Internet Hassles!

[radiator]

Basically, the internet speed is pathetically slow in my new flat - like fucking dial-up, wait-several-hours-for-a-movie-trailer-to-buffer slow - can anyone more technically-minded suggest a decent provider? Talk Talk sent out a totally useless 'engineer' to 'optimise' the speed - he only succeeded in making it even slower and also told me that it wouldn't be possible to get it any faster than 1.5mb -  seems a little unlikely as I live in London, in the 21st century.

And I'm going to pre-empt any cheese-based suggestions by stating that i have already tried plugging the router into a block of wensleydale and it didn't work.

[Dandontdare]

well there's your problem right there - any fool know it's CAERPHILLY for internet problems.

I'm with Talk Talk too and usually get about 2 - 2.5 (when I was promised up to 8mb). I've considered swapping to Virgin, but I find current speeds seem adequate for most things. Trouble is they  ALL advertsie faster speeds, but I have my doubts. If the problem's in the phone lines between the exchange and your flat, I expeect any ISP would have the same problem

[radiator]

That's what I'm concerned about. Seems crazy in this day and age, especially in a big city.

Streaming music and video on my current line is utterly impossible, the connection often drops out entirely for hours at a time, and games and films can take days upon days to download. I'm not much much of an online gamer, but I imagine that's out the window too. As it is it's frankly barely worth paying for the service - I often resort to using 3g on my phone as it's far more reliable.

I've heard good things about Plusnet and Sky - can anyone recommend them?

Theoretically, would it be possible to pay to get a new/faster line put in, or otherwise do something to improve the speed?

[Professor Bear]

I don't think putting anything in cheese will help.  I'm not sure that's even science.

Plusnet look good on paper, but I eventually found them to be very dodgy to the point I have reservations mentioning why on a public forum, but I would suggest you look elsewhere.  If you get Sky, I will come around to your house and beat you.  You will understand why, and you will think you deserve it.

Slow speeds are supposed to be a thing of the past according to a mate who works in the industry, as he maintains that his company makes a huge profit from penalising customers who exceed their usage allowance, and if they can't get high speeds they're highly unlikely to exceed that allowance.  All the same, 1.5mb - if it is actually getting that speed, which it sounds like it is not - is pretty fast.  Sure 20mb is faster, but 1.5mb is good for pretty much anything.  That's something like 10 minutes to download a movie if you're not streaming it, and pretty much no buffering if you are.  Are you sure nobody's piggybacking off your internet connection?  If you have wireless, go into Network and Sharing Center and choose Connect To A Network from the menu options and this should bring up a list of wireless connections in your immediate area to give you an idea of how many people are putting a strain on the exchange.  Also consider upgrading to fibre optic broadband if you can, which should certainly be an option for you if you live in London, and BT seem to be offering a lot of customers cut-price upgrades to a fibre optic service (I was offered a free upgrade when I changed to an unlimited DL package).

Oh, and get a vocal assurance from your salesperson that you will receive faster speeds in case you later need to duck out of the contract.

[Emperor]

For speed you'd struggle to do better much than Virgin (especially when you factor in the wild over-estimates some of the other providers), as they run a cable into your home. BT is rolling out fibre optic cables too but, even if they upgrade in your area, it is still copper wires to your house for now.

I've been with Virgin since they were Telewest and have rarely had problems, which were quickly sorted out.

[radiator]

Weirdly, when I enter my phone number and postcode on Virgin and Sky, they both tell me that I can't get internet from them, but don't specify why.

BT is looking like a better option though.

[SuperSurfer]

I had Virgin cable where I lived previously. It was the best internet connection I've ever had. It's not available to me now though. I suggest calling them to find out for sure if it's available to you.

I now use Virgin but their inferior 'National' service through a BT line with wifi. Tons of problems but this might be down to the router. The connection becomes extremely poor and often cuts out. It's a total bloody wind up.

I assume you are using wifi. I guess the engineer tried the basics such as resetting the router. When I reset mine it solves the problem sometimes for a hour or so, sometimes for weeks. Virgin ran me through how to reset it over the phone and said it's just like having to retune a radio every now and then. Perhaps try connecting the router with an ethernet cable to see if that makes any difference.

