Wednesday, October 24, 2007

24/10/2007 - Wednesday

I switched broadband packages yesterday. I now have an upload speed of 1Mbit (up from 768kbps). It's not that much faster, but it has actually made a difference. The max download speed is actually less than what I had on the previous package, but it's still faster than what my telephone line can actually handle (due to the distance from the local telephone exchange).

It didn't go without problems though, but then I was kind of expecting something to go wrong as there were problems when I switched last January. Instead of the line speeds being changed to the new speeds they actually got changed to the slowest speed (512kbps down, 256kbps up). When I phoned the technical support to tell them they told me that it wasn't actually due to be switched over until the next day. This was fine and I wasn't too annoyed as I still had an internet connection, but it was just annoying that I had received an email telling me that the switch had been completed but it wasn't actually going to happen until the next day. I decided to email the support people and let them know that their system was sending out false positive emails. A little while later the dsl dropped out then came back on, and when I checked the router status page the line speeds were back to what they were before the switch. Then the dsl dropped out again and failed to come back three times then managed to come back. I checked the router status page again to see that the line speeds were now what they were supposed to be on the new package (14.5mbit down, 1mbit up). I then got a reply email from the support people saying that they're sorry for the problems and that he had reconfigured the line for me to be the speeds that it should be at.

So it seems like it was supposed to be switched over yesterday but something just went wrong. I'm happy now anyway as I have a stable connection and it was all sorted out pretty quickly. Thumbs down for the flaky switching process, but thumbs up for the quick and helpful support people.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

20/10/2007 - Saturday

It has been nearly a month since I posted something. I've actually been pretty busy working on my Healtheriser website. It's getting pretty close to its first public release, but there is still quite a bit to get done before that can happen. Hopefully I'll have it done in a week or two, then I can start to work on the other features that will make up the real release. Fingers crossed!

The main reason for doing a new blog post is to wish on England for this weekend. Tonight England take on South Africa in the Rugby World Cup. I'm kinda expecting South Africa to win, but I hope that England can put up a good fight and maybe even win. They started out a bit sloppy in the group stage, but after getting through to the quarter finals they've been playing a lot better. The scores have been low, but there has been a lot of good play.

Also, Lewis Hamilton is in with a chance of winning the Formula 1 Championship in his rookie season tomorrow. All he has to do is finish and finish ahead of Alonso and Räikkönen. Hopefully he'll be able to win the race and then the championship, but I'll be happy with him just getting the championship.

So come on England and Lewis!