Anyone here using Post Office Broadband ??????

[John]

I have had PO broadband for a few years, but after a so called upgrade
which did nothing for the speed, I get frequent loss of connection,
sometimes only a few seconds between.... Almost impossible to watch
things on my now tv box....

Post office help say noone else is affected and they demand full payment
of the remaining months contract before letting me switch.

I also now realise that by just paying per month I somehow renew the
contract!!!

PO broadband is the most expensive service as well!!

John sometimes in Norwich looking at the Wensum River

[Graham J]

How many remaining months in your contract?

Connect a simple corded phone and dial 17070 option 2 and listen for
noise. If there is any at all, report it to your voice service provider
as a noisy line. Don't mention broadband, it only confuses them!

Does the router show ADSL sync continuously, or does the sync show the
connection drops?

Have you tested with a different microfilter plugged directly into the
test point in the master socket - is that any more reliable?

Have you tried a different make of router?

Regardless of your ISP you should be able to carry out these tests.

If you need help with this I'm not far from Norwich.

--
Graham J

[Peter Crosland]

Your ISP cannot legally refuse to give you a MAC code which you need to
change ISP. Contractural issues are dealt with separately.


--
Peter Crosland

[newshound]

There are also "loggers" for the ADSL connection. After faffing around
with "free" ones when I had similar issues I invested a tenner in "Net
Uptime Monitor" which seems reliable and bullet-proof.

[John]

I have done all the tests possible including replace the router, filters
etc. Also went online from a friends place with the router and the
laptop... Same problem. His place is 2 flats away from mine, and he
gets 12MB/s from Plusnet... I struggle to get 6!

I get sometimes several hours, then I get 20 seconds or so before
connection returns...

The contract runs until 01 April 2014, and I have told PO that I wont be
renewing it.

Thanks for the info

John

[The Natural Philosopher]

On 06/12/13 15:55, John wrote:

> Graham J wrote:

>> Have you tried a different make of router?
>>
>> Regardless of your ISP you should be able to carry out these tests.
>>
>> If you need help with this I'm not far from Norwich.
>>
> I have done all the tests possible including replace the router, filters
> etc. Also went online from a friends place with the router and the
> laptop... Same problem.

Can you clarify that?

YOu are saying that you, using your PO account, got crap speed over the
same copper that a friend gets 12Mbps over?

His place is 2 flats away from mine, and he
> gets 12MB/s from Plusnet... I struggle to get 6!
>

In what way do you 'struggle to get 6' synch speed, or download rates?

> I get sometimes several hours, then I get 20 seconds or so before
> connection returns...
>
> The contract runs until 01 April 2014, and I have told PO that I wont be
> renewing it.
>
> Thanks for the info
>
> John

John, you are angry and probably justifiably so, but don't jump the gun.

You have, via people here and with the kit you have, all the information
to make an accurate diagnosis.

First of all, many people here would kill for 6Mbps. And two flats away
is enough to account for that sort of variation.

But its difficult to diagnose anything more technical than extreme
frustration from your posts.

First thing is to establish what SNR, attenuation and line speed your
particular piece of copper has.. If that is an issue - bad copper - that
can be fixed without ISP changes, though sometimes it helps as support
and willingness to pursue faults is not equal in all ISPs.

If that checks out and you still are getting rubbish transfer speeds
then it IS time to change ISPs.



--
Ineptocracy

(in-ep-toc’-ra-cy) – a system of government where the least capable to
lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the
members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are
rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a
diminishing number of producers.

[Roderick Stewart]

On Fri, 06 Dec 2013 15:55:01 +0000, John <rex...@gmail.com> wrote:

>I have done all the tests possible including replace the router, filters
>etc. Also went online from a friends place with the router and the
>laptop... Same problem. His place is 2 flats away from mine, and he
>gets 12MB/s from Plusnet... I struggle to get 6!
>
>I get sometimes several hours, then I get 20 seconds or so before
>connection returns...

Possibly a silly question, but do you know for certain *where* the
connection is being lost?

I've dealt with this sort of thing many times, and you wouldn't
believe how many people don't know how to tell whether a laptop is
losing wireless connection with the router, the router is losing
connection with the modem (if they're separate) the modem and/or
computer don't have valid IP addresses or the modem is losing sync
with the incoming signal. They'd all result in lack of contact with
the internet but they all have different symptoms if you know what to
look for.

Just saying you've done "all the tests possible" doesn't give us much
to go on. If you'd care to offer a little more detail there are plenty
of us here who will try to help.

Rod.

[Graham J]

A further useful test is to set up remote monitoring using F8Lure. You
will need either a static IP address or a router that supports Dynamic DNS.

F8Lure will ping your router from outside and report every time it
connects and disconnects, and will draw a nice graph. It also records
ping response times so you can see delays incurred by the volume of
other traffic on the connection. A good router will show a graph of the
bandwidth used, so if this relates to the packet delays or loss reported
by F8Lure then it confirms that it was you using the bandwidth - if not
then discuss the packet delays or loss with your ISP.

