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Minibus and Taxi service |
| Telephone 01825 791105 Email
charles.w@btconnect.com |
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HorstedKeynes.Com are pleased to
offer help to villagers who are having trouble setting up their Broadband
connection. Please ring 791624 for an appointment. |
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Last update December 2007
WHAT SPEED
WILL I
GET IN THE VILLAGE?
VILLAGE GOES
BROADBAND MAD!
KEEP AN EYE ON OUR
EXCHANGE CAPACITY |
FAME AT LAST!
as THE REGISTER
features our campaign
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Broadband for £9.99 a month!
We use NDO Internet and ask you to
take a look at their site.
Please see here for more information. |
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Result Of "Three"
Mobile Broadband Tests in This Area
We have been conducting some tests of the new mobile
broadband in the Horsted Keynes area. Some of you may not know that 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 computer just as regular broadband can so you only need
a single connection for all of your home computers.
So what are our conclusions? The Three network would seem
to offer the best chance of service in many parts of the village. We connect
at 3.6Meg which is very respectable although the connection is rather more
heavily "contended" (shared with other users) than regular broadband. The
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. Fortunately most
people don't need to download large files immediately so can wait for their
main service to be restored.
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 by the church may have more
difficulty. If you can't then we have a couple of tricks up our sleeves to
help you!
Mobile broadband can cost as little as £10 a month for
one Gig of data which is plenty for most people.
If you would like more info please do get in touch, we
have a "test rig" that we can bring round to check your quality of reception
before you buy. |
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March 2008
MYPOSTOFFICE - POST OFFICE BROADBAND HAS POOR LOCAL REVIEWS
As villagers may be aware we like to report on our
experiences with that 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! ;-)
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What broadband speed will I get
in Horsted Keynes? |
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 56km
with just 33k 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. 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! 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!
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Broadband Connections are
provided subject to compatibility and availability of BT-exchange
connected Telephone line. The "upto" speed of 2MB and 8MB depend on line
quality and distance from your local exchange. The "upto 2MB" products
are provided using a "fixed rate" service at either 512K, 1MB or 2MB
speeds. The "upto 8MB" products are using a "rate adaptive" service with
speeds varying anywhere between 1MB and 8MB. The average expected
end-user speed is between 5-6MB. BT Wholesale estimates that
approximately 80% of customers will achieve download speeds of 4MB and
above.
Download speeds will vary significantly in the first 10 days after
connection and then will become more consistent. At peak-times (6pm to
1am, and all weekend) speeds can be lower than those experienced at
other times, due to contention at local BT exchanges. |
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A typical ISP "get out" clause - this one is far
more honest that some. |
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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. |
|
We can supply Broadband equipment for less that the
ISP's AND we can deliver and install them for you! For example: Broadband
modems from £25, filters
£9, network cables from £5 ! Ring
791624.
Broadband modems are HIGHLY susceptible to
lightning damage; UNPLUG whenever you hear thunder! |
|
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! |
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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...
-
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 ;-)
-
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.
-
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...! |
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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! |
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BROADBAND
SECURITY
NOTES
IN YOUR OWN INTEREST PLEASE READ
Now that you have Broadband you MUST, repeat must, have a firewall and
configure it properly. If this means nothing to you then give us a ring on
791624 and we
will try to help (although we are VERY busy at present helping other village
Broadband newcomers). Unfortunately
many automated modem installation scripts (what you run from the CD to
install your Broadband modem) do NOT activate the firewall that is built in
to Windows XP. If you are using anything earlier than XP for your own sake
get a firewall today! The best
firewalls are hardware which means an extra box between your computer and
the outside world. Using one of these you can start to feel a lot
safer on line. We recommend and use
Netgear as suppliers of reliable, reasonably priced firewalls who have good
British support. A complete firewall router can cost from as little as £50 on the
Internet (or £129 at PC World!). This sort of
device includes an adsl modem, a firewall, and a connection to your
computers by your existing network. If you do not have a network then
you will need a different model.
By
the way most of these firewalls work using the Linux
operating system which upsets many of the Microsoft virus writers out there!
If you don't want to buy more hardware then the best known firewall is Zone Alarm
which runs as another program on your computer.
The basic version comes completely free but the advanced version costs about
£25. This software is quite easy to set up on your existing computer and will keep most of the nasties at bay.
