Any one know what wireless standard it is? Ie is it the latest fastest one?

i think its the one ive got and its been pretty good, maybe 5% slower than wired set up a massive improvement on the pos they gave us before

eh?

Had Infinity installed last month, looks like we got a Homehub 3, which supports wireless-N, the fastest that most devices (Macs, iPhones, iPads, decent PCs) support.

Great – thanks, couldn’t find out if it was n or N on the BT site!

We also had a homehub 3 installed a few days ago.
If you’re upgrading you get a fibre broadband as well so you need 2 power points.

It was the most pain-free experience I think I’ve had with technology.

BT engineer was due at 8.30am – he phoned at 8.15am to say he’d be 15 mins.
He arrived 15 mins later having made changes at the cabinet, changed the phone socket, tested the line, informed me we’d gone from 6Mb/s to 80Mb/s plugged it all in, I tested bbc.co.uk from the Macbook, he ran a test, he finished his cup of tea and left.

It does 802.11n and all our devices work. You get 2 stickers with the key on it and there is a plastic wedge in the back with all the admin info and keys on it – all very handy.

It has WPS for fast setup but I’ve not tested that yet.

All in all a no brainer of an option if you have the option of upgrading to Infinity.

D

BT engineer technician was due at 8.30am – he phoned at 8.15am to say he’d be 15 mins.

FTFY

Sounds like the Home Hub is the same for infinity and for regular broadband: i have the HH3 but not Infinity.

veedubba – Member

BT engineer technician was due at 8.30am – he phoned at 8.15am to say he’d be 15 mins.

FTFY

How is that fixed?

Whats the difference between an engineer and a technician, in your opinion?

so you need 2 power points.

Why? And do they need to be next to each other?

and i thought this was a new wheel hub 😳

As DaveRambo says, you also get a router thingy with the hub.

You get a white modem which needs to be wallmounted , and hub 3 is just used as router its modem is disabled when connected to white modem, so two power outlets needed

Thanks, and I presume all this needs to be near a phone socket?

Sorry for the dumb questions, always had cable rather than phoneline/BT!

Damo – It does need to be quite near the phone socket.
Cable from new socket goes into new white modem.

This then connects to the HomeHub.
There is some flexibility as to distance but not a lot unless you get a different cable. No reason you can’t change the modem <-> hub cable

Engineer/Technician Steve told me that the white router box can’t sit on carpet as it can get hot and would shutdown if there was not enough air circulation – needs to be on a hard surface/wall mounted.

The fundamental difference between the two is that Engineers develop/design systems while Technicians support those systems. So the two complement each other.

An engineer understands how something works and can work from first principles to fix a problem by identifying the root cause. In this example, the engineers are the people who designed and built the hub, the fibre optic cable network, the software to run it all.

A technician, in this case, is someone who fits the item in your house according to the design that the engineer has drawn up. They generally wouldn’t be able to fix anything that fell uotside certain parameters.

Just to note, an engineer is not simply someone who has an engineering degree (IMO). I know plenty of people who are superb at solving complex engineering problems using a combination of their innate understanding of how things work and their experience; they’re just as much engineers as the person who designs cars, buildings, aircraft etc.

I hope that clears things up for you Cheez0.

*Dave – all the best BT people are called Steve…

couldn’t find out if it was n or N on the BT site

There’s no difference, though the official designation is n, as in IEEE 802.11n.

I think it’s your perception of a bt engineers job that is the issue veedub.

what happens when situations fall ‘outside of paramaters’?

does the bt engineer call the ‘super-engineer’ to find a solution, or does he find a way to get a successful conclusion by himself?

No, it’s my perception of BT technicians, gas fitters, TV installers and all the other people who have been deemed an engineer but usually couldn’t explain what the problem is, or determine how to fix it. They’ll follow a fixed set of rules to known problems to try and find the solution, or they’ll refer it up the chain until it reaches the proper engineer who will use his knowledge of the system to identify the cause and fix it.

I’m not saying that some BT technicians aren’t engineers (by the standard I gave previously), but chances are that the guy in that job isn’t one – he (or she) supports the system or component designed and built by an engineer.

I’m happy to admit that I feel that the term engineer gets used too readily for jobs and professions that do not require the creative thinking and problem solving that typifies what a professional engineer does.

Maybe read The Engineer’s article. Are you a BT technician by any chance?

Working for bt myself, most situations fall outside of the normal paramaters.

My mistake. Everyone must be an engineer.

Could it be that BT engineers take on the role of ‘socket fitter/ technician’ as part of their duties, rather than delegating the task to lesser mortals?

Over 800 innovations were submitted as new ideas last year, most came from your grunt ‘technicians’.
Perhaps they didn’t realise that according to you, ‘thinking’ is not part of their job description.
But then there we have it, the job description actually contains the word ‘engineer’ not technician.

Are you a desk jockey letters-after-your-name engineer sitting sucking your pencil with feet on desk dreaming of solutions to problems that don’t exist?

Ask them how the system works and see what answer you get. I once asked my TV “engineer” how the signal came down the cable and he didn’t know. A proper engineer would’ve, but then he didn’t need, or care to know, and he still sorted out my problem, so that’s fine by me.

A nurse is not a doctor, yet they both perform important roles in healthcare. It’s the same with technicians and engineers. I’m sure there are parallels in other professions such as law as well.

Anyone can submit a new idea. Not anyone can implement it and make it work. We have hundreds of ideas submitted here by shop floor staff, but most of them don’t know how to make their solution work. That would be down to the engineer to sort out. Just because you come up with an idea doesn’t make you an engineer; it’s how you make that idea work that does.

