The grumpy thread

[Talbot]

On 2/28/2021 at 12:14 PM, Craig the Princess said:

Now the broadband drops out every hour and the router needs to be turned on and off. Support are blaming a line fault so have a 72 hour response time. Online suggests common router fault that Vodaphone won't admit but a £40 third party router cures.

Bit late for my reply on this, but the very first thing that anyone can do to improve their home broadband experience is to bin the utter pile of wank router that comes free with the service and put a decent one in.  The free ones are free for a reason.  Shit software, bad packet management, years-old design (that was the cheapest of the cheap in the first place) and manufactured by the millions with sod all quality control.

My personal preference is DrayTek routers.  Very robust, very reliable and extremely versatile:  settings for just about everything.  Most of their range is likely to be far and above what most people need for a domestic router, but it's worth it.

Because they're so robust, a second-hand one is a perfectly good prospect.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Draytek-Vigor-2820N-Wireless-Router/303902509873?hash=item46c2004b31:g:mzYAAOSwSvlgO18p

Less than a tenner delivered and about 56.4 times better than anything that comes free.

[wuvvum]

52 minutes ago, beko1987 said:

Can't quite see the serial number, but

Practically, if it still runs and whatever that broken bit is hasnt smashed the switch I'm sure I have a spare 119 rear wheel set

Which should sit behind the smashed hood, bit of epoxy and a bend up of that bottom bracket should hold it. Looking at the service manual youll need a whole back end to repair, and that's going to be cheapest attached to an entire other 375. Which will be better than yours, so youll take pity on it and refurb it instead with a nice store of spare parts! (look for a black original bag! You may be able to hepamod it like you can a 119 too...)

 

1923646613_Hoover375.pdf 2.38 MB · 0 downloads

As far as I can see the serial number is 3371109 - no letter at the start - so not sure how that ties in with that table.

I reckon I could make those 119 wheels fit.  It still runs, sounds healthy and the bag inflates so I reckon with a pair of wheels on the back it'd be back to beating as it sweeps as it cleans in no time - although it's going to need a new belt pretty soon.

[R1152]

1 hour ago, richardmorris said:

Llangollen Steam railway is in receivership.

 

Llangollen Railway to enter receivership as debts mount - North Wales Live (dailypost.co.uk)

Thread starts here on another forum:

https://www.national-preservation.com/threads/llangollen-railway.22171/page-32#post-2646349

[R1152]

26 minutes ago, Talbot said:

Bit late for my reply on this, but the very first thing that anyone can do to improve their home broadband experience is to bin the utter pile of wank router that comes free with the service and put a decent one in.  The free ones are free for a reason.  Shit software, bad packet management, years-old design (that was the cheapest of the cheap in the first place) and manufactured by the millions with sod all quality control.

My personal preference is DrayTek routers.  Very robust, very reliable and extremely versatile:  settings for just about everything.  Most of their range is likely to be far and above what most people need for a domestic router, but it's worth it.

Because they're so robust, a second-hand one is a perfectly good prospect.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Draytek-Vigor-2820N-Wireless-Router/303902509873?hash=item46c2004b31:g:mzYAAOSwSvlgO18p

Less than a tenner delivered and about 56.4 times better than anything that comes free.

Strongly agree; I've used Draytek routers since 2000 and they're bomb-proof (but not lightning-proof). Currently got a 2762 doing the biz here: I really ought to send the unopened BT VDSL HomeHub back to them.

[beko1987]

12 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

As far as I can see the serial number is 3371109 - no letter at the start - so not sure how that ties in with that table.

I reckon I could make those 119 wheels fit.  It still runs, sounds healthy and the bag inflates so I reckon with a pair of wheels on the back it'd be back to beating as it sweeps as it cleans in no time - although it's going to need a new belt pretty soon.

Jan-June 1948 then. What is interesting is the other RD stamp... that's not from the factory. Must have been rebuilt in the past.

 

I'll dig them out over the weekend and check I still have them.

[Talbot]

32 minutes ago, R1152 said:

I really ought to send the unopened BT VDSL HomeHub back to them.

They make a few quid on the bay.  Despite the router technically beloning to the supplier for the duration of your initial contract, the chances of them wanting it back are vanishinly small.  I'd just sell it.

