There's nothing worse than someone posting to newsgroups just to vent
their frustrations. I mean, get a life... it's only the internet, right?
And other people's connection issues are like other people's babies... of
very little interest! So look away now. ;-)

Sunday:

Broadband working as usual. Ok, I'm only limited to a 1Mb connection
which delivers a solid 120kb/s day or night on a Max package, despite the
fact my router consistently connects at 7600+kbps speeds and I can almost
hit the exchange if I spit out of the window. I can live with that...
I've no choice, as I was told a while back that they/BT won't investigate
as I'm getting more than the minimum guaranteed speed. Cheers!

Monday 3am:

I get out of bed after a lie-in (I work nights and it's my night off).
Router connects at 8000kbps+ (a little higher than normal), but nobody's
home. Zilch. Nowt. Ne authentication pas. Still no joy by 11am so I try
to call 'Pipex'. Support automation says they're very busy and to ring
back later. I take their word for it. I try later. Same again. I try
again. Same. I give up.

Tuesday 10am:

Ignore 'ring back' message and find you can get through to support if you
wait long enough. Go through all the usual support hand-holding blah,
blah then let slip I haven't tried with my old router this time. Support
want me to try with that despite the fact my router's clearly connecting
to the exchange and I've quintuple-checked all the setting at my end.

Two hours later, after hunting for my old router settings, I get exactly
the same problem with the old router. Connects happily, but I'm knocking
on a locked e-door. So it's back to support after another 30 mins or so
of 0871 muzak. Buying an album from iTunes would be cheaper.

Bloke is puzzled as they can see me connected. Go through the usual blah,
blah again, then he wants me to go back to my Netgear router because he
knows it well. I try to swap while on the phone and -- as it's well past
my usual bedtime by then -- manage to unplug the phone. Ooops. Much
swearing ensues.

Can't face another wait, so I give up and go to bed.

Wed 9am:

Another hour on the phone to some poor girl with someone helping her in
the background. They eventually want me to contact Netgear for details of
how to get deeper into the router interface and check hidden settings. I
-- hanging on to my sanity by a thread by then -- point out forcefully
that as I've had exactly the same results with another router I think I'm
right to expect a better response from them.

They decide to escalate the fault to BT. I thank them and bugger off to
bed.

Wed 9pm

Broadband back to normal! Whoop-de-freakin'-whoop! Now I can sort through
my 550 emails. Oh joy. :-)

Thursday:

Everything in the garden seems fine. Back to my reliable old 120kb/s
downloads.

Friday 3am:

(another night off): Connecting fine, but the router won't connect faster
than 192kbs... despite trying again and again over a period of hours.

Friday 7:30am: Sitting at PC whingeing on newsgroups instead of getting
on with something more sensible. Wondering whether to try support again
later... they'll probably just say I'm getting a working connection that
is within the terms and conditions. At that point I may well snap after
all the hassle this week.

I dunno. In five years with Pipex I only had one outage I was aware of.
But this Tiscali era is really getting on my e-tits. Maybe it's time for
a change. I doubt it'll be any better, but at least I'll get to listen to
different tech support muzak! :-)

Andrew 'get a life' McP

Andrew MacPherson wrote:

Do you mean 120 kBps (bytes not bits) ?


What a 'Max package' if you say you're on a limited 1Mb connection ?


That's NOT 1Mbps.


There's nothing to investigate. If the router's synching that fast you should
be able to get ~ 7Mbps data rates.

Any problem lies clearly at the door of Pipex. Simply sounds like they're
outright lying to you.

Graham

Andrew MacPherson wrote:

Yes, they're complete rubbish.

Do you have an aversion to moving to a decent ISP ?

Graham

rabbitsfriendsandrelations@hotmail.com (Eeyore) wrote:

I transferred to a Max package last year and I think my new 12 month
contract might still have time to run if I don't want penalties. But no,
I'm not so attached to my email address that I want to stay. I just think
pointless churn is to be avoided... everyone chases the Holy Grail,
constantly turning good ISPs into overcrowded ones.

Anyway, this morning I've just spent 20 minutes talking to a guy who
wanted me to cure my router's 192kbps (20kb/s downloads) connection speed
(288kbps upstream!) by flushing my cookies.

He gave me a speedcheck site to use which wouldn't load for me...
http://www.speedcheck.ispconnect.co.uk/
....and I also get an error message when I put my number into the BT site
at http://www.speedtester.bt.com/ "Authorisation failed Incorrect
Telephone Number - Please try again".

Other websites sites (including alternative speedcheck sites) work fine,
albeit slowly. But because none of this fits the support script, and I
don't have speedcheck results covering 24 hours, I don't fit the criteria
for this being raised as a fault, despite this week's history.

