BTO - months of "dead frozen connections" Advice?

Ive been a BTO customer since 4th October 2000 (yes an early adopter!)

For the last 6 months or so, I have had problems with the connection I
have. It doesnt disconnect - just leaves me with a connection that is
completely useless, since I can neither send or receive any data
packets on whatever I attempt. If I disconnect, it can take hours to
reconnect - only for the service to fail again from a couple of
minutes to maybe a day. Once it goes - it goes!

This fault is quite intermittent, but has been extrememly bad for over
a month. Being a subsciber to 2 pay usenet services, its even worse,
since I am paying good money after bad.

I have looged with BTO the problem, but they seem to think I am making
it up! Just the usual - please disconnect and reboot routine. Last
week, I had problems connecting and phoned support again. Sods law -
just as they (finally) answered, I got connected. I explained what was
going on, and luckily(?) the line froze again while we was speaking.

(I should add that there is always something queued - so its not
because the line is idle! Besides, it is set to redial if it did
disconnect!)

The guy did a line test, which he said showed I had a firewall.
Because they were continually "testing" they had told me to leave the
firewall off. (Which I wasnt happy about, but complied.)

I checked, and as suspected and it was off. He asked me to disconnect.
Once again, it showed I was still connected. I was asked to switch the
PC off. And still it showed I was connected at their end. He said he
would try to "collapse the tunnel", which again he was unable to do.

One thing he told me, was that he had noticed a familiar pattern from
myself and other users with this problem. (He is the first to even
acknowledge this "kind" of fault even existed!) This was that the
first 2 sets of numbers in my IP when connected was the same (as those
others he mentioned.) Is their any significance in that? When I spoke
last night, they poo poo'd the suggestion!

Anyway, eventually a BT engineer called. I told him the problems
(whish he seemed to be aware of) and said ti seemed to be OK ATM. (and
thus was going to pass his tests!) It did, as expected.

He told me the best solution was to pull my card on the exchange, and
was heading of to do so.

I reconnected whilst he was still here. Several hours later, I was
still connected, and "time online" showed, I had not had the line
drop. (Which would have happened if the card was pulled.)

I had a call yesterday, saying they had fixed the problem! Nice to
hear they think so, but not the case. Now, when the line "freezes"
both the LEDs to the frog go out. (Before they were both on!)

I was told the engineer hadnt pulled the card. annoying since he was
adamant that this would fix the problem. Instead I was told he
"changed the termination". I havent a clue what that means - but
whatever he did - it didnt "kick me off" which I would have expected
it to have done.

At this moment in time, I am not sure if the fault lies with BTO or BT
- but the problem exists on other PCs I use - so its not a software
fault. (I am using XP on all machines - and they are all patched with
service pack 1). If it can be confirmed as being BTO, I will switch to
another provider (advice on that also appreciated - though would
prefer one not invoking the reconnection charge!) If it is a BT fault,
then presumably, this problem will continue whoever I use. (Incidently
I could get NTL here - but would rather chew on broken glass than use
them again!)


Any ideas what might be causing this problem?

Anything I could try to see? Icertainly am not holding my breath on
BTO fixing this. Incidently, one of their "fixes" was to download and
use the 2.01 frog drivers (replacing the 1.4 I was using) I was
eventually dont the drivers are infact the same - just labelled for
home install. This has caused further problems, as my network now
cannot see any other PCs connected. I intend on going back to 1.4 (and
hope this sorts that problem out), but this once more is something
they also seem uninterested in (even though "thier" driver caused it!





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Marquee Hire at cheap rates from www.37b.co.uk

On Wed, 6 Aug 2003 20:33:54 +0100, Martin Cooper
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Hi,
> this is typical of the support I came to expect from BTO's so called
>helpdesk, and one of the reasons I left for another provider. It is
>difficult to say with any certianty what the cause of your problems could
>be. However, from the symtpoms you describe, I susppect that your modem is
>faulty. But the same symtoms could be caused by a line fault. If I were
>you, I would try and borrow a modem or router from a friend and see if the
>problem went away.

As promised, they did call again this evening. Basically I was told
the engineer *did* find a fault on the card at the exchange, but didnt
pull the card. Instead he did something with the termination of my
line. (apparently!) Im suprised at that since he went away telling me
he was convinced resetting the card manually would solve the problem!

Anyway, they have now said they believe the line may be the cause of
the problem, and have now applied to BT to physically change the card.

>The USB modems supplied by BT are known for draining too much power from the
>USB ports, have you added any USB hardware recently that mu=ight be causing
>a problem with the power ?

In the meantime, they have now also said they believe the modem may be
the cause. The engineer that called, said "they either work or they
dont" - and ruled this out of the equation. However, BTO have said
they will send me a replacement to trial. Ive not added any further
USB devices, and the syptoms do occur on other machines, so whilst I
understand fully what you say here, I dont think thats the issue.

