View Full Version : 1meg STBers - Has your box been swapped yet ?
The title says it all......
Box swapped but average speed is still the same :(
The title says it all......
Nope not yet, havent heard a thing from NTL since the original letter to tell me that somebody would be contacting me soon to arrange it. That was about 2 months ago I think.
Nope not yet, havent heard a thing from NTL since the original letter to tell me that somebody would be contacting me soon to arrange it. That was about 2 months ago I think.Wierd.....I don't get a letter but get a samsung out of the blue, you get a letter but no box yet..........
A engineer came round and swap box to samsung,he told me about round about the 18th august for speed increase
LostintheNW
16-08-2004, 19:32
ZrByte call NTL and tell them you had the letter but heard nothing, they will arrange for a tech to come out and swap the box, thats what I did as I hadn't heard anything from them
ZrByte call NTL and tell them you had the letter but heard nothing, they will arrange for a tech to come out and swap the box, thats what I did as I hadn't heard anything from them
Yeah, I think I might just do that, especially since I dont want to be paying the same price for a lower service than what everybody else is getting.
Yeah, I think I might just do that, especially since I dont want to be paying the same price for a lower service than what everybody else is getting.Don't worry about that m8. It seems (listening to some forum members) that no one will get their 1.5mb upgrade till we all have shiny new boxes......so you are holding things up for the rest of us :DA engineer came round and swap box to samsung,he told me about round about the 18th august for speed increaseWhere do you live?
Don't worry about that m8. It seems (listening to some forum members) that no one will get their 1.5mb upgrade till we all have shiny new boxes......so you are holding things up for the rest of us :D
Sweet :)
Where do you live?Ramrod i live dagenham essex.
Ramrod i live dagenham essex.Not too far from me, I'm in Bexleyheath Kent :wavey:
....but I suspect that were in different ntl areas.......so what you said about Aug 18th probably doesn't apply to me :(
What I'm wondering is what is gonna be the cut off date - the letter said that if you didn't make an appointment when the engineer called you, you'd be downgraded to the 600 (750) service and be charged appropriately
A rather pleasant sounding female member of the NTL staff called me this evening to arrange a time for my STB to be replaced.
A guy came to our house today, no warning, swapped the Pace box for a Samsung one. It looks nice but we've had no internet since.
Spent almost 2hrs on the phone to NTL being pushed from pillar to post, one department to another, being given the wrong phone number (ended up at Greenwich Council Department for the Deaf - who were extremely annoyed because they keep getting NTL customers phoning them for broadband support).
Eventually got through to someone who said the box is dodgy and won't accept the signal. Someone will phone within the next 24 hours to arrange a convenient date to replace it. A "convenient time" would have been straight after they took away the good one and replaced it with one that doesn't work.
:mad:
scrotnig
16-08-2004, 23:52
The title says it all......
I swapped my own......:D
A guy came to our house today, no warning, swapped the Pace box for a Samsung one. It looks nice but we've had no internet since.
Spent almost 2hrs on the phone to NTL being pushed from pillar to post, one department to another, being given the wrong phone number (ended up at Greenwich Council Department for the Deaf - who were extremely annoyed because they keep getting NTL customers phoning them for broadband support).
Eventually got through to someone who said the box is dodgy and won't accept the signal. Someone will phone within the next 24 hours to arrange a convenient date to replace it. A "convenient time" would have been straight after they took away the good one and replaced it with one that doesn't work.
:mad:
One thing to check for - if you're old pace box had a crossover adaptor connected (some models do, others don't), the new samsungs don't require them - the installer that swapped mine obviously wasnt aware of this - after 10 minutes of faffin i eventually sussed it....oh, and he left me a stand alonce modem version of the setup cd, not that i needed it like.
at what stage does it fail - does if have the modem file (press page up, page down then blue - its on the 3rd screen i think - look for QOS: - this should be gold.cm)
if its a case of the box not accepting the config file, you're screwed i'm afraid
I swapped my own......:D
going from mine and others experiences, you probs did a better job of it aswell ! :D
Thanks for the reply
One thing to check for - if you're old pace box had a crossover adaptor connected (some models do, others don't), the new samsungs don't require them - the installer that swapped mine obviously wasnt aware of this - after 10 minutes of faffin i eventually sussed it....oh, and he left me a stand alonce modem version of the setup cd, not that i needed it like.No, that's fine, there's no adapter there. The only CD we have is the original one from when we first signed up to broadband. Was he supposed to leave a different one?
at what stage does it fail - does if have the modem file (press page up, page down then blue - its on the 3rd screen i think - look for QOS: - this should be gold.cm)I'll look out for that modem file. As it wasn't working, I ran the original setup CD before phoning them. It gets to the stage of trying to register but it can't get online to do it.
if its a case of the box not accepting the config file, you're screwed i'm afraidWell, that sounded like what they said. It's not the failure of the box that worries me so much (these things happen) it's the being pushed around their support department as though I wasn't paying them a combined price of £90 per month that gets to me.
scrotnig
17-08-2004, 00:36
going from mine and others experiences, you probs did a better job of it aswell ! :D
I think I did.....