Edit:  Plus you will have all the issues of your provider then bitching and moaning that you're not using their supplied equipment, so they can't help you in a fault condition, or they misunderstand you sending it back and terminate your account, or some other absurd situation caused by a customer service noddy* in a call centre somewhere having absolutely no clue what they are doing.  You'd be safer just binning it.

*I've been a call-centre-noddy before now (Yes mr customer, of course mr customer, I totally agree mr customer) and the vast majority of my colleagues would likely have struggled to tie their own shoelaces, lest they have any clue about what they were doing or indeed how the company they represented actually worked.

[SRi05]

46 minutes ago, Talbot said:

Bit late for my reply on this, but the very first thing that anyone can do to improve their home broadband experience is to bin the utter pile of wank router that comes free with the service and put a decent one in.  The free ones are free for a reason.  Shit software, bad packet management, years-old design (that was the cheapest of the cheap in the first place) and manufactured by the millions with sod all quality control.

My personal preference is DrayTek routers.  Very robust, very reliable and extremely versatile:  settings for just about everything.  Most of their range is likely to be far and above what most people need for a domestic router, but it's worth it.

Because they're so robust, a second-hand one is a perfectly good prospect.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Draytek-Vigor-2820N-Wireless-Router/303902509873?hash=item46c2004b31:g:mzYAAOSwSvlgO18p

Less than a tenner delivered and about 56.4 times better than anything that comes free.

Might have a look at this. My Virgin Media wifi speed is diabolical. Fine wired but useless outwith my living room.

[Talbot]

5 minutes ago, SRi05 said:

Might have a look at this. My Virgin Media wifi speed is diabolical. Fine wired but useless outwith my living room.

I've seen some WIFI host systems get completely confused regarding what clients they are connected to, meaning they still believe they're connected to (and hence have a session open) for every client they've ever seen.  Two actual devices actually connected in range, but a list of devices it "thinks" are connected a mile long.  BRB*-reset and it works again, only to get clogged up again after a while.  Who designs a WIFI client that doesn't even have a session inactive timeout?

 

*Big Red Button.

[somewhatfoolish]

Fun police at work; Godwin's law, blah blah, snowflakes, blah, blah, deleted threads, blah, not fair, legal jeopardy, blah, blah. Have I covered all the bases? If you're going to delete a thread every time someone takes a huff at what someone else has written this place will be pretty bare soon.

Edit to add: I R a twonk.

[Minimad5]

17 hours ago, beko1987 said:

Packing up is always scary. There's a Lux 345 in the tall box, probably a fivers worth of bubble wrap in there.

Still got any of those Shark hoovers we chatted about ? ... if you fancy posting one of them 🤷‍♂️

[R1152]

54 minutes ago, Talbot said:

I've seen some WIFI host systems get completely confused regarding what clients they are connected to, meaning they still believe they're connected to (and hence have a session open) for every client they've ever seen.  Two actual devices actually connected in range, but a list of devices it "thinks" are connected a mile long.  BRB*-reset and it works again, only to get clogged up again after a while.  Who designs a WIFI client that doesn't even have a session inactive timeout?

 

*Big Red Button.

Some years ago we had a number of ISP-provided routers that did just that; but once it had handed out 253 IP addresses, even with the devices being given a lease time of just 24 hours the routers stopped working and *nothing* would resurrect them. So we binned them, replaced them with DrayTeks at my suggestion and the problem ceased to exist.

The issue was not helped by the wi-fi being open at that time and iPhones being utterly promiscuous back then.

Another reason I didn't even put the BT Home Hub into service is that I disagree completely with BT's practice of making your router an open WiFi access point for others to use. I can remember some IT 'expert' donkey's years ago saying that wi-fi should be completely open 'for everyone to enjoy' (this was when it was a 'new thing'), to which my thoughts were "go stuff your head in a garden shredder".

[Supernaut]

19 minutes ago, R1152 said:

Some years ago we had a number of ISP-provided routers that did just that; but once it had handed out 253 IP addresses, even with the devices being given a lease time of just 24 hours the routers stopped working and *nothing* would resurrect them. So we binned them, replaced them with DrayTeks at my suggestion and the problem ceased to exist.

The issue was not helped by the wi-fi being open at that time and iPhones being utterly promiscuous back then.