I await the next instalment! In the meantime, so far this evening, it
has been behaving itself - albeit very slow, with an attempt to
download from usenetservers fluctuating like a pulse between 0 and
250Bbps. Not good by any standards! ;-(




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Marquee Hire at cheap rates from www.37b.co.uk

"guv" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> Ive been a BTO customer since 4th October 2000 (yes an early adopter!)
>
> For the last 6 months or so, I have had problems with the connection I
> have. It doesnt disconnect - just leaves me with a connection that is
> completely useless, since I can neither send or receive any data
> packets on whatever I attempt. If I disconnect, it can take hours to
> reconnect - only for the service to fail again from a couple of
> minutes to maybe a day. Once it goes - it goes!
>
> This fault is quite intermittent, but has been extrememly bad for over
> a month. Being a subsciber to 2 pay usenet services, its even worse,
> since I am paying good money after bad.
>
> I have looged with BTO the problem, but they seem to think I am making
> it up! Just the usual - please disconnect and reboot routine. Last

Welcome to the living hell that is the BTO help desk. I escaped BTO in Jan
this year and after nearly 6 months with Zen my bitterness towards Buzby's
Babes has mellowed, so I like to think the following isn't tainted by
cynicism.

*IF* and it's a big "if" you manage to find someone in BTO who actually
knows what they're talking about without the aid of a paint-by-numbers
script then it's a sure bet you will never have another conversation with
that person again.
Their call logging system is (at their whim) very forgetful and you will
have to treat each and every call as if it's your very first time explaining
the problem, imagine trying to explain the beauty of a rainbow to a blind
person and you've got an idea how much progress you're likely to make.

The main problem with BTO (apart from the ignorance and arrogance of their
helpdesk monkeys) is that the left hand never knows what the right hand is
doing. 9 times out of 10 your problem will be someone else's department, and
no the person you're speaking to can't forward a message to them or liase
with them in any way (this is a result of BT going schizo and setting up a
"new" company for every aspect of it's business operation), nope you'll have
to dial another number (more dosh for BT) and be prepared to wait, and wait.
My personal record is just over an hour with BTO, but I don't have a
handsfree set so I'm confident others in here will be able to beat that.

Bottom line is ditch BTO at your earliest opportunity, I was a victim for
nearly two years and when it works the service is pretty good, but no better
than any other ISP and still worse than most. When their service goes
pear-shaped it does so in a major way. Stop chucking good money after bad
and get a decent ISP. If you've already got a seperate Usenet provider then
go for Zen.

On Thu, 7 Aug 2003 07:38:51 +0100, CB <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>: (Incidently
>: I could get NTL here - but would rather chew on broken glass than use
>: them again!)
>
>Why? NTL gave me a very reliable, excellent cable service for 2 years
>on the Nottingham UBR.

NTL - "Never Trust Liars!"

Too many bad experiences have soured any chance of a return.


--

Marquee Hire at cheap rates from www.37b.co.uk

On Thu, 7 Aug 2003 15:41:40 +0000 (UTC), "CGA"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I had a problem just the same as yours which hit me on a couple of
>occasions, in my case it was always weekends, it hit one friday night &
>wasn't right untill monday night. I did the call to BTO & logged it &
>basicly the guy at the other end either didn't believe me or tried to
>convince me i didn't understand what i was talking about and if i unplugged
>the modem & rebooted etc, etc. everything would work. I had in fact done
>this several times before phoning the monkey (and it never once solved any
>of the problems i've encountered). They logged it & said they'd get back to
>me, which they didn't. Each time it has happened it has been a case of just
>leaving it untill it fixes itself. Fortunately it only happened a couple of
>times and hasn't occurred since i bought a router & threw the frog out the
>window.

Well, it seems to have been ok now for almost 2 days in a row!
(Yippee;-) However.......

I was told they would be sending a new modem and getting BT to change
the card at the exchange. This has now been watered down. They are
sending out an engineer again on Saturday. I have been told to
"insist" that he changes the modem regardless of the test results.
Problem is, its likely to pass (as it is intermittent) and he is
likely to say there is no reason to do so. Also the card change. I was
told by BTO that the engineer had actually reported to them that there
did indeed appear to be a problem with it. However, they have now back
peddled and insist they dont believe their is a fault. Strange.
Perhaps they dont beleive thier own engineers!

Once again, last night I was asked to leave the firewall off so they
could test. I got a call this evening, and was basically told "BT were
unable to do the test as my firewall was up". She insisted it wasnt -
but they wouldnt believe. That in intself proves once more to me that
despite it being OK for 2 days, the problem still does exist. (I would
imagine that I had this "tunnel" connection they have referred to.)
Yesterday, when I was attempting to D/L from usenetservers, the speed
was awful, never going above 200Kbps - and it was pulsing between
0Kbps every 5 seconds or so. Pretty dire.

Ive now been told by BTO that because the problem has existed for so
long, that she would now be able to escalate it back higher within BT.
Im happy with that - but how awful that I am expeted to wait so long
before any request can be made!

To be fair to the person that I am now speaking to at BTO, she does at
least seem to be taking it seriously. One of the things that BT tried
to throw at me was that I was a high bandwidth user and I should
expect problems! As much as I would adbit on occasions to utilising
BW, at this moment in time, a chance to do so would make a pleasant
change! Again though - what a stupid answer from BT. Translated, what
that seems to imply is that the system doesnt work because I am trying
to use it!

Time will tell if they manage to sort it out. I was told by this lady
to ring "accounts" once it was sorted to claim compensation for loss
of a proper service. What happens there will possibly make or break if
I stay with BTO or not. I have been looking to change for several
months now - with only the fear of moths flying from my wallet (for a
reconnection charge elsewhere preventing me.)

I can remember back in October 4th 2000 thinking ADSL was like shit
off a shovel. It now appears hardly better than a modem connection -
and a lot more expensive!

Ho hum.




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Marquee Hire at cheap rates from www.37b.co.uk