[Dave Rice]

I do get your point, I just think you’re being over optimistic. I think Hamilton was a very different scenario, H being a weasly little sh1t with a matching wife and Bell being a well known and liked media figure i.e. there was a big personal aspect to it.

A lot of Tories I know like their sitting MP, that’s why they were chosen. They are torn because they know splitting the vote may well let the opposition in. However in the Euros they can let rip because it doesn’t matter, especially as we will be out *sometime* this year. If we don’t then they want a sceptic in Brussels.

So I think the only thing you’ll be able to read from the Euros and Farage is the country is still torn. In the Euros I’m going to vote for a party that is clearly Remain for the same reasons as people will vote Brexit Party.

If there’s a GE I will vote tactically if there is a chance of the Tory vote being split. It would need 15 – 20% to abandon Conservative and the Labour vote hold up. It may be possible, 15% voted UKIP in 2015, they didn’t stand in 2017. But we’re a new seat created in 2010 and the non Tory vote has been all over the place with wild swings, so predictions apart from a Tory win is real crystal ball stuff. One thing is it’s a big Aerospace industry area with BAE, Airbus, GKN and Rolls Royce having major factories in the constituency. I can tell you a lot of Brexiteers there have changed their minds and we were a Remain area to start with. So if anyone feels they’re not being listened to by their ERG member MP it’s not the leavers.

[Dave Rice]

I finally got around to watching the Quake demo. Totally amazing.

I can see the techniques being used in architectural CAD too for building walk through at different times of day / year / materials used etc.

[Dave Rice]

I think you’re being overly optimistic about what a protest vote in the EU elections, if it happens on the scale you hope, will have on Westminster. In the unlikely prospect of a Farage government you’d see the quickest soft Brexit deal done and dusted as No Deal simply cannot be allowed to happen.

Even Farage on Sky this morning finally admitted that there will be a high price to pay. When challenged that people didn’t sign up to be poorer, he said you cannot put a price on “democracy” and people would be prepared to pay it. That’s the sort of strategy that gets you slaughtered in a GE but people don’t care about in the Euros. He seems to be pinning his hopes on an effect from a Euro showing affecting Westminster policy, which I agree it will but not how he wants.

The Tories MPs can listen to the grass roots all they like, it won’t change anything but the Tory Party leader who still won’t have the arithmetic in Westminster.

You’re correct, the ERG comment has no link to Farage. It was just a flippant comment on their total lack of any strategic nous whatsoever. Everything they do backfires.

[Dave Rice]

BoJo, no. Raab, could be. Someone from the new generation untainted by this mess, wouldn’t surprise me. They can be as hard line as they want, the current numbers in Parliament will be even more against them. Euro elections are one thing, we’ve seen that before. a GE is something else. A Brexit party doing well will probably just open the door wider for everyone else.

Every strategy of the hard line Brexiteers has failed to produce any Brexit at all, effectively ruled out a No Deal scenario and protected TM for a year. I don’t think they can plot their way out of a paper bag. Imagine them running the country.

And to think Cameron started this to stop the fracturing of the Conservative Party and that a hard line attitude to Brexit will probably hand power to those who want the opposite. If there is some arch Bannon style strategist they’ve effed it right up. Mind you he’s now trying to turn Italians against the Pope. FFS. I tell you what, why don’t the ERG start blaming the Queen for something, that would work.

[Dave Rice]

Draytek are business oriented and rock solid reliability as well as configuration you get for complex networking . They are the router of choice for SMB, I cannot give them higher praise than that.

Draytek router, synology server is my preferred solution to the SMB I look after. I know they will both not let me down.

[Dave Rice]

It’s pretty rubbish. The WiFi is better but I found it still dropped the fibre connection a lot. Replaced it with a draytek (so I could learn how they work) and haven’t looked back since.

I would give it a go before spending any money on a replacement, it may be fine.

