So, my new server arrived today and very nice it is too! I have realised a problem though – it doesn’t actually have RAID on board so im going to have to investigate some sort of software alternative which is annoying.
It seems fairly quick though, i installed Solaris just to have a look, now going for the real thing with Ubuntu Server, got a lot to config – web, php, MySql, Webmin, PHPMyAdmin, AwStats, Gallery, WordPress, SSL Exploder…and so on
Fun fun then!
I have ludicrously fast broadband!
The lovely people over at Be. managed to activate my line within 3 working days! The current line speed is 18meg down and 1.3 meg up.
The router they sent (free) is incredibly well specced – wifi, ADSL2+, FXS, FXO, PSTN, DSL (stuff for VOIP – which is built in). It’s just a shame it was let down by its awkwardness to configure – i wanted to change the default IP range it used – 192.168.1.0/24 because thats in use elsewhere and would have caused no end of problems but no, it wasnt a simple and easy task it should have been.
I had to change the routers IP, then the DHCP server settings and hope it set them, then change the DHCP Gateway as it couldnt change both at once (!?!) . Anyways, i did manage to do that and all is now well, i do plan to get the Linksys AM200 also though� as it will provide a far more elegant solution than the one i have. This also means i can flash the router back to factory non-modified-by-be firmware to get access to all the other features properly – including making better use of the VOIP, especially the FXS ports.
I’ve also just purchased a new server -
Viglen SX110
Dual 1GHz PIII
1Gb ECC Ram
2x 18Gb SCSI HDDs
This will become the firewall here in the wirral and replace the webserver at home. I should be able to get that sorted within a couple of weeks, it may have to wait on getting a 4-port 10/100 card though.
So, in the eleventh hour, BT managed to rescue themselves from the madness i would have unleashed on them
I HAVE A LANDLINE PHONE LINE!
Wow, that was hard…
I was promised an engineer to call this morning between 8am and 1pm – they even managed to send me a letter to that effect. The poor bloke from Openreach showed up at around half 3 and the first thing he said was that customer services should have just switched over the line and there wasnt any real need for him to be there. But he tests the line, puts a signal generator on it and toddles off to the cab box. Here he switched my line over to the one customer services had managed to activate for me.
But it does work at least, i have lovely speedy Orange Anytime Dialup for the time being, and i will be switching to Be Unlimited with a Static IP as soon as they dispatch someone to the exchange to get it sorted.
I’m going to write a letter to BT Customer Services now, what they’ve done to me is unacceptable, i did however managed to speak to a very nice woman there who went out of her way to get things sorted which is nice. It lets me believe that there is hope left after all.
I may write an article for the Reg on this issue, but only if i can be bothered, right now i just want to go and lie down…
Anyway, i will keep you all updated with whats hapening.
otherwise known as British Telecommunications Plc.
Yes, the fight goes on, but it is finally drawing to a close. I have successfully finally managed to become a BT customer – i even have a (unconfirmed) phone number and an account number. They tell me that the line will be active by the end of Tuesday and that they won’t have to send anyone out to my flat.
Great.
Only took me 5 hours of saturday morning to get through to someone who could actually help. I have now spent nearly 7 hours on hold to them simply because they are incompetant and cannot see past their computer screens. This has also cost me a fortune in mobile phone bills as the silly on hold message neglects to mention i could have called from a payphone for free, i only heard that from the nice bloke at BT Openreach – who i was wrongly advised to call by customer services and although he couldnt really help he did make a few good suggestions.
Every time i called customer services i got a different story…
“I’m sorry sir but there is no line at that address”
“There hasn’t been service on that line for an extremely long time”
“When a previous tenant has their number transferred the old line becomes invalid”
I think that the best one is the first one, i simply thought to myself “well, Mr BT Man, i know that you’re lying to me as im looking at the line right now”. Even after explaining that i can get a dial tone, call BT Line Test 17070, use the Reminder call feature (*55* – and it actually calls me back (thanks for the free alarm clock BT!!)) and get through to emergency services, they refused to admit there had ever been a line there and wanted to send someone out.
Sending someone out would have been fine if they hadnt told me that the only advance notice i would get would be that they would call me on the day they were coming to say so – this turns out to be another white lie by BT, Openreach told me that they call to arrange a mutually suitable date to come and sort it out.
But as it happens no one needs to come out, and if they had it would have been a completely pointless exercise. However, i’ve still been sucked in to paying the ?124.99 ‘new line installation’ charge. Ahem, ‘new line’? they had better send me a reel of cable and a spare BT Master box in the post then, after all, i have paid for it.
