I am ANGRY sick and TIRED

[aghastpumpkin]

As you know, I have two nice PCs I built myself, the whole expense costing in the region of £1500.
Yet, to use the internet, I have to use a 7 year old, Tiny PIII 700MhZ PC and a 56 K Connection.
Why? Because of "horror" stories in the media, I am not to be trusted to use an internet connection on my own PC. I might get raped or something.

This PC takes 8 minutes to fully load up. The AOA front page takes 6 minutes to fully load up. A 5MB MP3 takes 45 minutes to download.
To operate without a hitch, you have to do the following in this order ONLY. using the PC in any other order will result in slowing down and crashing.
1. Switch on.
2. Conenct to the internet. Whilst this is happening, click the Firefox icon.
3. Log in to MSN. This takes 2 minutes.
4. Use firefox as normal.
5. Exit all unused Tray programs.

I am angry because it took 6 resets of this PC before it finally worked. Meaning I spent 40 minutes doing what most of you guys can do in 5 minutes.
I am angry because I have not only offered to pay for 50% of broadband fees, but also pay for the neccessary products to network it to my PCs.
Yet, because of an obscenely lazy father, this is not happening. He pays £108 a month on an NTL digital TV, phone and dial up package. We only watch about 15 different channels. Yet **** like "ABC" and "FXNetwork" are costing us money. Money that could easily pay for broadband, and even a new Windows XP PC.

I am tired because I might as well have my own little charity called "Help me stop my father being a lazy git".
I am angry because these problems mean I spend 3 hours on a PC each day instead of 1 hour and a bit. Yet I am moaned at by parents for being on it too much. You stupid ignorant parents, if you had broadband it wouldn't take as long!
I have even shown my parents a broadband router that disallows certain content if they really wish to stop me looknig at pictures of naked women.
STILL, nothing. I have spent about 2 years at this. They have the money, they have the time and means. Yet they can't be bothered. It even benefits them, as my Father uses a PC for about 4 hours a day.

I am also angry, this time at myself, because I am too much of a scaredy cat to ask the number of a till girl at work who I know likes me. Because I'm silly. I'll try again on Wednesday though, and although this is only a little thing it just adds to the frustration!

So next time you power up your Athlon X2 4800 7800GTX 4MB Ram 500GB HDD SLI system, with Windows 64 bit edition, play a few bouts of BF2 on the internet before downloading 150 MP3s in two minutes and Seven films, bare me in mind, and many others who only have a 7 year old PC to use and a56 k connection.
Thank you.

[robbie]

How much memory do you have in the PC?

[Staz]

I am using an AMD K6 333mhz as an internet gateway with win98se on it and 256mb or RAM. I have no problems surfing the web. Also back befor we had Broadband out in the middle of no where I shared a 56k connection between 3 computers.

I think it is time for a clean install of your OS, and if you have less than 128mb of RAM time to upgrade that. Also check at what speed you are conecting. If it is less than 46,666 then it is time to call up your ISP.

Also just talk to that girl, see what she likes. Ask her to Starbucks for coffe after work or something. You shouldn't fear rejection. If you never talk to her you can never get rejected.

[danrok]

Ask her out, then you will have no need for a powerful PC.

[Abdul]

I reckon, you should have a quite sit down with your Father, a pen and a piece of paper... Then go through how much money is being wasted on uneccessary channels, and how Broadband is by far more valuable then Dial-up moneywise.

If this still doesnt work, get all your family to help you persuade your father!

[aghastpumpkin]

Robbie: 256Mb.
Staz: That's the problem. I've done a clean install. It still doesn't solve the issues. I have a feeling the hardwares knocked out. It's been used for an average of 6 hours a day for seven years. It is connecting at 52K.
Danrok: lol, true. It's not so much a powerful PC, just one that works! I showed them an Acer desktop with a Sempron 3000, 256 of Ram, and an 80GB hDD for £280.
Abdul: That's the problem. No matter how reasonable, polite, inventive, assuring, obvious you are, he may agree, even say he will, but it won't happen.
Also, my brothers have tried too but they do not use the internet so much. (They are too cool).

