[Merged] Stoke on Trent - Getting worse
 

Sorry to bore the pants of everyone but I've got to have another whinge about the service. I pay for the 4meg service but get something that's not much better than an old dial-up.

During the day things aren't too bad but after 5pm there is hardly any point in trying to access the internet. It used to get better after midnight but the last 3 or 4 days it has actually got worse after midnight.

Here's a speed test I did at about quarter past twelve tonight:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/murfituk/st0610050018.html

If anyone has any useful "contacts" at ntl I could phone to discuss I would be grateful if you could let me know.

As before: I have no viruses/spyware or anything else. I usually connect through a wireless network (very secure) but it is exactly the same if I plug the laptop straight into the cable modem. The laptop has Linux so ntl doesn't support.

Switching providers isn't really an option as the BT engineer says the quality of the old phone line is very poor and I'm unlikely to get any decent speed, so looks like I'm stuck with ntl.

Please help.

Re: Stoke on Trent - Getting worse
 

Im not getting that bad results but mine are still poor for 10mb, again im back down to 5mb now, and its been up and down all day long, about 2pm this afternoon i was running at 3mb, then it went back up to about 9mb, then its down again now...
Its annoying to say the least and i dont know whats going on... traffic shaping is affecting my newsgroup downloads but speed tests done on the web etc are still showing poor performance so this cant have anything to do wtih traffic shaping.

Re: Stoke on Trent - Getting worse
 

Hi murfitUK,

I'm also in the stoke-on-trent area and I too am seeing much the same as you.

Wot worries me is the amount of packet loss that comes about.
I have tried various tracert and pathping's but to no joy.

Re: Stoke on Trent - Getting worse
 

to get any decent surfing speeds after 6 around the Stoke/Newcastle area you need to proxy dance. On the 4mb I'm getting full speed downloading from Newshosting, but trying to surf can be a strain.

Re: Stoke on Trent - Getting worse
 

been like this for a few weeks now.

Re: Stoke on Trent - Getting worse
 

Newcastle under lyme ... ( just across the road for people not from the area ;) )
absolutely abysmal - 10mb service literally running slower than my old dial up modem.

actually considered connecting through gprs instead..


have tried proxy dance and its not really helping -

just tested newsgroups: ( not a heavy user of them personally but i still have an account for the odd bits i want ) .. very very slow to start and slowly worked its way to 3mb or so

speed test from this site: ( these are nearly double i was getting from the default proxy )
Mon, 9 Oct 2006 20:49:34 UTC

1st 512K took 5359 ms = 95.5 KB/sec, approx 787 Kbps, 0.77 Mbps
2nd 512K took 5437 ms = 94.2 KB/sec, approx 776 Kbps, 0.76 Mbps
3rd 512K took 5407 ms = 94.7 KB/sec, approx 780 Kbps, 0.76 Mbps
4th 512K took 4734 ms = 108.2 KB/sec, approx 892 Kbps, 0.87 Mbps

Overall Average Speed = approx 809 Kbps, 0.79 Mbps

Router rebooted, ntl250 rebooted, wife kicked and hair pulled out ;) ( just kidding about the hair lol )

i havent done a long enough ping test to see about packet loss; but did a quick test on pcpitstop.com and was getting some.

sky TV works perfectly well though lol ( i know .. please dont comment on sky .. tis just a joke ;) )

Did anyone get or have any information as to why stoke and surrounding area is so extremely poor - if i wasnt 312 miles from the bt exchange i'd be on adsl now. Seems my choice is 'pathetically slow with ntl' or 'pathetic 1mb adsl' although i guess the latter would consistantly be slow and not get my hopes up.

Welcome back 1991 - good old 36k baud external modems woot

---------- Post added at 22:02 ---------- Previous post was at 21:56 ----------

Curious ...

10pm on the nose and what happens?

this,,,
Mon, 9 Oct 2006 21:02:14 UTC

1st 512K took 828 ms = 618.4 KB/sec, approx 5096 Kbps, 4.98 Mbps
2nd 512K took 906 ms = 565.1 KB/sec, approx 4656 Kbps, 4.55 Mbps
3rd 512K took 891 ms = 574.6 KB/sec, approx 4735 Kbps, 4.62 Mbps
4th 512K took 1640 ms = 312.2 KB/sec, approx 2573 Kbps, 2.51 Mbps

Overall Average Speed = approx 4265 Kbps, 4.17 Mbps

Now i did stop recording at the same time with sky+ .. coincidence? ;) lmao

Re: Stoke on Trent - Getting worse
 

Took over 4 minutes to load this page - that's quicker than it has been recently.