Repeat after me... it's only the internet, and low paid tech support
people in a call centre hundreds (thousands?) of miles away aren't to
blame. :-)

Andrew McP... finding himself inclined to seek out a more expensive and
hopefully reliable service.

Put it this way, I was on a 1Mb package before going for an 8Mb Max deal.
Previously my maximum download speeds were reliably 120kb/s at any time
of day (consistently twice as fast as the 60kb/s on the old 512kb service,
as expected).

My router connected reliably at 7000kbps+ though, so I thought a Max
package ought to make use of that. After the move to that package my
maximum download speed stayed at a rock solid 120kb/s, never any more and
only ever less from congested sites. When I eventually tried to query
that, I was told I was getting more than the guaranteed minimum and
logging a complaint would be difficult. I tried, but gave up in the end,
as I was more puzzled than annoyed... I don't download so much that it
was a big problem.

This week's issues have been on a different scale of annoyance altogether!
:-)

andrew.mcp@DELETETHISdsl.pipex.com (Andrew MacPherson) wrote:

Yes, I just checked with their cancellations dept (funny how you can get
through to them pretty darned quickly!) and they'll stiff me for £67.25
if I bugger off before September. That's what 5 years of loyalty gets
you.

I think I'll pencil that into next month's budget.

Andrew McP

"Eeyore" <rabbitsfriendsandrelations@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:48085E66.442088CC@hotmail.com...
Some crap I couldnt be bothered to read.

Pipex started going downhill after UUNet sold them.

Easier to come on here and whine ;o)

Also consider that Pisscalli are rumoured to be the target of a takeover.

mattphelps76@gmail.com (Gizmo.) wrote:

As I said. :-) And in my defence I did attempt to make it a partially
entertaining read.

Anyway, this is part venting, part exploration. I've learned at least one
thing from the thread, so it's not been in vain. Thanks to everyone who's
replied.

There is also a wider issue in that I have always been wary about
switching because ISP churn makes it hard to choose a provider which will
start well and *stay* that way.

I guess ultimately there are no guarantees with internet access, and it's
only when your particular corner of the ip-cosmos starts to wave its legs
in the air that you pay close attention to what's going on out there.

Andrew McP

PS Yes, I agree about the UUNet thing. In fact the reason why I chose
them originally in 2002 was that UUNet were -- I thought -- a pretty big
and probably reliable provider with a good reputation. I didn't mind
paying a premium for that, and for several years that decision paid off.

Andrew MacPherson wrote:

Some are actually good and stay good like Idnet.


What an idiot !


Try this one, it's reliable.

http://www.speedtest.bbmax.co.uk/


Graham

Andrew MacPherson wrote:

I don't see why you should have to pay anything if you only get 200kbps or
whatever it was.

I'll also suggest you try a really good ISP like Idnet for at least a couple
of months just to see the difference since they do not lock you into a
contract and you can leave anytime. That'll tell you what the line really is
capable of.

Graham

rabbitsfriendsandrelations@hotmail.com (Eeyore) wrote:

I'll take a look, thanks. At the moment I'm tempted by Be/O2, as they
seem to have a fairly good reputation (famous last words. :-) and also
have LLU kit at my local exchange.

I think for the long term though a smaller, less famous ISP, might be a
more sensible way to go though. Until they get bought out. :-)

Andrew McP

rabbitsfriendsandrelations@hotmail.com (Eeyore) wrote:

To be fair the people I've spoken to are clearly offshore and no doubt
under-paid. I can't blame them for being put in an awkward situation by a
tricky query which doesn't fit their employer's script.

I have spoken to another guy in the past who clearly knows his stuff and
inspires confidence. But redialling repeatedly until I get him isn't
really an option. :-)

Andrew McP

This I might be able to explain to you. I recently moved from Pipex to
ADSL24 and on the forums was a chap with exactly the same problem as you.
What had happened was that when BT switched him to MAX, they forgot to do
something which meant he was still on a 1Mb fixed download despite the sync
being much higher.

Other options are a stuck IP profile which is possible as you came from 1Mb
fixed.

Both of those are BT problems and BT need to fix them.

However, my mate has a Solo1000 package from Pipex. This is a MAX product
but throttled to 1Mb by Pipex at there end. They may have 'forgotten' to
release the throttle when you went to a MAX product.

In all cases customer services should sort this for you but as you've
discovered it isn't worth the bother. Find out when your contract is up and
move ISP. I can recommend ADSL24.

--

WCZ

Dav123456@willnotwork.com (WCZ) wrote:

I too was on the Solo1000, and the guy I spoke to at support did agree it
sounded like a setting somewhere hadn't been changed. But that's about as
far as I got. In the end the 'if it ain't broke' principle applied, and I
let it drift.

