- Welcome to IDNetters Forums.
Recent posts
#71
IDNet Help / Re: UBoss Basic Phone Service ...
Last post by nowster - Nov 27, 2025, 22:37:35The FTTP link had been rock solid from July 2022 to August 2025.
That outage was a "stuck session" at a LNS, even though that was only fixed after OpenReach engineers had come, scratched their heads, swapped the ONT box, then gone away with "No Fault Found".
Of course, the OpenReach field engineers get confused by anything that isn't a BT HomeHub. ("Where's the blue light?") Me showing them a tcpdump of outgoing PPPoE PADI frames with no response from the far end meant nothing to them.
That fault was only Saturday to Wednesday. This one's going to be three weeks tomorrow.
For the first two and a half days there was definitely something on the other end (flashing PON light meaning something was signalling on the fibre from the other end) but that OLT must have been switched off when someone visited the exchange and realised there was no working upstream connection.
The weird thing is that both faults started within 5 minutes of 6am.
That outage was a "stuck session" at a LNS, even though that was only fixed after OpenReach engineers had come, scratched their heads, swapped the ONT box, then gone away with "No Fault Found".
Of course, the OpenReach field engineers get confused by anything that isn't a BT HomeHub. ("Where's the blue light?") Me showing them a tcpdump of outgoing PPPoE PADI frames with no response from the far end meant nothing to them.
That fault was only Saturday to Wednesday. This one's going to be three weeks tomorrow.
For the first two and a half days there was definitely something on the other end (flashing PON light meaning something was signalling on the fibre from the other end) but that OLT must have been switched off when someone visited the exchange and realised there was no working upstream connection.
The weird thing is that both faults started within 5 minutes of 6am.
#72
IDNet Help / Re: UBoss Basic Phone Service ...
Last post by zappaDPJ - Nov 27, 2025, 17:43:59We are experiencing regular outages on our FTTP connection again. I'm pretty sure it's due to some kind of OpenReach maintenance but it's a right pain.
#73
IDNet Help / Re: UBoss Basic Phone Service ...
Last post by Simon - Nov 27, 2025, 17:33:35The more technology moves forward, the more unreliable it seems to be. 
#74
IDNet Help / Re: UBoss Basic Phone Service ...
Last post by nowster - Nov 27, 2025, 12:54:30So I get all the kit ready at Dad's, including an old NTE5 master socket with split phone/DSL faceplate to use to plug the RJ11 cable from the VoIP ATA box into so that I can wire in the existing extension socket cabling easily...
Asterisk configured on the router. The Grandstream HT812v2 ATA configured to talk to it.
The old black Cisco 7940 unit configured to talk to the local Asterisk server rather than the one on the far end of the VPN to my home in Manchester. The Cisco phone had been used for international calls with "Internetcalls".
IAX2 link between the two Asterisk instances configured and tested.
Incoming calls from SipGate working. I've had a local number on this dialling code for years, incoming only. I used to have the speaking clock on it.
Backup battery (1kWh LiFePo solar power bank) to run the whole shebang for about 48 hours during a power cut. (We had two last winter.)
All this in preparation to tell iDNet we don't want to renew the copper PSTN when it's up for re-billing in January, and to transfer the number to A&A.
And the following morning (Sat 8 Nov) the FTTP goes dead.
It's still dead (LOS light) today as there's a massive OpenReach fault in this area. I've heard they're waiting on being able to dig up the road somewhere. Current ETA for the fix is tomorrow evening, but I'm not holding my breath.
The landline still works of course.
Thankfully EE has pretty good 5G here but only one mast for the whole area.
Asterisk configured on the router. The Grandstream HT812v2 ATA configured to talk to it.
The old black Cisco 7940 unit configured to talk to the local Asterisk server rather than the one on the far end of the VPN to my home in Manchester. The Cisco phone had been used for international calls with "Internetcalls".
IAX2 link between the two Asterisk instances configured and tested.
Incoming calls from SipGate working. I've had a local number on this dialling code for years, incoming only. I used to have the speaking clock on it.
Backup battery (1kWh LiFePo solar power bank) to run the whole shebang for about 48 hours during a power cut. (We had two last winter.)
All this in preparation to tell iDNet we don't want to renew the copper PSTN when it's up for re-billing in January, and to transfer the number to A&A.
And the following morning (Sat 8 Nov) the FTTP goes dead.
It's still dead (LOS light) today as there's a massive OpenReach fault in this area. I've heard they're waiting on being able to dig up the road somewhere. Current ETA for the fix is tomorrow evening, but I'm not holding my breath.
The landline still works of course.
Thankfully EE has pretty good 5G here but only one mast for the whole area.
#75
IDNet Help / Re: UBoss Basic Phone Service ...