Took about 10 minutes including re-reg.
Incidentally, those who are running the CD again, there is no need. Once you know the box is running ok and you have the single light stable (Samsungs don't have two lights like the Paces) you just go to start.ntl in the address bar. You then need your PID and password to proceed. Running the CD is just not neccessary, unless you want the latest version of Broadband Medic or something....
Thanks for the reply
No, that's fine, there's no adapter there. The only CD we have is the original one from when we first signed up to broadband. Was he supposed to leave a different one?
Theres no need, if you already had the original one
I'll look out for that modem file. As it wasn't working, I ran the original setup CD before phoning them. It gets to the stage of trying to register but it can't get online to do it.
you haven't got a proxy address specified in Internet explorer have ya ? You can't get the the autoregister pages if you have...(this also caught me out !)
Well, that sounded like what they said. It's not the failure of the box that worries me so much (these things happen) it's the being pushed around their support department as though I wasn't paying them a combined price of £90 per month that gets to me.
Yep, the communications company that cant communicate very well....all to common of a story i'm afraid!
Thanks for the reply, Kneebs.
Checking the modem file, it says:
QOS: no-bia.cm
Yep, the communications company that cant communicate very well....all to common of a story i'm afraid!Especially when the only department that can actually help is when they give you a phone number that you have to start paying for and THEY leave you hanging for half-an-hour too. :dozey:
A guy came to our house today, no warning, swapped the Pace box for a Samsung one. It looks nice but we've had no internet since.
Spent almost 2hrs on the phone to NTL being pushed from pillar to post, one department to another, being given the wrong phone number (ended up at Greenwich Council Department for the Deaf - who were extremely annoyed because they keep getting NTL customers phoning them for broadband support).
Eventually got through to someone who said the box is dodgy and won't accept the signal. Someone will phone within the next 24 hours to arrange a convenient date to replace it. A "convenient time" would have been straight after they took away the good one and replaced it with one that doesn't work.
:mad:Moral of the story is not to let the engineer leave until everything works properly................
Moral of the story is not to let the engineer leave until everything works properly................The next one who comes certainly won't get out of the door until it is. ;)
Maybe this is why he turned up unannounced? So he could whirlwind his way through the box-change, while talking to his mate on his mobile, and out the door before the dust settles. :erm: If the phone experience is anything to go by, NTL are well skilled at passing the buck - i.e., they rush through their bit and let someone else deal with the consequences. The guy epitomised this skill so I can only presume it's not limited to their phone "support" people (and I use the term "support" in its loosest possible sense).
The guy we got was very good. He didn't mind that I stopped him leaving till I was satisfied things were working/he couldn't do any more :)
ANORAK2001
17-08-2004, 11:41
I'm using EMule/bit Torrent etc and ever since I recieved the new samsung SMT 2100c EMule does not work correctly.
Downloads speeds are at 1-2k and upload speed decreases if my downloads increase. also browsing web pages is VEEERRRYY SLLOWW if EMule is running.When I close EMule web browsing speeds up. Downloading from web sites is fine just as long as I close EMule (Even if nothing is in the download queue)
It seems the only solution is to get my old pace box back. I'm on the 600k service so it can handle the 750k speed upgrade those of you on the 1mbit connection will have to chose between having either samsung 1.5mbit with no P2P OR the pace with P2P but no speed upgrade. Is this the beginning of the end for P2P?????????????
PS.. I have also tried Bit Torrent, Shazzer etc but no use they do not work with the new Samsung boxes.
Well, i've always had problems no matter which box i've had (pace 4000, 2000, and the samsung i've got now)
Bit torrent (azureus) works fine for hours (sometimes days !) on end, but if i'm using kazaa(lite) i often have to reboot the stb after just half an hour downloading.
Bit torrent (azureus) works fine for hours (sometimes days !) on end, but if i'm using kazaa(lite) i often have to reboot the stb after just half an hour downloading.
