[Merged] Poole Area Problems.

steve_smith · 02-08-2004, 13:28

Hi all,

Just read from NTL status page that some network upgrades are planned in the Poole area this week:

"On the morning of Tuesday 3rd August between midnight and 6am, the following work will take place:-

Network Upgrades in the Swindon, Northampton, Poplar, Brentford and Poole areas may result in short losses of service whilst the work is carried out."

A couple of weeks ago, I was told by NTL that the problems those of us in the BH12 post code area of Poole are experiencing would be fixed by Wednesday 28 July.

This date came and passed with little or no change to the quality of the service (intermittment packet loss, very slow upload).

Does anyone know what the work planned for tomorrow morning in the Poole area is meant to fix? Is it to solve the problems in the BH12 post code area? (which I think are to do with Poole UBR 3).

Thanks for any news,

Steve.

steve_smith · 05-08-2004, 21:52

Hi all,

Are there any NTL engineers about who have an update on what on earth is going on in Poole area, specifically the BH12 postcode?

Upload has been terrible for months, which is apparently related to the UBR.

Ping shows packet loss, ranging from 2 - 3% at good times and 10 - 20% at bad times. If you increase the ping packet size (say to 1024 bytes) packet loss goes through the roof! In fact, the larger the packet size the more the packet loss. As you can imagine this makes tasks such as sending emails with attachments, or uploading data to FTP an enormously frustrating experience.

I understand that there is nothing wrong at my end of the connection (and probably not the cabling to here because download, once a connection is established, is fine - in fact we've been upgraded from 600k to 750k and various net speed tests and my experiences in general show I am getting the full download speed from the service).

I've had plenty of promises from NTL, like "there is work going on next Wednesday to solve the issue" (this was three weeks ago), but if anything it's getting worse.

All I want to know is how long I am going to have to put up with this shoddy service, and no-one seems to be able to tell me.

If anyone has any "inside" info, then it would be very much appreciated.

Cheers,

Steve.

carlingman · 06-08-2004, 00:10

Hi,

Not an NTL engineer myself but will bump this thread back to the top in the hope someone from support maybe be about for you.

th'engineer · 06-08-2004, 06:51

If you read the server status page it might be work over running

On the morning of Tuesday 3rd August between midnight and 6am, the following work will take place:-

Network Upgrades in the Swindon, Northampton, Poplar, Brentford and Poole areas may result in short losses of service whilst the work is carried out.
Obviously i can not confirm if its over running or not

steve_smith · 06-08-2004, 08:14

It would be nice to think it was over running work. However, I've had the same symptoms since May in one form or another :-(

Steve.

th'engineer · 06-08-2004, 10:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by steve_smith

It would be nice to think it was over running work. However, I've had the same symptoms since May in one form or another :-(

Steve.

Steve how are you connecting ethernet or USB

steve_smith · 06-08-2004, 10:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by th'engineer

Steve how are you connecting ethernet or USB

Currently via a router. But the same fault is present when I connect the LAN socket of my laptop directly to the ethernet port of the modem (which is an Ambit, the NTL:Home 200 one).

I believe it's an area problem. My sister-in-law in the next street to me has a similar problem.

Frustrating when no-one tells you what is going on, what work is being carried out to attempt to rectify the problem, or when some improvement is likely.

Cheers,

Steve.

steve_smith · 06-08-2004, 11:19

OK, just come off the phone to technical support.

Yet another story now (it does tend to change on a daily basis)... just asked if they had an update on the area problem (did try last night, but they couldn't tell me due to a technical problem... good to know it's not only customers who experience technical problems).

Apparently we are now looking at another 4 to 5 weeks before the problem will be fixed

However, when I asked what date this piece of information had attached to it, they said there was no date... so I don't know whether it's 4 to 5 weeks as of today, or 4 to 5 weeks as of a month ago... sigh...

I have been really patient with NTL, but I am now beginning to find this totally ridiculous, and if I could get ADSL here, I would sign up immediately.

Steve

Neil · 06-08-2004, 11:46

Hasn't this been on the Server Status page since April?

[Edit]-Yes it has.

http://www.ntl-isp.ntl.com/ServiceStatus/

steve_smith · 06-08-2004, 11:53

Hi,

Apparently the problems in Poole are not connected with those in Southampton (or so I was told, and to be honest I would be surprised because Southampton is a fair number of miles east from here).

I believe that the status page should have the Poole fault listed, but it's never appeared to my knowledge.

NTL started off in May by telling me the problem was at my end, and sent a few engineers out who basically scratched their heads and said "everything looks fine". It's only recently they've owned up to the fact it's an area problem (or realised perhaps, despite the fact I've told them from day one that other people I know in the immediate area have similar problems).

Steve.

Chris W · 06-08-2004, 11:58

If you can pm me some details i will have a little look for you

postcode, house number and modem mac address please

can't promise anything but i'll do my best!!

EDIT: just realised that i did talk to you about this before but i seem to have lost your details

if you could send them again i will see if i can get some more info for you

steve_smith · 06-08-2004, 12:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by monkeybreath

If you can pm me some details i will have a little look for you

Thanks, have done.

Steve.

steve_smith · 08-08-2004, 18:02

Just out of interest, service is terrible in Poole today (well my area at least). Experiencing long periods with no connection what so ever. At other times, 20% packet loss or more.

Steve.

Gooch · 09-08-2004, 12:19

Guess what Steve?

I had a bad yesterday in BH12 also. Infact over the last few days service has got increasingly worse. Just when I thought it was beginning to get sorted. I'll keep you posted.