Wednesday evening, lost broadband completely.

Internet Explorer initially gave the error message "Cannot locate Domain name Server".

Checked all lines and equipment from computer to the BT wall socket and found no problems. I could open the ADSL modem (BT Voyager 2100) from by computer.

Did the usual power-up of the modem and, when that didn't work, hard reset. Still no joy -

DSL light on the modem is illuminated and steady and the modem status page shows that it is connected with the exchange and that my modem has been allocated a session IP address and that there has been bi-directional handshanking/syncing data exchange between the modem and exchange equipment

Contacted BT Broadband call centre Thursday morning 10..0 and after an hour of walking me through testing and re-checking of my home equipment , I managed, under guidance of the call centre, to obtain a BT wholesale error page.

Subsequently, I was told that the fault appeared to be at the Exchange and a job was raised for the engineers.

Still not fixed today, so phoned call centre again and was told that the there wasn't a general outage of the BT server for my exchange, that the fault appeared to be limited to my line and that the scheduled resolution time to first diagnosis/fix could be up to 48 hours from handover to the engineers (Starting 12.30, Thursday).

Later told to hard reset the ADSL modem and leave it on during the day ? I switched the wireless function off !

I'm amazed that this has taken so long to fix (last time they did it in a day) and the fact that if this is a system migration issue why i haven't received prior notice

Anybody got an idea what's occuring ? In passing one of the call centre bods mentioned that I had already been migrated to 21 Century service (DSLAM at the exchange) and it was intimated that my ADSL Voyager 2100 modem (Max rated speed 8MB sec, I'm on a contract which throttle's downspeed to 2Mb sec) might be incompatible with 21Century line ? My view on that was cobblers as my modem had establsihed the link to the exchange. What seemed to be missing was the link onto the internet. I was told that [email protected] was no ;longer a valid service address.

I've told them I'm sitting on payment of a £150 bill until its fixed.

Any ideas.

Nick

My ISP was due to shift me over to 21CN a couple of weeks ago, but sent a message to say that they're seeing loads of problems with it so have halted all plans until BT sort it out. They also mentioned that BT were not responding to wholesale move orders..

My ISP was due to shift me over to 21CN a couple of weeks ago, but sent a message to say that they're seeing loads of problems with it so have halted all plans until BT sort it out. They also mentioned that BT were not responding to wholesale move orders..

I get the impression they are trying to do two ot three major things in my locality - install Infinity (FTTC) for roll-out in December 2010 (Saw fibre cable being installed at midnight one week end), implement the drawn-back 21 CN in the exchanges (DSLAMs) and ADSL 2 + (According to the call centre - I questioned this as it might be considered a litte late as I thought roll-out started nationally in late 2006).

Nick

Wednesday evening, lost broadband completely.

Internet Explorer initially gave the error message "Cannot locate Domain name Server".

Checked all lines and equipment from computer to the BT wall socket and found no problems. I could open the ADSL modem (BT Voyager 2100) from by computer.

Did the usual power-up of the modem and, when that didn't work, hard reset. Still no joy -

DSL light on the modem is illuminated and steady and the modem status page shows that it is connected with the exchange and that my modem has been allocated a session IP address and that there has been bi-directional handshanking/syncing data exchange between the modem and exchange equipment

Contacted BT Broadband call centre Thursday morning 10..0 and after an hour of walking me through testing and re-checking of my home equipment , I managed, under guidance of the call centre, to obtain a BT wholesale error page.

Subsequently, I was told that the fault appeared to be at the Exchange and a job was raised for the engineers.

Still not fixed today, so phoned call centre again and was told that the there wasn't a general outage of the BT server for my exchange, that the fault appeared to be limited to my line and that the scheduled resolution time to first diagnosis/fix could be up to 48 hours from handover to the engineers (Starting 12.30, Thursday).

Later told to hard reset the ADSL modem and leave it on during the day ? I switched the wireless function off !

