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Thursday was my day for my trip to head office, this involve me getting up early and leaving the house somewhere between 5:45am and 6am. Well this Thursday I got up early as usual checked my e-mails and checked on what the world had been doing while I slept (read the news) and then left for the long drive. About 7:30am I get a phone call from the wife, “the internet has gone down” I directed her in the normal course of action (turn the router off and wait at least 30 minutes before turning it back on again) while cursing Virgin Media under my breath. At 9:30am I got another call informing me it was still down, again I cursed Virgin media. Regular reader of my blog will know of my problems over the past few months with my Internet connection and Virgin media, so I started to prepare myself with a phone call to a call centre in the far east upon my return home.

Imagine my surprise then when I got home only to find my Internet connection was working but all the computer were unable to access the Internet unless they were on wireless. Turns out that my network switch had died at sometime between me leaving the house and the wife getting up. Worse still I did not have a spare network switch, or at least I did not think I had. It suddenly dawned on me while watching TV several hours later that I did have a 4 port network switch, which was older than the one that had died somewhere, yes it was somewhere……….

After searching several cardboard boxes box and storage containers I eventually found said switch sat on a table buried under a load of stuff, can’t remember when I last used it, let alone how it got on the table. So after 20 minutes of rummaging under the desk chasing cables and untying knots (exactly how do those knots get in those cables??) my network of PC’s were talking to the outside world again. I was unable to get a replacement network switch until today so have not been able to print or listen to my music.

I was due to call Virgin media on Friday but I was busy during the day and never got time to. Wednesday the 16th was the last date that Virgin media gave for fixing the problems and to be honest I am not sure if it has been fixed or not. I have not had the freezing web page updates that I was getting, but then it not as fast it has been so waiting till later next week to contact Virgin will give me a better idea if it is fixed or not.

Just hope that I don’t get any more problems with the Internet connection at home, I have had enough over the past few weeks.

This past week I had Monday and Tuesday as holiday. I have already blogged about the ride on Monday and that I had plans for riding Tuesday. Apparently that plan went out the window at about 9:15pm Monday night and 12:15am Tuesday morning. 9:15pm was when I was playing with my PC and broke it, I was fiddling with the operating system and done something I could not undo. To be honest I was not to concerned because I had been thinking of reinstalling a different operating system as I was not a 100% happy with the one I had.

So I went to bed knowing that at sometime on Tuesday I would have to install a new operating system on my PC. But as I slept I was unaware that our Virginmedia broadband connection crashed. I can be precise with the timing as the daughter was playing online on her xbox. So Tuesday morning when I came downstairs for breakfast, I was greeted with the words “morning, the internet don’t work” in stereo from my son and wife.

Now fumbling around with a broken Internet connection and a PC that won’t do what you want it to do over your fruit and fibre is not a good start to the day. It soon became apparent that the broadband connection would require a call to Virginmedia, that alone is enough to raise the blood pressure. I decided to phone early as my thought were a) get it sorted and still go out for a bike ride, b) it would be quieter earlier in the day rather than later in the day. So phoning Virginmedia involved one call getting lost in their phone menu system, a second call where I was told I would be on hold for 20 minute and the phone was answered within 30 seconds!! Unfortunately the fix was not as quick as their call answering.

The guy on tech support confirmed that I had no signal (well I knew that I told him) and apparently the problem was due to an on going issue in our area, oh the one I reported in May, the very same problem I have been discussions with Virginmedia’s complaint department!! Apparently the long term fix has now moved out to 16th November but my service should be restored shortly, how shortly I asked, shortly I was told, I hung up and decided to sort my PC.

Now I am fortunate as I have a Virginmedia’s cable broadband connection and a ADSL broadband connection (for work). Now this is where thing got worse, no matter what I did my PC did not want to talk to the ADSL line (needed to download updates etc.), when I did convince my PC to talk to the ADSL line (shortly after the threat to throw it out the window) it was slow.

Then I had to have three attempts to install the new operating system on my PC, I think it was because I still had this illusion that I was going out for a ride and I was rushing as I could see the time ticking away. By 3pm I had given up on the idea of going for a ride and decided to take out my frustration on Virginmedia’s tech support again as my connection was still not working, so I phoned them again.

Oh the joy, an Indian call centre, I had now lost the will to live. The happy young lady from India was not able to help at all, she could see that I had no connection and told me according to her records that I had been given a reconnection time of the 16th November, Pardon? “no sorry sir that should be 9am tomorrow morning, I’m sorry, I read the wrong bit!!”

I hung up and decided to watch afternoon TV, then the strangest thing happened, I was still flicking through the TV channels to find something to watch when I noticed that the lights on the router had come back on indicating there was an Internet connection connection. Now this is strange for just one reason, the last time I phoned Virginmedia tech support with a problem I got put through to the Indian call centre, exactly the same thing happened. They could not help me on the phone but within 5 minutes of putting the phone down the internet service was back up and running. It has been OK since, I say OK as we still have the same problem we have had since May.

