The Internet

We all take instant global communications for granted. 

As an example yesterday we had a (free) video call from our son who is staying with his Australian in-laws in Brisbane. The quality was excellent. It was almost as if he was in the next room. 

It has not always been easy. I was surprised to read how extensive the telegraph network already was in the mid 1800s. Before that, news was very slow depending on boats, pigeons and dispatch riders. Just imagine life now without the internet. We have grown dependent on it in so many ways.

Just for chatting, we no longer need amateur radio.

1st ever webpage?

 We have come a very long way in 30 years. Back then few had heard of the internet. As far I can tell this is the very first webpage:

See https://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html

When I am pushing up daisies in 30 years' time I wonder what my grandchildren will be amazed at?

My first website is still there on the Wayback Machine. It dates from the mid 1990s. In a way, I was a trail blazer!

See https://web.archive.org/web/19970328203144/http://www.lapr.demon.co.uk/ .

Internet speeds - NOT amateur radio

When I first had the internet and a website (mid 1990s) my download speed was 2.5k and I had to pay for a phone connection (long distance) to London.  My website is still on the Wayback Machine. It was first created in 1996.

My download speed is now over 100M and many with full fibre have download speeds of around 500M or even greater. How times change.

One wonders what our grandchildren will experience. My father, who died in 1987, would have had no concept of the internet or mobile phones. It is impossible to conceive of something we can have no concept of at all.

Internet back? - NOT amateur radio

About an hour ago our internet came back after about 36 hours. There was a fault preventing our box in the road getting any signal. I hope it stays on!

Luckily we had 4G phones which still worked.

Internet - NOT amateur radio.

The Virgin Media man came earlier and thinks he has found a fault with the cabinet. At the moment, things seem to be working. We shall see.

UPDATE 1947z: Internet still working!

No internet - NOT amateur radio

Our broadband stopped working last night. I called the helpline and after an hour on the phone to India (where the call centre was located) it still refused to work. I was exhausted. After lunch my wife tried the call centre. A different person this time. Within 5 minutes everything was working. I don't know what she did but it worked.

No internet

My apologies for the few postings this last day. My internet packed up Friday morning and I was only able to get on again late today. We also have young grandchildren staying, so I have had no time today until now.

No Internet

Yesterday, we had no internet, so no posts were possible. I am very sorry. It is back today, so I hope to post more later, if the internet carries on working!

10m and no internet connection on the shack PC

10m has not been bad today, but none of my spots are not appearing on WSPRnet as my shack PC refuses to connect to the internet. W1VR and G4CUI have been spotted and appear in the local log. I think the signal in the shack is too weak and I need a stronger signal. I think I need a range extender but I wonder about SMPSU noise.

Low tech internet - NOT amateur radio

We get very spoilt here with internet speeds approaching 30MB per second commonplace with fibre-optic cable. In some rural areas such speeds are unheard of, especially in 3rd world countries. Some have taken to making their own internet networks.

See http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2015/10/how-to-build-a-low-tech-internet.html?utm_source=amateur-radio-weekly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter

Intermittent internet and no phones this morning

For the 3rd (or 4th?) time this year we have had problems in our area (not the house) with our Virgin Media cable services. Normally it is fast and reliable.  Today our phones did not work and our broadband was intermittent. All seems to be fixed now, thank goodness.

When these basic services fail you realise just how dependent on them you have become. Amongst other things, I could not sync to internet time. Minor really, but it prevented my 6m WSPRing. Now sync'd the PC to internet time, but still having no luck on 6m WSPR.

The Internet in the 19th Century

Yes, the internet was alive in the second half of the 1800s, albeit in a rather more limited form. It was possible to find out information from right across the world in a matter of minutes as long ago as the 1860s by using the very extensive telegraph network that ballooned across the globe within a few decades. There is a fascinating book all about this that I can highly recommend called The Victorian Internet by Tom Standage which is available via Amazon and other booksellers. If you thought it was the coming of wireless that connected the world then think again.