I'm amazed that this has taken so long to fix (last time they did it in a day) and the fact that if this is a system migration issue why i haven't received prior notice

Anybody got an idea what's occuring ? In passing one of the call centre bods mentioned that I had already been migrated to 21 Century service (DSLAM at the exchange) and it was intimated that my ADSL Voyager 2100 modem (Max rated speed 8MB sec, I'm on a contract which throttle's downspeed to 2Mb sec) might be incompatible with 21Century line ? My view on that was cobblers as my modem had establsihed the link to the exchange. What seemed to be missing was the link onto the internet. I was told that [email protected] was no ;longer a valid service address.

I've told them I'm sitting on payment of a £150 bill until its fixed.

Any ideas.

Nick

Well yes, you've paid for a home grade ADSL line and not a business one, so a 48 hour turn around is reasonable. Even business DSl is down to this.

If you need high up time with a rapid fix if there are problems, then you go for a leased line or SDSL/ADSL with a contract for up time.

(Check the ADSL T&C to see the service level you've paid up for)

If every DSL line was on 4 hour or even 24 hour time from report to fix, then broadband would cost a heck of a lot more.

So my advice is to accept that things go down and wait 48 hours.

Edited 19 November, 201015 yr by cheezemonkhai

Twice in 6 six weeks? That'd be an improvement for us before we left!

Whilst I've not read it all, if its saying about DNS issues, could you not just specifiy your own in the connection properties?

Internet connection came up again at 20.30 - I did threaten earlier in the day to withhold payment on my current outstanding quaterly telephone bill until BB was restored.

But an engineer working on a saturday evening ? That isn't going to be a one-off repair on just my line then. That's probably something to do with a piece of progammed work.

I've also got an engineer coming monday, as a result of an earlier call to check my line which was apparently at fault. But thats always their opening gambit, to say that its your equipment and line at fault.

Its infuriating dealing with these foreign call centres. They never really tell you what's going on. At the end of three hours on the phone, i'm still no clearer what happened and why. Enquiries aren't made any easier by the fact that most of the Indian customer service people speak so bloody fast and when you add that to varying degress of accent, a poor telephone connection to India, an audio spectrum spread on telephones of only 10K and my diminished hearing as an oldie, I was having to constantly tell them to slow down and repeat words e.g. "engineers" becomes "Inginese".

Trouble is I remember how it was 30 -40 years ago where you got a problem like this fixed with one 5 minute phone call. Not having to take a day's annual leave and 3 hours on the phone.

Broadband speed seems to have gone up to 3.3MBsec on the downlink. My old 2003 contract is supposed to throttle to 2MBsec - as I'm not a big downloader that's more than OK.

Just checked the BT Broadband web page and it says that my line is capable of 5Mbsec and that total broadband service offers speed up to 8 MBSec (ADSL 2/ 21CN) if the line supports it. So that my BT voyager 2100 ADSL modem, at 8MBsec down , should be capable of supporting the local total broadband download rate and also supports ITU standard 992.3 which underpins the ADSL 2 service:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITU_G.992.3/4

Infinity's due round here in December and I did see them laying fibre recently. I presume that they will run all broadband services i.e. total BB and infinity down the fibre connection from the roadside boxes from now on. So was this loss of service was related to making the connection between the wired and fibre roadside boxes ? - DSLAMS at the exchanges having already been installed.

Post-Script

As a coutesy, i phoned the call centre again today to tell them that my system had been restored. They seemed aware of this. And so I suggested that a message be left for the engineers to warn them off the home visit I had booked for Monday. I was then told that there was no need to do this as they would automatically see the job as resolved. Apparently, it was a fault in the roadbox. Hmmm ? So, definately not the switch over to fibre/21CN then . If i hadn't made that call, i would have taken Monday morning off still waiting for the engineer - BT have no respect for the customer's needs.