[Dave Rice]

Synology routers comparison https://www.synology.com/en-uk/products/compare/routers They are not cheap!

Draytek Vigor 2762 AC on this page from £145. I love them but you need some network jargon knowledge to get them set up, there are loads of official How-Tos though which I refer to constantly. when you see them it all makes sense. But very different from a “Home / soho” consumer job. I don’t think you’ll have a minutes problem, but of course this is what makes them very powerful and flexible. You have control of just about every aspect.

I have 2 networks, 192.168.x.x “home” and 10.x.x.x test and no need for a second router. Just tell the Draytek LAN 1 for home, LAN 2 for test and let LAN 1 port see LAN 2 (but not vice versa) by ticking boxes. WiFi I don’t use but IIRC you can decide which LAN(s) each SSID can see (you can full blown tags too in a fully managed complex environment).

The Draytek takes care of DHCP on both LANs. Marvellous.

[Dave Rice]

Yeah don’t worry, I wasn’t taking it seriously ?

It’s to get him through his IT degree (concentrating on the media side of things) as well, hence the 1700X rather than a 9400F. I wish I’d had more time to play with it but it was the Mrs birthday that weekend too! I’m amazed what you can get for the money these days and so pleased Intel are being kept honest again.

Next project is looking for a replacement CAD laptop for not a lot of money.

[Dave Rice]

USB ones are just as good. I’ve using generic ones like this Problem is Linux, IIRC Dan had the same problems but I don’t think he found anything.

There is a TL-WN851ND pci card on Amazon for a tenner, it’s old enough to advertise Win 2000 support so I’d think Linux would be OK.

[Dave Rice]

This is so hard to advise without a site survey, especially as I know you have issues. I think the answer is it can’t be worse ? 5ghz will get eaten by the building quicker than 2.4

I’ve been having a lot of success with strategically placed £15 tp-link wa850re n300 range extenders. Placement is everything which is fine if you have a mains socket in the right area.

[Dave Rice]

On the train in deepest Cornwall so can’t check model numbers. 9970 is very basic, fine for home adsl.

Draytek or synology router is absolutely the best way to go. Even the Draytek 27xx can handle 2 subnets and dial in SSL VPN (and all the other flavours). Choice of WiFi on sub models. Can support draytek mesh IIRC but check.

Synology uses the same gui as the servers. Very feature packed. There are 2 models from memory.

Ubiquti do good routers as well as WiFi, all from the same cloud controller. Broadband Buyer can advise and will set up the cloud controller for free 3 years.

[Dave Rice]

If you can use the Play Store then you can install Wifi Analyzer, it’s what I use too.

I’m not Netgear’s greatest fan but I wouldn’t turn down a free one. These days you would expect anything provided by a larger ISP to cover your average house, but Plusnet don’t seem to manage it. TBH any ISP that focuses on price often have the same issue, you have to cut costs somewhere.

I’m still an advocate of having a WiFi solution independent of your router and spending a bit more on it. No matter how crap the ISP router is they can usually manage the broadband bit OK. If you end up with a BT “Smart” Hub, do as Ed recommends and turn off 5Ghz WiFi.

[Dave Rice]

Believe me, add LED to the mix and careful planning is required, get things in the wrong order and you’re taking bits out to add bits in. I’d seen loads of LED headers on the motherboard, right next to fan headers, but failed to appreciate only one of them (in the middle of the board) could do what I needed with what I had and needed a splitter cable.

I’d probably shave an hour+ off next time and realise what I needed to order for the bling. I’d get some extension / splitter / converter cables of various flavours of fan and LED in too. The sort of things you have in the spares box for power / sata / fan problems etc. after years of building.

Fusion is Gigabytes version of RGB, Asus is Aura and MSi is Mystic Light and they are incompatible, case and LED bling makers have their own too. Then there’s non RBG bling, 12v or 5v? Which one of the 4 pins is the power one?

