Broadband issues

[Pringle]

Ok, got my phone line connected after months of hassle from BT because I wouldn't take their broadband out and wanted broadband from PlusNet.

I have had PlusNet running for about 3 weeks now and after much complaints to them about my speed only being 1/2 meg and experiencing reliability issues with it holding a connection I contacted them on their support forums (Which I must add are absolutely brilliant).

When trying to sort out my speed issues I mentioned that the engineer who had come to our mess had mentioned that my exchange wasn't where they expected (Outside the main gate) but a good 6-8 miles away in a local town. They said this is a huge issue and may cause a loss of around 8 meg ( :o ) to my connection. They also said they didn't hold much hope for me getting my exchange changed but said I could try. The only number I could get off them was to dial 150 from my landline. But I was wondering, had anyone else had an experience of this and managed to get it sorted?

Thanks in advance,
Tom

[DaveB]

Wow.. dunno how Plusnet managed to miss where your exchange was but yes.. that sort of distance could be responsible for your loss of 8mb (I guess you signed up for 10mb). I've never heard of anyone getting their exchange changed but I suppose it's worth a try

Good luck with it anyway ;-)

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[TSR2]

If there is an exisiting exchange outside the main gate it may be possible to get a new line from there if you specify that. It would have to be a cease and reprovide, but you'd need to make it clear up front, and it will depend on capacity at the exchange too.

[Pringle]

Wouldn't a new line mean more cash going to BT? Because that sounds rubbish!

[TSR2]

Yep it would, but to be fair to BT, all they were provisioning on this occasion was a phoneline and thats what you've got. To be fair, plus net should have been able to tell you the indicated performance of your line for broadband before you ordered... They will have known the distance from the exchange and as EricT pointed out recently if its copper or Aluminium, as Alu has a huge impact on ADSL speed to. (all of this information is provided to ISP's when the line check is done... BT are leagaly required to provide it.)

In this instance (from what you've said) it plusnet you should be having a go at. Its very easy to point the finger at the big corps, but in this case they seem to have done nowt wrong.

[Techy111]

Pringle....I had this problem with Sky (don't laugh) and i am 6 miles away from my exchange and was getting really low speeds (Half meg) and should of been getting 16 meg.
Now i spoke to BT and they basically said "tough"....Everyone knocks Sky but once (Hell of a long time) you get to tier 3 support they solved the problem really quickly.
I had something on my line called "ghost packets" ??? Sky together with BT cleared these and then Sky capped my line at 14 megs and ever since then i have not had a single problem......Worth asking them ?

Tony

[Stewart Pearson]

I've had and I am still having problems with this.

Living out in the sticks, I am some 5 miles from the exchange (which is broadband ready). I am still however stuck with dial-up and will be until 2011. The reason given by BT is as follows;

As new customers needed lines during the 80's and 90's BT, instead of installing the new lines (costs money), plumped for the cheaper solution of installing "splitters". These doo-hickeys apparently allow BT to run (in effect) 2 lines through one. The problem is that to obtain full BB you need an "unsplit" line, which in my case will take a further 4 years until it's available. :@

This caused me to lose out on an ebay auction last night. I was leading bidder until 1 minute to go, when some Johnny come lately posted a higher bid. Of course by the time my dial up allowed me to post a bid, the *&%!ing auction had ended :brick: :doho:

Cheers

Stew

[Quixoticish]

The problem lies not always with your distance from the exchange, but how much cabling runs between you and the exchange which is often a very different figure. I live 1.5km from my local exchange yet have a spaghetti junction of over 7km of cabling taking me to said local telephone exchange, meaning my Be Unlimited 24 meg ADSL 2+ package connects at a measly 6 meg.

