Loss of service and no support

[Paul K]

Well, after the initial failures on NTLs part in not activating the correct STB for the broadband connection it now seems that another problem has arisen with my parents broadband connection.
The story so far....
Upon installation (well I suppose the NTL installer did plug the ethernet cable into the STB) it was found that the connection was dead, after a lengthy phone call to me it was discovered that the STB wasn't even enabled for the connection.
Wonderful, especially since it was Sunday and no CS is available.
Monday arrives with a phonecall asking them to enable the correct box, this is done but takes 12 hours to actually take effect :erm:
So we now have an enabled STB, great :) Shame the connection still doesn't work :confused: It seems that for some reason the connection keeps failing, unable to renew the IP address or get information from the DNS servers.
This goes on for a few weeks, some days the PC will work with the connection some days the broadband refuses to yield an IP address and sits there dead.
So on a visit home I take the laptop that has been working flawlessly here with the broadband connection and I plug it into the STB at mums. Nothing, it sits there refusing to get an IP address, no matter what I do, how many times we power everything down, how many times I try going to the start page for NTL provisioning, nothing works.
Two phone calls in the last 48 hours have resulted in no change in the connection, a request for an engineer to check the box refused, NTL giving mum a number for microsoft support as for some reason NTL are blaming the connection failure on MS software :erm: and tonight a second laptop which has been working on broadband a couple of streets away also refused to work with the STB.
Now is it just me or was the request for an engineer to visit with a laptop to test the STB asking too much? How is it that an on/off connection has now failed on 3 different PCs but NTL broadband technical support are refusing to believe that the STB may have a fault?
Tomorrow another phone call is taking place at mums, depending on the results of that I may be asking the helpful and obviously more knowledgeable NTL bods here for advice. Any clues you can point us towards would be most gratefully received :)
(Hope you noticed that I have refrained from using primate references when talking about the people that represented NTL CS on the phones yesterday and today ;) )

[Chris W]

if i get this working you owe me a big bunch of bananas :p:

are you using the ethernet cable straight without the usb adaptor? and also is it a pace or samsung box?

[Paul K]

Ethernet without USB (though at one point NTL TS did talk them through installing the USB to see if that would work, not that I hadn't already checked lol )
and it's a Pace box, never had a Samsung box yet, hopefully we may get one in the future if they don't cancel all NTL accounts lol

[MovedGoalPosts]

Odd, you'd think that since you have managed to repeat the fault with two other laptops, it would rule out the CS bods blaming M$ software. It clearly demonstrates that it's not the computer that is at fault.

Have you tried an alternate ethernet cable, just in case that is duff?

It really sounds to me like a configuration fault in the STB or cable network sending messages to the STB. Hopefully the CS bods won't have cotton wool in their ears next time you call them.

[Paul K]

Ethernet cable is brand new, it's actually the only thing that the installation bod from NTL actually fitted to the STB, he left without checking anything at all and I had to contact NTL to have the STB pinged, they then hit the wrong STB and I had to call them back and get it sorted. Not much fun when you are 90+ miles from the PC in question.

[MovedGoalPosts]

It's worth ruling the ethernet cable out, if only for total piece of mind. Just because it's new, doesn't mean to say that it is OK.

[Paul K]

If we get there this weekend I'll take my working cable from this setup with me to check but hopefully tomorrow there will be someone sensible working in CS/ TS when mother rings. We know they exist cos they post here lol ;)

[kronas]

It's worth ruling the ethernet cable out, if only for total piece of mind. Just because it's new, doesn't mean to say that it is OK.


yes this is quite correct, my main pc (which is in repair for now) does not accept the NTL cable that came with SACM, it will happily accept any other, the backup pc thats running now will accept the NTL cable.

strange but true :p:

[Paul K]

Well it seems on the third attempt mother has managed to speak to someone who agrees that there is a problem with the connection. Especially since they checked the account and noticed the PC managed to log onto the network for all of 2-3 seconds last night :(
We now have an engineer visiting tomorrow which is a minor miracle in itself as usually you would be waiting till the Monday to get a visit.
We'll let you know how it goes when we find out but I'm hoping that this just proves that there are more people like Debs, MB etc in NTL support roles and if you are lucky you will get to speak to them too :)
BTW thanks to the help from MB in this thread and to Debs for making herself available and offering to call my parents at home to get it sorted out if todays call hadn't worked. Next time we're all out at a meet we owe you a drink :)