My current internet connection is normally rated at 128kbit/sec. They have the cheek to advertise this as unlimited broadband. For starters, an internet connection that is no fast than dual channel ISDN, and isn’t capable of playing many online radios does not seem so broad to me. Secondly, their definition of unlimited somehow equates to 10Gb of down or uploads in one month. Once you pass that gargantuan (LMAO) amount, the internet connection is further throttled down to 32 kbit/sec. That is worse than most old 56k dial up connections! All this makes getting the good jobs quite difficult online, as those with faster connections are able to reserve jobs before this PC’s browser has even opened up the initial page.
All said though, we do at least have ADSL here now, I remember when we first arrived it was strictly dial up only, and the large phone bills that would follow a few late nights online. The WiMax trial that was mentioned some 18 months ago was never completed in this area of town, so the only hope really is that the ISP will get a little more realistic in both terms of speed, and also monthly bandwidth caps.

OK, at some point in the next couple of weeks, I’ll finally be installing the nice new 500Gb hard drive I got for Christmas. The plan is to use this one for the OS install and programs. The current boot drive will become a temporary drive for works in progress, such as video edits not yet completed. Anyway, what I want to know is can the Windows Updates I’ve already downloaded and installed be ported to the new install. Obviously this would save me time, but as I’m on a 10Gb limit with my ISP, it would also allow me to download more in that month. I’ve had a google around, and asked at a couple of forums, but not found anything yet. I was hoping there would be a folder (possibly within \Windows ?) I could just copy into the new install, and then when I visited Microsoft Update, it would automatically detect that the required files were already downloaded, and just install them.
Also, a similar(ish) question regarding WinAmp. When it comes to ratings for the MP3s, and also the times played info, where is this stored? I would like to port across this data to the new install, but don’t know where to begin. Any clues anyone?

The ISP we now have our internet connection with is called Megaline. Unfortunately, since swapping to their service, everyday sees some downtime for connectivity. Even when all is apparently working, packets are often lost, and I can no longer as open as many simultaneous pages, without time outs occurring. That said, it is a lot cheaper, and although only 1/2 the speed, I do get an allowance of 10Gb/month before they throttle me down to 32Kbit/sec, from 128Kbit/sec.
Anyway, we first have a report on the UK’s lagginess (puns will stop now, sorry), when it comes to very fast internet connection availability. This is no great surprise really, given our history with BT’s (formerly part of the GPO) previous monopoly at nearly all stages of communications. Great investment will be needed to push beyond the current 24Mbps ceiling, and even that sort of connection is only really possibly if you live on top of your local exchange. Until we drop twisted pair copper lines as acceptable, the days of fibre optics into every home are a long way off, unless someone like Richard Branson decides that it is economically viable in areas when other Cable TV operators have avoided.

On a more positive note, here we have an article detailing how broadband internet connectivity (even if it isn’t globally breath-takingly fast) has rapidly become the preferred speed, compared to just four years ago, when most people considered dial up speeds acceptable. No pretty table to illustrate the point this time, sorry.

Finally, on a semi-related matter, the BBC News site had details on how some European nation’s citizens are rejecting land lines altogether, in favour of mobile phones. Although this may sound surprising at first, if you take into account that some of the nations, that were unable to develop as quickly under USSR rule, never had high rates for phone lines into every house, and how competitive some mobile phone network companies are in these markets, to try and get, then keep loyal customers, you can begin to see why having no land line number is becoming more common in some areas. Whether these figures include those that only use phone lines for internet usage, and use mobiles for cheaper evening calls etc, I couldn’t ascertain.

Just noticed that since changing ISPs, FireFox’s search bar now defaults to the Kazakh Google domain (google.kz) for searches. Any other Kazakh readers out there find this behaviour with FF?
Hmmm, nope, can’t find an online option to prevent this redirection from .com to .kz . Will see if I can hard wire it for .co.uk, and hope no re-directions come into effect that way.
Makes me wonder if Google.kz happens to return any different results from any political search terms, a la China etc. ?

[edit]
OK, removing (temporarily at least), the tin foil hat. It appears that once you click on the link that forces .com to stay as .com (not certain, but I believe the URL ended in /ncr ???), searches are back to normal. Assuming .com searches are not in anyway filtered.
Anyway, how this redirection was re-activated following an ISP change, I’m not certain, perhaps a cookie expiring and/or tied in with an IP address change on our part?