There are a few things you can try in your residence though, try taking the first face plate off the phone socket and plug your modem/router straight into the "master socket". This is a plug straight behind the faceplate that connects directly to the telephone line outside your house. If you connect a lot faster then you can guarantee that at least some of the problem is poor internal wiring. Also try replacing the microfilters in your house, they do seem to degrade over time and changing them about can have a good effect on speed. If you connect to the internet using a long telephone extension don't.... you'll sometimes loose megabyes of speed, it's best to plug your router/modem in right next to the phone socket and then run a long 20m length of RJ45 cable to your PC, longer network cable is by far preferable to a long telephone extension. You also might want to try checking your line for noise by dialing 17070 and hitting 2 and listen. If you hear any pops, hissing or crackling then it's a line fault and you need to call 150 to report it to BT.Disconnecting any sky boxes/telephone extensions/alarm systems or anything else that is connected to the phone lines can also help while you check what's slowing you down. If you know what you're doing you may also want to check for a ringwire in the phone socket and disconnect it (usually the orange wire, do some googling to find out more). This can give you a huge leap in speeds, sometimes the other lines in the house form a giant antenna and can pretty much destroy your internet connection.

Be warned, if you call a BT engineer to your house DO NOT mention ADSL. Treat your ADSL connection as though it were a stash of crack, hide it from BT at all costs. Remove all evidence of ADSL (routers, microfilters, filtered face plates, extension telephone cables etc) and do not mention it in conversation with the BT engineer. If they even catch a whiff of DSL they will use it as an excuse to do the minimum and sign it over as a customer fault. I've seen it happen before many times... in fact some of the more cunning engineers (experienced by my own eyes and ears) will quietly slip DSL into the conversation without you realising it, casual as you like, and they've got you. Occasionally you get a genuinely good engineer who is adamant they'll fix the problem no matter what it is but they are few and far between unfortunately. If you call an engineer out and he says a noisy line is fixed check it yourself before he leaves and don't be afraid to point at that you can still hear noise on the line. In fact if they haven't done anything satisfactorily don't let them leave until they do. And be warned, any engineer call out can result in a hefty bill, especially if they deem it's the customers fault, so don't give them any ammunition! BT seem to charge willy nilly at times and two people in the same street receiving identical services can get two different charges. I moved into a new place about a month ago, at the same time a couple was moving in next door. BT billed them £150 to get their phone line reconnected (keeping the same number ) but ours was free. We are fighting an uphill battle against BT for the sake of the nations broadband, you'd be surprised how many so called third world countries have a far better telecommunications and high speed internet infrastructure.

Connecting to the BT test socket:
http://adsl.yesyes.info/modules/edito/content.php?id=3

[Pringle]

meaning my Be Unlimited 24 meg ADSL 2+ package connects at a measly 6 meg.

As I sit running another speed test on my upto 8 meg line my heart bleeds


;-)

There are a few things you can try in your residence though, try taking the first face plate off the phone socket and plug your modem/router straight into the "master socket"...

I live in the mess and the line is the only one (I believe) so there's no problems with any of that.

Be warned, if you call a BT engineer to your house DO NOT mention ADSL...
Connecting to the BT test socket:
http://adsl.yesyes.info/modules/edito/content.php?id=3

No BT engineer will come out after this conversation!

Anyway, finally got through to England, the woman was brilliant. It went something like this... (I'm bold)

'Hi, would you like my account number?'

'What's your issue?'

Oh, well, I was wondering if i'm on my closest exchange for my broadband. I currently have it with someone else but they recommended finding out if I was on <I was cut short here>

'We can't deal with it, you will have to speak to your internet service provider'

They told me I need to speak to you to find out if i'm on the closest exchange for my broadband to get better speeds

'We can't tell you that as you haven't got broadband with us'

Oh ok, well I'm wondering if I'm on my closest exchange for my phoneline as it has been a bit funny

'You will be on your closest exchange, otherwise that would be silly'

So why when an engineer came and said 'Oh, you're not on your closest exchange, I'll have to go and find it' should I believe you?

'We're not going to make more work for ourself'

Well you have, because the engineer commented on it and then spent the next 45 minutes finding it and fixing my line

'We're not going to make <Time for me to cut her short>'

Thank you, you have been no help whatsoever

<click>

Loving the customer service!

I'm in deep joy with BT at the minute!

Thanks for all the help guys

[Quixoticish]

That conversation reminds me of one my dad recently had with BT. He wanted to use his own ISP but was having line problems, BT wouldn't actually come out and do anything and refused to accept any responsibility with the line unless he used BT Internet as his ISP. He gave up in the end and funnily enough after signing up for BT Internet an engineer arrived to fix the the line free of charge.