Broadband difficult to connect

My sister has had Orange/Wanadoo Broadband for some time. For the last 18
months or so she has had difficulty connecting to the service and when
on-line get frequently cut off especially at busy times (early evening etc)

She rang Wanadoo a few months ago and was told that the distance between her
main telephone socket and her computer was too far (it's about 10 metres
(max). Mine is further than that and I have never had a problem.

What can she do to improve this situation?

Is it Orange's fault or is it BT?

Would moving to a different provider BT or dare I say it Talk Talk improve
things?

Thanks in advance

Tim (who's found this forum very useful for his own Broadband problems!!!)

Tim Rogers wrote:
> My sister has had Orange/Wanadoo Broadband for some time. For the
> last 18 months or so she has had difficulty connecting to the
> service
> and when on-line get frequently cut off especially at busy times
> (early evening etc)
> She rang Wanadoo a few months ago and was told that the distance
> between her main telephone socket and her computer was too far (it's
> about 10 metres (max). Mine is further than that and I have never
> had
> a problem.
> What can she do to improve this situation?
>
> Is it Orange's fault or is it BT?
>
> Would moving to a different provider BT or dare I say it Talk Talk
> improve things?
>
> Thanks in advance
>
> Tim (who's found this forum very useful for his own Broadband
> problems!!!)

Short answer yes, long answer maybe

"Tim Rogers" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> My sister has had Orange/Wanadoo Broadband for some time. For the last 18
> months or so she has had difficulty connecting to the service and when
> on-line get frequently cut off especially at busy times (early evening
> etc)
>
> She rang Wanadoo a few months ago and was told that the distance between
> her main telephone socket and her computer was too far (it's about 10
> metres (max). Mine is further than that and I have never had a problem.
>
> What can she do to improve this situation?
>
> Is it Orange's fault or is it BT?
>
> Would moving to a different provider BT or dare I say it Talk Talk improve
> things?
>
> Thanks in advance
>
> Tim (who's found this forum very useful for his own Broadband problems!!!)
>
That's a new excuse for a crap service! If it has been working then
suddenly it doesn't - check the computer and modem. It is 99% likely to be
the fault of the ISP. Some with expensive help lines will introduce the odd
fault as a revenue raiser as they know people will ring in. It happens at
certain points in the financial year.
Don't forget Talk Talk is just as expensive as having a BT line and using an
ISP that suits your needs.
Don't be taken in by the word FREE.

On Sat, 08 Jul 2006 20:56:37 +0100, Tim Rogers wrote:

> My sister has had Orange/Wanadoo Broadband for some time. For the last 18
> months or so she has had difficulty connecting to the service and when
> on-line get frequently cut off especially at busy times (early evening etc)

It may be be the ISP, but I've seen that behaviour with routers
going bad.

If you can borrow one, try swapping it.

"Bob" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news(E-Mail Removed) d...
> On Sat, 08 Jul 2006 20:56:37 +0100, Tim Rogers wrote:
>
>> My sister has had Orange/Wanadoo Broadband for some time. For the last 18
>> months or so she has had difficulty connecting to the service and when
>> on-line get frequently cut off especially at busy times (early evening
>> etc)
>
> It may be be the ISP, but I've seen that behaviour with routers
> going bad.
>
> If you can borrow one, try swapping it.

Suppose I could give my 'copperjet' modem a go now I've got my Livebox
working!

Tim

How can a few metres of wire, perhaps stuck on the end of miles of
cable, have any possible effect?

It's an old wives tale!

> How can a few metres of wire, perhaps stuck on the end of miles of
> cable, have any possible effect?
>
> It's an old wives tale!
>
=======================================

Try adding on a few extra metres. It might improve matters. I'm not
joking!

On Sat, 8 Jul 2006 23:22:20 +0100, Reg Edwards
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> How can a few metres of wire, perhaps stuck on the end of miles of
> cable, have any possible effect?

50cm of an old PSTN modem cable 'killed' (i.e. no signal) the 10
highest frequency ADSL 'channels' on my original setup - which
equates to around a 5% reduction in maximum download speeds on
MAXadsl. I found another cable which knocked off around 15% of
the possible bandwidth.

> It's an old wives tale!

Bollocks. If you want the status reports from the router that show
the effects of a poor quality extension cable compared to a decent
one, provide a real e-amil address and I'll post them to you.

On Sat, 8 Jul 2006 22:22:20 UTC, "Reg Edwards"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> How can a few metres of wire, perhaps stuck on the end of miles of
> cable, have any possible effect?
>
> It's an old wives tale!

I used to think the same, but practice shows otherwise.

I think there *is* a difference...the extra few metres are often in an
interference-rich environment, compared to the rest.

--
The information contained in this post is copyright the
poster, and specifically may not be published in, or used by
http://www.broadbandbanter.com

"Tim Rogers" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> My sister has had Orange/Wanadoo Broadband for some time. For the last 18
> months or so she has had difficulty connecting to the service and when
> on-line get frequently cut off especially at busy times (early evening
> etc)
>
> She rang Wanadoo a few months ago and was told that the distance between
> her main telephone socket and her computer was too far (it's about 10
> metres (max). Mine is further than that and I have never had a problem.
>
> What can she do to improve this situation?
>
> Is it Orange's fault or is it BT?
>
> Would moving to a different provider BT or dare I say it Talk Talk improve
> things?

I had a friend with the same problem including the quality worsening in the
evening. They had an extension lead from the master socket to a socket
upstairs beside the PC. The distance wasn't great but the extension was
longer than required with the last few feet done up in a loose coil by the
socket. Replacing the lead with one of the correct length solved it
totally. I suspect the problem was caused by both the extra length and the
coiling up of the excess cable.
--
Keith Willcocks
(If you can't laugh at life, it ain't worth living!)