Andy Brown

Ones that I remember

Bon Jovi

Def Leppard

Aerosmith

Skin

Van Halen

Ugly Kid Joe

Meatloaf

Personally I use Norton internet security firewall, antivirus, the works but it doesnt seem to do the job.

Do you think its best to have several different antivirus/spyware software programs? Perhaps run them all periodically?

I wouldn't trust Norton to catch a cold, we use it for our anti virus at work, and I had to give it a helping hand when the Trojan.Clampi was doing the rounds. It would identify there was a virus but then wasn't able to do anything about it. I wrote a small but useful batch file to help it along, once the file was run Norton could then delete the virus and claim it did so all by itself

The Sun as well? Christ - I remember how vibrant Bedlington used to be on a Sat night, 5/6 years ago. It's been left to rot. Just hasn't moved on with the times.

I've heard rumours of the Sun closing for a while, as well as the Top Club !! Bedlington is turning into a ghost town under our noses, maybe if businesess stopped focusing on hair dressing, florist, takeaways, care homes and solicitors there may be a niche no-ones thought of, the pool hall was a good one mooted a while ago, the computer accessories shop didn't last 5 minutes, Video world has gone and so has Johnsons shoe shop (who no-one entered but seemed to be there forever)

There's got to be something people want to come to Bedlington for, but what ?

As one of those knackers who don't believe in the needless massacre of innocent animals, I wont be putting a bet on... but if I was it would be on Southern Vic... just 'cos it's got me name in it.

If the horses running were by some chance those that are currently being ridden round Bedlington by inbred types, constantly on their mobile phones, one of whom who galloped out in front of me up the top end the other day... well I might just put on a bet in the hope that in that they actually do get shot, along with the riders.

I'm sick of the ignorant buggers along the Barrington Road who ride 3 abreast despite the narrowness of the road sneer in derision at a road tax paying motorist who might dare want to use the road that I/we pay for and having to swerve to avoid the waste being ejected from the dumb animals back end.

P.S. The horses are a pain as well

Yes, there'll still be several pubs in Bedlington.

Notices in the window saying Sunday is the last day at the Bell

Only in Betterware

Does anyone actually buy anything from these?

When I did the Betterware rounds, a few did buy stuff, but the input effort to get the sales didn't match the (lied about) projected income from sales. I spent more on petrol going round delivering catalogues, then going back out to collect them back in, then having to go back out to deliver the dozen or so who actually bought something. Not worth the effort.

And not a Scouting for Girls record in sight.

Which is good cos they all sound the flipping same

Hey, any of you techies shed some light on this?

Windows XP home desktop SP2 (not gonna upgrade to SP3 just yet

Wireless lan card

NVidia 512mb graphics card

Soundblaster audio card

1GB Ram

Netgear wireless router: 1 wireless connection, 0 wired connections. WEP security on a 128bit encription

AOL broadband silver

i rarely use this machine as i've had my laptop for so long, i just let the kids use it, so i'm unsure when this started.

i dont have this problem with my vista laptop, although its in the shop under warrenty at the moment so i cannot be sure.

since this started i have:

Changing the wireless channel on my router

Changing my routers network key

updated and ran Avast! antivirus.

Scheduled a boot scan with Avast!

ran disk check with both options checked (the one you access by right clicking c: - properties - tools tab - error checking)

Updated and ran CCleaner.

Updated and ran Malwarebytes

Updated and ran Spybot Search and Destroy

Updated and ran Superantispyware

Updated and ran Hijack This, and submitted a report to the Help2go detective at www.help2go.com

Checked for updated drivers for my wireless lan card

Checked the Device manager for warnings or conflicts both before, and after this occurs.

during the above things i detected alot of tracking cookies, but little else, and even after cleaning and re-running the scan (which was then clean) the problem still exists.

The problem:

At first i just thought this was a power setting, as if i left the computer running for a while, i would come back to a message saying "wireless networks could not be detected" which a quick restart solved.

thinking nothing more of it, i just carried on regardless, then the disconection would happen in the middle of me browsing. suddenly all connections would drop, and no wireless connections are seen to be available, even though i know where are 3 in the area which i normally pick up. Only a restart seems to solve it, with the connection becoming available as soon as the computer reboots. This does not happen at an interval, and can last days before dropping, then drop twice in an hour.

on startup all i have is my logmein software, avast, msn messenger and my firefox browser (because i only use this computer to browse the internet and store photo's, it seems sensible to have these start then.) as well as the normal startup stuff such as nvidia drivers, sound etc

Any ideas where to look next?

Hi Mr Darn, personally it looks like it is that laptop as your other machine has no problems, and since it drops connection when using it and you can't pick up any networks not just your own says that it's the wireless card on the laptop. I see you have updated your drivers, but what about the power settings, go to Control Panel, System, Hardware, Device Manager, then right click on your wireless card and select properties then select power management tab and make sure there are no ticks in ay of the available boxes. Let us know what happens.

What's the latest on the old gas shop? Anybody any ideas?

Latest I've heard it's going to be a dog parlour !!

Two sewerage poluted fish £10; one hour's helicopter flight £1000?

Being caught with smelly fish in your pocket, Priceless

still slow when compared with france or japan!

Yep, remember watching program about something to do with Malaysia where they have 100Mbit to the desktop !!!

Ooh! Another! Congratulations!

Thanks looking forward to sleepless nights again

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/

Yeah I would think so

DownStream Connection Speed 16379

UpStream Connection Speed 764

I ask myself why more Bedlington businesses don't use this free facility more(?). It seems pretty dumb not to use such a well targeted medium that's absolutely free. Then I look at the woeful state of business in the town, and (like Andy Brown) wonder how they are still there! Perhaps if we charged for it they'd value the service? Or maybe they need the tax-loss of having their advertising money dumped in a hedge or blowing in the wind?

