Orange broadband cancellation

chrisjx

I have just last week changed my Broadband provider from BT to Orange because of the cheaper overall package they offered me over the phone, however...........
I cannot connect my lap top wireless, (local only), yet my Ipnone, my son's lap top, a friends Iphone and two other lap tops in house, (we have students) all connect wireless no problem. I had no problem with BT, have contacted Orange for help, only to be "fobbed off" by their offshore call centre twice. Added to this the signal strength is rubbish compared to BT, (hyper slow if you are in any other room other than where the router is).
I have informed Orange that I want to excersise my right to cancel inside of my "cooling off period", (whatever that is?) - I contacted them the very next day, and requested my MAC code, only to be told now that if I cancel I will incur a £89.89 cancellation fee, (less than one week from connection date!).
Surely I have rights to cancel without fee?
Any help would be gratefully received.

bod1467

You have 7 days right of cancellation from receipt of paperwork confirming your contract, not from connection. Once you are connected then cancellation charges apply.

If all these other devices can connect fine then it is your laptop that has the problem, or at least a compatibility quirk with the Orange box. When you say there's a connection problem, can you connect to the Orange box (e.g. access the web interface) but cannot access the internet? If yes then try this - open your browser and go to https://www.google.com; if that fails then try 209.85.148.105 - does that work?

If yes then you have a DNS issue - probably there is a DNS setting in your laptop adapter that is not working with Orange.

chrisjx

Thanks for the response Bod. Seems you are right in that there is a compatability quirk. Yes, when I connect wirelessly I get "successfully connected to router" but "unidentified network" and local only. As for 7 days form receipt of paperwork conformation, I haven't had anything other than when the router arrived.
Looks like I'll have to "bite the bullet" then and pay the fee - at least with BT I had up to date anti virus too.:(

macman

But if you cancel then you will probably have exactly the same issue with your new provider!
Your ISP is responsible for getting a broadband connection as far as your master socket or router. What happens from there is down to the customer. This is a minor connectivity issue that you or any local PC tech can fix-not a reason to cancel your service.
Why is AV software anything to do with your ISP? Again, it'sa customer responsibility. Most of the ISP supplied ones are McAfee or other low rated prgrams anyway.

bat191

No comment on the broadband issue, but you can get FREE basic anti-virus protection from Microsoft.

I can't post a link as I'm new to the forums, but type "Microsoft Security Essentials" into your search engine and it'll come up.

I use it on all of my Windows PC's.

bod1467

I use Avast free.

Like macman said - this is probably just an issue that's quite easily fixed. Did you try those tests I suggested? (Whilst connected by wifi - i.e. the connection giving you a problem).

chrisjx

Yep......tried all the tests and numerous other "solutions" from various other threads. I know its just something that needs altering, but I'm lost as to what to try next, but the signal strength issue will still be there if I do stay with Orange.......unless there is a way to boost it that is. As you say, I think I'll have to take the lap top to a local "boffin" to check out......strange how it was never a problem with the BT router though? so must be a quirk of some sort?

macman

Firstly, log into the router interface and change the wireless channel on the router, you may have a conflict with a neighbour's network running on the same channel. Use InSSIDer to check this (free download).
Secondly, the Livebox is notoriously awful. You'd do better running almost any other wireless router than that, you can get a decent Netgear DG834G or similar on eBay for about a tenner, or use an old router if you have one.
Wireless connectivity inside the home is not an Orange issue, it's a customer issue, so don't bother wasting time with Orange TS on this, because they don't have a clue.

coopersoriginal

can you explain to me the frequency bit.I am having similar problem with wireless connection dropping out all the time.even when connected to router (wired) the signal disappears and on i player which I use rarely it often says insufficient bandwidth.driving me mad with computer connection being so low or non existent so often.at end of contract with orange but thought I would check this out first as if it a prob my end changing suppliers may not help anyway. thanks in advance.

macman

Most wireless routers are set to a default or automatic channel. There are 11 channels, most of which overlap.if an adjoining network is set to the same channel then it can interfere and cause slowness and drop outs. If you log into the router interface you can manually select the wireless channels.
Using InSSIDer will show which channel the neighbouring networks are set to, so you can chose something different. The first thing you usually see when running it is half a dozen BT HomeHubs all on the same default channel!

martintallett

I have similar problems. I recently switched from Sky and the router Orange have sent is not up to the job. A wireless laptop that worked previously is much worse now so I have had to move the router nearer to where the laptop is normally used.

Also when I open my browser the home page does not come up. This never used to happen.

Also I have occasional dropped connections while I am using my browser.

I have been told by Orange that the cooling off period is from when you take the contract to when the broadband is connected.

Also they say that the only way they will agree that it is not fit for purpose is to contact their tech support every day for 30 days and if the broadband is non performing on each of these days (!) then they will agree that it is not fit for purpose and release you from the contract.

What I want to know is if there is a cooling off period that covers the time when the service has been connected so customers can see if the broadband works at least. Surely I can back out in the first week or so.

Please help!