There can be problems if you like to watch a lot of streaming video or audio
with the free version of Zone Alarm. Take a look at their help pages if you
get stuck. You can also take a look at the
Norton
personal firewall pages, slightly cheaper than Zone Alarm this program
is really on suitable for single computer installations. If you run more
than one computer then a hardware firewall is really the only way to go. Beside running a firewall
you must also make sure that your
anti-virus software is up to date. If you do not have anti-virus software or
are relying on a program that was last current in 1998 (as one resident was)
then we are afraid to tell you that you are downright stupid! Sorry, but
it's true! Get it sorted out now, today! There are several free anti-virus
programs available on the front page of computer magazines and on the
Internet but this part of your setup is so important even we pay for the
latest version! Norton is one of the
best and doesn't cost that much, perhaps £20 a year. Make sure that
Windows update is
reporting "No critical updates are necessary" and keep running Windows
update until it does say that. Run Windows Update at least weekly until the
present virus epidemic abates. It is reported that XP users who upgrade to
Service Pack 2 this summer will then not have to update so often - we will believe that when
we see it! Now that you can download via Broadband at 70k a second you
have NO excuse for not updating regularly.
We mentioned the Linux operating system above. If you have an old computer sitting
in the attic then why not consider turning it into a dedicated firewall
router? This can be set up anywhereout of the way and can even form the
basis for a centralised back-up server. Almost any computer running at 66MHz or above should be suitable,
and that is almost ANY computer built in the last 10 years or so ;-) You simply
get hold of the dedicated Linux firewall/operating system (no Windows is
required) which is called Smoothwall.
This is free, yes FREE, and can be downloaded in little time using
Broadband.
See what happens when we sidestep Microsoft, things suddenly
cost less and work better! Finally please remember to actually USE that
Broadband service that we all campaigned for, won't you ;-) |
|
Thinking of using aol as a Broadband
provider? Please read our
aol Broadband review before signing up to their service. We
have found that aol remove the Broadband connection whenever you don't use it for 15
minutes. This makes using aol Broadband rather like using a modem - you
actually have to wait while you sign on every time you want to use it.
Antiquated! |
MAKE SURE THAT YOUR
BROADBAND CONNECTION HAS THE FIREWALL BUILT INTO WINDOWS XP ENABLED. BY DEFAULT MANY ISP'S DO NOT!
KEEP AN
EYE ON OUR EXCHANGE CAPACITY
As you may know we all share the same
Broadband "pipe" to the outside world. It doesn't matter (with a couple of
exceptions) which ISP you use, all our data leaves the Dane Hill exchange to the
telephone network via the same route.
With more and more villagers taking up
Broadband the time will come when BT will need to install a further "pipe".
Before this happens we will all begin to experience a slow down at busy times.
If you keep an eye
here it will tell you how busy our "pipe" is. When the report light there
goes amber we suggest that you start telling your ISP about possible slow
connections (even if you haven't yet) and BT will be encouraged to install the
necessary equipment!
Naughty, but nice!
June 14th. 2004
PLEASE CHECK YOUR ACTUAL
CONNECTION SPEED
We certainly haven't "got it in" for BT, but if you have paid
for a Broadband service that offers connection speeds "10 times faster than
dial-up" then we feel that is what you should expect to get. Now in case you
don't understand how the Broadband works let us explain, it is rather like
electricity. It will change in the future but at present whoever you pay for
your Internet service it is through BT wires and the BT exchange that your
service comes. We all share a few connections to the Broadband network but
except at times of exceptional usage this should not make much difference and we
should expect to be able to download a file close to 500k
bits per second, which is roughly equal to 60k a second of real file
download speed.
It can certainly be confusing but a good 500k connection
roughly equals 450k in real life. The reason is that along with the data that we
want comes "housekeeping bits" which are added to the signal at one end and have
to removed again by your Broadband modem.
Today we have tested the connection speed of several users in
the village and while some are getting what they pay for others most certainly
are NOT. For example one aol customer is connecting at just over 300k (which is
rotten) and an NDO customer is getting 466k (which is quite good). We are
connecting at just over 900k (good on a 1Meg connection) while another on
BTYahoo is getting 820k (which is about the minimum to expect).
Therefore we ask you to kindly check your
connection speed, and if you are getting a lot more, or a lot less that the
quoted speed, please get in touch. If we find that certain areas are getting a
poor service we can get onto BT Wholesale and ask them to sort it out.
To check your speed
please go here.
Then, as the saying goes, "follow your nose" through the speed test. Please try
to do the test at least twice, one at peak time (roughly 19.00 to 23.00) and one
off peak. Let us know your results, it may make interesting reading. We would
also like to know which road you live in so that we can find out whether those
who live near to the DaneHill exchange get better speeds.
