What I Think » connection

Broadband Issues – Decision Made

Paul — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 22:53:40 +0000

After all my problems, I’ve decided to bite the bullet and stay with my original provider. While they cannot guarantee my upload connection, at least it is a connection. With the new provider, I was dependent on the goodwill of my neighbours to even get a connection, so I’ve given it up as a bad idea.

Hopefully my provider will resolve the problems with my upload speed. In the meantime, I need some sort of working internet connection, so I’ll live with it.

A New Provider: Is Now Not A Provider

Paul — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 05:08:26 +0000

The saga that is my broadband connection continues. I am now staying with my old provider, as I am unable to get the written permission that I need for my new provider to perform the installation of the aerial on my neighbours chimney. Having just read that last sentence, I think a recap is called for:

In 2005, I had broadband installed in the house I rent and share with a couple of friends. Because we couldn’t install a phone line, we went with a wireless provider. For â‚¬36 a month they provided a 1Mbps connection with a static IP address. The connection is synchronous – i.e. the download and upload speeds are the same. There was no download cap, so you could transfer as much data as you liked without fear of being penalised.

For over a year, my connection was rock solid, and I had no problems at all. Then in November 2006 my provider went through a network upgrade. All their 1Mbps customers were automatically upgraded to a 2Mbps connection. Great I thought, but that’s when my problems started. Although I was getting a consistent 2Mbps download speed, I was having problems connecting to websites. After some basic troubleshooting, I found that the problem was with my upload connection. The speed would fluctuate wildly, and at one stage was working at less than dial-up modem speeds.

After a few calls to technical support, one of their engineers came out and confirmed that there was a problem. The solution apparently was to re-orientate the aerial on the roof and connect to a different high site. The only problem being that because of a storm that week, it was too dangerous for anyone to go up on the roof to do the work. Eventually after waiting another two weeks, the engineer was sent out again to resolve the problem. Or so I thought. Even after changing me over, I was still having the same problems, and apparently I wasn’t the only one.

After talking to his head office, I was put on to someone in “premium support” who told me that they could no longer guarantee my connection and to find a new provider. So I did. That very day.

A week later, I got a call from my soon-to-be-new provider to arrange the installation of my new aerial. I took the morning off work, and waited for their engineer to show up. He was supposed to call me when he was on his way, but didn’t actually call until he was half way up the ladder onto my roof.

That’s when I got the bad news. There is no line of sight from my rook to their high site because of a tree. My neighbours chimney, (which is about 15 feet away), does have a line of sight. No problem I thought, just put the aerial up there. No way I’m told. They want written permission from the owner of the house before they’ll do it. This is despite the fact that when I got my original connection put in I got permission from the management company that looks after our little estate, and there is already an aerial up there.

To top it all off, I got a call last week from my original provider to arrange for their equipment to be removed from the roof. Because their engineers are only in my area two days a week, they weren’t able to do it last week. So last Friday, I had to call them and ask them to cancel the removal, and reinstate the direct debit on my account so that I can keep my connection.

All that’s left to do is call my soon-never-to-be provider and cancel the installation with them. I’m really looking forward to finding out what hoops I’ll have to jump through with them.

Update on Broadband Issues

Paul — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 09:51:50 +0000

Following my telephone call to my provider on the 9th January, an engineer called out today to check my connection. Before he even came into the house, he could tell me that the aerial was pointed towards the wrong high-site. After some basic testing he confirmed that my download connection was fine, but that my upload was not. Apparently the upload connection was very unstable.

The upshot is that they’ll try to connect me to another high-site, but it won’t happen today. Not with the high winds that we’re experiencing at the moment. Hopefully I’m one step closer to getting this sorted out.

Broadband Issues – Yet Another Update

Paul — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 02:40:06 +0000

After another call and more troubleshooting with my provider I’m still having problems with my connection. I’ve done everything I can to eliminate any hardware or software problems on my side. So far I’ve tried with:

3 different computers,
2 different routers,
no router,
Windows XP (Home and MCE),
and Linux.

Still no joy. I know the problem is not with my equipment, but I’m having a tough time explaining that to my provider.

There is only one thing that is stopping me from calling the company and cancelling my contract: they are the only company in my area providing wireless broadband. In other words, I don’t need a phone line to connect. That, and the fact that the 2 girls I share the house with have become so addicted to the Internet, cancelling it would result in the loss of vital parts of my anatomy.

At the moment, I’m not holding out much hope for getting this fixed before the end of the year, if ever. So as bad as it is, I’m just going to have to grin and bear it for the time being.

Sporadic as my posting has been, it’s about to get a lot worse, as I am heading up home for Christmas, where I’ll only have access to “ye olde” dial-up connection. Enjoy the holidays, and see you for the ringing in of the New Year!