Hair - long gone.
Wife - disappeared just after the hair.
Not kidding about the hair.

Re: Stoke on Trent - Getting worse
 

I just got off the phone to tech support ( on an 0845 number .. disgusting that i should pay for calling them to tell them that THEIR network is pants .. but i guess thats a whole subforum away from this one )

Explained to them that my network is fine in the mornings; fine throughout the day; yet appaulingly useless in the evening. In his finest american fake accent the chappy suggested he sends an engineer - i suggested that unless he wants to send an engineer to every house in stoke on trent and surrounding areas then i wasnt interested, i reiterated the fact that its an evening problem and asked if maybe the lack of natural sunlight was affecting the cable in my garden. - and yes i stopped him from answering before he did.

So off he goes to his 2nd line support ( apparently ) and comes back with a generic reboot mode/ disconnect router / stand on your left leg whilst chanting to the god of bandwidth... i politely declined all of these offers as i had done all of the above prior to making the call ( i also use voip and didnt fancy cutting myself off )

At this point we took a little time out to have a dance and chat about how often we frequent the phone line ( ok maybe not .. maybe we just kept going over the same subject again, again, again, again, again )

So the last dance was over, a little smooch and a little touchy-feely action and off he went to call his mum ( 2nd line support actually .. but who cares so long as i pull eh? )

This time its quite a shock .. some very important sounding department is apparently aware that the area is getting nailed senseless and our shoestring has too many conkers on it. - i cant remember exactly but i think he said something like .... "awww nevermind, at least you are paying for a 10mb line and maybe one day you will achieve a speed above the 40k or so you are getting" ( this is where i just re-read what i said .. sorry for the blatant lies .. he really did say that maybe i should speak to cust services during my companies working hours )

So the point of this post?
They apparently know that people in stoke etc have more chance of a one legged cat burying a turd on a frozen lake than browsing with a smile. And apparently one day after everybody ( including postroom staff ) have all agree'd on a way to resolve it, then they will fill in the fault submissions page on www.whyonearthisitsoslow.net.jp.com.org and send it off to the guy who will fix the problem.

Sorry for the rant - lol - maybe there is hope yet?

Re: Stoke on Trent - Getting worse
 

That is the standard get you off the phone as i cannot be bothered answer. I have had emails from support and conversations with Tech supposed support who have said the same. That is the answer they have been giving out for 2 months now to anyone who has any type of slow down or brain fart.

If only there was another supplier in my area that can give me 8-10 meg but there is not at this time.

As far as i am concerned NTL are now the Pitts as far as broadband goes. They have killed the goose that laid the golden egg.

Re: Stoke on Trent - Getting worse
 

guess what ...

yet again at several minutes past ten i notice a speed increase..

Tue, 10 Oct 2006 21:09:05 UTC

1st 512K took 843 ms = 607.4 KB/sec, approx 5005 Kbps, 4.89 Mbps
2nd 512K took 750 ms = 682.7 KB/sec, approx 5625 Kbps, 5.49 Mbps
3rd 512K took 749 ms = 683.6 KB/sec, approx 5633 Kbps, 5.5 Mbps
4th 512K took 875 ms = 585.1 KB/sec, approx 4821 Kbps, 4.71 Mbps

Overall Average Speed = approx 5271 Kbps, 5.15 Mbps

Re: Stoke on Trent - Getting worse
 

I said this the other week, and don't want to tempt fate, but recently it really hasn't been too bad. Yes, the odd bad night, but I have certainly known much worse. Maybe I've just really lowered my standards over the years with NTL? Also, if I go to download any big files from Microsoft and the like I regularly get over 1MB/sec :cool:

I have this theory that at the top of Ash Bank we are connected to a different region .... one that works ;) Though Bill C knows that hasn't always been the case for me!

