JonA

Yes, I am using the phone as a modem and running my email client on the pc. - no email client on my phone. I uas Onetel for my email addresses (xyz@onetel.com) and when I was using their broadband on my landline, the setting for outgoing email server was smtp.onetel.com which worked no prob. But now I don't have the broadband anymore, the onetel smtp server won't talk to me - I believe this is an anti-spam thing because I'm no longer using their broadband so my originating IP address is not one of theirs (but I'm still using their pop3 service to download my emails which works fine on the t-mob connection). Do you know what smtp server the email client on your phone is setup to use? Well this morning it's working fine and I've changed nothing and sent about 5 test emails all ok! so I must have got the settings right, even though yesterday t-mob told me that there was no fault on their network and my settings must be wrong.

Do you use outlook express for your email or a web based email. Just wondering as I'm trying to use Outlook Express and on the t-mobile site it says to use smtp.t-email.co.uk as the setting for the outgoing mail server, but I just get a timeout message saying it can't connect... any ideas? Cheers, Jon

Just tried some tests with ftp uploading/dloading and I'm getting about 470kb/s both ways at the moment on 3g according to my free ftp software - which might not be that accurate, but doesn't seem to be much difference between up or down.

Hi Tom&Sophie, OK, I've got my T-mobile phone talking to the internet on webnwalk and I've got my phone bluetoothing to my pc, and the internet explorer on my pc seems to be working ok. but all the graphic pictures are soft of blurry, like they're compressed or restricted in some way. I know on slow connections they sometimes appear that way, then become clearer like coming into focus, but mine just stay blurry, and it's on all sites - even the Google logo at the top of their homepage looke weird and blotchey with a grey rectangle around it Did you have a similar problem - thanks for any help - pc network things not really my strongpoint. Cheers, Jon

Well that would certainly work and overcome the aerial problem. It would seem that external aerial sockets are pretty much a thing of the past and the manufacturers just don't see any reason to fit them now. Thanks for the replies, Jon

Can anyone recommend a 3G phone that has an external aerial socket. I was told that the Nokia N70 does, but on the Nokia site there's no mention of it having one. Thanks for any recommendations,.

Sorry if this has been asked before, but do T-mob have a problem with you using Skype of this service, I've heard that some providers block the ports that Skype uses.

Have you got the -ve of both battery banks tied together at the battery end?

I was looking for a sat finder which I can leave plugged into the digibox -> dish lead. I bought a cheap and cheerful one at Crick which does work, but it drops the signal level right down and the picture breaks up, so once you've found the sat, you have to unplug it and re-connect the lead, which is a bit of a bind. Do they all do this or is it because I 've got a cheap n nasty one. Thanks for any info.

Richard, are you still interested in making some porthole trims?

I've heard good things about Blackfriars - for a clear varnish, do you use their interior or exterior grade - I see the exterior one has a UV filter.

You could look at Piper Boats, I bought a sailaway from them last year - no problems and reasonable build times.

Worth getting, it's about the same thickness as the builders book and split into 2 sections, the first gives general advice on planning the various rooms, space saving tips etc. Then the 2nd section has plan views for various room layouts with pictures.

Thanks all for the info - BTW how do you get Tescos to deliver to the towpath, or do you have a fixed address nearby?

Hi all, We're planning on doing a couple of years C/Cing as soon as the boat's ready, and I was wondering if folks doing this kind of thing have a strategy for dealing with the winter stoppages. The thought of spending most of the winter stuck between two stoppages, miles from shops, water, pumpout etc isn't too appealing and since we are planning to start the cruise this autumn I was trying to make the first winter as painless as possible, or risk putting my wife off canals for good. Any advice for a cruising newbie would be much appreciated. Thanks, Jon