Peter's Blog - Nodes for broadband

o2 broadband

I've signed up for o2 broadband. This was for a few reasons:

good reviews for customer service
if I top up my phone by £10 every 3 months I get a £5 a month discount so I get unlimited broadband and sufficient mobile calls for £20.83 a month.
they are already a big company and hopefully more stable than other broadband players in these uncertain economic times: they are less likely to be amalgamated into a cheapo monolith like pipex were by tiscali.

They managed to connect me with no drama. They are totally faceless to deal with and out of three emails I've sent only one got a reply.

They sent me a free wireless router that seems to work ok. I wanted to use my old netgear but they didn't respond to my email request for the access password (I'm on adsl not adsl 2 so I need this).

Speeds are about the same as pipex, even though the latter was unbundled. If o2 ever unbundled the line I stand to get much faster.

O2 broadband comes with 100 free web texts a month (sent through their web site) and 1000 email -> mms's a month which would be sweet if the iPhone supported mms.

As an extra bonus YouTube actually works whereas tiscali broke it a few months ago and don't seem to be in any hurry to fix it (throttling by neglect).

Broadband Woes

Where do I begin. This is a long story so better get a coffee.

When I first got broadband nearly two years ago I chose pipex. That saga is documented here. It left me regarding pipex as being devoid of customer service: if I had any problems then tough, I may as well go in the garden and scream at the daisies as try to get information out of pipex.

A few weeks ago I was having disconnections when playing wow. This was frustrating as I knew there was no point in complaining to pipex. To make things worse, a few traceroutes told me that I was going through the Tiscali network. I knew that Tiscali had bought Pipex but now pipex is being firmly swallowed into Tiscali. If you try to sign up for pipex now you are redirected to Tiscali. I have never heard a good thing about Tiscali and their advertisements on the TV are all about price leaving me with the impression that they are bargain bucket broadband. If I wanted cheap crap I would be looking at sky or talktalk.

My disconnection problems went away but I was still in a mood to change broadband providers.

I looked around and was attracted to the BT Total Broadband Anywhere package. For £30 a month you get:

Wireless-N router (the 'home hub')
Phone handset to make voip calls
so many minutes voip to landlines
their international voip rates would halve my wife's phone bills to her folks
A 'BT ToGo' which is actually a windows mobile smartphone which typically gets 7/10 in reviews, no iPhone but not worthless. This phone can do wireless voip as well as normal mobile over the vodafone network which has good coverage for me. The phone has a mini keyboard and would be much better for moblogging than my dumb phone.
50 minutes mobile calls a month
so many minutes on BT openreach wireless access points
membership of the FON network where people share out 512kbps of their bandwidth so that other people can use mine and I can use theirs if I am in range.

A very attractive package that would save me money AND give me new toys to play with.

Before I could do anything I needed a MAC code to get away from pipex so I used a thing on the BT site that automatically sent pipex a byebye email. In a day or so pipex emailed me the MAC, wrote me a letter and rang me to make sure I had it. It gave me the impression that either they were glad to be rid of me or the ombudsman has been slapping them about.

I applied for the BT Total broadband Anywhere package on their website as they said it would be faster than ringing them. I got an automatic acknowledgement email for my order. Then nothing. For five days. The connection date I chose came and went and nothing. Their online order tracker couldn't find my phone number. I was amazed that they could be so useless so for my amusement I tried applying through the website again and the same thing happened. For the third time I tried using Internet Explorer and Windows but again it happened. I thought about ringing them but the thought of having to recite all my details down the phone filled me with dread. They publish no email addresses so there was no way of moaning.

I looked around for an alternative supplier and plus.net seemed promising. Their service is tailored for gaming with low latencies, they are honest about the traffic shaping, static ip address and five pounds a month cheaper than pipex. Their website seemed ok with more technical details than BT so they seemed more on my level. So I signed up for them. Here is a timeline:

7th August: signed up
13th August: connection date. Came home to find broadband broken
14th August: got message from plus.net saying my connection date was being reviewed on 28th August, two weeks later with no indication as to why. This made me flip and I left them some messages telling them to stick it. I wanted out pronto, damage limitation. Later I got a message to say the order was delayed due to a 'Faulty Tie Pair'. They would try to find out from BT what was happening on 15th August.
15th August: Nothing from plus.net. Found that my home landline phone was broken too so registered a fault with BT.
16th August: Land phones started working again. Message from plus.net, addressed to me but one department in plus.net trying to get another department to investigate the delay.
17th August: Got an automated message from pipex saying welcome, my line is now connected. Indeed, my pipex broadband was working. It was probably working the day before but I was optimisticly trying the plus.net username/password.
18th August: Sent message to plus.net saying it was working and to please cancel the order. They replied to say ok but they want to sting me for £40 for the abortive ADSL connection and I will possibly pay £40 to connect to anyone else due to the 'Tie Pair' problem. I didn't answer immediately, they have no problem keeping me waiting. In a way I was happy, my broadband was working, albeit with pipex but that was a problem that could wait for another day. plus.net would soon be out of my life.
19th August: voicemail message from plus.net. They had been on to BT and they said something about a second BT engineer visit having the same outcome as the first. They were going to review the situation on 11th Sept (over a month after my initial order). My broadband and phones were still working so I have no idea what they were talking about but I believe it would be fruitless to ask.

