Croydon UBR

[zebulebu]

Hey folks

Is there anyone on here that can help me regarding a problem I'm having in Croydon?

The last week or so I have noticed extremely slow response times when browsing the web. Download speeds don't seem to be affected - they're a little slower than usual, but not that much.

I run a DNS server on my home LAN, and was convinced it was related to an internal DNS issue - so I've spent the last few days tinkering with it. Yesterday, I got to the stage where I was pretty convinced it wasn't my end that was causing the problem, so I did a couple of persistent pings to Telewest's DNS servers - lo and behold, serious packet loss on all three of them.

Phoned to report the fault and got through to the first helpful first line bod I've ever spoken through. He made me go through the rigmarole of disconnecting my router and plugging straight into the modem and the fault remained. After consulting for less than 30 seconds with second line, he got back to me and thanked me - apparently there is a fault on the Croydon UBR.

Unfortunately, full of my own self-importance at being praised for finding a fault with Telewest's equipment (lol) I forgot to ask exactly what the fault was, or indeed when it would be repaired.

Has anybody else that uses the Croydon UBR noticed this? If not, I presume its not actually a problem with the UBR - more likely something to do with the cable down my road (something that fills me with dread, as I know how long it could take to fix that if I'm the only person complaining).

I'm a bit ****ed off tbh - even though this is the first real fault I've had with Telewest for about four months, its a bit of a showstopper, as Internet access is so slow that its basically unusable at present.

Hoping I'm not alone with my problem!

[antz1970]

im kinda having the same probs here in edinburgh (ive recently posted a thread about it),surfing is slow and im having to wait longer than i should for graphics loading on pages , ping times could be better too , and i do get occasional packet loss , however newsgroup speeds are fine?

[zebulebu]

Well, Telewest 'fixed' this issue a couple of days ago, but it has come back with a vengeance tonight.

Pings to the DNS servers listed on my router show lots and lots of packet drops, and browsing is hideously slow - almost unbearably so.

I'm making another call to them tonight - if this goes on much longer I'm considering dumping them altogether and going to ADSL. The only reason I have cable is for the reliability - if thats going out of the window then I may as well get a faster service cheaper on Bulldog or Pipex or something.

grrrrrr

[zebulebu]

Now I'm starting to get annoyed.

This issue still hasn't been fixed. I'm told that there are now many other users on my UBR that are experiencing the same issue (latency, lots of packet loss, FEC errors & suchlike).

I've just had to go through the mind-numbingly tedious process of shutting my router down, plugging directly into the modem and running ping tests from there - which prove that my allegedly 'highly unreliable' (Telewest support staff's words) http://www.dslreports.com/linequality/nil/2106259 were 100% accurate.

The guy i spoke to eventually put me through to the second line team, who said exactly what they have done to me on three separate occasions - "it will be fixed tomorrow". Not having that, I thought, so asked to be put through to the manager, who confirmed my worst suspicions - they don't know where the fault lies. Apparently the head-end (cabs, backbone routers etc) have found no fault on the UBR itself which, to my way of thinking, can only mean two things: There is either a fault on the main fibre trunk connecting me to the UBR, or there's a fault on a smaller trunk which connects a subset of customers to the main trunk.

Now, call me bonkers, but isn't it just possible that, with the heavy rain we've been having recently (which, coincidentally, began on the very first day I started having problems), there has been water ingress in a cab somewhere? I'm not a telco bod, but I know from past experience thats where I'd start looking.

Anyway, I got a months' worth of free service out of them - and told them that if it didn't improve by the weekend I'd be switching to ADSL. Its been on my mind for a while now, but I just haven't wanted to be bothered with all the hassle of getting BT in, terminating my Smellywest connection and all that gumph. This may push me over the edge though