Vodafone Sure Signal

Hoping the “power of the Internet” will finally get me an answer…

While the politicians are out and about talking about how the blogosphere will help them win the next General Election, I’m hoping that my little blog here, in my corner of the Internet, will get the attention of somebody who knows how the Vodafone Sure Signal works, and tell me how to make mine work!

I got it yesterday and was told it simply needed plugging in and leaving alone.  All it’s managed to do, however, is repeatedly disrupt my Internet connection.  In order to post this blog, I’ve had to unplug it completely to keep the connection alive long enough to get it out to the web!

The forums haven’t really generated any result other than to advise leaving it alone and it’ll “eventually” connect; however, if it keeps killing my Internet connection that’s never going to work!

So here’s my set up:

I’ve got a D-Link DSR-2640R running Firmware Version: 2.11.42.108(RE0.C29)3.9.4.150_v1.06 Hardware Version: B1

I connect through Opal Telecom (TalkTalk Business) and all the while it’s been connected my Vodafone Sure Signal has simply flashed the on-off light steadily.  Over night I switched off the firewall and this morning the power light had stopped flashing, but no other connection lights were illuminated and my mobile signal was no better; and the Internet connection kept dropping!

Vodafone’s Sure Signal support sent me a mail with details of how to configure the router but none of it makes sense and, having looked through the router, none of the settings need changing – the device should be able to see “through” without any problems.  Other than that, they seem unwilling to provide further assistance.

So, do I have a faulty Sure Signal?  Does my router not support the device?  (Nobody seems able to tell me.)  Or should I give up and just going back to having ropey mobile signal in my building?

I’ll miss the News In Briefs, but The Sun has got to go…

This is unlikely to cause Dominic Mohan any sleepless nights, but I think it’s about time I told the newsagent to stop delivering the pub’s copy of The Sun.

I don’t mind the newspaper itself but, like all my customers, I’m just fed up of being bombarded each day with a front page of footballer infidelities.

Indeed, one has to question why each of the men exposed by the newspaper would ever want to cheat on their gorgeous wives, but is it really any of our business?  Does anybody really care?  And do the likes of Cheryl Cole really deserve to have their lives destroyed on the front pages of the country’s tabloids?

I’m bored of it now, so it’s time to find a different paper to read.

Which is a bit of a shame really, as I’ll miss the News In Briefs section.  Surely probably one of the best-written parts of the newspaper…

Out of the mouth of babes…

If you’re somebody who follows my tweets or blogs, you’ll be aware that I’ve been having a little, er, car trouble of late.

Last night, over dinner, Ali and I were discussing the options that we have to free-up this little ‘issue’ we’re facing.  Malachy, our eldest son, turns ten next month and is, at that age, becoming more and more interested in cars.  He can identify most brands and is getting pretty good with models too.  And his biggest concern is that, in order to alleviate our existing problem, we’re about to end up with “an old banger.”

“We always have cool cars,” he said.  His definition of cool is slightly different to mine, but we’ll go with him on this one.  “I like the cars we have.  I don’t want an old banger.”

Jacob, who’s just turned seven, sat quietly, musing over the conversation going on around him.  Eventually he asked: “why do we have to have an old banger?”

“We don’t,” I said.  “But we don’t have the money to just go out and buy a brand new car right now so, if we change, it’s a stop-gap to just get rid of a little problem we’ve got at the moment.”

He seemed to accept this for a moment, and we got on with the business of eating lasagne.

Then Jacob got up and gave me a hug – signs of affection are rare from children with Asperger’s – and said “don’t worry, Daddy, I know how you can get money.  Lots of money!”

Ali and I smiled at each other.  We guessed where he was going – the kid, after all, is addicted to television adverts.

“All you’ve got to do is get all your gold, put it in a bag, and send it off to moneyforgold.com.”  He beamed.  “We’ll be rich and we can get a brand new car.”

You had to smile, otherwise you’d cry. 

Now, if only we had some gold, eh…?!

Warning, Parking Brake faulty! (This month’s Renault blog.)

Waking up this morning, on a cold, crisp February 1st morning, I thought about the Renault and considered that, at last, I had managed to make it through the whole month of January without a single thing going wrong with the car.

At last, I thought, maybe all the niggles are working their way out of the system. 

Indeed, the most sinister thing to happen throughout the past month was that I discovered the car suffers from a very severe paranoia complex: SERVICE! the display screamed at me earlier in the month, accompanied by the soothing tones of the onboard computer’s voice over-riding the stereo and announcing: “Warning, fault, return to Renault dealer immediately.”

Prepared to curse loudly and smash an axe through the car’s windscreen in frustration, I investigated further and discovered that the whole cause of panic was that the windscreen washer bottle was empty.

Topping it back up again, the car appeared satiated and we carried on as normal.  Nothing else, it seemed, went wrong.

Indeed, the car hasn’t been used much this month so the performance figures are low and it hasn’t really had much opportunity to get itself in to trouble, but – for the first time since purchasing it in June – we had a trouble-free month of ownership.

Until this morning, that was.  It’s Jacob’s seventh birthday today and he insisted on being driven to school rather than using the bus, so we obliged.

“Warning!” Announced the soothing voice of the onboard computer as the car was started up.  “Automatic parking brake is faulty.  Return to Renault dealer immediately…”

Renault Vel Satis 3.5V6 Performance Log

Because of the weather, a quiet month business wise and other your-lips-are-moving-but-all-I’m-hearing-is-blah-blah-blah excuses, the Renault hasn’t been used much during January, which has brought some of its performance figures down further.  Good job, really, as this bloody handbrake problem might have surfaced sooner…

 

Fuel Used: 18.6 gallons (down from 36.9)

Economy: 20.0 miles per gallon (down from 22.9)

Distance: 372.2 miles travelled (down from 846.3)

Average Speed: 25.4 miles per hour (down from 30.0)

Service due in: 12’200 miles

Odometer reading: 66’229 miles