Tesco Internet Phone

[dlevett]

Do any of you guys use Tesco Internet Phone? (which is, I think, re-badged from Virgin).

I've had a nightmare with it:
- First it would 'go to sleep' when I used it on an old laptop in a docking station, resulting in nobody being able to get hold of us.
- Now I have a new laptop, and I've installed their latest software, and it just comes back with 'unable to connect to network' (ADSL connection, Explorer and Outlook work OK, Firewall switched off, etc.)
- It did work on the desktop connected to the same ADSL connection/router until I loaded the latest software and now that gives the same error message (Skype works fine on the desktop)

Their help centre reply quickly but seem to be 'try this, try that, without really knowing the problem - I've been exchanging E-Mails daily for over a week now.

Has anybody actually got it to work?

The advantage for me over Skype is that you get a UK phone number free (you pay a monthly charge for Skype in) therefore the family can keep in touch with us here in South africa for the price of a local call.

Any thoughts'advice much appreciated.

 

[Blue Sweeper]

Yup, works fine for me here in the UK. Perhaps it don't like you being in Sarf Africarrrr maybe?

 

[dlevett]

Version 1.1.2.3297 - Cr@p?

I thought it might be the location - though it is supposed to work wherever you are.

The strange thing is that Version 1.0.8.1894 worked OK on the desktop, but I lost the CD. They advised me to download the latest version (1.1.2.3297) and that's vhen the problems started.

I'm suspicious that the new version has bugs because when I contacted them they directed me to an obscure web-site ( http://tinyurl.com/2yyy29 ) to download what they described as the latest software (as opposed to http://www.tescointernetphone.com/download - which is what they originally advised).

I think (possibily unfarely) that they have released software which has not been de-bugged properly - I can't check because I can't regress back to the previous version which did work.

Anybody else downloaded the latest version (1.1.2.3297) and did it work?

 

[Blue Sweeper]

Latest version is 1.1.4.3722

But I'm using 1.1.4.3671 currently, so don't know how you thought 1.1.2.3297 is the latest version.

 

[dlevett]

Latest version is 1.1.4.3722

I went by the numbers that their E-Mail help centre gave me - Interesting that, when I've just checked, there is a later version than the version they gave me on Tuesday - it seems they're doing lots of update.

I loaded version 1.1.4.3722 and it still says 'network unavailable - I'm beginning to think it is cr@p - Skype runs more or less 100% reliably.

 

[dlevett]

Latest update:

After what seems like 5,642,456 E-Mails to Tesco, they just seem to guess at the problem.

Their latest thoughts are:
- it could be Norton Internet Security (even though, on their advice, it is removed from the start up script (not running), is set to allow the Tesco's programs anyway, and was OK with previous versions of their software (which they now can't supply for me to roll-back to)
- i need to enable port forwarding on the router (even though the previous version of their software worked OK with the router).

Their helpline people are very friendly, and E-mail back with their latest guess within 24 hours - but do they have a clue?

 

[dlevett]

Latest Software Removed From Website

I've just received an E-Mail from TescoInternetPhone to say that the latest software version has been removed from the website as there have been lots of problems - a bit of a moral victory, but should they have you trying everything, and blaming everything else, before they admit there is a problem?