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.

Some of you may have read about BT broadband hitting 1.4Tbps - yes, that's right, 1.4 Terrabits per second. That's absolutely phenomenal. What we also have to remember is that it was between two BT buildings, albeit some 250 miles apart. It's still a mean feat though - the ability to download 44 HD films in 1 second.

I certainly remember Virgin Media boasting 1Gbps internet around ten years ago but it's never made it into the public domain. They have to console themselves with the fact they can only really deliver about 10% of that - 100Mbps - to just a few people.

That said, according to uSwitch, they are the ISP providing the fastest broadband in the UK.

Well, with all this speed available out there, you would think the UK is brimming over with internet but nothing is further from the truth when you consider that 20% of London struggles with less than 3Mbps and there are vast areas of the UK where even 1Mbps is a luxury.

Wouldn't BTs' money be better spent honouring promises made some years ago - 6 UK cities would have superfast broadband by 2012 - superfast being average download speed in excess of 24Mbps and there is nowhere in the UK got that yet so why on earth are they bragging about 1.4Tbps.

All this reminds me of people I know who brag about all the qualifications they have and how clever they are but they don't have a clue how to do the job they've got them for. UK government and bankers also spring to mind here.

Really, what is the point of 1.4Tbps when it is unlikely to be delivered to the man in the street. If Virgin Media can't deploy 1Gbps over their exclusive fibre-optic network, will BT ever be able to deliver 1Tbps in a commercial environment when they still can't deliver 3Mbps across the UK and have still failed to provide superfast broadband to ANY town or city in the UK (according to uSwitch) 2 years after their promised date.

In Ireland, the situation is even worse. As some of you might know, we are agents for EuropaSat, providing satellite internet across Europe from the leaders in this technology - Tooway, SES and Avanti.

In Ireland we've had to stop promoting Tooway as it is now full to capacity. So, just for all you sceptics out there listening to the bar room 'experts' trashing this product, remember this. You can't sell a product to capacity if it doesn't work!

 You could be forgiven believing that the UK has broadband in abundance from all the hype generated by the broadband companies but the picture isn’t quite as rosy as it’s painted – nothing new there then.

Who’s seen BT and Virgin Media advertising squillions of megabytes internet for ONLY peanuts. Well, it seems they’re making monkeys out of the UK public because absolutely nobody is living up to the hype.

I read quite some time ago the Virgin Media were able to provide 1Gigabit internet over their cable network. Where is it now? Just in their office? Anybodies guess.

Mind you, according to OFFCOM, they provide the fastest average broadband download speeds. They also advertise on their website speeds of UP TO 100Mbps but according to uSwitch, there is nowhere in the UK that actually gets this. Strange.  Oh sorry, yes they do; remember the magic two words – UP TO.

In fact, according to uSwitch, there is nowhere in the UK that gets superfast broadband speeds at all. Superfast broadband is classed as having an average download speed of 24Mbps or better. This seems to be in contradiction to claims made by BT in 2009 that they will give superfast broadband to at least 6 UK cities by 2010 and that 40% of the country would have access to superfast broadband by 2012. What went wrong BT? Could it be they got involved with Telefonica? Pass.

Add to this that at least 27% of the UK struggles to achieve 3Mbps. 35% of residents in Norwich are yet to see speeds of 3Mbps. So what is going on in the UK?

In London, 20% of people get speeds lower than 3Mbps.

In a survey 2 years ago, Halesworth in Suffolk was home to the slowest broadband connection at 0.128Kbps. Broadband?!

OK people, it’s time to wake up and smell the coffee. Whilst the UK government are pouring money into the broadband infrastructure to try to give it a bit of a boost, it’s acknowledged in many circles that they will never reach the proposed targets using the existing cable infrastructure.

It is acknowledged across Europe that the targets will never be met by traditional cabled broadband suppliers and that satellite internet is the ONLY answer to the problems experienced by many areas.

Enter the next generation of internet available to just about everyone across Europe, satellite internet. OK, it’s not cheap as chips, but then it doesn’t have that vinegar after taste and it does provide you with more or less what you pay for.

Speeds up to 20Mbps download are available with prices starting as low as €10.95 (£9.99 UK) a month.

So what are you waiting for, contact us today and get yours ordered NOW for prompt installation. Current offers include free equipment. Check here for more information.

Clive Gray (Enterprises) (trading as Clive Gray Computers & Premier Voip Solution) are agents for Europasat (formerly ToowayDirect).

