I was away on holiday for two weeks and was hoping that my BB would be back up when I got home. Got home on Saturday and anxiously headed for the PC. I'd left the livebox on while I was away just in case, and saw that it was still sadly flashing away to itself in the corner
Switched on the PC and tried the authentication again. No joy.
Switched the livebox off for half an hour and tried again. Still no joy.
Went to bed disappointed.
Sunday morning I noticed something different... @ light was flashing quickly! Switched PC on and while it was booting I noticed that the @ light was no longer flashing - IT WAS ON!!
B*gger me, I'VE GOT MY BROADBAND BACK!!!
The connection speed seems quite variable. I've checked using the ASDL Guide speed checker a couple of times and it seems to vary between 0.2mbs and 2.0 mbs (nowhere near the 6.5 I was promised) but at least it's working and hasn't dropped out once in the last 48 hours.
Now to my quandry, and I'd appreciate anyone's comments.
Orange have given me two months free. Last week I received my email from Sky saying I can sign up now, but I only have ten days to sign up or I'm at the back of the queue again!
Should I use my two months free and take my chance with Sky in two months time, or do I jump ship now?
You decide.
I'm in two minds really. Part of me is saying Orange left me in the lurch for five weeks and I should cut and run, but then Sky are only just kicking off and are bound to have teething troubles.
Anybody got any idea what the waiting list at Sky will be like in two months? I know it's a stupid question, but you never know!
Jump ship, I doubt if you'll go long with out any Orange problems. I've had various problems all on going since June 26, the latest is Password and User name not being recognised. Why pay for a crap service when other ISP's offer it for less.
hmm
Sky Haven't got their LLU stuff in many exchanges yet so you may have to pay more than the the little prices quoted on their website. They also charge an activation fee.
I'd move to someone like Zen with a proven track record of great customer service.
hmm
I'd move to someone like Zen with a proven track record of great customer service.
I'd second that. My BB came back at circa 2 Meg, but still went offline for days at a time. I put up with it for a month then moved to Zen. Connected at 7.2Meg last night - best yet and never below 6.0. (Wimbledon SW London).
If I move, I'm going to Sky - primarily because of the cost. Zen may be reliable, but £35 for a 50Gb cap? That's a bit pricey in today's market, is it not?
I choose quantity over quality everytime!
My exchange (Feltham) is already easynet enabled so I don't envisage any further costs.
My main issue here was whether to use up my two free months and save myself £20!
If I move, I'm going to Sky - primarily because of the cost. Zen may be reliable, but £35 for a 50Gb cap? That's a bit pricey in today's market, is it not?
I choose quantity over quality everytime!
My exchange (Feltham) is already easynet enabled so I don't envisage any further costs.
My main issue here was whether to use up my two free months and save myself £20!
I think I'll take the plunge.... wish me luck!
Andrew.
Hey there, I live in feltham and have been without broadband for two months now and I was thinking about joining Sky, trouble is I haven't recieved a comfirmation email of them and I'm wary that they might suffer teething problems so I'm seriously considering moving to Zen.. can't see Orange getting any better soon that's for sure.
If we're both on the Feltham exchange, I would have thought that we'd have had very similar experiences.
My line went dead on Sat July 22nd at about 1030 and returned Sun Aug 27th at around the same time of day. When did yours go down?
I've found out that the Feltham exchange was LLUed on July 4th and I did have an intermittant service for 18 days before it died. It only seemed to work in the evenings when the bandwidth was reduced by the amount of other users online. It died every night at around midnight when everyone else went to bed!
If yours is still dead, the ISPA is the best route (I see from other posts that you are going to take that route). I complained to them on July 31st and recieved a letter of acknowledgement from Orange dated August 9th, which co-incidently was the same day I logged my second complaint!
It's my feeling that they have mucked up so many people's connections that they are dealing with those that shout the loudest first. If the problem was just with the exchange, then your line should have come back online at the same time as mine, so this obvoiusly isn't the case.
As for the Sky BB. I registered with them on the first day that you could and I know that they are dealing with requests in the order they were registered.
If you haven't heard from them (I assume you received an email ackowledging your interest?), you could try calling them on 08705 515515 and asking when you're likely to hear from them. Someone on another forum rang them on the offchance because they knew that their exchange was Easynet enabled (which Feltham definitely is) and after 30 mins of begging was able to sign up immediately. It's worth a try I suppose, they can only say no.
After the last couple of months with Orange, I'm less worried about any possible Sky teething troubles as I have discovered that I CAN live without the internet for a while!!!
Changing to any other ISP now is going cost you about a week without connection as you've been LLUed and you now have to cancel Orange before you can join another ISP anyway. The MAC codes only seem to work if BT are actually supplying your connection (ALL ISPs supplied users through BT lines before LLU came along).