As more and more people want to work from home we reckon that
Broadband availability has added £10k to every villagers house value, and it
won't be too long before the available Internet connection speed will be
mentioned in house sale particulars - it is getting that important!
13 May 2004
AFTER ALL THAT BT DROPS
TRIGGER LEVEL SCHEME
We struggled and some say that we cheated (oops!) but we
managed to reach the BT trigger level for the DaneHill exchange. 250 people
signed up to Broadband so that we could all benefit and guess what - two weeks
after we are Broadband enabled BT Wholesale announce that they are scrapping the
trigger level scheme altogether!
Many of us thought it a cynical marketing move in the first
place but from now on apparently BT will roll out Broadband across the
country on an area by area basis until 96% of the population is covered by June
2005.
The other 4% are going to have to campaign long and loud to
get coverage. If you are among them and would like some help please email the
webmaster.
You can read the BT Wholesale details here!
12 May 2004
VILLAGE GOES BROADBAND
CRAZY!
"Half the village" was Broadband activated yesterday (well 30 or
40 people anyway). Meanwhile we at HorstedKeynes.com are still waiting for our
ISDN line to be converted! Connection speeds seem to be lower than expected due
to the new users sharing a single connection (which will accommodate up to
around 100 users although BT may well stretch it a bit). No doubt this will sort
itself out as people get over the initial "bump" and their usage patterns sort
themselves out. Our neighbour is downloading at the equivalent of 5 times modem
speed but others seem to be getting faster connections. Others have reported
getting a full speed connection - please let us know what yours is like,
particularly at busy times. Remember the
speed shown in your system tray is NOT your actual connection speed. Test by
making a download or using one of the many speed test sites.
If YOU have Broadband and your connection is not up to scratch
COMPLAIN and BT Wholesale may be persuaded to put in another box in the exchange. This
applies whoever you use for Broadband in this area BT still rules, O.K.? (Nope,
not for us either!)
6th May 2004
BROADBAND NOW AVAILABLE!
Well it's taken more than 2 years campaigning but today BT
announced that Broadband Internet is available to most subscribers in our area.
A few outlying farms and small communities are beyond the current 5.5 KM range
for full ADSL, however in a new development BT announced that they have managed
to extend the range for 500Kb/s Broadband to 10KM or more! As far as we can see this means that
EVERYBODY in our area will be able to have Broadband by the end of the year!
Obviously we will keep you informed if and when this happens
(we think that it WILL) so keep looking back.
We would like to thank everybody in the area who have
supported the campaign.
28 April 2004
Back to main Broadband Page
1 March 2004
BROADBAND REPORT
OUR REPORT ON A LOCAL
AOL
BROADBAND CONNECTION IS A REVELATION
Your webmasters had the opportunity to sample the service that
villagers can expect when Broadband is made generally available to the area
during the first week of May this year. As we have already reported a handful of
locals have been given Broadband access early so that BT can test how well the
service will run.
So what is our conclusion ? Let us state from the start that the
customer who offered us a demonstration had managed to subscribe themselves to
aol Broadband using a very small and very plasticy modem connected to a USB port
on his computer. Now we understand that aol are different to almost all other
Broadband suppliers as the connection is not, repeat NOT on 24 a day 7
days a week !
Every time that our host wanted to log onto the Internet they
had to go through the aol log in procedure and it took.....ages! The three
images on the log in screen lit up in sequence taking perhaps half a minute to
complete, this for a "fast" service is dreadful. As for the connection speed
this was reported as being 256/512 i.e. from the computer to the Internet at
256k and from the Internet at 512k. Reported, is all that we can say as the
actual speed of pages coming down was little better than our present dual ISDN
connection! We were NOT impressed!
Next we tried performing an XP Windows update using the Internet
Explorer page and the whole thing crashed! Apparently some extra software is
needed before aol users can update their Windows software! After this was
installed the download came at about 300k which is perhaps 5 time faster than
dial-up but certainly well below the advertised 512k per second.
At least BT Internet (or BTYahoo as we now have to call them)
offer 24/7 connection and when you press the "Go" button the page begins to
appear immediately. Our advice is to wait until you see how fast Broadband
actually is before signing up, and if you understand anything at all about
computers stay well clear of aol for your Broadband services!
If YOU are one of the other "Broadband guinea pigs" in
our area please do get in touch so that we can report to our readers what they
can expect when it is available to everybody in the area. We have had offers
from Broadband users in other areas to sample their Broadband speed. Whilst we
are grateful for the offers we are here to only cover the Horsted Keynes and
Danehill areas so it may mislead our readers if we report the service from town
areas like Haywards Heath or East Grinstead.