Another reason I didn't even put the BT Home Hub into service is that I disagree completely with BT's practice of making your router an open WiFi access point for others to use. I can remember some IT 'expert' donkey's years ago saying that wi-fi should be completely open 'for everyone to enjoy' (this was when it was a 'new thing'), to which my thoughts were "go stuff your head in a garden shredder".

Don't forget Windows 10 sharing your wifi passwords with your contacts list.

Yes, really. It's why my SSID has -optout on the end as that's apparently how you stop it doing that.

 

 

Aye, it's all fun and games giving everybody access to wifi until somebody does something dodgy and it's traced back to your access point. The amount of copyright strikes I had to deal with in an old job was an eye-opener. I was on the network team at a university and we had a block of flats outside the campus that just ran standard broadband (rather than being on the JANET network like the buildings on-campus). The eejits in there kept trying to torrent films thinking they wouldn't get caught. I had to remind the residents in there almost monthly.

[captain_70s]

31 minutes ago, Rab said:

Hunter thread deleted due to pile on by infantile pissing contest..what I call the epitome of Whinging Poms.Have also removed all other content. I wont be back.

PS.Everybody that had a go at me..go fuck yourselves.

I don't think you were ever actually mentioned?

Skin of the finest silk.

[dome]

41 minutes ago, Rab said:

Hunter thread deleted due to pile on by infantile pissing contest..what I call the epitome of Whinging Poms.Have also removed all other content. I wont be back.

PS.Everybody that had a go at me..go fuck yourselves.

That would be the thread where you posted how your mate had rescued a Hunter estate and we all said "well done!" and then some members sent you parts. 

Then when someone noticed the same car appear breaking on Facebook and asked what had happened so you deleted it and posted in here complaining?

I never saw any comments aimed at you. You came across as innocent in all of this, if left with a bit of egg on your face when your mate turns out to be breaking it, and possibly the admin of a Hunter Breaking page on Facebook😬

[chaseracer]

2 hours ago, Talbot said:

They make a few quid on the bay.  Despite the router technically beloning to the supplier for the duration of your initial contract, the chances of them wanting it back are vanishinly small.  I'd just sell it.

Careful - BT wanted mine back when I moved away sharpish from their increasingly dubious and unreliable 'service'.  Even sent a reply-paid bag for it.

[Rab]

25 minutes ago, dome said:

That would be the thread where you posted how your mate had rescued a Hunter estate and we all said "well done!" and then some members sent you parts. 

Then when someone noticed the same car appear breaking on Facebook and asked what had happened so you deleted it and posted in here complaining?

I never saw any comments aimed at you. You came across as innocent in all of this, if left with a bit of egg on your face when your mate turns out to be breaking it, and possibly the admin of a Hunter Breaking page on Facebook😬

He is not the Admin of any group.All projection from u lot.Man... I paid for the Haynes manual..Jeesus H christ.The unfortunate world of car enthusiam. Try and contribute..help people out..and then it turns into this shitshow..no worries. I dont want to any part of this anymore. Good day to u all.

[outlaw118]

[HillmanImp]

2 hours ago, dome said:

That would be the thread where you posted how your mate had rescued a Hunter estate and we all said "well done!" and then some members sent you parts. 

Then when someone noticed the same car appear breaking on Facebook and asked what had happened so you deleted it and posted in here complaining?

I never saw any comments aimed at you. You came across as innocent in all of this, if left with a bit of egg on your face when your mate turns out to be breaking it, and possibly the admin of a Hunter Breaking page on Facebook😬

I've also not bought an old Hillman Hunter and as far as I'm aware nobody has given me any crap about it either. 

Do I need to delete my threads and have a hissy fit? I'm not sure? 

Advice needed.

[outlaw118]

Nice use of the term "Whining Poms" too, thats RACIALIST.

Also moans at forum for what he believes to be a massive injustice then does a flounce himself. WOTEVS.

[Talbot]

13 minutes ago, chaseracer said:

Careful - BT wanted mine back when I moved away sharpish from their increasingly dubious and unreliable 'service'.  Even sent a reply-paid bag for it.

I R surprised.  First time I've ever heard of that happening.

Presumably you were not far into contract and it was a fairly decent model router?

[R1152]

1 hour ago, Supernaut said:

Don't forget Windows 10 sharing your wifi passwords with your contacts list.

Yes, really. It's why my SSID has -optout on the end as that's apparently how you stop it doing that.

