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FinallyFast.Co.Uk There are presently adverts on the terrestrial TV stations advocating less experienced computer users to visit the above web site. The site itself is a spin off from a well known US operation and is there to sell you a number of programmes that claim to be able to clean up (and by implication thereby speed up) your computer. Actually it lets you download the programmes free but then charges you to get rid of the "problems" that it always seems to find - even on brand new installations! Now what does this remind you of? Searching the web site reveals that none of the offered programmes are very large or very complex, none is larger than 12 Meg and most are just 3 Meg or so, very small by modern standards. This review has had to be rephrased carefully as your webmaster has received an email from the site owners (who are obviously worried about uncensored reviews). All that I will say now is that it is very easy to get the same sort (some might say much better) programmes that do exactly the same thing FREE. If you are considering downloading and especially if you are considering PAYING for the offered programmes then take a look at any of the reviews that are still available on line and then make your own mind up! If you can't find any honest reviews then ask yourself why. 'Nuf said. http://forums.techguy.org/all-other-software/706822-solved-finally-fast-review.html http://billmullins.wordpress.com/2008/10/27/finally-fastcom-fast-scam-free-alternative-software/ http://www.pcnineoneone.com/blog/finally-fast/ http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1163105/finallyfastcom_finally_fast_dot_com.html http://ezinearticles.com/?FinallyFast-Reviews---Everything-You-Need-to-Know&id=2027181 Please remember that it is quite easy for someone who has ulterior motives (say perhaps the owners of a registry type cleaner programme that is getting a lot of bad reviews) to set up a "review" type web site and then pepper it with positive messages which say that the software is the best thing to hit the world since sliced bread. We suggest that you look at a range of web sites before paying out your money.

What on earth have Three done?
Since 12th. November village mobile broadband service has gone from near perfect to nil!


How it was until last week - the speed achieved in Sugar Lane before the "upgrade".

Many village residents use Three mobile broadband for back up internet connection and when out and about. It has until recently provided a fast reliable connection in this area despite our being located on the edge of their advertised coverage zone. As the above picture shows in Sugar Lane we were able to connect at a very reasonable speed. That was last week!

You see Three say they have "improved" their network coverage in this area and now even out doors all local mobile broadband signals have dropped to nothing! We are in contact with the Three technicians and hope that things may be improved. If not then our two monthly accounts as well as our other two pay as you go dongles will be up for sale on eBay and Three will lose us as customers. And that isn't all as from the phone calls that we have received in the last week we know that we are not alone and you too have lost the use of your dongles - nasty!

It's all very strange as apparently Three still use the same base station as before located near Walsted Farm, Lindfield which is a couple of miles away as the crow flies so in theory local reception shouldn't be any worse. In fact we can almost see the mast from our roof! Perhaps Three have turned the power down or are sending their signals in a different direction, perhaps the mast has just "gone wrong", but Three say not. Whatever has happened it has badly affected coverage all over Horsted Keynes and beyond as many others have noticed poorer reception, even as far away as Dane Hill and on the road to Ardingly! That small mast served a large area!

As we mentioned above the maps on the Three web site show Horsted Keynes as being on the edge of their recognised service area but that is not what many of us have found in practice as we have had perfectly adequate reception, even indoors! The maps are of course computerised predictions not on the ground measurements. They also assume reception at the height of a car aerial and many of us used our computers in an upstairs room which obviously brings in better signals. Seems that just because a computer programme says coverage is improved this isn't necessarily so "on the ground".

We will keep you informed of any developments but until then we recommend your looking elsewhere for a mobile broadband dongle service.

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 new map shows much better coverage, trouble is nobody in the village can connect! Out of the area signals have dropped dramatically and most people who used to see three bars now see just one. Whatever Three say there simply MUST be something wrong!

Updated November 2009
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 this shows the result of our test of average broadband speed in the RH17 7 Horsted Keynes area using the Three mobile broadband network. Oh yes we were using our unique broadband booster device. No photo as it has been suggested that we might patent the design. The retail price would be well under £20. Anyone 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.

