Madasafish Questions/answers (merged threads)

oldagetraveller

Thanks gritts, I have also raised this with their Tech support, by e-mail, at the same time as my post.
Just thought someone else might have an answer as to why it is happening.
If I'm consistently only getting just over 2MB/s then I might as well only have a 2MB/s service?

harryhound

Hi oldagetraveller,

I too have the same problem of fluctuating speeds that do not match the original guestimate of speed from BT. Interestingly, if I now query my home phone number with BT I get my real speed, not the pie in the sky speed of up to 6Mbps originally suggested.

In my case, I have three distinct speeds that last for several days at a time, they are roughtly 1.8Mbs 2.3Mbps and 2.8Mbps. In my case I have 5 problems that degrade my performance: 1. I am only 3.3 Km as the crow flies from the exchange BUT I'm probably the last house on its network heading west from the exchange. 2. The line is rubbish, I have three twisted connections on the BT side of the master socket BEFORE the two wires go up the pole in my garden to start their meandering route to the exchange.
3. My phone and electricity supply passes through a small rural "industrial" estate, where I have had problems before with other "kit" interfering with my supply of both electricity and phone. 4. Inside the roof of my bungalow, no attention has been paid to the regulations that say electrical wiring should be kept at least 2" away from any power wires, infact the two enter the house almost wrapped round each other ! 5. I have some electrical kit that creates interference on the electrical supply and that should be kept at least
1000mm away from the router. It is things like micro waves, transformers, bells and flashing Xmas lights that one should avoid. I know that an old 1998 scanner I use for photos and as a photocopier of documents, upsets my broadband, but I'm not yet ready to splash out on a replacement.

There is not a lot MAAF can do about the state of BT's old copper wires or the EDF's (?) dodgy electrical supply, so I just have to live with it and dream of living in Korea, where most people have their own fibre optic connection.

1.8 - 2.8Mbps is still a whole lot better than 56Kbps downgraded to 30Kbps by a BT unused "line sharing device".

Harry.

PS
Here is some interesting info from "Adslguide" (AKA thinkbroadband.com) showing 15 cycles of sending a package of data to my PC:

Traceroute is a useful tool for diagnosing network problems. It will show you how information gets from the thinkbroadband.com servers to your computer, and try to show the response time of each device along the route.

Some routers will occasionally show poor response times. This is because if a router is busy doing things such as routing traffic, or updating its routing data, it will put preference to this rather than respond to non-critical network tests.

#.......Host............................................... Sent....Recvd...Best...Avg.....Worst
1.......adslguide-gw2.core-rs2.thdo.ncuk.net....15......15.......0ms....0ms......2ms
2.......i0-1-10-star1.bdr-rt1.thdo.ncuk.net.......15......15.......0ms....2ms.....31ms
3.......gi4-15.telehouse-east2.core.enta.net.....15......15.......1ms...16ms...214ms
4.......te4-4.telehouse-east.core.enta.net........15......15.......0ms....1ms......1ms
5.......rb2-1-linx.core.global.net.uk..................15......15.......1ms....1ms.......4ms
6.......rb5-ge0-2.core.global.net.uk.................15......15........1ms....6ms.....37ms

humph_2

I am think I have lost faith in MAAF. At the moment I have broadband speed that is barely above dial-up. This has happened before and since i switched last year the speed has always been slow. I am at the point were I may just pay up the remaining 4 or 5 months of my contract rather than the palaver I have to go through - and the bloody cost - to get support to look at the problem.

I want to know were the 8MB comes into it. I have never hit those kind of figures. I once had something around 5 or 6 briefly. At the moment it is 0.12MB and I had that over Xmas. I have checked the local exchange which is running fine and also tried different modems etc at home. It is doing my swede in.

Does anybody actually ever get 8MB?

mrJ_5

... nobody ever gets 8mb - hense up to 8mb... the closest you'll ever get is 7.1mb, and that's if your line length is quite short from the excahnge... the further away you live the slower it will be

... maybe you will need to play around with a couple of settings to boost your speed slightly, or even replace however the modem is cnnected to the telephone - and always use the master socket

humph_2

Thanks Mr J.

I am connected to the master socket. I have tried all sorts of combinations of settings. Still this morning it is 0.12MB. No response from MAAF support yet.

I was with AOL for 6 years and never had any speed issues at all.

I may as well be on dial up right now.

trinity1_2

cheghead wrote: »

Just switched to Sky. So far so good, up to 8mb speed (getting 5mb which is max speed on my line), 40gb/month, wireless router and all at just £5/month...a bargain.

No regrets at leaving maaf. Overpriced if you ask me...Don't really know what's so great about them?

I have to say I completely agree with you cheghead. I'm regretting joining Madasafish and for reffering them to family members after following the posts here. The packages are completly overpriced even with the 1/2 price reduction for the first few months. I joined in dec 2006 on Max plus for £19.99 (for 6 months) then goes up to £25.99 after which only gives you 20GB allowanace(which includes uploads as well as downloads). There are packages for alot less then that (eg. Orange £19.99) which give you unlimited bandwidth.
I will say though that custmer service is good (although technical advice isnt so great). But still there are some many other companies out there and to be competitive I feel that the madasafish should consider taking price reviews because surely I'm not the only customer who feels a little ripped off?

cheghead

Yep Sky @ £5/month is an absolute bargain. Have had no probs so far and now have a wireless laptop.

Brillant!!

Think before you sign up to maaf. Just cause a few post problems on MSE doesn't mean everybody's gonna have the same!

Come on maaf, get real and charge a decent price?

cheghead

Oh yea...and Sky customer service has been excellent!!

Madasafish_Customer_Care

oldagetraveller wrote: »

My 'phone line is indicated as supporting 4MB but since starting with MAAF my download speeds have varied between 1.67 to 3.6 all at "offpeak" times. I don't use the internet at peak times weekdays. I had over 3 yesterday for the 1st time and it's back down to under 2 this morning. Mostly it's been just over 2. Is this normal? My MAAF service started 29th March.

Hi oldagetraveller,

Samara is on holiday but I'll try my best to help you out. Can you please send me a PM with your username and I'll have a look at your account.

Thanks
Nidhi

Madasafish_Customer_Care

humph wrote: »

I am think I have lost faith in MAAF. At the moment I have broadband speed that is barely above dial-up. This has happened before and since i switched last year the speed has always been slow. I am at the point were I may just pay up the remaining 4 or 5 months of my contract rather than the palaver I have to go through - and the bloody cost - to get support to look at the problem.

I want to know were the 8MB comes into it. I have never hit those kind of figures. I once had something around 5 or 6 briefly. At the moment it is 0.12MB and I had that over Xmas. I have checked the local exchange which is running fine and also tried different modems etc at home. It is doing my swede in.

Does anybody actually ever get 8MB?

Hello humph,

Can you please send me a PM with your username so that I can have a look at your account? Can you please also let me know when did you try different modems, the sync rates you got, the operating system you are currently on and the modem you are using at the moment.

Thanks
Nidhi