That's the state of play right now. I have two threads of support going with plus.net, one wanting to sting me for £80 for (failing) to connect me to ADSL (which was already connected and is still connected) and another trying to progress a problem that seems to have been resolved on 16th august.

My biggest worry at the moment is that one of plus.net's flailing limbs is still going to get BT to mess around with my connection and break it again, even if I have told them not to.

In terms of customer support, well do I sound like a satisfied customer? Apparently plus.net try to get new customers via a referrals scheme rather than advertisements. I am hoping that this blog post will deter at least one potential customer. If you get any technical problems then be warned you are going to get 'review dates' that will reach further and further into the distant future. They will miss their deadlines in getting feedback from BT by four days. They will charge you for the privilege of getting BT to bugger up your phone and broadband. They offer a 90 day 'risk free' guarantee but there is a risk that they won't be able to progress any problems and you do risk being stung for £40.

I'm tempted by Zen broadband who get very high customer service ratings. I'm not too bothered about price, customer support that gets things done and doesn't cause me sleepless nights is a top priority. I imagine that the root of all broadband woes lie with BT but are there any UK broadband providers out there that have the ability to get firm deadlines from BT and relay them to their customers? I am patient enough to wait but I absolutely hate being kept in the dark.

Sorry to vent but I had to let it out. Blogging for stress relief. Venting here means my final messages to plus.net very calm and dignified.

UPDATE: cancelled now. This made me laugh. And only three years before plusnet were cool with tiscali LLU

Nice Virgin People

I was slightly dismayed to receive a letter from a debt collection agency threatening me with legal action for the vast sum of £50.80. They were acting on behalf of Virgin Media which is interesting as I am not a customer of theirs and had not been sent any bills in various shades of red. I suspected it was something to do with the NTL broadband and phone I had in my old house. Before I moved I had rung NTL to tell them I was moving and I wouldn't need their services as the new house wasn't cabled up. NTL were in the process of being taken over by Virgin and the woman I spoke too seemed very insistant that I subscribed to Virgin's ADSL Broadband service in the new house. I was reluctant as I hadn't done any research into ADSL broadband services at that time and didn't want to commit. NTL broadband was very good but it's cable, a totally different beast to ADSL. I left the matter there, NTL had been informed and I didn't pursue Virgin Broadband.

To sort the debt out I decided to ring Virgin Media Customer Services and they were most helpful. They admitted they had made a mistake and cancelled the debt.

There was a good reason why I didn't get any threatening bills: they were sent to my old NTL email account that I didn't use after I left NTL..

Netgear DG834PN RangeMax ADSL Wifi Modem Router

Ok, got my new Netgear DG834PN RangeMax ADSL modem/Wifi router from Amazon so time for the initial impressions:

it's fast. Faster than my old belkin and dlink di624. The web based setup feels fast, the pages come up promptly.
easy to set up: running in 10 minutes or so. It set up the adsl itself, given the login details.
connecting to it from my laptop and internet is nice and snappy, better than I am used to. It says I am getting 5M downloads but delays seem shorter, pages come up quicker.
it seems to be maintaining a good solid connection despite five neighbouring wifi networks grappling for airspace. It was because of the local competition that I wanted a powerful Mimo wifi router: the mimo thing means it has six internal antennae (no external ones) and it dynamically chooses the best one, giving optimal reception. That's the theory and who am I to dispute it?
it has a round domed window on top with a circle of blue leds around it flickering away, giving a plasma type effect. When you first see it you wonder if there are loose connections. Thoughtfully you can turn this off or set it on a time schedule so it's off if you have it in your bedroom and are trying to sleep (not a problem for me so I'll let it rip).

So far: happy. Be assured, if I find something to moan about you will be first to know.

UPDATE: couple of days later and:

It works fine with Dell Axim X51v which is a B not a G.
My dell D410 laptop seems to connect much quicker than before.

Pipex Respond

After a week I got an answer to this message to pipex. Apparently 'preactive' bounced my mail to customer services on 6th October who, five days later, sent me a generic email about what to do if you have no signal. I print it below in case it ever saves anyone from having to contact Pipex customer support and wait five days for a reply. If you do all this before contacting them it will save some to-and-fro.

Dear Peter Wilkinson

Thank you for your email

Sometimes the signal can come back by a reboot or re-installation of the modem drivers but if this fails, you will need to follow the below steps.

