just wondering if anyone can offer any advice/suggestions on the best thing to do.
Situation is I have been an Orange broadband customer since March, on the 'starter' (2mb) package but during the 6 months I've been with them I have never had much luck with the connection. No connection at any time with the speedtouch modem - so have tried with a borrowed 'wired' ethernet router which I can get a connection with during the day, but the connection pretty much always drops about 5.30 pm and will not re-connect for the rest of the evening.
Engineer visited today and says due to the stats on the line I should not be able to support 2mb and shouldn't have been on that package - phoned Orange who say I will be entering a new contract if they set the line to 512k which it needs to be for a stable connection apparently.
Not really keen to do this due to the bad level of support I've had in the past and I don't want to get into a new contract if this change still won't fix it - have spoken with them last week about making a complaint and cancelling the service (cancellation fee: remainder of contract - 6 months in my case), this is what prompted them to book an engineer visit so quickly...! I have spent about £20 or more on calls to the 50p a minute technical support who go through repeatedly 'have you switched the filters' etc
Based on the line stats below can anyone suggest what would be the best course of action - go with the "downgrade" (?) and start another contract, or go with another provider? (I am thinking of BT if I switch)
Also I have heard that certain modems can work with a lower SNR, do you think this would do any good?
The stats for during the day are below - in the evening there is pretty much no connection at all, on the few occasions it does "appear" to sync it drops the connection again after a couple of seconds. At that time the figures show similar to the below except the downstream SNR is more like 0.5.
Downstream Upstream
SNR Margin 3.0 13.0 dB
Line Attenuation 60.3 31.5 dB
Errored Seconds 3218 16
Loss of Signal 9 9
Loss of Frame 0 0
CRC Errors 2733 11
Data Rate 2272 288 kbps
Latency FAST FAST
Any help on this would be much appreciated as for various reasons I need to get reliable internet access back pretty soon and don't know too much about the hardware side of attenuation etc, so I am hoping someone here will know more!
Thanks for reading,
xalia
Last edited by xalia on Sat Nov 10, 2007 7:31 pm; edited 1 time in total
Joined: 13 Aug 2006Posts: 1689Location: Marylebone Central London
Hi
The least Orange could do is downgrade u to 512k without starting a new contract, their support is truly disgraceful you only have to breathe and they want to start a new contract, if they insist on this i certainly wouldn't accept that, they shouldn't have sold you that package in the first place try and dispute that with them, if no joy its worth filling in an online complaints form with the ISPA Here explaining everything.
If you do get away from this company its worth going with a smaller ISP with a 1 month contract in future they tend to be a lot more accommodating in cases like yours and know what they are talking about not just trying to lock you in longer.
_________________ ex Freeserve/Wanadoo/Orange Blog
Joined: 12 Jun 2006Posts: 907Location: Weston-super-Mare, UK
Steve is correct. Orange are in breach of the contract.
Suggets you ask for MAC at which stage you should be put through to someone sensible who I am sure will put you on 512 with no new contract. Also ask for refund of money paid for no proper service.
Normally as part of a fault they should downgrade the line if needed. It's only if you request a speed change that they do the new contract thing. A line regrade is usually fairly quick though can take upto 10 days at most.
Orange contacted me yesterday and apparently the line speed will be done today so as of tonight I should have working internet (fingers crossed but I won't hold my breath until I see it!)
Once that's sorted I'll contact the customer service people and ask about any money back etc - guy I spoke to yesterday (who I think was part of the faults people, not the general customer services people!) said this should be possible and to speak to CS - must be a common request as he had a ready answer
Just to update this in case anyone is reading and having similar problems. After the engineer visit and the recommendation for the line to be downgraded to 512 K, I was contacted by the faults people who arranged for this to be done ... have not had any problems with the service since, in fact even the speedtouch modem works now (I think this is probably because the 'SNR margin' before was probably too low for the speedtouch to be able to 'hear' anything, but the wired ethernet router could, just about). It's noticeably slower to download anything but worth it to be able to know that the internet will work when I use it!
These are the figures I'm getting now (saturday evening - they're better in the mornings still) -
Downstream Upstream
SNR Margin 13.8 13.0 dB
Line Attenuation 61.6 31.5 dB
Errored Seconds 43 0
Loss of Signal 0 0
Loss of Frame 0 0
CRC Errors 52 0
Data Rate 576 288 kbps
Latency FAST FAST
After 2 line tests that didn't pick up this 'fault' (not really a line fault, probably just due to distance from the exchange was the engineer's opinion) it was only because of actually making a complaint to customer service that they got an engineer onto this so quickly...
Might be something for people to bear in mind if you are having the same problems, especially if there are problems connecting in the evening or just no connection at all with the speedtouch. (I don't know if you can get the line attenuation figures etc from a speedtouch though - especially if it won't connect in the first place!)
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
I'll give them another call later and see what they can come up with...