If you switch companies I suggest you spell out exactly what you want and re-spell it out again. I decided to stick with Virgin which was far more trouble and much more expensive than switching to BT. Virgin seemed to think they could carry on charging me for cable in a place I didn't live in and for services where I actually was living. The twit I spoke to initially was an idiot. After speaking to customer relations they agreed he was completely wrong and that they would reimburse me, but didn't – so I am about £150 plus out of pocket.

As I hope to move again I'm considering just going fully to BT as I can't forgive Virgin for their billing antics. Shame as their cable internet services are good.

Might also be worth investigating what deals you can get with mobile contracts. 02 were doing very good deals and were getting good reviews for their service.

[vzzbux]

The main problem with internet services running tandem with phone lines is that no matter who you change to you are still running your service through the same copper network so if the problem is that the main switch is too far then any service change may improve your service for about a month then all your old problems will arise.
My mate has switched to BT infinity and is getting 80 meg (for now). But he lives in London and that is where any benchmark is set. The rest of the country will be long behind that.
Virgin on the otherhand has had 250 meg running in London for years now and all parts of the UK cable network run 150 meg. The capacity for 250 is there but network updates are slow.
Rumour is that Virgin are testing Fibre connection (parts of London only) direct to residential homes which will give TB speeds.





V

[Jim_Campbell]

Quick question: is your computer connecting to the internet via a wired connection, or over Wifi, via a router?

Cheers

Jim

[radiator]

It's equally shit wired or wireless, whether on the Mac or a console. Maybe fractionally quicker when wired, but if so it's not a massive difference.

I have tried turning it off and on again too.

[Jim_Campbell]

It's equally shit wired or wireless, whether on the Mac or a console. Maybe fractionally quicker when wired, but if so it's not a massive difference.

Fair play -- it sounds like the whole thing is crap. I've very recently had some success troubleshooting a shitty broadband connection, but that was a wifi specific issue and not relevant here.

Cheers

Jim

[radiator]

Wow. Actually blown away by the treatment I've just had at the hands of the aforementioned telecommunications company.

Just spent an entire hour being given the runaround by them on the phone. Four separate phone calls, each of which resulted in me being deliberately cut off, being given another number to call, placed on hold pointlessly or indefinitely and to top it off, outright lied to. God knows how much those calls just cost me.

Apparently when I moved house, they signed me up to an 18 month contract (without my knowledge or consent), and to leave them, they're trying to charge me £100+.

So my choices are:

Pay the c*nts their money and tell them to choke on it - and hope and pray that BT can give me usable internet - which I'll essentially be paying for twice over.

or

Stay with them, carry on paying a small fortune for utterly useless internet that literally doesn't even work half the time, for the next 14 or so months.

It is just beyond pointless trying to talk to them - politely or otherwise - because the second they realise I am determined to leave them they go into hostile mode and either put me on hold/give me another number to call or cut me off. One woman I spoke to was even audibly stifling mocking laughter as I became more and more frustrated and exasperated with the situation.

Feel utterly powerless. What they are doing doesn't seem legal, frankly. Surely I have a right to cancel the contract if they are failing to provide me with the service?

[TordelBack]

Surely I have a right to cancel the contract if they are failing to provide me with the service?

To stand up in court a contract must have benefit for both parties in the normal course of its operation.  If you can demonstrate that the service you have received is not what you were charged for, and that you made every reasonable attempt to get the company to resolve your issues (keyword: documentation), then no court will uphold their claims.

[radiator]

The thing is, I never signed or agreed to an 18 month contract - and unless they have paperwork to back it up, how can they say I did? I'm going to try and email them instead of calling, perhaps threaten to go to ofcom or legal action.

[Professor Bear]

"Under contract" does not mean "held hostage".  If they don't supply a service you would personally describe as fit for purpose, you can leave regardless of whatever contract you signed (or agreed to) with them, though they will likely do what one of my old ISPs did when I said I was leaving them and tell you that you are under contract for X months and they'll fight your attempts to leave - they won't.  Trust me, if they can't afford to make your internet connection work, they can't afford to spend months fighting every customer who's told them to go fuck themselves two weeks into an 18 month contract.