Remember not to order four of them at once

The Kindle comes with an email address, so you can email docs/pdfs to it, for pdfs if you put ‘convert’ in the subject on the email, the pdf will be converted to the kindle format.

3G/4G Kindles come with a global SIM so you can download books/receive email in a hell of a lot countries worldwide.

I’ve got the 35 f1.4 and the 35 f2. The f2 has great autofocus, is weather sealed, small and cheap for a prime, but you have got to love the f1.4 for the colours it produces. I have the f2 for a compact street/rain lens. Yes an updated 35 f1.4 with the focus ring of the 23 f1.4 and weather sealing would end up glued to one of my Fuji’s.

A major difference from 1st gen X series to the later 2nd and onwards, is the autofocus. Gen 1 was known for being a bit sluggish, which was fixed in gen 2.

I’ve a XT2 & XH1, the XH1 has a touchscreen but I’ve never had any need to use it, mapping what I need to just the buttons.

Things to have, if you have a longer heavier lens, then depending on the camera, some sort of hand grip might be worth getting. Spare batteries are worth getting, I’ve not had any probs with 3rd party batteries so far.

Can’t comment on those lenses as I have the 18-55 f2.8-4 and 16-55 f2.8 (along with a pile of primes) but I guess depending on your body choice a lens with OIS might be appropriate if there’s no IBIS.

A good place to keep an eye on is the Fuji UK refurb shop shop.fujifilm.co.uk as they can have some great deals on.

Domain name is currently pointing to an IP address in Canada

I turned up for mine, there were TV crews on the court steps. Got ushered into the main Crown court, defendents were in a dock with bulletproof glass from dock to ceiling. Judge explained the jurors selection process which included “Are you related to, or know someone in the local police force” my hand went up so quick. My partner’s (at the time) brother in law was in the local plod armed response unit. So that was me excused. So spent the rest of my time at home, ringing up each morning for a no thanks message.

Second Aftershox, take a little getting used to simply because you end up amazed how they work.

It would be a public IP for the other end of the VPN tunnel. You’d have a route policy setup to prefer the 4G connection over the DSL. If the tunnel is setup for LAN to LAN you would encapsulate inside it the private IP address ranges of the LAN subnets you want to route over the internet.

I’m sat here using a Draytek router that has a VDSL connection and a 4G connection. I’ve polices setup to prefer one connection over another, for example high bandwidth time insensitive services will go out via the 4G and latency sensitive (example, voice and interactive video, DNS) go out via the VDSL. All works fine.

I could setup the Draytek as a remote client VPN server. So I could say use a SSL connection from my laptop in via the VDSL connection onto the local LAN. Then SSH onto a RaspberryPI on my Local LAN. From that PI I could then trigger an outbound connection to the internet to my chosen destination, that would be routed out via the 4G connection on my router, triggering the setup of a LAN to LAN tunnel, both based on pre-defined policies.

Only other thing I can think of and it depends on your router and skills.

1: You initiate a connection to the site via its DSL connection
2: A host or the router at the site recognises this connection and decides it needs to phone home
3: Phone home being a destination IP address that is policy routed outbound via your 4G connection
4: The starts for example a LAN to LAN VPN tunnel
5: Connection is now setup that you can then access your CCTV
6: Have a timeout on the VPN connection, say drops after XYZ seconds of in-activity

They all use CGNAT, I’ve seen issues where for example 4G backup doesn’t work on one carrier, but does on others. So even the implementation of CGNAT varies across the carriers. At the time I was working for one of the carriers, and even internally we couldn’t get a SIM with a fixed IP, well at the scale we required for the customer deployment.

The mobile broadband forum on ISPReview is a great source of information on using 4G/5G, for example on EE

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/talk/threads/4g-cgnat-is-frustrating.34309/

This is backed up by this

https://www.3grouterstore.co.uk/3G/FAQ.html

There’s a few things….

1: Line sync rate – this is what Openreach will test, the speed that your router can atain to the BT modem in the cab/exchange. BT Openreach are contractually responsible for this AND THIS only

2: From the cab/exchange. Plusnet will contract to BT Openreach for a certain level of service. For example they have X users on that exchange so will buy Y bandwidth from BT.

3: Said service will be tunnelled across the BT core network to an interconnect/handover into Plusnet you will see this called an LNS. BT will try and load share all of 2 above across 3. But things happen so a particular inter-connect may get overloaded, so a router reboot can sort this as BT may point it at a diff interconnect after the reboot. ALL bets are off if Plusnet have saturated interconnects of course.

4: If slow downs are happening to say only certain sites, then Pluanwt could have core congestion issues on their preferred route (transit/peering) for those sites.

