Some websites not loading. (Post Office Broadband)

smoker99

Ok, to update this thread I received a call from the Post Office a couple of hours back to inform me I'd need to stay in tomorrow because an engineer would call. I explained that would be difficult and that the problem was not mine but theirs. Yes sir they said but the engineer would need to call tomorrow anyway to which I said they were wasting not only mine but their own time as well.

The fishy sounding part came afterwards when the guy told me that their fault had been rectified in my area but that I was still having problems. So I thought about that for a second and asked "How would you know that? Nobody has called to ask if I'm still having a problem." to which he umm'ed and arr'ed a little and replied "well we have ways of knowing these things."

To be honest I was already at the end of my tether and said "If you have ways of knowing these things then why didn't you know it when I first called to report a fault?" I then told him to forget it, that I didn't want their engineer here and just to give me my MAC code and I'll go with BT instead.

I then called BT and ran through all the details with them only to discover they'd given me the incorrect MAC code and I need to call the Post Office back again tomorrow to get it confirmed. And here was me hoping I'd never have to speak with them ever again.

I now need to go for a beer and calm down because my blood pressure is probably near danger levels. :mad:

nicter

Ive been having the same problem for the past few days. (ok so far today) Im with BT. Will load mse no problem but not facebook fully and other pages say "internet explorer cannot display this page"
Interestingly pages will sometimes load from "history" but not favourites.

smoker99

nicter wrote: »

Ive been having the same problem for the past few days. (ok so far today) Im with BT. Will load mse no problem but not facebook fully and other pages say "internet explorer cannot display this page"
Interestingly pages will sometimes load from "history" but not favourites.

It sounds as if you have the exact same problem as me. I couldn't access the BBC again this morning but later in the day it was loading in an instant.

I'm just so annoyed right now that the P.O. have had me dangling on a piece of string for the last three or four days with stories of local system faults and then call me today almost demanding I alter my schedule to accomodate them.

Well sorry P.O. (if you're reading this which I now suspect you are) it's your fault so go fix it. Maybe if you'd tried listening to your customers instead of treating them like imbeciles you'd have a lot more of them. Personally I'm all out of patience and can't wait to be shot of you.

nicter

Youre not in Norfolk are you smoker ? Just wondering re the "local fault"
Im using a BT homehub by the way

Simplistik

Thanks for updating us,
Shame this thread ended unhappily, but i quite see the logic as to how it arrived there.

I think you could be right about 'PO' monitoring this thread, that's certainly not unheard of from other ISPs.
If that is the case, then pity they didn't chip in with something useful

Anyway, just a thought, did PO warn you of any possible charges if BT did get access and decide that the fault lay on your side of the Master socket?

Just as a precaution, probably a good test to just run the router and 'phone from the master socket and temporarily remove any equipment from extensions, just as a check.
I doubt very much that will clear your problem, but at least you've done all you possibly can..

smoker99

nicter wrote: »

Youre not in Norfolk are you smoker ? Just wondering re the "local fault"
Im using a BT homehub by the way

No, but I am a fellow East Anglian.

I actually feel quite envious because Norfolk is one of the prettiest areas of the UK.

Simplistik wrote: »

Anyway, just a thought, did PO warn you of any possible charges if BT did get access and decide that the fault lay on your side of the Master socket?

Hi Simplistik,

yes, they originally asked that if the fault turned out to be on my side then would I be prepared to pay the cost of the engineer but I flatly refused to pay. I'd advise anyone to do the same especially if they're like me and sure the problem lies with their provider. I mean what's to stop them saying the fault lies with the customer even if it doesn't? Only the very technically aware would ever have the confidence to challenge that.

Anyway I got the real MAC code this morning and intend to start the changeover process to BT later today. Although the package works out slightly more expensive in true MSE fashion I should be eligible for some Sainsburys vouchers and also some wonga via one of the various cashback sites. I'm not too bothered about that though, just that I get a decent working service.

Thanks for the suggestion and I'll take a look at the wiring later but I think everything already connects directly to the master socket via the adsl filter which I already exchanged (I must have a half dozen of those things).

Thanks too to everyone who commented for their support and suggestions and for helping me retain my sanity. I actually feel quite liberated this morning knowing that my days at the P.O. are coming to an end.

Figment

smoker99 wrote: »

Thanks for the suggestion and I'll take a look at the wiring later but I think everything already connects directly to the master socket via the adsl filter which I already exchanged (I must have a half dozen of those things).

if your master socket looks similar to this:



then remove the lower section (as shown) to reveal the master (test) socket. Plug your ADSL filter into this socket to test as described above.

smoker99

Figment wrote: »

if your master socket looks similar to this:



then remove the lower section (as shown) to reveal the master (test) socket. Plug your ADSL filter into this socket to test as described above.

Hi Figment.

No, unfortunately I've got the older style one without a test socket.

Incidentally my internet is actually running quite fast this morning and even the pics are loading on Facebook but the problem websites still stubbornly refuse to load. It's so frustrating.

I haven't mentioned it before but although I live in the sticks I am literally within 5 houses of my local exchange and my download speeds have always been excellent, normally somewhere between 6 and 7Mb. I happened to notice that there were 4 or 5 BT vans parked in the yard there seemingly doing something major the weekend before my problems started but it's probably just coincidence.

Thanks.

Figment

Try flushing your DNS cache again

Open a command prompt and type ipconfig /flushdns (note there is a single space before the / )

smoker99

Figment wrote: »

Try flushing your DNS cache again

Open a command prompt and type ipconfig /flushdns (note there is a single space before the / )

Ok, just done that and got the a message something like "successfully flushed the DNS resolver cache".

Still no joy accessing the websites though.

I have to go out for a while now but when I get back I'll try the free DNS servers again to see if there's been any improvement.

Thanks.