Last post by stan - Nov 26, 2025, 00:31:55Quite so, Simon ..... I keep saying to my neighbour that he'll have to start thinking about getting fibre one day and deciding who to go with and whether to keep his landline .... and still he carries on as he is and still there's no word of him being forced to do anything - so I suppose he might as well just carry on as he is. But I do believe there is an actual projected date when it's all supposed to change over. He uses VOXI for his mobile (£10 a month with calls included) and TalkTalk for his ADSL broadband (via a copper pair, obviously). His landline is TalkTalk too. He's 85 and so it's just possible he need not actually do anything - or maybe that's not quite the right thing to say ...... No, you're right - it's not.
All the time you have your PSTN then, like my neighbour, you can simply carry on although when the Openreach installer was here he did say something along the lines - it's better to get the FTTC in and up and running sooner rather than later in case there's any sort of "rush" when the cut off date draws near and a load of people start realising they need to get it done and there's a backlog of some sort - and he did go on to try to explain that there's some technical reason why it's best not to leave it to the last available moment ... it was something to do with the actual number of connections available between the connection in the street and the main 'exchange' where all the individual fibre circuits finish up - but I didn't understand it at the time and I still don't understand what he was saying. Either way it'll all come out in the wash.
I do have to say that the new VOIP arrangement wasn't particularly difficult to sort out - I contacted the new provider (who I have already named) and filled in an application for them to port my old number over to themselves (which was was all painless) and when, after a few days, they told me it was "live" I connected a single cable from the new ONT box that Openreach provided into the back of the new TP Link router that Idnet provided and plugged my old analogue phone(s) into a small splitter/adaptor type thing that A&A kindly posted out to me and basically it worked. I completed an online form for A&A with my details and with a few settings that they helped me with and it then worked, and has done since. You can choose how to have your incoming calls dealt with and can change your settings just by going on to the website and changing it then and there. Even I could manage it.
Anyway that's enough. Carry on regardless
All the time you have your PSTN then, like my neighbour, you can simply carry on although when the Openreach installer was here he did say something along the lines - it's better to get the FTTC in and up and running sooner rather than later in case there's any sort of "rush" when the cut off date draws near and a load of people start realising they need to get it done and there's a backlog of some sort - and he did go on to try to explain that there's some technical reason why it's best not to leave it to the last available moment ... it was something to do with the actual number of connections available between the connection in the street and the main 'exchange' where all the individual fibre circuits finish up - but I didn't understand it at the time and I still don't understand what he was saying. Either way it'll all come out in the wash.
I do have to say that the new VOIP arrangement wasn't particularly difficult to sort out - I contacted the new provider (who I have already named) and filled in an application for them to port my old number over to themselves (which was was all painless) and when, after a few days, they told me it was "live" I connected a single cable from the new ONT box that Openreach provided into the back of the new TP Link router that Idnet provided and plugged my old analogue phone(s) into a small splitter/adaptor type thing that A&A kindly posted out to me and basically it worked. I completed an online form for A&A with my details and with a few settings that they helped me with and it then worked, and has done since. You can choose how to have your incoming calls dealt with and can change your settings just by going on to the website and changing it then and there. Even I could manage it.
Anyway that's enough. Carry on regardless
#76
IDNet Help / Re: UBoss Basic Phone Service ...
Last post by Simon - Nov 25, 2025, 20:07:19Glad to hear things worked out for you, Stan. 
There's still no word of my PSTN line being switched off, so I'm still in blissful ignorance of what delights VoIP might hold.
There's still no word of my PSTN line being switched off, so I'm still in blissful ignorance of what delights VoIP might hold.
#77
IDNet Help / Re: UBoss Basic Phone Service ...
Last post by stan - Nov 25, 2025, 15:45:35I have nothing startling or innovative to say beyond that which I've said before - except to say to those on UBOSS or considering going on to UBOSS ..... I moved from Idnet's ADSL over to their FTTP in March this year and all was well. No issues with Openreach providing the fibre connection and no problems moving the billing etc over to FTTP.
At the time of the change I obviously had to decide what to do with the landline given that the copper pair was no longer going to provide it any more. It didn't take long to see that the choice would be either Idnet's UBOSS or Andrew and Arnold's own VOIP plan which was available for the cost of £12 transfer fee and an ongoing £1.44 per month (with calls on top). That didn't take long and I can now report that it has been functioning for more than six months and that both it and them have been faultless.
