COMPUTERS, THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY

[Stanley]

You can try..... Best of luck with it!
Until then you could always indulge in a bit of gentle coil refurbishment....... (Leg pull , there's no rush....)

[PanBiker]

No contact from Open Reach today yet. After a re-boot and my router renegotiating with the exchange, I am squeezing 22mbps out of the line although it is unusable for the telephone due to the level of noise on the line.

[Stanley]

It makes me wonder if anyone else on the same feed is having your problems Ian....
68mb of updates from Canonical this morning..... As usual, quick and no problems apart from a restart.

[PanBiker]

Last Open Reach engineer said that the incidence of multiple reports of the same problem from the same area are long gone unless they get a pole down or some part of the network dug up. Landline telephones (where folk might hear the noise on the line) are getting fewer and fewer. The pole at the bottom of the back street where the cable takes off along Commercial Street, basically feeds Bessie Street and Pleasant View along with my house at the top. Residents are predominantly older folk who may not use the internet to the degree that I do. Their awareness to a drop in speed as long as it continues to function may not be the same as me either.

The network around here is at capacity. Last engineer looked to see if he could swap my feed to a different pair in the infrastructure but there was no spare lines. I think part of the problem may be that the engineers have to get area manager permission to escalate and bring in the plant that may be required. They like to have a definitive fault isolated on their kit first which is pretty difficult with an intermittent fault. I would have thought that they should be able to chase the noise back down the line though which could certainly isolate it to a section of the network. I'm supposed to be getting a "line engineer", that indicates to me that he might have ladders and climbing gear which may be of benefit. Another downer here is that due to tighter H&S rules a lot of poles can no longer be climbed, (they all have a safety rating). Used to be the norm for chasing down faults, now they rely a lot more on smart line test gear and metering. Five engineers have failed so far with the smart gear, should be telling them something, time to go back to basic.

[Tizer]

Whatever next?...
`Samsung TVs should be regularly virus-checked, the company says' LINK
`Samsung has advised owners of its latest TVs to run regular virus scans. A how-to video on the Samsung Support USA Twitter account demonstrates the more than a dozen remote-control button presses required to access the sub-menu needed to activate the check. It suggested users should carry out the process "every few weeks" to "prevent malicious software attacks". The suggestion surprised cyber-security specialists, who said the public would be unlikely to go to the trouble. BBC News asked Samsung whether any specific threat had prompted the warning. The company responded that it had been "posted for customers' education". However, it also deleted the post at about the same time.'

At the end of the article: `Samsung previously raised eyebrows about the security of its smart TVs, in 2015, when it warned customers not to discuss personal information in front of the displays as they could transmit it to third parties.' I wonder if it was April Fool's Day?

[PanBiker]

No contact from Open Reach yet but my internet dropped carrier at 10.25 did a couple of restarts then went off totally for about 15 minutes. Back on now but still only at 25mbps with lots of line noise.

[Stanley]

Tiz, don't I remember something about some brands of TV having the capacity to listen in to ambient sound in the room where the set was?
Ian. It may be time to take a different line of attack. Ideal would be a road accident knocking the offending pole off at stocking tops but that's a long shot and failing that perhaps there would be value in the H&S approach. That usually trumps all other lines of response. Ideally this would involve proving that the pole was a danger to either the public or the workers, alternatively citing safety reasons in that intermittent service was a danger to you or your family because you need it for urgent medical communications. Or something!
Find the address of the H&S department and fire off a written communication to that effect to them.
How about canvassing neighbours to see if they are having any problems? In unity there is strength! I'm clutching at straws I know but it would be driving me potty if it was my problem and a I do feel for you.....

[PanBiker]

The line dropped carrier again at 01.18 this morning but recovered on reconnection. Can't have an accident with the pole as it hard against the retaining wall at the bottom of the street and there is no through road for motor vehicles, blocked by a bollard. I don't think the pole is the problem its the cable strung between it and the next one at the bottom of Robert Street that is suspect in my book. The cable is taught against one of the tree trunks at the bottom of Bessie Street and at least needs a coat of looking at. OR would need a Simon Snorkel to do it though and that's an escalation matter.

