The lonely tech post thread.

[MickiQ]

I've just had an E-mail from Virgin to say that the phone line is going over to VOIP next month.

Does anyone have any experience with the companies that offer VOIP packages? Virgin's charges have crept up to the unreasonable level, so I'm thinking of switching my broadband to a cheaper company (yes, I know, speed, but how much do you really need?).

Everybody is going to VOIP, it's not optional. Virgin have already converted me, they sent me a little white socket thingy which I plugged into the back of my modem and then stuck my phone jack into it.
The thing had about 5cm of cable on it so I now have the phone master base station in the lounge behind the telly rather than in the hallway which there it used to be. Fortunately there are handsets in the kitchen and my office so we use them instead.

 

[two sheds]

Not being altogether switched off until 2025 though. Zen said it can sometimes be cheaper but since I don't really phone people I doubt it will be for me.

 

[MickiQ]

Not being altogether switched off until 2025 though. Zen said it can sometimes be cheaper but since I don't really phone people I doubt it will be for me.

We really only use the landline as a backup wherever possible we both use mobiles but sometimes reception is a bit spotty. The only people who phone the landline are scammers and Mrs Q who realises that no matter how she nags me about it I'm not going to carry my mobile around the house with me. She knows I can hear the landline ring from anywhere in the house so she usually calls that when she phones home.

 

[two sheds]

no mobile reception so I used the landline for everything except for the rare time I go out and need mobile access (£10 credit on Giffgaff has lasted me for a couple of years or more).

 

[existentialist]

One of the first things I did when I moved here was to set up a Sipgate account (with an outer Hebrides dialling code), and a Gigaset DECT base station. Works like a dream.

 

[mack]

I've just had an E-mail from Virgin to say that the phone line is going over to VOIP next month.

Does anyone have any experience with the companies that offer VOIP packages? Virgin's charges have crept up to the unreasonable level, so I'm thinking of switching my broadband to a cheaper company (yes, I know, speed, but how much do you really need?).

I knew it was coming but I didn't think it would be starting so soon.

Whats the redundancy for a vulnerable OAP when the net goes down and they need to make a call?

 

[existentialist]

I knew it was coming but I didn't think it would be starting so soon.

Whats the redundancy for a vulnerable OAP when the net goes down and they need to make a call?

If you are a vulnerable user, there is provision for providing some kind of arrangement for a router with local power storage - the primary additional risk of the VoIP solution over bare copper is power failures, as the old system provided power for POTS by using huge banks of batteries in the exchange.

 

[savoloysam]

The last I heard about it is that there is a contingency plan for areas where they are going to struggle to provide fibre so in exceptional circumstances some PSTN lines will continue to be connected. However I have worked in telecoms and can profoundly state that "competency" "customer service"and "Openreach" are not words that belong in the same sentence.

 

[Sasaferrato]

I knew it was coming but I didn't think it would be starting so soon.

Whats the redundancy for a vulnerable OAP when the net goes down and they need to make a call?

Well, we are OAPs, but both have mobiles. (I wouldn't describe us as 'vulnerable'.)

 

[Artaxerxes]

Giving up and turning on phone mfa on my personal email. Not the first time I’ve woken up to half a dozen emails saying “here is your single use code”

Need to go through and do the other 3 accounts at some point

 

[two sheds]

I got a couple of Western Digital hard disks a while ago and they didn't work on my main system. I thought it was because I'm using Mint but was checking again yesterday and realized it was because they were connected to a USB 2.0 port. I connected them to USB 3.0 and they work fine .

I also finally worked out how to password protect files (right click, compress, zip) so I've done it for backups of my financial stuff.

I was reading up on ports after the interesting thread on them and had never thought but presumably audio jack inputs/outputs, usb and monitor ports have their own port numbers. Where can I find them? (Or do they have different port numbers depending on which process/resource is using them?)

 

[souljacker]

I got a couple of Western Digital hard disks a while ago and they didn't work on my main system. I thought it was because I'm using Mint but was checking again yesterday and realized it was because they were connected to a USB 2.0 port. I connected them to USB 3.0 and they work fine .

I also finally worked out how to password protect files (right click, compress, zip) so I've done it for backups of my financial stuff.

I was reading up on ports after the interesting thread on them and had never thought but presumably audio jack inputs/outputs, usb and monitor ports have their own port numbers. Where can I find them? (Or do they have different port numbers depending on which process/resource is using them?)

They won't have ports as they aren't using TCP/IP to talk to the computer. They will have an interrupt that they use to tell the CPU they have data (very very basically).

 

[Chz]

They won't have ports as they aren't using TCP/IP to talk to the computer. They will have an interrupt that they use to tell the CPU they have data (very very basically).

I'm glad the IRQs mostly sort themselves out these days. Nightmares of old MS-DOS systems and playing with jumpers to avoid conflicting IRQ channels.

 

[existentialist]

I'm glad the IRQs mostly sort themselves out these days. Nightmares of old MS-DOS systems and playing with jumpers to avoid conflicting IRQ channels.

Yeah, then we got "plug and pray"

 

[UnderOpenSky]

I love it when the first call of the morning is super easy and not like yesterday when nobody was receiveling email. I can't connect to my VM. Can you get on Google at the moment? I think we've found the problem.

On slightly different note does anyone know why it's a bad idea to keep Github repos on your OneDrive and just sync them that way between PCs? I've got a couple of different work spaces in VS Code depending on what I'm accessing, but have been told it's bad practice. Shame as it would be handy switching between different machines.