Oh, Stoke is down for Network optimisation this week too

Re: Stoke on Trent - Getting worse
 

Just passed 11.00pm and its back to normal

Tue, 10 Oct 2006 22:08:29 GMT

1st 512K took 484 ms = 1057.9 KB/sec, approx 8717 Kbps, 8.51 Mbps
2nd 512K took 438 ms = 1169 KB/sec, approx 9633 Kbps, 9.41 Mbps
3rd 512K took 437 ms = 1171.6 KB/sec, approx 9654 Kbps, 9.43 Mbps
4th 512K took 735 ms = 696.6 KB/sec, approx 5740 Kbps, 5.61 Mbps

Overall Average Speed = approx 8436 Kbps, 8.24 Mbps



To repeat this test from the source server click here.

Re: Stoke on Trent - Getting worse
 

7:37 am and its as usual for me

Wed, 11 Oct 2006 06:37:44 UTC

1st 512K took 532 ms = 962.4 KB/sec, approx 7930 Kbps, 7.74 Mbps
2nd 512K took 578 ms = 885.8 KB/sec, approx 7299 Kbps, 7.13 Mbps
3rd 512K took 515 ms = 994.2 KB/sec, approx 8192 Kbps, 8 Mbps
4th 512K took 547 ms = 936 KB/sec, approx 7713 Kbps, 7.53 Mbps

Overall Average Speed = approx 7784 Kbps, 7.6 Mbps

Re: Stoke on Trent - Getting worse
 

To be fair there isnt much choice in Stoke for a decent Broadband service, its either ntl or bust.

I have on numerous occassions tried to use a BT Line for ADSL and failed miserably, and using a supposed 'Business' service at work everyday in Longton which drops off at least 3-4 times a day (I sorry that is not business standard). The BT Lines and exchanges round here seem to have been installed in the Victorian era when much of the city was built.

We use Eclipse at work, who seem reasonable, we have branches in Tamworth, Stafford and Burton and the only Braodban services which cause problems are in the SOT area, the rest never drop off. Not a coicidence I think.

I have lived in 4 Houses in recent years around Hanley and Stoke and have always managed to end up more than 4 miles from the exchange (allegedly the reason why my service was so crap, and 4 BT lines were appalling quality for voice calls also

ntl has been bad lately, but i sure as hell cant see an alternative. I dont think the 4 BT Lines and the poor service at work are bad luck, its a crap BT infastructure in the area. I also know a number of people in different areas of the city with poor speeds and lack of service on ADSL.

Maybe we should start a Broadband for Stoke campaign :D

We have the A500, lets have Broadband!

Re: Stoke on Trent - Getting worse
 

It took 30 years to complete the A500. God help us ;)

Re: Stoke on Trent - Getting worse
 

Service status page reckons that there was work done early this morning; and apparently early yesterday morning.

Admittedly i guess i am a blithering idiot for even bothering to read that page; but i guess i am a sucker for it.

Now whilst my speedtest crawls in another window i'll keep typing, i sense i have a minute or two to spare..... and i am not going to call anyone liars, and i am not going to say anything regarding the obvious nonesense on the service status pag.....

Wed, 11 Oct 2006 18:07:26 UTC

1st 512K took 19828 ms = 25.8 KB/sec, approx 213 Kbps, 0.21 Mbps
2nd 512K took 16453 ms = 31.1 KB/sec, approx 256 Kbps, 0.25 Mbps
3rd 512K took 12703 ms = 40.3 KB/sec, approx 332 Kbps, 0.32 Mbps
4th 512K took 18563 ms = 27.6 KB/sec, approx 227 Kbps, 0.22 Mbps

Overall Average Speed = approx 257 Kbps, 0.25 Mbps


Can anybody smell burning underwear? Time to call customer services and offer them my UPTO 34.99 per month price plan methinks.

Re: Stoke on Trent - Getting worse
 

the poor service in the stoke area has been ongoing since before I posted this
http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/sh...ad.php?t=52210
there has also been a thread regarding traffic shaping which i suspect is the cause of the problem.
I fixed the issue by cancelling my NTL account and getting pipex in.

Re: Stoke on Trent - Getting worse
 

I just had an idea and it seems to be working ....

If i go to www.speedtest.net i seem to get a semi-reasonable speed, so i thought lets completely bypass ntl proxies...

opened my vpn connection to work and am using their proxies - woot i can browse without cringing on a cringe-per-click basis.

btw, i spoke to customer services and told them i wasnt happy to pay 34.99; half price for 3 months ''with the hope that it improves by then'' was their reply.

