urgent advice please

ml2008

I currently have my home phone line and broadband from BT...recently I have been having a lot of trouble with them, without broadband for several days etc and started to think about moving my bb to someone else.

Now the phone line has gone down and we are told that it is likely to be Wednesday before they can fix it. I rely heavily on my net connection for work and really can't handle this sort of thing from bt any longer.

We live in quite a rural area and I think we are a fair distance from the exchange although when bt was working we were getting decent enough speeds from them. I contacted orange (I don't really know why I should have read some of the threads here first!) as I have a great mobile package from them and they can offer 0.5 meg bb which they only told me after I had given them my mac code..so needless to say I cancelled the order and as far as I know that should be that, or can they still go ahead with it?

I would really appreciate it if anyone can recommend a good bb company, I just want something reliable. From what I've read I can get bt, orange, 02 and be at my house but I will check for more when I can get a longer time on the net (using my phone as a modem and it's costing a fortune)

Thanks to anyone that might be able to advise.

DUTR

ml2008 wrote: »

I currently have my home phone line and broadband from BT...recently I have been having a lot of trouble with them, without broadband for several days etc and started to think about moving my bb to someone else.

Now the phone line has gone down and we are told that it is likely to be Wednesday before they can fix it. I rely heavily on my net connection for work and really can't handle this sort of thing from bt any longer.

We live in quite a rural area and I think we are a fair distance from the exchange although when bt was working we were getting decent enough speeds from them. I contacted orange (I don't really know why I should have read some of the threads here first!) as I have a great mobile package from them and they can offer 0.5 meg bb which they only told me after I had given them my mac code..so needless to say I cancelled the order and as far as I know that should be that, or can they still go ahead with it?

I would really appreciate it if anyone can recommend a good bb company, I just want something reliable. From what I've read I can get bt, orange, 02 and be at my house but I will check for more when I can get a longer time on the net (using my phone as a modem and it's costing a fortune)

Thanks to anyone that might be able to advise.

If you are using a line for work, then I'm sure the companies offer products and services that will suit you better than the domestic deal, eg if the line is registered as a business line, then the repair turnaround takes a higher priority, living in a rural area will not help you either as there will be less suppliers ( and probably using the same infrastructure) to supply you

macman

If the problem is on the line between you and the exchange, then switching ISP won't make the slightest difference to reliability- Openreach own and maintain the line regardless of your choice of ISP.
Broadband is not national, it is exchange specific, so do an exchange search on www.samknows.co and list your LLU options.
The ISP's you have lisited are probably your LLU options, but they are not your only ones, there are hundreds of non-LLU alternatives to BT, which are available on every exchange in the country.
If O2 is available LLU, that would be a great choice. Orange would certainly be the worst!
http://www.dslzoneuk.net/isp_ratings.php

ml2008

thanks for the replies

At the moment the current fault is on the phone line and bt say there is a turnaround of 72 hours to repair it so we really don't have any option other than to just wait for that to happen.

Recently though with the bb the faults have been coming thick and fast, dropped connections a lot more often, total disconnection for a few days etc and added to that we're paying over the odds for the pleasure of it.

I have heard mixed things about 02 and had considered them briefly but was tied into a contract with bt that I'm not in anymore so now is the best time to move. At the moment we have unlimited broadband from them and I really would need another package like that due to the high levels of usage. I know that no matter what company I go to the speeds are going to be the same (rubbish lol but it's just our area) it's reliability that we need above anything else. Would 02 be considered reliable? More so than bt?

I can't get the links posted to load (using blackberry to connect) but will check them asap

thanks again

MrsTinks

Without being funny - but if there are problems with the line then it won't matter what supplier you go with. Ultimately BTOpenreach who own the lines are short of engineers - 72 hours is actually pretty good for a fault - about a month ago we looged a fault for a customer and were told that it would be 3 weeks before an engineer was available in that area... imagine how well THAT went down!

What you CAN do to help yourself if you have a long line is make sure there is minimal interference once the line hits your home - this accounts for a very large drop in speeds and can cause disconnections. So... always plug your router in the master socket - most mastersockets have a test socket - use this with your filter for the router - it will eliminate the rest of your house as causing problems for you. What a lot of people don't realise is that your internal copper wiring can generate or pick up noise interference (this time of year a favourite is the cheap christmas lights from places like £ shops...) and if you already have noise problems on the line then this can be enough to kick it over... depending on what type of connection you have then frequent disconnects could result in the line speed being reduced to try and fix the disconnections... Which is why you shouldn't powercycle your router several times if you're having problems - it will force a change to your line which will take weeks to auto rectify!

T

macman

Have you done all the standard tests to ensure that the fault is on the line or exchange, and not with your own equipment, internal wiring or PC? Are you testing using ethernet (not wireless) and conected to the BT test socket behind the master socket?
Are you using known good ADSL filters on every active extension?
If the issue is wireless only (no problem with ethernet) then have you tried changing wireless channels on the router?
Of course if the line is physically down, then this is the main issue, but the other problems you mention may be entirely independent of this.
Suggest you also post your router stats:
http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/frogstats.php#34

JJ_Egan

Dropped connection due to bad phone line is the most likely scenario .

jje

macman

Good point-any noise/crackling on the line?
Have you done a BT Quiet Line test? Dial 17070, select option 2, listen for noise.
If present, go online or call BT and report a line fault (not a broadband fault).

ml2008

thanks everyone for the replies.

It's definitely a line fault at the moment as there isn't even a dialling tone and hopefully when BT repair that the broadband will come back on.

What I mean though is that when it is up and running due to the amount of problems we've been having recently that I had been considering a new company for broadband. There's no question at all that it's a broadband fault at the moment, it isn't it's the phone line itself.

I have spoken to bt previously about all the problems we are experiencing, I have carried out all the self tests and was told by bt not to worry that it was probably just a temporary blip in service (going up and down over a few weeks) it would probably sort itself out and did i really want to take the risk of moving to another company not knowing if the problems could get worse. We already use the main test socket and still experience the problems but bt don't seem that bothered at all.

I was just wondering I suppose in a nutshell if they are the best of the bunch and if I really would be better sticking with them rather than risking possibly worse scenarios elsewhere.

Thanks everyone for taking the time to reply.

macman

So putting aside the current fundamental obstacle of the line being down, what self-tests have you carried out? For a start, are you using ethernet or wireless? If the latter, have you changed the wireless channel as suggested?
If there is no noise on the line, then nothing you have said so far necessarily indicates a BT fault (when the line is working).
But I'm puzzled by your 'best of the bunch' comment about BT, given the problems you have outlined. Every survey around tells us that that they are amongst the worst of the bunch and, among the most expensive-so why would moving away put you in a worse position? What are your LLU options?

ml2008

Hi
thanks for the reply, I have both ethernet and wireless connection although just use one or the other at one time and it's still the same lots of dropped connections, there is a slight noise on the line but bt say there isn't anything wrong with it. I have tried everything I can possibly think of I have changed the wireless channel also, no joy.

I can see how that comment might be puzzling, I'm not explaining this very well at all lol, what I actually mean is that because of where we are, in a rural location with a fair distance to the exchange etc, would it be unwise to change bb providers as no matter what isp I use it's likely to be the same? Just wondered if anyone else had been in a similar situation with similar issues and made the move from bt to someone else with positive results. I'm not familiar with survey results as I haven't ever looked for any before and am unable to at the moment as using my blackberry to connect and it won't load the pages correctly.

Thanks.