Nick

Edited 21 November, 201015 yr by Clunkclick

Go to use it again this evening at 19.00 and its down again - internitmently syncing and when it does get sync it can't find the DNS server @ 216.146.35.35

Phoned Broadband call centre and reported it again. They say that my 6 year old Bt Voyager 2100 ADSL modem may be the problem. I tell them that last time it happened, I was told, when the fault was resolved, that it was in the roadside box. Resolution by Monday - had to book engineer Home visit for early Monday.

Changed the DNS server to the Open DNS one (As advertised on the web, 208.67,222.222 primary and 208.67.222.220 secondary) - still no joy.

Cleaned and checked all connections. Took BT wall socket of wall to see if something was going on at the back. Blew it clean and reinstalled. Still nothing.

Did a quiet line test using 17070. No noticeable cracks and pops.

Heard some van doors bang outside at 10:15 - engineer ?

22:45 it suddennly came on

All parameters look OK.

If its the roadside box, then there's the possibility that kids in transit from the pub /ladies of the night are causing the problem as they keep leaving unfinished soft drink and beer cans on top of it

-sloping roof needed ?

Don't know whether the engineer will turn-up now on Monday. If he does is it worth getting a new wall plate of the type with a separate ADSL socket - at the moment only two wires from the incoming BT cable are connected to the plate ! Also call centre said they might give me a Home Hub at a reduced rate. Is it necessary to change ? Could the old Voyager be affecting equipment in the roadside box ?

I don't want to cause BT trouble if this is the case.

Postscript

Just done a speed test. Down link is gone down to 2.89MB/sec

Looks like the line downspeed has been degraded, cause earlier in the evening the Modems broadband status page showed the down link at 6000, now its only 3500.

Similarly earlier in the evening the down link noise margin was 9.00DB now its gone up to 27DB - maybe the modem needs changing then .

Just reset modem to default settings to see what would happen and, although sync was maintained, it lost the PTP connection and DNS. Restoring signal encapsulation from VC mux to LLC/snap restored full service -VC mux is the default - software a problem too ?

Double Postscript

Just got a voice text message to say that an engineer will be calling between 0800-1300 on Monday.

All I say is "IT BETTER BE BEFORE 09:00 AND RESOLVED BEFORE 09:30, AS I WILL BE GONE GONE GONE TO WORK @ 09:30 AND I WILL EJECT YOU FROM THE HOUSE IF THE WORK IS NOT COMPLETE AT THIS TIME - THAT'S MY KINDA CUSTOMER SERVICE" - especially after being told that the engineer preferred not to do Saturdays, I told the call centre to make it before 09:00 Monday. Having taken 1 days annual leave at short notice to resolve this problem last time I don't intend to take another. SO IF YOU MISS 08:00 -09:00 this time . . . . . . .

Can you believe these organisations, in a country like GB, where at least 75% of households are out to work Monday to Friday, 0730-2000, they still push a service regime based on weekday attendance. Like these idiot delivery services. Definately cricket bat to the cranium stuff - WAKE_UP AND SERVE YOUR CUSTOMERS BEFORE SOMEBODY ELSE DOES -

Nick

Edited 27 November, 201015 yr by Clunkclick

No sign of the engineer, so i left for work at 09:40.

On returning home in the evening found 1571 message on phone from engineer, timed 11:05 !

Claimed to be sitting outside my next door neighbours, but couldn't see my property. My front door is right next to my next door neighbours - I live in a terraced block where all the houses are consecutively numbered odd numbers, all display their numbers (except mine) , and I'm the last in an ascending sequence of 4. How difficult's that ? If he can't solve consecutive house numbers, what price a mended broadband ?

Just phoned the call centre and had it confirmed to me that BT had no requirement for an engineer to attend. So I told them i didn't want to re-book an appointment if the service was OK as it still is.

I enquired whether my exchange could provide a Saturday service in the case of further faults in the future. The bloke couldn't say in principle and had to consult a service slot roster to confirm unavailability for this Saturday only.

He then started making excuses about upgrades at which point, I said that if this service outage was down to a service upgrade it would have been nice, if not courteous, to give customers prior notification. At least they could work round it.