 

Apparently binned by MS - WiFi Sense doesn't exist in Windows 10 version 20H2. Luckily, I don't have a contacts list either on this machine, it seems a damned silly thing to have (not on Faecebook, Twatter or similar shite and don't use Outlook/Mail as a client).

[Talbot]

1 minute ago, R1152 said:

WiFi Sense doesn't exist in Windows 10 version 20H2.

What, you mean MS introduced a highly questionable feature that was supposed to be "useful", but was actually a massive security hole, everyone found ways to avoid it and then MS quietly binned it thereafter?  Because that's never* happened before.

[R1152]

1 hour ago, Supernaut said:

Aye, it's all fun and games giving everybody access to wifi until somebody does something dodgy and it's traced back to your access point.

This in particular is why I thought the idea was complete and utter fucking wank. It was bad enough that in the days of WEP I had colleagues running a cracker for it on their personal machines so they could get onto neighbours' faster broadband.

[somewhatfoolish]

 

1 hour ago, Rab said:

Hunter thread deleted due to pile on by infantile pissing contest..what I call the epitome of Whinging Poms.Have also removed all other content. I wont be back.

PS.Everybody that had a go at me..go fuck yourselves.

 Any need for that? I didn't see anyone having a go at you, some questioning of the bloke with the Hunter but that goes with being on social media. Unless what I wrote counts as having a go, in which case the internet is not a safe place generally. I apologise for any hurt felt but I stand by my comment.

 

[R1152]

1 minute ago, Talbot said:

What, you mean MS introduced a highly questionable feature that was supposed to be "useful", but was actually a massive security hole, everyone found ways to avoid it and then MS quietly binned it thereafter?  Because that's never* happened before.

It won't be the first time, and it won't be the last... I can remember someone getting in a paddy at work because the PSK we ran on our local network was the full-length character string and not a memorable phrase. It then turned its nose up at her iPhone.

[Talbot]

33 minutes ago, Rab said:

Thread and a load of content deleted

The sooner the option to delete a thread/post is removed (and maybe the edit function is available only for 5 minutes thereafter to fix typos) the better.  Far too much internet gold has been lost due to people throwing a wobbly and either deleting their post/thread or editing it down to a full stop.

[loserone]

1 hour ago, somewhatfoolish said:

Fun police at work; Godwin's law, blah blah, snowflakes, blah, blah, deleted threads, blah, not fair, legal jeopardy, blah, blah. Have I covered all the bases? If you're going to delete a thread every time someone takes a huff at what someone else has written this place will be pretty bare soon.

Are you trying to blame a poster deleting their own thread on the mods? Username checks out..

 

@Rab you're right you aren't the Hunter bloke's mother.  Don't worry about it.  Everyone is a bit disappointed including you. 

[R1152]

2 minutes ago, Talbot said:

The sooner the option to delete a thread/post is removed (and maybe the edit function is available only for 5 minutes thereafter to fix typos) the better.  Far to much internet gold has been lost due to people throwing a wobbly and either deleting their post/thread or editing it down to a full stop.

It's funny how that option varies between forums: one forum I'm a member of offers NO option to delete a post after you've made it, another allows you to delete the entire thread if you are the originator at any time. Some give you ten minutes to kill your post, or any time as long as no-one has replied to it.

[Talbot]

1 minute ago, R1152 said:

one forum I'm a member of offers NO option to delete a post after you've made it

Barryboys used to be set up that way.  It was absolutely superb.  The number of times you had people throwing a childish rant and then screaming and moaning that they should be able to delete their own post was comical.  All the regulars were very familiar with it, and it absolutely made you think before posting.  Will I regret saying this?  Does it help in any way?  Do I look like a complete Penis?  Once those checks had been done, you had a bit more confidence posting.  The 10 minute option for typos/error correction or gross error/double posts makes a lot of sense though.

Also, I didn't mean just here.. the internet in general could do with that rule.  Twitter for one is littered with "this post has been deleted because the poster realised they were being an utter bellend and/or has been completely proven to be wrong and has had a hissy fit".  Knowing you can just go and delete a comment makes some people shoot from the hip rather more than is helpful.

[loserone]

The wonder of Twitter is that someone has usually backed up the tweets elsewhere, so it barely matters if it's deleted or not