Europasat are Europes largest independent satellite broadband internet service provider (ISP) and are the ONLY ISP that can connect you to any of the 3 next generation satellite networks ANYWHERE in Europe.

Europasat are part of the Satellite Solutions Worldwide family.

In addition to supplying satellite internet, we can also offer voip telephone systems that will work over satellite internet, many companies can't.

All registered brand names and trade marks acknowledged.

We’re delighted to announce that ToowayDirect is now EuropaSat.

Following two and half years of very successful and close alignment with the Tooway brand, we feel it’s time to step up the satellite broadband game and offer our customers more choice, and most importantly, the ability to give independent, unbiased advice.

As part of the rebranding, we’ve created the new EuropaSat.com website which gives customers the chance to easily search and compare all of Europe’s satellite broadband products and to decide which one’s best for them, wherever they are.

Our team of satellite broadband experts and our network of Resellers are also on the end of the phone to give you simple, impartial advice on the products, and which one’s right for you.

EuropaSat’s Managing Director Andrew Walwyn said

“We’ve been planning to launch a new independent satellite brand since late in 2012 when we could see that a number of new options and networks were coming on-line in 2013.

“Whilst much of our success has been as a result of our special relationship with Tooway and Eutelsat which of course continues, we felt we needed to open the market up to other customers. People who wanted to deal with us, but for various reasons weren’t a good fit for the Tooway product portfolio.

“The new brand is another step forward in our mission to ensure that wherever you are in Europe, you won’t be excluded from fast broadband and the quality of life that it can deliver.

“Our new brand and website, and our expanded commercial relationships, mean a wider choice of tariffs and services for our customers, and mean that our reach and coverage is even more comprehensive.

“It also enables us to service our resellers and their customer’s requirements more effectively.

“I guess you can draw an analogy with the GSM mobile phone industry where it’s quite common to have two or three different networks all offering slightly different deals and coverage in each country.

“We’d like to thank all the customers who joined us under the ToowayDirect brand for their on-going business. We’d also like to let all our customers, resellers and partners know that in the next few months we have lots of exciting developments in the pipeline to enhance and improve all our network offerings.”

EuropaSat is the only satellite broadband ISP that can connect you to any of Europe’s latest generation satellite services. EuropaSat also offers special, unique tariffs that you won’t find elsewhere to make sure we can look after every type of customer or internet user that wants to look at the satellite option.

ToowayDirect rebranding to EuropaSat FAQ’s
Why have you changed your name from ToowayDirect to EuropaSat?
We felt that the market for satellite broadband in Europe has evolved and developed since we launched ToowayDirect. There are now other satellite networks and products that fill gaps for our customers that Tooway couldn’t fill. We felt strongly that we wanted to be able to give our customers the best choice of products and be able to offer objective, neutral advice on which satellite broadband product or service was best for them. Our rebranding means we can do that.

What does the change mean, am I still dealing with the same people?
ToowayDirect and EuropaSat are brands owned and operated by Satellite Solutions Worldwide Ltd. Whilst the name and the website have changed, the company and the people are identical, as is our address, VAT, bank details and phone numbers.

What do I do if I’m an existing ToowayDirect customer on Tooway?
If you’re an existing customer of ours on a Tooway service, nothing changes, you’ll be dealing with the same team, the same company, and your contract and service isn’t changing or affected.

Can this mean that Tooway isn’t the best product for me anymore?
Tooway’s satellite broadband services remain at the leading edge of the satellite internet revolution and remain the fastest satellite based services available across Europe. If you have Tooway installed at your home or business, it’s very probably still the best product for you.

We continue to have many thousands of our customers on Tooway services, and will continue to recommend Tooway to customers wherever it’s the best product for the customer’s needs.

There are situations however where we want to be able to recommend other products or networks to new customers, for instance if a customer’s location doesn’t allow clear line of site to the Tooway satellite, or if they want a type of tariff that Tooway doesn’t currently offer like pay-as-you-go or Volume Based Billing.

Can I change to one of the new tariffs on your other networks?
You can do, but you’d have to buy new satellite broadband hardware as the dish and modem used is different for each satellite network.

Hello everybody.

Please be advised that we are starting to get booked up for April, so if you think your PC has a problem, or you're considering taking up one of our other services then please contact us now or we may not be able to get you sorted before we go.