In general ADSL/ADSL2/VDALS2(FFTP) lines suffer more errors due to RFI (Radio Frequency Interference) in the evenings when people switch on their crappy XYZ LED lights etc.. But usually the line would drop and re-sync (taking a few mins to do so)

But to get slow downs a 2pm does sound more of a congestion issue rather than a line issue.

BT Openreach techs that go to people’s homes, are usually really approachable, have great local knowledge. So they will most likely talk/share with you their test results from your master socket (cuppa always helps)

Other thing you should do is learn how to login to the router and look at the line sync speed/uptime/ errors etc.. If its all rock solid then it will most likely be a congestion issue, if its all over the place it MAY be a line issue OR internal wiring issue. BT tech will test to master socket so if line is dropping all the time, and they say its clean, then you have an internal wiring issue.

Baked Spuds work well in one, as does frozen hash browns, sausages, bacon and toms all in one go.

What Harry says, one theory is that we the sufferers are hearing stuff that most people naturally filter out, so focusing on it makes it worse. Also for me, it’s a sign of tiredness/stress.

A good example that works for me is when I first worked for BT as a lineman, I’d call people from the telephone exchange on noise faults to talk to them to understand how bad it was, before I made a trip out to them. I would ask them if they could hear noise on the line and sometimes they would say “oh yes there’s lots of clattering noises” They could hear the Strowger exchange (electro-mechanical) in the background, I had got that used to it that I no longer noticed it. But oddly still if something wasn’t right in the exchange I’d still hear it. Don’t under-estimate the power of your mind in this.

The Micro SD slot rubber is swelling too. Can’t be sunlight as mine has been in a rubber cover since new, if its got damp its been dried. But the charging port rubber is fine despite being not covered, go figure!

Curries and Spicy Dishes for Your Slow Cooker by Kris Dhillon is a book worth getting.

Cables come down just to left of left leg, USB a bit further off to the left. Headphone peg is top left rear, controls are all bottom right rear. I bought as a all singing type of monitor rather than perfect in one area. I’ve a 2080ti so happy with 60p and freesync, with an okay colour rendition, rather than 1 femotsec response xyz etc…

Good site to look at for reviews is rtings.com

My Acer has a four port USB3 hub in it, for another cable back to the PC! however rather than one large bulcky leg its got a pair of slim silver legs that aren’t too bad.

https://www.acer.com/ac/en/GB/content/model/UM.JE2EE.C01

Oh and the Roku streambar hasn’t got the latest and greatest CPU in it that Roku do in other models, it supports all the current features with no lag, and it fits perfectly between the Acer monitor legs.

I didn’t want a massive soundbar for my office PC, just something that put out decent sound when I’m not using headphones. Well a bit better than decent, as I’m using a USB DAC with my headphones, and I can’t complain about the sound that the streambar puts out.

@midlifecrashes

the Acer I’m using has one Display Port and two HDMI inputs, I’m using the DP from the PC for the HDR/colour range and variable refresh rate, with optical from the PC motherboard soundcard to the Roku for audio. As whilst the monitor has speakers they are pretty weedy and it doesn’t support HDMI ARC. So HDMI is used for the Roku for streaming as annoyingly Amazon Prime for example doesn’t allow 4K streaming on PC.

31.5inch 4K Acer monitor, with a Roku Streambar to take care of audio duties here.

@WCA when I had my 3.0s my GF at the time was a Sharon an she had a 1.6 Laser, so you called it. One thing to add about the Capri, it had a massive engine bay, I guess you could easily fit a 5/7L engine into it.

I had a 1978 Mk3 3.0L S way better than any 2.8i. You start off with a motor that can be more easily tuned than the 2.8 with its odd siamised head ports.

Things to watch for, timing gear on the Essex engine is via gears (no belt) however the standard engine used fibre gears (why, guess for noise) make sure they are replaced with metal timing gear, lots more reliable, if nosier. The inlet manifold can be quite restrictive on the standard engine, it comes with a 4 speed box so a 2.8i 5 speed is a popular conversion (mine on the 4 speed could hit 80 in second) front suspension and brakes can’t really handle the speed and weight so again 2.8i struts and ventilated discs were a popular conversion.

The rear end can be a bit wayward, due to the leaf springs and solid rear axle, cheap trick was a bag of cement in the back, however the proper thing to do was fit a x-frame kit to stop the axle moving about.

Mine ended up with a Swaymar inlet manifold with a Holley 4 barrel carb, block bored to 3.1, re-profiled cam, solid timing gear, modified heads, modified sump (used to surge on bends) 2.8i struts and discs, skorpion x-frame kit. electric rad fan better cooling and more HP over engine driven stock fan. 2.8i special polished 7 spoke alloys (looked cooler than the pepperpots) all white exterior, with all black interior incl Recaros.