Our asiatic call centre colleagues are going to have to get a grip on the service they are delivering from afar - its frightening, but they're slated to be the premier world economic power in the next 20 years - GHU.

When I left for work this morning, on the door mat was yet another mailed plea from Virgin (They been junk mailing me to death since April) , requesting me to switch to them. Hmmmm ? Heathrow airport comes to mind. Trouble is i don't need a 20MB/sec service 3MB/sec is more than adequate for what I do.

These *ff*ng commercial interests will just not leave you alone until they've got their hands in your wallet.

Nick

Edited 29 November, 201015 yr by Clunkclick

You're not the only person that receives junkmail, get plenty myself. Post it all back to them in plain white envelopes with no stamp, that'll annoy them.

I've also got an engineer coming monday, as a result of an earlier call to check my line which was apparently at fault. But thats always their opening gambit, to say that its your equipment and line at fault.

Nick

Always ,and they always try d****d hard to do so ,as it is then a chargeable call ,which if you refute -you've got to prove .I would always insist that they come at their own risk .

Looking at the Virgin service - they start at 10M - I've found it cheaper than BT.Initial faulting is overseas ,but if you don't get satisfaction - there's an e mail complaint service .I've used it for slow speeds and had a UK call centre sort problems out for me very quickly .Never had any flannel from their engineers .Favourite one with BT was line to go dead on (usually Friday morning) , to be found to be a cabinet fault on Monday .

My old mentor used to say ( in GPO DAYS) that the public got telephone service in spite of the GPO. suspect that still holds .

Edited 1 December, 201015 yr by VWD

Take a close look @ your TC' & C's, before i switched i had a similar issue & found i could get a months free tine rental for every complete 24 hrs without the service. I got 3 months ( it was actually of for slightly more than 72 continuous hrs, but only got as stated ).

i have to say that BT Customer service have done a good job since I experienced the Third outage. Since it was fixed on the 26th November, somebody has phoned me most evenings to check whether the service is still OK.

And I got a month's rebate for the seven days loss of service.

IMHO, that's pretty good.

Nick

Edited 7 December, 201015 yr by Clunkclick

Lost broadband, again all day yesterday - ADSL signal would not sync (DSL light would stabilise go out and then come on again over a 10 second cycle), despite me going through the usual routine of checking and cleaning all the connections, restarting the ADSL modem, then re-starting with factory default settings.

Contacted the call centre and they told me that there had been an outage at my local exchange. I wasn't told whether this was a planned outage or whether it was a fault.

They then went on to do the remote line test - again I wasn't told what the outcome of that was. After being passed from pillar to post and generally being "P*ssed around" I then told them that I wouldn't be paying my bill until it got fixed and that unless it was fixed within 24 hours, I would be writing to the Managing Director of BT cancelling my account of 25 years. During all of this I was told that an engineer would have to attend my house, when I started to get angry and told them that I didn't have any leave left and therefore could not accomodate an engineer in the normal call times 0800-1800, they backed-off and said an engineer would only need to attend the exchange. So I was left with the impression that the fault could be fixed at the exchange. I switched the modem off overnight.

So this morning at 08:00, I switched the ADSL modem back on (Without starting the computer) - problem of loss of sync as yesterday.

Within 20 minutes I got a unexpected call leaving a voice text message (64364)saying that an appointment for an engineer to attend my house had been booked for 0800-1300 on Tuesday. This had been done without my knowledge or consent. On calling the help line turns out that their record showed the appointment had been booked for 1300-1800.

Got booked for Saturday. Immediately, i come off the phone, I find that the ADSL connection is sync'd and stable and that I able to make this post - so the problem has been fixed from the exchange.

Strikes me that somebody's playing games - I wondered whether text came from a genuine BT engineer.

Anybody else experienced this sort of buggering around ?

In any event, I think I'll be dropping the MD of BT a little missive and possibly the Police if it goes on (Section 127 of the communications Act 2003 ?)

