Broadband Medic
 

Probably being overly cynical here but is this proposed service gonna take away the mainly very very good support/techs and do I need to be concerned about what they can see on my computer given that they can reset my home page for example?

Frosty

Re: Broadband Medic
 

Judging from the way that tech support is growing at the moment, I very much doubt it.

If they get much bigger, I think my desk is going to be in a Portacabin in the carpark :(

Re: Broadband Medic
 

You reckon you can afford a portacabin, Pritch? I was thinking of putting you in a tent outside my window... ;)

Frostbite, don't worry - the techs at Swansea aren't going anywhere - at least, I fricking well hope we aren't! I'm not moving to India for anyone! The Broadband Medic software does not allow us to see anything on your PC apart from your Internet settings - certainly no access to your personal documents or credit card details! (Damn! :D)

Re: Broadband Medic
 

LOL - Thats a shame - You could have treated yourself to a nice 21" tft screen :D

Re: Broadband Medic
 

Given what info the BBM software has access to and the agreement that the users permit it to send any info to NTL, I'd be rather concerned about having it on my system.

Re: Broadband Medic
 

As some of you involved in this discussion are trialists of this product, can I remind you that the agreement of trial is that you must not discuss this trial outisde of the private forum we have set-up on chetnet.

If this continues, we will have no option but to remove you from the trial.

Re: Broadband Medic
 

Ask me if I care.
It would save me from quitting myself.

The software may be OK, but the trial & its organisation are certainly not.

Re: Broadband Medic
 

Tell it like it is Zoom :erm: :LOL:

Your comments aren't surprising though, they don't even run their own "private" forum :rolleyes: :dozey:

Re: Broadband Medic
 

I do think it's a bit out of order to warn them on this forum... surely that kind of issue should be kept to the Chetnet site... If people break T&Cs then don't you have a direct method of implementing the get-outs?

Of course, if someone on here has been accused of breaking T&Cs when the havn't, or it's percieved that they have, it could be construed as liable...

Re: Broadband Medic
 

But there are no T&C's, despite them harping on about it all the time, I have never seen any terms that say I cannot whinge about how crap it is.

After all, how else would other unsuspecting NTL users know what they are letting themselves in for?

They dont run thier own forum, they use someone elses, they expect YOU to pay for calls to them during THIER trial, they want you to bend over backwards & install something that "reports home" & they will NOT answer any questions saying exactly what is reported & what is not.

And why do we do it?
There is no gain for us, only for them.

Stir, stir, stir....

Re: Broadband Medic
 

You have to consider yourself lucky though that you get on the trials, there would be loads of people, who given the opportunity, would want to be on the trial. You cannot really complain about the trial because thats exactly what it is. You should share your views and exactly how you feel with the trial team, thats why your on it because they want your feedback.

Re: Broadband Medic
 

I will first apologise to Bumpy for posting this from an email sent to all trialists.
Then ask zoombini did you actually read it?

:shrug:

Re: Broadband Medic
 

I cannot read what I do not have.

As for sharing my views with the team I have given my views on the other site and they have NOT been answered.
So I ask, whats the point?

I originally decided to do this because it was stated that it would only take about 2 hours, well it took a lot longer than that & I have not completed it all.

Neither were we told that we would have to make long duration phone calls at OUR cost.

So dont think I'm being harsh with the trial, if they told us up front exactly what it included then I wouldnt have a problem.

Re: Broadband Medic
 

My point was more that I feel uncomfortable with NTL trial managers setting themselved up as a kind of authority on this site... they had .com and screwed it up, don't do the same here thank you very much :(

Re: Broadband Medic
 

Well the first point to note is that the trial managers were not responsible for what happened at .com at all and blameless in this respect - that was down to certain other idiots whom I need not name (Hi Ash :upyours: )

However, it does appear that those managing the trial are quite happy to recruit users for their trials using this forum and the admins are happy to cooperate in this. The problem I have is that these users are then forced to move to chetnet, a site which is regularly spammed on here by certain people, and to not post anything concerning the trial on this site. I appreciate the confidentiality of the trial, but it does not sound to me (from this thread) as though the trials forum is being very well managed.

