The computing stuff rant thread

[ian]

Also, fucking webpages that make you create an account, so you do, and your browser diligently saves your ID and password, and then when you try to log back in a few days later using those saved credentials and 'sorry, this doesn't match our records, check your spelling and try again.'

Eternal damnation for everyone involved in that too.

In the process of trying to check on the order (which should have been despatched but doesn't seem to have been) which needs an account that doesn't work, they did helpfully send me an email to tell me the shoes I've apparently bought are now £20 cheaper. Erm thanks.

Trust me, this stupid internet website thing is never going to catch on.

[Mr Larrington]

“Damn and blast BRITISH Telecom!” shouted Mr Larrington, the words coming easily from force of habit.  Though at least it does appear to be their problem – or so A&A tell me – rather than my < two month old router going on the fritz.

Edit: “This circuit is affected by MSO. The Incident detail is as follows- Incident ID: IMT113364/22, Start Date 19/10/2022 14:30:34 and Estimated Completion Date: 19/10/2022 20:30:34.”

[Mr Larrington]

“BT's estimate of when their MSO, which this Unit believes to be shorthand for “Major Service Outage”, will be fixed is starting to look a little optimistic” said Mr Larrington, as the orange blinkenlight on the router resolutely failed to turn green overnight.  I don’t think it’s got anything to do with sea squirrels nomming cables in northern Scotland either.

[Kim]

Combined effort of A&A with their witless LNS falling over during work hours, and pfsense, which has a weird allergy to IPv4 default routes, absolutely ruined my planned lie-in this morning.

I have written a Small Shell Script so that next time they decide to have a random 1-second outage, I can remain in bed.

[Mr Larrington]

Hurrah: I haz Proper Internets again

Bah: Only 50 hours later than BT's “estimated” time

[Jaded]

Combined effort of A&A with their witless LNS falling over during work hours, and pfsense, which has a weird allergy to IPv4 default routes, absolutely ruined my planned lie-in this morning.

I have written a Small Shell Script so that next time they decide to have a random 1-second outage, I can remain in bed.

Either A&A service is having occasional hiccups, or my second recent router from then is parped, or something else...

[Mr Larrington]

I'm with A&A too…

[Kim]

Combined effort of A&A with their witless LNS falling over during work hours, and pfsense, which has a weird allergy to IPv4 default routes, absolutely ruined my planned lie-in this morning.

I have written a Small Shell Script so that next time they decide to have a random 1-second outage, I can remain in bed.

Either A&A service is having occasional hiccups, or my second recent router from then is parped, or something else...

Yes, they've been having issues with the witless LNSes (the ones that mostly serve customers on FTTP connections).  See the status pages.

There's also been an ongoing clusterfuck with their Talktalk lines, but I'm not sure of the details as it hasn't affected me.


The pfsense bug is unrelated.  It just means that what should be a barely-noticeable 1-second outage occasionally turns into a loss of the IPv4 default route, because reasons (this is allegedly fixed in the next release).  Usual symptom is barakta whingeing that twitter is down and she can't access $ork, but the rest of the internet seems fine.

[SoreTween]

I recently found my 433mhz receiver pi was missing packets from my weather station.  The most likely cause is the crap antenna that only just reaches my office window on the wrong side of the house.  So I bought a better antenna with a longer cable and Anna Daptor that failed to make the connection, seems the cheap chinesium SDR uses a non-standard connector.  So I upgraded the cheap chinesium SDR to a well renowned and supposedly bogs dollocks RTL-SDR that does use a standard connector as fitted to the new antenna.  And now in addition to missing some packets I'm also missing several days of packets because the supposedly better SDR keeps throwing a wobber causing the software to crap out.  Bastards.

Installed supervisor on the pi to kick it off and restart it after failures.

[Mr Larrington]

“Damn and blast Microsith*!” shouted Mr Larrington, the words coming easily from force of habit.  For no reason that I can fathom, using Word or Excel at the same time as iTunes causes the latter to do a very convincing impression of terminally damaged vinyl 

* Unless it's the Mega-Global Fruit Corporation of Cupertino, USAnia's fault, but it doesn’t behave thus when any other stuff is giving the box a hammering.

[aidan.f]

Oh my! this could read as a bit of a rant .. .how the heck do you explain that tethering a phone uses a wi-fi connection entirely separate to the completely different type of Devils Radio known as 4G and is a required stage in the process of connecting to the interwebs and if there is no solid wi-fi connection there is no hope in h*ll of making a successful connection to the interwebs...

In all the noise and shouting I think I found that the hotspot wi-fi level from the iphone was low from upstairs (where there is just about enough 4G), asking to move the phone downstairs to firstly establish the hotspot connection to the laptop was in this individuals mind entirely illogical...'BUT IT WONT CONNECT DOWNSTAIRS!!' 'I have to take the laptop upstairs, establish the hotspot and then carry the laptop back downstairs!'.. this reads to me as symptomatic of poor wi-fi...

Perhaps I'm missing something and the megafruit corporation of America require an interweb connection to allow a wi-fi tether to be established?
Rather like that modern windows networking annoyance  - there is no internet connection so lets disconnect you from the network router you are trying to manage..