Oi who dragged me into it :)

Switching off Norton still isn't helping. I can now get on to my (orange) homepage, but nowt more.

As for pinging? It (being the computer) says I sent and received 4 pings in an average of 55ms. Is this good?

Have I pung?

Yeah you've 'pung' we now need to find out if you can access sites via their 'phone number', in your address bar type http://212.58.253.67 (This is the 'phone number' of bbc.co.uk), this should get you to bbc website, if successful try http://www.bbc.co.uk. If these are both unsuccessful, try clearing out your browser history and temp files (If you're using IE, typically MS set the defaults to 10% of your HD size), I personally would reduce the temp folder size to approx 10MB.

Could the new Norton 2008 be causing my problems? Or some other automatic update type thing? I have just tried to access the internet again while scans and the like are happening and the same thing is going on.

I can, however, continue to access this site and this site only. And I still don't know why!

One way to find out is to temporarily turn Norton off while trying to access other sites, also (assuming you're using XP or Vista) go to Start, Run type cmd press Enter, then in the command box type :-

ping www.bbc.co.uk - this is to rule out any connection problems and may point to your browser being problematic

if unsuccessfull with pinging the bbc site, then try ipconfig /flushdns then try the ping www.bbc.co.uk again.

If still not working then try turning your router off then on again. Hope this helps.

who is your isp? if its bt then mine does it all the time. i can only access tinternet by ethernet cable.same on two different laptops.

To anyone having problems with accessing the internet, if you are on BT and are using the BT Homehub, it may be to do with the last round of firmware updates to 6.2.6.E causing the problem. You need to log onto the hub with http://api.home and if your hub has been upgraded it will ask you to set a new admin password. Once in have a play round with the wireless settings, alternately on the computer side, check your wireless adapter. If it is an Intel wireless adapter, go to http://www.intel.com and update the drivers, there is a known issue with Intel adapters and BT Hubs at the moment. I know there another version of the hub firmware currently being released.

(If none of this works, ring 0800 1114567, BT helpdesk)

Regards

Hope this helps.

After having a wander up and down our commercially starved front street, has anyone else noticed the number of businesses in Bedlington who seem to be surviving and have been for some number of years, but can not name anyone who has used their services ??

I am talking mainly about the shops such as :-

Penny Farthing - next to the Wharton

The Jewellers

The "takeaway" next to the booze shop

Tallantyres

The opticians

The shoe repairers

Johnsons shoe shop

The double glazing company next to Ian Bells

(some more I just thought of)

The carpet shop (next to Moby Dicks)

The Light Studio

Of course to really survive in Bedlington you need to be either a hairdresser, estate agent, fast food joint or a solicitor, can anyone else think of other businesses who have survived but never seem to attract customers ?

flats or an old peoples home! or wetherspoons  sorry a cant stop laughin! wetherspoons in bedlington!

I see ya laffin Monsta, but to be honest, I'm at the point of joining in. Loads of parking, but no shops or anything worth using the parking for. We have no Burtons, Woolworths, Wilkinsons or New Look, all we have are womens hairdressers, solicitors, estate agents or pubs (Bedlington used to be good for a Saturday).

If this makes no sense, blame the wine

The kitchen shop opposite the Monkey (MERLIN) is going to be.......

wait.....

no not estate agents.....

you got it ...

HAIRDRESSERS. Just what we need

What does Bedlington need to make it a place worth visiting and buying from ? (hairdressers, takeaways and solicitors excluded). Has the game shop idea died ? We now have a sort of clothes shop (Donnas Allsorts), Bedlington has the parking facilities to support shopping, however no one seems to use it, take a look at Market Place bus stop, and loading bay near monument, even Watsons bus stop seems to be a parking bay.

We have the old Somerfield standing derelict for well over 18 months now, surely Wilkinsons could be a viable option, although with Ashington and Cramlington having one, it doesn't seem worth it.

Any further work been sighted yet? Seems to have reached a bit of a standstill.

Last I heard it was being used as a bit of a storeroom or tvs and things. Also I see work has started on renovating the old Maxi Freeze and units are 'To Let' and a new door installed. Office units maybe for solicitors seeing as Bedlington doesn't have enough

Many happy returns, Andy.

Thank you all, another year older (not wiser) but older

I am in 100% agreement, I would rather watch paint drip off of a dry brush than watch that rubbish. It's time they brought back the Grove Family

<RANT>

It's not just Big Brother, it's the constant bombardment of reality rubbish, X Factor, Pop Idol, American Idol, Celebrity Ice Skating, celebrity sing along (can't remember the name), Survivor (the one on the tropical islands), to name but a few. And to top it all off, ITV2 rub salt in the wounds by showing what goes on behind the scenes. Also E4 get in on the act by showing you 'celebrities' asleep almost makes me want to rip up my tv license and demand a refund.

</RANT>

Also I believe there was a tv channel which allowed you to watch paint dry.

This is better than Big Brother

Washing my nads in hydrochloric acid is more fun than watching big brother

You deliver catalogues through letter boxes with a note to say when you'll be back to retrieve them from the doorstep. You pick up the catalogues and you're paid commission on the orders. Now, commission only might put some people off BUT, if you don't bother trying it you'll get no commission! It's worth a try. I have heard of many people who started off trying to get extra cash to suppliment their wages, and ended up packing in their jobs because they were earning so much more with the catalogues. For example, there's a guy in North Shields who used to work as a labourer in a fish factory who now averages £900 per week. It's probably the easiest job anyone could do AND you can work as many or as few hours as you like depending on how much you want to earn.

Is this Kleeneze or Betterware or Avon ?

(I was the betterware guy for a while)