I'm just frustrated. When we bought this thing, me and my brothers tried to get an Evesham or Mesh PC, but father insisted on gonig to the high street.
I have never had faith in Tiny PCs. The fact the company is gone made me smile. They messed us around in the start and this PC has never really worked well. And it cost £1650 too. Perhaps when I next have access to my friends DigiCam I'll show you a picture of where this PC is.

[Chesso]

How old are you? why are your parents worried about you looking at naked women on the internet i mean who doesn't? i bet your father sure does and i don't see what problems this cause.

Remind your Parent(s) that using dial-up everytime you dial in it costs the amount of a local call which adds up unless you dial to a line that costs even more!, the cost between broadband and dial-up long term isn't much different unless our'e greedy and have a really fast connection which does cost a bit.

I had a much worse situation when i first got into computer's or technically actually used one lol, i was running a 333mhz Celeron, 64mb ram, Windows 95 and a 2mb video card with 56k connection.

This was only a couple of years ago.

[aghastpumpkin]

I'm 17. I'll update on wednesday but heck I can't see much happening with the PC. Unfortunately, the dial up doesn't charge per min, it's just £5 a month unlimtied. It was an amazing deal 3 years ago, but now even at that price it isn't worth it.
I'll try and remind them that NTL customers get a free broadband upgrade in a years time. We've been with NTL for 18 years (We were with them when their services were Cable and Wireless).

[dsio]

The machine I use for web browsing is a laptop: Pentium 3 ULV Edition 600Mhz with an 80GB hitachi disk, and 128MB RAM with a 2MB ATI RAGE LT. I have no problems at all with it in speed or web connectivity. I run Windows XP Pro on it, with 12 or so programs running in the tray including wireless config utils, google talk, msn, and cisco vpn. It just does not feel much slower than my big bad Athlon 64.

Aside from that, it has better power consumption than any Pentium 4 laptops, and doesnt have the pain in the arse that is centrino. The Pentium 3 was caught in the shadow of the Athlon for the most part, but it is a more than capable chip.

[fearless joe]

internet connectio............. arr screw it, go ask that girl out

[aghastpumpkin]

I will, wednesday come wednesday go!

[hoinar]

Originally Posted by aghastpumpkin

I will, wednesday come wednesday go!

Good way to go mate..! Don't be stressed, smile to her, just ask her to a coffee or som'thin.

[aghastpumpkin]

Cheers for the encouragement people! I expected to be a nervous wreck when she merely touches me, but now I feel good!

[dod]

Originally Posted by hoinar

just ask her to a coffee or som'thin.

I'd suggest concentrating on the cofee and forgetting about som'thin to start with

[hoinar]

Originally Posted by dod

I'd suggest concentrating on the cofee and forgetting about som'thin to start with

[aghastpumpkin]

I don't want the girl hyperactive! Anyhoo, that would mean sitting in the Café which is about as romantic as proposing in the Burger King.
I'll approach, and ask her if she would like to go for lunch or something else perhaps in Brighton centre. Muchos Betteros!

[aghastpumpkin]

Very near success! I have her number and when I sliced my finger badly on the foil of a yoghurt, she came to my rescue and saved my life by taking me to the first aid box and washing my finger and giving it a plaster.
And she doesn't stop smiling when I look at her! And now it just feels natural to smile back so I'll ring her sometime. It's weird how injuring myself to the point of a hand nearly covered in blood brought us closer!
So I'm happier now. Thanks!

[dod]

Faint heart ne'er won fair lady.

Gotta watch those yoghurt cartons, can be dangerous, bet it was organic WTG

[aghastpumpkin]

The foil tops are plain evil!No I guess not, but I am not that faint hearted and just needed to know where the medic box was. If she wants to dress my cut and wash my hands that's her choice....