Usual probs for the era rust. I sold it in the end as I knew I would die in it, guy I sold it to has a RS3100 Mk1 and he’s used the 3.0s for spares to keep the RS running, so I’m happy it went to a good place, well apart from the fact that a 3.0s nowadays can go for a song.

I reckon about 1 in 4 for Punk IPA go that way for me.

I use KeePass as it’s got clients for all platforms, the Database for it resides in a well known online cloud provider that has the ability again to be available across all platforms, with local caching. I then use a long password to login into KeePass, that only works with a keyfile that I manually share across my devices.

@Cougar I had some VC issues (Zoom only) on my Netgear Orbi AX mesh, turned out setting the CTS/RTS threshold to 2347 from the default sorted that. The AX Orbi hasn’t got lots of config options, but it just works.

My only real tip is a system with a dedicated back-haul channel, as any system that hasn’t is crippling the wireless network be in affect operating in half duplex.

I run my Cisco and Meraki test networks off LAN ports on the Sat units, no probs, and whilst my Meraki Wifi offers plenty of customisation, monitoring etc,, it doesn’t have that dedicated mesh back-haul, so cripples performance if you use it that way.

Russ CCNP CCDP CMNA CECP and a few other wireless vendor certs but I don’t use them really

Yes, but switch off the WiFi on the low end router, I’m going to hazard a guess that your ISP sent if out pre-configured to work with the BT FTTP. so it should just work, and all you have to do is turn Wifi off on the router but leave DHCP on.

When you plug in your main Nest into the LAN port on the router, it should pick up an IP address from the DHCP pool on the router. For example:

1: ISP router is 192.168.1.1/24
2: Your main Nest WAN port (connected to the LAN port on the ISP router) 192.168.1.10/24
3: Nest WiFi main router is then 192.168.8.1
4: Main Nest then gives IP Addresses to all your devices say 192.168.8.10/24 to 192.168.8.254/24

Only gotcha I can see is ISP’s will skimp on their routers a bit, so it could get flaky/slow when you are hammering the FTTP, so if you are doing some serious upload/downloads all the time. Then a decent router might be more appropriate, that is capable of supporting your FTTP line rate. Said router just needs an Ethernet WAN port as they’ll all support PPoE as an Authentication method along with VLAN support. My personal recommendation is something from Draytek, as they do software support forever and a day on their devices. Something like the 2927 would work on FTTP upto 900Mbps full duplex. 2862 for 200Mbps or so (long term 2860 series user)

I thought the ISP would be supplying a router not a modem? The modem would be the BT OpenReach ONT into which you plug the ISP router, then plug the main Nest into the router?

Let the ISP router do the PPoE stuff, turn off Wi-Fi on it, leave DHCP on. Connect the main Nest unit to it on a LAN port on the ISP router and let it do the WiFI and DHCP for your network.

HP Z230 Mobo chipset supports ECC https://support.hp.com/gb-en/document/c03919165#AbT2

But the Intel 4790 CPU does not support ECC memory https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/80806/intel-core-i7-4790-processor-8m-cache-up-to-4-00-ghz.html

Gotcha to watch out for, is to check the height of the 1600-MHz DDR3 DIMMS, if the CPU heatsink/fan overhangs the DIMM slots, then some DIMMS with heatsinks can be too tall to fit in some of the slots.

Cats & Dogs

Only found this interesting stat on Supermarkets on a news site and not the original source, but it looks like supermarkets could be more iffy than going to the doctors.

https://www.cheshire-live.co.uk/news/chester-cheshire-news/where-catch-covid-places-likely-19601248

“The figures are based on data from week 53, between December 28, 2020 to January 3, 2021.

By analysing the contacts and retracing the steps of the people who’d reported they had tested positive between December 28 and January 3, PHE data has uncovered the most frequent locations people with the virus had been, prior to testing positive.”

“Proportion of all common locations reported in Public Health England data:

Supermarket (visiting and working): 12.9%
General practice (visiting and working): 5.8%
Care home (working): 3.8%
Home (visiting and working): 3.8%
Restaurant or café (visiting): 3.8%”

Netgear Orbi 6 AX mesh here, I’ve won the ever escalating Wi-Fi race in my neighbourhood for a while :-)

What Drac says, split the SSID’s one for 2.4Ghz and another for 5Ghz, it’s a common issue on BT Smart Hubs.

I’m using a Huawei H112-370 which is a 4G/5G router. Has the latest Wi-Fi6 on it, and has two antenna sockets on it that you can use for example with and external antenna if signal is a bit weak. There’s lots of different antenna supporting 4G from simple back of unit ones, to window mounted or external ones.

If you go on Cellmapper.net, select your 4G provider it’ll show the nearest masts. Which will help you working out what you’ll likely get. I’m getting 100Mb down/30Mb up consistent using the internal antenna on the router, 514 metres away from the mast with no direct line of sight in an urban location.

