No Broadband, No TV

My Homechoice box died at the weekend - this leaves me without TV or Broadband internet.

I had half planned for this (Homechoice boxes don't last long) - awhile back I bought an Intel InBusiness Internet Station, a little router device that uses old analogue modems. However I haven't been able to get it working with a Tiscali pay as you go dialup account (Tiscali didn't work with the iStation, the laptop with a modem attache or a Compaq "Internet Terminal"). I assume that my Tiscali account is still active as I can log in to the web mail and check my mail, so maybe nobody uses Tiscali's dialup anymore so nobody's noticed it no longer works. However I was able to get an "anonymous" ISP (ie, an ISP you don't need to sign up to) to work, so I was able to login and get my email. My Amstrad emailer came in handy here - it's difficult to get internet access without internet access - fortunately I was able to browse the web with the emailer to find the anonymous ISP.

The other thing I've done is set up BT Openzone - I'm typing this at South Mimms Service Station, while eating dinner. They have a £5 (+VAT) a month for 500 minutes subscription offer, which I've been meaning to subscribe to for some time. I'll post more about BT Openzone at some point.

I'm not overly pleased with Homechoice - I phoned them up to tell them that my box had died and they told me that an engineer would call the next day. I phoned them on Sunday, nobody phoned me until Wednesday. Hopefully, they should be coming around Saturday afternoon to replace the box.