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 many 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 £20 for 60 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, because if you check your connection about a week 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 it is probably a waste of time, but in older houses that have a number of telephone sockets it does seem to be very worthwhile.

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. 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, 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

March 2008
MYPOSTOFFICE - POST OFFICE BROADBAND HAS POOR LOCAL REVIEWS

As villagers may be aware we like to report on our experiences with the various computers that we are asked to look at. Recently it has been brought to our attention that customers of mypostoffice which is the ISP run by the Post Office are receiving an appalling level of service. In particular they have been without email of any sort for more than on month! When contacted the customer "service" agents are well rather more useless than some and say that they can give no indication of when service will be restored!

We also notice that pages that are coded in aspx sometimes go wrong and won't work.

All in all we cannot recommend Post Office broadband services. If you know better and fine this a good company do please get in touch and we will give your comments just as much prominance.

We're waiting to hear from you! ;-)
 

Written in 2008

One of the first question that technically savvy people ask when considering a move to or within our village is what sort of broadband speed will they be able to get.

As most surfers know even though your broadband ISP advertises a service that is "up to 8 Meg", almost nobody can actually connect at this figure. It's all a bit misleading really. The connection speed is actually dependant on your distance from the local telephone exchange, and our local exchange is in Dane Hill! That puts at least one mile on to everyone's connection distance - or rather it did until recently! You see BT have now installed a "mini exchange" in the telephone cabinet opposite the Post Office and most phones in the centre of Horsted Keynes connect through this green box.

You would think that having a mini exchange so near to their home would mean that anyone living beside that cabinet would get the full 8 Meg connection. The laws of physics still apply however and the broadband signal still has to get back to Dane Hill where the processing is done but the special joint line between the village cabinet and the Dane Hill exchange is the best possible quality so it drops the speed far less. What actually happens is that those who live near the Green will get a rock solid 6 Meg connection, with the speed tailing off as you get further away.

This means that most people who live for example in the Hamsland area enjoy a 5 Meg or so connection, down to the church and school it's well over 4 Meg, whilst the more outlying areas can usually connect between 2 and 3 Meg. All in all it's not too bad around here especially when compared to the speed that we at HorstedKeynes.Com had just 3 years ago 64K ADSL with just a 33k modem a couple of years before that! Can you believe that we actually started and ran the village web site on that?

By the way it doesn't seem to matter if your phone number is to the north on the East Grinstead exchange, we all connect at the same sort of speed. Interestingly some really remote farms connect at really good speeds whilst others who are quite central only connect slowly. The reason for this is that for broadband to work properly you must have a copper wire connecting you to the world telephone system. As a cost saving measure, and well before broadband was even thought of, BT replaced some subscribers copper wires with aluminium often when installing a second line for a burglar alarm. These are the people who are now paying the price with a dreadfully slow connection. If you are affected all that you can do is keep moaning to your ISP - or get a second telephone line installed again! This trick will get you a new line with a nice new pair of copper wires. After 3 months cancel your first line and enjoy the faster connection - tricky!

The speed that you connect to the internet does not seem to be affected by which ISP you use - that is as long as you don't use aol! For some reason we have found that aol users tend to connect rather slower than their neighbours. It's probably due to aol having a higher contention rate. You see all ISPs make you share your connection with up to 50 other subscribers, but aol seems to make you share with rather more subscribers, or perhaps aol users are more active on line? If you aren't happy about this then you could try to moan to aol - not that it will get you anywhere - sorry!

DO YOU USE UTILITY WAREHOUSE FOR BROADBAND?

We have a villager who has lost their Utility Warehouse Broadband connection for almost two weeks. Trouble is we are sure there is no problem at this end but they can't get through to anyone at UW to get help. If YOU use UW for your broadband could you please get in touch with the village webmasters with any broadband contact details (especially for technical support) that you have.

"Look on the internet", you say! Try! There seems scant contact information for this organisation anywhere that we can find anyway. There ARE lots of "adverts" for people trying to sell this "opportunity". Want to buy cheap electricity or phones, there are numbers aplenty but it's AFTER sales broadband contact that we need!

