den

Well if he aint asked, we'll never know. Bloody good call though. Time for a hard man, someone to put the fear of god up 'em.

Interesting interview with Roy Keane on SSN. He reckons that England have players as good technically, as lots of other teams. He says the problem is definately down to inflated egos. OHe says once egos take over, you're on a loser. He says that as good as the players are, good players don't make good teams. He thinks the England players don't care enough about the international games. The game in England is club orientated. Just a thought, how about Keane for England manager? There's no way that anyone would underperform with him in charge. From that, something I noticed last night - Gerrard, when asked how disappointed he was, said that it was as disappointing a night he'd had, with England. He also added maybe unvoluntarily, that he'd had some very disappointing times with liverpool. It did sound as though he was more interested in his club than his country.

I'm going to close this topic temporarily, simply to keep the England/McClaren talk in one place.

Just twp points Bazza. 1] I've no idea how precise that link to speeds is. 2] No doubt they promise UP TO 8Mb Even so, you should take them to task on their service. Under 1 Mb is nowhere near 8Mb is it! Sorry I can't help further.

Just as a matter of interest, what are these settings that they have changed?

Just to let everyone know that the slow speed problem has been fixed. After a few discussions with Sky, I recieved this message: Thank you for contacting Sky Broadband Technical Support. I can confirm that we have made some configuration changes to your line, and this is the reason that you have noticed a visible difference in your broadband connection. We have adjusted your settings so that your line now receives the optimal speed for your line and this also takes into account the distance that you live from your telephone exchange. No problem at all with speed now. Using THIS test, I'm at around 7MB, even at peak times. Thanks for EVERYONES help.

No, but no-one would be distraught, if we had someone lined up - better than him. You could say that about any player, including Bentley McCarthy and Santa. What's the chances though?

OLD? He's 33 for gawds sake. Many centre halves have played well beyond that age.

That's the obvious one Lee. but possibly the best. People tend to pass the first page though. We could ask admin to provide a button at the top of the forums page, but then the reviews are unattached from the main topic.

and back to Lucas Neill............

I've been trying to think of a way of putting the review in a more accessible place than "page 14". Any suggestions?

Blue Phil, if you keep baiting the mods, one of them will bite back soon.

Reduced ST prices certainly did make a difference.

Wellllllllllll, I'm just about to finish one called "a short history of just about everything", by Bill Bryson. It depends on your taste of course, but the book covers most of the sciences, everything that goes to make the universe and the human being. It's all laid out in a very easy to follow, but very interesting format. Entertaining stuff, amusing too. My next book is by Max Hastings, "Nemesis. The battle for Japan 1944-45". It's new out and has just had a short airing in the daily Mail. My dad was a Japanese POW, who worked on the Burma railway - the bridge on the river Kwai. Hence the interest. It tells the story of how the Japanese government missed the opportunity to avoid Hiroschima and Nagasaki, and also tells the story of the suffering of the POW's.

Just finished reading this, Colin. Excellent book I thought. As for the Postscript & Afterword, well, it brought a tear to my eye. Very, very moving finale.

Thanks for your input Biddy, it's really interesting. BTW, down to 131kbs.

The only thing is Biddy, that the "Connection Speed 15323 kbps 764 kbps" figures, don't change. I reckon that is what the router is configured to. Using the speed test at the bottom of my last post, it's currently giving around 3MB/sec, but I'm running well now. I'll check it when the speed really dips. [as long as I can get the site up].

Biddy, these are the current figures: System Up Time 05:45:47 Port Status TxPkts RxPkts Collisions Tx B/s Rx B/s Up Time WAN PPPoA 129 227 0 109 773 00:03:19 LAN 10M/100M 69283 51319 0 4382 310 05:45:45 WLAN 11M/54M 902 0 0 9 0 05:45:35 ADSL Link Downstream Upstream Connection Speed 15323 kbps 764 kbps Line Attenuation 17.5 db 10.0 db Noise Margin 10.6 db 12.0 db I take it that my speed is 15.3 Mb/sec? At the moment though, it's working great. If I'm reading it correctly, I'll check again tonight, or whenever it slows to a virtual standstill. -------------------------------- What's anyone think about This speed test? It was recommended by a poster on This thinkbroadband site

This from Sky's helpline: There are a number of factors that can affect your connection speed. You can check some of them to improve your browsing experience. – The quality and length of your telephone cabling, including any extensions – Connecting your Sky wireless router wirelessly is often slower than using an Ethernet cable – Having all the correct microfilters installed – The distance between your house and the telephone exchange – The speed of your computer. Running a lot of programs in the background can use a lot of system resources. Don't forget that spyware or viruses could be running without your knowledge. Have you updated your security software recently? Please note: Sky will automatically provide the fastest speed that your phone line can physically support as a reliable connection, up to the maximum download speed of your Sky Broadband product. Your broadband speed may vary during the day depending on whether our network is busy, the websites you are visiting, whether you're sharing your connection with others in your home, and whether you have any spyware or hardware slowing down your computer. Your speed may reduce significantly during the peak period from 6pm to 9pm. ------------------------------------------------- Well not just 6pm until 9pm. All bloomin' evening. When they say reduce significantly, they mean become completely unusable. When they advertise their product at a massive 16Mb, they don't tell you it wont work at all in the evenings.

That's interesting Glenn, I hadn't realised the importance of home wiring. In my case though, BT's speeds were excellent, where sky's are abysmal. That can't be anything at all to do with domestic wiring.

We were with BT Bryan, but it was costing £25/month. Excellent broadband speeds though. We changed to sky, as probably a million or two more did, because you can free broadband on the lower speeds. We pay £10/month though for a premium 16Mb service, but in the evenings it's no different to our old 56K modem. They should HAVE to guarantee minimum speeds.

Where do I see that? Actually, we [me and Baz] switched over to sky broadband 16Mb. It was great for quite a few months, but now, in the evenings, it's unusable. I've contacted them and await their answer, but it looks like we will have to move away from sky.

yes SG, but that figure is completely meaningless.

Well, in my experience, crowds very rarely increase this early in the season. If things continue on the field as they are, we'll see an increase later in the season.