January 14th 2004
IT CAME AND WENT IN A FLASH!
For a few delicious hours last week enquirers to BT were
offered immediate activation of the BT Broadband product. It seems that this was
only offered to self install enquirers so we as ISDN users had our order
rejected on Monday morning. Therefore we are going to have to wait along with
the rest of the village to see how good the BT Broadband service really is. We
understand that "less than a dozen" subscribers are taking part in the trial so
if YOU are one of the very lucky people who have been accepted and have (are are
getting) Broadband now, please get in touch with us so that we can all see how
good (or bad) the service is. Confidentiality is assured, less you have hoards
of villagers beating a path to your door !
A small but important change has been made to the wording on
the BT web site concerning our activation date. Whereas the site used to say
"Broadband will be installed on 28th April
2004" the page now reads "Broadband will be
installed by 28th April 2004". This could
well mean that we will all be able to get Broadband earlier than we anticipated.
We suggest that you keep an eye on the following BT page for the latest news
http://62.172.198.79/broadband1/where_i_live/region_8.asp . Remember all the
other ISP's use the BT web site as a "key" to allowing new subscribers in a
particular area. This means that as soon as the page reads "active" you will be
able to sign up with any ISP that you
choose.
As soon as anything happens in the Broadband arena be assured
we will let you know on this page !
A WiFi network for the village?
We have been approached by a resident who is thinking of
setting up a WAN (Wide Area Network) around the village centre using WiFi (IEEE
802.11b) technologies. The idea being that anyone with a laptop computer could
access the Internet while outside, perhaps in their garden, perhaps on the
recreation ground, perhaps just a rep in the car park who needs to log in to his
office during his lunch hour. There are any number of these self-help schemes,
perhaps the most well known locally being
www.piertopier.net which operates a network between the piers in Brighton.
Obviously there are rather more computer users in Brighton than Horsted Keynes
but nonetheless if you are interested in joining the scheme please get in touch
so that we can put you all in touch. It occurs to us that this might be a neat
way of drawing customers to the village pub(s) at lunch time or Summer evenings.
We at HorstedKeynes.Com are more than willing to put in a node (small
transmitter/receiver) on the Southern extremity of the village. With permanent
Broadband Internet connections all these sorts of things are feasible.
Anybody with a nice view of the green interested in putting a
web camera in their window?
January 10th 2004
LIMITED LOCAL BROADBAND SERVICE AVAILABLE NOW - TO SOME!
It has been confirmed to HorstedKeynes.Com that BT are
activating a limited number of Broadband subscribers early. This is so that they
can iron out any wrinkles before the official launch which is currently set for
April 28th. If you would like to subscribe early just give BT a ring on 150
BUT be warned that you can
ONLY sign up to the BT BROADBAND or the
BT YAHOO/BROADBAND services and you will pay the
full charges (£28 or £30 a month) from day one for
a service which might be less than wonderful. We also understand that BT usually
offer a "special discount" to those who have registered their interest to make
them sign up when the service goes live. This usually comes in a special mailing
set for about 1 month before activation. Sign up now and you will not get this
either.
If you were planning to use one of the cheaper alternative
suppliers (Freeserve give the first month free, Tiscali give a service for less
than £20 a month) then you will have to wait until the BT web site says that the
full service is available. This may well be a little before April 28th. so keep
looking here.
However, if you are desperate for Broadband - sign up now - and please let us
know how you get on.
How did BT manage to install so quickly all this expensive
equipment which was the reason why we could not get Broadband ages ago, we hear
you ask?
The answer ? Our BT spy
tells us that one equipment rack (which gives 100 a.d.s.l. lines) has been
in the exchange since last year and it took just a
few hours to install! (Much of the work is actually
done on computers in Tunbridge Wells and Gatwick) The other problem of bringing
a Broadband "pipe" from Uckfield has been solved by "doubling up" the existing
trunk line from Haywards Heath via a new circuit on the existing trunk cable. It
is believed that this is one of the first times that BT have tried this doubling
up by RF modulation on a long trunk route and might be one of the reasons for a
protracted burning in period. Previously BT only used RF doubling on local
subscriber lines. A side effect might be increased interference, particularly
(but not exclusively) on the Medium and Long wave bands. If YOU are getting
unusual radio interference please let us know. We are near the line and have
walked beside it with a pocket radio (much to the amusement of drivers !) and
can hear a buzzing on Radio 5 Live which is not that objectionable (the buzzing,
not Radio 5 Live that is ;-).
