On 6 Jul, 01:28, Mark McIntyre
wrote:
wrote:
On 5 Jul, 18:07, Mark McIntyre
wrote:
wrote:
of this thread to plough through. I admit that my descriptive skills
are less than perfect but couldn't you glean the answer to any of your
questions from what was written before? Even the quoted text you
included in this very message must answer most of them?
You would be amazed at how many people post misleading info here, and
expect people to diagnose their real problem.

Not *very* amazed though. Still I expect most of us do our best.

For some definitions of the word 'best':

"Hi, I have a dlink and my windows says the internet is poor, I tried
usb but it didn't work at all, how do I fix it?"

Most of us already have a fair understanding of the word 'best' in
this context.

After
all, it's in the enquirer's interest to do so, in most cases.

You'd think so, wouldn't you?

I wonder on what aspect of the "knackered service" problem to put the
emphasis so that Virgin will act positively, quickly and least
expensively?

Something along the lines of

"we pay you to provide TV and internet, we're not getting either, we're
stopping the direct debit unless an engineer shows up AND fixes it"

tends to do the trick.
Without causing offense - how hard is it to call CS? Ok, they'll ask you
to plug your pooter directly into the modem (you tried that) and then
remove all cables for 30 sec (ditto). So you spend 5 freefone mins
repeating the tests you already did, then book an engineer.

It's not difficult to call customer services at all. Where things
progress from that point is an unknown.
The VM customer in this case, though a reasonably smart lady, does not
have English as a first language.
Although I'm prepared to communicate on her behalf, there's a chance
that this 3rd person approach may add another layer of complexity to a
process that is already known to be convoluted.

First throw away all the coax and ethernet cables you have,

Oh no! Straight to my Achilles heel in one fell swoop. Can I just put
them into an old Tesco bag and get them back out later. :-)

Sure - as long you don't come back here whinging that your internet is
sh*gged again... :-)

I don't whinge and my Internet has never been sh*gged, despite it not
being Virgin.
You have a tendency to inappropriate responses. I noticed this from
your first input to the thread.
Why would I throw away all the cabling when it might be a driver
problem, or a misconfiguration?
I can understand the value of trying new cabling but why throw away
potentially valuable resources untested?


(snippage)

Clear, positive advice which I look forward to taking.

You're welcome!

--
Mark McIntyre

--
Regards,
Dick Treen

On 6 Jul, 01:33, Mark McIntyre
wrote:
wrote:
The most recent attempts have been made using a short coax and a
moderately short Ethernet cable.
Neither of these were brand new as you recommend, but the
disappointing results may inspire someone to go shopping.

If it is coax with screw on F-connectors, I'd certainly
check this out for starters.
Everyone thinks he is an expert on such things

But do they?

Hence my point about shop-bought cabling.

I make my own but then I already spent a period demonstrating to my
clients all the common ways to screw up (568A vs 568B.. plug held wrong
way up.. accidental swapping of c/w and c... short core to shield...
nicking insulation... nicking core... etc). I now have a shed full of
screwed up cat5 patches I retain as salutory lessons for any trainees I
might stupidly employ...

They'd have my sympathy, that's for sure.

I've been around for long enough to recognise attemts by "specialists"
to bamboozle the punters.

Come on Einstein, how difficult is it to put a plug on a cable
properly? Anyone who wishes to can find the tools and clear,
Illustrated instructions available on the Internet. You underestimate
the rest of humanity.
--
Regards,
Dick Treen

On 5 Jul, 15:08, "Yddap" wrote:
,
opined loudly:



My friend shares her flat for economic reasons. Flatmates come and go.
Due to these personnel changes, the original Telewest, now Virgin,
cable TV and broadband equipment has been shunted from one room to
another. At this stage, cable TV not working and single PC cannot
access Internet via LAN cable to Surfboard 5101 modem.

All the modem lights are green and steady except the "PC activity"
one, which is orange and flickering constantly.
During each attempt to connect, Windows Network Connections shows an
initial "Connected" message which then soon falls back to "Limited
Connectivity..." Windows Firewall is off.

The ipconfig command doesn't show the:

"Connection-specific DNS suffix . : surfboard.com"

as manual suggests but is blank.

Any advice on where to begin please?
Would it be better to circumvent the individual troubleshooting
processess and get Virgin to come in and sort the TV and cabling out?
Is their customer entitled to have a Virgin engineer attend to this
without incurring significant cost?

signal for both TV and BB come into the house using one cable ( Tv and BB at
different RF freqs)
Go back to the first place the Coax comes into the flat and test from there
either STB or Cable modem
Ex Telewest BroadBand uses 331 or 339 Mhz
--

Yddap

Thanks for the clarification and extra info. That's the basis I'll
continue to work from.

--
Regards,
Dick Treen

wrote:

I've been around for long enough to recognise attemts by "specialists"
to bamboozle the punters.

And I've been around long enough to recognise the "why should I pay
someone to do this, any fool could do as well" suspicion of
professionals that causes electrocutions, car crashes and twisted ankles
every day.

Come on Einstein, how difficult is it to put a plug on a cable
properly?

I once had a qualified electrician who swapped live and neutral on a
boiler circuit. Every time the hot water came on, the fuse tripped. The
T valve motors were fried.

Anyone who wishes to can find the tools and clear,
Illustrated instructions available on the Internet.

I once had an assistant who was so ham-fisted with wire strippers that
he nicked the insulation of both power and data cabling. The resulting
shorts were very hard to diagnose as he had done it almost everywhere
but on a different wire virtually every time.