Rather than a crappy MC name, Megaline is the name of the company that now has the responsibility of providing our internet connection. Anyway, 20-something hours after being told that our new connection was live, and the new connection details, we eventually had an IP address once more. Changing from an internet network arrangement that utilized some servers before getting to the real ISP in use, to a simpler PPPoE connection had given me some hope in that there would be less packet loss, as less hardware in the chain generally means less to go wrong. Sadly, this has not been the case, with complete loss of data throughput occurring a couple of times today already. Although this only occurred when opening around 30 pages in FireFox at the same time as a torrent downloading, to see a decrease in network stability was not what I hoped for. I will be monitoring the connection over the next few days, to see if problems only occur under such ‘heavy’ usage, or if this is a regular occurrence. If this does happen often, there is probably not much I can do about it - even less that back in Britain in fact, as I can’t see much action being taken once any fault is reported.
Anyway, I now get an extra 3Gb per month before being throttled, the price is around four times cheaper, so I can’t really complain. But watch this space for further efforts of me trying my best anyway

As I mentioned yesterday, we are changing our ISP to Megaline. Right now, there is no connection at home, so I am posting this from the office at work. If anyone needs to get in contact, telephone or texting would be best. David, if you are reading this, I hope you arrived safely in Almaty, and look forward to meeting you soon. Assel, just in case I don’t meet Walton in time, have a safe journey.
Megaline, in the 1 in a billion chance you read this, I am not picking up an IP address from your hardware, all other settings are OK (VPI, VCI, LLC, PPPoE etc.)

Whilst I am against the punishing of Peer To Peer users in general, it is interesting to see that France has tried a (slightly) different route in persuading people to stay legal when it comes to music, movies, games and applications. Check out the BBC’s article on it here. Monsieur Sarkozy has announced a scheme where ‘casual’ pirates will receive warnings, and eventually have their internet access removed if they continue to download copyrighted materials. The manner in which they catch these people is a little worrying though, making the ISP’s role a lot more pro-active, rather than simply serving them with requests to trace IP address and date/time combinations to customers, the companies will be expected to actively monitor what people are doing, and report the customers.
No financial or prison sentences is a move in the right direction, but the method of getting there is what worries me greatly. If ISPs accept this new policing role, who knows where it will end. Although different companies definitely have differing policies on this sort of matter, I can’t help wondering if it is the beginning of a slippery slope into an oppressive future.

Last night, we had another power cut in the flat around our area. Although a little frustrating, the part that really has begun to annoy is the fact that our ISP, or to be more precise, upstream of them, where Kazakh Telecom’s hardware comes into play, is unable to automatically enable internet access following suck black outs.
Normally, this would mean Irina waiting until 9am, phoning our ISP’s technical staff, and them then contacting Kazakh telecom to go and kick their server until it admits that the internet exists, and clients are wanting to connect.
However, as I previously noted on this blog, yesterday, today AND tomorrow are all public holidays. This means there are NO staff at the ISP, and no other contact methods are available. So it looks as though I will have no internet at home for a few days. I’m just hoping they and Kazakh Telecom both decide to do some work this Sunday, else it will be another day before I can get online.
In case any smart arses want to leave a comment, I am currently at the in laws, using their PC, as we came round for the day.
I really need to get on with my work over the next few days, to ensure I have some money available when I go to Britain, but it looks like I will just have to recalculate my spending money again.
It could have been worse, at least the power cut was in the middle of the night, so was not so frustrating as usual. That said my new UPS seems incapable of shutting down the PC properly, and so unless I catch it in time, the computer is just turned off; this is what caused the last hard drive to fail. I’ll hopefully trace what is causing the issue, and get it sorted soon.

Why would anyone ever search for the term “hide IP address“? Although it may conjure up an image of a geek in a bedroom, not wanting his activities recorded, there are a lot of main stream applications for this activity.
First of all though, a little background about your IP address. If we use a mobile phone as an analogy, then things may become a little clearer, if you are not used to thinking about identity security on a PC… When you call someone, on most cellular networks, the person can see which number is calling them, and if they have your number in their phone book, your name as well. IP addresses work in a similar way… Whenever your modem (be it a USB ADSL modem, a full blown network router and modem, or even just a 56k dial up modem) connects to the internet, your Internet Service Provider assigns your modem an IP address. This way, when you request data from a server, the server knows where to send the information. Even if your IP address is dynamically assigned (that is to say each time you connect to the internet, you receive a different IP address), the ISP will still have records of which customer, calling from which phone line, is using that IP address, at any given time.
Using this data, and both their & the website you are visiting server’s logs, it is possible to build up an image of your browsing habits. For anyone who does not like the idea of having their habits used/abused for whatever purpose (especially for those who live in a country where the regime is quite constrictive re. what information you are allowed to gain, and disseminate any further), an ideal solution would be to mask your IP address. Rather than the web sites server having your IP address, if you relay your requests through a couple of other servers, your own IP address is not recorded by the web site. http://www.hide-my-ip-address.com/ off this sort of service, ensuring that your internet address is not associated with the sites and services you use. So, if you are interested, check the site out, and feel free to leave a comment if you require clarification on any point raised here.