Amazing how all the rules can go out of the window (see previous) when BT
want, isn't it ;-)
January 9th 2004
BROADBAND NOW AVAILABLE?
We happened to contact BT today and were told that the website is wrong
Broadband is now available on the DaneHill
exchange! We have taken them at their word and have ordered BT Broadband for
activation next week (other ISP's are NOT yet taking orders) . There is a
complication as we use ISDN so we will need a visit from an engineer to get us
set up. Therefore if you have a "normal" BT line and would like to order please
do so and let us know how you get on.
It is possible that will all have to wait until the promised date of April but
let's see what happens!
As it happens we received our ADSL modem/firewall/router
today. Maybe we won't have to wait too long before we can use it!
MORE SOON
|
If and when Broadband does become available there are some
important security implications in leaving your computer switched on and
connected to the Internet all day, every day. We are preparing a special
Broadband supplement which BT's possible early activation has pre empted! We
will get our supplement up and running as soon as possible. In the mean time
please get in touch with your webmasters for all kinds of Computer, Network, and
Internet help. |
December 17th., 2003
BT BACK
PEDDLING ON THEIR FREE "MODEM" PROMISE
During the recent effort to get us
through the Broadband threshold BT said that they would honour their current
offer to supply a free "modem" to those signing up for BT/Yahoo Broadband before
the end of the year. A number of villagers have tried to take up BT on their
promise by trying to sign up for BT/Yahoo Broadband in the last few days.
The BT site now REFUSES to accept
their order!
We have contacted BT/Yahoo Broadband
and will report on their reply as soon as it is received. In the mean time if
you do manage to sign up with a Broadband supplier and get the promise of a free
Broadband "modem" please email us.
Thanks,
December 28th., News
BROADBAND
CABLES GOING IN ALREADY!
*
The Broadband target having been met BT are wasting no time replacing
existing aluminium cored cable with the more expensive copper trunk cables that
are needed in an area like Horsted Keynes where many of the subscribers are a
fair distance from the exchange. Therefore if you have to wait at Stop/Go boards
over the next few days remember that it is all in a good cause - bringing
Broadband Internet to Horsted Keynes and Dane Hill!
* Our
Broadband service is slated to start on the 28th of April 2004 however when we
at Horsted Keynes.com tried to sign up for the service on the first day we were
told that no service could be arranged until one week later, that's the 5th of
My 2004. And YES we DO have to pay for our Broadband "modem"!
WE WERE RIGHT!
It's nice when we get things right and we hope
that it helps you feel more secure reading what we write. We still can't name
our sources (or they would dry up) but we hope that you are now more assured
about what you read here.
Several months ago we predicted that the
Government would free up a special part of the waveband to allow Broadband
internet in difficult areas (until last month that included Horsted Keynes!). We
worried quiet a few people when we mentioned an aerial mast in the middle of the
village! You will be pleased to read that we were 100% correct and despite
objections from the Ministry of Defence a large part of the 5GHz band has been
freed up. Not only that but the government are only charging each consumer 50
pence a year to use it!
Read the full story
here on BBC News. Remember WE got it right and first!
p.s. Now that BT have arranged for wired
Broadband there will NOT be a mast in the middle of the village, stop worrying!
|
From ISP Review August 1st. 2002
www.ispreview.co.uk
BTs Ridiculous ADSL Trigger
Levels
By:mark.j @ 2:56:PM -
News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Brace yourself because if you've
tried BTs new pre-registration system and found that your exchange has yet to be
given a trigger level then things could be about to get worse.
ADSLGuide has reported on word
of a meeting between Ulverston and BTs Broadband Deployment and Strategy
manager, Malcom Starke, yesterday:
Paul Buck has reported that BT said the exchanges that don't have their
triggers specified yet can expect the figures to be set in the next 10 days. The
bad news is the triggers will be between 400 and 600, which for the smaller
exchanges means it will be a very long time before this level is reached.
BT also has given some indication of timetables, they expect that most triggers
will not be reached until Christmas 2002 at the earliest - this doesn't seem
unreasonable if the same rate of growth can be maintained. The problem is that
once the order phase of 6 weeks starts if the 75% order level is reached an
exchange build will still take around another four months.
Wonderful, so even if your area could meet the madness of a 600 strong trigger
level then you'd still have to wait the best part of a year before the exchange
could be enabled, oh very clever BT. We thought things were supposed to get
faster – NOT SLOWER! |
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