What happens when it goes wrong.

[Gamelyn]

Hi,

Joined ADSL24 (MaxDSL) from Zen (2Mb) Mon 19-05-08

Transition smooth and painless.
Everything OK until Friday night (23-05-08), when my router struggled to connect and hold a connection.

Please see attached thumbnail for current IP Profile characteristic.

For at least the last 12 hours my router tells me that (downstream) :
Line Rate : 4608 Kbps
Noise Margin : 12.6 dB
Line Attenuation : 28.0 dB
And yet my IP Profile has not changed.

My point here is that anyone can have problems, but what separates good providers from bad is how problems are dealt with.
Despite three phone calls to Broadband technical help, my IP Profile hasn't changed.
Each person I have spoken to shrugs their shoulders, blames BT and says wait.
No phone calls have been returned, no feedback as to the status of problem resolution, no emails acknowledging my complaint - nothing.

The ADSL24 web interface is excellent, so at least I have some insight into the status of my connection.
But it won't help solve my problem nor tell me what it's doing about it.

[roseway]

The ISP can't change your IP profile; that's in the hands of BT Wholesale. There's an automatic process which manages the IP profile (Dynamic Line Management, DLM) and if the problem which caused your drop in profile was temporary then DLM will raise your IP profile again within 5 days. The ISP has no influence over this.

Sometimes an IP profile can get stuck, and in this case the ISP can negotiate on your behalf with BT to get it manually unstuck. But this can't happen until after the necessary time has passed for DLM to do its automatic work.

So it's no use moaning about ADSL24 and accusing them of 'shrugging their shoulders'. They can't do anything at this stage, and I've no doubt that's what they've told you.

[tboorman]

I'd also advise investigating why your sync speed dropped so low.

[Gamelyn]

Thank you for taking the time to reply to my post.

You are the first person to acknowledge the fact I have a problem and put it in writing.

That is my point.

The utter lack of feedback from ADSL24 means I am in an information limbo.
Things may or may not have been said to me on the phone, but I can't truly remember what they were doing about it.
Apart from the fact BT got blamed a lot.
Hard to be critical as they are so polite, but as far as I am know my problem has disappeared down a hole.


The problem I have is not unique and the stock answers may have been said a thousand times, but ADSL24 are my service providers and the "duty of care" responsibility lies with them.
I ring them up, report my problem, they confirm my problem, they fix it.
The hoops they have to go through is irrelevant to me.
As a consumer I pay for a service and when that service is unsatisfactory I moan.
As should we all.
Just because "the computer says no" (or in this case BT) doesn't make it acceptable, right or even tolerable.

[tinyclanger]

See here (http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/IPprofile.htm) for a full explanation of how the BT profile system works.

If support shrugged their shoulders and blamed BT..that is exactly all that they could do at the present moment. Time and patience is what is required here.

However, should you continue to have low sync events, that result in recurrent drops in your speed profile, then, as tboorman says, you'll have to investigate your setup. Failing to find any fault there, you can then raise a ticket with support here to take the matter further.

Hope your profile soon settles...it can be frustrating waiting these things out. :)

[Taff]

^^^^ yeh what he said, i mean she said :D

[Gamelyn]

As screamingly frustrating as my internet speed is, I am not angry.
The toys are not being thrown out of my pram.

I can still surf (just about) and get emails.
I wouldn't have posted my problems on this forum if I wasn't so BORED.:(
Broadband is my opiate, and without it I may do something rash like step outside
into the sunlight.:eek:

Not mad with the techie guys on the phone, always polite.
Not mad with ADSL24, too early for that.
Getting mad at BT only gives you chest pains.
(One day the great Karmic wheel will make them die a corporate Crassus death)

All I ever wanted is for ADSL24 to send me a message along the lines of :

"Very sorry your connection is as slow as a tax rebate, we feel your pain.
We are extremely grateful you grace us with your custom and are distraught that
you are unhappy with our service.
Alas we have to keep poking BT with a big stick until they arise from their
torpid slumber, fight through a ton of money and push a button.
Amazingly, and to everyone's utter astonishment, this can take days.
We will keep you abreast of the situation at all times and always endeavour to do
as much as we can.
Love ADSL24"

And keep doing this every day until I am sorted.
Is it too much to ask ?

Of course, if it takes longer than four days I will be green with anger and probably say and do things I'll regret.
And the thought of serving a months notice at this speed will make me cry.

[rockcity]

As screamingly frustrating as my internet speed is, I am not angry.
The toys are not being thrown out of my pram.

