on a web apge. Perhaps we now see why they did it. I wonder how this will affect Namesco profits or if they are in line for another take over? Just as Namesco took over NDO. 21 November, may be updated.

 

OCTOBER 2012 - WHY OUR VILLAGE BROADBAND IS 'GETTING SLOWER BY THE DAY' p.s. Since writing this section and after contacting BT we have been told that some villagers have noticed an increase in recent speed test results, perhaps not back to their previous levels, but certainly better than before. We think this may be the result of some "twiddling" in the BT exchange and would appreciate those who wrote to us complaining about speed to take another test are let us have their latest results. R.P. If you are fairly technical and look at the data that is available on one of the screens on your router you may be surprised to see that your broadband internet 'sync speed' is as high as 7,500 kbps, yet when you perform a speed test on this site you are shown a download speed as low as 1,000 kbps or even less. So why can you connect to the local exchange at more than 7 Meg yet only download data at 1 meg? It's becoming a regular occurrence to find the speed of local broadband slowing to an unusable level with YouTube videos stuttering and stalling all over the place. This seems to happen especially when a large number of users are on line at the same time. Wet weekend afternoons and weekday evenings seem worst but if your check even overnight downloads are getting slower. So why should this be happening? The answer is our "back haul", please read on.... What many people do not realise is that this back haul - that's the part of the internet connection between the Dane Hill exchange building and the nearest hard wired connection to the internet - is via two satellite type dishes that are on the side of the local exchange building, both point towards Tunbridge Wells - at busy times both are often completely congested. So why does every bit of our broadband data have to go via Tunbridge Wells? This is historically where our telephone signals have been routed, as it was the centre of the telephone area this was an obvious place for the internet equipment back in the old dial up modem days, and BT have not yet upgraded the system. With modern fibre cables it really does not matter which "point of presence" is used to connect a group of customers such as our village to the outside world, but for now the old BT hierarchy still applies. As there are no broadband wires going from the Dane Hill exchange to the outside world, to keep the speed of connection at a usable level we have to use a radio connection, and for technical reasons BT are limited in the frequencies they are allowed to use on terrestrial radio frequency connections in our area - Gatwick Airport being so close also limits the frequencies available. Because of these problems the BT dishes can only carry 35M Bits of data each, yes that's the same amount of data that a single optical fibre delivers to one home in Lindfield! Believe it or not all 990 homes in our area share this incredibly small 70MBit bandwidth! Because everybody looks at the internet at a different mili-second period this is just about enough for normal browsing, but when many people are using their broadband connection to watch TV and things like Netflix - which run all the time of course - it all gets clogged up. This seems to be the reason why those of us who get a decent connection speed to the exchange are unable to use their computers properly at busy times. I wonder if it might be an idea to suggest that customers in areas such as ours, those with a very limited broadband backhaul, might be restricted in the use they make of their connection? No, thought not! In fact there is a restriction of sorts as we are mostly on schemes which limit the total monthly data throughput on their line. Those with a fibre connection are usually totally unlimited of course. It would cost BT a tidy sum of money to run an optical fibre to the Dane Hill exchange, and of course even more to extend that fibre to the rest of our area so BT seem to be waiting to get some money from the Government before they upgrade us. Why should BT worry? We are all forced to use their wires whoever we actually pay for our broadband. There is no Sky, and no Virgin connections in our area, so why should BT worry? So what can we do? Time for action from our elected representatives methinks. I recently attended and made a contribution to a conference on Rural Broadband at Cambridge University so would be delighted to act as spokesman should any villager have "the ear" of someone in power! If you look on my personal website you will see that I offer some suggestions of ways to use the 3G mobile network to offload some of the data when the wired connection is slow. This might be one way to go and you are welcome to take a look at www.philpot.me for details. p.s. One villager has been in touch to ask why BT, or indeed villagers themselves, should not have a connection to the internet that uses a satellite connection to speed up the connection. The answer I am afraid is the speed of light. Quite simply a fixed satellite is over 22,000 miles away in space and the time taken for a signal to go up to the satellite, then down to the earth and for the answer to get back via the same route would take far too long for most critical uses, and that is every piece of data on each internet page, and some internet pages have over 100 files! It would make browsing the internet and especially anything requiring speed such as gaming untenable. Sorry, blame physics, not BT for that one. ;-) Your webmasters. Quite literally overnight and without any warning villagers found that their internet had slowed to a crawl. Some people received an email saying that their "Regrade order had been processed". The trouble is nobody had ordered a regrade, and why should a regrade result in the loss of more than 75% of the previous days speed? Earlier this week our speed had returned to near normal but it remains inconsistent and unreliable, sometimes dropping to a quarter of normal. If you want to do something you can try performing a connection reset which may sometimes help. To reset yours you need to unplug your router from the mains for a few minutes and repeat several times in the day. This will "re-educate" the local exchange about your telephone line conditions. To check your speed you can use our special tool, located above, completely free. This problem is all reminiscent of a couple of years ago when the same thin g happened and your web site were forced to contact the local press and more importantly BBC News. Normal service was quickly restored after this! Once again we are monitoring the situation closely. Please get in touch if you need any help.