Re: Stoke on Trent - Getting worse
 

And that solved the issue??!!??

Been with Pipex was even more abysmal for me!

Re: Stoke on Trent - Getting worse
 

With Pipex, The Hoff personally escorts your data packets.

and up here in Newcastle-under-Lyme:
https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/...2006/10/21.png

Re: Stoke on Trent - Getting worse
 

pipex does have its moments.......but
https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/...2006/10/20.png

Re: Stoke on Trent - Getting worse
 

Cable Modem Operation Configuration
Network Access : Allowed
Maximum Downstream Data Rate : 20480000
Maximum Upstream Data Rate : 768000
Maximum Upstream Channel Burst : 1600
Maximum Number of CPEs : 1
Modem Capability : Concatenation Enabled, Fragametation Enabled, PHS Disabled


Thu, 19 Oct 2006 19:46:24 UTC

1st 512K took 2563 ms = 199.8 KB/sec, approx 1646 Kbps, 1.61 Mbps
2nd 512K took 4203 ms = 121.8 KB/sec, approx 1004 Kbps, 0.98 Mbps
3rd 512K took 3000 ms = 170.7 KB/sec, approx 1407 Kbps, 1.37 Mbps
4th 512K took 5219 ms = 98.1 KB/sec, approx 808 Kbps, 0.79 Mbps

Overall Average Speed = approx 1216 Kbps, 1.19 Mbps

:(
(the speed test above is actually better than has been for tha last hour )


https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/...2006/10/12.png
:(

Re: Stoke on Trent - Getting worse
 

I have downloaded IE7 tonight and got, wait for this .... 2.2MB/sec download speed from MS site - I've been upgraded to 20Mb broadband :cool:

I dread to think what this will do to my billing, it's not been right for over 6 months :rolleyes:

So yes, network in general isn't brilliant, but where it's needed it does work.

Sorry, can't believe I have really typed a compliment about NTL, I'd best go and have a lie down.

Re: Stoke on Trent - Getting worse
 

I think you do indeed need a lie down...

How do you think it will affect your billing ?
and
''where its needed it does work'' - i beg to differ, since i noticed my connection at 20mb this evening i have ran speed tests in one way, shape, or form constantly.

Best connection i got momentarily since 6:30 pm tonight is maybe 3mb ... that was a quick blast at newsgroups. Web speeds have gone from 2mb speeds ( high end ) all the way down to pulling teeth speeds.

You knows its bad when you sometimes even get better uploads then down .. as i have on several occasions tonight.

Tried about 10 different proxies tonight and none of them showed any improvement. - Someone at ntl is having a good old laugh at the hell they are putting me through ''here is a ferrari, go drive it round the m25 at rush hour"

Re: Stoke on Trent - Getting worse
 

EVERYTHING seems to affect my billing, even the weather :mad:

I do now have a contact there and he's trying his best


All I can say is for me, tonight at least, it really isn't that bad, admittedly I am using another proxy always do (don't all scream at me telling me I shouldn't). Yes, there is general network slowness in places, but just for one night, I am happy :)

I know I will regret it tomorrow, and my modem will probabaly not connect to the network .....

Re: Stoke on Trent - Getting worse
 

they might have done what they were doing as for the last two nights we have had steady speeds.

Re: Stoke on Trent - Getting worse
 

Mine was still bad until today when i had a revelation...

what if my router has a half-duplex 10mb wan port ....

so i called belkin, got routed to an indian call center, we spent 10 minutes of asking eachother to repeat ourselves... so i gave up on that ...


come home and removed the router from the setup and bam ...

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/...2006/10/10.png

Re: Stoke on Trent - Getting worse
 

Mines been pretty good again lately


https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2006/10/9.png

Damn site better than our works

Re: Stoke on Trent - Getting worse
 

Got to say it is a bit better tonight. I'm getting a quarter of my expected speed instead of a tenth. Not brilliant but a step in the right direction!

Wonder if it will last?

Re: Stoke on Trent - Getting worse
 

im from stoke too and ive never had a speed issue with ntl :D
The only issue i used to get was with dns but not had this problem for along time.

I curently get 2.3 m/sec no matter what time i download :D

Re: Stoke on Trent - Getting worse
 

I play a lot of web-based online games where its not to do with speeds, but loading times of pag.es.

