Service update

Our third feed - our third line - is now installed but hasn't been working well. The latest theory is that it needs a static IP address - like our other two lines - to function well with out equipment. This morning that IP address was allocated by BT - and hopefully later today we'll be cooking on broadband gas....

Saturday 14th August

We're not sure why the system went down on Saturday - no obvious reasons. The best guess is that a piece of equipment at Leintwardine is malfunctioning. Rob, our engineer, is going to have a word with the manufacturer tomorrow. Meantime, I've given the nasty electric demon the equivalent of a good kicking, and its sprung into life again.

Advance warning: there may be a small disruption to service on Wednesday morning, when engineers from BT are fiddling with some of our wires. This is the final phase of the enhancement which, had it not been for our electrical nightmares in April and May, would have been completed long ago. I promise you'll all notice the benefits....

I've tried to return all the calls about Saturday's problem - could you remember to leave your number when you call? Hunting around for numbers slows me down - and occasionally stops me dead in my tracks.

Apologies and thanks for your forebearance

Wobbles

We've all noticed a tendency in the system to wobble: sometimes its very wobbly, and makes a connection impossible.

Rob, our engineer, is in Sri Lanka - and when he comes back in August he'll take a close look at what's wrong - but as a temporary measure he's adjusted the frequency of transmission between the Lingen transmitter that, ultimately, handles everyone's traffic, and Leintwardine, where our signal goes into the internet. We have now an increase in signal level and it seems to be improving the service.

I'll keep you all posted.

Capacity goes up....

I'm delighted to say that today's effort to double our network capacity was successful: we now have twice as much bandwidth. Hopefully this will improve everyone's upload and download speeds.

We'll be adding another 50 per cent extra capacity later this month - meaning even faster broadband.

Apologies its taken so long.

Electricity supply

As users will not need reminding, we've been having some - how to describe it? - "issues" with our electricity supply.

Today from about 3.15pm the service went down whilst a brand new electricity supply was hard wired into our equipment. This ought to put a stop to the problem, once and for all.

Many many thanks to Lloyds of Ludlow Ltd, our landlords, for their enormous effort to help resolve this problem, and to Paul at PBJA Electrical Contractors for stepping in to help us out, despite being in the midst of packing for his holiday flight.

The internet connection is planned to resume by 5pm. Next Wednesday. 7th July, has been pencilled-in for the first stage of the service enhancement.

The service is getting better....

A quick note to let you know that the first stage of our service enhancement will be in operation from early July.

We'll be installing an expensive piece of new eqiupment with the result that we can double the bandwidth available to the network. This should help ease the (sometimes horrifically) low upload speeds experienced by some users, and the wobbly on-off experience of others.

During July we will expand our bandwidth by a further 50 per cent.

The result of this substantial investment will be - we hope - a vastly improved service.

Expanding the service...

We've had some problems with BT - whose website said they offered line bonding, but whose call centre insists they don't - and from the suppliers of the Netgear equipment we need to install to manage network resources. But when that is resolved - a fortnight - we'll be able to improve everyone's upload speed, and add 10-15 new users. I'll keep this site updated - and will be writing to the new users.

Are you using a wireless router at home?

A word of help for those of our users who have wireless routers in their houses.

As you know, our service is delivered through a customer unit fixed (usually) to the eves of your houses. The signal comes in and via ethernet is plugged into your computer. Several users plug the connection into their own wireless router instead.

Please bear in mind that if your internet service drops out, or becomes wobbly, the first thing to do is RESTART YOUR WIRELESS ROUTER. This is almost certainly the cause of the problem (rather than a problem with Lingen Broadband...). If that doesn't work then re-start the Lingen Broadband customer unit AND THEN restart your wireless router, too.

If that doesn't work then please try connecting our service directly into your computer. If you still can't connect to the internet then its definitely our problem - in which case give us a call immediately. When you call please leave your name and number clearly - it will speed things up.

Engineering and service improvements

As you'll remember, our initial aim was to get us all safely beyond the 1st April cut off point: that involved creating a kind of broadband lifeboat and hurling us all into it. Not surprisingly the lifeboat is struggling to keep above water under the weight of 36 of us.

To continue the metaphor, what we're doing today is helping to build the big spacious ocean-going cruiser into which we will all climb (elegantly) later this month.

In less flowery language all this means that today the telecoms which double our bandwidth - to 16mb - were installed. Within a fortnight we will be able to complete the expansion process which will mean a much smoother service for everyone. Not least, it will ease congestion.

If we add a third line - and its being considered - users will find the service truly electric.

The bad news is that today we had some service interruptions whilst our engineers were at work - and more can be expected on or around 20th, when various bits of equipment will be replaced and the new upgraded service come into operation.

Please bear with us: you'd be astonished how complicated all this is to organise. We'll keep disruption to a minimum.

