Alice and Nationwide internet banking

[BJSLIV]

Does your system and browser pass the audit at the bottom of this page of the Nationwide site. ??

http://www.nationwide.co.uk/troubleshooting/browserSupport/default.htm

 

There might be something missing in your Java installation.

[AnOther]

[quote user="suein56"]Which browser do you use? If you use Firefox for example, then try accessing N/W with IE, or vice-versa.[/quote]Lauchette has already said that she uses FF but has tried both IE & Chrome with similar results.

The fact that it has worked successfully from a friends locations would also tend to eliminate the browser as the problem.

[suein56]

[quote user="A.N.Other"]

Lauchette has already said that she uses FF but has tried both IE & Chrome with similar results.

The fact that it has worked successfully from a friends locations would also tend to eliminate the browser as the problem.

[/quote]

Whoops; that'll teach me to readback replies!

Sue [:$][:$][:$]

[suein56]

[quote user="BJSLIV"]

Does your system and browser pass the audit at the bottom of this page of the Nationwide site. ??

http://www.nationwide.co.uk/troubleshooting/browserSupport/default.htm

 There might be something missing in your Java installation.

[/quote]

Now that is a deft reply.

Sue

[AnOther]

But if the PC (and browser) worked perfectly at the friends house.................???

 

[BJSLIV]

True! I was assuming that he was using the friend's PC rather than lugging the box cross-country......

Incidentally there are many references to this around the web relating to many different sites.

A few relatively painless cures  that seem to have worked  for some people are.....

1 Rebooting the modem/router

2 Clearing cookies and caches.

3 Switching off /checking firewall permissions.

4 Changing from Avast antivirus scanner.

 

[AnOther]

[quote user="BJSLIV"]True! I was assuming that he was using the friend's PC rather than lugging the box cross-country......[/quote]

Lachouette said she had done exactly that...[;-)]

[quote user="Lachouette"]..we finally resorted to carting the PC a few kms down the road to a friends and connecting with their Orange connection.  Guess what - no problem.[/quote]

[BJSLIV]

I realised that after your last post, but this thread is getting as difficult to follow as the plot of  The Bold and The Beautiful......

[Martin963]

That's told you BJSLIV -  and you were only trying to help too..........

[Martin963]

Curiously enough I'm just trying to sort out a "new payment" from Nationwide,  I've never had to set one up before,  and although I can look at my balances and do transfers between accounts I can't even get to the page that allows me to input th einformation about the payee. 

And I'm with Alice.

Now whether it's a temporary problem or whether it's the same as the one on this thread.....   well we shall see.

And the complaints message page has refused to send my complaint (on another matter,   but Nationwide are no longer flavour of the month with me...!)

[Martin963]

I can now officially count myself as having exactly the same problem as the OP.   I can't even access the page to set up a payment or the page to make a complaint.

I did ring Nationwide who - and I must say they're jolly clever - could see from their end that I was using Firefox.   They suggested IE but this has not effected a cure.

I'm going to have to use my Barlcays account to pay and then send a Nationwide cheque to the branch to compensate.

Blimey,  I knew there was a catch to this interweb nonsense!

[Lachouette]

[quote user="Martinwatkins"]I can now officially count myself as having exactly the same problem as the OP.   I can't even access the page to set up a payment or the page to make a complaint.

[/quote]

Welcome to the club Martin!  I know it's no help to you but it feels vaguely better that it's not just me.  At this very minute I'm trying to open a message they sent in reply to the one I finally managed to get to them about the problems I've been experiencing.  Ahhhhhhhhhh - it's finally opened and here's what they have to say:

Dear Jan,

Thank you for your message.

I confirm you will need to delete your temporary Internet Files as follows:

- Choose 'Tools', then 'Internet Options'.

- Choose the General Tab.

- Under 'Temporary Internet Files', select 'Delete Files'.

- Under the sub heading 'History', select 'Clear History',

- Click 'OK'.

You will now be able to access the Bank as normal.  If you experience

further difficulties, please do not hesitate to contact us.

If you’re using Firefox you’ll need to clear your private data, choose

the ‘tools’ option on the toolbar and then ‘clear private data’.