 

[Artaxerxes]

Onedrive has its own sync so I can easily see all sorts of fuck ups and desyncs kicking in.

You can point GitHub to a desktop or hdd folder and sync that way though.

 

[Lazy Llama]

Seems OneDrive “saves space” by not always keeping files synced unless you tell it to always do so. So you can end up with the two sync mechanisms being out of step.

Better to just use git on local storage and push/pull when you switch machines.

OneDrive and git - don't do it

I recently turned on OneDrive's "Known Folder Move" feature, which syncs your "known folders" (Documents, Downloads, and Pictures) to OneDrive. I had been keeping my git repositories in my Documents folder, which means they were now being synced to OneDrive. tl;dr - OneDrive's known folder...

www.dustinbriles.com

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Onedrive has its own sync so I can easily see all sorts of fuck ups and desyncs kicking in.

You can point GitHub to a desktop or hdd folder and sync that way though.

Thanks. That makes sense. I'll look at that, should just be able to copy the workspace files across. It's not a huge issue but I spent a while organising everything the other day and was just being lazy.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Better to just use git on local storage and push/pull when you switch machines.

OneDrive and git - don't do it

I recently turned on OneDrive's "Known Folder Move" feature, which syncs your "known folders" (Documents, Downloads, and Pictures) to OneDrive. I had been keeping my git repositories in my Documents folder, which means they were now being synced to OneDrive. tl;dr - OneDrive's known folder...

www.dustinbriles.com

Most definitely not a time saver then! Once I've got everything configured the push/pull is easy, it was just preserving my setup.

 

[savoloysam]

Seems OneDrive “saves space” by not always keeping files synced unless you tell it to always do so. So you can end up with the two sync mechanisms being out of step.

Better to just use git on local storage and push/pull when you switch machines.

OneDrive and git - don't do it

I recently turned on OneDrive's "Known Folder Move" feature, which syncs your "known folders" (Documents, Downloads, and Pictures) to OneDrive. I had been keeping my git repositories in my Documents folder, which means they were now being synced to OneDrive. tl;dr - OneDrive's known folder...

www.dustinbriles.com

As much as possible I try to uninstall all these bloatware apps on both my phone and laptop.

When I buy something I want it to do the bare bones and let me add exactly the apps I want. Does windows still come with those stupid games that you can't uninstall no matter what? That's malware imo.

 

[Lazy Llama]

As much as possible I try to uninstall all these bloatware apps on both my phone and laptop.

When I buy something I want it to do the bare bones and let me add exactly the apps I want. Does windows still come with those stupid games that you can't uninstall no matter what? That's malware imo.

No uninstallable games in Windows now, as far as I know. Don't seem any on my two Windows 11 machines anyway, though they could be hidden.

OneDrive can be useful; easier to manage than shared drives and 'safer' than Dropbox.
At work they arbitrarily moved our "Known folders" (Documents, Pictures etc) to OneDrive. At first it was a pain, Office apps would hang when saving files and you'd lose stuff, but in the past 12 months it's been a lot better.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

As much as possible I try to uninstall all these bloatware apps on both my phone and laptop.

When I buy something I want it to do the bare bones and let me add exactly the apps I want. Does windows still come with those stupid games that you can't uninstall no matter what? That's malware imo.

It's pretty useful though. I mean I use Drive for personal stuff, but I think more people should at least use some kind of cloud storage for their important files.

 

[savoloysam]

It's pretty useful though. I mean I use Drive for personal stuff, but I think more people should at least use some kind of cloud storage for their important files.

Yea I have to say I owe a lot to Google drive and Google docs. It allowed me to write up a 20 page word document on the go from my phone at any given moment.
That's pretty handy tbf and was actually a life saver in a sense.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Yea I have to say I owe a lot to Google drive and Google docs. It allowed me to write up a 20 page word document on the go from my phone at any given moment.
That's pretty handy tbf and was actually a life saver in a sense.

Also most people are really shit at backups. I mean even if they have an external hard drive, they'll probably forget to do it often enough. Using a cloud service you just don't have to think. And of course syncs nicely between devices.

Ideally you'd have both, but I think the chances of loosing access to your cloud service is smaller then then your drive failing.

 

[Lazy Llama]

Once I've got everything configured the push/pull is easy, it was just preserving my setup.

Some of my colleagues swear by chezmoi and similar tools for keeping their dev environments in sync.
General-purpose dotfiles utilities - dotfiles.github.io has a list of them.

 

[Sasaferrato]

My PC suddenly stopped connecting to web sites.

I rebooted the PC and the router, still no joy.

I tried my Chromebook, I'm posting this from it.

On running diagnostics it tells me that the DNS server isn't responding.

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I restarted the PC, and it seems to be working now. I would like to know what the error message means though.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

My PC suddenly stopped connecting to web sites.

I rebooted the PC and the router, still no joy.

I tried my Chromebook, I'm posting this from it.

On running diagnostics it tells me that the DNS server isn't responding.

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you go to a command prompt can you ping 8.8.8.8?

What does ipconfig /all show

 

[Sasaferrato]

If you go to a command prompt can you ping 8.8.8.8?

What does ipconfig /all show

 

[Chz]

Not much we can diagnose if it's working now. Best guess is DHCP failed for some reason.

 

[Sasaferrato]

Not much we can diagnose if it's working now. Best guess is DHCP failed for some reason.

DCHP?