Madasafish Questions/answers (merged threads)

rooo

Hmmm I have used these before and really had to prod the referers to get my cash, so I'll think I'll stick with the not as good but guaranteed CHEAPER code.

Madasafish_Customer_Care

Deefadog - I've got another PM for you but your inbox is full! Could you please PM me when you've made some room and I'll resend my message.

Thank you!

Kind regards,
Samara

Quentin

rooo wrote:

Hmmm I have used these before and really had to prod the referers to get my cash, so I'll think I'll stick with the not as good but guaranteed CHEAPER code.

You should really leave feedback on the thread if you have had a bad experience with an MSE member not paying up without a prod so that we all know who is no good!

If you look in that thread for MAAF refferrals there is some good feedback for some members.

You are "risking" just £2 if you take one of the referral £25 offers rather than the "cheaper" £12 offer (you get £10 direct from MAAF if you use a referrers code, and that comes as a lump sum rather than getting £1 off each month on the drip "cheaper" deal). Live dangerously and risk £2 to get an extra £13! It's a pretty low risk - some of the people offering the deal are regulars and you can't go through life never trusting anyone!

harryhound

Madasafish_Customer_Care wrote:

Hi Harryhound,

Congratulations on the new PC! I'll do my best to answer your questions:

DISCOUNT
The referral code will get you £10 credited to your account and £20 credited to your friend's account. Thus I would make an arrangement that if you use his code he'll throw you back a fiver (or at least buy the next round at the pub). If you use the cheaper code you'll get £1 off a month for your first year of service (value £12). So you're better off striking a deal with your friend and getting £15

WIRELESS v STANDARD ROUTER
We currently have the Voyager 2091 on offer for £25 + £5.99 P&P. It's a pretty good deal for that router. Also, we don't network lock so in the future if you do wish to change provider you'll have hardware that you can also take with you. The router comes with complete instructions for how to set it up. I set up a Voyager 2110 and Voyager 2091 on my own just following the instructions on the box and it was really simple and straight forward.

As with using all wireless devices I would also recommend going further in depth and set up some extra features to secure your network. Here is a link to further security instructions for the 2091.

Hope that's helpful!

Kind regards,
Samara

Hi Samara,

I'm your new customer now No. 4212391

Sun 07jan07: Filled in the forms & opted for the free router.
Mon 08jan07: Received 2 welcome emails and the invoice 3533386.
Wed 10jan07: Received a welcome pack from a London address.
Wed 10jan07: Postie's card "package hiden in garden" (Ah it is Xmas all over again)

Q1 The ethernet cable is too short to reach from where the router will be to where the computer will be; however I already have a similar too short ethernet cable - is it possible to buy a connector to join the two cables or must I invest in a long cable ?

Q2 We have a PC and a lap top. The PC will get the ethernet connection. The laptop is only used occassionally at home. It too will require a longer USB cable. Is there a limit on the length of the USB cable ?

I have gone round the bungalow and plugged the filters into the two telephone sockets (and the phones still work !) HOWEVER the sockets are
laid out as follows:
The master BT socket is in the cupboard in the hall, it is currently fitted with a 3 way splitter. Connection A goes to the phone, B to the telephone answering machine C to the PC's dial up modem.

An extension cable comes out of the back of the master BT socket and goes to a secondary socket in a cupboard in the kitchen This has another 3 way splitter X goes to a walkabout telephone, Y goes to the lap top & Z is currently unused.

Q3 Is it OK to plug the three way splitters into the filters so that one filter can filter out the effect of both telephone & answering machine ?

We also have a big bell, out side under the eves, it would wake up the neighbours if we had any. The bell is HARD WIRED into the back of the second socket

Q4 Presumably the bell requires a filter too ?
The easiest solution would be to fit a plug onto the wire leading to the bell and then plug that plug into the splitter in the kitchen cupboard and plug the splitter into the second filter, thus using one filter to look after walk-about phone and big bell. An alternative would be to break into the wire leading to the big bell and fit another socket, then buy another filter but I would still have to fit a plug to the bell's wire. A third possibility would be to take the terminals cover plate off the big bell and fit some filter gizmo inside the bell housing.
Q5 Any suggestions ?

We have a HOMEBASE a short walk away, so I popped in there to see what they had on offer: They have a replacement plug kit BUT its instructions say mark the cable to match the existing plug and make sure the replacement is connected the same way round - not a lot of help when wireing up one for the first time ! (Incidently the wiring seems to be "domestic" in that terminals 1 & 6 are not used in the socket).

Q6 Any suggestions where I can buy the cables and plugs I am going to need?

Kind regards,

Harryhound

PS Both the electricity supply and the phone line swoop down from a pole in the corner of the garden, find their way somehow through the loft and both appear in the hall cupboard, which houses the meter. I have read elsewhere in this thread that having the phone line next to the electricity supply is far from ideal whenn it come to Broadband performance.
Q7. Should I try to get the phone line within the bungalow re-routed ?

Madasafish_Customer_Care

Hi Harryhound,

Thank you very much for choosing us as your ISP.