Some

of our members are experiencing technical difficulties when using the

Payments & Transfers portion of our site.  This problem is found to

affect customers who connect to the Internet via an ADSL router, rather

than an ADSL modem.

 

Some ADSL routers do not correctly send

large packets of data (over 1200 to 1420 bytes) from the locally

connected PC to the Internet Service Provider (ISP). 

 

On most

routers there is an MTU setting which can be manually adjusted which,

if set correctly, will resolve this issue.  If you are experiencing

this problem, Nationwide recommends setting the MTU value on your ADSL

router to either 1200 or 1420 bytes, see which works best.  For

customers using ADSL routers where this setting is not

visible/available, you may be required to upgrade the firmware of the

router.

 

We are unable to provide technical advice on how to

configure routers.  Please check the documentation on the

manufacturer's website for instructions or contact their helpline for

assistance.

I'll go and give it all a go when I've watched Universally Challenged, as that's what I am after all this!

Jan

[AnOther]

[quote user="Lachouette"]This problem is found to

affect customers who connect to the Internet via an ADSL router, rather

than an ADSL modem[/quote]That'll be 99% then [:-))]

I suppose if this is the case then if your router has a USB inteface it may be worth trying to connect through that instead of ethernet or Wifi.

[Danny]

Jan, hello

here is some info about the MTU settings on your PC

http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/MTU.htm

click on the http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/tweak2.htm link for how to adjust the settings using the Dr Tcp program.

I can't find any info about changing the Alicebox settings in this regard at the moment but at least there is something to go on. If you unsure of how to do all this I can try to help.

Danny

 

[Martin963]

I shall go up the road tomorrow to French friends and try their non-Alice ADSL.    The rest of the village is on Alice AFAIK,  mainly because I recommended them.

It's quite funny really,   'cos I've always followed Danny (Club Internet,  then Alice) as he knows what he's about,  and our village has followed in our trail!.   So we're pretty nuch sunk now there's a problem!

Having said that,  I shall watch with interest to see if this problem is resolved by tweaking,  but I for one am NOT going to muck about with router settings,   I'm just not clever or patient enough,  so it's just as well I've got other bank accounts  (several opened five years ago when I was worrying about an impending banking crisis,  and most people told me I needn't worry).

So good luck to Jan,   but as this is the only problem I have I'm going to live with it.....

[AnOther]

Worth a shot Danny but NW are saying it's the router so I'm not sure tweaking the MTU on the ethernet interface is going to change much, let's see.

Getting into some pretty esoteric territory here [geek]

[Danny]

I did say I was out of my depth before so I'm clutching at straws now [Www]

Danny

[Lachouette]

[quote user="Jane and Danny"]

I did say I was out of my depth before so I'm clutching at straws now [Www]

Danny

[/quote]

Out of your depth!  I'm drowning here.  I might have a little look, but this sort of stuff is way out of my comfort/knowledge zone.  Is the Sagem Alicebox a router then, not a modem?

Strangely enough, a friend came round yesterday with her laptop, and I not only managed to connect to our wifi with it (attempts with a French guest's last week failed) but got into our bank account and managed to use the bill payments facility to pay this month's credit card.  Tried to get in on our PC attached to the Alicebox just brought the usual dismal failure though.

Have guests arriving today so am sorry to say that once again Alice goes on the back burner but I will keep reading posts to see how Martin's getting on.

Jan

[Martin963]

@ Jan -  BINGO!!

Don't know why I didn't think to try that.   Wendy's Vista computer is "connected wirelessly" (although not directly to our Alice Sagem box,   which is the most obstructive pernickety piece of **** for WiFi,  rather via a Netgear Wireless Router which itself is connected to Alice).

Anyway,  got straight through to the required payment pages at Nationwide,   didn't even need the card reader to make a significant payment out to my new Alliance and Leicester internet account.

So the solution based on a sample of two problems is "Go Wireless at the Nationwide".

So I can now send them the complaint about their re-introduction of 125% mortgages,  an overdraft rate of 18.9% (with base rates at 0.5%) and the punishment of savers like me in favour of the reckless and the feckless  (amongst others!).

[BJSLIV]

I'm no so sure that this particular 125% mortgage is really all that bad. It's a device to allow people who are already in negative equity but who must move house the ability to do so. It simply rolls over the existing negative equity to a new house thereby allowing a move to take place.

