Come on Valve… sort it out! The Orange Box for like £5 is an absolute bargain. But who doesn’t have Half Life 2???

Will there be one? I’m still hoping that HAWX makes an appearance. Come on VALVE give us something better than Lara Croft!

Well, installing the BeBox last night was simple.  The main problem was that my home network was hard-coded to 192.168.0.x IPs, and the Be modem defaults to 192.168.1.x.  Once that was all fixed, the Be instructions were fine (although they could have described the internal menus of the Speedtouch a little better).  The line was already activated, and I immediately synced at around 18/1.5.

I couldn’t wait to get onto Speedtest, and the outcome was:

Not too shabby!  Nowhere near the theoretical 24mb maximum, but still three times the average I used to get.

I then swapped back in my Linksys WAG54GX2 as I suggested in my earlier post.  This didn’t actually make any changes to the speeds at all, but at least it meant I didn’t have to set everything up again.

The real effect came when I decided to hit a couple of big torrents this morning, to see how the extra bandwidth would affect day-to-day use:

Wowsers.  I just showed those to a colleague who’s on 2mb cable, and his response was unprintable!

Dan

As I posted last week, I’m moving over to Be There from IDNet.  Well yesterday my free (loaned) router arrived from them.  I’m currently using a Linksys WAG54GX2 which has been pretty good and reliable, so I’ll probably want to use that eventually because it already has all my firewall exceptions and NAT forwarding details plugged in.  However, just to get up and running with Be, I’ll probably just drop the Thomson Speedtouch in first and see how we get on (speedtest results soon!)

Anyway, if you’re thinking of joining Be, this is the BeBox modem package you’ll receive:

I’ve got to say it’s been a nice package, and a really impressive switchover process so far.  Be’s online portal is good at keeping you informed of what’s going on, they respond to tickets on the nail, and they text you updates of how the process is progressing.  The documentation in the box is clear and comprehensive as well, and has my details on so it’s not just generic.

However, I’m not sure the reviews of the Speedtouch are great (apparently its setup is unintuitive and they aren’t the most reliable) and I don’t fancy setting up all my forwarding and MAC lockdowns on the wireless again, so I will probably revert to the Linksys as soon as I can get Be to give me the necessary connection details.

Dan

Vopium a Copenhagen based tech start up works with VoIP and GSM based technology, dedicated to help friends and families to keep in touch, regardless of where they are in the world. At the moment Vopium is available in 18 countries as further expansion is planned to provide premium call quality at much reduced costs covering over 180 international destinations.

Vopium solution works independent of networks or operators and is compatible with handsets in the market across Java, RIM, Symbian, Windows Mobile and iPhone.  The reasons for Vopium’s acceptability are - it is simple, affordable and 100% mobile with support for over 500 phones. Vopium WiFi users can even make 100% free calls and avoid roaming charges when abroad. It also offers its new users 30 minutes free calls and 100 free SMS for trial..

In addition to that Vopium is the first mobile VoIP provider to offer mobile backup - a free service which allows Vopium customers to store their address book contacts and calendar securely online. Integrated with the Vopium application, Vopium Sync backs up a user’s contacts and calendar direct to their online Vopium account.  If a user loses their phone, all they need to do is log on to their Vopium account and retrieve their saved contacts and calendar items.  They can also log into their online account at any time and edit contacts and calendar items.

How to Get Vopium:

STEP 1   Register your phone
You register your phone by signing up or by sending an SMS with "Get" to +447781480717 SMS short codes

STEP 2   Download Vopium
You receive an SMS with a link to the application. You download by clicking on the link or opening it via options. The download typically takes less than a minute.      

STEP 3   Start making FREE calls.
You are now ready to try this new service. Vopium provides you with 30 FREE MINUTES to call any fixed line or mobile in the world.

I’ve been asked how to replace the hard drive in an Easynote BG45-U-300 so here is a quick guide that I have put together. Remember to re-install your operating system on the new hard drive you will need an external USB DVD drive. Also if you haven’t created restore DVDs yet you better get on that because you will need them if you don’t have another copy of Vista installation media.

Step 1

Remove battery and locate the screws circled below

Step 2

Remove the 3 screws with a small Philips head screw drivier

Step 3

Next use a flat head screw driver to lift the cover

Step 4

Lift the cover off by squeezing your finger in. Don’t be afraid to give it a good yank its quite stiff

Step 5

OK you are in. Ease the hard disk out by pulling on the tab.

Step 6

Once the drive is out you will see the power connector and SATA II connector take note of which way these go round.

Step 7

Remove the drive from the internal caddie by unscrewing the 2 screws on each side.

Step 8

Replace the old drive with your new one, screw it back into the caddie and then slide it back into the laptop. Its a little fiddly popping it back in so take care and be patient don’t force it in.

There! I hope this helps. Replace the cover and screw it up! That’s it. Hard drive replaced.

Play.com are selling sim free iPhones!

http://www.play.com/Mobiles/Mobile/4-/9352150/Apple-iPhone-3G-16GB-Sim-Free-Unlocked-2-0-Megapixel-Mobile-Phone/Product.html?source=9593#

Just can’t stop fiddling? If you’ve installed something that’s stopping gnome-panel from loading check out this much appreciated advice here:

http://linuxfud.wordpress.com/2007/02/14/how-to-reset-ubuntugnome-settings-to-defaults-without-re-installing/

Im off to Canada in another month to live there. I’m taking my trusty N95 with me and here’s what I’ve been up to to make it worth taking.

My N95 was originally obtained through a contract with Vodafone UK. What I didn’t realise is that you can actually phone up your network operator and get your phone unlocked so that it can take any sim. Great!

The next thing is Vodafone like to put a branded version of Nokia’s OS thank you Vodafone! Here are the steps that I took to sort that problem out!

http://nokia.nigelcoldwell.co.uk/firmware.htm

Then within 10 mins of getting all of that sorted I stumbled across one of the most useful applications ever for an S60 based phone. FRING thats right FRING i’d never heard of it either. Fring has the ability to import your skype and msn contacts and then some. It then lets you call and text them over the net whether that be via wifi or 3G.

Awesome bit of software that’s going to make phoning home so much easier. I will report on my findings! I love a good fling… erm fring.