If we're both on the Feltham exchange, I would have thought that we'd have had very similar experiences.
My line went dead on Sat July 22nd at about 1030 and returned Sun Aug 27th at around the same time of day. When did yours go down?
I've found out that the Feltham exchange was LLUed on July 4th and I did have an intermittant service for 18 days before it died. It only seemed to work in the evenings when the bandwidth was reduced by the amount of other users online. It died every night at around midnight when everyone else went to bed!
If yours is still dead, the ISPA is the best route (I see from other posts that you are going to take that route). I complained to them on July 31st and recieved a letter of acknowledgement from Orange dated August 9th, which co-incidently was the same day I logged my second complaint!
It's my feeling that they have mucked up so many people's connections that they are dealing with those that shout the loudest first. If the problem was just with the exchange, then your line should have come back online at the same time as mine, so this obvoiusly isn't the case.
As for the Sky BB. I registered with them on the first day that you could and I know that they are dealing with requests in the order they were registered.
If you haven't heard from them (I assume you received an email ackowledging your interest?), you could try calling them on 08705 515515 and asking when you're likely to hear from them. Someone on another forum rang them on the offchance because they knew that their exchange was Easynet enabled (which Feltham definitely is) and after 30 mins of begging was able to sign up immediately. It's worth a try I suppose, they can only say no.
After the last couple of months with Orange, I'm less worried about any possible Sky teething troubles as I have discovered that I CAN live without the internet for a while!!!
Changing to any other ISP now is going cost you about a week without connection as you've been LLUed and you now have to cancel Orange before you can join another ISP anyway. The MAC codes only seem to work if BT are actually supplying your connection (ALL ISPs supplied users through BT lines before LLU came along).
I hope this helps.
Let us know how you get on...
Andrew.
Wow, very informative post Andrew!
Well, my broadband went around July 4th I guess, with some intermittancy, but for the most part was line dead. I haven't checked my broadband connection properly like you did, as of yet, as i still see a flashing light but maybe if i reload the software something might happen (currently typing this on dial-up )
Yeah, I have complained to the ISPA so will see if they can help push things through. The way i see it is to just get my connection back so I can get a refund for having no broadband and a huge phonebill duely owed and then i can tell them where to stick their free broadband offer and jump ship to an ISP that sails.
I didn't register with Sky until a couple of weeks back so I guess I'm still in their queue, does look a very attractive offer though. Right now I'm having a hard time imagining a 16mb speed line working on my exchange. I will just have to keep reminding myself that they couldn't possibly be as bad as Orange.. could they?
Have you left Orange already or still undecided? Did you get a refund?
Thanks for all the advice mate.
I'm off to plug in my broadband modem and look at all the pretty flashing lights.
If we're both on the Feltham exchange, I would have thought that we'd have had very similar experiences.
My line went dead on Sat July 22nd at about 1030 and returned Sun Aug 27th at around the same time of day. When did yours go down?
I've found out that the Feltham exchange was LLUed on July 4th and I did have an intermittant service for 18 days before it died. It only seemed to work in the evenings when the bandwidth was reduced by the amount of other users online. It died every night at around midnight when everyone else went to bed!
If yours is still dead, the ISPA is the best route (I see from other posts that you are going to take that route). I complained to them on July 31st and recieved a letter of acknowledgement from Orange dated August 9th, which co-incidently was the same day I logged my second complaint!
It's my feeling that they have mucked up so many people's connections that they are dealing with those that shout the loudest first. If the problem was just with the exchange, then your line should have come back online at the same time as mine, so this obvoiusly isn't the case.
As for the Sky BB. I registered with them on the first day that you could and I know that they are dealing with requests in the order they were registered.
If you haven't heard from them (I assume you received an email ackowledging your interest?), you could try calling them on 08705 515515 and asking when you're likely to hear from them. Someone on another forum rang them on the offchance because they knew that their exchange was Easynet enabled (which Feltham definitely is) and after 30 mins of begging was able to sign up immediately. It's worth a try I suppose, they can only say no.
After the last couple of months with Orange, I'm less worried about any possible Sky teething troubles as I have discovered that I CAN live without the internet for a while!!!
Changing to any other ISP now is going cost you about a week without connection as you've been LLUed and you now have to cancel Orange before you can join another ISP anyway. The MAC codes only seem to work if BT are actually supplying your connection (ALL ISPs supplied users through BT lines before LLU came along).
I hope this helps.
Let us know how you get on...
Andrew.
Wow, very informative post Andrew!
Well, my broadband went around July 4th I guess, with some intermittancy, but for the most part was line dead. I haven't checked my broadband connection properly like you did, as of yet, as i still see a flashing light but maybe if i reload the software something might happen (currently typing this on dial-up )
Yeah, I have complained to the ISPA so will see if they can help push things through. The way i see it is to just get my connection back so I can get a refund for having no broadband and a huge phonebill duely owed and then i can tell them where to stick their free broadband offer and jump ship to an ISP that sails.