The pole that feeds my house feeds 8 other properties on Bessie, Pleasant view and along the top to the end of East View. I have mentioned it to neighbours but will do again to see if they are having any issues. Problem is of course we are dealing with a 100 year old plus copper network and expecting it to do a 21st century job. It's all running "on a wing and a prayer" and amazing that it actually works at all. Not had any contact from Open Reach but am expecting a call from Talk Talk to tell me that it is resolved, (they expect a fix after 72 hours), time is up.

I'll take a saying from Private Fraser, "We are all doomed, doomed I say"!

[Tizer]

It's time to write to one of the national newspapers about it!

[PanBiker]

As predicted, I have just taken a call from Talk Talk technical support, from the guy who's accent I can't understand! He asked me if my fault had been resolved. I had to avail him of the fact that no Open Reach Engineer has contacted me since I first reported it last Thursday. At least two operatives at Talk Talk said they had opened a ticket on this, one on the online chat and this latter guy who rang me on the land line. I'm afraid I lost it slightly and told him in no uncertain terms that I need a resolution to this fault which has been going on since last November. I asked that the next person that rings me should be someone who speaks understandable English and can guarantee that I will indeed get a visit from Open Reach. I have stayed in for the last three working days to enable the same. Knowing that the call was being recorded I also asked for compensation for breach of contract and that if it could not be successfully resolved I would seriously consider terminating my contract.

As I type this the carrier has dropped twice while trying to post.

[Stanley]

Is it worsening?

[Tizer]

A threat to `seriously consider terminating my contract' is not strong enough when dealing with a big company like TalkTalk, Ian. A bigger threat is bad publicity in the news media or on the major social media sites. That's the way to go. You're a Facebook user - get something going on there and TalkTalk will soon be falling over themselves to help you.

[PanBiker]

Talk Talk would probably be glad to see the back of me as I'm an awkward bugger who knows what he is talking about! Particularly at the moment as I am being screwed by two giants at the same time. I'm a bit like a belligerent wasp at the moment.

As to whether it's getting worse. Not really it's just there, more or less half speed of what I am paying for. Auto throttling at the exchange takes care of that. It sometimes gets down to 10mbps at worst. A reboot might renegotiate to 25mbps if I'm lucky but then the cycle starts again when the carrier drops. I don't think there is a month gone by since last November when I have had full contracted speed for the whole month. The noise on the line comes and goes but can be so bad that you can't use the phone, other days it will be clear.

Open Reach seem to be reluctant to try something else, repeating the same testing regime on each visit. I am all for smart instrumentation and metering but there comes a time when that fails that you have to vary the approach. It needs a bloke with a ladder or climbing gear to physically inspect the line. It's old style servicing but after all they are only checking for the integrity of two wires. I can point them in the right direction if they will only look. The multi-pair aerial feed cable along Commercial Street is strained around a moving tree trunk. It's failed twice before, surely worth another look.

[Stanley]

Sounds obvious to me. But what the hell do I know?

[PanBiker]

Down to 14630kbit/s which prompted me to contact them again via chat. The agent noted that the fault management team had been trying to contact me and had left a message on the landline. This would be since my rant to them on Wednesday. I retrieved the message but again had a problem understanding the accent. I don't think it's me that's just being awkward, I do have a problem with broken English regardless of which area of the globe it is coming from, this is why I prefer the technical chat facility. Joel, the name given on today's chat gave me a reference number and a number to call. I will give them a ring at some point today. The fault case is obviously still an open ticket but is not shown on my account page, there is a specific tab for that and it shows nothing, hence my view that they had closed the case. No Open Reach engineers in any case, I was promised a "line engineer" which gave a glimmer of hope, if that means a bloke with climbing ability (harness or ladder), I will try and press for that.

