Internet problems on & off for days now [Archive]

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emb123

11-Dec-10, 21:16

I've been experiencing problems at home, at work and I've heard of others who have been having problems with their broadband on and off for days now.

It was off for most of this afternoon and at least it's back again for now.

Typical problems are sluggish connection, continuously finding a site won't load properly then if you refresh 2 or 3 times it finally loads. Downloads of even as little as a few mb failing. Watching any sort of streaming media is pointless just now, and Skype video and even audio only chat keep falling over with poor connection quality. I imagine it is probably impacting on xbox live & ps3 online gamers as well.

Doesn't seem to matter what ISP you're with as I think it's a location rather than ISP specific problem.

I'm trying to see who else has experienced this and for how long. If others can mention if they've had problems (or not) it might be helpful to point ISPS's to the thread to say, 'there - told you it's not just me'.

For the record, I'm on Supanet and so is my work. I know a friend on Sky Broadband is having problems and I think it is affecting Virgin & BT customers too but no proof yet.

Corrie 3

11-Dec-10, 21:44

bekisman

11-Dec-10, 21:48

I'm with Virgin.net and my broadband checks three email addresses - for about 4 hours now (started about 5 pm) it's only checking one of em - tried ringing the Virgin.net helpline on 0800 052 4329 and it does not connect until the third attempt - so looks like problems here 'Out west' Strathy area..
Anyone else, anywhere?

Chrisf1961

11-Dec-10, 21:51

On BT here ...seems to be flying along no probs ...watch it now the damned connection will go down after saying that !

bekisman

11-Dec-10, 22:00

RecQuery

11-Dec-10, 22:08

I think the Edinburgh RAS is having more problems, I've also had similar issues which I thought were caused by an over subscribed VP, I've since been moved and while speed has improved to previous levels it's still not great in other areas 99% sure it's a BT network problem considering everything me and my ISP have done.

EDIT Link to my problem http://forum.caithness.org/showthread.php?t=129193

emb123

11-Dec-10, 22:13

I said this years ago, about it would be handy if it was known what rough area these problems are at, but I got slagged off for suggesting it..
Sorry for abruptness - just jarred off with line problems (again)
I agree. It occured to me to ask as well but I felt that it was a big ask. Problems I've been having are in Keiss and Wick and also friends are in Wick.

My gut feeling is that anyone on BT is not likely to have many problems. That isn't saying to me that BT is necessarily the best value for money, just that BT owns the copper wires.... so they prioritise themselves above providing for customers of other ISPs (which I'm reasonably sure they are not, legally, allowed to do).

Hoida

11-Dec-10, 22:17

I am in Strathy area and no problem so far--long may it continue:roll:

oldmarine

11-Dec-10, 22:18

Appears to me that it is a combination of problen between location and ISP.

Gronnuck

11-Dec-10, 22:24

Corrie3 & Chrisf1961 your posts would more helpful if you told us what your Telephone Exchange is. Your Broadband might be ‘brilliant’ and ‘flying along’ but unless we know where you are we can’t judge how wide any problem might be, :confused.
Unless anyone else informs you of any problems in the wider Caithness area emb123 I suspect there is a problem with the Keiss exchange. You might want to check with any neighbours.
According to the information here (http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/NSKSS) the Keiss exchange is ASL Max enabled to should allow up to 20Mbps depending how close you are to the exchange. It serves approx 229 residential premises and 9 non-residential premises and BT Wholesale are the sole providers/facilitators of Broadband.

bekisman

11-Dec-10, 22:29

I 'did' have a problem with my BT line a few weeks back, (no telephone, but still broadband connection) they fixed that on 2nd Dec, the bloke dealing with it, said corrosion on connections - said there was still a 'minor' problem and he'd be back - on the Fault reporting site on line it did say the fault would be fixed by 6th Dec, but of course 1 foot of snow here did not help, so that automatically changed so it's to be fixed by the 14th Dec..
Today had folk ringing me to say their first attempt the line was engaged (it wasn't), so this 'minor' problem is bigger than first envisioned.. See Hoida is in our area, and he's fine so it must BE ME!!! Aghh[evil]

emb123

11-Dec-10, 22:47

A friend of mine in Wick on Sky Broadband has been having the same problems at the same times as myself, and I was working today (Wick) and the Supanet Broadband in the centre of town (Business Broadband) was off most of the afternoon.

thebigman

11-Dec-10, 22:48

RecQuery

11-Dec-10, 23:06

Just so people know all exchanges in the area all satellite exchanges and go via the Wick exchange, the Wick exchange itself is a satellite of the Inverness exchange.