This week has definitely been an 'it's broke!' situation though. :-)

And thanks for mentioning the potential LLU fee. I'm hoping that's why
breaking my re-newed 12 month contract invokes the £67 fee, but I'll
check whether there's anything more to add. Thanks for the advice.

It's another ISP I've seen recommended among well-versed internet users,
and their off-peak usage would probably suit my work pattern just fine.
I'll investigate.

I confess my current leaning towards Be/O2 is based purely on their LLU
kit in my exchange and the temptations of a potential 20+Mbps as I'm so
close to it (150m). I don't *need* that, but if I'm going to change
restaurants, why not get a seat closer to the buffet? :-)

I must remind myself though that speed isn't a priority. I don't want to
be changing again for a long time.

Andrew McP

andrew.mcp@DELETETHISdsl.pipex.com (Andrew MacPherson) wrote:

Actually I'm not sure I'd get this anyway. ADSL24's site tells me my
exchange hasn't been enabled for higher speeds by BT yet. Be's site tells
me I can have their 'up to 24Mbps' package, but the key phrase there is
'up to'. So I'm not sure whether their LLU kit is superior to BT's (which
ADSL24 would be using).

More research required. Still, it's been a useful day's work
investigating some options.

Andrew McP

On 18/04/2008 in message
<memo.20080418134824.3028B@address_disguised.addre ss_disguised> Andrew
MacPherson wrote:

I doubt they are under-paid by local standards, call centre jobs are much
sough after. All they need is a process to escalate calls they can't
handle themselves, it's not rocket science!

--
Jeff Gaines Damerham Hampshire UK
If you ever find something you like buy a lifetime supply because they
will stop making it

"Andrew MacPherson" <andrew.mcp@DELETETHISdsl.pipex.com> wrote in message
news:memo.20080418074417.1332B@address_disguised.a ddress_disguised...

I also have a Pipex connection which has failed about 3 times in the past
month.

If I run my Speedtouch 510 router diagnostics, everything works up to the
point where it tries to contact the DNS servers and that stage fails. It may
be that it can't contact any other IP address, but I don't have a set of
valid addresses to try.

The problem has cleared if I restart the connection or reboot the line. I
strongly suspect a fault in the Pipex network.

They recently started charging me for paying by credit card without giving a
prior warning. I now pay by direct debit which has the advantage that I can
cancel the payment by contacting the bank.

My contract expires in a couple of months.

--
Michael Chare

MunderscoreNEWS@chareDOTorg.uk (Michael Chare) wrote:

It's always hard to know exactly where the problems lie, and I suppose if
rebooting helps force their hardware to recognise you properly that at
least gives you some sense of control of the situation. My router's has
done more rebooting than a cobbler this week, but it didn't change
anything.

Fortunately, while I've been asleep this evening the magic Pipex fairy
has put my router's connection back up to 8160kbps, giving me back my
usual 1Mbps-style, 120kb/s speeds. But now I trust my connection almost
as much as I trust Robert Mugabe's election results.

Andrew McP

Andrew MacPherson wrote:

<me color="green" volume="11">

Stop the research man! You've found the holy grail! 150 metres! Wow!

</me>

Be's ADSL2+ equipment at that distance should be damm close to the
maximum 24Mbps. They are not using the BT equipment so ADSL24's
information does not apply.

Go Be.

What are you going to do with all that loverly bandwidth?

:-)

--
Adrian C

email@here.invalid (Adrian C) wrote:

If you could see where I lived you probably wouldn't be so impressed. The
nearby exchange is one of this location's few benefits. I'd prefer
somewhere with much slower ADSL and a much better view than the back of
the local doctor's surgery. :-)

Today I will be mostly downloading... nothing at all, I imagine. My main
e-interest these days is trying to understand (and maybe benefit from,
eventually) the continuing economic turmoil. That's why I haven't
doggedly chased my missing 6.5ish Mbps from 'Pipex'.

Still, I'm sure I could test iPlayer to destruction or open a stall on
the local boot fair selling pirate DVDs. Or I might just enjoy being at
the cutting edge of domestic ADSL technology for a while, with nice
snappy performance (from nice snappy sites anyway!)

Or I might just spend hours on the phone wondering about my missing
22.5Mbps instead of my missing 6.5Mbps ;-)

Andrew McP

Andrew MacPherson wrote:
That's why you should in fact immediately switch to a reliable and
somewhat more costly ISP.

You dont have the time to be mesing around with the internet: you just
want to use it.


OT: look into funds specialising in commodities. Plus you can play the
futures market using covered warrants: see uk.warrants.com.

The rest of the economy is in turmoil, and will remain so with money
sitting on the sidelines in cash, until the new pattern (my guess is
that money will move out of financials and consumer into infrastructure
and heavy engineering eventually) emerges.