I didn't register with Sky until a couple of weeks back so I guess I'm still in their queue, does look a very attractive offer though. Right now I'm having a hard time imagining a 16mb speed line working on my exchange. I will just have to keep reminding myself that they couldn't possibly be as bad as Orange.. could they?
Have you left Orange already or still undecided? Did you get a refund?
Thanks for all the advice mate.
I'm off to plug in my broadband modem and look at all the pretty flashing lights.
One thing occurred to me. Do you have a livebox or a speedtouch modem?
When my line was first LLUed, I still had the old copperjet modem which Freeserve supplied a few years back. That equipment is hopelessly inadequate as it will only cope with bandwidth up to 2Mbs. The email telling me I'd been LLUed stated that I should now get 6.5Mbs. I called them and they sent me a Speedtouch 330, but I've since discovered that they only cope with 4.5Mbs, despite the optimizer software they supply. I then got a livebox. If you're already paying £27.99 a month, getting a livebox doesn't tie you in to a new contract, but if you're leaving Orange anyway, it's not worth getting one now.
The funny thing was that my line went dead 12 hours after I got the livebox running. I'm beginning to think that the high bandwidth the livebox can cope with actually contributed to killing my line! I'm no expert on how these things work, but I'm guessing that my line is very old and has probably been there since before BB was invented! (I live in an old house)I've read elsewhere that old wiring can be a bad problem where bandwidth is concerned.
Since Sunday, I've had a stable connection, albeit a slow one. I can't seem to get more that 2Mbs at any time of day (not that I really need more).
I am still on Orange - I'd like to keep it for at least another week or two (I've got two months free!) before moving to Sky as I want to prepare myself for another week's outage. I called Sky and they've agreed to keep my option open (the email inviting you to join only gives you ten days to take them up on it).
I'm under no illusions that I'll get 8Mbs from Sky, but a stable uncapped 2Mbs connection for a tenner a month would do me. I don't want a 40Gb cap as I regularly download more than that, but not too much more. Zen are apparently reliable, but charge £35 quid a month for a 50Gb cap and don't even supply you with a router!
One thing occurred to me. Do you have a livebox or a speedtouch modem?
When my line was first LLUed, I still had the old copperjet modem which Freeserve supplied a few years back. That equipment is hopelessly inadequate as it will only cope with bandwidth up to 2Mbs. The email telling me I'd been LLUed stated that I should now get 6.5Mbs. I called them and they sent me a Speedtouch 330, but I've since discovered that they only cope with 4.5Mbs, despite the optimizer software they supply. I then got a livebox. If you're already paying £27.99 a month, getting a livebox doesn't tie you in to a new contract, but if you're leaving Orange anyway, it's not worth getting one now.
The funny thing was that my line went dead 12 hours after I got the livebox running. I'm beginning to think that the high bandwidth the livebox can cope with actually contributed to killing my line! I'm no expert on how these things work, but I'm guessing that my line is very old and has probably been there since before BB was invented! (I live in an old house)I've read elsewhere that old wiring can be a bad problem where bandwidth is concerned.
Since Sunday, I've had a stable connection, albeit a slow one. I can't seem to get more that 2Mbs at any time of day (not that I really need more).
I am still on Orange - I'd like to keep it for at least another week or two (I've got two months free!) before moving to Sky as I want to prepare myself for another week's outage. I called Sky and they've agreed to keep my option open (the email inviting you to join only gives you ten days to take them up on it).
I'm under no illusions that I'll get 8Mbs from Sky, but a stable uncapped 2Mbs connection for a tenner a month would do me. I don't want a 40Gb cap as I regularly download more than that, but not too much more. Zen are apparently reliable, but charge £35 quid a month for a 50Gb cap and don't even supply you with a router!
Anyway, enough from me.
Andrew.
Hi Andrew,
Yeah, I have a livebox but started off with that modem that looks like a green stingray which started playing up, so phoned up Orange and Three weeks later after they twice forgot to put my order through got a nice new speedtouch modem in the post.. which didn't work!
I then was told it would not work with my upgraded line so had to wait for a nice new spanking livebox to arrive on my doorstep.. which also didn't work
As of now still unable to connect, so perhaps even if the exchange is fixed they still have to individually do some fixing to the lines. If i do ever get back on i might do like you and use any free time up first before escaping.. I'm just glad on not under contract still.. phewwwww!!
A good sign to call it a day is when you start to feel sorry for the technical support.. The one I had to day was seriously struggling.. but all ended well after he stopped crying and took my advice to get a proper job
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