Test posting to uk.r.a
Road_Hog
So, I'm just trying it out. If I get any replies, then I'll do it on a
regular basis.
Ian Jackson
<nos...@nospam.com> writes
>It seems this is the new alt.test.
>
>So, I'm just trying it out. If I get any replies, then I'll do it on a
>regular basis.
>
--
Ian
2CA001
How's this reply..... IDIOT!
Steve Terry
news:gcb0nb$i40$1...@energise.enta.net...
> It seems this is the new alt.test.
>
>
having a problem with it
Steve Terry
Ian Jackson
<gFOU...@tesco.net> writes
having a slight, teeny-weeny problem with their news server. It was very
intermittent from 1 to 4 Sep. It packed up completely at about 4pm on 18
Sep, with only a handful of incoming postings (from Demon groups) being
received during the next two days. Demon only acknowledged that they had
a 'currently not being propagated' problem on 22 Sep, with a 'we're
still investigating' follow-up on 26 Sep. Service resumed at about
2:30pm on 30 Sep. It then packed up again at about 5pm on 3 Oct. 30
minutes later, Demon posted a 'We've fixed it' status notice. It is
still AWOL. Yes, I do believe that Demon/Thus/C&W have a problem, and it
may not simply be technical.
What I was investigating was a failure of follow-up postings to uk.r.a
to appear, although posting to alt.test.fest was OK. [Walt also said
that he had had problems.] If anyone can tell me an alternative way of
testing, I'd be pleased to try it.
--
Ian
Ian Jackson
<g3...@despammed.com> writes
>On Mon, 6 Oct 2008 01:09:59 +0100, "Steve Terry" <gFOU...@tesco.net>
>wrote:
>
>>Only for Demon newserver users who don't want to believe that Demon are
>>having a problem with it
>
>possibly have a problem with anything!
>
>I started with Demon, but left them at the time they persisted in
>charging a subscription for dial-up when all other UK providers had
>gone to subscription-free dial-up. They have always been years behind
>the leaders in the field.
>
>73 de Wlat
>
Aw, come on Walt! It's been pretty obvious that Demon News has been very
flaky for 3 or 4 years. Every few days it has been down for varying
periods of time, ranging from a few minutes to 1 or 2 days (usually over
a weekend). However, the latest episode is pretty well the last straw.
It's not so much the outage which is annoying, inconvenient though it
is. It's that Demon apparently find it acceptable first not to wake up
and acknowledge that there is a serious fault (despite many customers
having contacted their helpdesk) and then to keep their customers
completely in the dark about what is happening and when normal service
might be expected to resume. My annual £299 sub runs out in March and,
although I am aware that the grass is rarely greener on the other side,
I think that I'll be following you, and taking my custom elsewhere.
--
Ian
Brian Morrison
>> having a problem with it
>
> possibly have a problem with anything!
If you mean Peter Ceresole, then say so!
>
> I started with Demon, but left them at the time they persisted in
> charging a subscription for dial-up when all other UK providers had
> gone to subscription-free dial-up. They have always been years behind
> the leaders in the field.
But then the TAM did at least ensure a better standard of service that
some of those others when the masses arrived.
--
Brian
Brian Morrison
> Aw, come on Walt! It's been pretty obvious that Demon News has been very
> flaky for 3 or 4 years.
Er, hold on. How many Great News SNAFUs did they have? Three or more and
that was only up to about 1998. The various "scaled" news solutions
never really worked.
They'd be better providing news by proxying Giganews or similar.
Of course, news has never been a supported service..... :-p
--
Brian
Spike
Ian Jackson wrote:
>Aw, come on Walt! It's been pretty obvious that Demon News has been very
>flaky for 3 or 4 years...... My annual £299 sub runs out in March and,
>although I am aware that the grass is rarely greener on the other side,
>I think that I'll be following you, and taking my custom elsewhere.
One could always pay the massive 10 Euro per annum, and have a superb
(text only) service from news.individual.net...they're good at it
because they don't do anything else, unlike ISPs.