[Dave Rice]

Cable leads to signal loss so you need them a short as you can. Polarisation is important, you can lose as much as half the signal by being 90 degrees out, which is why MIMO was introduced.

If the card has only a single connector, go for something like this on Ebay for £7. Great as it’s 6dbi (the existing are probably 2) which as db is logarithmic is a massive increase, but importantly can be pointed at the AP (they are quite directional). If you have 2 connectors all I can find are these for £11. Omni directional but 6dbi.

I’d wait until you find out about the router as I feel it’s that end where the solution will lie, may be using one of the £11 jobs but modern MIMO WiFi is usually much better than it used to be. Unless you get a cheap Technicolor job from them, in which case I’d just bin it and get one of the WD-9970s. They have one next door (Plusnet) but Barb’s iPad is usually attached to my WiFi!

The current crop of BT & Virgin WiFi ads make me laugh. All they are trying to do is add a repeater to the contract. Funny as previously they all claimed their routers could do a whole house, floor to attic no problem. Sky of course want you to get a Q box or two.

[Dave Rice]

Couldn’t get a video right, getting a photo is tricky enough.

I’ve actually moved the fan up now as it looks better with the top lit at both sides and the mobo logo and accents shining in the comparative darkness below. Didn’t have time for a photo.

One thing I’ve learned is LED lighting is a nightmare of compatibility issues. The AIO came with a splitter allowing 3 devices but it needed two itself (pump and fan) leaving 1 for the case fan. If I’d wanted to put an LED strip in there – which you need for the bright lighting you see on You Tube etc. – there are plenty of headers but they are a different type. Then you need Gigabyte RGB Fusion compatibility. The (updated) Fusion software does a good job of synchronising all the different headers. But boy does the glass window attract fingerprints!

The Phantek case is nice to work on with supplied velcro straps in a wide channel at the back. The PSU box means you don’t have to be totally anal with the cabling as even with a modular PSU it isn’t easy. There are openings all around the edge of the mobo area with a wider one where you’d expect the power cable to go. The 8pin 12v cable could be put in after the mobo was installed, but you need to put the AIO radiator on after that, and think carefully about it’s fans relationship to the relevant mobo headers.

A modern “office” PC takes me 30-45 minutes these days from boxes to first boot, this one took me 3 hours but the end result was worth it.

[Dave Rice]

It probably is the router. If the antenna are removable on the cards you can replace them, but I would replace the Wifi – you can do this without replacing the router but the £35 TP-Link TD-W9970 I used at my cousins B&B has been faultless for over nearly a year. The WiFi covers 3 storeys of Victorian building no problem.

If you just want to replace the WiFi I’ve used loads of £22 TL-WA801ND . It includes a Passive Power over Ethernet Injector so it’s not chained to the routers location, you can move it up to 30 metres away via a Cat 5 patch cable.

Yes, both of these are “only” 2.4Ghz 300N but you’ll get a rock solid connection way faster than you need, which is what it’s all about.

[Dave Rice]

The Reset This PC in Recovery now has the option to keep your data.

[Dave Rice]

Well I’m sure the Telegraph legal dept will be itching to take you on if it’s that easy.

Here’s a shock result, in an exclusive poll of express.co.uk readers 82% intend to vote for Farage’s lot. They are four times more likely to vote Labour than Conservative!

[Dave Rice]

First boot, LED still on white, covers all off.

Covers on, LED set, reflections from window.

Bloody hell it’s quick, it’s that Adata SSD again. Needs software putting on it but it’s the wifes birthday so out for a meal in a mo, will finish off tomorrow. Will try and get a video of the LEDs doing their funky thang.

[Dave Rice]

The ones mentioned are corporate end to end solutions, I don’t think the likes of Nord are involved.

Certainly if you run your own OpenVPN server you’re not affected. As pointed out in the comments, VPNs don’t use “cookies”.

The other thing is as far as I can see your computer already needs to be compromised.

[Author]

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