[Merged] Stoke on Trent - Getting worse

[anduin]

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.

[marv69]

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.

[murfitUK]

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?

[anduin]

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 )

[themelon]

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!

[anduin]

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

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

[themelon]

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! 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