I never understood what John7 was on about in his to and fro concerning whether or nor the UBOSS system recognized +44 prefixes ... or whatever it was that was apparently not working. But, suffice to say my own arrangement works for me and I haven't, yet, found anything to complain about. Least of all the customer service provided by A&A. There's nothing to choose between their service and Idnet's service - both have served me well. The A&A VOIP has a number of options regarding how to receive incoming calls. I have chosen to have it set so that incoming calls ring for twenty seconds, then an announcement invites the caller leave a message, then I immediately get an email on my chosen email address which pings my mobile phone and lets me hear the message. And I can say that the vast majority of calls are scam calls of one sort or another ... as they were before I changed over from copper to fibre and that the scammers never leave a message therefore I don't have the inconvenience of listening to their opening introductions prior to me terminating the calls.
In fact I wil admit I don't really need the landline any more but for the tiny monthly outlay (it's now gone up to £1.50 plus VAT) I keep it just as a sort of back-up. I don't know why, but there it is.
What it has done, though, is let me know that if I ever stopped having Idnet supply my broadband then the next option on the list would be A&A.
At the time of the change I obviously had to decide what to do with the landline given that the copper pair was no longer going to provide it any more. It didn't take long to see that the choice would be either Idnet's UBOSS or Andrew and Arnold's own VOIP plan which was available for the cost of £12 transfer fee and an ongoing £1.44 per month (with calls on top). That didn't take long and I can now report that it has been functioning for more than six months and that both it and them have been faultless.
I never understood what John7 was on about in his to and fro concerning whether or nor the UBOSS system recognized +44 prefixes ... or whatever it was that was apparently not working. But, suffice to say my own arrangement works for me and I haven't, yet, found anything to complain about. Least of all the customer service provided by A&A. There's nothing to choose between their service and Idnet's service - both have served me well. The A&A VOIP has a number of options regarding how to receive incoming calls. I have chosen to have it set so that incoming calls ring for twenty seconds, then an announcement invites the caller leave a message, then I immediately get an email on my chosen email address which pings my mobile phone and lets me hear the message. And I can say that the vast majority of calls are scam calls of one sort or another ... as they were before I changed over from copper to fibre and that the scammers never leave a message therefore I don't have the inconvenience of listening to their opening introductions prior to me terminating the calls.
In fact I wil admit I don't really need the landline any more but for the tiny monthly outlay (it's now gone up to £1.50 plus VAT) I keep it just as a sort of back-up. I don't know why, but there it is.
What it has done, though, is let me know that if I ever stopped having Idnet supply my broadband then the next option on the list would be A&A.
#78
Broadband, Internet & General Computer News & Discussion / Re: DVD ripping best practice
Last post by zappaDPJ - Nov 23, 2025, 19:49:12Thanks for that. I have 12TB of storage which I hope will suffice. I've just unpacked the first box and counted 180 DVDs. There are another 13 boxes so that's around 2,500 titles to rip.
Matroska seems to be the preferred choice from what I've read and it appears to support cover art attachments which is a big plus for me. It also seems to be supported by JRiver Media Center which is a another bonus.
Matroska seems to be the preferred choice from what I've read and it appears to support cover art attachments which is a big plus for me. It also seems to be supported by JRiver Media Center which is a another bonus.
#79
Broadband, Internet & General Computer News & Discussion / Re: DVD ripping best practice
Last post by nowster - Nov 23, 2025, 18:28:11As the CSS encryption was cracked decades ago, you can do a bit-perfect backup of a DVD's content with many tools.
The compression of the video is MPEG2 and there are various audio formats, with AC3 (Dolby Digital) being the most common, DTS being less common and MPEG1 L2 (MP2/MUSICAM) audio being fairly rare.
It's quite common to rip to Matroska format (.MKV).
As to recommendations of DVD ripping tools for Windows, I'm afraid I can't help as I've only ever done it under Linux.
If hard drive space is at a premium, re-encoding to a more recent video format, (eg. H.264) can be done, but you'll have the flaws of both the original compression and the newer compression schemes.
The compression of the video is MPEG2 and there are various audio formats, with AC3 (Dolby Digital) being the most common, DTS being less common and MPEG1 L2 (MP2/MUSICAM) audio being fairly rare.
It's quite common to rip to Matroska format (.MKV).
As to recommendations of DVD ripping tools for Windows, I'm afraid I can't help as I've only ever done it under Linux.
If hard drive space is at a premium, re-encoding to a more recent video format, (eg. H.264) can be done, but you'll have the flaws of both the original compression and the newer compression schemes.
#80
Broadband, Internet & General Computer News & Discussion / DVD ripping best practice
Last post by zappaDPJ - Nov 23, 2025, 18:17:46Having spent the last 5-10? years (I lost track of time) ripping all my music, I'm now looking at doing the same for my DVDs. They are all 20+ years old so predate HD DVD. Having watch a couple on my PC the picture quality is not great so I'm looking to avoid as much compression as possible.
Any advice on ripping software and file formats would be very useful at this point because the more I read the less sure I am about what to use.
Any advice on ripping software and file formats would be very useful at this point because the more I read the less sure I am about what to use.