 

LET'S TRY TO GET OPTICAL FIBRE IN THE VILLAGE! This page records the struggle that we had getting BT to bring broadband into our area. Now it's time to start another campaign to get them to bring an optical fibre into Horsted Keynes. With optical fibre broadband speed increases by several hundred percent, if we could get BT to put fibre to our homes we could connect at 80Meg - both ways! Even with the lower grade "Fibre to the cabinet" we could download at 30Meg or more. It would not be too difficult - you may be interested to know that the fibre already reaches to the northern extreme of the Lindfield exchange and that is just over one mile from the village beside the Bluebell bridge at Holywell. Yes it's not far away at all. The main problem seems to be that BT will only "fibre" exchanges with more than 1000 properties connected, Horsted Keynes and Danehill can only muster 980! Of course if the fibre were to be extended to the industrial estate (presently seen as an extension of the East Grinstead exchange) then we would be easily over the threshold. Let's see if we can get BT to bring the fibre under the Bluebell bridge and up the road to our village! If you live locally and have any ideas how we can twist BT's arm do please email us. It's broadband@horstedkeynes.com. Please get in touch!

Three mobile internet signal has gone back up!

Many village residents use Three mobile broadband for back up internet connection and when out and about. Last November (on the 12th to be precise) the signal that had until then provided a perfectly reliable service dropped to nothing! In May 2010 we happened to test the service (after the leaves were firmly established on the trees) and were astounded to find levels back to the same as they were last year!

All was fine! We updated the village web site and enjoyed our mobile connection. Then in mid-July the signals reverted to what they were like in the winter - nowt!

Looking on the Ofcom web site we found that Three had dramatically increased the power output on the nearest mast (in Lindfield) but we think the reliability returned mainly because the system automatically defaulted to the more reliable Orange network when all else fails. That's what happened for a few months but it's now back as it was!

We will try to give a full report as soon as we are able. Until then if you have a dusty old Three Mobile Broadband dongle you might like to dust it off and try using it again.

The OLD map - most people in the village could connect quite easily.

The November 2009 map shows much better coverage, but it's totally wrong.

The updated Three coverage map from May 2010. One day it will be accurate!

July 2010 and the signal "improves" on paper. But is it rubbish on the ground?

Three have changing the style of their map so it's not too clear, but the above old map shows that areas of Horsted Keynes WERE in the reception area last month. Three say we have NEVER had a service around here despite our previously connecting at 2Meg. The newer map showed much better coverage, trouble is nobody in the village could connect! The latest version shows a lower signal than before but we can connect! Out of the area signals have dropped dramatically and most people who used to see three bars now see just one. There simply MUST be something wrong around here!

The following was how it was until last week when Three "upgraded" the service in our area.

Result Of "Three" Mobile Broadband Tests in This Area

It CAN be done - Despite being outside their published area the above speed test shows the result of our test of our broadband speed in the RH17 7 Horsted Keynes area using a Three mobile broadband dongle. Oh yes we were also using our unique broadband booster device. No photo as it has been shown as it has been suggested that we might patent the design. The retail price would be well under £20. Anyone got £10,000 and want to be a "Dragon"?