Yes, I have letters after my name. No, I’m not sat behind a desk all the time. Yes, I solve problems. Yes, those problems are real. In fact, some of them are probably similar to the 800 innovations people in your organisation have submitted in the hope that an engineer will find a workable solution to them.

I’m not allowed to put my feet on my desk, and I use a pen.

That seems contradictory.

You define an engineer as a designer and a technician as a script monkey. I wouldn’t wholly agree, but fair enough, I can see where you’re coming from. But then you go on to say that if a technician is a good technician, then he’s an engineer. Which seems a bit vague and weaselly to me.

Surely a technician, even a really really good one, is still just a good technician; otherwise, your initial distinction is irrelevant. We don’t call a world class GP a surgeon.

It sounds like you’re trying to add gravitas to “engineer” which, having met enough piss poor “oh, I work in IT” types in my time, I can readily understand; I’m just not sure that it’s necessary to devalue “technician” in the process.

As for the BT guy being a technician or an engineer, the problem is that we’re not qualifying these terms. He’s an installer, an installations technician, or an installations engineer.

I use a pen.

How very 20th Century of you.

(-:

Can I re-write my first part of my post in this thread ?

BT engineer Steve was due at 8.30am – he phoned at 8.15am to say he’d be 15 mins. He arrived 15 mins later having made changes at the cabinet, He had one sugar in his tea.

Did he have a chip on his shoulder?

Definitely not an engineer. Engineers drink ISO 0 tea.

It simply boils my p1ss that we devalue the term “engineer” by giving the term to anyone who might fix stuff, however they fix it.

We seem to be one of the few countries that does this.

I stand by my comment that the guy could be an engineer, in broadest definition of the term, but not simply because it’s his job title.

The distinction betweek GP and surgeon is the same as differentiating between a mechanical engineer and a civil engineer and as such isn’t relevant. It’s not the same as differentiating between a mechanic and a mechanical engineer.

I’m not trying to add gravitas, simply pointing out that if you called a pilot a flight attendant or a barrister a clerk, then you’d get called on it. My question is why does it happen in this case?

Perhaps its because there are so many disciplines covered under the engineering banner that its difficult to make the connection that an electrical engineer and a materials engineer work to the same principles but in entirely different areas.

I won’t try and make a lighthearted desk/ pen comment in future.

Best go, as I have non-existent problems to dream up solutions to.

<puts feet on desk>

Perhaps its because there are so many disciplines covered under the engineering banner that its difficult to make the connection that an electrical engineer and a materials engineer work to the same principles but in entirely different areas.

This is where I was going with my paragraph on qualifying it. “$something Engineer” is preferable to merely “engineer.”

I won’t try and make a lighthearted desk/ pen comment in future.

Don’t be touchy, I was responding in the same lighthearted tone (hence the smiley).

I agree. Engineer is too broad a term.

I also agree that there are plenty of “proper” engineers who don’t qualify to use the term because they are content to let others solve problems for them. Which is where I was going with my point that you don’t necessarily have to have an engineering degree to be an engineer

I also sometimes use a computer, so I’m bang up to date…

Engineer is to BT Engineer/Technichian Steve

as

Doctor is to Nurse

(If you are an Engineer (as in doctor) it can be quite frustraiting that your title is devalued by being applied to every Tom, Dick or Harry that “just installs and services stuff”; but if you are a Nursey Engineer its probably quite nice to have the complexity and technicality of your job recognised by being called an engineer.

I understand the point about older ‘time served’ engineers, and I totally agree, but things are a lot clearer if you accept that only chartered engineers should be able to call themselves engineers (engineer should be a protected title like doctor, lawyer etc). To qualify you have to have an accredited masters engineering degree plus a minimum of 4 years suitable post graduate training/experience. You then have to be peer assessed by a member or fellow of an engineering institution where they grill you to make sure you’ve actually been doing innovative work.

I am not devaluing the work that any technician does, but engineers they are not. Problem solving existing equipment is not engineering.

Your conclusion is only correct if your original premise is. Which it isn’t.

To wit, whilst I don’t necessarily disagree that “Engineer” should be a protected term, it isn’t, so I can call my cat an Engineer if I like. And he died a year ago.

It’s a protected term elsewhere in the world, the fact that it’s not here speaks volumes about the country and the mess we find ourselves in. Engineering institutions are trying with the introduction of eng tech, not that it’ll do much good. The word engineer has been devalued to such an extent that a new word is obviously required, or as much as it would pain me, I’ll have to refer to myself as eur ing.

So how can I get this fibre thing? Where can I find my options? I have terrible broadband…

scroll down and check if you can get it in your area

http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/consumerProducts/displayTopic.do?topicId=29023

DaveH’s right that it should be, but it isn’t, which is kind of my point.

No one knows what CEng means, so it’s only really for personal reasons that you’d get it (although it’s respected in industry, so is worth it in that sense, but it’s not like calling yourself Dr).

And to further confuse matters I’m actually a qualified Technician Engineer according to my old apprenticeship paperwork.

Veedubba I take it your not a very good engineer then to have this massive title issue.

Do you do a lot of willy waving in your office or are you a hands on nuts and bolts Engineer with letters after your name.

For my part I am a Bench Joiner, put myself through college in my late 20’s and would never be arrogant enough to call myself better or worse than anyone else in our shop. Especially the timed served lads with no qualification but are as equal to me if not better. Even the apprentices are allowed to come up with ideas that on occasion solve a problem so simply. Fresh set of eyes.

So to have the arrogance of not allowing someone to call themselves an engineer as they dont have the right qualification smacks of someone who at best is average at their job but due to a qualification considers themselves better.

Where do train engineers fit in all this mythology?