Upload speeds

We think something may be a little awry with our uploading capacity: upload speed ought to be 256kbps, but tests on some occasions are showing speeds from 50-90kpbs. The answer may simply be to try again later: if too many of us are uploading simultaneously then inevitably there will be problems. The alternative possibility is that somehow our telecoms or our network control equipment is not working correctly - and we are investigating these possibilities.

Last Friday some of our equipment was replaced in the hope this would iron out some wrinkles in the system. We will keep you posted.

National exams

Qualifications & Curriculum Development Agency is concerned about the risk of unlawful publication of National Curriculum test questions on the internet in advance of the tests on 10th May. We would like to remind users that this may constitute a breach of our terms and conditions.

Lingen in the News

Not only did Lingen Community Broadband make it onto BBC Tv's Midlands Today on 30th March, but we made a guest appearance in the House of Commons during the pre-election budget debate on 25th March.

Bill Wiggin said: "Broadband is another example of rural communities being badly left behind. Towns and villages in my constituency that are not connected are suffering. Only 58 per cent. of households in the rural west midlands have fixed broadband connections. According to the Commission for Rural Communities, 42 per cent. of rural England can currently only access speeds of 2 megabits per second or below. I have written to Ministers, whose answers show that the Government have no idea of the percentage of business and residential properties in Herefordshire without access to the 2 megabits per second envisaged in Digital Britain. I met representatives of BT the other day to discuss the issue, and they were keen to help, but BT is a business too. It has shareholders, and faces challenges of its own. I am extremely worried that the Government's policy will not work."

Lingen currently has no broadband provider. A company called QiComm used to provide it, but can no longer do so because the service is not commercially viable. Members of the community joined forces to get a service up and running themselves, with the support of the local council. There are 36 users, whose broadband service will be operational from 1 April. That demonstrates what can be done when users get together. However, if they are to pay tax on their phone bills, they will be paying for something that they used not to have but went out and acquired for themselves. I do not think that the Government's 50p tax on fixed-line telephones will deliver the changes that we would all like to see."

You can find the debate at http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200910/cmhansrd/cm100325/debindx/100325-x.htm

First Members' meeting

Early warning that our first members' meeting - equivalent of a shareholders meeting - will be on 10th June 2010. Members' will get a formal agenda very soon but it is likely to include a financial update and an opportunity to elect directors.

Making the service more reliable

As users will know, we've had some glitches thanks to the unhappy arrangements at our network hub in Leintwardine. We're taking urgent steps to put those right and this includes arranging for Central Networks to install our own, separate, metered electricity supply. It's another cost we'd not bargained for - there seem to be quite a few of them - but once it's done we'll have removed one big chunk of uncertainty and unreliability. We're hopeful this will be completed before 1st May.

Ofcom

We're just finalising our OfCom registration: a few points to resolve, but all fairly straightforward. Contact David or Judith if you'd like the details.

Company Secretary

We've now completed the legal formalities, so Judith Phillips is now company secretary for good and proper.

Our first glitch

Having completed all the complicated stuff it was inevitable, really, that something fiddly should trip us up: we thought at first that some of the customer data on the network management device was input incorrectly - or a line of software code had got garbled - but we now think it was simply that the customer units on some of the houses hadn't quite digested the software update they were all given earlier in the week. The customer units were (remotely) given a second dose, and now all seem to be working. A big thank-you to Rob, who lost his Bank Holiday Friday morning whilst putting our network to rights.

Success!

6.25 pm, and the service is working. And I'm getting a nice strong signal and excellent bandwidth.

Drama on Day One....

This isn't the place - and I'm absolutely not in the mood - to go into the details, but if you bump into me (or into Brian in the pub) don't forget to ask about today's drama. A story you would not believe. Honestly. Fraught isn't the word.

Suffice it to say that QiComm and our ADSL provider both did us proud and share no part in the blame for the astronomic rise in stress levels. The network control equipment and router turned up wonderfully early at 9.30 am - although for reasons known only to the parcels delivery service it was addressed to Lingen Methodist Chapel. Certainly not QiComm's fault - we think someone at the parcels firm with a postcode database and not much common sense was responsible. Fortunately I was looking out of the window and we intercepted the parcel. As for the ADSL connections we needed, the service went live at about 2pm, with users gradually added to the network from late afternoon onwards. To find out exactly why it was as late as it was, you'll need to catch me or Brian, or perhaps Steve or Monica, all of whom have the full story....

....and now we wait

The service is now down. We're awaiting the delivery this morning of the two pieces of hardware - a router and a network manager - that connected into the system at our Leintwardine hub. Once they're here our engineer, Rob, will perform his magic tricks. Then we wait for our ADSL connections to go live. That could be in a few minutes, a few hours, or not until 10pm-ish tonight. Anxiety levels are high... fingers crossed.