Tech Questions
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@stargazer you kinda answered the question about not watching movies, but do they have kids who watch alot of Youtube? Think the default setting for that is HD, that'll chew through the data (came across that one when my kids were smaller and we had a restricted plan)
I am pretty sure the old restricted GB plans are the same price as the unlimited ones.
Also I think Vodafone gives you a daily break down of data usage so you could try to at least isolate it that way
I'd say that is pretty slow for wellington, surely? I'm semi-rural Northland, well away from fibre, and I just did a test and got 32.8 up and 2.3 down
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Okay, just talked to them. They called Vodafone and are changing plans which should give them unlimited and faster broadband for about the same price. Only downside is that they're locked in for 24 months again, after having an open term contract for years.
The Vodafone guy also looked at their usage data and suspects someone is hacking their router.
New connection with new modem/router will be established next week, so BIL decided to change the password on the router. Their PC works fine, but now they don't see the network on their mobile devices. So phones and laptop can't connect to the wifi.
I wish they had just waited for the tech guy to come next week. This is not something I know much about, not sure I can fix that for them.
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@nepia It's not mobile broadband, so no monthly plans. For cable broadband it's either open term, 12 months or 24 months contracts. If they'd opted for open term, they would have had to pay for the new connection (their current one is outdated), new modem etc; on the 12 month term, they'd would have had fewer deductions than on the 24 month contract. So this was cheapest solution.
Brother-in-law was a bit pissed off, but it seemed to be the best they could get for about $75 per month (includes landline).
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shoulda had a look at other options before locking something in for 24 months...although TBF, if they are happy with Vodafone, if they see a good deal come out in say 12 months, they'll break it for them and lock em in for another 24...
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That's pretty shite of Voda. They should have offered an upgrade a long time ago. That was an old legacy plan (the type they cream their unknowing customers through for as long as they can get away with).
I guess the contract is signed now, but they may be able to back out before installation happens.There are ISPs out there that are contract free, you just need to fork out for the modem. Best deal is to go fibre if rolled out down their street. $60 gets you great speed and unlimited data. Ditch the landline, save $15 a month and the router is paid for in a year. The $15 savings continues on.
As for the current problem, check that the name hasn't been changed as well as the password and that the phones are looking for that matching name. Otherwise check the other admin settings for anything accidently changed.
Edit: sorry that $60 was for a low end 20/10 fibre plan. If you want 100/20 it's about $70
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@tim said in Tech Questions:
Hey guys, what's the best (non-Mac) thin and light laptop these days? Probably 13 or 14" screen. I'm thinking 1080p IPS screen, 16GB RAM, and 512GB SSD are the minimum requirements.
16:10, 3:2, or 4:3 screen ratio would be nice.
ABAS - (Anything but a Surface)
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@tim said in Tech Questions:
@crucial Not "lapable" or the recent firmware problems?
I have no idea what the problems are but I have one for work and it goes from being lovely and responsive to feeling like an old P2 with spinning blue cursor and text being behind my (slow) typing. Then suddenly it's like a dam opens and it is away again.
Particularly poor when extending the screen -
Is the bluetooth in a phone software or hardware? If the former can you reinstall just the bluetooth?
Having connectivity issues with a couple of devices and have done checks, re Installs on the other devices but my phone drops one in particular all the time and another now and again.
Restarting my phone sees it reconnect for about an hour or so but eventually drops out.
Oh on an android.
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@taniwharugby I'm far from an expert, but bluetooth requires certain hardware, an adaptor or transceiver (that's a combined transmitter and receiver); that can be a (USB) dongle or an in-built card. It also requires software to work.
If you google "bluetooth + [phone brand + model] + connectivity problems (or something similar), you should be able to find tech forums where they give tips for solving these problems. Make sure your android is up-to-date, too.
Here's an example: https://www.techlicious.com/how-to/how-to-fix-bluetooth-pairing-problems/
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So I'm looking at purchasing a 'dumb' phone because I'm thinking smart phones aren't the healthiest and I want to have a break from them from time to time but still be able to text the Mrs and maybe have music saved on it for gym etc. What I'm struggling with is working out if the things will actually work in Australia as I know the 2G network has been taken down.
This website has some great devices but I'm concerned I might be just purchasing an expensive paperweight. Anyone know what the deal is? If 2G no longer exists do phones still work and its just internet data that is affected?
Cheers,
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@Rembrandt said in Tech Questions:
So I'm looking at purchasing a 'dumb' phone because I'm thinking smart phones aren't the healthiest and I want to have a break from them from time to time but still be able to text the Mrs and maybe have music saved on it for gym etc. What I'm struggling with is working out if the things will actually work in Australia as I know the 2G network has been taken down.
This website has some great devices but I'm concerned I might be just purchasing an expensive paperweight. Anyone know what the deal is? If 2G no longer exists do phones still work and its just internet data that is affected?
Cheers,
What about something like this;
I know it still has some internet functionality, but I doubt you'll want to use that on this screen. Has MP3 & FM.
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@Stargazer said in Tech Questions:
@Rembrandt This webpage suggests you would not be able to use it. See under "2G shutdown".
Cheers, certainly does look that way. I reckon dumb-phones.com.au might not have the smartest business model.
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My laptop ((it is rather old but still did the things I wanted it to do) has crapped itself but the hard drive is ok. I need to get access to a number of files on that hard drive but unsure how to go about it. Is there something that you can plug the recovered hard drive into to down load those files onto another storage area? Any help would be appreciated as some of those files are tax/accouinting files of mates that I give a hand to come end of financial year, sadly I don't have those files backes up anywhere - lesson now learnt!