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[access-uk] Re: BT or not to BT

From: "James O'Dell" <jamesodell@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 1 Jul 2007 11:40:48 +0100

Hi Kevin

Really envy you, was on cable until around a couple of weeks ago, butunfortunately moved into a property where construction work has damaged thecables in the road outside, so can't get Virgin Media cable any more.Decided to go with virgin.net as recommended because we had had such a goodservice on cable, but it's a completely different animal. We have now gotslowish broadband (dropping to around 20/30k downloads, although sometimesas high as 300/400k). Virgin info said line speed would fluctuate for tendays while they tested the line or something, but didn't expect it to bethis slow and I'm not convinced things will get any better. Now on top ofthis we have some sort of problem with logging in to the ADSL service, keepgetting authentication errors and have to try to connect repeatedly, turningthe supplied wireless router off and on again. speed is still very slow,for broadband. Virgin technical support have filled in a faults form forus, I presume this has been sent to BT although no idea when we'll hear backfrom that. Other than this, they don't want to know. Wondering if I shouldget out now, despite the expense of cancellation.


James

----- Original Message -----From: "kevin and Emma" <kream@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, July 01, 2007 12:13 AM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: BT or not to BT

hi, virgin media here also (was NTL) think i've had a total of 2 hoursdowntime in 21 months. i get the speeds i'm supposed too (i'm only on the4mb package as i don't need more). personally, i wouldn't go back to ADSLif you paid me! there will of course be people who say the opposite, butno ISP is perfect! but i've had less hassle with cable than i ever didwith ADSL.

kevin - (lord l)

"Civilization exists by geological consent, subject to change withoutnotice"-Will Durant

contact me:
email/msn: kream@xxxxxxxxxxxx
skype: lordandladyl

----- Original Message -----From: "Christopher Hallsworth" <chrishallsworth@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, June 30, 2007 11:37 AM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: BT or not to BT

I would get my partner to comment on this one, but as her weekend will
be hectic, I shall respond myself, by saying that from what she's told
me Virgin Media are very good. This might impress you actually. She told
me this morning over MSN that the signal quality of her wireless was
excellent and that the speed was 54 MBPS, but boy was her internet
connection fast as lightning! Her AVG updated in seconds, links on web
pages loaded in no more than a second ... I think you'll be impressed
with Virgin Media. Good luck and let us know how you get on with them.
On Sat, 30 Jun 2007 08:49:35 +0100, "Dj Paddy" <mygroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
said:

Hi all,

Looks like we're going to be leaving BT for Virgin Media.

They can't get this broadband sorted.

We've had 5, yes 5 engineers out at the house.  Out of all but one new
what
she, was up to.  They constantly wanted to measure signal, even though
yesterday morning a job was specifically booked to measure throughput.
The
engineer who was booked for the job told me,
" I wouldn't know anything about that"

When I explained that wholesale and retail couldn't even ping me he said,
"I'll get my collegue to call round as my wee XP laptop wouldn't be
powerful
enough for that".

What sortive clowns are these guys employing?

There's been one gentleman in BT though that I have to take my hat off
to.
He's a young fella like myself and we've screamed at engineers together.

We've had the phone line isolated and the modem/router directly wired to
it.

We've had battery cleared off the line, then two weeks later a lady
engineer
came and actually did clear the battery her male collegue was meant to
have
cleardd.

We've had a new card, supposably fitted in the D Slam, (Exchange).

4pm hits and we drop to 40k for all downloads inside the UK servers, 19K
or
below for outside.

I've been running speed tests and I'm coming back with 1700k out of a
possible 8128k.  We're in a good area, close to the exchange, (around
1500metres), and we recieve the full 8128 signal.

The place over there is a shambles.  I'm frankly pissed off by the lack
of
knowledge their engineers have, this is compounded by them attempting to
hide behind jargon.

My XP laptop isnt' powerful enough to try and see if I can ping you....

He didn't have a clue what ping was!

Fair enough, alot of people I'm mailing this to might not.  This guy's a
field engineer for a broadband internet service provider!

He also tryed to give me BS about signal to noise ratio, and like with
the
other gentleman I explained about Shannon's theary that's used to
formulate
this.

Do these clowns talk this way to all home end users?

Anyways, we're paying these jokers £52 a month for really crappy 8MB
service
plus all inclusive telephone calls to LAN lines in the UK.

I'm going to subscribe to £39 a month 20MB cable broadband, plus the
phone
calls from Virgin Media.

I've been told by a technician in BT, (naming no names), that he's on it
at
home and he really gets the speeds that are promised.

This guy's good and I trust his judgement.  Come on, anything has to be
better than this rubbish from BT!

I'm tired of arguing, researching and learning about DSL service and how
it
works so I could force the engineers who did do work when they came out
to
do what they where and are being payed to do!

We could go for another DSL provider but, yes there's a 50-50 chance
it'll
be fine, even if it's using BT lines as they're testing fine.

I really think some routing table at least had went wrong somewhere on
the
local network.

I dont' want to be writing another email though like this in a months
time
because another one wont' listen.  Let's isolate it completely and not
use
phone lines or broadband over them.

On that, anyone got any decent Linksys cable router recommendations?

I sold my WRT54G thinking this was going to be great with BT and am back
in
the market for a wireless router that works with cable modems.  N
technology
is a must.  I'm sure netgear and D Link are quite nice these days along
with
Belcon but I've always used Linksys and I like they're web utility.

I'll have a look at Linksys site but anything to look for would be handy.

Thanks for listening to my tails of woe.

My last piece of advice, educate yourselves or find someone who is more
technically minded to take charge because what I've experienced is that
they
will hide behind anything they can including outsourced help desks.  They
will blame everythign on you, I've had three routers and three computers
tested here.

I've just decided 8MB isnt' worth this hassle when i can go to Virgin and
woe be tide the first manager in BT who trys to tell me that they dont'
promise 8MB again!

I know they don't!  But 40k and below is not an acceptible level of
service
on the low end of the scale!

My suspection is that it's too costly to send field engineer's out and
delay
tactics may be being applyed in the gise of support.


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[access-uk] Re: BT or not to BT

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