Have there been issues lately?

[Niall]

Forgive me if I've missed a giant sticky thread (can't see anything ) about this.

In the last few months I've noticed that there seems to have been an increase in my connection dropping. As far as I'm aware there have been no problems with the central exchange in Wrexham, but my sisters connection which is on the same exchange seems to have turned to poop lately forcing them to contact IDnet to get BT to reset the line. This happened after the storms we saw here.

I've noticed that when my line starts getting a bit weak, or dropping then my sisters line becomes unusable. Their connection is a 2mb line, where mine is the max you can get, and they are at most about 700 yards further away from the exchange than me, so I'm assuming the actual line isn't as good in their street.

The one thing I have checked is if my other mates in the area have had any issues as they're on different ISPs, but on the same exchange. They all said their connections are fine.

So, this leads me to the point of the thread; is there something wrong at IDnet or have there been issues lately that have been resolved? I say resolved because my connection is now better than it's been in months. Maximum download speeds, higher than normal upload, which my line is capable of as it's so good (yay me!) and has had in the past.

Anyone shed any light on recent events?

[Sebby]

Welcome back, Niall.

There have been problems; mail and capacity.

When you say your connection has been dropping, we need to establish whether it's the sync or just the connection to the ISP from the exchange. Have you noticed what happens to the lights on the router when one of these disconnections occurs? I suspect you're losing sync due to noise, which is nothing to do with the ISP.

[Lance]

certainly to me all the symptoms look like local line issues and are unrelated to the isp. Does the connection drop more at night?

[Niall]

I'm assuming it was an IDnet problem as people I was talking to on ventrilo on each occasion, never had the problem (line dropping/losing sync). They were on different ISPs in different areas also, so I can't really rule out a local exchange issue, although my mate on a different ISP had no issues (I think he's with Zen, I've forgotten what he said now) and he's on the same exchange. In fact we were talking about the storms via msn at the time

There doesn't seem to be any problems with the Wrexham central exhange, although BT never tell you a damn thing anyway, when you do phone them.

I do know that a lot of people on IDnet had issues after the storms, which isn't unexpected, but I'm just talking about losing connection.

Also, I have noticed higher ping times in games, and lag with world of warcraft lately (last night I had ingame pings of 224 when it's normally 70). Additionally I've noticed that when my ping is under 50 in WoW I seem to get more lag, which is strange, but not necessarily unrelated to the connection weirdness.

As I say, my down/upload speeds are perfect, just a bit of recent wonkyness. Nothing major, and nothing I personally am having big issues with as I don't use the mail side of IDnet (I never tie myself down to an ISPs email system) and the lag I see doesn't really effect me that much due to the nature of my internet gaming/use.

Still I am curious, and no I don't know if the connection was dropping or losing sync. All I know is I unplug the router and go make a cup of tea

[Rik]

That would be the key, Niall. If PPP dropped, it might be the problematic BT router, if sync dropped it would be your local loop. I do know that there's been a lot of BT activity round here of late, and my line's been disconnected a couple of times during the past week, just to add to the mix.

[Niall]

Well I've got a guitar to play with too, so when I've finished decorating I'll be tinkering with that if the line dies. There's also the small mountain of books to read too

[Rik]

In that case, you should have no problems. How's the playing coming along?

[Niall]

Very slowly. I've had a lot on in the last month, so I've only had the chance to pick up the guitar two or three times, plus my hi-fi headphones went fizz bang (literally made a fizzing noise and a pop/bang noise, then were no more!). As I run my guitar through the Toneport on the laptop to headphones as I have no "real" amp, it makes listening to what I'm doing impossible.

All I've been doing is try to get used to holding it and practising the spider technique. That is hard to get used to as it strains your hand due to it being an alien position to anything you'd normally do.

Slowly slowly, catchy monkey

[Rik]

I didn't have the patience, so moved to bass.

[Steve]

I didn't have the patience, so moved to bass.

Must change my glasses, thought it read "brass" 

[Rik]

Not me, Steve, it would have read pipes.

[Simon]

I didn't have the patience, so moved to bass.

I had always imagined bass to be easier.  Less strings and you only have to play one at a time, but it probably isn't.

[Rik]

I thought it was, but then got bored and moved on again!

[madasahatter]

I had always imagined bass to be easier.  Less strings and you only have to play one at a time, but it probably isn't.

the bass is like many other instruments Simon - it's easy to play it badly 

[Simon]

Indeed, Mad! 

[Niall]

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=n7UL_bTHH2c&feature=related

Annoyingly I seem to be getting more and more attracted to the sound of 12 string acoustic guitars. Yum

[Rik]

I've always liked the sound, kind of folksy.

[Niall]

12 string electric guitars are cool too. It's like having two lead guitars for the price of one (expensive) guitar