Asking questions about the wi-fi signal level indication on the laptop was rebuffed with 'WELL OF COURSE IT'S LOW!' and despite multiple attempts on my part to explain the concepts I was just 'BEING ARSY!'

I do try and apply my brane why, oh why can other people not listen and then apply reason to a problem?

[grams]

A nearby iPhone with tethering inactive will nevertheless appear in the WiFi menu on a Mac via some proximity gubbins (probably Bluetooth) and the hotspot can be switched on from there without touching the phone, which would match your story.

You can alternatively switch tethering on from the phone settings without taking the laptop upstairs, although it may not necessarily stay on for long if nothing is connected.

[ian]

Indeed, it's bluetooth (don't android phones do the same?) and Bluetooth is a bit quirky if there's any distance or objects in the ways since it's de facto a short range diabolicalism.

I may be wrong, but I don't think there's an option to use wifi (not sure why there would be). You can also use a cable.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Are you saying that iphones use bluetooth to provide an internet connection to another device such as a laptop? That is a bonkers way of doing things.

All of the Android phones I've owned (google, sony and samsung) have used wifi to provide tethering (for clarity, I mean using the phone as a wifi hotspot, effectively the phone is working as a 4G router).

[grams]

Macs do various clever things when an iPhone belonging to the same person is in Bluetooth range, including letting you switch on tethering from the Mac. The tethering itself is done over Wi-Fi.

[ian]

What if you don't have wifi? Does it make an ad-hoc network. It's all voodoo, I tell you.

I couldn't connect to the vague wifi at Gatwick the other weekend, so I clicked my iPhone in the network pulldown and that was that.

[Kim]

Are you saying that iphones use bluetooth to provide an internet connection to another device such as a laptop? That is a bonkers way of doing things.

Shirley all phones with Bluetooth can do that?  Pair it with the computer, configure it as a modem...

Still raises the question of why you'd want to when there's a WiFi tethering option.  Possibly to evade tethering detection by manipulating the outbound ports.

[Kim]

What if you don't have wifi? Does it make an ad-hoc network.

Android just becomes an access point, and I'm reasonably sure that iThings do too.  Ad-hoc^[1] WiFi is poorly supported these days.  I bet nobody under the age of 30 has even heard of it.


_{[1] As opposed to infrastructure mode.}

[Diver300]

Ad-hoc^[1] WiFi is poorly supported these days.  I bet nobody under the age of 30 has even heard of it.
_{[1] As opposed to infrastructure mode.}

That's nearly as obscure as wired networks without a hub.²

_{[2]Either point to point with ethernet cables or a complete network using coax and 50 Ω}

[Kim]

Ad-hoc^[1] WiFi is poorly supported these days.  I bet nobody under the age of 30 has even heard of it.
_{[1] As opposed to infrastructure mode.}

That's nearly as obscure as wired networks without a hub.²

_{[2]Either point to point with ethernet cables or a complete network using coax and 50 Ω}

Point-to-point Ethernet using UTP is alive and well for connecting routers to modems.  And possibly even having a bit of a resurgence with industrial kit that speaks wired Ethernet when computers are networked with WiFi by default.

Glad to see the back of 10-base-2, thobut.

[grams]

What if you don't have wifi? Does it make an ad-hoc network. It's all voodoo, I tell you.

It turns itself into a Wi-Fi base station and your Mac connects to that. "Ad Hoc" means no base station and wi-fi devices talking directly to each other, which is proper voodoo.

Turning on the Personal Hotspot feature (from the phone) also advertises the phone as a Bluetooth networking device and as a USB network adapter, so you can also use the hotspot without any sort of Wi-Fi.

[ian]

I had a TP-Link print server (RIP) that needed to be configured by setting up a ad hoc wifi network, it was – to use the Butcherism – fucking diabolical.

I confess, I never got the personal hotspot option to work with a Dell. It appeared in the available list but would never connect or even tell me why. There's probably a setting six dialogues and menus in, in the space that is forever Windows NT.

[Afasoas]

I think it's time to say goodbye to remote management on my home servers (primary / backup)
I can't get Java webstart to work with whatever old version of TLS/SSL they dish up. And given the last firmware update was 2013, I figure Asus aren't going to solve this problem.

I've no other reason to start changing this hardware - it still all works perfectly. And I can't find anything newer with all the features I'd like (ECC RAM, dual NICs, remote management) that fits remotely within the same power envelope (<24W).

[Mr Larrington]

O hai Microsith!

Why, pray, does the PC over there //// allow me to select programs that can send notifications of Stuffs Happening but this one 'ere \\\\ doesn’t even list them in the first place   sort it out you muppets!

kthxbai!

[Mr Larrington]

And another thing!  The mouse pointer decided it wanted to set up home in the centre of the laptop screen.  After tearing my hair out for an hour and trying it both with two different trackballs and no trackball at all I discovered that removing the HDMI lead connecting it to the A/V amp solved the problem.  It didn’t happen yesterday coz said amp was on all the time so's I could pipe tunes to it from the Great Hall PC.

Gagh!