My ADSL Woes

Happy Days

2007-07-11T17:42:00.000+01:00

It's been six days now since the broadband came back on and in all that time it hasn't dropped the connection once and I consistently get a full 8MB throughput. I think it's safe to say they finally fixed it.

Day 44

2007-07-05T21:41:00.000+01:00

The BT engineer turned up this time and it happened to be a neighbour which means I've got a door to bang on now if it's still not fixed.

He found a problem with a card in the exchange but wasn't able to swap the card out himself and had to put an order in for another specialist engineer to replace it. This he said may take a day or two.

This evening though the broadband came back on and it's been up for a few hours so far! There's no way of knowing yet though whether that's because the faulty card has been swapped in the exchange or whether it's one of those random moments when it comes back on for a bit.

Day 43 - Week 7

2007-07-04T12:12:00.000+01:00

We are into week 7 now! BT originally quoted 5 working days to fix the problem, we are now at 28 working days and still counting.

Still no broadband and still no indication of when BT are going to grace me with their presence.

I just spoke to Demon and they told that apparently the engineer that was suppose to be out last Friday got confused and thought the call was for him to visit the exchange and not my house! Apparently he spent all day there and couldn't find anything wrong.

They tell me they are now going to have to arrange a new appointment with BT to visit my house which means the new appointment they were suppose to have booked when I spoke to them last Friday and again on Monday and Tuesday never actually got booked!

It makes me want to scream!!

Just had this email from Demon:

--------- LATEST NOTE --------
Date: 04/07/2007 14:05:36

We have spoken with BT regarding the previous engineer visit that had been arranged. We were advised that a specialist Exchange engineer was sent out, to test specifically in the Exchange. These types of engineers do not visit customer properties. Apologies for any inconvenience caused by this.
No fault was found in the Exchange, and as the fault is ongoing, we have arranged for a customer facing engineer to visit your property (These engineers can visit both customer's site and Exchange).
The new appointment is booked for tomorrow, Thursday 5th, between 13.00-18.00.

Day 41

2007-07-02T09:13:00.000+01:00

The BT engineer didn't show up at 8AM, so after 9AM I rang Demon to see if they were able to chase BT as I was now having to take more time off work waiting. Demon told me that the 8AM booking was only a request to BT and not a confirmed booking and I should wait to hear from BT before I get a guaranteed time. (not that there guarantee means anything!)

Day 39

2007-06-30T12:22:00.001+01:00

Still no broadband.

Took the afternoon off work again yesterday to wait for the BT engineer who was suppose to visit between 1PM-6PM but he didn't show up! That's twice that's happened now.

I rang Demon at 6PM and they said according to the notes on the system he was on the way and I should wait another couple of hours, let's be honest he wasn't going to turn up at 8PM on a Friday night was he? Anyway, they have rescheduled his visit for 8AM Monday morning.

Day 36 - Week 6

2007-06-27T18:09:00.000+01:00

Still no broadband, it hasn't come on at all since it went off on Monday.

Had an email from Demon today to say a BT engineer will be out on Friday afternoon.

Day 34

2007-06-25T09:37:00.000+01:00

Whilst the broadband did come back online yesterday, it was on and off all day and is still off now.

Day 33

2007-06-24T11:05:00.000+01:00

Things aren't good. The broadband connection continued to die for an hour or two each evening and last night it went off and is still off today!

I reported it to Demon last night who fobbed me off with it was probably BT doing work at the exchange and to call back today if there were still problems. I rang them back this morning and they did a line test and said there's a fault and they've reported it to BT. So we're no further forward than we were 33 days ago.

There's a slight change in the nature of the problem. Previously the DSL LED on the router would flash continuously whilst it tried to connect, now it doesn't flash at all which I think means it can't even see the DSL on the line.

NEWS FLASH! As I'm typing this the ADSL has come back on, I don't expect it'll be up for long though.