Where i may at the moment be getting ping times in the 40-80ms range .. and i may be getting from 10-18mb raw doanload speeds.. my web pages are slow ... far slower than a telewest customer 80 miles away.

I can only presume that the cache's are the reason .. would be interesting to see the cpu utilization of said cache's as i have an incling that they are running way too high.

Aither way .. i love the 20mb conneciton but as soon as mrs baker gets her staff trial adsl connection i think ntl will be losing my connection from their books... Sad really, i have been an ntl broadband customer on the top tier since the day 'dot'.

I'd speak to customer services but i know i'll get told to reboot the modem, and they'll want to waste my time and an engineers time and send someone around to tell me that there is nothing wrong.

10 or 20mb connection .. perfect for copyright theft, market traders, people too tight to spend 1.99 on a blockbuster dvd, yet very slow for people who want to use the internet for the simple things, online gaming and web browsing.

Abysmal, really.

Re: Stoke on Trent - Getting worse
 

my main activity on the net is playing massive multi player games and the thing i would like to see is less of a download speed but more of a upload speed so i could atleast host a private game server of just a teamspeak server.

Stoke-on-Trent - my update
 

Finally got fed up with the rubbish broadband speeds and carried my computer downstairs to connect directly to the cable modem instead of the wireless network. Tested it - still rubbish.

Phoned technical support who carried out "some tests" from their end and said it didn't matter if my computer was connected or not. This is after 3 months of telling me that I had to connect directly to the modem before they would do anything! Turns out my modem had "20% loss" and an engineer would have to come out.

He said again that no one in Stoke had ever complained about anything ever at all so it must be something to do with my connection.

Anyway, engineer came out on Saturday morning and fiddled with my computer, poked about in the green cabinet etc. He connected his own laptop and carried out a few speed tests. Despite being on the 4 meg service he could not get anything approaching even 2 meg.

He told me it was the whole area that was suffering - especially noticable with a 10M service - and he was rushed off his feet going from one house to another trying to fix problems that he knew he had no control over.

He left saying there was nothing else he could do but would email his manager. He said ntl was planning to do some work in Stoke in January (didn't say which year!)

Is it worth me phoning Customer Services to try and get a discount bearing in mind the service doesn't provide even half of what I'm paying for?

Re: Stoke-on-Trent - my update
 

Ask for a discount, they cant supply what you are paying for....

I'll be calling them tonight to request an engineer too, i say everyone who has a problem in the area should all do the same thing as well.

Sooner or later they'll get the idea when they are rammed with people all singing from the same page.

As for nobody ever complaining about anything ... lol ... thats a good one, i call them very frequently ;)
AND
I have to admit something here too .. i actually got a callback from 2nd line tech support, admittedly he told me nothing apart from the networking people were busy and he would call me back with more news in a few days ( this was a week back now though so i guess my one callback was the limit )

Re: Stoke-on-Trent - my update
 

The one godsend is that it works at all and doesnt go off for 10 days at a time:

http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk...=sidebarsearch

BT are even worse, as I have experienced before. Its great to live in Britian with choice of two great companies who know how to treat thier customers! yeah right!

Re: [Merged] Stoke on Trent - Getting worse
 

Well if you think about it tho ...

if i could have my cable turned off for 10 days .. then not have another problem again i think i would agree to it :D

Better than poor service every night for months and months imho.

Re: [Merged] Stoke on Trent - Getting worse
 

Thing is though it still probably doesnt work 'properly' knowing ADSL!

Ummmm, on the subject of poor BT Service still waiting for BT to install our ISDN Lines at work as the DSL is so flakey. They said they were coming Thursday and didnt turn up! BT said engineer got tied up! Must have been cutting wires somewhere else!

Now coming Monday 'allegedly' but wont hold my breath! This is what service business customers get I dread to think what the poor souls who pay £11 a month get!

Ok ntl may be slow at times but it generally works, I cant think when it last died all together.

BT dies comes back then is slow, then dies then slow. It is terrible. I have had the same at 3 houses and Work so I am thinking that it speaks volumes for the general standard of the ADSL service round here and perhaps in general in this country.

Good old rip off Britain! :D Great service from two great companies pushing Broadband Britain forward! *

*Speeds may vary, distance limitations apply, cable only available in certain cabled streets. General speeds may be less than a 33600 modem unless you live in the exchange where you may get 8Mb if your lucky