ISPreview forum on mobile broadband is a good resource https://www.ispreview.co.uk/talk/forums/mobile-broadband-fixed-wireless-and-satellite.106/

Booked mine in August at Boots, got it in October which was the earliest available at the time I booked,

Another Synology (DS220+) user here, OS/UI is great, two drive bays, reasonably quiet, and if you go for a model with an Intel CPU (not ARM) then you can as well as install lots of good apps, use Docker and run virtual servers if needed. I use Docker with Pi-Hole for DNS ad-blocking which is brilliant.

Agree with Paul on this.

Problem most likely is that the broadband router is acting as a DHCP server allocating dynamic IP addresses for devices physically connected to it for example in the range 192.168.1.X/24 Then the Wi-Fi mesh router is acting as a DHCP server for Wi-Fi Devices in another range, say 192.168.8.X/24. So in fact they are two separate networks. With the Mesh router hiding all of the Wi-Fi devices behind a firewall and Network Address Translation (NAT/PAT)

Easy way is does the Tenda Mesh router have LAN ports on it, other than the WAN port that connects to your router? If it does plug your switch into one of the LAN ports, all of your wired devices into the switch. Then they will all be on the same network as you have the Mesh router acting as the DHCP server for the lot.

Or having the Mesh router in AP Mode/Bridge mode instead of router, that way the Wi-Fi devices will be on the same network as the broadband router and it will be acting as the DHCP server for the lot wired/and Wi-Fi.

If not then it’ll be some buggering about with the Mesh router’s firewall to allow the protocols required for the printer/server, port forwarding etc.. good luck!

Dedicated backhaul makes a huge difference in performance, so good choice. Happy Netgear Orbi 6 user here.

I’ve a Meraki test network, but the mesh interworking doesn’t really work anywhere near as good as they don’t use a dedicated backhaul, it’s half duplex over the mesh.

Or as CaptM says, you pay a bit more and go with one of the quality indie ISP’s AAISP, Zen etc..

First of all unless you are blessed, then most likely you at the mercy of having a service that is on top of a BT Openreach landline.

So sync speeds across ISP’s will be the same on VDSL2. Note I said Sync speed, what your router syncs up speed wise to the modem in the BT Cab.

From the BT Cab back towards the ISP will be at the mercy of whatever the ISP pays for to connect to BT’s network. sometimes they have their own connectivity direct into the local BT exchange, sometimes they’ll pay BT to aggregate it and pass it over some interconnect.

Then on top of all of that, how the ISP then connects to the internet, what I mean by this is that they ALL connect differently, some peer (usually better) some use transit interconnects.

All of this then will affect you internet performance.

I expect out of a decent ISP, that no matter what time of day or night, if I run a speed test or do a download, I will see a speed on the upload or download within say 1Mbit/2Mbit’s of my routers sync speed.

Next, the margins are thin on internet broadband (see buy cheap buy twice driving down what people will pay) meaning that any interaction with customer service probably blows the ISP’s profit on you for that year. So there’s always a drive to reduce costs by for example outsourcing service to some other country, meaning you will more likely end up talking to someone reading a script in not their native language with, multiple layers from anyone with proper skills.

Currently I’m with Vodafone. DISCLAIMER ex-employee of them, but I know the customer service for me is Glasgow based. Their core network is right out into the BT exchanges to interconnect to the VDSL, and finally they have their own massive international core network which means less hops across providers.

So roughly look for the big providers (apart from buy cheap pay twice) with customer service in UK or Europe. Stats on complaints, remember to look at numbers vs no of customers…

+1 for Aidy, BB is heavily optimised for automation in processes/systems, with 99%+ being new installs or migrating on existing phone line to a new ISP, a shift to another line is going to end up in pain. So go with your chosen provider on the other phone line as Aidy suggests.

Don’t ring up your existing ISP and ask for a MAC code as you are leaving, as all that will happen is that the BB will be migrated to the new ISP on your existing phone line.

Rule 1: Buy cheap pay twice – there’s a reason some ISPs are cheap… do your research
Rule 2: Any new ISP’s router look for WiFI6 aka 802.11ax in the specs

BT Wholesale checker, if you enter the number the broadband is on will most likely return the existing BB sync rate as shown in the “observed speeds” section along with the date/time as reading was last taken. On that section does it say VDSL or ADSL?

Could well be that when one of your two lines was installed that there was only a single Cab serving the area and since then demand has meant that there’s been a second cab installed. Key thing with VDSL2 (FTTC) or (Fibre broadband – makes be cringe as its only fibre cab to exchange) is the length and quality of the copper (or aluminium) pair from your home to the cab. So your second line might be on a shorter/better line, hence the better predicted speed results.