Day 30

2007-06-21T21:19:00.000+01:00

We might be getting somewhere now.

The workmen turned up at 7:30AM to remove all the crap they'd left behind.

The BT engineer turned up at 8AM and was here a little over an hour running the new cable. Everything's looking good, the broadband still works and the voice line sounds clearer than it ever did.

However the broadband did go dead for an hour or so early in the evening. I think there are other problems going on in the exchange which are unrelated to my line. The engineer told me that the problems I had with the crossed line was to do with problems with kit that TalkTalk had installed in the exchange, apparently they are trying to run just to many customers on it and it's causing problems for thousands of people in the area.

Day 29 - Week 5

2007-06-20T17:25:00.000+01:00

The broadband died again at 6:30AM but did come back on again an hour and 15 minutes later.

The workmen turned up at around 8AM to continue laying the pipe. They were a bit concerned the neighbours car was in the drive but I told them they'd gone out to work for the day and wouldn't be back until the evening. The workmen said they'd be all finished in a few hours and they'd left a note with the neighbour previously warning them about the work and informing them they should park the car elsewhere if they needed to use it.

When I got back from work in the evening, whilst they had completed everything they'd left a lot of stuff on the driveway protecting the newly laid cement and hence my neighbours car was completely blocked in their drive and there was no way any car could get into mine. I asked the neighbour if they had been informed and they said no.

I spoke to the BT engineer who'll be connecting the new cables and he said he'd come around first thing tomorrow morning to connect them up.

Day 28

2007-06-19T17:26:00.000+01:00

My broadband has been up constantly for a few days now without problems and so the IP Profile on the line reset today and I'm now getting proper broadband speeds. This could all change tomorrow as the new lines are going in.

Talking of which, they turned up a day early to start the digging work (late today) and so have only done half the job which means we have a trench across the driveway preventing us from getting a car in or out. I was told that it should be a quick job and they'll fill the trench in soon after digging it and there would be no inconvenience to us or our neighbours.

Day 24

2007-06-15T12:00:00.000+01:00

BT sent me a text message to say the contractors would be out to dig the trench on the 20th (next Wednesday, Day 29).

Broadband still up and down all the time. IP Profile still set to 135K, which can hardly be called broadband. I think there used to be a 250K service that they called Midband, so what does that make 135K? Narrowband?

Day 23

2007-06-14T12:00:00.000+01:00

The contractors who were suppose to turn up today to dig the trench for my new cables never showed.

Day 22 - Week 4

2007-06-13T20:34:00.000+01:00

We had broadband first thing in the morning as my wifi radio alarm worked, though the bandwidth was so low there wasn't even enough to stream Virgin Radio which streams as 128K MP3 but Radio 1 was OK with just 20K WMA.

By about 7AM the ADSL died yet again and it has been off all day.

The BT engineer who came out last rang me today and said the contractors would be out tomorrow to dig the trench and lay the ducting to my house. He will then hopefully be able to lay the new cables tomorrow or Friday.

He also told me that my problem with the crossed line was something to do with TalkTalk, who share the same equipment in the exchange as my ISP (Demon), and who had a major hardware fault affecting 1000 customers.

Day 21

2007-06-12T13:40:00.000+01:00

My broadband is working today and thus far has stayed up all day. It is synching at 8MB but the IP Profile is set to 135K and I'm only getting 100K throughput! I was getting 3 times that on the 3G phone I've been using whilst the ADSL was down. Hopefully it should recover to proper speeds within a few days.

I knew things were to good to last, at 7PM the ADSL died again.

Day 20

2007-06-11T08:37:00.000+01:00

The BT engineer that was suppose to call back round again last week rang me this morning to say he'd looked at the old cable coming into the house but couldn't put me back on it as it was faulty.

I explained the crossed line problem to him and he said it’s probably a wiring problem at the exchange and he will look into it.

