Time for a re-re-think about PSTN/POTS?

[Robin]

Pay And Display car parks rely on employees who check that vehicles are covered by a payment by looking at the ticket on display. With telephone payment they do so by checking the registration number against the record of payments. The employees need a data connection to do so but their phones are easier and cheaper to update than a machine - and less likely to be vandalised.

The same switch was made here years for the council's on-street parking and residents' parking permits. Enforcement officers now using ANPR on their phones.

[Jeff Layman]

Well, it makes sense to get away from machines if they're being vandalised, but I've not seen that often presented as an argument for removing them. If you're going to get employees to check payment has been made correctly, then you have to pay those employees, and so can't use the argument that you don't have to pay employees to empty the coin machines.

I wonder if anything else relating to ANPR is being checked at the same time - expired road tax licence and/or MOT. There's no parking restriction in our road, but an 04 plate Toyota van (in decent condition) outside our house for a couple of weeks had a council notice put on it that it appeared to be abandoned and would be removed after a week. I checked online, and its road tax and MOT were valid for several weeks. We didn't report it to the council and neither did our neighbours, so we wonder who did.

[Ian Jackson]

In message <u8mb4v$387eo$ [e-mail], nib [e-mail]> writes

Around here, most of the council Pay & Display machines mysteriously seemed to go out-of-order. The alternative was to pay by RingGo app (or call some phone number) - and if you couldn't do that, to find an alternative place to park.

Requiring you to possess a smartphone (or at least an old-type mobile phone to manually call the alternative number) in order to park really is an imposition, and should be made unlawful.

[Robin]

The UK is, by international standards, very lax about checking that old people are fit to drive. So there may be logic and merit in discouraging those who can't manage to pay for parking by app or phone.

[Robin]

Cash is different from payment by card. Cash means:

a different job for employees: emptying cash from a machine and taking it away - a job that puts the employees at risk of being mugged.

the machines attract those who think it's worth bashing them hard with any available object to see if they can get at the cash;

more things to go wrong

[Peter Able]

The 4G-based system has been up and running for four days now. Seems to work well. Video streaming without pauses. The only noticeable change is that I now have a dynamic IP. I can live with that. The monthly data is working out at about 45GByte, so well within the 70GByte contract.

I guess (hope) that the only issue might be if Vodafone and Three merge and then switch off the Vodafone local system.

Many thanks for the advice given, y'all.

PA

[Peter Able]

The 4G-based system has been up and running for four days now. Seems to work well. Video streaming without pauses. The only noticeable change is that I now have a dynamic IP. I can live with that. The monthly data is working out at about 45GByte, so well within the 70GByte contract.

I guess (fear) that the only issue might be if Vodafone and Three merge and then switch off the Vodafone local system.

Many thanks for the advice given, y'all.

PA

[SH]

[SH]

It is possible to have a Static IP on a SIM, Andrews and Arnold offer one.

Alternatively there are services like no-ip, DynDNS, etc to route to you a dynamic IP.

I would imagine the final entity keeping the VODA towers in areas where Three coverage is poor.

[David Wade]

Is it really JUST a dynamic IP or a non-routable CGNAT IP? I understand Vodafone generally use CGNAT on its 4g service CGNAT has its own reserved IP range between 100.64.0.0 and

100.127.255.255. So if you have an IP address in that range the above mentioned services are no use.

More info here:-

You can probably also live with that...

Dave

[Peter Able]

The 4G-based system has been up and running for two months now. Working well. About 2/3 of the 70GByte monthly being used.

I have not seen 2 bars since I burnt my landline boats - but am still beating the discontinued FTTC speed. No dropouts or significant lack of capacity.

We get a lot of power cuts here. Two times already this week. Not a problem now as the mobile is its own ~4 hour UPS.

It is a shame that the very memorable 'phone number allocated won't be used much, if at all.

Less than a tenner each month; less than a tenner set-up (the cost of a Samsung S5 on Ebay). I suppose that I should include the cost of a charger and the charger cable - as the £9.84 'phone was just the handset and its postage. Who hasn't got such items in the bottom of a wardrobe ;>}

PA

[David Wade]

I suppose we are heavy users. Looks like I am using about that per week. My download usage for the past three months was around 350Gb a month....

Yes I spent a lot more than that. I assume you also have a CGNAT number so you can't VPN back to home when out and about...

Dave

[Marco Moock]

Am 05.10.2023 schrieb David Wade [e-mail]:

IPv6 exists. Good providers have it.

[David Wade]

On mobile? I also use VPN from Spain and my ISP there has no IPv6.

Dave

[John Walliker]

Another option (also from A&A) is to set up an L2TP tunnel to them which gives a static IPv4 address and lots of IPv6 addresses. If you can live with 3Mbit/s for the static IP addresses then it only costs £2+VAT/month. If you need more, then 400Mbit/s max and

5Tbyte/month costs £10+VAT/month. You also get an unfiltered connection. John

[Andy Burns]

Some UK mobiles (e.g. EE) come with *only* IPv6 now ... probably varies by contract type

[SH]

build your own Wireguard server on a Raspberry pi and set that at home, set up a port forward rule in the home router

then install teh wireguard app from the appstore / playstore, use phone to scan the QR code on teh R Pi's screen and then the VPN can then connect and be left permanently connected.

You will however need a static IP on the home router so speak to your ISP about that. I do not know if wireguard will work with Dyn DNS or No-IP services.

[Marco Moock]

Am 05.10.2023 schrieb David Wade [e-mail]:

In Germany it is available on mobile. If your ISP doesn't support it, try a VPN provider that supports it.

[Marco Moock]

Am 05.10.2023 schrieb Andy Burns [e-mail]:

That is a good sign.

[Marco Moock]

Am 05.10.2023 schrieb SH [e-mail]:

It should work, but it will be disconnected every time the IP changes.