Perhaps if the trials team had approached the moderators on this site about running a trial forum here, then the trial would have been slightly better managed, but instead the audacious move of recruiting users from this site and "moving" them to another site was made. Having your cake and eating it springs to mind...

I would guess that a larger percentage of users on the trial came from this site rather than Chetnet, just because of the total number of users on each site. It is therefore a bit rich that this site is not involved in the trial and Chetnet is, just because certain people involved with the trial have withdrawn their support for this site and are mates with the admins of Chetnet.

Re: Broadband Medic
 

well you have read it now so there is no excuse! :D

Re: Broadband Medic
 

<reply to Frank>
Chetnet isn't a discussion forum it's for problem solving! As Chetnet is run by NTL employees it makes sense to host the trials forums on there. No love is lost between this site & NTL and IMHO having NTL sensitive forums on here would be a no no.

Re: Broadband Medic
 

They could also have said that I have to wear the wifes knickers during the trial, but it doesnt mean that I am going to.

Its all a bit of a mute point now as I have no intention of continuing, I gave it the few hours that we were initially told it would take & can commit no more time to it and will NOT make any phone calls at my expense.

AFAIKR the software will be free once its all over so I'll wait until then & decide what I want to do in respect of it.

Re: Broadband Medic
 

IMO The use of Chetnet is not a problem, it does the job well.

We have however, just swelled the membership by plenty :D

Re: Broadband Medic
 

Thanks Frank

We recruited most of our triallists by direct e-mail, but also added posts here, ntlhell.co.uk, chetnet and digitalspy.

I don't agree that people are forced to move to chetnet, they don't need to give up NTHW to be a member of Chet, and they are welcome to be in as many forums as they wish
The choice of Chetnet was simple logistics, a forum run by people we knew who are ntl staff and can be expected to conduct all aspects of their involvement with the trial in a fair and positive way.
Chetnet has never portayed itself as a "hell" site but always as a help site and from that point of view I felt that it was and is a more suitable place for us to conduct our trials forum.

BTW, we did run a very successful Xbox trial forum on .com and I have no complaints how that was run, but I do feel that .co.uk is sometimes more antagonistic about ntl than even .com was and therefore chose chetnet as a home for the forum.

Re: Broadband Medic
 

Wahoo! kicked off of the trial...
Now that I have finished I have been kicked of.
ROFLMAO!

As if it means anything to me. NTL can take thier trials and shove it up where the sun does not shine!

Re: Broadband Medic
 

:confused: why offer if you didn't want to do it....

Re: Broadband Medic
 

As if anyone reading this thread didnt see that eventually coming. :rolleyes:

Re: Broadband Medic
 

But I did Kitty, I have beta tested software etc before & know how to do it, I wrote everything down as I did it, recorded every little problem.

However, when I offered to do it, upon asking what it involved the replies were AFAIKR run a few scripts & it should only take about 2 hours.

Well it took a lot longer & was going to cost me more than the cost of running the PC for a couple of hours.
The thing that I find most annoying about this is the requirement to ring NTL up, wait on hold for ages & speak to a person there during the tests etc.
and have to pay for this myself. It may only be local rate, but if I was on hold for 10 mins, thats more than I was prepared to spend on testing NTL's software. If a freephone number had been used (and I'm sure that NTL have a few of them) then I would have done that.

Also this crap about "non disclosure" is a joke... what exactly can we disclose? I have said that the software does (mostly) what it says it can do, but what it can do is only fit for the very low level PC user as anyone with a modicum of net experience can do most of what it fixes.

Re: Broadband Medic
 

BTW, my removal from chetnet was done efficiently when I asked for it to be done.

Re: Broadband Medic
 

We all had to phone the support, I was on for over 30 mins going over the problem but I did agree to do the test and I am sure NTL can come to a deal if the bills are high for this if you was on the trials..

Re: Broadband Medic
 

What, you mean when we get the bill & see it that we would have to ring up & say "hang on, this was a call at your request for your trial" and go through the hassle of getting it removed from the next bill. HA!

No thanks, I have had hassles like that before.. someone may agree & remove it, then several months later it goes back on etc... no ta.