Your showing the exact opposite to me, with Bit Torrent (ABC, Azureus and Shareazza) I often have to reboot set top box after a short time, yet with Kazaa or Emule, I never drop.
Enterian
18-08-2004, 11:15
Another thing - if the installer swapping out your box writes down your PID and password for you make sure he puts down any leading zeros on the PID (won't work without them as I found)
Also apparently the passwords need to be all in upper case.
Also apparently the passwords need to be all in upper case.
I think this just depends on how it was entered originally - my password is a mix (starts with a capital, rest lower case)
Enterian
18-08-2004, 11:24
I think this just depends on how it was entered originally - my password is a mix (starts with a capital, rest lower case)
Okay, I was just going on what the support tech told me.
Update:-
They were finally able to sort my new box out today.
Following Monday's debacle and after waiting for their phone call from them to arrange a replacement box (and not getting the phone call), I phoned them yesterday - but no one knew what I was talking about. Another hour being pushed from department to department - all of whom proclaimed that it wasn't their department that handled such problems. The phone calls ended again with the promise that someone would phone back within 2-4 hours.
Four hours later someone did phone back but was convinced that our problem was with the Interactive TV system which I'd never mentioned. Oh, and broadband problems were not their department... cue another endless cycle of waiting for phones to be answered only to find out that they didn't deal with broadband either. Finally I was told that an Engineer would phone within 24 hours who would talk me through some changes required on the STB.
Not convinced, I began scouring magazine ads for BT Broadband, Tiscali, and anyone else that didn't have "NTL" in their name.
Then, at about 10.30 this morning, I found a message on my answerphone from an NTL guy saying that they'd sorted it all out at their end and a 2min reset on the STB would make everything hunky-dory. And he was right! Thank Heaven there's at least one person at NTL who knows something about NTL Broadband.
Why do their customer support department(s) constantly give customers the runaround? Do they have too many customers and they want them to go elsewhere? Is their motto "the customer must be avoided at all costs"..?
All this because they want us to change to a service that we didn't want to change to in the first place. I was happy with the 1Mbit service. One of the dozens of NTL phone people admitted that this was true of a lot of their 1Mbit-ers who were not happy with the hassle.
I think the most annoying this is that, while trying to convince them that the broadband wasn't working, all the recorded messages kept saying how wonderful NTL Broadband was. And then to have your nose rubbed in it by someone saying the upgrade to 1.5Mbit was for free. Do they seriously believe that they've effectively conned anyone with that line?
Anyway, the story ends, the broadband works again, and if I ever need to talk to NTL's customer support again it'll be a millennia too soon. :(
Glad to see its sorted at last. :) Now you've just gotta wait like the rest of us for the STB speeds to be upped to 1.5Mb.....(coming soon :D)
orangebird
18-08-2004, 12:12
<snip>
Why do their customer support department(s) constantly give customers the runaround? Do they have too many customers and they want them to go elsewhere? Is their motto "the customer must be avoided at all costs"..?
It's not the CS reps motto, but they are marked on how many calls they take per hour.... If they fall below the targets set, it's not unknown for disciplinaries etc to happen... A bit ruch coming from our wonderful management who's favourtie saying is 'putting the customer first'... :shrug:
All this because they want us to change to a service that we didn't want to change to in the first place. I was happy with the 1Mbit service. One of the dozens of NTL phone people admitted that this was true of a lot of their 1Mbit-ers who were not happy with the hassle.
On the contrary, I think most customers were quite happy with a 50% speed increase (for free or for the £3 price rise that happened previously however you view it, it's not a bad deal either)
I think the most annoying this is that, while trying to convince them that the broadband wasn't working, all the recorded messages kept saying how wonderful NTL Broadband was. And then to have your nose rubbed in it by someone saying the upgrade to 1.5Mbit was for free. Do they seriously believe that they've effectively conned anyone with that line?
ntl haven't conned anyone. They've given an increase for nothing. And it does work for the majority too. Cases like yours are frustrating, unfortunate, and thankfully not to many - if you look at the poll on another thread about Samsung boxes, the majority are quite happy with their performance.
Anyway, the story ends, the broadband works again, and if I ever need to talk to NTL's customer support again it'll be a millennia too soon. :(
I'm glad your service is back online, and I hope that if you should need to speak to CS again, your experience is 110% better than this one. :)
It's not the CS reps motto, but they are marked on how many calls they take per hour.... If they fall below the targets set, it's not unknown for disciplinaries etc to happen... A bit ruch coming from our wonderful management who's favourtie saying is 'putting the customer first'... :shrug:I'm sure the people themselves are doing the best that they're able. I know it's a job that I wouldn't want to do.
