I think we'd probably all agree last night was uncomfortably warm and sleeping wasn't easy. We had our bedroom windows flung wide open to let in whatever breeze we could. Things were made worse around 4am when there was a power cut. All the alarms in the vicinity sounded and went on for the hour or so that the power was off.
What was even worse was to see the red eye of doom on the router when I got downstairs this morning. A reboot didn't work, so I called the ISP who we've been with for nearly a decade. Apparently our contract had ended and so, without any notice at all they'd just switched off our internet during the night. Then they admitted that there were problems with their account management systems and we'd been caught up in them. Apparently there was no way that our service could be restored without setting up a new account. In addition the new account involved having to have a new landline number and would take at least 10 days to start. So I went through the account opening process and afterwards rec'd a confirmation email that actually gave a 14 day wait til the line would be activated.
So in the meantime we've had to use our phones instead and because we rarely use them for data they're on PAYG rates. By mid morning my phone had already used £20 of data, so we've now purchased a block of data at much much lower rates.
But that lack of normal WiFi internet will cost us about £50 over the next fortnight, when normally it would be about £13.
So a strong complaint has gone to the CEO and out tablets, desktop, laptop and Google Home systems plus smart TV are all virtually useless for the next 14 days.
Grrrrrrr!

Have a look at Smarty. Unlimited data SIM for £20 a month. No contract, you could just buy 1 month.

https://smarty.co.uk/?gclsrc=aw.ds&gclid...cB&gclsrc=aw.ds

You could use a mobile phone as a hotspot and use your tablet and computer off that.

If you got a mobile router it could replace your internet provider (subject to speed and reliability)

Steve

I've never understood how hotspots work or what mobile routers do. Presumably stuff has to link up and you have to have a cheap deal to make it worth the faff?

Technology fantastic when it’s working headbangly stressful when it doesn’t. I feel for you steamdriver got the Troll today with the TV set up doing my head just can not figure it out. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr! As you rightly say Morphy😖😖😖😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫

I am sharing your GRRR as despite me informing them of my new email address Care Care Ins (C & C Club) and my Skoda dealer both seem to be incapable of changing my email address on their systems and have sent things to this old address.

This hot & sticky evening Club Care invited me to renew my Eriba insurance but apparently have sent all documentation to my old address and will not let me open them via my new one.

I can feel a long and frustrating couple of phonecalls tomorrow morning to them and my local Skoda dealership.

I hope this doesn't happen to you when you new account opens presumably with a new address...............................

MikeT

I'm having an extra GRRRRRRRRRR moment as BT have just invited me to see my latest Bill online.

When I have gone through all the rigmarole of logging on & putting in passwords I got a message to say that this service is temporarily unavailable - you couldn't write it could you?

Mike "Grumpy hot old git" T

Quote: Steamdrivenandy wrote in post #3

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I've never understood how hotspots work or what mobile routers do. Presumably stuff has to link up and you have to have a cheap deal to make it worth the faff?

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Presumably though the quality of service on the hotspot/mobile router depends upon the mobile signal. Looking at the indicator at the top of this page my phone is receiving 'H' whatever that means and two 'bar's are darkened, whilst very occasionally '4' appears. Certainly the speed of loading is mostly snail like compared to FTTC on the landline.

Yes, of course, data rate depends on signal strength.

The importance of speed depends on what youre doing: if its for streaming live TV and you can watch it without bufferiing thats fast enough irrespective of how fast it actually is compared to FTTC or FTTH (fibre-to-the-cabinet or fibre-to-the-home for those not familiar with the acronyms)

Very often I can watch live TV with only one bar on the phone

When 5G becomes mainstream it will be provide a service comparable to fibre for those applications that need it.

PS without knowing your phone "H" probably stands for HSDPA (High Speed Data Packet Access) and is sometimes called 3.5G: 3.5G is not as fast as 4G and both are much, much slower than 5G

An upgraded phone to handle the faster speeds would likely make a big difference to your data transfer rate:)

PPS To be clear, I have both a landline-based router at home and a mobile-phone enabled hotspot so am not necessarily advocating that you have one or the other - was just suggesting the hotspot as an option whilst youre "offline" with your landline

My phone, being a 2017 model, doesn't do 5G and presumably doesn't indicate it even if 5G is present. Presumably if a 4G signal is only indicated at home on rare occasions then it's likely that 5G won't be available at all?

correct

and i should clarify that whilst a phone may indicate "H" it doesnt mean it cant accept a 4G signal, it just means that the signal available to it at that moment is HSDPA. If this occurs (only getting a H signal) when you're at home then buying an upgraded phone wont provide you with a good stopgap for your downed landline-based router since your local transmitter isnt providing you with the fastest connection

A phone can only accept 4G (or indeed 5G) signals if its designed to do that at the point of purchase so a 2017 phone wont accept 5G since 5G enabled phones only became available mainstrem in the past couple of years.

I've just checked the O2 coverage map which indicates good indoor and outdoor coverage for 4G for both our postcodes but as I say 4G only rarely appears on the phone's indicator whilst at home. Presumably this may be due to local conditions but means that looking at other network's coverage has to be just as suspect.

Signal strength depends on

* transmitter location
* phone design (antenna)
* obstacles (walls, metalwork)
* interference (eg microwaves)

so, switching to a different carrier may or may mot improve your signal strength

some phones are not as good at phone reception

best way to check is (at your homne):

1) see what someone else's phone can receive on your existing network
2) see what someone else can receive on a different network with your phone
3) see what someone else can receive with a different phone on a different network

Use the results to see if you need to switch networks and/or get a new phone:)