Orange Broadband Very Slow After Orange's "Improvements"

trotter09

On June 17th Orange emailed saying they were about to improve my broadband by moving my service onto a new, improved network.

Before their email I had been getting a steady 2000Kbps. A week after their email I was getting a steady 3000kbps - hurray!

But two weeks after that, broadband became very slow and unreliable: during a download test the speed fluctuates wildly between zero and 1200kbps and averages around 400kbps. It's been like this for a month. Some improvement. Strangely, the upload speed is good, steady and has not been adversely affected.

When I ring Orange I get the usual **** about connecting to the main BT socket, switching the Livebox off and on etc etc etc but nothing makes any difference.

My Livebox shows ADSL2+, Noise Margin 3.2, attenuation 40.5 and Attainable download rate 4383. Nothing about my setup has changed for the last 2 years so the problem is not caused by anything I have changed.

I looked on the OrangeProblems website and found a few posts complaining of slow, wildly fluctuating and unreliable broadband following an "Improving Your Service" email from Orange - but none of them has a solution to the problem.

Has anyone had similar experience - and better still - a resolution of this problem? Or any suggestions?

GunJack

that is a bl00dy awful sync/estimated sync for your attenuation and snrm. Look here:-

http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/max_speed_calc.php

if you allow a dB and a half for being on ADSL2+, enter 39dB (measured at ADSL frequencies) into the calculator and you'll come up with a sync of around 9000 kb/sec !!! Should be a bit faster as you're running a 3dB snrm. Either your livebox (poor even when new) is drastically suffering or you've probably got a microfilter (you do have one on EVERY phone socket, don't you ??) going duff, or both.

Plugging into the test socket will determine if your internal phone wiring is a factor or not - if the connection suddenly perks up when plugged into the test socket, your internal wiring needs attention - see here:-

http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/socket.htm

Have you got access to spare router and microfilters to try ???

trotter09

GunJack wrote: »

Either your livebox (poor even when new) is drastically suffering or you've probably got a microfilter (you do have one on EVERY phone socket, don't you ??) going duff, or both.

Plugging into the test socket will determine if your internal phone wiring is a factor or not - if the connection suddenly perks up when plugged into the test socket, your internal wiring needs attention . . .

Have you got access to spare router and microfilters to try ???

Yes, have filters everywhere. On two occasions in the last fortnight I have had steady 3500kbps download for about 5 minutes - on both occasions it was immediately after Orange had run a line test. My conclusion from that is that my Livebox, filters and internal wiring etc is not where the problem lies. Would an Orange line test reset something resulting in good speed for a few minutes?

milesoneill

I received one of those "improvement" emails too. Internet was patchy as they said it might be for a couple of weeks, but afterwards my speeds increased. About 5.5Mb now on an 8Mb connection. Problem now is that the internet keeps dropping out. The lights on the box show everything is working fine (no flashing warnings etc.) but there's no data getting through. I have to unplug the box and then restart it. Happening every day now and getting extremely frustrating.

The suspicious person in me reckons it's Orange trying to pull a fast one. I'm on a 2yr old broadband deal where I get unlimited broadband for £5 a month - being a mobile customer. They might be trying to shake off old customers and move them onto new "more reliable" (and more expensive) broadband packages.

But maybe that's just me!

Miles.

GunJack

orange use shared metal path, i.e. it's still squirted down your line by bt's kit, and you're still subject to the limitations of that kit. Te ADSL2+ rollout doesn't go smoothly in all exchanges, especially as they're putting most of thier resources into fibre.....

trotter09

milesoneill wrote: »

I received one of those "improvement" emails too. Internet was patchy as they said it might be for a couple of weeks, but afterwards my speeds increased. About 5.5Mb now on an 8Mb connection. Problem now is that the internet keeps dropping out. The lights on the box show everything is working fine (no flashing warnings etc.) but there's no data getting through. I have to unplug the box and then restart it. Happening every day now and getting extremely frustrating.

The suspicious person in me reckons it's Orange trying to pull a fast one. I'm on a 2yr old broadband deal where I get unlimited broadband for £5 a month - being a mobile customer. They might be trying to shake off old customers and move them onto new "more reliable" (and more expensive) broadband packages.

But maybe that's just me!

Miles.

Sounds familiar - internet keeps just stopping despite the @ light being on continuously. And restarting the box gets it going again for a while. It's nice to know it's not just me experiencing these problems following Orange switching us to their "improved" network.

I don't think it's Orange trying to be clever and get us on to another contract: they really aren't that smart! They are just incompetent.

Latest from Orange Technical Support is that they think there's a fault on my line and they will "update my profile" and that will take ten days. In other words: we've no idea what the problem is, have no intention of investigating it and please don't bother us for at least another ten days.

GunJack: tried changing the filter this afternoon: made no difference.

trotter09

GunJack wrote: »

orange use shared metal path, i.e. it's still squirted down your line by bt's kit, and you're still subject to the limitations of that kit. Te ADSL2+ rollout doesn't go smoothly in all exchanges, especially as they're putting most of thier resources into fibre.....

Ah, GunJack, that's very interesting. So it's a systemic problem in some exchanges? Is there a solution?

GunJack

trotter09 wrote: »

Ah, GunJack, that's very interesting. So it's a systemic problem in some exchanges? Is there a solution?

either wait for bt to sort their kit out (but still be subject to the awful Dynamic Line Management system), or look for a full LLU service (where the ISP takes over your phone line and terminates it on their own kit in the exchange).

Pop your phone/postcode in here to see what's available at your exchange:-

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange_search

when it shows the result, the exchange name is a link to it's detail page, down the right-hand side of this page it'll show you which LLU providers operate services in your exchange.

trotter09

GunJack wrote: »

either wait for bt to sort their kit out (but still be subject to the awful Dynamic Line Management system), or look for a full LLU service (where the ISP takes over your phone line and terminates it on their own kit in the exchange).

Pop your phone/postcode in here to see what's available at your exchange:-

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange_search

when it shows the result, the exchange name is a link to it's detail page, down the right-hand side of this page it'll show you which LLU providers operate services in your exchange.

Thanks. It says Orange has a "LLU operator presence" and has had since 2008. Also that ADSL Max was enabled in 2006 and 21CN WBC is enabled.

I pay phone line rental to BT and ISP to Orange. If I switch to Orange for phone line rental as well as broadband would that do the trick?

Couldn't get online at all early this morning - Livebox said PPP Server was down. Naively I thought it's down because they're working on the problem. No such luck. Livebox shows 5455kbps attainable, speedtest shows it's actually going at 483kbps.

EDIT: Red face. Wife had been doing some spring cleaning and plugged a phone back in without the filter - behind a bookcase... Filter put back, internet working fine. Sorry Orange, all is forgiven.

GunJack

trotter09 wrote: »

EDIT: Red face. Wife had been doing some spring cleaning and plugged a phone back in without the filter - behind a bookcase... Filter put back, internet working fine. Sorry Orange, all is forgiven.

NEVER underestimate the effects of duff/missing filters