My BT DSL connection takes some getting used to. First, I'd set up email using Notes R5's native SMTP support - very clunky in comparison with Outlook, but it gave me a good way to keep mail where I want it, and to have separate mailboxes for the different family members. That was really a saga in itself; question for Notes gurus "how do you create a non-hierarchical ID in Notes R5"?. (My answer: un-install Notes, install it, say you don't want to connect to a Domino server. There must be a simpler way).

So, everything was hunky dory, then DSL arrived and email stopped working. Rather, I could receive mail but not send it; the R5 replicator tab said "SMTP protocol permanent error". Oh dear! Time to dive under the covers. Notes.INI "SMTPCLIENTDEBUG=1". It turns out that my dialup ISP (Freeserve) gives you a non-authenticating relay when you ask to talk to your mail server (mine being mail.cabezal.com, which is pretty secure). With BT ASDL you don't get this extra layer of "service", you talk directly to your mail server; and Notes R5 client-side SMTP has a fatal bug which prevents it talking to an authenticating SMTP server. Solution: telnet to "mail.btinternet.com" port 25, verify that it's an open relay for BT DSL customers, and pass all my mail thrugh that instead.

Fixing the Web will be a bit harder. They giveth and they taketh away: it looks like BT are running a NetApp NetCache for the convenience of their broadband customers (ie. for the convenience of reducing their backbone usage!), and I'm convinced it's cacheing way too aggressively. For example, the Groovelog homepage is stuck on 2nd July no matter how often I refresh it. I've seen some reliability problems getting at my own homepage, but I'm blaming BT's cache rather than my hosters (the superb HubNut) until I have more evidence.