--
from
Aero Spike
Ian Jackson
<Aero.Spike@S&T.invalid> writes
pity it doesn't carry binaries, as there are three binary NGs which I
have had for ages. However, although Demon is actually serving them
(with AIOE serving the rest), during the two days between Demon's first
(12 day) NG failure and the ongoing failure, I didn't see any postings
in them which actually carried attachments. Maybe Demon have themselves
introduced a 'no binaries' service (assuming that there IS an actual
service, of course).
But hey! For 10 bucks, if I don't like it, I won't have lost much. I'll
probably give NIN a bash.
--
Ian
Spike
Ian Jackson wrote:
You could always have a look at Clara.net - they do a binaries
newsserver, cost dependent on bandwidth, and you get 'unlimited' email
addresses too.
Even more interestingly, you can 'relay' outgoing email through them,
and make yourself ISP independent.
--
from
Aero Spike
neil
> You could always have a look at Clara.net - they do a binaries
> newsserver, cost dependent on bandwidth, and you get 'unlimited' email
> addresses too.
The best news provider around is Forte. 15 bucks/mth for truly
unlimited and reliable service or 3 bucks for 12G of transfer (how
would it affect the content of this newsgroup if every poster had to
pay by the byte?). They carry all the newsgroups they are fed AFAIK.
<http://www.forteinc.com/apn/index.php>
Neil.
Ian Jackson
<7f2dd785-aa07-43c8...@64g2000hsu.googlegroups.com>, neil
<ne...@drempel.org.uk> writes
Thanks for the info.
I had a quick look at Clara. It seems to say that you don't get binary
NGs, but, with Grabbit, you can. I've got 6 months subscription left
with Demon, so I have a while to choose a different ISP. I'll see if
Clara is available at this QTH.
In the meantime, I obviously can't rely on Demon ever getting their news
server working again. Their service - and especially their lack of
communication with their customers - is absolutely beyond belief.
However, as their internet and email is still working, I'll certainly
add Forte to my list of possible add-on news providers.
--
Ian
Brian Morrison
> In the meantime, I obviously can't rely on Demon ever getting their news
> server working again. Their service - and especially their lack of
> communication with their customers - is absolutely beyond belief.
Remember that news has never been a supported service with Demon.
--
Brian
Custos Custodum
news:gcf8qn$7fk$4...@news.datemas.de:
I believe that used to be the official position, but since they now
advertise it as a service available at extra cost with some packages, I
think users should be able to argue that there is an implied contract in
effect. But of course IANAL.
Ian Jackson
<m...@privacy.net> writes
I thought that my £25 per month did buy me newsgroups. If it doesn't, I
could be paying less for a service without NGs. It's Tuesday, 9:30pm,
but Demon are still showing the same 'We've fixed it' status message
(posted 5:22pm Friday), despite being down since Friday 5pm. That goes
way beyond being 'not supported'. A responsible company would at least
post daily a one-liner saying 'We know it's still bust, but we may think
about finding out why - when we get round to it'.
--
Ian
Ian Jackson
I've just been looking in Demon.service.
If you look at this website
http://www.demon.net/helpdesk/technicallibrary/misc/news/
you may get a pop-up.
It has a nice picture of a field of waving wheat, and the message
"Welcome to a new era.
The landscape has changed.
There aren't many times you get the chance to transform
an entire industry!
THUS is now a Cable&Wireless business. Together we have the opportunity
to spark the beginning of a great new era in telecoms; one that's
defined by unparalleled excellence in customer service...
Click HERE for the Cable&Wireless Internet
Click HERE to continue
Thus
A CableandWireless Business"
Clicking on the second 'here' takes you to
https://www.my-cw-portal.com/portal/dt?provider=JSPTabContainer
I haven't explored further yet.
--
Ian
Steve Terry
news:a12ke4h8lm5vsos3m...@4ax.com...
>
> Ian Jackson wrote:
>>In message <tgvje4p2rmhvcuvgk...@4ax.com>, Spike
>><Aero.Spike@S&T.invalid> writes
> You could always have a look at Clara.net - they do a binaries
> newsserver, cost dependent on bandwidth, and you get 'unlimited' email
> addresses too.
> Even more interestingly, you can 'relay' outgoing email through them,
> and make yourself ISP independent.
