Recently in Internet Category
UPC Upgrades
It’s no more than a month since my NTL (UPC) broadband speed was doubled from 3 megabits to 6 megabits, and now I read that from July onwards the they’re increasing the downloads bandwidths again to 20 megabits for the €40 package, and 10 megabits for the €30 package; the one I have (see news item: UPC announces 20Mbps broadband for €40 a month)
At long last we’re achieving reasonable download speeds in Ireland, comparable with other countries in western Europe. Shame that they continue to restrict the related upload speeds so much.
However, they have announced that they’re going to abolish the data caps on their new 20 and 10 megabit packages, so I shouldn’t moan too much, as they now seem to have the best offering on the Irish market
June 28, 2008
Firefox 3 Download Day
Join the attempt to get a Guinness World Record, for the most software downloads in a 24-hour period.
Firefox 3 is due to be released as a free download on Tuesday 17th June 2008, and organisers of the Download Day are hoping for as many as 5 million downloads on that day. So far, about 1.2 million people from all over the world have pledged to join the record attempt.
EdFringe systems failure
It’s red faces all round in the Edinburgh Fringe office, as their box office sales are still suspended. They were due to begin selling tickets for this August’s festival shows at 10.00am on Monday (9th June), but because of technical problems with their new box office software, tickets will not be available until next Monday (16th) at the very earliest.
Early reports from the start of the week stated that the software problems were only affecting online sales on the edfringe.com website. However, the continuing downtime has forced the Fringe Society to suspect all ticket sales (including those in person and on the phone) until the problems are resolved.
I have broadband
Joy of joys! I now have broadband, and can waste time at a much faster speed than before.
For the last six or seven months I’ve been making do with different wireless internet connections - all of which have been pretty flaky. With slow download speeds and dropped connections, its kind-of criminal that they sell these wireless services as ‘broadband’. They’re maybe okay for the very occasional web user - someone who checks their email a couple of times a week - but not for me.
Back in Edinburgh I used to have broadband internet over cable (Telewest), and had very few problems with them. In fact, over the 5 years I was a subscriber, I think I only ever had to call the tech support line about three times. And so I decided to go for the same thing here - or more specifically, I am now connected up to UPC Ireland - Broadband Express, giving me a 3 megabit connection.
Scrabulous
I’m presently taking a break between work contracts, which fits in nicely with the busy run up to Christmas. It’s good that, when I’m so busy on the evenings and weekends, that I can chill out a bit on week days. However, my new-found gentleman of leisure status does afford me the opportunity to indulge in some idle pastimes.
The latest one is playing Scrabulous - an online scrabble game on Facebook - against one of my friends. They’re certainly not the fastest games on the planet - mostly taking about 3 hours to complete - but it’s a nice distraction that fits around doing chores at home.
Catalogue of errors
You wouldn’t believe the amount of grief I’ve been experiencing from NTL (also known as UPC) over the last week or so.
I called them a couple of weeks ago, to get my digital TV subscription moved from to my new address. And as part of the deal, I wanted to also order Broadband internet and a DVR (hard disk recorder). Now originally I was told this could all happen on the same day, but a week later when I was informed of the dates, the single install had turned into three separate appointments on three separate mornings.
The digital TV would be installed on the Wednesday, the broadband would come on the Saturday, and the DVR would arrive on the Monday. It didn’t seem like the best use of resources to spread the work out over three different appointments, but I was happy for them to go ahead. Only that, so far it’s been a bit of a nightmare.
Wednesday 5th December
Appointment slot 9.00am - 1.00pm to install digital TV - installation engineer arrives at 10.30am, and everything goes smoothly.
Saturday 8th December
Appointment slot 9.00am - 1.00pm to install broadband - engineer fails to arrives, nobody calls to apologise or explain what’s going on, and getting through to customer care is impossible because they’re flooded with calls from people wanting to view some premium boxing match event.
Monday 10th December
Eventually get through to customer care about the broadband, and they tell me that the install was cancelled by the engineer that installed the digital TV on Wednesday, because he says I didn’t want broadband any more. This is a complete lie, as we never even discussed broadband. But I let it go and accept a new appointment on Thursday.
Appointment slot 9.00am - 1.00pm to swap digibox for DVR - wrong engineer arrives at 11.00am. He’s been sent to fix a fault rather than doing an install, and has no DVRs with him. He says he will get an installation engineer to call later in the day, but this doesn’t happen. And when I get through to customer care again, they rebook the install for the next day.
Tuesday 11th December
2nd appointment 9.00am - 1.00pm to install DVR - and the wrong engineer arrives again. Just like the day before, the guy who turned up was sent to fix a fault rather than install a DVR - so he goes away without doing any work. I call NTL again, and they apologise for the (three) messed-up appointments, and promise that my DVR will definitely arrive the next morning. I ask to confirm that the broadband install is still happening on Thursday, and am told that there’s no appointment noted on the system for Thursday, and am instead offered an install on Friday.
Wednesday 12th December
3rd appointment to install DVR - stay tuned to see if this actually happens.
Thursday 13th December
2nd appointment to install Broadband - glad that I asked about this, as I’d have waited in again, only for nobody to show up.
Friday 14th December
3rd appointment to install Broadband - stay tuned to see if this actually happens.
So, all in all, that’s a total of seven different appointments made, instead of the initially-stated one.
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