Then again, I never had an issue with Telefonica/Movistar but I know a lot of you do. If I ever had an issue with their service, I'd call them and they got it sorted. In fact, every service provider I've been with have always been good with me.

At our new house, I've gone with a company called Conecta3 because people said they were good.
They offer various levels of speed on their rural (wifi) internet and I chose their 12Meg offering which was the same price as the 8Meg I had with Enersol. Result, I thought.

Having arranged for their guy to call and do the business, he duly turns up, quick site survey and it's a go'er.
Straps their little receiving dish to the TV aerial pole, cable fed into the house, router connected, pc connected and ......... ooppsss.

I could tell from their faces and the nervous chatter something was wrong. After 30 minutes of the aerial pointer pointing the aerial all over the place and the technico giving instructions it's still not working so they reverse roles. Technico is now on the roof asking for the numbers on the screen.

Another 30 minutes pass and aerial pointer is reunited with technico and they now have happy smiley faces. Internet working and shows the 12Meg I've asked for. Result! and off they go.

3 weeks on and it's not all roses in the garden, far from it. The internet was never that responsive and for 12Meg, I would have expected it to be at least as fast as the 8Meg I'd had previously but no. But at least it worked. Then we've had a little wind which has mucked things up a bit more with virtually no upload speed at all rendering it virtually useless AND I've just received an email wanting 2 months rental. Ha!!! Fat chance.

I've included a picture that will probably help some of you work out why my internet is so poor. The receiving dish is BEHIND a metal chimney!!! DOH!!

For those who don't understand, the dish operates in the same way as your satellite tv dish, it collects the signal and reflects it to the bit in the middle, only in this instance, it collects some of the signal whilst the metal chimney reflects the rest of the signal across it's path and so hinders reception (download) and transmission (upload). Fabulous! So it looks like they're going to have to come back and do the job properly or I'll be going somewhere else.

Whilst my previous supplier, Enersol, didn't have a working signal here, they did offer to set up an experimental solution for me but that was after I'd got Connecta3. I did tell them if Connecta3 couldn't supply the service, I'd let them experiment so that might be my next option.

I'll post an update later.

**Update** 19 June 17.30
Well, went into see Connecta-3 this morning.

It appears someone 'forgot' to tell me that after your first month, they take two months money - one for last month and one for the coming month. That's not bad, taking money for a service you haven't provided yet.

After having this confirmed, I paid my dues and raised the issue about how poor the service is I'm getting. They got my email last week but decided to do nothing. Now I'm speaking to the technical boss who, after making a phone call, assures me the engineer will be here to put things right between 2-3pm and I'm still waiting.

At the moment, every speed test I do fails to upload and sometimes fails on the download. Oh Connecta-3, what a shitty start to a business relationship. Struggling to provide a service and struggling to get the engineer here.

**Update** 25 June 12.20

So, the engineer finally came this week to see what the problem is.

A quick chat and he connects his laptop to the internet (not the router) and after a few clicks doesn't appear impressed. In fact, he's so unimpressed he has to ask what speed I'm supposed to have.

12M says I and see a glimpse of 'oh shit' in his face. Now I reveal the reason it doesn't work - the dish is hiding behind the chimney - so he goes outside to look.

Not impressed, he says it's been installed wrong. I know says I and he explains that he needs to have a look in his van to see if he has a 'U' pipe mount so he can attach it to the tv aerial mast and swing the dish out into the open.

Success, so up the ladder he goes and sets it all up. One small problem arises. He has to call base on his phone whilst repositioning the dish to get a signal. He tells me it's the best he can do without having an accomplice to fine tune it here.

I now have internet (of sorts). The speed test shows the right numbers so he's happy (sort of). Thing is you see, whilst I get the right numbers, the internet is still crap, pages take forever to load and the computer keeps reporting no internet connection on a regular basis.

Would I recommend Connecta-3? In a word no!

I'm sure there are a lot of people out there who don't have any problems with them but I'm a demanding user who pushes my internet connection to it's limits so it simply has to be ultra reliable - which this isn't.

Communicaciones Enersol hardly missed a beat, I had to call them 3 times in four and a half years and they resolved the problem within the hour. I had 8M internet with them and it ran a lot faster then the 12M I currently have, which reminds me of an old saying "it's quality, not quantity, that counts.". Something a lot of us tend to forget.

**Update 6th July **

After living with this for a couple of months now I have to say it's the worst move I've ever made.
Example 1: Emails take what seems forever to open and if it has graphics in it you can be looking at 45 seconds.
Example 2: My downloads constantly disconnect and fail.
Example 3: My TV buffers like crazy.

This is supposed to be 12M internet for goodness sake.

It shows 12M on speed checks but, in real terms, it certainly isn't running anywhere near 6M which can only be down to constraints imposed by the provider.