I'll do my best to answer all of your questions:

Q1 The ethernet cable is too short to reach from where the router will be to where the computer will be; however I already have a similar too short ethernet cable - is it possible to buy a connector to join the two cables or must I invest in a long cable ?

It would probably be better to buy a longer cable. You can buy these pretty cheaply from places like Ebuyer

Q2 We have a PC and a lap top. The PC will get the ethernet connection. The laptop is only used occassionally at home. It too will require a longer USB cable. Is there a limit on the length of the USB cable ?

The maximum length for a USB cable is 5 meters. If you've got a laptop and it's not ancient - it's probably already wireless enabled. You may wish to consider a wireless router.

Q3 Is it OK to plug the three way splitters into the filters so that one filter can filter out the effect of both telephone & answering machine ?

Based on your description of how things are set up in your residence, I would recommend doing this in the following way:

Master socket/Hall Way - Fit the microfilter into the socket. Using the phone side of the filter use the splitter to then connect the phone and answer machine. On the ADSL side of filter attach the ADSL router

Kitchen - Fit the microfilter into the socket and connect cordless phone to phone side of filter. The laptop will no longer require access to this socket as you'll need to connect it from the router which is connected to the master socket. You won't need the three way splitter.

Q4 Presumably the bell requires a filter too ?
The easiest solution would be to fit a plug onto the wire leading to the bell and then plug that plug into the splitter in the kitchen cupboard and plug the splitter into the second filter, thus using one filter to look after walk-about phone and big bell. An alternative would be to break into the wire leading to the big bell and fit another socket, then buy another filter but I would still have to fit a plug to the bell's wire. A third possibility would be to take the terminals cover plate off the big bell and fit some filter gizmo inside the bell housing.
Q5 Any suggestions ?

Depending on how the external bell is wired into the phone line you may need to get it rewired. It may be cheaper to purchase a new bell that connects directly into a BT socket in the same way a phone would and get the old bell disconnected from the line. It's probably best to have a chat with BT residential or a local phone engineer regarding this.

Q6 Any suggestions where I can buy the cables and plugs I am going to need?

I generally go to Ebuyer, Dabs or Ebay for this type of thing. But remember that Ebay isn't guaranteed if something goes wrong with the equipment.

PS Both the electricity supply and the phone line swoop down from a pole in the corner of the garden, find their way somehow through the loft and both appear in the hall cupboard, which houses the meter. I have read elsewhere in this thread that having the phone line next to the electricity supply is far from ideal whenn it come to Broadband performance.
Q7. Should I try to get the phone line within the bungalow re-routed ?

Whilst it does sound like there is some creative wiring going on in your house - I'm afraid that I'm not able to give you the proper advice on the situation. I think that you would be better off having a phone engineer come out and have a look to see what kind of advice they would give you.

Kind regards,
Samara

harryhound

Hi Samara,

Thanks for the detailed reply, brilliant customer service again.

Today I got a call from BT accusing me of having two telephone numbers.
EH no not in the last 35 years anyway!

As I discovered when checking my line suitability, I have a DACS on the line.
This line sharing device in effect turns the line into what used to be called a "party line". This explains why I never got more than about 30K bps out of a
56K modem.
So an engineer came round and the two of us played "hunt the DACS" in a gale & driving rain:
About 10 or 15 years ago a neighbour set up a business 250 yards away and BT pinched half of my line. This neighbour's business has long been converted to broadband BUT BT left the DACS up his pole. Grrrrr.
I suppose the good news is that I am getting 45.2 K bps now as I write this.

While the engineer was here, I asked him about my hard wired bell.
He ventured the opinion that as far a the BB connection was concerned, I
didn't need to worry about such a passive bit of kit and could leave it alone.

Does he know what he is talking about ?

Kind regards,

Harryhound

deefadog

I would just like to say that Samara is priceless, top, top customer services, i had a strange problem and it was delt with very quickly!

You can't buy this type of service!

Keep it up!

vinylmusic

I am on dialup paygo so I dont incur any charges directly from Madasafish.

If I make referrals and get credited £20 a go as you advertise can I withdraw my earnings to my bank or must I spend it on Madasafish products and services?

Obviously if I cant withdraw it then in my case it wouldnt serve much use to me

Madasafish_Customer_Care

Hello Harryhound,

That's a pretty quick turn around for having DACs removed from a line. I'm impressed.

It's really hard to give advice on the bell - but I do know that some external bells do not cause a problem and some do....it all depends on exactly how the bell is fitted vs. the quality of your line.

I guess my best advice is to give broadband a try and if it's not working properly then we should have a look at the bell at that time. It's quite possible that the bell will have no impact on the quality of your connection and it would be good to confirm that prior to paying for an engineer to come and visit.

Kind regards,
Samara

Madasafish_Customer_Care

Hello Vinylmusic,

The way that our referral program works is that when someone signs up for our broadband service using your referral code you get £20 credited to your account and your friend gets £10.

This credit then can be applied towards our broadband service. If you've not got a broadband service with us and you're on dial up, you can accrue credit in your account until you upgrade to broadband.


Kind regards,
Samara