[PanBiker]

Just contacted Talk Talk on the number given. When I drilled down to the fault team, the first bloke said that it looked like my fault had been resolved but I took the option to talk to someone. I got another operative who spoke quite quickly, thick foreign accent but I managed picking up the salient bits of the conversation. He to seemed to concentrate on the rustling on the line which was not apparent on this call, he seemed to think that it had been resolved. I had to point out that this aspect of the fault was only a by product of the underlying problem and that my bandwidth was down to 14mbps due to intermittent carrier drop.

He asked for my mobile number as we needed to clear the line so that he could instigate tests from his end. He called me on my mobile and put me on hold for the best part of 15 minutes, glad they were paying for the call! Upshot is that he confirmed that there is still a problem (surprise, surprise) and has opened another ticket with Open Reach, he has passed on my mobile number and they will call if they need access to my premises or to report what they are doing on the line. This should be within 72 hours so Monday to Wednesday next week. Talk Talk will give me a ring on Wednesday night between 6pm and 9pm to check that it's sorted.

I heard exactly the same last Friday and nothing happened, I had no call or visit from Open Reach. We will see if they can try harder this time.

I remained quite calm and collected on this call but am actually getting quite near to the end of my tether. I would swap ISP's but would still have the problem. Did someone mention at some point an ISP that had guaranteed UK based technical support? Might be an option if I can get to interact with someone who is fully understandable for a proper conversation.

[Tripps]

I read all this with interest. The speed you are not happy with is about what I get all the time. I realise of course that you are paying for something you're not getting. Can't be easy for a Yorkshireman.

Plusnet are in Sheffield. I've not had many dealings for faults, but I manage to understand the Yorkshire accents.

Ian - I'm concerned that you are getting so 'het up' over this and other problems. It's not my business, but it distresses me. Can I gently suggest that neither of your current 'problems' warrant the level of stress you seem to be suffering. You coped with a lot worse last year.

Onwards and upwards.

[Pluggy]

Barlick, not enough spare resources to give you another pair. BT are probably well aware of the problem, but without spending a ton of money, which they'll be unwilling to do in a backwater, they'll let it ride and fob you off.

Maybe Elon Musk's Starlink will get here first.....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlink_ ... tellation)

[PanBiker]

I'm just tenacious Tripps. On the broadband I might just as well be on ADSL but I'm not and it's not right so I'll be a thorn. Some of this comes from being an ex field service engineer myself. They are not doing a proper job which if you do always pays off in the end.

On the driving licence front, that's not right either, just inefficiency. I don't want to become like some posters on the Meningioma FB support site that have been waiting 18 months to have their licences returned. Lots of those though can drive under section 88 which does not apply to me because my actions have been incorrectly handled by the DVLA which gets an awful lot of flak, quite rightly it would seem.

Just read your post on review Pluggy and I tend to agree that could well be the case. If I went to BT and paid more for the same deal they would have to give me £20 a month back until they fix it. I have thought of that angle as a plan B also. I might go online and see what packages BT can offer, should be basic ADSL only at the moment.

...just done it...8mbps - 15mbps Max

[PanBiker]

Just had another look and my "stay fast guarantee" from BT would be 5Mb. Anyone would think I was half way up a mountain rather than 100yds off the town centre.

[PanBiker]

Just run it again and they can offer Super Fast Fibre Essential 33mb - 36mb and Superfast Fibre with an average of 50mb. My own router when the line is stable and I'm getting my 39mbps reports 56mbps maximum available via the copper.

[Pluggy]

copper.

Mine is aluminium and I'm getting almost 17Mbs on ADSL.

[chinatyke]

...just done it...8mbps - 15mbps Max

Do you remember not so long ago when we were very happy with 2Mbps and 4 Mbps was something to dream about?

[PanBiker]

My old speed with TalkTalk on ADSL was 17Mb. TT routers at the exchange do seem to give about 2 - 3mbps faster than BT on all comparable tariffs.

[Stanley]

I understand Ian getting wound up David, it's his nature, he will survive.
I am not clear how they can offer you a better service for more money with a bum connection. It will doubtless all become clear eventually!
I can remember Dial-up never mind ADSL!