flyclub

As I stated yesterday, I am convinced if anything goes wrong at their end it is pretty bad if it is not fixed within a day!

spotwelder

If you are to work from home, then you need to consider signal path redundancy. When the muppet gas contractors dig up your phone lines blah blah. A sat signal for the cheap options also requires a land line but the route will not be diverse.

Therefore, if you have it, you may have to consider a wireless link as a back up system. Alternatively, there is the possibility of a laptop and wireless link if you have to, or nipping into work, or a local business centre with a diverse link from your own.

Or take the day off....

flyclub

My mobile phone has proven most useful - although GPRS is not broadband, it certainly seems quicker than 56K which I have used periodically.

Within the last hour I have been given a contact in BT Wholesale who told me that there is a problem with the link between Exeter and Cardiff?!?! and it could easily be the end of the week before it is sorted out.

I would be very interested what Business customers would be offered in this position, as I find it hard to believe I am the only one affected!

fraisse10

Yes. We (a small company) left BT precisely because their service is like this.

the_seeker_1977

My advice would be to go with BT or a cable provider. I was with Virgin and had nothing but problems. Everytime I complained about the service (or complete lack of) they just passed the buck and told me it was a BT issue and out of there hands.......

I have since moved over to Telewest...........it's been fine apart from the chap across road stealing my bandwidth...............I really need to try and lock down the access..

SLF

You can get worse service from other companies, even as a business choosing a full service product (which DSL is not). Several people have already mentioned the company (which has a three-lettered acronym) I am thinking of earlier in this thread.

And to reiterate the point of dnw in post 23, DSL is not a business service. At best, in case of outage, the telco will refund you the proportion of the monthly fee you were without service. I.e. probably less than a tenner. Sorry

flyclub

Returning to a comment I originally made - I think the whole 'mess' is clear evidence that broadband or the 'consumer version of broadband' cannot me depended upon. We still need good old phone lines.

However, it would seem that everything becoming wireless would be the only solution.

Although I still don't understand why only certain customers on the same street have been affected by this. I technically cannot understand it. Even if the system is divided amongst customers somehow, why can't I be swapped to whatever part of the exchange they are using? Surely this is just a press of a key these days?

P.S: As of 4pm today - still not working - typing this using GPRS yet again.

Pyeinthesky

Blimey! At 2 or 3 quid a meg on GPRS you must've racked up at least a CE run to MAD by now!

Jimmie76

"Now Broadband" which is "Wireless" might be a good backup/normal use. Never used it myself, but they have been advertising heavily in my area (West London). This is not to be confused with Vodaphones "Now" which Now Broadband are believed to be taking legal advice over.

flyclub

Fortunately I managed to organise an unlimited GPRS tariff with T-mobile for £30 a month to curb the spending.....

P.S: Still not sorted this evening.

I have a new date though.....Monday 24th October.

ian001

I have NTL Broadband - and I have no complaints.

Though I should give warning that their TV service is spectacularly hopeless.

We have to wait ages for any half-decent new channels (like FX 289) to appear after they launch on Sky. The EPG only has information for the next two days, so if you're away for any longer and you want the box to switch to a different digital channel for recording you're stuffed. The channel numbering is all over the place, despite promises that it will be put into some sort of order. On some channels the sound can fall out of sync with the picture. This can be remedied by switching off the box, but that doesn't help when you're watching a recording. Sometimes the sound drops, or the channel drops entirely. Again, rather frustrating when you're watching a recording.

Their call centre also drives me nuts. You phone them up, have to go through about 10 different sets of options, and then they tell you they are closed. Why didn't you say at the start FFS!!

AJLondon

Well I got my Installation CD in the post today and am now the proud recipient of Tiscali broadband at home. And so far, as this post shows, it is working fine!

Now a question for you technology gurus! All of a sudden my freeview box is not responding. It plugs into the wall socket which goes to the rooftop aerial. It was working fine till early this evening. Then after I installed the broadband modem and put in the filter etc on the phone line, the telly seems to have gone off. There are no visible channels from freeview now. I had E4 on last, and now if I switch it off completely and try to start again E4 comes up, but the moment I try to change the channel/volume or even press anything on the remote, I lose picture completely. The freeview box and telly are about 5m away from the phone socket, modem and laptop.

Any advice....

Jimmie76

Any idea what the make the freeview box is? You might have to take the plug out and leave it for a few minutes, I can't believe that the broadband has anything to do with it. We have a freeview box at work and it overheated when the aircon failed in a very small room with loads of other electronic devices. Caused the poor thing to show pretty patterns but no watchable tv pictures.

Is there a reset button on it anywhere?

AJLondon

Philps DTR100 is the model. No reset button as far as I can see. Infact no button at all on the box and as soon as I touch the remote the screen goes blank.

Already tried the full switch off, plug out, remove aerial, checked scart wires etc and still nothing.

TIA!

Jimmie76

Ok I haven't got one of these or had a play with one, but, have you tried the freeview box without the PC and Broadband on as this will determine whether the two are interfering. They shouldn't be, as even in wireless broadband the frequencies used are very different.

Other suggestions include checking the manual which I can't do here as PDF files won't appear in IE and I'm not allowed to download anything at work. There might be a reset switch but these can be hidden at the back of the box usually behind a hole about millimeter in size - Do NOT insert metal objects into your box, when absolutely certain that it is the reset hole, try a plastic toothpick or similar non conducting item.
I can't see anything on the BBC engineering page that indicates the transmitters are on low power in London this evening. The box is not due for a download of new software so that rules that out.

I did find some reviews here which aren't very complimentary about it, if you have the receipt you might be wise to take it back & find another box.

Are you using a booster for the aerial input? If so you might be overloading the signal input and thus causing it to have problems.

Finally (I know you said you can't via the remote but) can you get to any of the menus e.g settings etc. if so is there a reset function in there?

Otherwise I'm stuffed for ideas - sorry.