Cranfield Posted February 9, 2007 Report Share Posted February 9, 2007 I don't want to start another, "which ISP is best", thread, but does anyone have experience of the new BT broadband hub system, with the free evening and weekend calls on the hub phone ? Orange, my current ISP increased my speed from 2 meg up to 8 meg, with it hovering around 3.7 to 4.5 meg, about 4 weeks ago. Since then I am averaging 8 disconnections from the Internet per evening. Despite line checks, alleged instructions from Orange to BT to sort out my line etc., nothing has improved and I am getting fed up. I was told again today that, "it will be sorted out in the next 48 hours". Time for a change. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fiiish1987 Posted February 9, 2007 Report Share Posted February 9, 2007 I don't know if its the same for you but apparently we can't get 8 meg down here as bt haven't upgraded the phone lines! You may be paying for 8 meg but can only perform at a maximum of 6 meg! That's the trouble with living down here, we're the last to get anything! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Axe Posted February 9, 2007 Report Share Posted February 9, 2007 It could depend on your DSL Modem. If it is not a high capacity modem it will not be able to handle the extra connection speed that you have been upgraded to. I would clarify with Orange as to wether you have a sufficient DSL Modem or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stupidsalmon Posted February 9, 2007 Report Share Posted February 9, 2007 you'll find that with bt the connection will be on and off for the first couple of weeks then will settle down, and the desktop help is quite helpful, as for the hub phone i find you can barely hear the person on the receiving end even with it set to full volume despite the person on the other end hearing you fine, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pin Posted February 9, 2007 Report Share Posted February 9, 2007 It will depend on exactly why you are disconnecting as to if a change will make any difference. Roughly speaking, your ADSL works like this :- Your Modem / Router => BT telephone line => ADSL MUX in exchange From the ADSL multiplexer it depends on what kind of setup your ISP has (I am not familiar with wanadoo / Orange's infrastructure) but up to the point above, its all BT no matter who your ISP is. The disconnections you are getting, I will wager, are happening between the points above. That is to say its probably nothing to do with your ISP. Just to clarify the period of instability will last approx 10 days from migration, after that BT form an IP profle for your connection which will stay as long as your connection is stable. If you have a lot of disconnections (loss of Sync for example or too many framing errors) then the IP profile will be adjusted as a rough average of your last three connection speeds (the speed that your equipment is able to negotiate with the MUX in the exchange). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cranfield Posted February 9, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 9, 2007 The change in speed was 24 days ago and I was told that it would stabalise over the first 10 days, but this hasn't happened. Apparently, my Speedtouch 330 Modem is more than capable of handling the higher speeds. When I checked my line on the BT website, the report came back that it would support speeds up to 3 meg. The problem seems to be that when there is higher usage on the line, I can't accept the higher speeds being sent to me and disconnect. According to the Diagnostic Report on my modem I have; Loss of Signal 62 Loss of Framing 62 Errored seconds 62 I don't particularly want to change, but the alternative is to move back to 2 megs, but with a limited 2 gig download limit. The old Freeserve package (up to 2meg and unlimited downloads) I was on, doesn't exist anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
al4x Posted February 9, 2007 Report Share Posted February 9, 2007 I get on well with talk talk £31 all up free daytime evening and International calls to most of europe. No real download cap I know when I compared to BT bearing in mind we've relatives in France and Germany our bill was approx half that of BT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pin Posted February 9, 2007 Report Share Posted February 9, 2007 This is a complex subject, but save to say at the moment you won't see a difference swapping to another ISP. The "max" product is rate adaptive, that is it will try and negotiate the best speed it can with the kit in the exchange (the MUX). What this means is you could very well be connecting at a speed just a little too high for the line to support, which will cause it to drop off and reconnect. Because it is adaptive it is a lot more prone to cabling issues in the home than the fixed 2mb products were. As an example my father recently had issues with his broadband since being migrated to max. Luckily he was with the service provider owned by the company I work for and I was able to help him more than people normally would be. He had managed to have a stable connection, or so he thought, for about a month after the "settle" period after migration, then his connection degraded to the point of being unusable. The fault was a dodgy cable from the master socket to his router, which when replaced actually gained him about a meg (from 3 to 4 ish) on the best speed he had previously had. Now, not saying that is the issue, but with an adaptive service temporary line conditions can have a much more marked effect on the service you get - previously with a fixed rate service you probably wouldn't have noticed. It can take up to a month for things to settle as has been said, but it shouldn't do. Have a look at http://www.speedtester.bt.com and run through it at least once a day to see if you can see a pattern with the connection speeds. If the IP Throughput is dropping slowly you either a) have a line fault which is degrading, or you are still in the process of establishing the best speed for your line. Over what period have these 62 losses of Sync occurred? It is extremely high.. You may find this site useful cranfield http://www.orangeproblems.co.uk/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=1 Posting or PM'ing me your speedtest results would be very helpful.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cranfield Posted February 9, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 9, 2007 pin, I will post you some speed tests. Looking at that website, it seems that a lot of people are having a similar problem with Orange increasing their speeds, whether they want them to, or not. I believe this is because Orange are changing their packages and slimming down those offered by freeserve and Wanadoo. There are now only 2 broadband options. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pin Posted February 9, 2007 Report Share Posted February 9, 2007 Cheers Yes, the old "wholesale" packages are being phased out, everyone will end up on MAX eventually. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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