Nick

Edited 2 January, 201115 yr by Clunkclick

I've problems with our broadband connection for the last 3-4 days. The internet light on the router goes out and the ADSL light flashes, this will last for a couple of minutes then correct itself. Ten minutes later it might repeat the fault, this can happen half a dozen times in a day. I have done the usual checks and can't find any faults. Today it's been OK.

Have you thought of changing the microfilters for Active ones instead of the cheapo passive ones supplied with routers. I did this after I had strange intermittent dropouts on my ADSL connection, result is a perfectly stable connection and no more disconnects.

Have you thought of changing the microfilters for Active ones instead of the cheapo passive ones supplied with routers. I did this after I had strange intermittent dropouts on my ADSL connection, result is a perfectly stable connection and no more disconnects.

Any particular brand ? Reports are mixed.

Nick

I bought mine from cablecity.co.uk , came next day and solved all my problems.

http://www.cablecity.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=710

I bought mine from cablecity.co.uk , came next day and solved all my problems.

http://www.cablecity.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=710

I think the problem I had was lack of voltage on the ADSL signal.This may be due to a bad joint somehere in the line. This may well be due to line shifting they've been doing to accomodate Infinity - apparently, different thicknesses of line and different materials (Cooper v aluminium) can cause impedance reflections.

Anyway, someone seems to have corrected that temporarily So that I now have a signal. There may also be other problems, in that I've established that my 7 years old BT Voyager modem does not support ADSL 2+ signalling (Strangely, the two models either side in the numerical listing 2097 & 2110 do). Suprisingly, lack of support for ADSL 2+ isn't supposed to be a problem, as signalling should fall back to the earlier standard if a ADSL2+ enabled system detects earlier protocols. But reports on some websites indicate people having signal loss problems - although I'm only 2Kms from the exchange, my line is still only rated at 5MB/Sec. My modem diagnostics tell me that I should be able to get 3.5MB/Sec as a maximum (But that appears to be unstable when the diagnostics has shown me as receiving 3.5MB/Sec) and I'm currently getting just under 3MB/Sec on a BT Broadband classic contract which when i signed up to it was only supposed to deliver 2MB/sec. Confused ? I am.

Meanwhile the Indian call centre tell me that my modem is not obselete (When specifically questioned) and that BT are happy to support Broadband Classic service on the current system.

The script for the current problem seems to be the same as the one for the problem I experienced in November.

First, lose ADSL signal. I complain to the Indian Call Centre. They say an engineer will need to attend my house - they're able to say that before doing a remote line test !!!! I tell them that the fault, if any, is probably in the roadbox/exchange (As it was finally reported to be in November). Without consulting me and without notice, I get a text from what I presume to be the UK based BT engineer advising me that an appointment has been booked for a date I haven't agreed. Then, almost immediately the ADSL connection is returned to normal. What am i supposed to make of this ? Is this a temporary fix or has the system been fixed permanently ? Is an engineers home visit still necessary - not even the Indian call centre can advise me. Very, very poor Customer Service and Information - I suspect that this is just clumsy automation of the system, which may be being manipulated for individual advantaged i.e. an engineer has a list of jobs on a computer system. When he picks up a job from the list, the system automatically issues an appointment (Unless he takes action to suppress the request, which 9 times out of 10 he can't do until he's determined the type and location of the fault). Meanwhile the fault gets "Corrected" at the exchange and he then turns up at the home address in compliance with the home visit request, finds nothing wrong and you get charged - we'll see.

So, I'll see what happens when the engineer attends later this week. Last time I had an engineer visit (2 years ago), he simply replaced the wall socket plate and then claimed there was a fault in the roadside box. IMHO, if anything is a problem round here it will be water penetration of 80 + year old copper cabling and, I suspect that up rated filtering would definately reduce the "noise" made by that.

I can only pray that one of the itinerant neerdowells (You know, the ones that drive round in Range Rover Discoveries at all hours of the night) decides to do a midnight "snip and slip" on the main copper cabling neccessitating a replacement installation of fibre to the premises - presumably, with the current price of copper, the only thing that holds BT back from doing the same is the labour cost involved.

