Broadband Recommendations

My daughter is having problems with her BT Broadband connection, she has
called the help centre 15 times so far and they keep telling her that her
line is OK. That's as may be but the routing is intermittent and varies
from full access everywhere to limited access to no access over a period
of hours. She lives in the sticks so cable is not an option and she won't
get good speeds but she does need reliability.

There are zillions of comparison sites but they all seem to base their
comparisons on price. I would like to try and find a supplier for her that
has a UK call centre with staff intelligent enough to realise that after
15 calls going through the same script is pointless. On the plus side she
can now run ipconfig and clear her browser as quick as a flash :-(

Any suggestions for review sites that will help me to pin down a supplier
that meets these parameters, or a recommendation for a supplier?

Many thanks.

--
Jeff Gaines Damerham Hampshire UK
By the time you can make ends meet they move the ends

"Jeff Gaines" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> My daughter is having problems with her BT Broadband connection, she has
> called the help centre 15 times so far and they keep telling her that her
> line is OK. That's as may be but the routing is intermittent and varies
> from full access everywhere to limited access to no access over a period
> of hours. She lives in the sticks so cable is not an option and she won't
> get good speeds but she does need reliability.
>
> There are zillions of comparison sites but they all seem to base their
> comparisons on price. I would like to try and find a supplier for her that
> has a UK call centre with staff intelligent enough to realise that after
> 15 calls going through the same script is pointless. On the plus side she
> can now run ipconfig and clear her browser as quick as a flash :-(
>
> Any suggestions for review sites that will help me to pin down a supplier
> that meets these parameters, or a recommendation for a supplier?
>

The evidence from this ng is that cable would probably not give any
advantage.

Good ISPs to try would be Andrews & Arnold or Zen.

--
Graham J

Graham J wrote:
> "Jeff Gaines" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>>
>> My daughter is having problems with her BT Broadband connection, she
>> has called the help centre 15 times so far and they keep telling her
>> that her line is OK. That's as may be but the routing is
>> intermittent and varies from full access everywhere to limited
>> access to no access over a period of hours. ......

>> Any suggestions for review sites that will help me to pin down a
>> supplier that meets these parameters, or a recommendation for a
>> supplier?

> The evidence from this ng is that cable would probably not give any
> advantage.
>
> Good ISPs to try would be Andrews & Arnold or Zen.

Also mentioned regularly on this group are IDNET and ADSL24

In all cases, to select an ISP you need to know what volume of data she
roughly requires. If she is not regularly watching large amounts of video
(eg. BBC iPlayer, etc) or downloading a lot of big files (typical would be
big user of filesharing sites), then she is unlikely to be using much
bandwidth.



Presumably the OP's daughter is out of contract with BT (typically 12 or 18
months), otherwise there will be fees to pay unless you can show that BT are
breaching their contract. With a MAC code from BT, there shouldn't be
connection fees for the new ISP.

If she has a BT Home Hub, I think it needs some expertise to reconfigure for
use on other ISPs; Probably easier to budget for a replacement at ~£50 (with
wireless, less if wired only). From memory, the BT Voyager range (grey
curved boxes) are easy to reconfigure to other ISPs.


- Nigel


--
Nigel Cliffe,
Webmaster at http://www.2mm.org.uk/

"Graham J" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:47ab3d50$0$21097$(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> "Jeff Gaines" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>>
>> My daughter is having problems with her BT Broadband connection, she has
>> called the help centre 15 times so far and they keep telling her that her
>> line is OK. That's as may be but the routing is intermittent and varies
>> from full access everywhere to limited access to no access over a period
>> of hours. She lives in the sticks so cable is not an option and she won't
>> get good speeds but she does need reliability.
>>
>> There are zillions of comparison sites but they all seem to base their
>> comparisons on price. I would like to try and find a supplier for her
>> that has a UK call centre with staff intelligent enough to realise that
>> after 15 calls going through the same script is pointless. On the plus
>> side she can now run ipconfig and clear her browser as quick as a flash
>> :-(
>>
>> Any suggestions for review sites that will help me to pin down a supplier
>> that meets these parameters, or a recommendation for a supplier?
>>
>
> The evidence from this ng is that cable would probably not give any
> advantage.
>

eh? Cable has problems but is an obvious answer to a poor bt line. Of course
it is not relevant in this case as she can't get it.


> Good ISPs to try would be Andrews & Arnold or Zen.
>

Without knowing what the problem is it is very haed to say if changing ISP
would make any difference.

It might be that the router is misconfigured.

Jeff Gaines wrote:
>
> My daughter is having problems with her BT Broadband connection, she has
> called the help centre 15 times so far and they keep telling her that
> her line is OK. That's as may be but the routing is intermittent and
> varies from full access everywhere to limited access to no access over a
> period of hours. She lives in the sticks so cable is not an option and
> she won't get good speeds but she does need reliability.

Is that the router disconnecting? locking-up? or your daughter being
unable to browse (which would best fit your description)? If the latter,
setting the router to use a different (fixed) DNS server might be a
quick fix. If the router stats show the former, then there could be a
temperature problem or a router fault.

Can we assume the basic checks - using the test socket, trying a
different router/modem, replacing the filters - have been tried?

Is there *any* noise on the line for voice? That may be a way to get the
line tested for faults (it certainly improved my (urban) line after they
fixed the broken wire in the cabinet and also cleared the voltage
injection fault).