Re: Broadband Medic
 

that rules out 90% of ntl's customers then! hence the need for the medic software

Re: Broadband Medic
 

Are you Bill Goodland in disguise?? :erm:

Re: Broadband Medic
 

Possibly not 90% of ntl's users are that bad, but I'd say a very high proportion are quite "new" to the internet, or only infrequent users who have very little internet and computer experience.

As someone who has done quite a bit of call outs for people it's amazing how they treat their computers and the state that they are in.

I remember someones computer that had 100+ different virii and enough spyware that made his Athlon XP feel like a P200!

broadband medic
 

i must say the boardband is good i like it the features init are very good full marks to ntl.;)

Re: [Merged] BB Medic
 

As this now appears to have gone 'live' has anyone used it? Is it worth the download?

Re: [Merged] BB Medic
 

I can't seem to be able to install it i downloaded it and it passed all the requirement checks then it downloaded another installer but it starts installing gets to a certain point and stops all that happens is the time remaining just keeps increasing it now says 12mins 52sec and it is still rising

EDIT: I just worked out that it is downloading all the files only realised when the file it was downloading changed

Re: [Merged] BB Medic
 

BB Medic just 'popped up' to tell me there are email server problems - a bit like a personalised server status page.

I think that is a good innovation - I can see potential there.

Re: [Merged] BB Medic
 

Yer, great until they use it to pop adverts up while your surfing. :erm:

I shouldn't give them ideas! :rolleyes:

Re: [Merged] BB Medic
 

Or until it starts to record where you surf or it automatically installs the latest version of "whatever" that takes up oodles of system resources (when you do not want to install it) and you can do nothing about it because the installation script has not got any method of being cancelled.

Broadband Medic
 

Has anybody used this ????

http://www.ntlworld.com/help/broadbandmedic/

Is the online IM part of this possibly part of the call centre re-structuring ?????

Re: Broadband Medic
 

No, the online messaging goes to the Swansea Technical Support people and has no bearing on Customer Services/Faults/Sales which are the departments being restructured.

Re: [Merged] BB Medic
 

Why so negative. BB Medic is great and whats more ite FREE!!!

Re: [Merged] BB Medic
 

is the broadband medic like the medic software we got on the old dial up, if so, I had more problems with that then anything else on my system. I had to get rid of it, and all of a sudden my system work perfectly again.

plus the old one would not work with any other browser, and kept on making IE 5 my main browser, it always said there were psoblems and would fix this then make NTL my homepage always, this sort of stuff bugged me in the old version.

is it still the same with the new BBM???

Re: [Merged] BB Medic
 

BB medic is great, I helped Trial it, and had no problems with it, it is supposed to be a replacement for correct connect, unlike correct connect BB Medic WORKS.:)

I have no problems with keeping it running on my machine;)

Re: [Merged] BB Medic
 

No, BBM is a totally new piece of software. It won't force you to use IE, or OE (though it would prefer it). The technology behind BBM is provided by Motive, whose technology is already in use by many other ISPs worldwide, including BT and Telewest. The ntl incantation of their platform, however, is much more thorough and usable than both the BT and Telewest versions, IMO.

Re: [Merged] BB Medic
 

No, its bundled in with your connection, there is no such thing as a free lunch :erm:

Re: [Merged] BB Medic
 

oh well mine wont even install... gets up to something called chorus.exe and then the "time left" just increases forever...

Re: [Merged] BB Medic
 

Believe it or not, that's actually installing. It's downloading the largest part of the package, but the installer doesn't know this. Leave it for 10 minutes or so and it will magically continue.

Re: [Merged] BB Medic
 

well i gave it 20 minutes but i'll take your word for it and try it again

Re: [Merged] BB Medic
 

BB medic is a BIG download so it'll take a while depending on your connection speed.

i find it funny how if you click the link that you've got slow connection speeds it asks you to clear your cache LOL

Re: [Merged] BB Medic
 

I installed boradband medic so i can see the updates that NTL do (They come up on the screen when theres works going on in your area) .. However, its got some bugs, like the fact when the pop-ups are on the screen, they stay there for about a second, then disappear. So unless you can read REALLY fast, its quite annoying. :td:

Re: [Merged] BB Medic
 

Having an overfull or corrupt cache can actually cause slow browsing. It can't cause bad pings in games, but it can cause IE to respond slowly, giving the impression that the connection is running slowly.