*cackle* i finally get broadband, after eighteen months of various conversations with BT that go something like this,

"hi, i'd like broadband please!"

"certainly, sir, what's your telephone number?"

"great! it's 0208 421 4092"

"just one moment please... ah, i'm sorry, but that number is _just_ outside of the range."

"... but it's a new-build 4-year old estate, how can it not have broadband? how can i get it?"

"well, you have to apply on-line and register and if enough people register in your area, we add a relay"

"okay, so you want _me_ to pay for telephone charges in order to tell _you_ that i want broadband, and you _might_ enable it, and _then_ i get charged for a 12 month contract??"

"uhn... have a nice day, sir."

so, angry and sated at taking up another bt operator's time on a free telephone call, i can gnash my teeth for a few months more until 56k modem or 26k GPRS pisses me off again.

... BUT NO MORE!

in fact, so delighted at being in a broadband area that i got two :)

and immediately enabled my domain name, set up spamassassin, sa-exim (http://marc.merlins.org/linux/exim/) which is spam trapping at SMTP time, and then lowered the thresholds.

well, if that makes my computer a target, then, uhmmm.. TOUGH!