We have been conducting some tests of the new mobile broadband services in the Horsted Keynes area. Some of you may not know that all the major mobile phone companies now offer a service which gives a connection at broadband speeds but using their wireless networks instead of telephone wires. The advantages of an always on mobile connection when out and about are obvious, but if your broadband connection is important to you having one of their "dongles" to use at home if your main service goes down can be a real help. Fortunately a properly set up mobile broadband modem can be shared between home computers just as regular broadband can so you only need a single connection for all of your home computers to connect.

So what are our conclusions? The Three network would seem to offer the best chance of reliable service in many parts of the village. We regually connect at 2.5Meg which is very respectable although the connection is rather more heavily "contended" (shared with other users) than regular broadband. This connection speed is plenty good enough for normal browsing and email but can be a bit slow if downloading large files. For example the videos on the BBC News web site are easily watchable without break-ups but we wouldn't download a programme file unless it was urgent. Fortunately most people don't need to download large files immediately so can wait for their main service to be restored. We recommend your turning off any file or TV sharing software as this uses your connection even when not actually showing a video. The average speed seems to have gone up recently too.

If you live in the higher parts of the village, that's the Green, Lewes Road, Hamsland etc then you should be able to connect quite easily. As usual those in the "posh" houses down in the dip near the church may have more difficulty. If you can't connect then we have a couple of tricks up our sleeves that may help you including our own design of "Broadband Booster" which is a string and sealing wax prototype at present!

Mobile broadband can cost as little as £10 a month for one Gig of data which is plenty for most peoples' normal usage. You can also take their one month short term contract which represents excellent value. The dongles themselves can now be obtained for less than £30 or even free.

If you would like more info please do get in touch. If you wish we can bring round a "test rig" that will show your likely reception strength before you buy.

(Written in 2010 when Haywards Heath did not have ultra fast broadband but still relevant today)

VILLAGE PLAN - A TECHNICAL COMMENTARY FROM THE WEBMASTER
[Certainly a personal comment - separate from the rest of this web site which tries to be impartial]

I notice from the village plan that among the sensible suggestions are one or two unwarranted complaints, one  is "Broadband speeds are too slow" and another is "Mobile phone reception is inadequate".

Now as a "webmaster" I may not be able to comment on many things about the village plan, and probably wouldn't want to anyway as my family have lived here for more than 40 years and we love the village as it is now. I know that the Green is beautiful and should remain unaltered, but know little of new roads, litter bins or stoollball, but as an experienced electronics engineer I do think that on such technical issues my thoughts may be relevant.

Are present village broadband speeds too slow, and what does "too slow" mean anyway?

If we compare our connection speeds with say Haywards Heath then you may be interested to know that in the village we can have as fast a connection as many "townies"! Yes in Haywards Heath some people can connect at a full 8 or 9 Megs but many get just over 4 - that is splendid - but  right on the edge of Horsted Keynes our connection speed is 7.4 Megs!

B.T. may not do many things right but a year or so ago they installed what I will call a "broadband amplifier" in the green cabinet opposite the Post Office. Wires radiate from there to most parts of the village. There are fewer of these central amplifiers in towns as the infrastructure is  more spread out and less centralised. In Horsted Keynes many of the telephone wires already "pointed" towards the central cabinet so it was rather easy to put an amplifier in there which helped most people. As all broadband signals go down the same B.T. lines it matters not a jot if you are with B.T. A.O.L. or any other ISP, all can connect at the same speed - if your ISP will let you. And that's the point, if.

So what do the village plan proponents expect or want? If they expect a 50 Meg optical fibre broadband signal then they won't get it for many, many years. If that is what they want now then they should consider moving on - to Milton Keynes perhaps, where a very few lucky souls do indeed get this speed connection.;-) The rest of us can get a perfectly adequate 4Meg or more connection right now, and it will get a bit quicker in a year or so when the Dane Hill exchange is upgraded and unbundled allowing other ISPs to put their equipment into that green cabinet.

