The RANT thread (often contains fruity language)

[robgul]

Seems that the whole digital phone/broadband stuff isn't yet fully fit for purpose.

No, it works fine^[1], it's BT that's not fully fit for purpose.


_{[1] Albeit somewhat less than five-nines reliability.  Our internet connection has only achieved >99.999% uptime for 6 of the last 12 months, so the phones are going to be at least this bad.  (We've only been using A&A for SIP for a few months, so haven't got to experience an outage yet.)  Dependence on mains power and non-trivial kit at the user end is a major source of unreliability, as discussed in another thread.}

Except the question is are you paying 5 9's money for the service.

I've been responsible for highly available internet and phone connections and they cost a fortune, significantly more than most home users are prepared to pay.

We are paying for a BT Business Broadband service which bundles BB, phone, all calls (other than premium) and also, in theory, worldwide phone calls (incoming and outgoing) for no cost through the Cloud Express or whatever it's called.  The tech support is a human and 24/7 . .  and in fairness response is good, if only the results worked first time. So not a cheap, basic solution.

It's only Business as we used to run one until about 5 years ago - changing to a residential deal wouldn't save a massive amount and would be loads of hassle as the core email would have to change from @btconnect to @btinternet  - although I'm slowly weaning everything onto to my own domain(s) that run on IONOS with redirection to the BT service so we could drop down to residential rates and save a few quid.  Current fixed price contract runs to July 24 - so decision time then.

[Kim]

We are paying for a BT Business Broadband service which bundles BB, phone, all calls (other than premium) and also, in theory, worldwide phone calls (incoming and outgoing) for no cost through the Cloud Express or whatever it's called.  The tech support is a human and 24/7 . .  and in fairness response is good, if only the results worked first time. So not a cheap, basic solution.

That's not five-nines money though (for which you have to add a few nines to the price), and it still doesn't mean that BT are actually good at SIP.  You could reasonably argue that - until a couple of years ago - it was in their commercial interests to drag their feet on the whole technology, as they were primarily in the business of selling people POTS lines.

BT Retail trade heavily on the fact that they're a household name, and that their umbrella company also owns the people who are responsible for a lot of the infrastructure.  Far too many people assume this makes them a decent ISP, which it doesn't.  (I'm not saying they're a particularly *bad* one, just distinctly middle of the road.)

[Jaded]

I can mess with AAISP’s up time % by switching the router off or having a power cut. 

[Beardy]

When I was installing the Surfnet network in The Netherlands, they specified (and paid for ) diverse routing into the main hubs. As they wanted to avoid as many single points of failure as possible, the diverse routes had to be served by different exchanges which ment out of area cabling (and duct work) which was extremely expensive. That was 2000 though, and network providers still took redundancy very seriously back then. 

[jsabine]

Seems that the whole digital phone/broadband stuff isn't yet fully fit for purpose.

No, it works fine^[1], it's BT that's not fully fit for purpose.

Vermin Media seems pretty unfit for purpose too - calls failing to ring, failing to answer, dropping on answer, and an absence of engaged tone, instead giving a message that the called number is temporarily unavailable so you might like to try another way of getting in touch.

Makes a good excuse for not speaking to family, thobut.

[Mr Larrington]

Natch when I, on a whim, rebooted the phone this morning it connected immediately and received a metric fucktonne of verification codes from Horseybank plc which were by now a Several of hours past their sell-by date.

[Kim]

Seems that the whole digital phone/broadband stuff isn't yet fully fit for purpose.

No, it works fine^[1], it's BT that's not fully fit for purpose.

Vermin Media seems pretty unfit for purpose too - calls failing to ring, failing to answer, dropping on answer, and an absence of engaged tone, instead giving a message that the called number is temporarily unavailable so you might like to try another way of getting in touch.

Makes a good excuse for not speaking to family, thobut.

In spite of the substantial head start on infrastructure, I think they've firmly established themselves to be at the TalkTalk/Tiscali/Sky end of the ISP spectrum.

[SoreTween]

