Due to matter totally behond my control i have to use AOL here in my university hall at MMU because its not a standard by line its run by a company called 'Norweb'. I was wondering is it possable to run a dial up connection or something and not use the frankly awfull software that AOL try and force you to use. Ive used the online technical support twice so far and thats just as bad as everyone makes out. But if i look on the bright side i should have 10mbit installed by january
open up aol and connect as usual, minimise thier sucky browser. Open ie, surf in a "not quite as sucky" browser
Last I knew if you are dialing into AOL servers, your out of luck if you just want to use a standard TCP/IP connection. AOL uses funky network protocols and handshaking on their dial-up servers which forces you to use their dialer. However, since it seems that you would be using an intermediary service, maybe you can just use a standard dial-up connection. My best advise is to just give it a shot and see what happens. Maybe call up the tech support people for Norweb if you're allowed to...
Doing that at the moment and ive disabled everything possable Ive found a phone number for norweb and i am going to ring them later this afternoon
Just out of interest which hall are u in mate. Alot of them now have j-net access but Hwulex was in Briafields a few years ago and he ended up having to use AOhell as well The line was really bad for most of his mates adn they never connected at more than 28.8 he'll be mad if there gonna but j-net in there after suffering like he did
Im in Briarfields I wanted to be in cambridge because that already has eithernet connections but im stuck on AOHell at the moment and it sucks It connects at either 42 or 45 depending on what mood its in
Thats what I had to do because at the time my uni hadn't installed resnet. But at the time it was the only 0800 dial up available, find another 0800 dial up and it should work too but without all the crap AOL make you use...
http://www.0800dial.com/ - I used to use that before I went onto broadband, and it actually does live up to its claims. By the way, you don't have to install their crappy software. Call tech support after signing up and ask them for the settings so you can enter them manually. They look dodgy but they're a very good service provider
lol, not quite under the arch, we're not really a couple of tramps. The lines did suck in Briarfields though. IIRC they've got an internal exchange where 20 (yes, twenty) external lines were used to support a hall of 400. Nice. One. My line, funnily enough, was always really good (well, as good as 56ghey on AOhell can be) with connections of about 52k (Flat D3b). Three flatmate's though were rubbish. If I ever went out overnight, I had to leave an extension lead in the hall from my socket so they could use it, lol.
Mine connects about 45 but sometimes its like 31 but thats probably just AOL. I dont think many people can be bothered paying the £75 for the phoneline so it shouldnt be too bad. Ow well 10mbit in january
I'm using freeukdialup.com from Oxford Court. 0845 055 1861 Pass and username: free It's just bog-standard net access charged at local call rates. I'm gonna see how long £25 worth of credit lasts me, must not connect during the day!!
Mine lasted me 4 days because the stupid woman in the opal office told me it was 0.04p per minute to dial the 0845 AOL number but it turns out is just normal rate Im still looking for an unlimited 56k service that will run on the ****ty phone system
Yeah, I ended up writing a bit of a pissy email to Opal Offices asking what options I had. That was about a week ago and so far their awful customer service has lived up - they still haven't replied. I saw them digging a trench and laying cable from Cambridge Halls to ours, and they're apparently coming round installing Ethernet points in the rooms, but it won't be available until next year What Tutorial Group are you in BTW?
Yeah i saw them doing that and hoped but they still say its not going to be ready to after the christmas break. I got this e-mail this morning... I don't see why thats going to take so long especially for us because we allready have all the sockets installed and they came to test the cables 2 weeks ago in every room but their probably waiting until all your halls are done aswell (You don't have sockets yet right? i heard) Im currently searching for AOHell 0800 numbers because i heard their is some its just their technical support doesnt like to tell you them. Im in tutorial group H by the way.
Indeed your right there, they wont activate it until every connection can be made live. It saves them having to deal with loads of queries asking 'when will my line be active'... If you have the sockets it might be worth trying them, you never know they might be live during the installation/testing. I know all the residences here were live during testing.
Ahh, I'm in Group C. Yeah, I plan on plugging my machine into the box as soon as it's installed and just let my PC check for an active connection until I pick one up. I'm currently in Uni writing this because I can't afford to access the net in the day I even tried a laptop with a wireless card (loaned) to see if I could pick up a signal from a wireless AP in the area in my room, but I can't . At least you've got the ethernet boxes installed, they still haven't done ours! Although we are Block J so they might get to us soon ... If you DO get some 0800 numbers, stick em up on here! I'm making my £20 last a week and a half so far, but I'm sure it won't be long until I need to put more on. I asked the woman in Opal Offices if I would be able to get the AOL flat-rate scheme and she said yes and gave me a disk. Not surprising to learn that she was wrong . That company deserves a slap.