Based on my experience, my opinion has to be AVOID CONNECTA-3 LIKE THE PLAGUE

** Update 18th Jan 2018 **

We've moved house and I've switched suppliers to ComEnersol who I had before the disastrous Conecta3 fiasco.

Was it worth it? Oh yes!! 8 meg internet €10 cheaper than C3 12 meg and it works. No buffering TV, no disconnecting downloads and email attachments open when clicked.

This confirms my earlier statement in respect of C3 rural (wifi) internet - avoid it like the plague, it's total crap!!

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Bad news for consumers yet again as Samsung force price hikes in Solid State Dives and Hard Disk Drives (SSD & HDD) prices.

SSD & HDD prices are set to rise once again. Not due to flooding of the factories as happened a few years ago but due to component shortages.

The factories producing the basic components of both types of drive had been down sizing due to falling sales to the HDD manufacturers who had cut manufacturing to the bone due to lack of demand.

Samsung switched manufacture to Enterprise SSDs, which created a demand in that arena (and a lot more profit) which meant they were diverting more resources into that area which left a gap in the bottom of the market that couldn't be filled.

Why couldn't it be filled?

Because manufacture of the NAND chips used in the SSD had been cut to such a degree that it's now almost impossible to catch up with current demand. This has led to a shortage of NAND chips which in turn has led to higher prices.

The higher prices of SSDs has led to a resurgence in HDD sales. Great but, as component manufacture had also been cut because of the gaining of popularity of the SSD, there are now shortages in this area also which has led to the same problems as with the SSD - a shortage of HDDs (which also use NAND chips).

So why is it Samsungs fault?

They are not releasing their manufacture of NAND as they normally would and are buying up other stocks to satisfy demand for their Enterprise SSDs.

Unless the other manufacturers out there are able to revamp production, we could soon see a Samsung monopoly in the drive market, and that would be bad.

I would never choose a Samsung HDD over another brand if I had a choice. Give me HGST or WD any time. Samsung may be the market leaders in SSD but SSDs are still not as durable as a good old fashioned HDD.

For over a week now I've been trying to source a system board (motherboard) from Dell. In my desperation, I found a phone number which turned out to be for their expired warranty support team. Great.

Seems the pc I'm trying to get the board for could have had one of two fitted but they don't know which. Apart from that, they only have one type available and it's 2nd hand BUT they can't sell it to me because I have to order it from Dell Spain, not Dell UK???

Now, had I received a reply from the emails I've sent via their website and facebook page, I could have been looking elsewhere for one. So, based on my experience, don't expect much from Dell in the way of customer service. Seems making cuts to become the biggest pc manufacturer has come at the cost of customer service, just like their nearest rival, Acer (whose brands include Gateway, eMachines, Packard Bell and Predator).

Add to this the power supplies they use can be very borderline, I'm not so enthused about suggesting Dell to any of my clients.

Don't get me wrong, they're a great little camera, but you can get a brand name fully IP66 models for a similar price that you can send back and get a refund without it costing an arm and a leg, AND you don't have to pay import duty, 

I bought a few of these as samples to see what the quality was like before placing a large order. Good job I did.

So if you see any of these out there, you'll know they're only an indoor camera and nothing else.

What does it say on the side? IPCC ipcloudcamera.com - a website I can't reach.

Well today, it seems everything is my fault.

Having visited a client and helped them with a problem that isn't really the computers fault, I get a phone call full of frustration aimed at me personally.

They are having issues with pages not loading, not just on one website but on every website they try to view secure pages and this is somehow MY fault!

So, I try to log into their computer to take a look and guess what, I cannot connect because I'm using a secure connection and this is somehow MY fault!

The ensuing comments then inferred that I should do something about it. Sorry but there's not much I can do about your internet.

The main problem here is the client lives right on the fringe of the internet providers transmission area so the signal is flakey at best and non-existent at worst. The client even told me the internet provider admitted they might have iffy internet because of this but it's somehow MY fault.

So lets look at why it's my fault.

I'm called out because the computer isn't connecting to websites.

I clean up their computer and tweaked it to make it less vulnerable to attack. Go to some random websites and it works fine.

Now we go to the websites they're having trouble with. First page loads fine, if rather slow due to poor internet, then we try to log in. Connection reset. Check everything on the computer to make sure I've not missed something and try again - same result.

This goes on for some time and the only positive results we get are with Google Chrome but even then, it's fairly hit and miss. I put this down to poor internet which is borne out by the client being able to transact using a quality internet connection.

I'm called out again a few weeks later. Nothing's changed, same poor internet connection, same problems.

So why is it MY fault? Because I charged them for my visits and didn't make their internet work properly.