It could be a RAS problem further down the line, a DSLAM problem, problem with an individual line card. Ultimately part of the shoddy BT infrastructure.

It's hard to tie it to a geographic area, as it's possible for people to be in the same geographic network area but be on different logical networks. The only common downtime or issue they'd face is when something happened with the uplink.

These Edinburge problems have been going on for weeks at this point, BT assured everyone they fixed it last time and built some redundancy into it so that all network traffic in Scotland and North Ireland isn't routed via a single point of failure in the Edinburgh exchange.

EDIT: BTW ADSL Max is upto 8 mbps. Also here's my ADSL graph for today, beyond a few latency spikes it hasn't dropped, I normally get text messages and e-mails when it goes down.

http://b.gormless.aaisp.net.uk/cqm/e63380958b92ce19a82f9da0d43be050c4eac0a4/2010-12-11/BBIP16872229.png?1%28%29H%28%29maxsfodu

marwill

11-Dec-10, 23:16

I am in the Forss area, and I have been having problems today too.
The internet has been very sluggish, but so far no problem with the phone. :(

leslie65

11-Dec-10, 23:20

Well i'm in Thurso with Pipex homecall and most of the time my download speed is between 40-90 KBPS.Running Net Meter on screen all the time monitoring it. Day or night doesn't make any difference. If i go on to speedchecker then it tells me i'm getting between 2-3 Meg!!!! can't stream anything and downloads take forever.

Crackeday

12-Dec-10, 06:50

http://www.speedtest.net/result/1067312764.png (http://www.speedtest.net)
Thats what Im getting on BT. Had problems about a fortnight ago but after checking I found that after the last crash my Ip profile hadnt been reset to its proper level, once they did that I was back to normal, maybe others have this problem?

emb123

12-Dec-10, 09:59

It's down again right now & been off for 5 mins or so (around 9am sunday).
(I'm entering this via mobile web)

An hour later and still off. Anyone else have probs on Sun morning?

bekisman

15-Dec-10, 09:12

Yes, it was me with the fault - the BT Engineer was out yesterday for hours, up and down the road, found a further fault, fixed, but there is yet another fault underground (not at the 'things' that poke out ever 100 yards). So a team from Wick will be coming to dig down to find it.. Seems that the cable is Aluminium - something to do with the Copper crises back in 'Rhodesia' days, I remember 22 years ago the engineer saying 'that should be changed' - still waiting :(

Cattach

15-Dec-10, 15:14

My BT is running brillliantly after their much publicised problems in Edinburgh a few weeks ago when the highest speed I could get was 4-4.5 mbps....for the last fortnight I am back to having 6-7 mbps which I am very happy with, long may it last!!

C3...:D

Changed to BT few monts ago and delighted with the system. Good speed and only down for a short time, along with other ISPs, some weeks ago.

bekisman

20-Dec-10, 18:12

Still been having problems with our phone line, last Engineer said the underground line was 'shot - well, it is aluminium and 22 years ago they said it should be replaced..
Today had a phone call from BT to say the engineers from Wick would be coming out with their machine to lay a cable!! and she asked what the weather was like.. I asked where she was based; "Lincoln" so said, well it's about 8 inches to a foot of snow.. "Oh I'll check again tomorrow" she say. Wonder if she will? :confused

bekisman

08-Jan-11, 16:21

Well the line is fixed, was not too bad, crackling etc..
The poor BT bloke(s) were out in all weathers, on occasions having to dig the snow away to get at the connections (Our telephone cables are underground).. then finally they were out and laid a nice new cable, to replace the aluminium one that's been there for donkey's years..

Although it's connected, they have to come back and bury the cable.. I read the terms and conditions and: "If you don’t ask us to divert your calls and we fail to supply or repair your phone line on time, you can claim a ‘daily-rate rental credit’. We’ll work out the daily-rate rental credit by multiplying your quarterly phone service rental by four dividing this by 365; and multiplying this by the number of days we were late in installing or repairing your phone line" and this worked out to £27.39.. they even gave me the direct land-line number to speak to the chap who did these things..

So pleased we've got a pristine line and a few bob off the bill..;)

oldmarine

08-Jan-11, 19:17

From what I read, it appears that BT is the best way to go.