O2 Broadband new user problems.

I read a Which report that had O2 Broadband as top along with it's cousin
BE. I also read through threads on this NG from the past year and overall O2
came out pretty well.
I went for the Premium package. My connection started on December 18th and
using the Think Broadband speed tester found that I was getting 10/11 Meg
with Wireless and 12 Meg with LAN cable. Everything was fine until December
23rd when my wireless speed suddenly dropped to under 5 Meg, cable speed was
10/11 Meg. I also found that when trying to open my browser that the page
would half the time hang with just the message 'connecting'
I phoned the support line on Monday 29th. Initial person I spoke to seemed
interested and helpful. He said that the records showed that my connection
had dropped 72 times during the day, asked a few questions made some
suggestions that did not improve the situation. He asked me to connect to
the test socket and said that he would get the Second Line Team to contact
me.
Second Line Support phoned back within ten minutes. He was also helpful and
interested and it was noticeable that unlike my previous ISP's B.T. and
Ukonline that he did not assume you were totally gormless. He said to use
Speedtest.Net to check the speed now rather that Think Broadband as it is
more reliable and it had gone up to 8.4 Meg. He suggested trying different
channels today to see it that gave any improvement... it didn't. He said
that they would test the line for 24 hours and to call them back then.
During the day I used both Think Broadband and Speedtester to check my
speeds. Speedtest always showed speeds just over 8 Meg while Think Broadband
was always under 5 Meg.
When I phoned back I was told that the connection had dropped 82 times in
the 24 hours while connected to the test socket. He said that he would
adjust the noise level on the line. He advised to use the cable connection
rather than the wireless one that is less reliable. I pointed out that most
people and reports like the Which one always talk of wireless broadband and
that is presumably the connection that the public believe they want and
should use. He suggest that if I upgraded to O2 Pro the much better router
supplied would give me a far better wireless connection and reliable speed.
Not that the modem we supplied you with is crap of course:-) I asked if
using the Netgear 834GT that I bought when with Ukonline would be more
stable. He was non committal on that and as far as he was concerned that was
as much help as he could give.
Any comments and advice will be gratefully received.
Derek


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In uk.telecom.broadband, on Wed, 31 Dec 2008 00:58:58, DerekF wrote:

>Any comments and advice will be gratefully received. Derek

Please re-post with sensible paragraphs and double spaces after periods.
Your original was almost unreadable, and near enough so I didn't bother.
If you don't make life easy for the reader, there won't be many readers.

--
Jim Crowther

DerekF wrote:

> Any comments and advice will be gratefully received.

As regards wireless, there's little O2 can do if your wireless is
unreliable; they can change which channel your router uses and hope for the
best. That's the nature of using a license-free wireless connection. The
other possibility is that you've got a faulty router.

--
<http://ale.cx/> (AIM:troffasky) ((E-Mail Removed))
09:18:31 up 26 days, 11:31, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.03, 0.04
Sexy ladies, and nasty boys, all freaky freakin', to the robot noise

Jim Crowther wrote:
> In uk.telecom.broadband, on Wed, 31 Dec 2008 00:58:58, DerekF wrote:
>
>> Any comments and advice will be gratefully received. Derek
>
> Please re-post with sensible paragraphs and double spaces after periods.

Who the fuck double-spaces after their full stops these days? Certainly
not you...

"alexd" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> DerekF wrote:
>
>> Any comments and advice will be gratefully received.
>
> As regards wireless, there's little O2 can do if your wireless is
> unreliable; they can change which channel your router uses and hope for
> the
> best. That's the nature of using a license-free wireless connection. The
> other possibility is that you've got a faulty router.
>
> --
> <http://ale.cx/> (AIM:troffasky) ((E-Mail Removed))
> 09:18:31 up 26 days, 11:31, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.03, 0.04
> Sexy ladies, and nasty boys, all freaky freakin', to the robot noise
>
What would be the cause of unreliable wireless? If the router is faulty
there is no way for me to check.
I tried it on channels 1 to 6 and 11 to 13 without any noticeable
difference.
Derek.


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DerekF wrote:

> When I phoned back I was told that the connection had dropped 82 times in
> the 24 hours while connected to the test socket. He said that he would
> adjust the noise level on the line. He advised to use the cable connection
> rather than the wireless one that is less reliable.

And that's when he wandered on the wrong page of the 'help a customer
out' script. It's almost nothing to do with the internal wireless setup
of your abode - it's the connection outside, and they could see that
from the drops. And prompting an upgrade to 'O2 Pro' to fix this, is
from his 'sales promotion' script he found after dropping his folder on
the floor midway through the call....

If their 'adjust the noise level' thing hasn't worked with the test
socket (e.g. all other house phones disconnected), get back to them and
ask what's up with the line - could be a wiring fault BT will have to
look at - and you shouldn't have to pay for that investigation.

I wouldn't confuse things yet trying the 834GT. Although some forum
users do use it in preference to the supplied one, you have an ongoing
support call which they will want to sort out using their established
standards.

Stay with it though - Be/O2 is a good service, for speed and support.
There is help in their forums and also you should raise a ticket if
possible (for O2?).