I will let this one play through and see what happens and in the interim get a letter of complaint off to the BT MD.

Nick

Edited 3 January, 201115 yr by Clunkclick

I am 2kms from the exchange and the max I get is 3mb, dont forget your phone line does not run as the crow flies. Mine goes all round the houses before it gets here, my line length is a lot longer than 2kms.

I've had enough of Bangalore Telecon to be honest. When I was moving to from Leeds to Ipswich, the pillocks cut my line off a week early, and if I wanted it back on I would have to start a new 18 month contract...And then had the bare faced cheek to try and charge me to 'the end of my contract in Feb'. Told em under no certain terms that they would not get the cash. Eventually got through to a UK centre, and they checked the logs and yes they put their hands up to cutting it off a week early. The trouble is the asian call centre staff cannot understand English, even the staff at BT admitted there is a severe language barrier!

I have since heard that the local BT research centre at Martlesham is to close too. No doubt more jobs going to India...We are switching to Virgin here shortly. BT can take a running jump..

And yes, they always blame your hardware when it is their fault. An exchange had a major whoops in Leeds last year and the whole of South Leeds had no internet for a week...Tried getting compo..NOTHING!!

Engineer has just left.

He said my BT Voyager 2100 was obselete and wasn't stable enough for ADSL 2 +. He said he will request (Though he can't be certain customer service will comply) a new modem - proabably Home Hub and that I should hear something after 24 hours. I was holding back replacing any of the equipment because Infinity was promised for here in December 2010. Now the BT site is saying March '11 and the bloke today said probably June '11. Doesn't seem worth switching to Total Broadband for a max of 5 MB/sec for just 6 months, when 20MB/sec Infinity will be available in June for about the same money as I'm paying at the moment for BT Classic.

Whilst he was here, I got him to replace the wall socket - the existing one's had the plug sticking-out at an odd angle. I also asked if he could put a plastic wind guard on the external entry point for the cable, cause all the dust and muck blows into the back of the socket - he said they don't carry them (Price retail usually £2). He offered to mastic the hole, but then discovered he hadn't got his gun on board.

I feel there is a level of service somewhere in between this and the over-attentiveness of Jim Carey's Cable Guy that I would be happy with. Bearing in mind that BT's maintenance overhead on a part copper network is probably going to be higher than their fibre optic competitors, I would have thought they would be investing heavily to ensure that service to their customers was at least indistinguishable from or better than that of their competitors. That said, I heard real stories of woe regarding reluctance on the part of those who have the Virgin installation franchise to do all sorts of work, including new installations, if it involves anything more than the minimum effort e.g. retrofit first floor flat installations. And the other day I saw a cable cabinet in my locality which had obviously jumped out and attempted to attack the local yoofs becuase it had ended -up with one of the doors hanging-off its hinges and was open to the weather. These cabinets are not as solid as their telephone forbears. Do they have cameras/instrusion alarms on these cabinets ?

Nick

Edited 8 January, 201115 yr by Clunkclick

Bangalore Telcon, you're spot-on mate.

Just had a call from the BT Broadband Indian call centre checking on whether my broadband was still working. Unfortunately, that wasn't the real agenda.

The conversation then progressed to the proposition that I will have to change my modem for a home hub and further that in order to do so I would have to relinquish my BT Broadband classic contract. Well there's a surprise, so that is what the last month and a half of disruption of service has been really all about - bl**dy commercialism.

As my existing BT Classic contract didn't have a fixed duration or a download limit I was reluctant to relinquish it, even though I was paying slightly over-the-odds for it (£25 a month). Further, I explained to them that as far as I was aware, the BT Voyager 2100 supported ADSL 2+ signalling standard and was capable of 8MB/Sec download speed. The lady concerned kept pushing the fact that the new contract would support 20MB/sec download, despite me telling her that recent broadband speed checks on my line revealed that the line was only capable of supporting 5MB/sec at present.