The install of the operating system sped up once the PC was connected to the Virginmedia. But it does not matter how quickly you get the software installed on the PC it takes an absolute age to get all the programs and setting how you like it, for example, I have only just got my Google calendar back up and working with Thunderbird e-mail client tonight and there is still other bits to sort out.

I will post about today’s ride and tomorrow ride tomorrow night…………hopefully

So there I am browsing the net looking for some new site decorations when I come across a web site with some nice Woodpress themes, I click the link to see a full page version of one of the themes and I am taken to another web site promoting other WordPress themes. Ok maybe it is towards the bottom of the page, I looked on the first page and not seeing the theme I was looking for returned to the page I came from. The second time it happened I looked a little harder, checking the links on the page thinking I might of missed something, realising that I had once again been had I went back to the site I came from. The third time it happened it was more like “what the…..”

What is it with some people think they can be clever and get people to their web site when all they have done is lost the potential of somebody using one of their WordPress themes.

Keep watching a new theme will be up before the end of the year, just got to find a site that does not take you for a ride.

Driving, I think we all know there are some right muppets on the road and if we are honest with ourselves we have all done something stupid while driving. But having said that it does not make you feel any better when somebody stupidly pulls out in front of you…………..and then stops there!!

On my way through Worthing yesterday near the hospital on the A27 (I think), saw a car waiting in a side road on my left to pull out and turn right, then when I am no more than 40yds from the junction he pulls out in front of me and then stops as there is traffic coming the other way, not sure how I missed him I just hit the brakes. The ABS came into operation and I stopped just short of ramming his drivers door. I got nothing from the driver apart from a horrified look as he pulled away and disappeared off down the road.

What can be more simple than mounting a cabinet on a the wall?? I marked the wall where I wanted it. I even marked the cabinet to ensure the correct orientation, so can you spot the deliberate mistake in the picture below?

If you still can't see it, look at the label on left hand side of the cabinet!!

Communication companies, why are they so bad at communicating?? Lodged a complaint for the third time on Sunday still waiting for a reply. The auto reply I got said we will be back to you within 5 days (5 days in these modern times is woeful), well today is the fifth day, anyone want to take bets on me getting a reply??

Going for a ride over the Southdowns tomorrow, hopefully I will take my riding legs with me unlike last night ride…..

Well that makes a change…….

I woke up early and laid there as it slowly got lighter, I eventually made it down stairs to the kitchen at 6:45 for breakfast and get ready for my ride. While looking through my list of past rides last night I found one I did about 12 months ago, it was one of those Wiggles Rides, it was called “The falling leaves” ride in the New Forest. So after loading up I head off for the New Forest, the original ride started at Brokenhurst but the ride looped round to Burley and that was where I was intending to start. I parked up at the car park near the old railway line to Holmsley.

I was expecting the weather to be a little more sunny based on the weather forecast for Sunday (I really should stop relying on the weather forecast), cloudy and grey was the reality. Thankfully it was still quite warm. The sun did stick it head out a couple of times but it was nothing like the forecast they had given for the weekend.

The ride was pretty straight forward and quiet despite the fact that there was a marathon, half marathon and a triathlon taking place. On one road section (there were several road section which I had forgotten about) I ended up riding with the triathlon guys, most of them said good morning as they shot past me which made a change compared to the roadies that normally ignore me, fortunately I missed the marathon runners. A ride of 25.5 miles in around two and a half hours and best of all no punctures

Cleaning the bike this afternoon I found one of the concaved spacer washer that sits on the bolt holding the front brake calliper on had split, this would explain why the front disc was rubbing from time to time during the ride, thankfully I had a spare.

A few weeks ago I ran out of the degreaser I used for cleaning the chain, in the past I had been buying the Finish Line Citrus degreaser at about £12 for a small bottle. Now while it was good at degreasing it was not what you would call cheap. Then a little birdy told me about Swarfega Oil and Grease Remover, 5 Ltr container for just over £8 which you mix at 50:1 (you do the maths but it is a lot of chain washes!!). Well it certainly cleans the chain and cassette nicely. I got mine from Screw Fix Direct, I will keep you posted on how it goes.

Mr Angry may be about out later this week, for the past couple of months getting online has been nigh on impossible at times. According to Virgin Media this is because (and I quote) you are affected by a local upstream utilisation issue on your chassis (local router) which will cause your speed to slow during busy periods. This basically means there are more users using the system than the system can handle. Now the fix was supposed to have been Friday 23rd but if anything it is worse. I am going to give them a couple more days and if there is no improvement I will complain about the lack service. What really get’s me is that I am being bombarded with e-mails and spam through the letter box from Virgin Media to move up to their 20mb service yet they are unable to deliver the 10mb service they are currently providing me and I am paying for, watch this space.