This is a little rant I'm afraid. I know it's basically my fault BUT!!!!!

Sometimes when at clients premises, I have to use a series of rescue/installation discs to resolve an issue.

Sometimes, it can take quite a few hours to sort out the multiple problems people allow to accumulate on their computer before seeking professional help. A lot of which is helped along by the 'bar room fixers' who know absolutely sod all in real terms about much at all.

They don't know what the real problem is because they've not seen it and clients rarely know how to describe the problem fully anyway - not that there's anything wrong with that, I don't expect it.

The client then goes and mis-follows the wrong advice they've been given and make an even bigger dogs breakfast of the whole thing and after they've totally screwed their computer, they call me.

Now to the point of my rant.

After I've spent hours sorting out the cock-up, I put my things back in my bag (or so I think) and head off home. Some days, or even weeks, later I open my bag looking for the discs to find that I've accidentally left at my clients.

The annoying thing is the client, who now has a full set of service and recovery discs that I've paid for, and doesn't have a clue in hell how to use them, hasn't had the decency to ring me and let me know I've left them. This has happened every time I've done it.

I now have to go through the time and expense of getting a new set of dics together.

ONE THING YOU GET FROM ME IS HONESTY, IF YOU CAN'T RETURN THE FAVOUR THEN YOU DON'T DESERVE THE SERVICES I OFFER.

​I will work out where I left them and that person will have a heavy bill next time they call me!

It just goes to show, there's a lot of really dishonest immigrants out there.

Well, after giving Windows 10 the benefit of the doubt for a few weeks I'm ready to give you some real life feedback.

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Thank you.

OK, so maybe it's not quite that bad but would I give up my Windows 7 machines for it.

No! I wouldn't.

Apart from insisting on installing the wrong video drivers for my motherboard which resulted in a very bad display pattern, I didn't like having to use the search facility for things I never had to search for before. What's that all about?

Clicking buttons on the start menu so I could find things that were hidden in another section of it, oh my goodness, now it's all changed and I can't find anything. What was it I was supposed to click on again!?

Clicking on all the buttons on the start menu and I couldn't find the original list. Pah!!!!! Reboot.

Right then, lets connect to my VPN. Where is it? Ah, there it is. Put in password, oh bo**ocks, it won't connect. Oh, more bo.......... it won't do anything now. Reboot.

OK, lets delete it and set it up again. Right, let's connect, enter password. Even more bo......... it still won't connect, a.n.d .......... Reboot.

OK, repeat steps above BUT, don't put in any credentials. Let's try to connect now - put in credentials - hey, it's connected yahayyy. What a palarva. Now I have to put in both user name AND password as I'm connecting or it won't work. That's poor, very poor!

After a few weeks of putting up with this, we both had enough. Lets revert back to Windows 7.

Haha, That's another game Microsoft screwed up. After reverting back, it now reports my machine has a pirate copy of Windows on it and I need to buy a new licence.

Well, I only have two words for that and it involves sex and travel.

All in all, Windows 10, to date, is definitely not an upgrade if you currently have Windows 7. Is it an upgrade to Windows 8? I think I prefer Windows 8 to 10 if I'm really honest.

Who knows, maybe they'll have got it working by next July when your free upgrade deadline is due but don't hold your breath. Microsoft gave up on Windows 8 when they issued service pack 1, long before the 3 year cycle was up. It could happen with this as well.

If only they would only stop trying to fix things that ain't broke, who knows, we could end up with a decent version of Windows but until that day comes, Linux Mint is a brilliant alternative for most of you out there.


All trade marks and registered brand names acknowledged.

Well, Windows 10 has been available as an upgrade for nearly 2 months now so is it now OK to go for the free upgrade.

In short, no. Do NOT accept the free upgrade unless you know what to do if everything goes wrong as it often does.

Just about everyone who worked with the evaluation and testing versions say it's OK. A lot of people who've upgraded say it's OK BUT, there's a lot of people out there who've gone for the free upgrade and regretted every second.

It's not that 10 is intrinsically that bad, it's better than 8 but that's all you can say about it. The real problem lies with the upgrade process, it's just too unreliable.

Almost everyone who has opted to do a clean installation of 10 says it works with few exceptions but that comes at a cost. The price of 10 starts around £80.

My bottom line is, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Only go for 10 if you REALLY want to have the latest version of windows. It certainly isn't any better than 7.

OK, I've got XP, what should I do?

That's easy. Get Linux Mint. It has an appearance of win 7 and is free. Mint has a crisp, clean appearance and is built on the ever popular Ubuntu version but with a different appearance not too dissimilar to 7 making it easy for windows users to cross over.

Unless you have specialist needs, Linux Mint will work for you.


Opinions are those of the writer.
Trade marks and brand names acknowledged.