On the contrary, I think most customers were quite happy with a 50% speed increase (for free or for the £3 price rise that happened previously however you view it, it's not a bad deal either)It's not the speed increase that I'm suggesting prople might not have been happy with - it's the hassle associated with the change (even if it's only for a minority of us who get such hassle).
ntl haven't conned anyone. They've given an increase for nothing.All I know is that my broadband bill went up last month and the broadband speed goes up this month (or, at the very least, the box was changed ready for the speed increase). To say that one doesn't pay for the other is just marketting baloney.
And it does work for the majority too. Cases like yours are frustrating, unfortunate, and thankfully not to many - if you look at the poll on another thread about Samsung boxes, the majority are quite happy with their performance.One interesting point is that one of the many phone conversations implied that the new STB had already been registered to someone else and that this may have been causing the problem. However, the inconsistency of replies you get when you keep repeating the situation to upwards of six different people each time you phone up didn't fill me with confidence that this, or any other suggestion, was the cause of the problem.
I'm glad your service is back online, and I hope that if you should need to speak to CS again, your experience is 110% better than this one. :)I hope so too. Thank-you for replying.
Well it was done today, I'd forgotten all about phoning and they just turned up unannounced while I was at work this morning. My Mum was home so she let him in and he sorted it all out though he couldnt test the box due to the way how I have my TV connected to it. Basicly I was just lucky it all worked when I got home :) though I am impressed with the new Box and Remote :D
Atomic22
24-08-2004, 18:28
ntl swapped my 1000 c&w digibox for the samsung , no problems , he was here 15 mins ,telly and pc working perfectly with no re-installations of software or loss of speed etc etc......
i have been informed my speed increase will come on 1st september....
my 1000 was 100% reliable from the day i installed broadjump many years ago and i am hoping the samsung does the same.....
a few of my friends that have had the odd problem with connection all used ethernet cards.....i use usb , this may make a difference to reliability.......
all in all (apart from the odd email problems) i cannot fault ntl and have always been a satisfied customer (gimme a discount please)
An engineer has just turned up to replace my Pace 1000, which is all fine and dandy until you realise that I'm using a Stand Alone Cable Modem!.
I've been having constant connection dropping problems and this is the fourth STB I've had, I was fed up and decided to move over to the SACM instead.
It appears that this changeover hasn't filtered down through the company yet.
Called NTL and told them about the "letter" .. seemed like they couldn't do a thing regarding the Samsung box as its allocated as and when the 'area' is being swapped over.. "Worsley" (Manchester), apparently, has not had a single Samsung box swapped over.. so it could be months yet before they get round to me. No amount of quibbling with them seems to progress matters either..
So does anybody have any idea when I will be upped to 1.5mb?
Im in Ex CW area and Ive checked on the NTL website and it seems to think our road has allready been activated. Im not in any rush mind you, im just interested :)
You're area could well of already been done, at least for SACM, and 150 or 600 STB users. 1meg STBers all have to wait till all paces have been swapped out for samsungs. Rumour has it to be the 1st of Sept.
You're area could well of already been done, at least for SACM, and 150 or 600 STB users. 1meg STBers all have to wait till all paces have been swapped out for samsungs. Rumour has it to be the 1st of Sept.
I really can't understand why we have to wait, as we are the ones who will benefit the most; i.e for the simple fact that when using the whole 125ks download stream it then takes up to "2 English Minutes" to change a ruddy channel via the remote (no, the batteries are fine) ..
I'm sure that the Samsung boxes would solve, for the most part, this problem with its bigger buffers, etc.. 600 and lower users don't have to suffer this problem; besides, they are the swines who are paying less than us too! -)
I really can't understand why we have to wait, as we are the ones who will benefit the most; i.e for the simple fact that when using the whole 125ks download stream it then takes up to "2 English Minutes" to change a ruddy channel via the remote (no, the batteries are fine) .. I am not making excuses here, as I am one of the STB users with 1Mb, and am quite angry that NTL haven't ugraded the 1Mb STB users, but NTL are having to replace a lot of Pace boxes. This is obviously taking some time, This could be for many reasons (people out when the engineer calls round, replacing faulty STBs, lack of qualified techs etc).
It would be nice if NTL were a bit more forthcoming on when they aim to upgrade us STB users though. At the moment, we are paying the same as 1.5Mb SACM users, but for two thirds the service.