Despite me explaining that the service I was currently getting (Contractually 2MB/sec, actually 3MB/sec) was adequate for my needs and that I didn't want to upgrade, change or terminate the contract, it became increasingly obviously there was no changing the BT script, that my service might go down again if I didn't do as they say (legally a threat ? Definitely, sounds like the mafia) and that as a customer I had absolutely no rights. The question, "Are BT withdrawing the BT Classic Contract, met with no response" . It was then suggested that I should speak to the "Customer Options" section who could supply a Home Hub without the need to change my contract - at this point I said OK - fatal.

Surprise, as the conversation progresses I glean that I am now speaking to the Sales side (Possibly British based as I am now speaking to a lady with a heavy eastern european accent) but the BT script and objective is just the same. When I say that I don't want to change and that i expect them to supply, free-of-charge whatever equipment is needed to ensure that my existing service is maintained, the line goes dead. Then i get a call back from the same person - classic negoitating ploy.

The tone of the script then changes to we'll cut you a better deal for a year in order to encourage you to change. To which I eventually concede as the monthly charge is half what I'm currently paying and th download rate double, but of course all she is offering is the rate offered to new customers of BT - BT like building societies and credit card companies all play this discriminatory pricing game between existing and new customers - and, luckily for marketing men its legal ? So, I now understand that a Home Hub is on its way and that my contract has been switched to a 12 monther. Presume that in order to faciliatte this change, unless the person I was talking to had a measure of discretion (unlikely), then there will have to be some heavyweight manipulation of the administrative system to convert my profile from customer of 9 years standing in broadband to recently signed-up newby. That's their problem.

She then tried to get me on direct debit by referring to the extra charge if you don't dd bills. No sale.

From the influencing techniques that were used you'd think i was asking for rights to visit Jerusalem - unbelievable. Bl**dy commerciual interests will not leave people alone until they get their way.

This is definitely a far cry from the liberated concept of "Customer choice" that MHT was pushing back in the '80s when BT was first privatised. Seems to me that all that's happened is that the absolute wishes of aristos and plutocractic rulers have been substituted for the top-down "Nanny state" of multinationals - we (And Mr Murdoch) know what's best for you.

The best bit of this was the last CS person's finishing shot "Are you going to stay with BT then ? " to which i replied that i have been with them 25 years and hadn't considered changing till the most recently well handled set of events - What a bunch or arrogant f*ckers.

That's motivated me to find out who the chief marketing gnome in BT is and make his life a perfect misery. Watch this space. Really needs a referral to Ofcom and Watchdog.

I can't begin to describe how much I'm going to relish participating in the annual "Welfare-to-Work" Scheme for the benefit of marketing men that is telecoms contract renewal - as if I haven't got enough to do without all this extra imposed administrative **** to make it look as if they are doing a useful job. That said, i suppose its no different from picking your own goods off of supermarket shelves and we,ve all been swallowing that one for the last 50 years.

Postscript

Just found this. says it all:-

http://www.aaisp.net.uk/kb-broadband-sfi.html

Postscript 2

Just tried to stream a vid from you tube and it stops half way through.

Also, post engineers visit, just found out that the the pulse tone phone I was using in the bedroom no longer dials and is as crackly as hell - dect phones OK.

Nick

Edited 8 January, 201115 yr by Clunkclick

I feel further congratulations are due to BT.

After instituting a change of contract from BT Basic Broadband to BT Total Broadband over the weekend, (more or less at their request) I received the BT Home Hub 2.0 today.

On return from work I removed the old BT Voyager 2100 ADSL modem and the ADSL filters that came with it and set about installing th Home hub (And its own filter) to the master socket in the living room on the ground floor, connecting via ethernet cable to an Devolo (Powerline type modem) in a 13 amp socket in the living room. The upstairs connection between the devolvo receiver, through a netgear router onwards to the computer was left untouched.

