The techy support thread

Since there are some serious nerds on here (not me you understand ) Thought I might start a thread for anyone with a computer/gadget related query for those nerds out there to answer.

Yup. I'm sure I could lend a hand.

i might be able to answer a few questions too

Shall I make this a sticky then?

I bought Microsoft Office when I bought my new laptop in January, I think it comes with three licences. Anyway, my laptop has now had to go in for repairs twice (piece of junk) and last time it came back to me in its original condition, i.e. without my installed software.

Does anyone know if I will I have used up all three of my licences as when it comes back this time as I will probably have to reload the software yet again? Only I am not sure how it would know that I am using the product key on the same computer.

Cat19 wrote:

I bought Microsoft Office when I bought my new laptop in January, I think it comes with three licences. Anyway, my laptop has now had to go in for repairs twice (piece of junk) and last time it came back to me in its original condition, i.e. without my installed software.

Does anyone know if I will I have used up all three of my licences as when it comes back this time as I will probably have to reload the software yet again? Only I am not sure how it would know that I am using the product key on the same computer.

It shouldn't be a problem. Same computer, license should still be valid. If you have any issues microsoft's helpline should be able to activate it for you.

What BBS said.

are you going to be reviewing the laptop

helencb wrote:

are you going to be reviewing the laptop

Maybe. I am a bit scared of venturing into techy territory though. It is even more scary than film territory.

well you did that other techy review.....and we dont need nerdy reviews about chips and graphic card specs all the time!

(I am trying to review the car. (well in theory, I havent started with pen and paper yet. I have done several cars in the past, one even got picked up by which - but now I am Motors it's harder!)

Anyone had any issues with Firefox 3.5.2?

I'm having trouble will all sorts of websites... Facebook probably the biggest culprit.

Camp Freddy wrote:

Anyone had any issues with Firefox 3.5.2?

I'm having trouble will all sorts of websites... Facebook probably the biggest culprit.

Apparently it is majorly buggy (not using it myself). Would rollback to an older one mate until the sort it.

Bluebloodedscouser wrote:

Camp Freddy wrote:

Anyone had any issues with Firefox 3.5.2?

I'm having trouble will all sorts of websites... Facebook probably the biggest culprit.

Apparently it is majorly buggy (not using it myself). Would rollback to an older one mate until the sort it.

Will probably use Opera or Chrome until it's sorted. Seems to run fine on the desktop, but is crap as hell on my laptop.

Is there any software out there to stop BT throttling our services..?

Throttling what Phil? Torrents? They're not going to throttle your email or web browsing unless you're doing a lot of downloading using other programs and even then, it'll have to be a lot.

Saying that, if it is torrents, then each torrent will behave differently. You can get fast torrents and slow torrents.

If you want a solution, we need more information.

p2p

How many times do I need to tell you my names not Phil.

I would like to know how to increase p2p speeds too although I have a feeling my son's constant downloading (strictly legal of course) is crippling my broadband speed.

same here boss. We have 20gb but they throttle us back to 133kbs at some points in the day. Its annoying as we upped our Gbs from 10 with BT OPtion 1 to Option 2 and the 20gb, which we dont get anywher enear using. They locked us into the contract so stuck with it.

Likewise but with talk talk.

As far as I am aware, there is no easy solution to throttling.

The only way I can think of to increase torrent speed is to carefully pick your torrents. More popular torrents will theoretically be faster, but not always - I downloaded a 700MB film yesterday that took about 12 hours even though it was popular. Also... torrent speeds are not a good reflection of how fast your broadband is, so don't assume that your fastest torrent is the limit of your broadband speed.

If you're after *ahem* less legal things, then it's worth considering other, non-free sources such as newsgroups and Rapidshare which, as far as I am aware, can make more use of your broadband connection. Of course, if you take the piss with downloads, then I'm sure your ISP will end up throttling you even on those.

We have 20gbs and the highest we ever did was 15 on the 10gb package., why we upgraded ta their request. The point is we cant get nowhere near the 20gb we pay for because they throttle it.

No-one gets anywhere near the 20MB they ask for. My last ISP was Pipex and I was on the 8MB package, but I never actually connected any faster than 5.5MB. It's all to do with how far you are from the exchange, line quality, what type of broadband you have etc.

Now I'm with Virgin on a 2MB optical line (not BT's copper) and guess what? My torrent speeds are pretty much the same as my old ISP, despite being 40% of that speed. Ironically, when online gaming, my connection times to game servers is twice as good as it was with Pipex.

However, as I said above, torrent speeds are not indicative of broadband speed and other sources such as newsgroups and Rapidshare are much, much faster, although you'll have to stump up a tenner or so a month.

Unless you're connecting right at the exchange, you'll never get 100% of the speed you pay for.

you are confused with 20 mb. We are talking about downloading. Are you sure you should be doing this thread

The 20mb you talk about though ds is browsing not downloading speed. No-one gets 20mb downloading speed and you will not be getting anywhere near that download speed ever. Check the broadband upload/download speedtest out if you want to see what you are getting compared to what your are entitled to. Loads of things can slow your downloads down too.

Connecting via ethernet is loads quicker than wireless for example (part of my problem).