I can still surf (just about) and get emails.
I wouldn't have posted my problems on this forum if I wasn't so BORED.:(
Broadband is my opiate, and without it I may do something rash like step outside
into the sunlight.:eek:

Not mad with the techie guys on the phone, always polite.
Not mad with ADSL24, too early for that.
Getting mad at BT only gives you chest pains.
(One day the great Karmic wheel will make them die a corporate Crassus death)

All I ever wanted is for ADSL24 to send me a message along the lines of :

"Very sorry your connection is as slow as a tax rebate, we feel your pain.
We are extremely grateful you grace us with your custom and are distraught that
you are unhappy with our service.
Alas we have to keep poking BT with a big stick until they arise from their
torpid slumber, fight through a ton of money and push a button.
Amazingly, and to everyone's utter astonishment, this can take days.
We will keep you abreast of the situation at all times and always endeavour to do
as much as we can.
Love ADSL24"

And keep doing this every day until I am sorted.
Is it too much to ask ?

Of course, if it takes longer than four days I will be green with anger and probably say and do things I'll regret.
And the thought of serving a months notice at this speed will make me cry.

Hi Gamelyn

Very sorry to hear about your problems.

Just out of interest when you migrated was it like for like or was it a regrade of the service (e.g. fixed to max etc?).

My advice is stay cool and be nice. The guys on this forum are really helpfull.

Good luck

Rob

[JamesL]

Tried a stolen router in the test socket with a new filter just to eliminate any potential hardware issues?

[Gamelyn]

Hi,

Yes, people on this forum are nice.
As a serial forum lurker, I find they are invariably the places to get your problems solved.
If I have caused offence to, or upset, any user of this forum, I humbly apologise.
To my regret I never properly thanked someone on a forum who posted a detailed solution to my motherboard problem that cured weeks of hell.
Unfortunately, in this case, I need BT to recognise that my modem is trying to up the rate but BT have strangled the connection.

I have regraded from a 2Mb to MaxDSL.
Had 5 days of good connection then a nightmare Friday night of disconnections from which my IP Profile has yet to recover.
Yep, still waiting.


Can't try what JamesL has suggested, unfortunately.
Tech support advised me, on the phone, to leave my modem connected at this Line Rate for days until DLM kicks in.
So I daren't switch it off or even reconnect.
Maybe DLM doesn't do Bank Holiday weekends.

[rockcity]

Hi,

Yes, people on this forum are nice.
As a serial forum lurker, I find they are invariably the places to get your problems solved.
If I have caused offence to, or upset, any user of this forum, I humbly apologise.
To my regret I never properly thanked someone on a forum who posted a detailed solution to my motherboard problem that cured weeks of hell.
Unfortunately, in this case, I need BT to recognise that my modem is trying to up the rate but BT have strangled the connection.

I have regraded from a 2Mb to MaxDSL.
Had 5 days of good connection then a nightmare Friday night of disconnections from which my IP Profile has yet to recover.
Yep, still waiting.


Can't try what JamesL has suggested, unfortunately.
Tech support advised me, on the phone, to leave my modem connected at this Line Rate for days until DLM kicks in.
So I daren't switch it off or even reconnect.
Maybe DLM doesn't do Bank Holiday weekends.

Hi

Interesting to note that is was a regrade from 2M fixed (ZEN) to 8M Max - this is exactly what I did - see my thread - I was lucky as all went well.

Can you post your atten/noise info as it is now? Is it changing much?

Cheers

Rob

[Gamelyn]

Ok, my profile has finally changed. :eek:

I've attached a snap of my profile.
It's OK, not great, but a million times better than it was.
I hope it can hold.

My modem had been connected at 4608 kbps for 2 days and 4 hours before BT made the changes.
Perhaps, more significantly, is the fact my IP Profile changed at 9:20 am on the first working day after the Bank Holiday weekend.
Auto DML ?


My post is headed "What Happens when it goes wrong", so here is my answer.

Problem:
Disconnected and then struggled to hold a connection.
When connection held, low Line Rate observed.
Stable connection at middling Line Rate (advised to leave alone)

In fairness, this could have been my router, BT exchange, gremlins, bad ju-ju.
(Note: ADSL24 asked BT to check the line at their end - no fault found).

Conclusion :

Modem/Router : BT Voyager 2100
Excellent
This unit will have to be prised from my cold, dead hands.
It's that good.
Will only be replaced by the BT Voyager 2110 (24 Mb)
(Darn thing is routing 15 devices)

ADSL24 : Tech Support
Excellent
Easy to get hold of.
Very polite and knowledgeable.
Will do their best but severely limited in the short term by BT.

ADSL24 : Web Portal
Excellent
Wealth of personal connection information.

ADSL24 : ISP
Disappointing
No official feedback on my problem.
No official word on actions taken.
(Note : my recent migration from Zen went very smoothly)

BT : Line Owners
Utterly rubbish.
Will drop your IP Profile in a heartbeat.
No communication to end user (even though you rent the line from them).
End User is guilty until proven innocent.
IP Profile blows big monkey chunks.
Auto DML keeps office hours.

Of course, many thanks must go to the users of this forum, past and present.
Special thanks to the people who contributed to this thread.

Now please excuse me while I catch up with my newsgroups, while my connection
holds