--
Adrian C

DerekF wrote:

> What would be the cause of unreliable wireless? If the router is faulty
> there is no way for me to check.

Does it feel unduly warm in operation? They were having a problem with
Beboxen a while ago overheating.

> I tried it on channels 1 to 6 and 11 to 13 without any noticeable
> difference.

Do you see a lot of other wireless networks when you 'View available
wireless networks'? What ails you might not even be a Wifi network as there
are other non-Wifi things [Bluetooth, microwave ovens, video cameras,
imported cordless phones, ...] that share the band with Wifi. Just a guess.

--
<http://ale.cx/> (AIM:troffasky) ((E-Mail Removed))
12:48:44 up 26 days, 15:01, 1 user, load average: 0.04, 0.08, 0.08
Sexy ladies, and nasty boys, all freaky freakin', to the robot noise

DerekF wrote:
> "alexd" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> DerekF wrote:
>>
>>> Any comments and advice will be gratefully received.
>>
>> As regards wireless, there's little O2 can do if your wireless is
>> unreliable; they can change which channel your router uses and hope
>> for the
>> best. That's the nature of using a license-free wireless connection.
>> The other possibility is that you've got a faulty router.
>>
>> --
>> <http://ale.cx/> (AIM:troffasky) ((E-Mail Removed))
>> 09:18:31 up 26 days, 11:31, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.03, 0.04
>> Sexy ladies, and nasty boys, all freaky freakin', to the robot noise
>>
> What would be the cause of unreliable wireless? If the router is
> faulty there is no way for me to check.
> I tried it on channels 1 to 6 and 11 to 13 without any noticeable
> difference.

Could be interference from a faulty appliance. I've heard of faulty
fluorescent lights and tumble air dryers causing problems.

Any new electrical appliances in your house (or in your neighbour's house if
you live in a flat or semi)?

Might be worth trying switching everything in the house off (other than your
computer & router obviously) and seeing if that makes a difference.

Whatever it is, with a good connection speed when using a wired connection,
I don't think that there's anything BT can do. The problem is at your end.

Tim

"alexd" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> DerekF wrote:
>
>> What would be the cause of unreliable wireless? If the router is faulty
>> there is no way for me to check.
>
> Does it feel unduly warm in operation? They were having a problem with
> Beboxen a while ago overheating.
>
>> I tried it on channels 1 to 6 and 11 to 13 without any noticeable
>> difference.
>
> Do you see a lot of other wireless networks when you 'View available
> wireless networks'? What ails you might not even be a Wifi network as
> there
> are other non-Wifi things [Bluetooth, microwave ovens, video cameras,
> imported cordless phones, ...] that share the band with Wifi. Just a
> guess.
>
> --
> <http://ale.cx/> (AIM:troffasky) ((E-Mail Removed))
> 12:48:44 up 26 days, 15:01, 1 user, load average: 0.04, 0.08, 0.08
> Sexy ladies, and nasty boys, all freaky freakin', to the robot noise

Some channels showed quite a few other users, we live in a block of 57
flats. Some just showed mine.
Presumably a microwave has to be on to cause a problem. Coincidentally we
bought a new microwave the day before the problem started.
Derek.


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"Tim Downie" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> DerekF wrote:
>> "alexd" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>>> DerekF wrote:
>>>
>>>> Any comments and advice will be gratefully received.
>>>
>>> As regards wireless, there's little O2 can do if your wireless is
>>> unreliable; they can change which channel your router uses and hope
>>> for the
>>> best. That's the nature of using a license-free wireless connection.
>>> The other possibility is that you've got a faulty router.
>>>
>>> --
>>> <http://ale.cx/> (AIM:troffasky) ((E-Mail Removed))
>>> 09:18:31 up 26 days, 11:31, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.03, 0.04
>>> Sexy ladies, and nasty boys, all freaky freakin', to the robot noise
>>>
>> What would be the cause of unreliable wireless? If the router is
>> faulty there is no way for me to check.
>> I tried it on channels 1 to 6 and 11 to 13 without any noticeable
>> difference.
>
> Could be interference from a faulty appliance. I've heard of faulty
> fluorescent lights and tumble air dryers causing problems.
>
> Any new electrical appliances in your house (or in your neighbour's house
> if you live in a flat or semi)?
>
I have had new neighbours for the past three weeks. If it is interference it
did not affect my Netgear Router. At one time if interference affected your
radio you could get the Post Office to search out the source of it... how
times have changed.

> Might be worth trying switching everything in the house off (other than
> your computer & router obviously) and seeing if that makes a difference.
>
Switch off my wifes Telly! I would be in the dog house right away:-)

> Whatever it is, with a good connection speed when using a wired
> connection, I don't think that there's anything BT can do. The problem is
> at your end.

I was with BT prior to Ukonline and O2. In February of this year when still
with BT I had a visit from a BT Broadand engineer. He fitted new wall
sockets to replace the ancient ones. At that time he found that part of my
problem was caused by a faulty P.C. Board at the exchange.
Derek


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