>
> There are zillions of comparison sites but they all seem to base their
> comparisons on price. I would like to try and find a supplier for her
> that has a UK call centre with staff intelligent enough to realise that
> after 15 calls going through the same script is pointless. On the plus
> side she can now run ipconfig and clear her browser as quick as a flash :-(
>
> Any suggestions for review sites that will help me to pin down a
> supplier that meets these parameters, or a recommendation for a supplier?
>
> Many thanks.
>


--
PeeGee

The reply address is a spam trap. All mail is reported as spam.
"Nothing should be able to load itself onto a computer without the
knowledge or consent of the computer user. Software should also be able
to be removed from a computer easily."
Peter Cullen, Microsoft Chief Privacy Strategist (Computing 18 Aug 05)

"Nick" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:fRHqj.1879$(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> "Graham J" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:47ab3d50$0$21097$(E-Mail Removed)...
>>
>> "Jeff Gaines" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>>>
>>> My daughter is having problems with her BT Broadband connection, she has
>>> called the help centre 15 times so far and they keep telling her that
>>> her line is OK. That's as may be but the routing is intermittent and
>>> varies from full access everywhere to limited access to no access over a
>>> period of hours. She lives in the sticks so cable is not an option and
>>> she won't get good speeds but she does need reliability.
>>>
>>> There are zillions of comparison sites but they all seem to base their
>>> comparisons on price. I would like to try and find a supplier for her
>>> that has a UK call centre with staff intelligent enough to realise that
>>> after 15 calls going through the same script is pointless. On the plus
>>> side she can now run ipconfig and clear her browser as quick as a flash
>>> :-(
>>>
>>> Any suggestions for review sites that will help me to pin down a
>>> supplier that meets these parameters, or a recommendation for a
>>> supplier?
>>>
>>
>> The evidence from this ng is that cable would probably not give any
>> advantage.
>>
>
> eh? Cable has problems but is an obvious answer to a poor bt line. Of
> course it is not relevant in this case as she can't get it.
>
>
>> Good ISPs to try would be Andrews & Arnold or Zen.
>>
>
> Without knowing what the problem is it is very haed to say if changing ISP
> would make any difference.
>
> It might be that the router is misconfigured.

Changing ISP would at least offer the possibility that their technical
support might be knowlegeable and able to talk the user through resolving
the difficulties.

--
Graham J

> That's as may be but the routing is intermittent and varies
> from full access everywhere to limited access to no access over a period
> of hours. She lives in the sticks

What is she using, a modem or a router?
What model?
during the periods of no access does a light start flashing on
the device? (marked DSL or ADSL probably)
She is out in the sticks so no doubt far away from the exchange,
this is significant.
If the connection is "losing sync" (light keeps flashing as above)
then have you eliminated all phones and other devices
*and the extension wiring* to see if there is an improvement?

To do this, carefully unscrew and remove the lower faceplate off
the master socket and plug the modem or router into the hidden
socket inside and see if things improve.


--
Graham

%Profound_observation%

Jeff Gaines wrote:

> My daughter is having problems with her BT Broadband connection, she has
> called the help centre 15 times so far and they keep telling her that her
> line is OK. That's as may be but the routing is intermittent and varies
> from full access everywhere to limited access to no access over a period
> of hours.

The first thing you need to do is establish what the problem really is. I
doubt you mean that 'routing' is a problem. Who told you that ?

Whoever the ISP, it's still going to have to come over the same cable and
probably the same hardware in the BT exchange so you MUST get that right.

Don't go to an LLU provider since if it's a cable problem you'll probably
NEVER get it fixed with one of them.

Graham

On 07/02/2008 in message <(E-Mail Removed)> Eeyore wrote:

[snipped]

Many thanks for all the input :-)

I used the description "routing problem" because that's what it seems like
to me - sometimes she can get through to web sites and sometimes not, it's
intermittent. I occasionally get it (my ISP is Demon) but it generally
sorts itself out within a few minutes. I have the public DNS 4.2.2.2 set
up as a fall back and so does my daughter.

What I would like to do is suggest she transfers to an ISP who doesn't
feel that working through the same script 15 times is an acceptable level
of service. ADSL is marginal for her, in fact the BT site says it is not
available even though they have provided it and are happy to charge for
it. I wonder whether she might be better going for ISDN, Home Highway has
been dropped but I think there are still some commercial offerings.

--
Jeff Gaines Damerham Hampshire UK
640k ought to be enough for anyone.
(Bill Gates, 1981)

On Fri, 8 Feb 2008 11:27:52 UTC, "Jeff Gaines"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> What I would like to do is suggest she transfers to an ISP who doesn't
> feel that working through the same script 15 times is an acceptable level
> of service. ADSL is marginal for her, in fact the BT site says it is not
> available even though they have provided it and are happy to charge for
> it.

Suitable ISPs were mentioned. I've been very happy with AAISP (Andrews
and Arnold) where you talk to real people who don't use scripts. Usage
limits, but only during office hours.

> I wonder whether she might be better going for ISDN, Home Highway has
> been dropped but I think there are still some commercial offerings.

You have to have a business line; dealing with BT Business was a whole
new ball game. It took three months to get the line sorted out with the
right options on it.

If you do, the rental is higher. No Option 1, 2 or 3, but volume
discounts (of little use). Call charges etc. are higher, but I use 18185
and friends for that.

--
[ 7'ism - a condition by which the sufferer experiences an inability
to give concise answers, express reasoned argument or opinion.
Usually accompanied by silly noises and gestures - incurable, early
euthanasia recommended. ]