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A South African Pigeon….faster than broadband!?  In this day an age nobody would place their bet on a pigeon being faster than a broadband connection.  But in this case nature beat technology in delivering a 4GB memory stick!

Well done Winston the pigeon! (pictured right)

Want to find out more?…Read the BBC article

Our penultimate recommended retailer is The Carephone Warehouse.  They are one of the biggest phone retailers in the UK.  Not only do they supply mobile phones but they also supply broadband.  The company often has a variety of deals involving pay as you go and contract phones which sometimes include a wide range of free gifts.  Have a look on their website or instore for their offers!

Last week I installed Sky Broadband for a client and I thought at the time it would be useful for people to know how easy the install process is, the features the modem offers and a general experience. So starting today I will be reviewing the broadband installs that I do, one from each supplier as we do the install and more than one if we come across different modems!

The Modem

So let’s go, Sky Broadband. A while ago I installed Sky Broadband for another user and they were sent a Netgear modem, this client however had a Sagem Wireless Modem Router, looks good, stylish, dark grey device, quite small.

The router has 4 Ethernet ports, however Sky states that the two yellow coded ports are for computers and the other two ports (red and blue I believe) are for features currently in development.

The Install

Being me I ignored the fact I was meant to start with the disc and just plugged the kit in as I knew was right and tried to access the web interface of the router. However none of the default usernames and passwords that work with other routers worked with this one. That was rather disappointing and Sky don’t provide you access to this router. Which for techies I would expect to be a pain.

So that aside I threw in the CD and followed the process through, it was nice and simple, animated and somehow less mundane thn the usual Broadband installation discs I get to see. So for techies and novices alike that process was nice and easy. Possibly the easiest I have come across. It does however brand your Internet Explorer “provided by sky” and add a couple of links to your desktop, which is why i try to avoid the disc’s for things like this in the first place!

At the end of the process you are connected! Nice and easy.

Wireless

If you want to connect a machine wirelessly you do this after the process. The code is on the bottom of the router, which seems the norm these days. The signal strength put out by the router seems to be fairly decent for the average household.

So there we go, my review of installing Sky Broadband with the Sagem router, and to summarise:

1. Use the disc! Don’t try to be clever
2. Setup is nice and easy, just do as the disc tells you and you will be online in minutes.
3. To connect wirelessly after you have completed the setup, the key is on the router!

I hope this helped, Let us know if you have any experiences of your own.

Despite most ISP broadband setup instructions saying this there is still a misunderstanding somewhere when it comes to filters. So here is my Quick Tip attempt to help

When you are setting up broadband in your home of office you will be given some micro-filters, the amount depends on how generous your chosen ISP are feeling!

The reason you need these filters is because when you have broadband activated on your line you effectively have two signals coming down that one physical line. Therefore you need to separate (filter) them. The filter sends the analogue signal to the socket on the filter to which you plug in the phone or fax or old style dial-up modem. The other small socket has just the digital signal that is required by your broadband modem.

All that said there is still one important point to remember. You MUST have a filter on any phone in the house or office no matter if there is a modem connect to that socket or not! The reason for this is that otherwise the phone will interfere with the digital signal that your broadband modem requires to connect you to the internet and thus your internet will randomly drop out!

For some that seems obvious but for others hopefully that will help

Quick Tip this week: Nearly everyone now has a nice fast broadband connection, but are you using it for more than you would use your old dial-up connection for? For many the answer is no! So here are a few suggests to start making the most of your broadband connection:

1. Film Trailers – Watch the film trailers on the Apple website of the newest films released or coming out soon!
2. XBox Live – Make the most of your XBox and your internet connection
3. How Stuff Works - Find out how virtually anything works!!
4. Facebook – Share photos and messages with all your mates – possibly the biggest time waster on the web.
5. YouTube – Amongst a fair amount of drivel there is a load of amusing stuff on You Tube
6. BBC iPlayer – Watch the last 7 days ofBBC TV!

Let me know if you have a better suggestion!