If this facility wasn't available the potential mover would have to pay down their existing loan before they could move.

To qualify you have to be an existing Nationwide borrower.

You have to be able to find a 5% deposit for the new property.

You have to pay a high rate of interest on both the new loan and especially on the (up to) 30% negative equity rolled over.

http://www.moneyweek.com/investments/property/what-nationwides-125-percent-home-loan-means-for-the-property-market-14951.aspx

 

[Danny]

Good news Martin.

If it works by wifi, then it seems a possibility that changing the settings of the ethernet adapter may work.

Easiest way - for me:

download TCP optimizer

run it, click on the 'largest MTU' tab. This is an easy way to find out the optimum setting for your PC. Click start (possibly twice)
it will try to connect to another computer with different file sizes to determine the optimum setting.
When it tells you the number, "You can set your MTU to XXXX", write it down.

You can change the MTU setting with this program but it is clearer to:

download Dr TCP

run it, select your network adapter in the list at the bottom and see what it says in the MTU box. The Windows default setting is 1500. Change this setting to your XXXX number as above. and press Save and then Exit.

Restart Windows and then try to connect to your site to see of there is any difference.

It might be interesting to see if there is a different MTU setting for the wireless adapter - select the wireless adapter in the drop down box in Dr TCP. That may explain Martin's success.

Danny

 

 

[Martin963]

Fair comment BJSLIV

However,   what worries me is that once the idea that 125% mortgages are back gets around,   less scrupulous lenders may start touting them again as "normal".   They are NOT normal.   They are (I would guess) almost unheard of in Europe.   They have helped encourage the boom that has bust us.  They were based on the premise that house prices always go up.  They don't.

I am worried beyond belief that already the lessons that should have been knocked home by this so-called recession are already being conveniently forgotten.    I say so-called recession because back in Britain this doesn't "feel" like 1974  (when the restaurants were COMPLETELY empty)  or 1981  (when people couldn't afford a Sunday joint) or 1992 (when people were repossessed in their tens of thousands).

And the deflation we keep being told about to scare us hasn't happened,  unless you take RPI which is negative simply because of the engineered cuts in interest rates.

And the prudent and careful are being punished whilst many of the profligate -  thanks to low interest rates - carry on as though nothing has happened.

But I digress......

[Danny]

Martin, its good that you can connect to the Nationwide site OK by wifi but.... if you have a minute (or ten!) to try the suggestion above for modifying the MTU for the ethernet connection, it may be helpful for Jan (and for me to know!) if you can get it working. I don't think she has a wireless connection to try...

Danny

 

[AnOther]

Good news !

As an aside I posted the problem on another teccie forum I use and got this response:

"I cannot advise you on how to resolve the problem but can only say that

a similar situation arose at a Bank I used to work at in Australia. The

Internet Banking Payments system had a conflict with one particular

type of router in relatively common use and it took months to sort out.

In many cases the customers replaced their routers (or changed banks)"

I your cases this would mean changing ISP too I guess if your VoIP services are tied to the Sagem router.

[Martin963]

Danny -  I'm afraid that I just don't feel up to fiddling;  as you know my Alice link is slow at the best of times,   my Sagem is a pain in the **** for WiFi,  and having got it and the Netgear to work I'm just not up for fiddling in case I break it.

Coupled with the fact that five minutes ago I discovered that my Toshiba 320 GB external HDD has packed up.   It no longer revs up,  just a gentle clicking sound.

I think it was ErnieY (apologies Ernie but why DO you keep changing your name here,  not that it's any of my business!) who said that ALL HDD pack up in the end,  not if,  but when.   Now this one I have been INCREDIBLY careful not to abuse,  it is run about once a month,  for no more than an hour or so,  to back up stuff.   It has never been dropped,  left anywhere damp,  or EVER used for more than eight hours on the trot.  It had about 50 GB used and 270 GB free.

It's a real casse-tete to know how to store stuff long term,  buying one of these HDD every three years is expensive,  but data DVD's also have a nasty habit of not playing after about the same period.

If anyone's got any tips (such as the 4 ft drop test) as to how to get the wretched thing spinning again I'd be very grateful.