Yammer Highlights May 2020

Dennis Parsons

NBN Questions and Comments

NBN speeds higher than 100Mbps are finally here! 250Mbps and 1000Mbps plans are available for those of us lucky enough to have FTTP and for some HFC connections. If you’re using FTTN you’re totally out of luck – you’ll have to wait until that gets replaced with appropriate technology. For FTTC connections it’s not possible now but may become available if the system is upgraded, but I wouldn’t hold my breath on that possibility.

The digital divide between those stuck on FTTN and FTTC, and those with FTTP and HFC will become increasingly wide, something that was inevitable when the government chose the false economy of the Multi Technology Mix (MTM) route.

Roger, one of our Yammer regulars, discovered he could upgrade his HFC based service to 250MBps and gleefully reported getting 230Mbps down and 23Mbps up on a 250/25 plan. Not bad at all! 1000Mbps wasn’t an option offered to him by his provider but he’s certainly happy with the increased speed.

<https://www.yammer.com/melbpc.org.au/#/Threads/show?threadId=696199551623168>

Computer Help

We managed to revive a laptop that Frank was about ready to consign to the bin in frustration due to WiFi connectivity issues and problems starting up when on battery. Not 100% sure what we did but something worked! As with many such problems you lose track of exactly what was done in what order or what actually cured a particular problem.

It was suffering intermittent Internet dropouts that wouldn’t self recover – WiFi was showing as connected but the Internet was inaccessible. Testing with ping showed IP addresses could be reached but not URLs, indicating a possible DNS issue. It also indicated the hardware was probably still okay. WiFi signal congestion was also suggested as a possible problem but scans with a WiFi app didn’t indicate a problem. I suggested getting Windows to “forget” the WiFi settings and re-entering them which seems to have cured the issue.

As to exactly what we did to fix the start-up problem we have no idea! The battery was removed from the laptop for a time and run from mains power without it. After the battery was reinserted the system behaved itself and was starting properly, no blue screens and no having to remove the battery to get it started.

<https://www.yammer.com/melbpc.org.au/#/Threads/show?threadId=683582203379712>

Technology News

 The use of the what3words app to help locate some missing walkers on Flinders Island in Tasmania sparked a bit of interest. Seems very handy for indicating your exact location – you can either use a GPS derived location or indicate you position on a map and the app will generate a unique triplet of words for you position to within three metres.

 <https://www.yammer.com/melbpc.org.au/#/Threads/show?threadId=677192000495616>