Reply to: ADSL connection suddenly dropped to 48kbps - not a fault according to UK Online

[expat]

This is a good reason to buy everything BB related from BT, Seeing as they supply the product anyway.

That said, your diagnosis seems likely. You'll probably have to wait for them to sort it out themselves.

Ha!

You have the same situation, BT Wholesale insist that the ISP contact them, only difference is that the ISP name starts with the same 2 letters. BT Broadband aaargh foam spittt stabbity stab have a support line in India with seemingly no way to escalate to 2nd line. At the end of the script they just tell you that the fault must lie with your PC or router.

Even after I got the BT Home Help paying service to confirm that my fault was in the exchange, BT Broadband support line:
1. insisted on going through all the questions yet again (which lights are on on the router? Switch off for 30 secs. Do a ping. Etc etc)
2. Despite BT Home Help, insisted that "the line tests OK" (I believe this meant, "is marked as OK on the CRM app screen")
3. Claimed yet again that it must be the router.
4. Said there was nothing more they could do.
5. cut me off.

I finally had to call out a BT engineer at my expense, cost to be refunded in the unlikely event that the fault was in the exchange. Guess what? It was. And BTW they would never have sorted it out by themselves, they saw no problem.

It took 3 weeks and many hours on the phone. The very memory makes me seethe again. I had better go off for a while.

[Spacecadet]

My NTL phone hasn't worked in I don't know how long - for quite a while I haven't even bothered plugging the phone in. I tried plugging it in while I was at home over Christmas/New Year and it rang once while I was in the kitchen... but I couldn't get a dialing tone to ring 1471 and find out who it was...

90% of phone calls to my NTL phone are made by the hippopotamus, what you have sounds like a feature I wish mine had

[NickFitz]

Amazingly enough, the constant ringing of the phone bell has stopped on my ntl <spit> line...

It's only been doing it for about 18 months.

My NTL phone hasn't worked in I don't know how long - for quite a while I haven't even bothered plugging the phone in. I tried plugging it in while I was at home over Christmas/New Year and it rang once while I was in the kitchen... but I couldn't get a dialing tone to ring 1471 and find out who it was...

[chef]

Amazingly enough, the constant ringing of the phone bell has stopped on my ntl <spit> line...

It's only been doing it for about 18 months.

that's just your tinnitus zeity..

[NickFitz]

I've been with NTL/virgin for almost 2 years and apart from my own incompetance I've barely had a problem

Same here, except I've had over four years with only an occasional problem affecting whole swathes of the city - never lasted more than a couple of hours, IIRC.

Then again, the area I live in was one of the first to be cabled, back in the Eighties - maybe areas like that have more reliable cable infrastructure?

[Spacecadet]

Well done that man.

I used to have no end of trouble when I was with NTL, since I switched to BT a year ago, not a problem.

I've been with NTL/virgin for almost 2 years and apart from my own incompetance I've barely had a problem

[Diver]

Just tried to connect for the first time in 24 hours. Connection was completely dead not connecting to exchange at all.

Phoned up UK Online - they said there were on-going issues at the exchange and BT were "replacing some technical equipment" and I should wait till tomorrow and test again.

While I was on the phone connection came back and I'm now up to normal speed again (1.8Mbps).

Thanks everyone for the advice!

Well done that man.

I used to have no end of trouble when I was with NTL, since I switched to BT a year ago, not a problem.

[minstrel]

Just tried to connect for the first time in 24 hours. Connection was completely dead not connecting to exchange at all.

Phoned up UK Online - they said there were on-going issues at the exchange and BT were "replacing some technical equipment" and I should wait till tomorrow and test again.

While I was on the phone connection came back and I'm now up to normal speed again (1.8Mbps).

Thanks everyone for the advice!

[basshead]

Reporting a voice fault on your line will get BT looking at it. Then when the engineer comes round mention that its affecting your broadband too.

[Keldin]

Sounds like a good plan. If the line speed has dropped becuase of the work BT did then UKOnline have to convince them to look at it or reset some stats or something (can't remember exactly what as its been ages since I looked at ADSL in that much detail) but if they aren't willing to push BT it never gets done. A lot of the value in the contract is the support you get when something goes wrong. I'm with Be and I get a text message and an email anytime they're doing any work at all even if there is not supposed to be any interruption as a result of it.

It's also possible UKOnline have just saturated your part of the network with subscribers in which case moving is the best option as well.

K

[minstrel]

How's it going today minstrel?

K

I'm getting a whopping 75kbps today.

Switched the router off all night and that didn't do any good.

I've got my MAC code and am in the process of switching to BT...

I know it's all essentially the same product but at least by switching that'll force some sort of reset at the DSLAM which will hopefully clear it. Also pissed off with UK Online's 'attitude' so decided to vote with my feet...

[Keldin]

Thanks - I'll give that a go. I'm not on ADSL MAX and router is reporting 2048kbps connection. It's worth a try though.

I'm also getting speeds up to 300kbps today, so that's a bit better than yesterday. Hopefully it'll clear up in a couple of days...

How's it going today minstrel?

K

[Keldin]

Hmmmm, WTF is ADSL MAX????

If you're going to make ignorant and derisive comments about someone's post you should perhaps try not admitting to knowing nothing about the subject matter in the same post. That way people will assume you're just drunk and not an idiot.

Ah those "long term" memory routers eh???


Ah, the long term memory router is back again!!!! ( Though its slightly longer this time)

It's got nothing to do with the router but since you don't know anything about the subject matter I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. Try using google (that's http://www.google.co.uk in case you have trouble finding it) and see if you can find anything out about adsl max - aka maxdsl.

Dude fantastic lines u got a place on my support team anytime with excuses like that!!!! %)

No thanks. I've worked for enough idiots and have already reached my quota for this year.

K

[Diver]

Just checked mine (BT Broadband) on speedtest.net.

SpeedTest Result

Download 5417 kb/s

Upload 381 kb/s

[minstrel]

Have you tried turning it off and back on again?

No seriously though. Turn off your router for at least an hour or over night if you can stop downloading royalty free educational material off the net for that long. If you have an ADSL MAX connection it reduces the speed if it picks up errors on your line. BT may have poked your line and caused errors on it while doing their 'maintenenace'. These errors clear and a new max speed is set if you shut your router down for and extended period or gradually over a week or 10 days of error free use.

K

Thanks - I'll give that a go. I'm not on ADSL MAX and router is reporting 2048kbps connection. It's worth a try though.

I'm also getting speeds up to 300kbps today, so that's a bit better than yesterday. Hopefully it'll clear up in a couple of days...