Day 19

2007-06-10T13:00:00.000+01:00

I spoke to the lady I have a crossed wire with after we both answered the phone at the same time and told her about the problem and asked that she also contacts BT to report the fault. This lady lives near me but not near enough that it would be anything to do with the cables outside my house which BT are waiting to replace before continuing further.

Day 18

2007-06-09T13:00:00.000+01:00

This morning the phone rang and when I picked it up I could hear a lady talking to her Grandmother! Part way through the conversation she complained about thinking there was a crossed line and that it had been happening for a couple of days.

I tried reporting the incident to BT to confirm there is definitely a crossed line and when I picked up the phone the lady was on the line again, this time buying insurance or something and she was giving her bank details to pay by direct debit! I was eventually able to ring BT and they didn’t seem concerned about the security implications of this and said they couldn’t really do a lot until the new cables have been run to the house.

They said the incident has been escalated and I should hope to hear something by Monday and then it would be a further few days before the work would be done.

Day 17

2007-06-08T13:00:00.000+01:00

BT rang me to confirm I still had problems.

Had this email from Demon:

--------- LATEST NOTE --------
Date: 08/06/2007
10:13:30

BT have advised the external engineers have resolve an
underground cable fault and believe that you should now be able to connect ok. Please contact us on the usual number if you have any further issues.

All bollocks of course. I rang Demon to advise them that BT are full of crap and the problem is nowhere near being resolved.

Day 16

2007-06-07T13:00:00.000+01:00

I rang the engineer that came the previous day on his mobile to report the problem and he said he’d come around in the afternoon to look at it. I took the afternoon of work (for the 4th time) to wait for him but he never showed.

The ADSL was now synching with the exchange, at ever decreasing speeds but no data at all will transmit/receive on the line.

Later that evening the phone started doing weird things. A few times it rang and when I picked it up I could hear someone else pick up their phone and we were both saying “hello, hello” as if both our phones had rang. I tried reporting this to BT but when I picked up the phone I could hear other people dialling numbers and recorded messages saying ‘the number you have called has not been recognised’. I eventually got through to BT and they weren’t very helpful saying there isn’t a lot they can do whilst the order to run new cables to the house is outstanding.

Day 15 - Week 3

2007-06-06T13:00:00.001+01:00

I had this email from Demon:

--------- LATEST NOTE --------
Date: 06/06/2007
08:42:03

BT have contacted us regarding your broadband fault and
advised that they have identified an issue with the exterior cabling between yourself and the exchange.

Engineers are currently investigating and we will update you as soon as any further information is available.

The BT engineer arrived, did a lot of work with the cabling in the street and put me on a spare line that was coming into the house. I now had new copper all the way from the house to the exchange and my broadband burst into life and I was getting proper speeds that I was obtaining before all the problems started!

The engineer still wasn’t happy with the last bit of cable leading to the house and made arrangements for someone to dig up the road to run new cables. He also gave me his mobile number and said if there were anymore problems then to ring him direct.

The broadband was working fine all evening and then died completely late at night.

Day 14

2007-06-05T13:00:00.000+01:00

Broadband still dead. The BT engineer turns up and finds a fault on the line at the exchange end. He gets someone to reset something in the exchange and the broadband comes back on although the throughput now appears to have dropped to 150K! The engineer said this is normal and it might take 72 hours for the speed to recover to its max.

About half an hour later the broadband died and didn’t come back on. The line also developed a loud buzzing on the voice side that wasn’t there previously. I reported the problem to Demon again. This time they said because there was a problem on the voice I could also report the line fault directly to BT, which I did. BT were much more helpful and promised to send an engineer asap.

Day 13

2007-06-04T13:00:00.001+01:00

Broadband still dead.

I had this email from Demon:

--------- LATEST NOTE --------
Date: 04/06/2007
14:59:44

BT have contacted us regarding your broadband fault on
number 02920866729 and advised they have agreed to send an engineer to your premesis to investigate. To avoid any further delays we have booked the earliest appointment BT have available which is for tuesday 5th between 1pm and
6pm.

