Morning Everyone.

I was lying in bed this morning wondering what the score is with the
Post Office terminals behind the counter. Do all the Post Offices now
have some kind of live data link, eg. ADSL, SDSL or a leased line?

My thinking is they must as their terminals are used for almost
everything. Calculting postage costs, adding insurance, allowing
withdrawls from various bank accounts, car tax etc.

I know it could all be done on a batch update type process whereby it
spends a few hours each night downloading latest prices / uploading the
days transactions. Perhaps this is still done on a modem connection for
post offices in rural locations?

Anyone in the know out there?
Rob

On Sat, 05 Mar 2005 10:33:39 +0000, Rob <robin@.uk.org.brol> wrote:

I would expect that it's a mixture of leased line, ADSL and ISDN
access, depending on the size and location of the PO, onto an MPLS
VPN.

Jake

In message <42298b01$0$10946$cc9e4d1f@news-text.dial.pipex.com>, Rob
<robin@?.uk.org.brol.invalid> writes
Nope. Well, mine doesn't :-) IDSN yes, but no broadband in remote NE
Scotland.
You would imagine so, but no, not a permanent connection.
You assume that the Post Office is in the 21st century? :-)

Indeed, although we are promised ADSL from 27th April. POL exists as a
contradiction. Parts are very up to date, such as the Horizon computer
system which you see behind the counter. Parts, which you don't see,
are still very firmly 1965. Who else still uses carbon paper, for
example? Whilst it is true that more and more PO work is being
computerised, there is still a huge amount which relies entirely upon
pen, paper and carbon paper. We try not to even think about interfacing
the computer systems used by the various agencies such as Post Office,
Royal Mail, Parcelforce, DVLA, DHS, Inland Revenue etc.
--
Graeme

Friends, Rob, countrymen, lend me your newsreaders:
Are DSL circuits utilised for private networks carrying sensitive
information? My Dad's business is directly linked to the Police
National Computer via an ISDN line, which means it doesn't go through
the internet (very wise)...but I've always wondered why he has to suffer
such a shit slow connection considering how robust and fast the new PNC
system (STORM) is supposed to be.

It wouldn't surprise me if the link between Post Office counters and the
central network is similarly via ISDN.
--
Lee J. Moore
"Life is short, art is long."

LJM wrote:
No reason ADSL can't be used if a secure VPN is established.

Ivor

LJM wrote:
All I can say is that the majority of PO, both small (some very small) &
large do have a DSL link of some nature....

In article <4229a199$0$35330$ed2619ec@ptn-nntp-reader02.plus.net>,
kraftee <kraftee@spamoff& die.com> wrote:
The small post office next door to me has a 2Mb leased line connection of
some sort. I doubt it's to an ISP, probably directly back to HQ (wherever
or whatever that might be) And it wouldn't surprise me if it has a backup
ISDN or somesuch. (Although all the wires come off the same pole I'm on,
so if that goes down, the backup wouldn't be much help!)

I found this out by looking over the shoulder and chatting with the BT
linesman when he went online to check circuits, etc. when I get getting
ISDN installed...

Our exchange isn't ADSL enabled yet.

Gordon

"LJM" <subtextwhore@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:slrnd2j67l.3ps.subtextwhore@gmail.com...
Yes. If the underlying transport isnt secure enough, users tend to look at
using encryption or VPN gear (and then not do it once they realise how much
extra work is involved for setup, diagnostics and troubleshooting).

My Dad's business is directly linked to the Police
you are assuming that a DSL link has to connect to the internet - it doesnt.

BT have a DSL service called Datastream, which uses ATM end to end to
whoever orders the service - my employer uses this to link ADSL to our
corporate MPLS network without touching BTs IP network or the Internet. The
cost is fair bit more than normal consumer internet DSL feeds though.
i believe most PO sites are now on ADSL using the same kind of service.

Regards

Stephen Hope - return address needs fewer xxs

Gordon Henderson wrote:
Could have still been pre-fitted for DSL service though......

Big national project only just finished...

On Sat, 05 Mar 2005 13:03:51 GMT, "stephen"
<stephen_hope.xx@ntlxworld.com> wrote:

and indeed... there is nothing to stop a corporate company purchasing
regular "ISP flavour" ADSL and a Central Pipe, and plugging it into
their corporate network.

ADSL doesn't have to be plugged into the Internet.

peter

--
peter gradwell. gradwell dot com Ltd. http://www.gradwell.com/
-- engineering & hosting services for email, web and voip --
-- http://www.peter.me.uk/ -- http://www.voip.org.uk/ --

In article <4229b44c$0$35759$ed2619ec@ptn-nntp-reader02.plus.net>,
kraftee <kraftee@spamoff& die.com> wrote:
Unlikely. This was 2.5 years ago when I found this out, and given the
range of wireless broadband projects that have run in my town (which
I've been the back-end techie for), I can assure you that there wasn't
a DSLAM in the exchange at that time!