You might even miss out on our FREE telephone install offer available for this month only if you don't get in now! Check our Special Offer page for more details.

Please don't leave it until the last minute and miss out.

Over the past few months, I've been extolling the virtues of a wonderful website that allows all us ex-pats to view live UK TV without the need to do anything special, and without the need for satellite TV installations. This website is www.filmon.com. It seems that Filmon are now only able to offer live UK TV in the UK. This is probably down to licencing regulations and the fact that to receive licenced UK TV broadcasts, you should be paying for a licence.

This issue does NOT affect any of our Satellite Internet clients as they all have a UK Internet address.

Currently, anyone residing outside the UK should not be able to watch live UK TV. Scream and shout as much as you like, that is how it is. So why can other nationalities get away with it then - you ask. Well, that's because they don't have the same licencing regulations as the UK so as to provide you with honest and impartial reporting of world events (for most of the time, that is).

So, you don't live in the UK BUT, you want to watch live UK TV (shame on you ;-) ). How do you go about it?

You can always fork out for a satellite dish and receiver and buy a forged sky card, you can pay for an illegal card sharing setup, you can pay one of the many illegal re-broadcasters who pop up all over the place - and disappear just as quickly with your money or you can watch live UK TV through the Internet, either directly from the broadcasters website or from an aggregators website such as www.myiplayer.com.

When I try to watch TV on the broadcasters website, it tells me it's not available in my region. Of course it does, because it's illegal to watch it outside the UK - because it's licenced for the UK only! Please pay attention, I'm getting to that.

OK smart a**e, how's it done? I'll tell you. You use something called a VPN (Virtual Private Network) that fools the website into believing you are in the UK.

How can I get one? There are many free one available along with some relatively cheap ones (5.00 GBP a month). I have personally used a 5GBP one from www.my-private-network.co.uk and it works fine, and they give you a full setup guide with pictures. We have also used the free "Best UK VPN Service" and find that works very well also.

What I do find a lot of - and have to uninstall a lot of - is Expat Shield. Whilst Expat Shield may be free, it's backed by advertisers, it also installs a 'handy' toolbar. Anybody who knows me knows how I feel about third party 'handy' toolbars. They're very handy at breaking things (as many of my clients can testify) and should be banned.

To get the "Best UK VPN Service", it is available from the myiplater.com website on the "catchup" page.

In my opinion, the only thing handy about Expat Shield is the ability to click a few buttons and it installs itself, along with the c**p it comes with. I used it for a couple of days then got rid of it and it will never darken my PC again. Not to be totally negative about this product, I do have customers who think it's marvelous, brilliant and all sorts of other positive adjectives.

Oh, I forgot to mention this option - Slingbox. An ideal option for those with relatives in the UK with a Sky/Cable subscription.

How does that work then? Well, it's intended for people on holiday who would normally be paying for their UK licence but they're not currently using it because they're on holiday and no one is in the house watching TV. That way, you're not breaking your licence agreement and it's legal.

It works by connecting a Slingbox to a Sky/Cable TV box in the UK. You then connect the Slingbox to your internet router. Whilst you're (ahem) 'away', you can watch your Sky/Cable package on your laptop or you would take something with you called a Sling Catcher. Sling Catcher is like a set top box that plugs into the Internet and the TV you're going to be watching. It then transports all your programs from the UK to where you are.

If that all sounds like black magic then when you've got the kit from Currys/PC World, just drop Sling Media support a line from their website and they'll set it all up for you. So that's the Slingbox in the UK, and SlingCatcher over here.

If you would like any more info, please feel free to drop us a line or comment below.

I have no connection to any of the products mentioned in this article.

All brand names and registered trade marks belong to their respective owners - not me.

Tooway internet keeps on getting better.

Not only has the speed barrier been broken, so has the price barrier! Tooway internet now runs at speeds of 20Meg download and 6Meg upload ANYWHERE with prices starting as low as €29.90 including taxes.

Not only that, when you get your Tooway 20M internet for just €29.90, you're not even tied in to a contract and giving you the freedom to turn it on or off at any time.

Thought Satellite internet was expensive, think again!

Click here for more information and price list.

Just a quick post to let everyone know we will not be taking calls from 5th May 2013 until 21st May 2013 inclusive as we will be on holiday. We will be open for calls again on the 22nd May.

We are having a well earned break, not having done so for over 2 years. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

We will, of course, still be monitoring our telephone networks and will be in a position to remedy any problems should there be any.