I visited a village home yesterday where they were downloading at a mind numbing 15K. "Useless this village broadband", they said. It took me 5 minutes to move a single wire and bring their speed up to 4 Meg - and their speed will get faster when the exchange "learns" of their improved connection. So please don't blame the village infrastructure before checking what is happening inside your home. We have a proper carefully installed broadband system from a professional ISP which costs us a shade over £15 for 100 Gig each month, perhaps a couple of pounds more than the cheapos, but as I said above it gives us a more than adequate speed all controlled from Worcester in the UK, not India! In most cases you could connect at this speed too! If you went for the cheapest supplier when you moved up to broadband from dial up then what can you expect? What happens when your broadband goes wrong? You shout down the phone to India who fob you off and are no help. That's what you pay for which is fine, but please don't blame the village infrastructure! What I suppose I am saying is that if broadband is as important to you as it is to us then invest in a proper system, properly installed supplied by a professional ISP. Don't get the cheapest plan from a telephone company!

The strong broadband signals are in most cases there if you want to use them, but if you still have the same cheapo box that came free from your ISP several years ago and especially if you still have filters all over your home instead of a single master socket fitted then you are not getting the connection speeds that you are able. There is also an exciting new product called an iPlate. This is screwed to your existing main telephone socket and it does... nothing! Nothing immediately that is, but if you check your connection about a week or so later you will find that in many cases you are getting an extra 1Meg per second speed! It does not work in all cases, and in new homes with new telephone wiring  it is probably a waste of time, but in older houses that have a number of telephone sockets installed by D.I.Y. thr iPlate does seem to be very worthwhile. We have them in stock in the village and can install them for you by the way (advert over).

Let me add that yes there are certainly a few homes around the village which get an appalling broadband signal, often because they had aluminium wires put in when they had a second line installed to work their burglar alarm or oil tank meter. A few, perhaps 4 or 5 homes can only get the basic minimum 512K connection, and two that we know of can get no broadband at all. However exactly the same thing is true of Haywards Heath. In fact it is worse over there as many of the new developments are located a long way from a telephone exchange so whole roads get poor speeds rather than just odd houses in our village.

Can I add a final comment - and this one really annoys me! One of the other complaints contained in the village plan  is that there is "inadequate mobile phone reception". Fair enough, it's dreadful in most areas, even on the Green there is almost no signals to speak of. But err just a minute. What happened when Orange tried to put up a local mast that would have given us all perfect local indoor mobile phone and mobile broadband reception in Horsted Keynes? Instant objections and fears of cancer, nose bleeds, childhood deformities, spontaneous cattle abortions, in fact any ill informed opinions the objectors could find when Googling the internet.

Even though the Orange mast was going to be located less than a quarter of a mile from and right opposite our bedroom window (in fact we were one of the nearest houses to the proposed mast) I firmly supported the application! You see because of the way mobile phones work it would in fact have reduced the radiation received by most villagers! The application was of course quickly thrown out by the planners so the nearest masts are still located in Lindfield and Haywards Heath and we struggle to make contact when out. (If you'd like to see more of our comments do please click the following link. Orange technical explanation )

How on earth, less than a year later, can the same villagers who objected to a local mast complain of "inadequate mobile phone reception". You quite simply can't have it both ways! Where should the transmitters be sited then? "Not in my back yard" comes to mind!

p.s. Did you know that all four mobile phone companies literally flood the village with signals every year? For the three days of the South of England show they put in large mobile transmitters on a hill overlooking the Ardingly showground and the signals reach over to Horsted Keynes. That's why your signal level suddenly leapt up to five bars last June! The phone companies do this quite legally on a temporary "show" licence from Ofcom. If there hadn't been the objections last year we could now have had this strength service right here every day! Along with strong mobile phone signals comes 7.2Meg mobile broadband, which would have been great for those homes that can't get a decent broadband service, and would have provided a fast back-up service for the rest of us. Oh well!

Q.E.D.

Robert Philpot