I'm sure that the Samsung boxes would solve, for the most part, this problem with its bigger buffers, etc.. 600 and lower users don't have to suffer this problem; besides, they are the swines who are paying less than us too! -)
I have no problems with my Samsung box. Didn't have many with the Pace either, although that was too slow for interactive.
I really can't understand why we have to wait, as we are the ones who will benefit the most; i.e for the simple fact that when using the whole 125ks download stream it then takes up to "2 English Minutes" to change a ruddy channel via the remote (no, the batteries are fine) ..
I'm sure that the Samsung boxes would solve, for the most part, this problem with its bigger buffers, etc.. 600 and lower users don't have to suffer this problem; besides, they are the swines who are paying less than us too! -)
So are you still on a Pace with 1meg ? If so I'd give 'em a call, just to make sure you haven't slipped through the net..
So are you still on a Pace with 1meg ? If so I'd give 'em a call, just to make sure you haven't slipped through the net..
I have .. on two or three occasions (being very polite about it too) -- and they just keep saying that there is nothing they can do. It's as though I'm asking for something I am not actually entitled to; even though I have problems with the PACE box.. i.e all they say they can do is replace the PACE box with *another* PACE box.. its like I'm asking for gold or something.
Well, theres a post from someone also in Manchester on the first page - he said he rang them to get sorted with a new box as he'd not heard anything. Although he doesn't say that he got a samsung, what he says implies he did.
I guess it must depend on who you get through to...
I got a call from someone at NTL and arranged to have my stb replaced on saturday. Low and behold the engineer did not turn up :mad: Phoned customer services on Monday and they did not know which department was doing the upgrades :erm: They said they would phone me back but never did.
Phoned them again today and was told it might be take a few days find out who was doing the upgrades :rolleyes: but someone will call back to keep me informed, still waiting for the call. How difficult can it be to find out which department is doing the upgrades :shrug:
LostintheNW
25-08-2004, 21:53
I got my samsung by calling CS and asking them to change the box due to the fact I had not heard anything(I am in Manchester by the way)
I got my samsung by calling CS and asking them to change the box due to the fact I had not heard anything(I am in Manchester by the way)
I'll give it another go tomorrow, ringing CS up and saying pretty much the same thing. The problem is I tried this line before and was told that I would probably only be fitted with the same PACE box as I have already..
Called up CS again and they have penciled me in for the second week of September... not exactly what I had in mind; but better than nothing. Having said that the chances are they will not turn up and have just been fobbing me off.
If its true that all STB 1MB are getting the upgrade at the same time, then now we know it wont be at least while Mid September.
flakmonkey
29-08-2004, 12:09
Got a message on my answerphone last Monday, called the engineer back and he was round within five minutes! ten minutes later new Samsung STB fitted and one hour later back on line as promised. Very smooth.
FM :D
winterbrew
29-08-2004, 12:51
Mines just been swapped out today. The engineer called on his mobile to arrange yesterday.
So far so good, all channels working and b/b back up. Glad I read this thread, as I did a speed test, and didn't get 1.5Mbps. Roll on Sepetmber 1st.
Jon
If everyone gets the upgrade at the same time, how can it happen on 1st September, when a guy further up this thread says his box is nto getting swapped while Mid September? surely others will be even later.
philquinney
29-08-2004, 13:13
I thought that the way things work was that for cable modems a specific config file relating to the individual cable modem model was sent out. (Eg: silver-ambit120.cm or something.) Coudn't ntl send out a gold-pace.cm or a gold-samsung.cm depending on the type of box installed? That way the set top box users would be able to get their 1.5meg.
Just an idea - I have no idea on the technicality of this stuff (other than how tftp sends out specific files to specific mac addresses).
Phil.
I'm not sure, but I am pretty sure somewhere in this thread or the Speed increase thread one of the Ntl employeers who help run the boards confirmed all STB's would go up together.
LostintheNW
29-08-2004, 13:52
But NTL have also said that if the swap outs have not been completed by a certain date then those who do not have the samsung stb will drop to 750k. If by the first of Sept my speed hasn't increased I am demanding a SACM be installed
Anybody else on the Samsungs noticed that your download drops to half when uploading at full speed? Anything I can do to fix this?
Anybody else on the Samsungs noticed that your download drops to half when uploading at full speed? Anything I can do to fix this?
Yep, that along with packet loss. Its happened on the two samsungs I've had. I'm having a SACM installed on Wednesday.
See http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/showthread.php?t=16336&page=1&pp=15
vBulletin® v3.8.11, Copyright ©2000-2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.