Steady blue lights all round on the Home Hub, so I then tried to get a connection in software by using the software on the CD supplied. No luck. Per instruction I restarted the Home Hub. Still no joy getting a connection. Substiuted the old ADSL filter and re-started. Still no luck. The software kept on saying that there was a problem between the computer and the Home Hub.

So i checked the Devolvo software to make sure each end of its connection was still live. No problem. Nevertheless, I used the Devolo software to re-make the connection between the Devolo units. That went fine. I re-started the Home Hub, got blue lights all-round but no internet connection. Phoned the help desk - closed.

So I introduced the BT Voyager back into the line, disconnecting the Home hub from the master socket and re-connecting the Voyager so that it was the one getting the ADSL signal. Leaving the Home Hub still connected to the Devolo unit, i then ran an ethernet cable between the Home Hub and the Voyager, so that, in effect, the Home Hub just became a router. Re-started the Home hub and voila got a perfect Broadband connection. So the devolo wasn't causing the problem.

Later, i tried a reset to factory values for the Home Hub, with it set-up as the ADSL signal receiver. Again, no signal.

You'd have gathered that I'm only able to write this post now with the Voyager set-up as the ADSL signal receiver.

I'm wondering whether BT Total Broadband uses a different DNS address to BT Classic Broadband and whether it requires a different access route at the exchange which has yet to be enabled. I bet !

Postcript

I managed to interrogated the Home pages and it tells me that ADSL is connected at 5MB/Sec down and 0.8MB/Sec up.

Yet can't get connection.

I think the clues in this page of the Home hub:-

Connection time 0 days, 0:27:57

Data transmitted/received (MB) 0.07 / 0.05

Broadband user name [email protected]

Password ********

TCP/IP settings

Broadband network IP address 86.148.178.93

Default gateway 217.32.145.229

Primary DNS 194.74.65.69

Secondary DNS 194.72.9.34

When I try to connect through internet explorer I get the error message:-

Cannot connect with primary DNS Server 216.146.35.35

This is the location of the DynDns service which i have installed on the machine.

So I de-installed that, switched-off Norton, disconnected an IP camera which may have had a conflicting address and re-booted first the computer and then the HH. Still can't connect.

What the hell ?

I'll have to contact Kafka central (AKA BT) tommorrow

Nick

Nick

Edited 12 January, 201115 yr by Clunkclick

BT Sales are UK based (Newcastle Upon Tyne I believe), and are full of their own self importance. BT have absolutely no customer care anymore, and their service is getting gradually worse. Hate the company, and good luck..

Hope you get a stable broadband connection soon..

I think I have established what the problem is.

BT Total Broadband (The server of which the Home Hub DNS points to) users a diferent DNS server to BT Classic Broadband. The values are stored in the respective ADSL modems i.e. BT Voyager 2100 or Home Hub, are obviously different reflecting the fact that BT Total Broadband and Bt Classic Broadband use different DNS servers.

Corresponding DNS values are also stored in your windows operating system as part of the TCP/IP structures. These should match whatever is stored in the ADSL modems.

So, if you already have an existing ADSL Broadband set-up when you take-up BT Total Broadband, unless you change the DNS value in your Windows software it will not match the DNS values in the BT Home Hub and whilst you may get ADSL signal connectivity, you won't be able to call up a web page. So people find that they can ping the BT Total Broadband DNS server, but can't get their selected Home web page.

The software install disk supplied with the Home Hub does not automatically correct this problem, so you're left either to correct this manuallu yourself or phone the BT helpdesk and expect to spend several hours sorting it out following their "Year zero" approach.

You can correct this by making the software DNS match the values held in the modem.

I've already tried to take the DNS values (Primary and alternate) off of the Home hubs internet page and insert them into the fieldsTCP.IP v4 & 6 window which is avialble through the Network Centre, network mangement window which is available in Control panel - no joy.

Other people report using IPconfig through the DOS window to execute a DNS/Flush in the hope that windows will pick-up new values from the ADSL modem -again, no joy there.

Seems they only way to get anything working is to surrender your machine to a remote working session with the BT Help desk.

Sh*te !

Nick