We'll say no more for now.

Many thanks, your webmasters.

November 2005 - Many villagers are having broadband connection problems

We have been contacted by several villagers who all complain that their previously reliable internet connections are now intermittent or unreliable. BT have been called in and their engineers say that there isn't a problem when there obviously is!

At this stage there is little that we at HorstedKeynes.com can do to help apart from encouraging any villager who has a less than satisfactory internet connection to contact their ISP. The rules state that if your connection fails you have to go via your ISP - contacting BT direct is not permitted.

The more people who complain, the more quickly BT (who are responsible for the actual connection whoever you actually use for broadband) will realise that there is a real problem in our area.

Obviously, if we can help further please do email, or even use the telephone, to contact us!

August 2005 - Our Broadband keeps going off

We had hoped that with the arrival of adsl in our area internet connection problems were a thing of the past, but we have recently had a large number of disconnections from out DSL service. This is naturally also affecting the free HotSpot that we run for visitors to the village as well.

We have also heard from a number of village Broadband users who are losing their connection to the internet for minutes, or hours at a time as well. This all started at the beginning of August but is getting worse and has now peaked with our personal log indicating no less than 6 disconnections in the last 24 hours! We have a firm suspicion that there is a fault with some of the Broadband equipment racks at the Dane Hill exchange. To prove this we need you to check your Broadband connection, if you find that it disappears when previously it was reliable help us all by doing the following...

1. If your Broadband is normally reliable but now keeps going off for no apparent reason do NOT first contact your ISP, instead ring BT Faults on 151 and go through their automatic procedure to report a line fault. When you manage to get through simply report "Intermittent ADSL". This applies whoever you use for an ISP or telephone call provider, it is still BT who maintain OUR exchange and lines for the present. If you are connected to the internet it is quicker to instead use www.bt.com/faults to report your trouble. Whilst BT will say that you must go through your ISP to report Broadband issues they do in fact maintain a log of all connection reports. The more who report problems, the quicker BT will act. (That's the theory anyway ;-)
    

2. Next we suggest that you also report your problem to your ISP (aol, BTYahoo, NDO, Clara, or whoever you pay each month). They may well give you an involved list of things to check to ensure that it is not them at fault - obviously you can ignore much of it and simply tell them that it isn't just you who is having problems this time! In this way both your ISP and BT will log the problem. IMPORTANT - this is only if your connection has suddenly gone wrong and you haven't altered anything lately, if you get BT out when the fault is your computer then BT may try to charge you.
    

3. Having reported the fault to BT and your ISP please drop us a quick email (when you can connect of course) giving if possible your phone number, the time of outage and restoration of Broadband service,  and the area where you live (there are two Broadband racks in the Dane Hill exchange and we need to see if both are affected). In this way we can keep a log of the problems to get BT to act.

BT are a lumbering organisation who tend to not believe the first or second person who reports a failure with the BT equipment. That is why we need everyone who is affected to let the BT dinosaur know!

We are now trying to log the outages and so far we show the following firm information (this is a "worst case scenario - it seems that the further you are from the exchange the worse are your disconnections)...

21 August

Off 15.00 to 16.15
Off 20.45 to 21.15

22 August

Off 03.00 to 03.15
Off 08.42 to 08.44
(Several short drop outs during the morning)
Off 12.27 to 12.29
Off 13.53 to 13.58 (Several times)
Off 14.35 to 14.36
Off 18.10 to 18.12

23 August

Off 03.00 to 03.10
Off 07.00 to 07.05
Off 13.31 to 13.33

24 August

Have BT fixed it/ Time will tell...!

Broadband is now available to ALL residents, irrespective of how far out you live!

BT have announced that they are scrapping the distance restrictions that have prevented some residents who live more than a couple of miles from the village from getting a Broadband service. This will come as welcome relief to residents in Birch Grove, Highbrook and other areas who had been told that they would have to continue using a dial-up service.

You can get more details from the BBC website here. Better book your line activation!