> Aero Spike
>
>
I set up a free Clara.net email addy nearly ten years ago.
Faultless.
If i was looking for a new ISP they would be one of the first I'd choose
Steve Terry
Ian Jackson
<m...@privacy.net> writes
>On Tue, 7 Oct 2008 21:31:06 +0100, Ian Jackson
><ianREMOVET...@g3ohx.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>
>>In message <gcfpbh$qj$1...@registered.motzarella.org>, Custos Custodum
>><m...@privacy.net> writes
>>>Brian Morrison <scra...@fenrir.org.uk> wrote in
>>>news:gcf8qn$7fk$4...@news.datemas.de:
>>>
>>>> Ian Jackson wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> In the meantime, I obviously can't rely on Demon ever getting their
>>>>> news server working again. Their service - and especially their lack
>>>>> of communication with their customers - is absolutely beyond belief.
>>>>
>>>> Remember that news has never been a supported service with Demon.
>>>>
>>>I believe that used to be the official position, but since they now
>>>advertise it as a service available at extra cost with some packages, I
>>>think users should be able to argue that there is an implied contract in
>>>effect. But of course IANAL.
>>
>>I thought that my £25 per month did buy me newsgroups.
>
>to.
>
I am and it is.
>>If it doesn't, I
>>could be paying less for a service without NGs.
>
>The basic Home 8000 package does not include newsgroups, web space,
>fax to e-mail service or fixed IP address.
>
>> It's Tuesday, 9:30pm,
>>but Demon are still showing the same 'We've fixed it' status message
>>(posted 5:22pm Friday), despite being down since Friday 5pm. That goes
>>way beyond being 'not supported'. A responsible company would at least
>>post daily a one-liner saying 'We know it's still bust, but we may think
>>about finding out why - when we get round to it'.
>
>The recent problems are a little difficult to understand. Over the
>years, I have found the level of service to be generally excellent.
>
I've been with Demon for 10 years and, as you say, the service (what I
have used of it) was generally excellent. However, in the last couple of
years, it has been noticeable the their news service has had quite a few
intermittencies and outages, occasionally lasting up to 3 days.
I very much suspect that the present long-term failure of news delivery
has something to do with the take-over of Thus by C&W. It's all very
fishy. There's quite a lot of traffic on demon.service and demon.test
(to which I have contributed). However, there seems to be nobody at
Demon/Thus/C&W able/willing/available simply to come clean and tell us
customers what the situation really is, and when/whether/if they can (or
intend to) fix the problem.
--
Ian
Ian Jackson
<hi...@nospam.demon.co.uk> writes
>Ian Jackson wrote
>
>>I very much suspect that the present long-term failure of news
>>delivery has something to do with the take-over of Thus by C&W. It's
>>all very fishy. There's quite a lot of traffic on demon.service and
>>demon.test (to which I have contributed). However, there seems to be
>>nobody at Demon/Thus/C&W able/willing/available simply to come clean
>>and tell us customers what the situation really is, and
>>when/whether/if they can (or intend to) fix the problem.
>
>decided what to do with the news service AND informed Demon's staff of
>the decision. Since news is a small part of the service provided by a
>small part of the company which C&W have bought, the likelihood is...
>small. They'll get around to it eventually, in the meantime I'd suggest
>(1) being civil to Demon's staff to encourage them to maintain the
>service,
While one or two posters in demon.service have been rather critical of
Demon's staff, I don't think anything has really amounted to incivility,
nor was anything unjustified.
>(2) not making too much fuss with C&W as they're likely to decide that
>news is too much trouble and pull the plug sooner rather than later,
Demon/Thus haven't been providing me with a news service as a favour. I
don't see why C&W should suddenly decide that it is. If they are going
to pull the plug (which they seem to have done already), I would prefer
simply to be told, and then make alternative arrangements.
Unfortunately, nobody at Demon seems to see any need to tell me (and
everyone else).
>(3) looking for a more reliable ISP and/or news service.
>
As an ISP, Demon have been OK for email and internet. It's really only
the news (especially the latest fiasco) which is the problem. It's
probably easiest to stay with them (with a cheaper package), and use an
alternative news service (of which there have been many suggestions).
--
Ian