--
Graham J

[John]

I will transfer March 2014...... I dont want to pay PO £150 just for the
MAC code, and at times it works well enough... Speed is 6Mb in early
mornings dropping to 2Mb later. Apparantly the PO upgrade stops at 6Mb
for some reason...

The package with calls, caller ID, and broadband runs at £50 a month!

Friend on Plusnet pays half that!!!

John looking at a very high Wensum

[John]

The help I need is from PO Broadband, who are very reluctant to do
anything, probably as I have said I am off ASAP(march 2014)

I am sitting with the wireless router in view, when operating normally
the WLAN and the Internet lights flash and when connection is lost they
remain on.

The system works fine when set for Plusnet....... (thats laptop and router)


John

[Roderick Stewart]

On Sat, 07 Dec 2013 14:05:59 +0000, John <rex...@gmail.com> wrote:

>I am sitting with the wireless router in view, when operating normally
>the WLAN and the Internet lights flash and when connection is lost they
>remain on.

Without knowing the details of your wireless router it's difficult to
be certain, because they don't all show the same indications, but if a
light marked "internet" remains on when the connection is lost, that
suggests to me that your connection to your ISP is probably OK and the
break is elsewhere. A common arrangement is for lights to flash to
indicate data passing through, and it appears your router is of this
type, so from what you've described so far it looks like a case of an
internet connection that is OK but with no data passing through.

The easiest thing to check next is whether the connection between your
computer and the router is OK. Assuming you're using Windows, one of
the little icons near the right hand end of the taskbar will indicate
this. It varies between versions, but for Windows 7 it looks like a
little monitor screen with something at its top left corner for an
ethernet connection, and a little staircase like a mobile phone signal
indicator if you're using wireless. In either case, a little yellow
triangle or red cross indicates a problem. Hover the mouse over it
(without clicking) and the message balloon should say "internet
access". If not, click on it, and then click on "Network and sharing
center" (It pains me to spell it that way), and at the top is a little
diagram which should show where the break is. Good luck.

Rod.

[alexd]

John (for it is he) wrote:

> I am sitting with the wireless router in view, when operating normally
> the WLAN and the Internet lights flash and when connection is lost they
> remain on.

Have you tried with a cable [although I'm struggling to think of something
ISP-side that would affect wireless and not wired]?

alexd

[Graham J]

There isn't anything, but it eliminates the problem that the user has an
unreliable wireless connection.

The OP should be able to open the web page in the router and monitor the
connnection there. This will confirm that the LAN connection (be it
wireless or wired) is working, because if the LAN connection fails the
router's web page will disappear.

--
Graham J

[Roderick Stewart]

And if that doesn't work, check further for a 169 or a static IP
address. Be methodical, and follow the evidence. Don't just jump to
conclusions and say "ISP-X is wonderful and ISP-Y is rubbish because
one thing doesn't work".

Rod.

[grinch]

I'm not try changing the MTU and or MSS size on the wireless if you can
and see what that does.

I replaced the BT Openreach room heater ( I'm on FTTC) with a Cisco
router and I had issue with some sites loading and others not. I lowered
the MTU to 1492 and the mss to 1452 and that cured the problem

You could have similar issues but it is not the ISP's fault and no
matter which ISP you go with you will still use the same BT metallic
pairs unless you go to virgin cable.

[The Natural Philosopher]

although to be fair 'post office is rubbish.' is probably not far from
the truth...

[Peter Crosland]

On 08/12/2013 19:22, Phil W Lee wrote:
> John <rex...@gmail.com> considered Fri, 06 Dec 2013 09:05:39 +0000

> the perfect time to write:
>
>> I have had PO broadband for a few years, but after a so called upgrade
>> which did nothing for the speed, I get frequent loss of connection,
>> sometimes only a few seconds between.... Almost impossible to watch
>> things on my now tv box....
>

> So they broke it to the extent that it is no longer fit for purpose.
> I think that will come under the sale of goods and services act.

>>
>> Post office help say noone else is affected and they demand full payment
>> of the remaining months contract before letting me switch.
>

> Bullshit - get on to customer service and point out that THEY are
> failing to fulfil the contract, so can't expect any payment for it.
> They may even owe you a refund for the time since they broke it.

So far the OP has not shown that the ISP is at fault. He needs to do
some systematic tests first to prove where the problem is. It could be
his equipment, the line or the exchange equipment.





--
Peter Crosland

[Graham.]

John, I have re read all your contribution to this thread, and
although say you have done "all the tests" you haven't demonstrated to
me that you have done a very basic one and that is to eliminate the
wi-fi as the cause of the disconnects.

From what I can find, it appears that you are stuck with wi-fi for
your Now TV box, but at least connect your laptop to your router with
a patch cable and see if that stays connected, because if it does, it
puts the P.O. ADSL in the clear.

Most people here will not regard their wi-fi performance, or lack
thereof the responsibility of their ISP; OK they supplied the access
point (in the guise of your router), but on the other hand it has to
contend with the prevailing RF conditions at 2.4GHz at a given
location.



--
Graham.

%Profound_observation%