Freecom
Welcome to the Freecom pages of this website. If you're keen to get to the bits which relate to your Freecom product, ignore this bit - other than the DISCLAIMER - and use the menu on the right to find what you are looking for. But, if you've a minute or two to spare, you might find the following of interest.
Disclaimer
It's a sad fact that, these days, we live in a "blame" culture. So here's my attempt to avoid any blame..... Use the information provided in these pages entirely at your own risk! I take no responsibility for any damage or loss which you might suffer as a consequence of acting upon something you see in these pages. I shall do my genuine best to ensure that the information here is accurate and helpful but......you take your chances! In particular, DO NOT mess about with anything electrical if you are not qualified to do so - you could kill yourself!! Get professional help if you are in any doubt!!
This site will hopefully continue to develop through time. If you visit the site from time to time, to save you rummaging through everything, if you go here, you'll find a list, in chronological order, of any changes which have been made to the site. It's my attempt to establish some order as I'm beginning to see this site could get bigger and bigger.......
Why are these pages here?
I'm a computer anorak. Been messing about with computers for around 20 years, professionally and as a hobbyist. During that time I've amassed a fairly wide-ranging knowledge of lots of things computer-related, although I do not claim to be a master of any of these! Some time ago I bought my first Freecom product - a Network Media Player (see menu left for a review of that product). I spent a lot of time researching the market place before deciding the Freecom product best suited my needs. And I've been very pleased with it. Subsequently I added a Freecom DVB-T stick to my PC kit and I'm about to add another couple of products - The Media Player 350 and a DVB-T Scart (each of which I'll review in these pages some time soon).
In setting up the Media Player, I encountered a few small difficulties and consulted the Freecom Forum to find if any users had posted solutions to my problems. I quickly found the answers I was looking for but, while doing that, came across some requests for help from other users, with which I found I could help. I then found that quite a number of the queries being raised on the Forum, although relating to Freecom products other than the Media Player, were things I could help with, due to my "20 years of messing about with computers".
The more time I spent on the Forum, the more I became aware that the Forum was generating lots of "intelligence" but that that intelligence was not being captured in a way which permitted easy access. For example, solutions to particular problems were being found but because the Forum's search facility (which is now vastly improved!) was not effective, these solutions could not be easily accessed. Time and again I would see users post queries identical to those already asked and answered, but they were unaware that these answers existed and clearly could not find them even if they did know the answers were there. In many cases, because I got sufficiently interested to read almost all the messages which were posted, I could see that, quite often, the answer to a question relating to a particular product, also could be applied to a quite different product. But there did not seem to be any way that the user asking the question could possibly know that a solution for quite a different product, might solve their own problem.
I decided to do something about it!
There needed to be some way to capture and make easily accessible the wealth of intelligence and infoirmation which was being developed within the Forum. And the easy way to do that, from my perspective, was to bung it all together on this website.
So, these pages are here to try to capture the information available and continually developing on the Forum and from a variety of other sources (my own computer knowledge included) for the benefit of Freecom product users.
So - altruism rules, eh?
Yes is the simple answer. In case you are wondering, this site does not generate any income for me. There are no adverts on it and I intend that remains the case. I am not employed by Freecom - indeed, being a (young) retired person, I'm not employed by anyone. It's purely a hobby to me. I get my motivation by helping others, in the same way that lots of people on Forums similar to Freecom's have helped me with queries over the years. And it's nice to get the occasional "thank you" on the Forum for my efforts - that keeps me going - and keeps me off the golf course, where I spend far too much time anyway....!
This Site is Work-in Progress
I had a choice - either I could wait until I knew every answer to every problem, put it all together on a fabulous, glossy site, then publish it on the Internet.......or I could take the more realistic course of accepting that the site had to start off very small and would grow organically as Freecom developed new products, operating systems were upgraded creating fresh difficulties, more users encountered new problems, and more solutions merged to resolve those problems. For obvious reasons I chose the latter route. That's why, to the keen Internet user, this site will look pretty boring in terms of appearance. I simply don't have time to fill it with fascinating java applets and shockwave pop-ups.....all you'll find here, for probably a long time, is text-based information, and as factual as is possible. The only place you'll find opinions expressed on this site are within the Prdouct Reviews which I do from time to time - and those are solely my opinions. The rest of the site is intended to be purely factual. If I post a "solution" it will either be something I personally have tried and know works OR I'll usually seek confirmation from at least 2 sources that the solution has worked for others. But sometimes I'll post stuff marked "give it a try - it might work....". So, if your particular reason for coming to this site is not met by the current contents, come back again and see if your area of interest gets added at some later date.
Your contributions would be welcomed!
I positively encorage contributions! If there's something you see on this site which you think is wrong, or if you've got something - no matter how trivial you may think it - which you'd like to offer by way of an improvement, or a new solution you've discovered, or a new idea for using a Freecom product in a different way, please let me know. See the contacts page on the left menu for details of how to contact me.Please note that I always try to get the Author's permission before adding stuff to this site and I usually ensure that he or she gets the credit by including their username. If I've published something you wrote and have not credited you or sought your permission, I do apologise - contact me and I'll put things right!
Credit where credit's due
This is where I record my thanks to all the users of the Freecom Forum - particularly the following individuals - whose contributions have been heavily leaned on in developing these help pages:
- Amarok80, Mr bah434x, MarkyMark, Nat, SgtFox, Toptecky, KingJ
And a host of others....I usually try to obtain permission from the originator before I reproduce any ideas or bits of knowledge I 've gathered from varoius sources (mainly the Freecom Forum) - if you spot something which you think YOU originated and for which I have failed to give you the credit, please do let me know and I shall put things right!
This site is a constant "work-in-progress" so, if you find something which does not work for you, or if you find a new way of doing, please let us know so we can improve the quality of advice for others. If you get REALLY chuffed 'cos this site helps you sort your own problem, please let us know - you can post to the Freecom Forum (www.freecom.com) with "techie" in the title and I'll get your comments.
Copyright
I'm not sufficiently up on copyright law to know how to protect the content of this site! But, as much of the site consists of knowledge which is publicly available elsewhere on the Internet, I'm quite relaxed about people copying stuff from this site and using it for other purposes. The only exception is the Product reviews I publish - those are solely my opinions and I do not wish them to be used on other sites or in any other way without my permission. I rely on visitors to this site to behave honourably in that regard!
And why "Sneckie"?
I'm very fortunate to live in my adopted home city of Inverness, in the beautiful Highlands of Scotland, one of the nicest places to live in the UK (and I've lived in a lot of places...). Frequently leading the lists based on "quality of life" surveys of UK cities and towns, Inverness is a fabulous place to live. Locals from this part of the world often refer to Inverness as "Inversneckie" hence my adopting the username "The Techie from Sneckie". If interested, go look at one of the Inverness websites here. Better still, come and visit the place! Here ends the commercial break.....
.The Techie from Sneckie
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