Getting faster

I recently had a letter from my ISP (Demon) saying that we would get by September a free upgrade from 512 Kbps to 2Mbps – that is 4 times the speed, for our broadband. The upgrade just depends on when BT upgrade the DSLAM in the exchange. It certainly will made a difference to Carol and I. Software downloads will be even quicker and make the cost of the link better value. Some of you may be too far from the exchange to get the full speed, but for most 1Mbps should be possible. This is good news, but I do not what other ISPs are doing. It might be a good idea to contact your ISP and ask them. Our letter said that we would not be notified, so you have to check the obscure bits of your modem/router to find out the speed you get down the wire. When I know more, or see we have been upgraded, I will pass the news on.

Now for the rather less good news. I saw in the papers recently an article about companies using other company’s names in search engines like Google to attract you to their sites, while they had no connections with the name you might have searched for. It seems to be a very dodgy practice and at present mainly used by unscrupulous mortgage lenders. The best advice here is that you check the URL of any site carefully after a search to make sure that it is the correct site/company.

One last thing, I have (finally) updated the website with all the articles so far, so do take a look at The Boffin’s Den http://www.lordjohn.demon.co.uk/theboffin/

John Kimberley

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