Why I travel by train

[whole diary]

[LiskeardRich]

It'll be interesting to watch the complaints roll in on social media. There are only 254 connections available on any one router, I think

On a busy service a couple of weeks ago it took from Reading to just outside Exeter just to load one text only email.

It uses 3g and 4g mobile signal, so is reliant on a mobile network. It uses any of the current UK^▸ (United Kingdom) networks.

It doesn't work through most of Cornwall, where most areas don't have 3g yet.

[Electric train]

Why I travel by train .........  it has been an occupational hazard since 1975  (no I don't drive trains or a member of the on board staff"

[BerkshireBugsy]

If I have the choice I travel by train but this has nothing to do with productivity .

I spent 2 years on site which involved a daily commute from Thatcham to Reigate. It was too close to stay overnight (in my opinion) so I had a choice of driving or catching the train.

In my opinion it was a simple choice especially as the Reigate office was 5 minutes walk from the station. If I wanted a sleep or check posts on the coffee shop forum I could without endangering myself or other travellers. I found that (with few exceptions) I would arrive at my journeys end relatively refreshed

Although my Reigate days are behind me I still choose to travel by train for exactly the same reason.

[Thatcham Crossing]

On the whole I actually enjoy train travel, despite the vagaries that FGW^▸ (First Great Western)/NR^» (Network Rail - home page) and sometimes circumstances beyond their control throw at us.

Luckily I consider myself quite a patient, laid-back person, so as long as there are not going to be major implications, I don't mind the odd delay.

Although I am not a rail commuter, I count my rail usage for work (around 50 times into London from Thatcham in the last year) frequent enough to form an opinion and to observe the work going on to "build the greater West" (and Crossrail).

Of those 50 journeys, I would say I have probably suffered meaningful delays on less than 10%. I don't think that's too bad. The worst ones that I can recall were when someone working trackside cut through a cable (not FGW's fault) and when someone decided to end their life in the way we are sadly all too familiar with.

The train does mean a bit of work is (sometimes) possible, even if that just means keeping up with the non-stop email, or that I can just relax and look out of the window.

As I said, I quite enjoy train travel. I usually visit West Cornwall at least once a year, and will always find an excuse to park at St. Erth or Lelant Saltings and take the branch to St. Ives, I love it. In a few months I am taking a "birthday treat" trip on the "Belmond Northern Belle" - looking forward to that aswell.

[PhilWakely]

In a few months I am taking a "birthday treat" trip on the "Belmond Northern Belle" - looking forward to that aswell.

And enjoy it you should! My company treated me and the wife to a Valentine's Day trip on the British Pullman 'around the Surrey Hills' as a 30-year long service gift........... 5 courses and champagne with every course    Well recommended as a gift, but otherwise a second mortgage might be required!

[BerkshireBugsy]

Luckily I consider myself quite a patient, laid-back person, so as long as there are not going to be major implications, I don't mind the odd delay.

I regard myself as being of a similar nature TC^‡(resolve), maybe it's living in Thatcham that does it!

When I was doing my daily commute to Reigate it was hard work in the "leaf fall" season but give the nature of the North Downs Line I guess it is hardly surprising it gets hit badly.

[rogerw]

My travel is purely for leisure except for a very occasional trip to Bristol for a meeting.  I use advance fares wherever possible and FGW^▸ (First Great Western) have lost revenue from me since the reduction in first class accommodation and the consequent/subsequent increase in first class advance fares.  I consider that a 200% premium for a cup of tea and a biscuit excessive.  Most trips to London (from Trowbridge) are now by SWT^▸ (South West Trains).  My journey to Stevenage this weekend uses FGW but in standard as the first advance is three times the price.  At least I have a trip to Buxton in premier class with UK^▸ (United Kingdom) Railtours as a consolation (full english, light lunch and 4 course dinner and less than half the price of the English Pullman)

[PhilWakely]

I wrote earlier about my experiences of working on the train. I was made redundant and took early retirement a few years ago, so my rail travel these days is almost exclusively for leisure. Although I do not yet qualify for a Senior Railcard, my wife and I have a Two Together and my daughter unfortunately qualifies for a Disabled Persons Railcard, so we will almost always travel together and make use of Advance fares. I personally love travelling by train and will use trains in preference to the car whenever possible.

Like rogerw above, if we travel to London it will always be SWT^▸ (South West Trains) from Pinhoe in first class (best advance fare available ^14 per person each way against ^60 per person each way from Exeter St Davids with FGW^▸ (First Great Western)). The time taken is more than compensated by the fare differential). The one exception to this is the Easter weekend, when we will travel just for the sake of experiencing the different routings caused by the Reading blockade.

[thetrout]

It'll be interesting to watch the complaints roll in on social media. There are only 254 connections available on any one router, I think

Common misconception this. Let me try and explain it a little. Each host on a network gets it's own unique IP Address for that device. A little like how your house in a street has a door number. Much the same concept.

It depends on how the router is configured. Lets assume the router is using a 192.168.1.x / 255.255.255.0 Subnet Mask. This is commonly known as a Class C or /24 Subnet. This is standard configuration for nearly all domestic and small business networks. This allows for 254 hosts on the same network. Of which 1 host is the Default Gateway / The Router Itself. Depending on the configuration on the router side that would allow 253 client hosts on the same network.