Fucking people who own dogs & just leave them outside.  Cunts.  It's not the dogs fault they are board & just sit there going bark bark bark, bark bark bark, bark  bark bark bark,  bark bark bark,  bark bark,  bark bark bark, bark  bark bark bark,  bark bark bark,  bark bark,  bark bark bark,  bark bark,  bark bark bark, bark  bark bark bark,  bark bark bark,  bark bark,  bark bark bark,  bark bark,  bark bark bark, bark  bark bark bark,  bark bark bark,  bark bark,  bark bark bark,  bark bark,  bark bark bark, bark  bark bark bark,  bark bark bark,  bark bark,  bark bark bark,  bark bark,  bark bark bark, bark  bark bark bark,  bark bark bark,  bark bark,  bark bark bark,  bark bark,  bark bark bark, bark  bark bark bark,  bark bark bark,  bark bark,  bark bark bark,  bark bark,  bark bark bark, bark  bark bark bark,  bark bark bark,  bark bark,  bark bark bark,  bark bark,  bark bark bark, bark  bark bark bark,  bark bark bark,  bark bark,  bark bark bark,  bark bark,  bark bark bark, bark  bark bark bark,  bark bark bark,  bark bark,  bark bark bark,  bark bark,  bark bark bark, bark  bark bark bark,  bark bark bark,  bark bark,  bark bark bark,  bark bark,  bark bark bark, bark  bark bark bark,  bark bark bark,  bark bark,  bark bark bark,  bark bark,  bark bark bark, bark  bark bark bark,  bark bark bark,  bark bark,  bark bark bark,  bark bark,  bark bark bark, bark  bark bark bark,  bark bark bark,  bark bark,  bark bark bark,  bark bark,  bark bark bark, bark  bark bark bark,  bark bark bark,  bark bark,  bark bark bark,  bark bark,  bark bark bark, bark  bark bark bark,  bark bark bark,  bark bark,  bark bark bark,  bark bark,  bark bark bark, bark  bark bark bark,  bark bark bark,  bark bark,  bark bark bark,  bark bark,  bark bark bark, bark  bark bark bark,  bark bark bark,  bark bark,  bark bark bark,  bark bark,  bark bark bark, bark  bark bark bark,  bark bark bark,  bark bark,  bark bark bark.

Two of the fucking things outside at the moment.  The owners should be rounded up & fed feet first into an industrial garden chipper.

[Beardy]

There are very few bad dogs, here are a lot of bad dog owners.

[ian]

We just need to persuade the barky dogs to eat the noisy children. Sated, they'd probably take a nap.

My first mistake, admittedly, was doing this backward. Children won't be persuaded the dietary benefits of dog.

I had better luck with the bears and errant evening DIYers. To be honest, they took little encouragement.

[Kim]

Can I add whatever's been going BIP! outside our bedroom window every ~36 seconds for the last couple of months?  I preferred the birds nest in the loft.

[Mr Larrington]

And the rufty-tufty hairy-arsed workmen who were doing SOMETHING to US-30 in downtown Astoria with what sounded like the world’s largest lawnmower for much of the night.

[ian]

In olden times, we used to live in a house with the London Bridge to Beckenham Junction train line running on an embankment at the bottom of the garden, so level with our bedroom window. It's a fairly sedate line and you got used to it. Until the first time the machine that flattens the track bed came past at 3 am. I thought I had woken to the end of the world.

Big thanks to whomever is doing some renovation somewhere nearby for starting the work by cutting through tiles or metal or somesuch at 7.16 am this morning.

[Hot Flatus]

Round here it's fucking church bells.

Sunday-granted.

But do they really need two practice sessions a week, one early evening Monday, and the other on Friday, from 6-9pm?

Utter, utter pricks.

[Basil]

I'm really tired, so I've turned in early.  20° at 11.30? Really?
So I'm bollock naked on top of the bed, being constantly bothered by all sorts of different winged grobblies.
Worse still, I enjoyed a fag out the back of the pub with a mate.  Tbh, I did enjoy it, but now my lungs are calling me a cnut.
The dog is going to be annoyed when I insist we go for a walk sometime between 1 and 2 am.
(I will get dressed)

[Hot Flatus]

Had a return request for an eBay item I sold. A Kenwood liquidiser attached for a Kenwood Chef. Even listed  the models of mixer it would fit.

Buyer left negative feedback calling me a scammer, saying the "base" was missing. Then sent abusive messages calling me various names.

All reported, but I'm refusing the refund on the basis that the buyer is a fucking idiot.

[Hot Flatus]

Buyer has now apologised.

Still a fucking idiot

[Canardly]

British quality again... 70 new build homes to be demolished.
https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge-news/darwin-green-homes-yet-demolished-27722159
Just how in this day and age? Four bed houses in the development area are priced around the £700k mark.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Barret homes, what a surprise

[rafletcher]

Barret homes, what a surprise

It’s their groundwork’s contractor that’s fucked up, not them.

[robgul]

Barret homes, what a surprise

It’s their groundwork’s contractor that’s fucked up, not them.

. . . or the building inspector when he/she signed off the footings . . .  if that actually happened?

[Beardy]

Barret homes, what a surprise

It’s their groundwork’s contractor that’s fucked up, not them.

. . . or the building inspector when he/she signed off the footings . . .  if that actually happened?

Or the site foreman for not keeping an eye on his subbies.

[ian]

They have history, the Barrett estate next to my childhood home sank into the ground. Some of the remaining ones still have steps down to their front doors. They didn’t start out that way.

[Kim]

Dog owners:  Fuck off and indulge your poo fetish in the privacy of your own home.  And then fuck off again.

[This post sponsored by failing to keep my Reasonably-Priced Mountain Bicycle rubber-side-updown on the towpath    ]

[SoreTween]

[This post sponsored by failing to keep my Reasonably-Priced Mountain Bicycle rubber-side-up on the towpath    ]

Rubber-side-down is my general preference.