Day 12

2007-06-03T13:00:00.000+01:00

Broadband still dead.

Day 11

2007-06-02T13:00:00.000+01:00

Broadband was still dead so reported it Demon who could now report it BT again.

Day 10

2007-06-01T13:00:00.000+01:00

I had this email from Demon:

--------- LATEST NOTE --------
Date: 01/06/2007
11:44:17

BT have contacted us and advised that your broadband fault should now be resolved. This email is just to confirm if that is the case.

After receiving this email I tested the line and whilst it was up the IP Profile had dropped to 250K!

Later in the evening the broadband gave up all together. I rang Demon and they said they couldn’t do anything about it as once BT have closed a case they aren’t allowed to report another case on the same line for at least 8 hours. I tried telling them that it wasn’t a new case it was the same fault but they couldn’t understand that.

Day 9

2007-05-31T13:00:00.000+01:00

I took time off work to wait for the BT engineer to arrive. He ran a number of tests on the line but said he couldn’t find anything wrong but will check a few things at the exchange.

I went back to work and when I got home later that evening the broadband was off completely. After about half an hour of failing to get it to sync I reported the problem to Demon who said they couldn’t yet comment because BT hadn’t updated their notes. It came back on after about 50mins of being off.

Day 8 - Week 2

2007-05-30T13:00:00.000+01:00

The line now was quite stable and synching at 8MB but the throughput I was getting was only 500K, it appeared to be throttled. I reported this to Demon and they ask that I ran a speed test from the speedtester.bt.com website and this confirmed that BT had the IP Profile set at 500K.
Demon then agreed to send an engineer to resolve the problem.

I had this email from Demon:

--------- LATEST NOTE --------
Date: 30/05/2007
12:51:44

BT have contacted us regarding your broadband fault on
number 02920866729 and advised they have agreed to send an engineer to your premesis to investigate. To avoid any further delays we have booked the earliest appointment BT have available which is for thusday 31st between 1pm and 6pm.

If this appointment is not suitable, if you can contact us at your earliest convenience, we can rearrange this for you.

Day 6

2007-05-28T13:00:00.000+01:00

Over the weekend the broadband settled down a bit and was only dropping every few hours but the line was synching at around 1 – 2 MB and the actual throughput I was getting was much less. Before the problems began I was synching at 8MB and getting a full 8MB throughput.

Day 3

2007-05-25T13:00:00.000+01:00

Demon rang in the morning saying they think my problem is probably to do with the timeout settings on my router! I explained to them that I don’t have a timeout set and it was going down constantly when the line was in use and so it couldn’t be timing out. They wanted to do all the same tests I’d done a few times on the previous day, exchange the filters try a different router etc.

They eventually said OK then they’ll report the problem to BT. I was told yesterday that the problem was being reported to BT but obviously that wasn’t true.

Day 2

2007-05-24T13:00:00.000+01:00

The ADSL was still continuing to drop so I did all the usual checks to make sure the fault wasn't with my internal cabling, router or micro filter etc. I then rang Demon (my ISP) to report the fault.

When you ring Demon technical support you get through to a call center in India and they're not at all helpful. They have to assume you have no technical expertise and they take you through a series of scripted procedures all of which I'd already done.

I had to ring them four times before they'd admit to there being a line fault. They then said they'd report it to BT but BT could take 40 working hours (5 working days) to resolve the fault.

Day 1

2007-05-23T20:00:00.000+01:00

I first noticed a problem with my ADSL in the morning when my radio (it's a wifi radio that plays stations streamed from the Internet) kept cutting out and on investigation I noticed my broadband router kept losing it's sync to the exchange.

These problems continued throught the day and night. The line would drop it's connection every 10 minutes or so which makes using the Internet very frustrating.