However you can configure most routers to use Class B and Class A Subnets also.

It's rather technical but I will try and explain it in the best way I can.

| Subnet Class |	| Private IP Space Format |	| Number of Usable Hosts |	| Subnet /XX Format |	| Full Subnet Mask |
| Class C |	| 192.168.1.x	| 254	| /24	| 255.255.255.0
| Class B |	| 172.16.x.x	| 65,534	| /16	| 255.255.0.0
| Class A |	| 10.x.x.x	| 16,777,214	| /8	| 255.0.0.0

Each network subnet has 2 Reserved IP Addresses for Broadcast and Subnet ID. These I will call reserved IP Addresses as they cannot be used for hosts on the network. These IP Addresses are always the FIRST and LAST IP Addresses in the subnet network.

So if you look at a Class C Subnet which is used on the majority of BTHomeHubs, Virgin SuperHubs etc. The "192.168.1." part ALWAYS remains the same. The part after the last . can be any number from 1 - 254 inclusive. As 192.168.1.0 and 192.168.1.255 are our reserved IP Addresses these cannot be used. So you select IP 192.168.1.1 for your router. A host could have any IP from 192.168.1.2 - 192.168.1.254

NO HOST can share the same IP Address

A Class B subnet the "172.16." parts remain the same. So the part after the second . can both be selected at random with the exception of IP address 172.16.0.0 and 172.16.255.255 as these are the reserved addresses. So lets put our router on 172.16.0.1 This leaves us with another 65,533 addresses to choose from. So we could have 172.16.43.125 and 172.16.150.234 allocated to 2 seperate hosts.

As with Class C Subnets. A host cannot share the same IP address as another host.

Finally Class A Subnets. These are "10.x.x.x" so the first part "10." remains the same. That allows use to chose any number from 0 - 255 for the subsequent parts of the IP Address. So the reserved IP Address are 10.0.0.0 and 10.255.255.255 so these cannot be used. Our router goes to 10.0.0.1 that leaves the remaining 16,777,213 IP Addresses for our client hosts.


Lets assume you want to run 2 seperate networks on the same infrastructure. A host on say 192.168.150.x network wanted to communicate with a host on 192.168.125.x network. As these are 2 different subnets. You would need a device called a Router or Bridge. That would allow these 2 seperate networks to communicate with each other. This would allow you in theory to have a network of 506 hosts that could all communicate with each other. On 2 seperate 254 host networks. That is what your router in essence does. Allows your computer to find a path to the Public IP Address Space for the likes of Google etc.


So lets look at it in this way. I want to get from my computer in an Internet Cafe to Google.

Location	IP Address
My Laptop	192.168.1.73
Cafe Router	192.168.1.1
Google	173.194.112.95

My Computer asks the Router if I can have a path to Google. The Router searches it's networks and finds another router that has the ability to go to Google. Eventually after Several Routers route me across the network. I arrive at my destination of 173.194.112.95




Explanation over. Hope you can have some understanding of it. Please do PM me for clarification and I will do my best to explain it rather than clutter this thread. Once I have made my explanations I will make a seperate post accordingly

[grahame]

I haven't checked the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) systems - which class are they?   Are you saying the class C limit is 253 not 254 hosts, or suggesting that FGW are using 10. or 176.??

[BerkshireBugsy]

I haven't checked the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) systems - which class are they?   Are you saying the class C limit is 253 not 254 hosts, or suggesting that FGW are using 10. or 176.??

My understanding is that class c leaves 254 addresses - .0 being the network address and .255 being the broadcast address BUT as TT says the router needs an address which limits it to 253 available

[thetrout]

FGW^▸ (First Great Western) WiFi uses 192.168.101.x and I believe a 24 Bit Subnet. However I am speculating that each carriage has a separate connection as carriages get swapped in and out of sets all the time. I might fire up BackTrack when I'm next on the train and have a closer look at the signals around me.

But my suspicions were raised when I was right under the antenna in Coach K and was getting a 2 Bar WiFi Signal - Suggesting the next carriage was the source of signal. Indeed my mobile phone strongly suggested this was the case as when I went to use the bathroom in Coach L, the signal was much stronger.

I do recommend the FGW WiFi actually - it is easily the best on train WiFi I've seen for quite some time. East Midlands Trains was also reasonably good. Virgin and CrossCountry WiFi is awful even in 4G Areas I pull down less than 1MB/s

VMware vSphere Client works extremely well over FGW WiFi...

The total irony is that Grooveshark does NOT work over their WiFi for streaming music... Yet YouTube does...

[Thatcham Crossing]

I hope you'll understand that, as it's a "treat", I'm not in possession of the full facts around the cost of my forthcoming trip to the Lake District on the Northern Belle, but I do know that a surprisingly small amount of Nectar points converted into 25% off 

[BerkshireBugsy]

Tc, I am extremely envious of your forthcoming trip and hope you may create a TR (trip report).

Enjoy

[BerkshireBugsy]

For the first time in my life I actually caught a train to and from Maidenhead station one day this week. Whilst waiting for my train back I was standing on the platform in the sunshine and I thought it would be so nice to get on a train a go exploring on lines that I have never travelled on before armed with my trusty DSLR

Maybe on day