When i finally got the line ordered, they still refused to admit the previous tenant had service with BT – i even asked them to look at her account, which he SAID he did (i’m not convinced) because the previous tenant (now a neighbour) wouldn’t lie about somthing silly like that, she had a line with BT and had ADSL also (though im not sure if that was with BT or not).
No matter, once the line is active, i will write a letter to the head of customer services enclosing an invoice for the inconvinience they have caused me. 7 hours on hold, not getting a straight story, being lied to, being passed through to departments which are closed, being hung up on by their customer ‘service’ represenatives.
In absolute honesty, i have never encountered a worse to deal with company. The laughable part is that this is the hassle i get trying to become a customer, what is it going to be like when i want to leave?
In other news, Tiscali have announced that they have bought Pipex! WHY! I cry, why must i be eternally chased by Tiscali are they that desperate to have me as a customer? (unlike BT who are desperate not to have me as a customer) Unfortunatly all my domain names are managed by 123-reg which is owned by pipex, now owned by tiscali. That’s one thing i can’t so easily change, however i will be changing ISP as soon as i can. I am getting Be Unlimited down here (along with a nice static IP) and will probably go to Demon at home.
According to the Wikipedia tech specs for a standard ADSL2+ DSLAM and my distance from exchange, i can expect to recieve around 22-23meg speeds with Be, once my line is in, i will be able to get it ordered they say 1-3 weeks installation, i do hope its more 1 than 3.
Work wise, the second week went well, im picking up C++ reasonably quickly, there are a few things i want to get my head round before i will be more comfortable, but i have an array of books to look as well as the internet at work.
Internet. Hmm, well, i have no internet at home for the time being, not least until BT pull their finger out, right now im on G over Bluetooth, thats right G, not 3G or anything fancy, just plain old simple G.
Speedy.
I have added a new Blogroll link now, as well as MattJ’s good old blog (trying to get www.matt-j.co.uk up to the top of google like me) and Right Way Forward, a Conservative blog by Stephen Haraldsen. I have to say right here and now:
*** THE VIEWS AND OPINIONS EXPRESSED AT WWW.RIGHTWAYFORWARD.COM MAY OR MAY NOT COINCIDE WITH MY OWN. THEY ARE ENTIRELY THE OPINION OF THAT SITES AUTHOR ***
There you go Steve, disclaimer added.
Speaking of top of google, if you google the right things you get my site, one of the most common is DBPx fellside, but another i have noticed is also recycled tfts – it results in the Crazy Dave site, somthing of a joke really, but if you wish to check it out when toddle off to www.crazydave.org.uk.
Well, i think thats all for now, blogging will be quite intermittant the next few weeks until i get internet sorted, so bear with me. I should be buying more tech soon so i will blog about that, in a review sort of style…maybe.
Me and Matt have finally tied our systems together, i am fully routed onto his LAN(s) and vice versa – with DNS even! We can now get to each others internal services including Samba and IRC, quite quite genious – took quite a late night to get it working and some swearing at IP Tables but we got there in the end.
We’re currently looking at applying for a Class C subnet so that we dont have to faff about with NAT onto the web, we can simply route everything everywhere with multiple entry points into the system.
Thats just about all i achieved yesterday and today all ive done is housework(!) Back to work tomorrow, hopefully my new fan will turn up so i can fix my PSU, it might stop smelling of fire then.
It’s all broken!
Or at least it seems that way, first of all the PSU fan in my desktop pc is dying – once it gets going its ok, but i have to keep checking its on – i’ve smelled it cooking twice now, i will replace it as soon as i can afford to.
Then, my mail server got attacked – i had to delete over 9,000 messages in the queue as Pipex had blocked my server from sending mail! Had to reboot the router to get a new IP to be unblocked, spent some time locking it down after that, even though all the OpenRelay tests were coming up negative…
And today, there was a powercut at home and none of the machines come back up! Had to talk my brother through it on the phone on getting them back together – DHCP failed to startup on the firewall so none of the machines got IPs which is annoying.
This led me to ring BT again to get my phoneline sorted – which there has 100% definatly been service on this line before and i was told by them that this would mean a simple ?30 reconnection fee. Alas no. Since the previous person took the number with them it means the line is properly disconnected (apparenlty) i sent a nasty e-mail, i might submit a complaint with Oftel, well, Ofcom as they are now.
I’ve got myself a lovely account on Matt’s VOIP Asterix IAX server which is very very nice, the call quality is amazing, i also have an incoming 0845 num!
Other than that not been up to much becuase of starting at Ledwood Technology which is going well, i think it’ll be a lot of fun, although, i’m having to do a crash course in C++ because uni didn’t teach me anything useful….
Anyways, i’ll go, got lots to do this weekend!