Firstly, try swapping over the Microfilter which your modem plugs into. These can sometimes prove faulty which can cause this problem. If you received the microfilter from PIPEX and it is in warranty, we can replace this for you.

If this does not work, you will need to take your equipment to something we like to call the 'basic circuit'. This means removing all non-adsl equipment and trying your wiring in the below order:

Main Socket - Microfilter - Modem/Router - PC

Why do you need to try this?

We fully appreciate that it may be a nightmare to move your PC to another room but unfortunately BT will not accept a fault without this being completed. If the fault is escalated to BT and they decide to send an engineer out, they would try their laptop and modem on the 'basic circuit' and if that works, they can charge you a £58.75 call out fee.

PIPEX obviously do not want you to incur unnecessary costs so trying this yourself will dramatically reduce the chance of being charged. Also if you are able to do so, try another modem/router which will rule out the possibility of your equipment being faulty. If your PIPEX supplied modem does cause the problem and it is in warranty, we can replace it for you.

If you notice a lot of noise on your line or cannot make voice calls at all, please phone BT on 151 from your BT line and they will be able to run a check on the line to rule out a voice line problem. Please also ask them for a reference number as this will help us with our investigations.

We hope this helps with your enquiry, but please feel free to contact us if you require further assistance.

I guess this means they won't suddenly respond to my message and cut me off so I'm safe to buy a wireless ADSL modem. Amazon, here I come.

ADSL Update

Update on my fledgeling pipex ADSL:

No response from pipex to this. Still think they are an uncommunicative company and not looking forward to having to communicate with them in future.
Seems to be working ok. Download speed 4.3M but not up to 10 days training yet.
Hasn't been disconnecting noticably but I did set it to automatically redial.
Hooked belkin wireless router to pc, shared the pipex connection and voila, wireless networking. Works ok on ground floor of house, two floors down.

I'm tempted to get an dedicated ADSL modem/router because:

I wouldn't be relying on windows firewall
don't have to go up two flights of stairs to switch pc on/off (or set up X10).

I fancy the Netgear DG834PNUK as it's Mimo and apparently this will even improve reception for old g systems like the wifi cards in my laptops. I read a report somewhere that said that the Netgear lives up to it's promises on speed and range more than the others (belkin, dlink etc: apparently the 'Super G' chipset isn't all that super). My recent experiences of Belkin have not been good, I know of at least Belkin two wireless routers that lock up periodically.

Pipex Broadband

I have moved house and my new address isn't cabled up for NTL so having to go with ADSL. Made the mistake of choosing pipex. This has culminated in the following email to them:

Hello there,

I ordered broadband on Monday 11th September and I am still not connected so I have decided to cancel the order. This is for the phone number {censored}. I rang your customer services and was told that I have to send an email to this address along with my reasons.

The reasons are:

After getting the modem on 13th September along with a letter promising that the service would become active within seven working days I have received no further communication from pipex (letter, email, phone, nothing).

Despite never being given a specific activation date I have tried to connect to no avail. The modem indicates that there is no signal. Tried in two sockets on two different computers.

I cannot use the 'track your order' feature of your web site as you have not given me my order number. It is not in the letter you sent.

When I ring your various 'track your order' phone numbers, nobody answers. I have tried numerous times, waiting as long as half an hour.

I sent an email asking how to cancel and a day later got a reply that did not answer my question.

When I did ring your customer services to ask how to cancel I had to wait 45 minutes for the phone to be answered (I was getting determined so I waited as long as it took) .

In a nutshell, even if you did manage to provide me with broadband I would feel uneasy dealing with a company that was so awkward to get in contact with while being uncommunicative itself.

I do not intend to pay a whole years worth of subscriptions for a cancellation fee. You are in breech of contract in that you haven't provided me with the service I requested. I am happy to return the modem or pay £20 for it.

-- Kindest Regards, Peter Wilkinson

Four hours after sending the above pipex sent me a email message that started thus:

I'm delighted to inform you that your Pipex Broadband will go live on the 19/09/2006, as all the necessary line tests and checks have now been passed successfully. Once again, thank you for selecting Pipex. We are passionate about our award-winning service and are excited at the prospect of helping you make the most of the evolving online experience.

Two points to note:

19th september was two weeks before this email was sent.
their award winning service includes keeping people on hold for 45 minutes.

Currently pipex have some kind of lock on my line which is stopping me from migrating to BT total broadband. I'm in a grey area where I don't need a MAC number but I do need them to release their bony grasp on my line.

Why am I going BT Broadband? The impression I get is that many technical problems with broadband end up with the ISP and BT blaming each other. I figure that I can avoid this if BT is my ISP. That's the theory... Besides the packages includes the BT Home Hub which is a free ADSL modem/router/VOIP adapter that will allow any DECT phone in the house to make free VOIP calls.

UPDATE: I get home and broadband is working. Coincidence?