I had another who was even more hamfisted and nicked the core conductor.
During the screwing-back of the faceplates, live, neutral and earth
would randomly snap off from the socket and be dangling around inside
the box. When we were lucky it would short, trip a fuse and we'd know at
once. When we got unlucky, you got a shock when you touched the box.

Moving on to cars, I once saw the results of a DIY attempt to replace
the head-gasket. The clown had ignored the "this way up" sign, blocking
some waterways and some oilways. The engine not merely seized, but the
cores blew out of the side of the block due to the heat.

You underestimate the rest of humanity.

Having witnessed some peoples' DIY attempts at car & home maintenance,
electrical repairs, cable


--
Regards,
Dick Treen


--
Mark McIntyre

CLC FAQ http://c-faq.com/
CLC readme: http://www.ungerhu.com/jxh/clc.welcome.txt

wrote:

Most of us already have a fair understanding of the word 'best' in
this context.

I was essentially quoting real examples of real requests for help. And
who are this "us" you speak of?

It's not difficult to call customer services at all. Where things
progress from that point is an unknown.
The VM customer in this case, though a reasonably smart lady, does not
have English as a first language.
Although I'm prepared to communicate on her behalf, there's a chance
that this 3rd person approach may add another layer of complexity to a
process that is already known to be convoluted.

Appreciate that, but as far as I understand it the customer has a broken
cable TV and internet system that she is paying for. The provider has
the primary responsibility to fix it. Or is the problem that successive
generations of students have made unauthorised changes and you're
concerned that VM will charge a packet to sort the mess out?

You have a tendency to inappropriate responses. I noticed this from
your first input to the thread.

And you have a tendency to respond aggressively or dismissively to
comment you dislike or which points out mistakes you've made.

Why would I throw away all the cabling when it might be a driver
problem, or a misconfiguration?

*sigh* It was a metaphor, for goodness' sake. I don't care if you keep
it, throw it away or eat it with bolognese sauce. Just get some new,
properly made, cables to test with.

I can understand the value of trying new cabling but why throw away
potentially valuable resources untested?

Disingenuous misinterpretation of comment won't get your friend's cable
fixed any quicker.

On 6 Jul, 12:14, Mark McIntyre
wrote:
wrote:
snip
You underestimate the rest of humanity.

Having witnessed some peoples' DIY attempts at car & home maintenance,
electrical repairs, cable

--
Regards,
Dick Treen

--
Mark McIntyre

CLC FAQ http://c-faq.com/
CLC readme: http://www.ungerhu.com/jxh/clc.welcome.txt

You have a very large tar brush and you wield it too indiscriminately.
--
Regards,
Dick Treen

On 6 Jul, 12:36, Mark McIntyre
wrote:
wrote:

Most of us already have a fair understanding of the word 'best' in
this context.

I was essentially quoting real examples of real requests for help. And
who are this "us" you speak of?

You can't have been addressing me in particular with your denigrating
putdowns because I had done nothing to warrant it. So I took it you
were addressing the crowd (plural) with your gall stones of wisdom.

It's not difficult to call customer services at all. Where things
progress from that point is an unknown.
The VM customer in this case, though a reasonably smart lady, does not
have English as a first language.
Although I'm prepared to communicate on her behalf, there's a chance
that this 3rd person approach may add another layer of complexity to a
process that is already known to be convoluted.

Appreciate that, but as far as I understand it the customer has a broken
cable TV and internet system that she is paying for. The provider has
the primary responsibility to fix it. Or is the problem that successive
generations of students have made unauthorised changes and you're
concerned that VM will charge a packet to sort the mess out?

At this stage, after some experimentation, it's looking quite likely
(but not certain) that the fault lies within the Virgin service. A
very good point at which to contact them with some certainty of their
resposibility in the matter. I don't know what successive generations
of students have done in detail but under the current occupant's
economic circumstances, I'm trying to steer things through the least
potentially expensive channels.

You have a tendency to inappropriate responses. I noticed this from
your first input to the thread.

And you have a tendency to respond aggressively or dismissively to
comment you dislike or which points out mistakes you've made.

I thought I was conducting myself quite reasonably before you crash
landed on the subject and began lashing out.


Why would I throw away all the cabling when it might be a driver
problem, or a misconfiguration?

*sigh* It was a metaphor, for goodness' sake. I don't care if you keep
it, throw it away or eat it with bolognese sauce. Just get some new,
properly made, cables to test with.

I can understand the value of trying new cabling but why throw away
potentially valuable resources untested?

Disingenuous misinterpretation of comment won't get your friend's cable
fixed any quicker.

So you don't actually mean what you write and have devices in place to
justify it?
It seems to me with your track record of misunderstanding and
inappropriate responses over this short space of time, you need to
keep it simple and avoid adding metaphors to your misapprehensions.

Ok folks, excuse me for any part I'v played in the deterioration of
this thread.
This is no way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Thanks a lot to all those
who helped answer my original enquiry. It's much appreciated
--
Regards,
Dick Treen

wrote in message
...
On 6 Jul, 12:14, Mark McIntyre
wrote:
wrote:
snip
You underestimate the rest of humanity.

Having witnessed some peoples' DIY attempts at car & home maintenance,
electrical repairs, cable

--
Regards,
Dick Treen

--
Mark McIntyre

CLC FAQ http://c-faq.com/
CLC readme: http://www.ungerhu.com/jxh/clc.welcome.txt

You have a very large tar brush and you wield it too indiscriminately.

YHBT mate.

This is no way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Thanks a lot to all those
who helped answer my original enquiry. It's much appreciated

Please let us know the outcome and solution.
Focus on the TV side, that is simplest, and will
prove that the Virgin service is being delivered to
the premises. Then having got a TV functioning,
come back here and we will talk you through
the BB setup.