But who cares? A dedicated leased line or something else. Whatever it is,
I'm sure it will be a "private circuit" of some sorts, (virtual, real,
encrypted or otherwise) the underlying transport mechanism, really is
irrelevant. Exchanges can run leased line type circuits independant of
consumer/business ADSL type services, and have been doing so for a great
many years. Supplying a 2Mb leased line on a pair (sometimes 2 pairs)
of copper wires from almost anywhere to almost anywhere else in the
country (and some other countrys) has been something thats been do-able
for at least the 15 years I've been directly involved with the stuff,
and an awful lot longer than that! (You just have to pay for it)

Bulding a VPN out of ADSL lines is a good and relatively cheap way of
doing it, as long as the data you need to send back isn't too much -
remember your outgoing bandwidth is significantly lower than incoming
(Asymetric DSL) and not every exchange is going to be LLUd or have
Symetric DSL kit installed. If you have a lot of data to send out, you
need some sort of symetric service which may mean using a traditional
leased line type of circuit, and then you just need to pay for it (unless
you have the luxury of being in a cable area where they are significantly
cheaper than BT - eg. £1800pa for a 10Mb fibre in Bristol vs. £10K for
the BT product)

BT don't seem to like doing 2mb leased lines on copper anymore - they
want you to get fibre and charge you another arm and the other leg for
it too )-: Telewest seem more than happy!

Our exchange is supposed to go ADSL live at the end of July, but who
needs ADSL when I have a nice symetric WiFi solution...

Gordon

Gordon Henderson wrote:
But true & some of the sub post offices have been off exchanges with less
than 500 working circuits (& yes I did count them as I was rather board &
had little else to do while waiting for the PO to open up after dinner)

Gordon Henderson wrote:

[snip]


Indeed. When I was involved with hospital radio back in the 80's we had an
extremely large network of 19 hospitals all linked back to the studios by
dedicated music quality landlines. Our technical controller, who used to
work for BT, was fond of saying "you can connect anything to anything if
you put the right plugs in the right sockets..!"

Ivo

but I've always wondered why he has to suffer
That'll be nice and fast when the network hasnt died....yet again....

--
--
Linux - Performs in 3 days what other OSs can do in 30 seconds

Well thanks for all the replies.

I was just getting quite curious......

Rob

In article <d0cic7$pg7$1@lion.drogon.net>,
gordon@lion.drogon.net (Gordon Henderson) writes:

The reason is distance. The 2 Mbps SDSL service is limited to about 1.6 km of
cable, so typically somewhere around 1 km radius of the exchange. 2 Mbps
leased lines over copper would be expected to behave similarly.

Telewest will be running over fibre (probably) to a street box not too far
away, and then over copper for the last stretch. That's quite a useful way to
deliver higher speeds as well.

--
Tim Clark

On Sat, 05 Mar 2005 19:33:32 GMT, "Tim Clark"
<Timothy.Clark@btinternet.com> wrote:

Not true. We put loads of 2Mbps leased lines in, all provided by BT,
and they're all delivered over copper. It's available to 99.9% of UK
geography. It's due to the fact that the technology used is not DSL.

The only place we've been unable to deliver to so far is half way up a
Welsh hillside.

Jake

In message <qPAhpdhrKZKCFw3H@binnsroad.demon.co.uk>, Graeme Eldred
<Graeme@binnsroad.co.uk> writes
--
Pete Devlin
[{//////news03//////at\\\\\secondrow/////co\\\\\uk}]
"Mind the oranges Marlon!"

In message <N8NdxVBBbNLCFwYg@sukmabobby.com>, pete devlin
<spamtrap@secondrow.co.uk> writes
We're due to go live 27th April. Funnily enough, this exchange serves
two local Royal properties, both of which have been ADSL enabled for
several years. Funny that the oiks, connected to the same exchange,
have to wait.

--
Graeme

On Tue, 8 Mar 2005 07:48:43 +0000, Graeme Eldred
<Graeme@binnsroad.co.uk> wrote:

Remember that ADSL is a technology, not the name of a public broadband
service.

The ADSL kit in your local exchange is probably there to connect the
Post Offices (and perhaps other businesses) into a non-Internet
network, such as BT IP Clear, and is not related to ADSL kit for
connection into BT's IP Stream or Datastream services as operated by
BT Wholesale.

Jake